Alternative History
Register
Advertisement
(Southern Scotland)
Scottish Commonwealth
Timeline: 1983: Doomsday
Flag Coat of Arms
Flag Coat of Arms
Location of Southern Scotland
Location of Southern Scotland
Motto
In defens
Capital
(and largest city)
Dumfries
Language English, Scots
First Minister Henry Thatcher
Area est. 16,430 km²
Population est. 203,000 
Currency Scottish Pound

Scotland, one of the four constituent countries of the former United Kingdom, after the Third World War became divided into two large parts and two smaller ones:

  1. Most of Scotland north of the Central Belt comprises a nation officially calling itself Scotland or Alba and called Northern Scotland by most outsiders. It descends more or less directly from the prewar government, the Scottish Office. It is a parliamentary democracy and a founding member of the {Celtic Alliance.
  2. Most of Scotland south of the Central Belt was left in near-anarchy for many years. Surviving communities joined together in a series of states and alliances, most of them marked by a turbulent history of internal and external conflict. Eventually the region was united as the Scottish Commonwealth, or Southern Scotland. It has been a functioning democracy only since 2011.
  3. The outlying island councils of Scotland - the Western Isles, Orkney, and Shetland - formed independent governments and joined the Celtic Alliance around the time of its formation. Orkney and Shetland later accepted annexation to Northern Scotland, but the Western Isles remain independent of it and a CA member in their own right.
  4. The far southeast developed close ties to the Duchy of Northumberland and its successor, the Kingdom of Northumbria. The border remained fuzzy for many years; today, the historic Berwickshire is part of Northumbria, while the surrounding shires are part of Southern Scotland.

The rest of this article will deal almost entirely with Southern Scotland. For histories and descriptions of the other parts, see the pages on the Celtic Alliance, Northumberland, and Northumbria.

History[]

Scottish regions 1974

Regions and island councils of Scotland in 1983

Doomsday[]

During World War III, attacks on Scotland were less intense than those against its neighbor to the south, England. Two major strategic nuclear strikes occurred: multiple warheads targeting Glasgow - both the city center and port and airport facilities to the west - and a single 200-KT device in the capital city of Edinburgh. These strikes caused massive firestorms that swept the cities over the next two days, rendering them totally uninhabitable.

The majority of UK military bases in Scotland were hit by tactical nuclear weapons with a yield of 5-15 KT.

Naval bases

  • HMNB Clyde (HMS Neptune), Faslane, Strathclyde
  • Rosyth Dockyard (HMS Caledonia), Fife
  • DM Beith, Beith, Strathclyde
  • HMS Gannet, Prestwick, Strathclyde
  • RM Condor formerly HMS Condor, Arbroath, Tayside

Royal Air Force bases

  • RAF Kinloss, Moray Firth, Grampian
  • RAF Leuchars, Fife
  • RAF Buchan, Petershead, Aberdeen, Grampian
  • RAF Prestwick, Strathclyde
  • RAF Lossiemouth, Lossiemouth

British Army installations

  • Forthside Barracks, Stirling, Central Scotland
  • Craigiehall army HQ and bunker, Cramond, Lothian

In the following days, some parts of Scotland were hit with conventional bombardment. Mostly this occurred in the far north: oil pipeline terminals in Shetland and Orkney and radar in the Western Isles: namely RAF Benbecula and other installations of the South Uist Rocket Range, which had been a minor rocket testing facility.

Collapse[]

Under the UK's emergency plans for continuity of government, there were three emergency sites in Scotland, all in the north. Taymouth Castle housed evacuees from the national government and was led by George Younger, Secretary of State for Scotland, who was evacuated from Edinburgh. Two points on the northern coast were designated for ships serving as floating bunkers. One of these was the Royal Yacht Britannia, housing the Queen and Prince Consort. After the Queen's death in 1984, most people sheltering on the ships were brought to Taymouth, and the administration of northern Scotland was centralised there.

Scotland south of the Central Belt was cut off from this emergency site. In theory, an emergency regional headquarters in Northumberland was responsible for it. But it lacked the resources to affect things outside its local area, which in Scotland extended no further than the historic shires of Bewickshire and Roxburghshire in the far southeast. Most of the south was left without any governmental, military and police organisation the country quickly fell in chaos.

Survivor states[]

Main article
History of Southern Scotland (1983: Doomsday)

The north, centered on Taymouth Castle, joined with Ireland and the independent Western Isles in 1986 to create what would become the Celtic Alliance. In time this would bring stability to northern Scotland and connect it to other nations around the British Isles and the wider Atlantic. But the south was destined for decades of fragmentation and chaos.

