Not to be confused with the worldwide Commonwealth of Nations.
| Organisation of British Nations | |
| 2008 – 2020 | |
| |
| Motto Against All Odds | |
| Anthem "Land of Hope and Glory" | |
| |
| Capital | Woodbridge |
| Foundation date | 22 July 2008 |
| Dissolution date | 17 February 2020 |
| Successor organization | Commonwealth of Great Britain |
| Official language | English |
| State ideology | Parliamentary Democracy |
| Government | Political and economic union |
| Area | |
| Population | 2,229,141 |
| Currency | various |
Introduction[]
The Organisation of British Nations (or OBN) was founded in 2008 by three small British survivor states: Woodbridge, Essex, and East Britain. The purpose of the alliance was to provide unity in the face of growing threats by the True British Army and the expanding influence of the Celtic Alliance. Its supporters saw the organisation as an essential next step in the restoration of the British nation.
The OBN started out as a purely economic organisation to facilitate the already strong trade links that the three founding states had with each other. With time, it developed into a closer political and military union so that the members might speak with one voice on the European and world stages. Each member state remained independent and there were never plans for the OBN to become a single nation.
After a string of military successes, the OBN attracted a number of new members: Southern England on 1 September 2010, then Cleveland and Northumberland shortly after on 14 November, followed by some smaller states in and around Lincolnshire in 2012.
A series of setbacks in 2011 and 2012 caused the larger new members to reconsider their alignment with the organisation. Southern England withdrew in 2013. Cleveland and Northumberland considered withdrawal for some years before deciding simply to not pursue membership when they merged into one state in 2016, called the Kingdom of Northumbria. Some of the OBN states' occupied territory also broke free during this time, some of it coming under the rule of a resurgent True British Army.
When Edward John Poll of Kesteven became the OBN's Chairman in 2017, he substantially reshaped the Organisation. His call to replace it with a stronger and more inclusive alliance proved attractive to communities across England's southeast. After negotiations throughout 2019, the OBN was dissolved in early 2020. The rise of the Commonwealth of Great Britain marked a new era in the region's history.
History[]
Early proposals[]
The idea for a league of British survivor governments had been floating around since at least the late 1990s, when some of the larger city-states first began to cooperate on security for overland caravans - marking the first time that they engaged in anything like foreign diplomacy.
For a good decade, many people talked about unity in the region, but no solid plan emerged. The cause even drew the attention of Margaret Thatcher, who came to visit her home in 2004 during her retirement. The former PM had survived Doomsday in Canada and had been out of the country ever since, but her memory remained popular in the region and she could not avoid meeting with local leaders and journalists. As she did, she grew frustrated at the lack of unity that she saw. In what became a much-repeated story, she was meeting in Bourne with visiting leaders from Essex and Woodbridge. Prime Minister Bee remarked that the cooperation among the three states was the key to Britain's future. Thatcher pointedly replied, "The future? What is stopping you now, when your country needs you?" It became a rallying cry for the reunification movement.
The steady growth of the power of the Celtic Alliance also spurred supporters of unification. The CA offered another model of unity, one that most easterners saw as un-British. The War of the Alboran Sea (2004-2006) showed that the alliance had become powerful, capable of working with old NATO allies and projecting its power as far as the western Mediterranean. If the English were going to create an alternative, many argued, now was the time.
Essex presented the first fully thought-out proposal for a group of cooperating nations in March 2008. It too had been involved in a war whose scale and long distance were unprecedented for the little state: its 2008 war against Luton. Essex had achieved a victory, but its people felt vulnerable without allies. In particular Woodbridge with its air force was considered a great potential asset for regional stability. In order to deter and respond to future threats, Essex called for a unified military force from itself and its neighbours, Woodbridge and East Britain. This proposal was too much for most people - many feared that Essex was trying to drag them into another war. But the region was ready for union, and 2008 would be the year for it.
Merchants in the three states put forward their own proposal. They called for an economic union - safe and secure trade without barriers and new incentives to encourage the flow of goods. In this form the idea was much more popular; all three governments perceived the potential to share resources more freely and increase the quality of life for their citizens. The proposed union included cooperation on security - safety on the roads and rivers remained one of the most pressing concerns in the region - but it came far short of a combined military like that proposed by Essex. It was enough to reassure all three legislatures.
On July 28th the Organisation of British Nations was inaugurated. Its headquarters was established in Woodbridge, a relatively central location. Traders began to move under its auspices.
