THE DISUNITED KINGDOM
By Leslie J. Nichols
Genres: Political Thriller
BLURB
It’s the early 2020s and the UK has successfully withdrawn from the European Union and immigration laws are tight. Scotland has become independent, and the home nation is under the rule of a Conservative/UKIP coalition that has introduced radical reforms, which are robustly efficient in running the country. It seems that the UK has never been in a better position – until suddenly, two catastrophic bombings in central London shake the country to its very core.
Investigators Farah Karim and Sean Lakin are on a mission to get to the bottom of the intent behind these two attacks; are they simply a resurgence of the acts of terrorism that haven’t touched the country in years? Or is there a new and deeper conspiracy emerging?
Farah and Sean find themselves entangled in a dangerous guessing game where their personal lives come under fire and the lives of thousands lay tenuously in their hands.
EXCERPT
(This extract outlines the political, economic and social climate in the UK in the immediacy of BREXIT )
Back in Downing Street, Prime Minister Mitchell was still struggling to watch the distressing live feeds on his news screen as Janet, his personal assistant, ushered in John Gemmell, the Chancellor, who, at fifty-three, pencil thin with rimless glasses perched upon a slender crooked nose, looked every inch of the part.
Despite the numerous and significant social difficulties that the country might be facing, the economy was in its strongest position since the heady days of the Thatcher regime. The pound had never been stronger against the euro. Back in 2016 when Greece ditched the currency and defaulted on its European debt, the pound was worth one point two euros. Now a visitor would have to pay almost two euros for one of the much-coveted English pounds and there were still many members of the European State that were desperate to do so. English exports to Europe had, of course, become significantly more expensive, but since the British withdrawal from Europe in 2018, the Americas, Far East and China had become their most significant trade partners. Scotland were still in the European Union so it was still possible to sneak some of those rarer French wines and German sausages across Hadrian’s Wall but it was considered to be a most unpatriotic practice.
The first few years out of Europe were hard as the British in general and the English in particular had to find new markets for their exports. They were forced to do so whilst rebuilding their own agricultural and manufacturing base to produce all those goods that for the previous forty years had travelled over or under the sea, further lining the pockets of the corrupt Europeans who controlled the shipping lanes and transportation systems, as well as the goods they carried. The immediate removal of restrictive laws and trade practices made the restoration of the rural and industrial infrastructure much faster and less painful that anyone could have imagined, aided, crucially, by substantial investment from their new allies in China. Over sixty percent of English electricity was now generated by Chinese-owned nuclear reactors.
Unemployment was decimated and the government of the day congratulated itself on the decision not to have repatriated the wave of Eastern European migrants that had fled the abject poverty within their own flawed and failed political flirtations with the European Super state. Such was the demand for labour in the fields, factories and offices that unemployment and welfare benefits were virtually withdrawn as anyone who wanted to work could do so and those who didn’t were made to.
Not all of the former British Isles shared this meteoric economic recovery. Britain’s departure from Europe coincided with the second Scottish devolution vote which, this time, opened the vote to both English and Scots. The criteria for the declaration of independence demanded that either fifty one percent of the Scottish electorate voted for separation or a minimum of thirty percent of the combined population. Both criterion were comfortably exceeded and the Scots heralded their independence in a blaze of tartan clad, malt fuelled exuberance.
Scotland was welcomed, open armed, into the European Union immediately. They were wooed by a more accessible market for their oil and some misguided perception of economic and national security. The economic implosion of Scotland was heralded two years following independence with the almost complete collapse of the North Sea Oil Industry. Decline in global manufacturing had led to dramatic downturns in consumption. This was exacerbated by the Confederation of Muslim States or, as it was then known, ISIS, gaining control of a large proportion of the Middle East’s oil fields and flooding the market with cheap oil to fuel their armament costs and, simultaneously destabilising Western economies. The rapid development of fracking technology spread quickly from North West England throughout the country to the point at which the country became not just self-sufficient, but a significant fuel exporter. This, inevitably, fuelled tension between the two nations.
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AUTHOR BIO:
Leslie J. Nicholls has always held an inquisitive, borderline cynical, interest in the politics, morals and motivations of governments and their politicians. As an avid observer of current affairs, national and international news he has developed an uncanny knack of predicting unfolding world events. Political writers like Gerald Seymour, Frederick Forsythe, Robert Ludlum and Sebastian Foulkes have inspired Nicholls to abandon a successful career in Sales and marketing to express this interest creatively in the publication of This Disunited Kingdom, a political thriller with a prophetic vision of post Brexit Britain.
Author Website: http://lesliejnichollsauthor.com/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/thisdisunitedkingdom/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeslieNicholl1
Sarah Fine is the author of several books for teens, including Of Metal and Wishes (McElderry/Simon & Schuster) and its sequel, Of Dreams and Rust, the bestselling Guards of the Shadowlands YA urban fantasy series (Skyscape/Amazon Children’s Publishing), and The Impostor Queen (McElderry, January 2016).
Life at 17 