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095 :: A new walled city
Hank worked as a security officer in Gatwick Airport when he first came to the service towns from Bristol. There were a group of them who joined together. Did their training together. They were sent out on jobs together.
They collected the tourist toll when the borders were decided. On the trains. On the roads. Anyone not registered resident or employed in London paid the toll.
They enforced the border when the cameras were installed along the border. Facial recognition with automatic payment of the tourist toll meant they moved on to finding the defaulters and escorting them out of London.
They did not force genuine Londoners out but people did leave of their own accord. They left to take jobs in the service towns. They left for economic reasons. But still there was a lot of anger against them. Against Hank and his type.
The London Marketing Board set out a minimum value of each square foot in the south east of England. When voting people assumed the border would be the M25 but the area was smaller. It excluded industrial estates. And there were so many wealthy people who were frustrated that they were not in London, that their commuter town was not considered to be in London. A lot of money rushed into property in London and in to property just outside the border hoping London would expand.
The LMD consolidated its power with the incorporation of areas act. Greeter London was seen as one area giving the LMD direct power over the considerable budget for all the services needed in the whole of London. Effective monopoly power. And balancing the books by cutting benefits. The old councils already had the right to move recipients of benefits if a service was not available in their area but once they could coordinate across London then the benefit recipients were moved to the service towns, or lose their benefits. Some benefit recipients refused to move so Hand and his friends worked as bailiffs. There was a lot of anger at Hank and his type.
First came the debates. Then came the protests which morphed into riots almost immediately. Hank and his friends were trained. They could support the riot police. They herded the rioters. They stopped transport. They moved some of the rioters and left others. The riots were on the news all the channels all the time. Burning buildings. Burning vehicles. Looting. While the nation was distracted by the rioters the LMD build a wall. The trucks were ready. The map planned. The guards in place. Hank was moved to the A23 gate. A short train ride from his home in Gatwick.
The LMD sold all the social housing they had emptied. They flooded the market. A London house at a reasonable price. The headlines writers turned away from the riot. The nation blinked and when they opened their eyes again it was settled. London was a gated city. The rioters were locked out. The gates opened only for the registered. The fast lane for biometric iPass. Cameras recording everyone. Free cameras for the house. Free fast technology which assisted the border guards in rounding up the illegal aliens. Quietly. Unnoticed in unmarked seven seater cars. Everyone had their day in court. A hundred new courts in the border cities.
The nation shrugged. They went back to work. The riot police were reassigned. Kept near at hand in case of trouble.
