A New England

Chapter Six- The System

The Citizenship Act Amendment Two was passed without public vote. It was passed without even gaining approval from the monarchy. It had been the beginning of the end for England as a free country and a democracy. It had been the start of the descent into a dictatorship. Most had praised Prime minister Rayner's commitments to clean up the country. It certainly needed cleaning up. The countless unemployed where putting a strain on already tight resources and the streets in the cities where barely even safe to walk in.

The trouble, Rayner said, was that the youth of the country were not given anything to do when they left school, that they were not taught to have any respect for their country. National Pride, he said, was a much needed commodity absent from the English psyche. If people could be taught to love their country they would work for it. To restore this national pride he had proposed the introduction of national service. This idea was welcomed by most, it was seen as a positive step forward. If it had worked for Germany why could it not work for England? And so the Citizenship Act was passed detailing that every youth had to, by law, stay in education until they were 18 and remained the responsibility of their parent until that time. Following this they would complete two years national service and only then would they be granted citizenship.

It was a much celebrated scheme and in the years that followed its implementation most noticed the positive effect on communities. Rayner was much praised and voted in for a second term during which he continued his campaign for a 'New England' by focusing his heavy handed approach on straightening out the youth, claiming that energy and resources should be focused on grass roots if you wanted to see results. And so the legal age of all 'adult activities' were also raised to bring everything in line. Under the Adult Activities Act the age at which a person was permitted to smoke, drink, drive have sex or marry was set at 20. The rules were simple; complete your national service, earn the right to become a full citizen and the you would get the privileges that went along with it. This too was welcomed and for a while England was improving and life was better for everyone.

But Rayner was a man who was hard to satisfy. In his quest, anything less than perfect was not acceptable. He had his own vision for the country and although the measures he had put in place had been a step in the right direction it remained just that; a step. In his eyes there was still a lot of work to be done.

His next task, after reforming the youth system, was to reform the prison system. There were still, of course, those who went on to lead lives of crime despite all he had done to tackle it and Rayner did not see the current justice system as much of a deterrent. Being shut in the cell with games consoles and sky TV and having all your meals provided was not a punishment. He knew he had the potential to terrify criminals. He deliberated long and hard over the possibility of re-introducing the death penalty but even that somehow did not fit with his quest for something truly horrendous. It was one night, when he lay sleeping, that the idea came to him in a dream. This proclamation that this new reform was the product of his sleeping brain activity would soon become synonymous with his apparent descent into madness. It would mark the time that the people truly started to doubt and mistrust the leader they had put so much faith in.

And so work began on the construction on The New Criminal Institute. There was just one such prison at first and It had began life as one of the many vast nuclear bunkers that had been constructed under the ground for the government and its officials to flee to should the country fall victim to nuclear war. This sprawling subterranean network had lay dormant and festering below the English countryside since the cold war and to Rayner it provided the inspiration for his solution the the problematic members of society. If it's six foot thick concrete walls could withstand a nuclear blast there was little chance of anybody shut away down there ever being able to escape. The unwanted people could simply be swept under the carpet, out of sight out of mind.

The idea was that they would spend as little of the countries money as possible on maintaining the low life element of society. Criminals would live in this underground prison virtually unsupervised. There would be no cells, no locks and the prisoners would be free to do as they pleased; fight, maim, kill. What did it matter what they did to each other down there? They were criminals and they were there to suffer.

In the beginning it was only those serving life sentences that were condemned to a life below. The New Criminal Institute was designed never to release anyone. Once you were down there it was for good, the only way you would ever leave would be when you either starved to death, died from illness or were murdered by another inmate. 

Yet even with the arrival of this new system Rayner’s dream remained incomplete and his policies over the years continued to grow more and more extreme. Eventually he claimed full power when it became apparent people were turning against him. He used an attempted revolt to seize the countries reigns and no longer considered public opinion when passing his new and radical measures.

After snatching control and claiming Britain for his own Rayner's  first step was to bring in his Crimes Against Man Act. This detailed a new list of offences that would buy you a ticket to The New Criminal Institute, or The Underworld as it had become known.

Crimes Against Man were defined as any act that harmed a fellow citizen; murder, rape, assault, drug dealing. All carried the same sentence; a life under ground without parole.

Secondary to this, there was also another way a person could buy a ticket to The Underworld. You could fail your probation. The Probation Act was an amendment to the Citizenship act were by all youths between the age of 18-20 where considered to be on probation during which time they had to prove they could be a valuable member of society. National service was cut to one year and after completion the individual was expected to go on to prove that they were worthy of citizenship. This meant being patriotic, securing employment (or, for a selected few, a university place) and not committing any criminal offenses. With regards to committing crimes those on their probationary period were handled a little differently to full citizens. They were placed on a strike system. A person was allowed three strikes to allow for mistakes and the recklessness nature of being young. Any minor criminal offense was counted as one strike. The rules were simple. Three strikes and you were sent down. Committing an offence that fell under Crimes Against Man was the same as it was for citizens; immediate eviction from society.

In an attempt to tackle unemployment Rayner had also stopped all immigration and all none English citizen's where deported. Those who refused to go were snatched from their homes under the cover of darkness by armed guards and illegally sent to The Underworld.

There was a clear sense of injustice as first. Everyone could see exactly what was happening; England was becoming the new Nazi Germany. Any protests, however, were quickly squashed with anyone daring to voice their disapproval being sent to The Underworld by the corrupt system.

In his continued reign of fear and attempts to break the collective spirit of his country Rayner began to extend his control to people's social lives also, dictating what music they could listen to, what books they could read and what films they could watch. The rest of the world looked on in horror at what was happening on this small island and had England stood alone it might have reacted and tried to end the madness but since England had broke away from Europe and now stood allied with China, the biggest super power in the world, no body was willing to make the first move. So long as Britain kept itself to itself and it's policies did not effect anybody else the world was happy just to turn a blind eye. Invading other countries was not something Rayner had ever really been interested in. He only wanted to make his own great.