Expansion[]
Quickly, the organisation came to stand for an idea and spirit of unity well beyond its stated purpose. By working together the three nations could greatly increase their efforts when it came to securing the highways and repairing the countryside, and they could also be heard far louder on the European stage. Politicians and diplomats sought to use the Organisation to amplify their voices in the region and ensure that their interests were met by the larger world.
In the meantime the three allies were expanding their footprint in the interior. Increased trade brought an OBN presence into more and more tiny communities throughout East Anglia. These communities became regular stop-off points for traders, their knowledge of the local area and potential threats recorded.
And the threats were still numerous. As the OBN's influence grew, so did that of its opponents. Plenty of smaller villages resented the economic power and centralising actions of the city-states. The True British Army had been reestablished in 2006, and despite its defeat at Luton it was gaining ground in East Anglia. Increasing hostility was noted especially in West Suffolk, which now appeared to harbour a number of armed groups with racist or pro-TBA leanings. Raids on trading convoys and outlying hamlets of Essex and Woodbridge were on the rise. Some disregarded this as the typical behaviour for rogue clans in the British Wastelands, but in fact the countryside was becoming polarized between partisans of the OBN and those of the True Army.
At the start of 2010 these clashes began to grow in intensity even further. More and more people in Essex and Woodbridge believed that their trade and territory were under threat. Both governments wanted to reclaim their trade routes and defend their peripheral settlements. Meanwhile they had built up their conventional forces to the point where commanders felt ready for a decisive strike. The two states agreed to invade the TBA's stronghold of western Suffolk in order to pacify the region and establish an occupied zone, whereby Essex and Woodbridge would contribute equally towards the redevelopment of the territory.
June 2010 - Month of War[]
The objective of the war was the region around Bury St Edmunds, a key forward position from which True Army detachments could easily attack all three OBN states. Commanders initially thought that the area could be captured fairly quickly as they placed troops on the frontline. Essex did not feel the need to call up its sizeable pool of reserves, and Woodbridge, though placing its entire tank and air forces in combat positions, stocked up only enough fuel for a week of combat. These underestimations of the enemy would soon show.
The Invasion of West Suffolk began on June 1st, the same day as Essex adopted the New Pound as its currency. (Commanders reasoned that locals would hear the news on the radio and assume that no major actions would be planned for such a day.) Ten thousand men from both armies attacked the district of St Edmundsbury, expecting a quick and easy victory. They were soon proved wrong - the resistance they encountered was determined, organized, and powerful. The True British Army, thought defeated in 2008, had clearly regrouped and rebuilt. The hope for a quick campaign faded as the war stretched out for over a fortnight, in the process seeing thousands of men on both sides die, particularly in costly battles for the towns of Haverhill and Newmarket, and guerrilla attacks from clans occupying the northern area of the invasion zone.
When the designated territories were captured it was still not over. The flat, boggy terrain of East Anglia offered few defences for the invaders but many hiding places for the guerrillas. OBN commanders argued that the war had to be carried to towns like Soham, Ely and the suburbs of Cambridge, or else the True Army would regroup and clashes would continue indefinitely. Essex, Woodbridge, and now East British commanders agreed a new phase of the invasion. Essex would push the lines towards the west bank of the River Great Ouse and capture the southern side of Cambridge, securing a defensible western border for the occupied territories. Woodbridge would attack Norfolk, driving along the Great Ouse northward. East Britain would assault the Isle of Ely, securing the cathedral city of Ely and a slice of land between the Great Ouse and a pair of canals, then double-back to take King's Lynn at the coast. These operations would secure the valuable land corridor between Bourne and its two larger allies.
The initial invasions proceeded swiftly. East British Royal Guardsmen proved adept at fighting the TBA on their own terms, being as well-versed in hand-to-hand combat and improvised weaponry as their opponents. They captured the city of Ely within two days. By the end of the month they had greatly expanded the occupied territory to include the Isle of Eels and King's Lynn, though surviving TBA guerrillas continued to fight in scattered pockets. Tiny Bourne would struggle to pacify such a wide area. Woodbridge exploited growing schisms between True British Army units in Norfolk to clear out their opposition and bring a quick victory. On June 27th the siege of Bury St Edmunds ended with a revolt from its civilian population. Support from hastily-redirected Woodbridge troops cleared out the True British Army garrison in the town and soon the area under the joint military rule of Essex and Woodbridge.
