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The Rise, fall and divide of Fascist Britain.

Right, this is an extremely rough draft and may and will be changed over time. This is also designed to hint at a bigger timeline and more events. Do you think that works? or should I explain more history within the interview? The rough idea was it was Britain who, under a fascist government started WW2, and after which was divided up between the Allies, forming a North and south Britain with North London being the soviet sector of the city surrounded by South Britain. Does that work? Should I swap it?

Also, apologies if this is the wrong place to put it. If you didn't guess, I'm a forum newb.

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The reunification of London, 20 Years on.

INTERVIEW by BBC Political Correspondent David Mitchell from the BBC Website archives dated 4h October 2009


Stephen Bragg’s flat in Barking is in one of the last few state built housing blocks. We sit and share tea in plain white mugs. His room is decorated mostly with photos of family members. Here and there however are photos and mementos from what we came to discuss. He picks up one and shoes it to me; it’s one I’ve definitely seen before as have many British people. A much younger Stephen Bragg, stood 20 years ago at the Northern edge of London Bridge, a Union flag in his hand and a grin on his face. The photo was taken by a BBC photographer almost 20 years ago. I pass it back and begin the interview.

Where did you get the flag? I thought unaltered Union flags were banned?
SB: I know but some of the more lenient members of the police and army let it slip but they’d been becoming less and less in number. We still had to hide them though and my friend frank had that stashed in amongst tea towels and old rags.

Now am I right in saying that you were born and lived all your life in North London?
SB: Yes, I was born in Barking in 1957 and have lived within the city since.

Did you not ever want to move to North Britain? Admittedly the same government but certainly more space
SB: I never wanted to leave here permanently and it was so much hassle to get the papers to travel there we never tried. Besides from what we’d heard things were neither better nor worse there, which was impressive given how things were. They wanted to treat us at least as well as the rest of Britain, even if we were divided. They’d fly shipments of food and goods into Heathrow every day so they must’ve seen something in us. In fact in the last 10 years or so they started promoting and encouraging us to grow crops on park greens and on open land, to supplement the food socks under supervision of course. It was state run but still it sometimes felt closer to communism than anything else that’d happened.

You often refer to “Us” and “Them”, did you ever identify as a member of the Democratic Republic of Great Britain?
SB: No, not really, I identified as a North Londoner and to a lesser extent a North Briton but never a full member of the DRGB, to me to identify with the state was to sympathise with them and accept their ideology and we, at least my family and friends could never do that, not completely.

Did this ever get you into trouble?
Occasionally when I didn’t show the correct respect or failed to sufficiently cooperate with the powers that be but never anything major.

Did you ever think the country would be reunified?
SB: Well news from Russia and the other countries of the so called Helsinki Pact was increasingly hard to come by but this alone told us that something was up. We’d receive less aid from the other soviet bloc nations. We’d heard of people evading in the north evading coastal patrols and escaping to the south or to Ireland. These were the spark that started us off y’know. We were increasingly cut off from the north but when news did come through it was that they were demonstrating against the DRGB government in Edinburgh and succeeding. That only spurred us on; add to that the drop in food shipments, we were champing at the bit. By the time Brown resigned in October 89 a lot of us had been in Trafalgar square and horse guards for at least a fortnight half of us chanting “we want out” others “We’re staying here” some even started “we demand the right to choose!” We’d heard little from the government in Edinburgh or the city council in Westminster.
Mr Bragg pauses to finish is mug of tea

SB: And of course the crossings increased, more and more people made a dash past the check points or over the wall that lined the north bank of the Thames. Some of them met the same fate as dozens before, getting cut up by gun fire in the water but more and more often the guns would stay silent. Eventually something clicked in the city government. I don’t know whether Livingstone decided to defy the Politburo or something had happened up north but by the time we finished celebrating we’d heard news that the rest of the country had been reunified and people were crossing Moors and Pennines and Lake District and meeting up with long lost family or just enjoying the freedom.

At what point did you decide to head to the river.
SB: That day a group of us had broken off from Whitehall to head to London Bridge. The night before a friend of ours from Barnet, Nick had run the check point and three quarters of the way across some prick had opened fire on him. So there were at first a few dozen of us, then later more, half demanding, half asking them to lay down their weapons and let us through. We could still see Griffin’s body on the bridge. The Southern forces were too nervous to go and retrieve him. The Bridge was a no go area. At about four in the afternoon I saw the check point’s officer receive a message and order them to lay down arms. Some of them just stood back, some joined us and we happily let them as we. I finally pulled out my union flag, whatever fears I’d had lifting and waved it as we marched across. I wasn’t meaning to lead them; I just guess my feet carried me faster.

Did you stay in the South for long?
SB: I spoke to a few news bods from the BBC, CNN and so on. I both asked and explained what was going on to South Troops and they told us the DRGB government had agreed to open borders and begin negotiations. As soon as I could I returned to Barking and only later travelled when we properly knew where to go but we were actually free, and had the choice.

Now, you attended the reunification day celebrations last week as quite an honoured guest. How did that feel?
SB: It’s still a little unusual, to be honest. With that photo, I’ve been a minor celebrity and I’ve been interviewed quite a few times before but this was so much bigger. Here I was amongst MPs and heads of state. During the ceremony I was sat behind Chancellor Merkel of Germany, President Putin of Russia and Secretary of State Obama. As they sat Obama turned from Vladimir Putin and recognised me. She recognised me! She then pointed me out to the others who heaped me with praise and really made me blush!

I understand President Lucas Singled you out at the reception?
SB: Yes, not even one of her people tapping me on the shoulder and asking if she could have a word. She walked over and greeted me personally. I wasn’t really sure what to say to her. I said jokingly that I’d voted Green rather than Labour in the past but she didn't hold it again I feel a bit foolish for saying that now, I just felt a bit out of my depth, truth is told.

But you could surely see why they were praising you?
SB: For what? I’d just been a bit more impulsive and a bit quicker. Plus I’d been holding that flag. It wasn’t me who opened the borders to north London. It was Livingstone. It wasn’t me who agreed to reunification. That was Sayle agreeing to meet with President Thatcher. I’m proud of what I did, but I was just a symbol really, caught at the right moment. However if that’s what people wanted to see then I’m glad to have helped
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