Meridia (Caroline Era)

The English state or region previously comprising London and the home counties, although Meridia is indeed perceived as a region by its residents, they tend to view it more as the spiritual heir of England than a distinctive region, since it contains the ceremonial capital and largest city London, several official residences of the Royal Family, the Palace of Westminster, national museums, Wembley Stadium and many traditional locations and cultural institutions associated in the public and international consciousness as distinctive of England as the former unitary state to a greater extent than other English states, such as Windsor, Canterbury, Runnymede and much of the Thames, though it excludes Stratford-on-Avon, Cambridge and Oxford.

The state capital is Brighton on the south coast, though London is the sole British World City and also contains more than half the population. Meridians tend to think of themselves as "proper English" people, are very attached to their dialect although it is no longer the official standard English dialect (which is closer to Mancunian) and tend to be disdainful of the other English states. They are more likely to vote unionist than elsewhere in England by a considerable margin.

The Meridian climate is both drier and more extreme than elsewhere in the British Isles and there are closer links with the continent. For instance, the Channel Tunnel and associated rail links run through the south-eastern part of the state. Despite this, Meridia is more self-consciously insular than the rest of the archipelago. It is also the wealthiest English state and tends to regard the rest of the country as an economic burden. Consequently, there is a minority party, the London League, campaigning for complete Meridian separatism, though the state is overwhelmingly Unionist.

Name
The Greenwich meridian divides the state fairly equally into western and eastern halves and Meridia is the only English state which straddles the Western and Eastern hemispheres. Consequently, though the name is not traditional in any way, Meridia was chosen as an appropriate name, which also gives the name connotations similar to that of the French "Midi" and refers to the international importance of the English nation and the region in navigation, exploration and colonialism, all of which are close to many Meridian hearts. It has also led to jokes that Meridians are typically middle class people who consider the world to revolve about them but are in fact only mediocre.