Woodbridge (1983: Doomsday)

Introduction
A survivor nation in the county of Suffolk in eastern England that grew out of the airbases at Bentwaters and Woodbridge. In the aftermath of Doomsday the garrisons of those bases assumed a leadership role in their locale.

In the aftermath of Doomsday refugees fleeing from the lawlesness in the city of Ipswich made their way north as amateur radio enthusiasts had got notice of signals from Bentwaters and Woodbridge

During the years of military rule the nation was known as Woodbridge/Bentwaters but after the return the name was altered to just Woodbridge.

Over the years Woodbridge has expanded so that its territory now consists of a large part of the east and south of the county of Suffolk. It also claims to have control of the city of Ipswich but in reality this "control" translates as regular scouting missions and raids against the gangs that have made Ipswich their home. It was during one of these missions to Ipswich that Woodbridge made first contact with the people of Essex

Pre-Doomsday
Bentwaters and Woodbridge were once USAF bases

Doomsday and the immediate aftermath
Cut off from central command after DD the two bases found themselves relatively unharmed. Seeing as how they were very close to each other and more or less a twin base the first thing the bases did was make radio contact with each other. The fact that both bases were still in working gave them hope and they dispatched survey teams into their immediate vicinity. In the days and weeks following Doomsday each base was overwhelmed with injured and non injured survivors and it became clear to the commanders of the bases that it would be best for everyone concerned, military and civilian if they would take charge of the area. The leading officers of the bases formed a Military Command Council which consisted of:
 * Brigadier General Dale C. Tabor
 * Colonel Theodore J. Conrad
 * Colonel Samuel P. Morgan
 * Colonel Charles I. Halt
 * Colonel Carl Drury

With the exception of Brigadier-General Tabor all these men were stationed at Woodbridge and Bentwaters during the Rendlesham Forest Incident which occured in December 1980. Unless anyone can prove otherwise I'm assuming they were still there on Doomsday

Politics

 * See also: 

Woodbridge was, for a number of years run by the Military Command Council which consisted of the senior officers of the military bases that give the state its name. In early 2000 after a number of large protests by the civilian population the Military Command Council agreed to hand over power to an elected civilian government. It was agreed by all parties that the new political system would be more or less identical to that which governed Britain pre-Doomsday with two exceptions. Firstly it was agreed that the parliament would be a single-chamber body. Secondly any government would have a fixed term of five years. Elections were held in 2001 throughout the territory held by Woodbridge for the new parliament. The leader of the largest party in parliament forms the administration and has the title of Prime Minister. Serving members of the armed forces are not allowed to run for parliament although they are allowed to vote. Elections in Woodbridge are run under the first past the post system, ie whichever candidate gets the largest percentage of the vote is elected whether or that percentage consists of a majority of the votes cast. The Liberal party have pledged, if they ever form the government to bring in some system of proportional representation.

The Cabinet of the Woodbridge consists of 6 ministerial posts:
 * Prime Minister/Foreign Secretary
 * Home Secretary
 * Defence Secretary
 * Trade and Industry Secretary
 * Education Secretary
 * Culture Secretary (including responsibility for sport and the media)

The Woodbridge Parliament has 80 members all of whom belong to one of four parties: The first three are continuations of the pre-Doomsday parties whereas the Veterans Party as it's name suggests is a party founded by former members of the Woodbridge military, both American and British that campaigns for veterans' rights and a strong military.
 * Conservatives
 * Labour
 * Liberals
 * Veterans Party

Woodbridge General Election 2006

As a result the Conservatives formed the government and their leader, John Robson became Prime Minister. The next election is due to be held in 2011 and opinion polls suggest that the Conservatives will remain in power albeit with a slightly reduced majority

The current "big question" in Woodbridge politics is what sort of connection Woodbridge should have with the other survivor nations in Britain. The contact made earlier this year with the Kingdom of Cleveland has added another dimension to the question. Some think Woodbridge should apply to join the Celtic Alliance, others think that as the Kingdom of Cleveland is ruled by a child of the previous monarch then they are the legitimate successor to the old United Kingdom and that Woodbridge should come under their rule while yet others think that Woodbridge should remain fully independent. This question is partly a generational one as the older a person is the more they supportive of the idea of joining with Cleveland as they remember the "good old days" before Doomsday. The Conservatives and Veterans are largely supportive of there being some connection between Woodbridge and Cleveland whereas both Labour and the Liberals are fairly evenly split between becoming part of the Celtic Alliance and remaining fully independent.

