It is 2028: The England Union, mostly bordered by salt water, comprises England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The remnants of the European Union borders to the East and independent Scotland - sits lonely but proud to the North. England is a nation of 'HAVES' and 'HAVE-NOTS' and the 'I'm alright' governing class is made up of inept, cynical, leaderless 'job-worthies'. In successive political colours Westminster bumbles on, with 'HAVE-NOT' tax payers seeing themselves as cash cows; financing vote buying benefits and privileges. National on-the-streets demand for change inspires the Representative Peoples Authority - the RPA. With a simple manifesto and without bloodshed, they oust the political party system and dramatically clear the green benches of Westminster. In power and in a hurry, the RPA meet manifesto obligation to begin radical reformation of the nation. Key concerns are tackled first: law and order; border control; public office sinecures; inconsistent sentencing, injustice and unfairness. (GCHQ)- Government's communication HQ - provides real time feedback to a rejuvenated Westminster. Their God like computer system is piped 24/7 into Downing Street. Part of the GCHQ service is the Perception of Public Support. Nourished by everything traversing the ether, the POPS programme analysis sifts, collates and graphically displays the degree of support for every proposed legislative action. With public demand - and POPS approval - an early and dramatic compliance is an execution: the first hanging for many years. As the clock creeps towards George Dent's death, television shows his common-law wife Sharon. Defeated; she waits with their two infants, outside the prison gates. This filming galvanises POPS reaction against the hanging. But in the death cell George Dent launches into a violent attack on Jim Murdoch, his warder - and the POPS reaction reverses. Again it records heavy, public support for the hanging. Murdoch is a senior psychologist in the RPA; the death cell warder is his alter ego. We find that he goads George Dent into that brutal attack. Positive POPS analysis is crucial for the radical RPA government and this POPS manipulation is Murdoch's 'means to an end'. Hard up New Scotland clears a remote Scottish island and leases it to England. It becomes His Majesty's Penal and Reconstruction Establishment - HMPRE Columby. Run on unforgiving military lines it is targeted to operate at neutral cost. Inmate's startling induction to HMPRE is free of charge but then they are required to work, earn and pay their way. Early inmates include George Dent's brother and his thug mate Leary. After the hanging they had engineered violent attacks on Murdoch and Sharon; unhappily they discover Murdoch is the boss of HMPRE Columby. Vic Hundley is another prisoner. Stopping a mite short of murder he exacts vicious revenge on his daughter's rapist. The computer-mastered sentencing tariff awarded him a lenient sentence, and Murdoch arranges his attendance - with wife and recovered daughter - at the rapist's trial. Paedophiliac rape is now a capital offence and the Hundleys see another sentence of death by hanging. Returning to Columby Vic becomes a key self-sufficiency player providing work and pay for the prisoners within his dairying initiative. It is October 2032: Terrorists are loading stolen nuclear bombs, onto a stolen airliner, in a recently formed Caliphate in Eastern Afghanistan. Pre-warned England vaporises the plane and cargo 1500 feet over the airstrip, confining collateral damage to the Caliphate. Onset of war puts the radically developing democracy of New England on hold.
About the Author: KEN CHADWICK was born in Birmingham in 1933. Evacuated in September 1939 he was forgotten for the first three years of the war until 'rescued' by his brother, on RN leave. (See novel, The Evacuee) Educated Bishop Vesey's and Central GS in Birmingham; attaining School Certificate in 1950. 'Ran away' in 1951 to 12 years at sea in the RN ending in 1963, at Dartmouth College. Married 1955; two sons but separated 1971; divorced 1981. 1981 Remarried and third son 1982. 1963 - 1970: After the colour and importance of RN life Ken became an adequate but unhappy speciality salesman. Variously he sold weighing machines, storage equipment and even glue to pay the mortgage. Happily he was poached to be director of a design/ build contractor and subsequently he had marketing manager roles with two larger companies. In 1971 he set up a plastering partnership. Successful, until dissolved about 1975; when Ken started his second building company. He made a lot, laughed a lot and spent a lot, before going bust in 1981. The Chadwicks in 1982, started a B & B on the banks of Scotland's Loch Awe, before moving to a derelict twelve bedroom hotel on Loch Fyne. Ken and Janet renovated and ran this hotel before successfully selling up, to return to Birmingham with their infant son in 1986. Ken started CANDELA LIGHTING, in a fragment of the old BSA Empire owned by his eldest son. With its limited range of porch lights it had a lean start, but when the range was extended to include lanterns and lampposts a move became necessary. Now Candela owns a larger modern factory adjacent to Birmingham's Spaghetti Junction; coincidentally close to where Ken was born 81 years ago. Today, they manufacture an extensive range of decorative street and amenity lighting that is sold world-wide. In 2000 it was The Birmingham Post Business of the Year. (www.candela.co.uk.) Ken Chadwick retired in 2000, and he and Janet moved to a tiny Hebridean island to build their retirement home. But they sold this in 2010, to return South, for a properly active retirement: in a Worcestershire cottage: roses round the door, and time to write.