Forming the Scottish Commonwealth[]

After the Galloway War[]

After the Galloway War Southern Scotland agreed to major reforms of its government and military. Allied forces (the Celtic Alliance, Cleveland, and Northumberland) remained in the country temporarily. Southern England mediated the peace talks and agreed to observe the implementation of the agreed-upon reforms and the withdrawal of allied troops.

The following boundaries were agreed in talks at Peebles:

  • The Celtic Alliance will get the disputed district of Cunninghame on the Irish Sea coastline and will retain control of its base and pier in the port of Stanraer. It will withdraw from other occupied areas over the next six months, including the towns of Ayr, Dumfries, Lockerbie and Moffat.
  • The Duchy of Northumberland will get control of the historic territory of Berwickshire, previously shared or disputed with Southern Scotland.
  • The historic area Roxburghshire, including the towns of Selkirk, Melrose, Kelso and Galashiels, as well as mostly-empty land around Hawick and Jedburgh, had also had loose ties to Northumberland in the past. The Northumberland Witan instead renounces any claim to this land and orders the withdrawal of all forces upon the election of a democratic government.
  • Northumberland will retain a small buffer around Gretna to make the town of Carlisle more defensible.

Under this agreement the borders of Southern Scotland, loosely defined before the war, will be distinct and internationally recognized.

On the 20th January 2012, all remaining military personnel from the Celtic Alliance, Cleveland and Northumberland were withdrawn from Southern Scotland. Some military engineers from Cleveland remained to finish repairs to the Berwick rail line. So did a contingent of Cleveland Police to assist in the training of a new Southern Scottish Police Force.

Steps toward reconciliation[]

Government[]

In 2011 talks with the allies and among the towns, southern Scotland adopted the following reforms to its government:

  • The new governmental structure was to be based on the existing Scottish Chamberhouse, with office and the vote open to all citizens. Measures barring Catholics and people of foreign origins were to be abolished for commonwealth elections, though local regions could not be compelled to remove these restrictions for local governments.
  • The power of the Guilds was to be reduced. Individual towns and regions were free to retain their role, but they would not have any special representation in the Chamberhouse.
  • Elections were held on the 12th October 2011 under Southern English observation.
  • In 2012, the capital moved from Peebles to the larger town of Dumfries.
  • The military was to be centralised and local militias suppressed.
  • Scotland implemented a more equitable system of trade regulations and tariffs, ending many restrictions on trade with the Celtic nations.
  • Anti-corruption bills were to be introduced in the Chamberhouse.
  • Northumbrian Railways Ltd would continue to run the Berwick railway, but would sell it to a local company as soon as one could be organised and financed.

Two elected members come from each of the Scottish regions. A general election takes place every five years.

The first postwar election occurred on the 12th October 2011. The first act of the new Chamberhouse was to elect a First Minister from their number. They elected Henry Thatcher, a representative from Roxburghshire.

Regions

  • Lanarkshire -
    • Mary Johnstone
    • Harry MacDonald - Minister for Foreign Relations
  • Peeblesshire -
    • Sarah Phillips
    • Charles Selkirk - Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Affairs
  • Roxburghshire -
    • William Stuart
    • Henry Thatcher - the first elected First Minister of Southern Scotland
  • Kirkcudbrightshire -
    • James Mayor
    • Donald Wood - Minister for Justice and Community Safety
  • Selkirkshire -
    • Phillip Taylor
    • Mark Clarke - Minister for Health
  • Wigtownshire
    • John Armstrong
    • Mark Pritchard
  • Dumfrieshire
    • George Linton
    • Luke Johnstone
  • Mid- and West Lothian -
    • Arthur Davidson
    • George Major - Minister for Education
  • Ayrshire -
    • Alistair Drummond - Member of the former Provisional Government
    • Jane Drummond
  • East Lothian -
    • Michael Watt
    • Helena Dixon - Minister for Housing and Transport
  • East Clydesdale -
    • Callum MacDuff - Member of the former Provisional Government
    • Elizabeth Campbell

First Minister[]

The head of the South Scottish Government is known as the First Minister. He or she is elected from the members of the Parliament on the first day of the new Government.

The current First Minister is Henry Thatcher a representative from Roxburghshire.

Henry Thatcher

  • Born Edinburgh 22nd February 1962 (Age 49)
  • Married to Mary Thatcher on 16 May 1980 in Melrose.
  • Two children -
    • John Edward Thatcher, born 3rd January 1981.
    • Alison Jane Thatcher, born 5th August 1983.