At the moment Woodbridge has ambassadors in Essex, East Britiain, the Celtic Alliance, Cumbria and Northumberland. It is hoped that the recent trade deal with Sweden and Norway will lead to an exchange of ambassadors with those nations as well

International Relations
In 1999 a long-range helicopter scouting party from Woodbridge was forced to make an emergency landing outside of London. Soon after the landing the commander of the scouting party was extremely surprised when they met up with some well-armed soldiers. After a rather tense stand-off talks between the two units began and the Woodbridge commander learnt that the other unit was from a nation styling itself the Celtic Alliance which was based around the old Irish Republic. This was the first time news had reached Woodbridge of any other survivor nations in the whole of Britain. In the subsequent years there was more and more contact between Woodbridge and the Alliance and one of the first acts of the democratically elected civilian government in 2005 was to propose an exchange of ambassadors.

Unbeknownst to the commander of the scouting party, on it's way down to London the helicopter had been noticed by people from the nation of Essex. This led to an unfortunate incident during Woodbridge's next scouting mission to Ipswich when forces from Woodbridge accidentally fired on some unknown military units. These units happened to be from Essex and they had travelled north after concerned had been raised in Essex after they saw the Woodbridge helicopter flying south. After this unfortunate first contact relations between Woodbridge and it's neighbour to the south have improved immeasurably.

Woodbridge also has close links with the survivor community of East Britain in Lincolnshire. The two entities became aware of each other in 2006 when a trawler from Woodbridge entered a harbour in East Britain. It had got lost after a storm and saw the harbour and thought it may be a safe haven. The skipper of the trawler made himself known to the local authorities and promised to return another time. When the trawler returned to Woodbridge the skipper told the government what had happened. After some discussion the Woodbridge authorities decided to make official contact with East Britain and a diplomatic mission was sent consisting a member of the cabinet and a few soldiers not to mention the trawler skipper. There is an agreement in place that as Woodbridge improves its military capablilties a lot of the older weaponry is sold to East Britain at a reasonable price. The "military" of East Britain as it stood before contact with Woodbridge was largely armed with extremely old fashioned weaponry with only a few shotguns. Not only does Woodbridge supply East Britain with weaponry it also gives the East British military training in the use of such weapons.

Woodbridge does have occasional problems with raiding parties from small surivor communties from Norfolk although the way the Kingdom of Cleveland dealt with the "pirates" of Burnham Deepdale points the way to a solution to that problem. It was in the aftermath of the Cleveland expedition to deal with the Burnham pirates that Woodbridge first became aware of the existence of the Kingdom of Cleveland as the commander of that expedition, Sir James Martin left radios in order to allow Woodbridge to maintain contact with Cleveland.

There is currently some discussion about Woodbridge applying for membership of the Atlantic Defence Community

Military
As Woodbridge has begun to become part of the wider community of nations the military has started to gradually update it's pre-Doomsday weaponry.

In the days that the Military Command Council ran Woodbridge their military forces became known as the Woodbridge Air Force (WAF). To the amusement of the British citizens this sounded a lot like WRAF. When the civilian government took over in 2001 the WAF was divided into land forces under the name of the Army of Woodbridge (AW) and a small air force called the Air Force of Woodbridge (AFW). The AW was originally based around the USAF 81st Security (Air) Police Squadron which acted as the military police and ground defence force of RAFs Woodbridge and Bentwaters. The AFW basically consists of the old 67th Air Rescue and Recovery Squadron

Woodbridge doesn't currently have much in the way of a navy apart from a handful of converted trawlers although some larger boats are now being constructed at Lowestoft. Woodbridge and Essex have signed a trade deal so that Sweden and Norway will provide them with a total of 12 old freighters in exchange for various manufactured goods and foodstuff. These freighters will be converted to be used for trade, exploration and millitary purposes. Woodbridge is also hoping to purchase weaponry, ammunition and other military equipment from the same countries.

