Scenario: Great Britain goes Fascist/Communist, starts a World War and gets defeated/ The island is carved up between the USA and Germany.
How plausible would a North/South Britain division be? What would their governments look like? What would the border look like?
It would be one that has some pre-1900 historical basis
and some current thinking today about England itself:
*
North Britain used to be used as an alternate term for Scotland, but if you draw the line far enough down you could also hit Northern England as well. When the Allies drew up their occupation zones over Germany IOTL, it turns out a good portion of the SPD's heartland went to the Soviet Zone; in that case, I could see a possibility for something like that ITTL with a good portion of the Labour Party's heartland going to North Britain/the Soviet Zone.
*Likewise, contemporary with the usage of North Britain was that of
South Britain, usually used for England and Wales, but which for TTL purposes I could see used for Wales and Southern England + the Midlands. This area would thus be divided into zones (American, French, German), with (Inner) London treated as a separate area divided into zones (thus the Berlin Blockade/Airlift ITTL would be cast in a very different light); unlike OTL, I doubt the Allies would be willing to let South Britain decamp its capital in London. I'm not going to speculate on where the initial occupation zones would be for both South Britain and London, so I'll leave it to others to figure that out.
*Northern Ireland, OTOH, would be a sui generis matter. It could be placed in the Soviet Zone/North Britain, it could be incorporated into "South" Britain, it could be treated as its own thing (with or without similar zonal division) - but it's not going to be part of a United Ireland unless you split it up, with Fermanagh and Tyrone going to the Republic and Antrim, Down, and Armagh remaining their own thing, with Derry/Londonderry being neutral or joining one or the other. If one wanted to create an independent "West Britain" which is part of neither zone but still contains the Ulster Unionist heartland, then Antrim, Down, and Armagh (with or without (London)/Derry) could be merged into the Isle of Man; otherwise, the Isle of Man could either be its own thing or merged into the Soviet Zone/North Britain.
As for their governments - as for a general detail (I would need a longer post for going into further detail - because I'm thinking up a similar idea for a TL project I'm working on), I would assume a West Germany/East Germany thing between South Britain and North Britain, though under no circumstances would the monarchy be reëstablished - so the closest it gets would be the Channel Islands, unless if it's included in with South Britain as well despite not being part of the now-former UK. (Maybe once reunification happens, but even then, as a general rule, usually countries which become republics do not transition back to a monarchy.) The differences will be interesting, since both North and South Britain contain one other nation apart from parts of England. North Britain, furthermore, will probably plant its capital in Edinburgh, which this time around is in a central location, and due to historic usage and where the majority of the British Democratic Republic's territory is located, there would probably be a greater sense of Scottish-ness attached to the new state - wrapped up, of course, in
left-wing socialist patriotism and a respinning of British identity to match the new circumstances and giving it a stronger
civic character. There would also be a possibility of a greater divide between North and South, since this time round there wouldn't be as great of an access to South British TV except in the border areas, making the whole place
the Valley of the Clueless/Auszer Rügen und Dresden. (In the case of Northern Ireland, though, in any capacity, access to Irish TV would be much greater, particularly if much of it is part of North Britain.) Therefore, once reunification happens (if it does), the contrasts are going to be much starker and it would certainly be possible for a Scottish nationalist party (
not the SNP of OTL - the Soviet Union would suppress its re-formation very heavily) to attract greater momentum then OTL.