The core states of the OBN, August 2010. Black: jointly occupied by Essex and Woodbridge; white: jointly occupied by Woodbridge and East Britain
For Essex the story was different. Though it soon captured its designated territories, it found its Hertfordshire territories the object of a vast counteroffensive by the TBA. Within three days the enemy had moved an estimated eight thousand men into the area. Though they were expelled in a day of good fortune on June 24th, they managed to ravage a noticeable part of Essex and as a result of their actions completely leveled the town of Saffron Walden. But after a crippling defeat of the TBA at Takeley, near former Stansted Airport, all the land was recaptured and much of the opposing force destroyed. As a final recompense, special forces from Essex managed to track down the leader of the TBA - Colonel Isaac Lewis - who had led the invasion into Essex. Realising that killing the man would only make him a martyr to already-fanatical followers, they instead blinded the Colonel, destroying his troops' ideals of his invincibility and leading to his quick assassination, fragmenting the remainder of the True British Army into mutually hostile factions by the start of August.
Despite the casualties of the invasions, the three nations of the OBN now had control of a corridor through the interior of East Anglia. This would facilitate trade, both between the three and with regions the north - freighters from Cleveland and Northumberland would be able to unload at East Britain and see the goods quickly transported over improved roads and railways to Essex and Woodbridge. Plans for a Bourne-Bury railroad were already being tossed around in July. The Organisation of British Nations had secured a new heartland and appeared well on its way to new heights.
Ascension[]
The military successes of 2010 caught England's attention. The OBN now looked like the future of Britain, the key to restoring the nation. On July 18th Ray Mallon, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cleveland, announced that the country would hold a referendum over joining the OBN on October 22nd. This, combined with the abundant rumours in Northumberland that a similar referendum was in the works, meant that it was almost certain that the Organisation would soon be growing.
In Southern England, the Liberal Party was voted into government with a pledge to join the OBN. It was admitted on August 31st, and the following day OBN Chairman Simon Burns announced that Southern England was a part of the Organisation, to much applause and celebration in all nations involved.
In early August it was revealed that Andrew Windsor, king of the Dominion of South Africa and heir to the British throne, was planning a visit to England the following month. The precise schedule was kept confidential, but most of it was leaked before the king's arrival. All of the current and prospective OBN member states cooperated to plan the visit.
On the 14th of September the King arrived in Poole in Southern England. With him were film crews from a handful of nations, as well as enthusiastic crowds waving the flags of the United Kingdom and the OBN. The south was a solidly republican state and many people opposed the king's visit, but a heavy police presence ensured that the visit went smoothly. Andrew arrived a few hours behind schedule but still had time to speak to the crowd and meet with Prime Minister Peter Brand, who would (along with a repertoire of dignitaries) accompany him overnight on the flagship hovercraft RNV Isle of Wight to visit Chichester Cathedral. He moved on to Southend a few days later, the start of a tour through Essex and Woodbridge.
Most of the tour in the OBN went reasonably smoothly. In Essex, much of the king's stay was marred by heavy rainfall, though this - together with police - served to discourage any large protests. The king took a train across a newly-built line from Colchester to Harwich, where he was to board a ferry to Woodbridge But the train broke down, stranding the King and his entourage in the middle of the countryside for several hours. Woodbridge regaled the king with a military parade but made no effort to stifle protestors. The king's visit in the south culminated with a speech to the OBN Council of Nations in which he praised "the resolve and courage of the citizens who remained in the homeland".
Many in Essex, Woodbridge and Southern England had worked tirelessly to plan the visit, and it was generally considered a mixed success. The second half of the tour took Andrew through Cleveland, where he made several embarrassing missteps that greatly hurt his popularity throughout Britain. But the work of planning such an event had brought the larger survivor governments of England to cooperate as they never had before.
On the September 19th 2010 George Percy, Duke of Northumberland announced that his country was seeking membership of the OBN. On the October 22nd 2010 the Kingdom of Cleveland held its referendum on seeking membership of the OBN, which passed by a substantial majority. Both nations officially joined the OBN on Sunday, November 14th.
Accession of members[]
- July 22nd 2008 - Foundation
- Woodbridge,
- Essex
- Kingdom of the Parts of Holland (formally East Britain).
- September 1st 2010
- November 14th 2010
2011 and 2012 - Setbacks[]
The military successes of the now-enlarged OBN sparked a backlash the following year. Southern England and Essex made plans to secure the interior of Kent in the same fashion as the land corridor of East Anglia the previous year. Kent's leading settlements were Ashford and Canterbury, and in May leaders from both villages joined together to oppose any annexation. For good measure they declared their support for the True British Army and offered to support any TBA fighters who could make the trip. This provided a pretext for an invasion of Kent, which had a promising beginning but quickly got bogged down. Essex could not commit enough troops to secure Kent, since so many were already dedicated to the occupied and patrolled zones to its north and west.