Economy
As the economy collapsed in the aftermath of Doomsday the old currency became increasingly irrelevant and a barter system came into existence. In 1990 the Military Command Council felt that society and the economy had stabilised to such a extent that a proper financial system was necessary. A national bank was established and over the next few years a currency, the New Pound was introduced.

Recently Woodbridge's neighbouring state Essex has also been considering moving from a barter system to a currency-based one. Over the past few months discussions had been ongoing over the possibility of Essex adopting the New Pound as it's currency.

On the afternoon of April 26th Prime Minister Robson and High Minister Lee Evans of Essex made a joint statement that Essex would take up the usage of a currency, the New Pound, by June 1st. The design of the currencies would be different to each nation but would be legal tender in both, holding the same value, to "Promote economic closeness and wipe away the barrier to free trade both within and between our countries that bartering imposed."

Education
Compulsory education in Woodbridge pretty much follows the system pre Doomsday. There is a tertiary system of primary, middle and high schools. Attendence is compulsory until the age of 16 after which pupils can choose to stay on for a further two years.

There are two higher educational establishments in Woodbridge
 * Woodbridge University
 * Otley College

Woodbridge University concentrates on the arts and sciences whereas Otley College is an agricultural college. Since the main industries of Woodbridge as a whole are concerned with farming and food production it is perhaps not surprising that there are more students at OC than WU.

Culture and media
There are currently four radio stations These first three stations are run by the WBC or Woodbridge Broadcasting Corporation which was founded in 2001 when Woodbridge again became a democracy. A lot of the people who work for the WBC formerly worked for BBC local radio pre-Doomsday. Black Shuck Radio is a music station for younger people who perceive WBC2 as being a bit "stuffy". It was founded by former Radio 1 DJ John Peel who presented several shows a week on BSR until his death in 2004
 * WBC1 is dedicated to news and politics and the discussion thereof
 * WBC2 is a music station and plays all types of music
 * WBC Sport as it's name suggests is dedicated to sports reporting and regularly has commentary from live games
 * Black Shuck Radio

For several years the WBC has been working on trying to restore a television service to Woodbridge and hopes to broadcast it first test programmes later this year.

Sports
Cricket and Football are the prefered sport of the civilian population and each village within Woodbridge has teams for both sports that compete in leagues and cup competitions.

Football in Woodbridge is run the Woodbridge Football Association (WFA). The current football League champions are Woodbridge FC and Leiston FC won last year's WFA Cup (an annual knock-out competition). Pre-Doomsday both these clubs played in the amateur Eastern Counties Football League. The chairman of the WFA is Terry Butcher who before Doomsday was a player for the professional team Ipswich Town

Cricket in Woodbridge is run by the Woodbridge Cricket Association (WCA). The current League champions are Saxmundham

Football and cricket teams from Woodbridge have, in the past few years started to play "friendly" games with teams from other survivor nations in the British Isles such as East Britain, Cleveland, Northumbria, Trent and Derwent and the Celtic Alliance. There is now some talk of these friendlies becoming a competitive competions along the lines of old European Cup in football.

The WFA and WCA plan to apply for membership of the world governing bodies of their sports, FIFA and the ICC respectively at some point in the next year or so.

Woodbridge American Sports Association (WASA) is an organisation that runs leagues for American football, baseball and basketball which are still played by the citizens of Woodbridge who are of American origin (in other words the former and serving members of the Woodbridge military who pre-Doomsay were part of the USAF and their families). However it is believed that as the older generation dies out these sports will become less and less popular