Diplomatic links[]

The perennial story in Scottish diplomacy is the relationship between the two Scotlands, which the press sometimes calls "Antonine relations" after the Antonine Wall. The 2011 war represented the low point in the Antonine relationship, and the mediated talks with the Celtic Alliance provided a basis for steady improvement since then. Mistrust remains, and reunification is probably impossible as long as the North remains with the Celtic Alliance, but there have been many positive steps. New treaties allow for regulated trade and investment from the North and other CA nations. The southern Kirk has not reunited with the northern one, but it did join the Conference of Churches, sometimes called the "Celtic Church," an inter-religious body for the promotion of religious peace in the British Isles. The most celebrated milestone was the restoration in 2018 of Scotland's national football team, to be managed jointly by the football associations of the two Scotlands.

The "Hadrian relationship" with Scotland's southern neighbors, Northumberland and Cumbria, has historically been less fraught. Tension grew in the later 2000s as militant activity increased, but the governments continued to cooperate with one another. In November 2010 Scottish representatives approached Cumbria and Northumberland with proposals to establish regulated border crossings. These began to operate in February 2011 even as the Galloway War loomed. After the war, Northumberland restored its border agreements with Southern Scotland. Their mutual border for the most part follows the historical Scottish-English border, with the exception of Berwickshire and a small zone around Gretna. Today a single English state, the Kingdom of Northumbria, comprises the entire length of the Hadrian border.

Economy[]

Like most of the former UK, the economy of Southern Scotland is small but growing. Most communities rely on agriculture.

Trade in arms was historically the leading industrial sector. Small states like East Britain, with weak and ill-armed militaries, bought armaments from Southern Scotland. In the wake of the Galloway War, Southern Scotland agreed to regulate this trade more tightly, but over the years enforcement of this agreement has been inconsistent.

Especially in and around Peebles, many sectors of the economy are highly nationalised in the hands of the Guilds, each of which controls an aspect of the economy e.g the Guild of Wheat who controls wheat production.

Since 2012 commerce has greatly increased with the North and other parts of the Celtic Alliance. Southern Scotland is a full participant in the British Isles economy centred on Dublin.

Law and Order[]

Law and Order before 2011[]

Before the Galloway War, parts of Southern Scotland were run very like a police state. Guards of the police and militia were often accused of arbitrary and unnecessary violence and were mostly acquitted in their trials before a jury of fellow guards.

However, reforms had improved the situation since the days of absolute tyranny in the 90s and early 2000s. In those days, it was a commonplace to hear of people disappearing during the night. Since the formation of the Chamberhouse, all parts of Scotland had agreed to stop this practice.

Harsh punishments, however, were both accepted and common: public flogging, hanging by the wrists, the stocks, and the death penalty. The death penalty was rarely used since the population is low enough that the government didn't want to kill their populace, however in extreme circumstances it was used, most infamously for the execution of the 'Freedom for Scotland' movement members captured after the destruction of the Chamberhouse in November 2010.

Since the death of the former Chairman Donald Abbot, the most extreme punishments like flogging and hanging by the wrists were further discouraged, though the central government lacked the authority to ban them. The use of the stocks actually increased in frequency, as they had been found to be a useful deterrent and did not actually harm the prisoner, so they could work immediately after their punishment.

Law and order after 2011[]

The reforms that followed the Galloway War centralised many areas of governance in Southern Scotland, including law and order.

Corporal punishments such as flogging and hanging by the wrists have been banned, and more "humane" stocks have been designed using the Kingdom of Cleveland's stocks as a blueprint. Death penalties were suspended until new trials occurred. The trials took place in a new appeals court for capital cases before panels of three judges. The court was to be independent of political influence.

Of the 37 people on 'Death row', 26 were acquitted without charge and released, six were judged to have committed the crime as charged, but the sentence was reduced to corporal punishment and a further five were found guilty as charged and sentence to death by long drop hanging. Gallows were built to facilitate private executions, which were carried out beginning on the 20th and 21st January 2012.

Other laws targeted corruption in law enforcement; these have been only partially successful.


On the 1st November 2011 all remaining prisoners of war were returned to Southern Scotland after a period of internment in Douglas, Isle of Man. While in prison, the combatants received training in trades ranging from fishing to iron working. A smaller set of recalcitrant prisoners refused retraining and pledged to continue the fight against the Celtic Alliance and the North. These men remained in detention on Mann for another year and then were transferred to jails in Southern Scotland. Nearly all were released in the following year.

Advertisement