That summer, the True British Army regrouped yet again, this time under a junta based at Oakham in Rutland. Bourne and Essex responded with their largest operation yet. They were joined by Cleveland, operating from positions it had only recently occupied in central Lincolnshire. The action was dubbed the the Great Rutland War, touted as the war that would eradicate the TBA once and for all. The stronghold fell in less than two weeks - but the insurgency itself did not stop, it merely went underground. The Army no longer controlled any clear block of territory, but it was still capable of harassing its enemies. Attacks continued along the road between Chelmsford and Bourne and in occupied parts of Ely, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.
The summer of 2012 saw a new crisis that badly damaged confidence in the Organisation. A major outbreak of cholera in southeastern England became known as "the White Death". It was first observed in ports in Kent, though genetic studies later showed that the strain had spread from within England rather than from the Continent. Essex and Woodbridge were hit particularly hard. It hurt their military effectiveness, causing them to withdraw from many of their occupied areas. Ely, Rutland, and Milton Keynes all repudiated the OBN occupiers and installed TBA-friendly governments. Open war did not erupt, but the conflict simmered and clashes continued in outlying areas.
The Essaxon government's response to the epidemic drew a great deal of criticism. High Minister Jim Barker-McCardle refused offers of aid from the Celtic Alliance and the World Health Organisation, including a vaccine and a program for improving water purification. The OBN had been founded in part to rival the growth of the Alliance, and the High Minister's reluctance to accept aid reflected this ideology. He relented eventually and the epidemic subsided, but it added to the other problems in the southeast.
Despite these setbacks, the OBN continued to draw new members during 2012 thanks to diplomatic and economic initiatives in Lincolnshire. The villages around Scunthorpe formed the Democratic Republic of Trentside early in 2012, while Grantham and Sleaford created the Free Territory of the Parts of Kesteven a few months later. Both were essentially OBN creations and became members not long after. The seaside villages of Marblethorpe and Skegness also instituted political reforms that allowed each to join the OBN separately during 2012.
So by the end of 2012, the OBN's lustre was seriously tarnishing. It was building a community of friendly states in Lincolnshire, but the military project to secure East Anglia was breaking down. At the same time, a corruption scandal that toppled the government of Woodbridge dominated headlines for much of the year. The OBN's ideology seemed to isolate England from Ireland unnecessarily, depriving the region of help from the most developed power in the British Isles. If Britain was going to restore itself, perhaps it would have to happen another way.
Exodus[]
Southern England was the first to leave. Peter Brand's Liberal government fell in 2013, and the new Conservative government began the process of withdrawing from the OBN, announcing that neutrality and nonalignment would be the republic's new policy. In a memorable speech, the new Prime Minister Nicholas Soames said: "I believe with all my heart that Britain will one day be a nation again. But this was not the moment, and this was not the way."
The north continued to pursue unity, but outside the Organisation. Cleveland and Northumberland had for some time been forming closer ties, combining some government agencies and sealing their commitment with an old-fashioned royal marriage between Queen Anne's daughter and Duke Percy's son. More direct collaboration between the two governments picked up in earnest in 2015, when both cabinets came under the control of parties explicitly favouring unification. The following year, an Act of Union in each parliament finally combined them as the Kingdom of Northumbria; sorting out the details would stretch for several months more. In the politics of the north, the OBN had seemingly become irrelevant. The combined Northumbria declined to join the organisation.
Within this rapidly changing context, the True British Army itself was evolving, the angry generation of the 90s having grown up. The new generation of fighting-age men was much smaller, for one thing, having been born in the age of rock-bottom birth rates. For another thing, they had no personal memory of prewar Britain. While the leaders continued to fight for a restored Britain, including a king and queen, the new generation fought more to defend their communities - the small, tough, independent villages where they had grown up. As the OBN withdrew from its occupied territories, they were replaced a different True Army than before. And thanks in no small part to the OBN occupiers themselves, the settlements were much better equipped for civil government. Many of their citizens hoped that even under TBA rule, they could join the community of English survivor states on equal terms.
The Poll era[]
Throughout the 2010s, fighting continued on a small scale between the OBN states and the True British Army - though the latter was coming to resemble the former, an alliance of militaristic city-states more than a nationwide insurgency. But the two sides still lacked a reason to move on from their past conflicts.
The impetus came from yet another militant group, the Sons of de Montfort. The Sons had emerged around 2012. Their base was not the emerging communities of the southeast, but the even wilder Midlands, the lands between ruined cities that still could not support a large population. The Sons drew away some of the more militant TBA members after the Army re-established its power in Rutland. They became the dominant power in and around the sparsely inhabited lands of Leicestershire.
By 2018 history seemed to be repeating itself. As settlements grew in Lincolnshire and Rutland, they encroached on areas where the Sons of de Montfort were active, causing conflict in the disputed areas. The small but growing overland trade through the Midlands became more dangerous. Farms on the outskirts saw raids, causing people to abandon some outlying villages. The crisis called for a united response from the states most effected: Rutland, still loyal to the TBA; Kesteven, a newer state and a member of the OBN; and Lindsey, the leading local power to have stayed out of both alliances. Leading the response was Kesteven's chief councillor, Edward Poll.
Poll, who had served in both the military and government of East Britain before moving to Kesteven, masterminded a successful military action to Loughborough, followed by a promising agreement to end hostilities, draw borders, recognise Leicestershire's independent government, and allow it to extract reasonable tolls from the overland trade. This success made Poll by far the most popular leader in the east, and a populist movement - a cult of personality, according to critics - took shape around him. In 2019 he stepped down from his post in Kesteven to accept his selection, amid much popular acclaim, to the post of chairman of the OBN.
Now chairman, Poll and his supporters called to replace the Organisation itself with something new, a confederation that would be more equitable and respectful to Britain's smaller settlements, while being stronger and better able to reunite the country.
Supersession[]
Propelled by popular enthusiasm and savvy use of the growing regional news media, changes came quickly. In December 2019, Essex, Holland and Woodbridge agreed in principle to negotiations with other local states. In a speech in a packed stadium in Ely, Poll announced his grand plan: to unite the entire east into one Commonwealth of Great Britain, whose goal would be nothing less than the reunification of the entire island. To lead this new confederation would be neither a monarch nor an un-British republican figure. Instead, the states would choose a Lord President - a title that, despite its historic pedigree, represented a novel position that would be both a symbolic head of state and military commander. Poll pledged to lead by consent of the separate communities. Shocking as this rather Cromwellian turn was, it came after a long period of talks with leaders and various trial balloons sent via the media.
The Commonwealth became a reality in early 2020, superseding the OBN after twelve years.
Organisation[]
Parliament[]
The OBN's parliament was called the Council of Nations. In consisted of 5 members appointed by each member nation. The Council met once every 3 months in Woodbridge to discuss matters of shared economic, political and military interest. Some politicians pushed for Council to eventually become an elective body in order to give its decisions more legitimacy. The drive for more democracy within the Council was given added impetus by the expansion of the OBN, but the discussed reforms were never carried out.
Dedicated branches[]
Electoral Observation Committee[]
In August of 2010 East Britain held its first General Election and the government invited electoral observers from Woodbridge and Essex to observe that the election was conducted in manner that was fair and above board. The observers worked well and Woodbridge decided to ask the other two OBN members to return the favour for its next election that would be taking place in 2011. It was then decided to set up the Electoral Observation Committee which would consist of independent observers from each member state. The attendance of the observers at an election can be requested in two ways:
- The government of a member state can ask for observers to be present at a election
- A sufficiently large percentage of the population of a member state can sign a petition asking for the presence of the observers
Documentation Board[]
This board was a branch of the OBN dedicated to retrieving and preserving as much of the surviving pre-Doomsday British culture as possible. Its mandate included almost anything of significance: books, from diaries to Dickens; videotapes; records; indeed, almost anything that could offer insights into old culture. The board organised missions to old schools, colleges, universities and museums, including surveys of Oxford and Cambridge. It sponsored the establishment of new museums in the member nations to store, study and display these gathered relics.
As well as preserving the past, the Documentation Board also served to record current affairs within the member nations. It worked with local newspapers to keep detailed and balanced views of local events, as well as collecting oral histories. Several Essex and Woodbridge radio stations had backups of their tapes stored by the Board in various fireproofed warehouses. It oversaw the publication of a newspaper, the British Times.
The Documentation Board established a working relationship with the British Survivors Administration over retrieving, salvaging, restoring and keeping artifacts.
When the OBN was superseded by the new Commonwealth, the Documentation Board was maintained with very little change. The new system allowed it to expand its activities to former True Army and unaffiliated communities in England's southeast.
Military[]
The OBN established a unified military task force in 2017 under chairman Edward Poll as part of his reforms. Essex had for years argued for a collective military force made up of forces from member states. Its equipment was quite modern, as the equipment of the Royal Guardsmen had been improving significantly in the years building up to the creation of this united task force.
The Organisation also proved to be a facilitator of easier communication between the armed forces of member states, allowing joint operations to be planned more easily.
Troops from the OBN contributed to the Galloway War, the Great Rutland War, and the Lincolnshire Infrastructure Project.