Ruthie was astonished to discover the existence of the Principality of Sealand, a sovereign territory established in international waters on an offshore platform some 6 miles off the Eastern Coast of England. The platform once had military usage, but was purchased and settled by Major Roy Bates in 1967 who in the best British Spirit promptly declared independence, assumed the title of Prince, and formulated the platform’s own national anthem, currency and flag.
So far so surreal. But Prince Roy is clearly not so eccentric to have missed the economic advantages of his unique location. The platform is home to a huge collection of servers providing internet co-location services. The existence of which the world would largely have remained blissfully ignorant, but for a recent fire said to be caused by a faulty generator.
Perhaps this is the opportunity for Ruthie and Geeklawyer to stage a coup. Ruthie could see that Geeklawyer would grasp the burden of sovereignty with enthusiasm: don’t be fooled by all that liberal ranting. Imagine the scene; Geeklawyer stroking his gently vibrating servers, a manic glint in his eye. Ruthie reduced to serving Pina Coladas in a Diana Rigg style catsuit.
Governing would be a different matter. To avoid murdering one another there should perhaps be a separation of powers, with Geeklawyer making the laws and Ruthie interpreting them. It’s a well respected principle, although one which our current Home Secretary seems unfamiliar. Publicly shaming the judiciary in the vague hope that bands of vigilantes might spring up to punish the named judges in a way the Government cannot seems to be his favoured method of achieving his aims. (All they need is an up to date copy of Who’s Who and some spare time.)
But ultimately why even go to the bother when you can simply get rid of people you don’t like by throwing them overboard?
my view as echoed in the chat forum, http://forum-conveniens.geeklawyer.org/viewtopic.php?p=76#76, is it seems dubious that the UK government can claim Sealnd is no longer a sovereign territory because they extended their territorial limits from 6 to 12 miles.
There’s a long bit about it in the rather odd travel book “Attention All Shipping: a journey round the shipping forecast”. And it has its own wikipedia entry, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealand which lists a number of cases in various jurisdictions about its status. The government tends to keep its mouth shut about it these days, on the basis that if they pretend it isn’t there it’ll all go away.
I think that Geeklawyer should form an army (or should I say navy) to capture sealand. We could claim they had WMD’s or something first so it wouldn’t be a warcrime.
@ El Geek
“it seems dubious that the UK government can claim Sealnd is no longer a sovereign territory because they extended their territorial limits from 6 to 12 miles.”
Hmm. Perhaps Seeland should extend its own territorial waters and claim that the UK is no longer sovereign territory!
…or threaten to engage in a mutual defence treaty with North Korea and/or Iran.
haha, yes very good. Seeland extends territorial waters 500 miles: threatens to bomb Germany & Ireland!!
[…] Regular readers will recall Ruthie’s previous posts about the Principality of Sealand; basically an off shore platform seized by a plucky Brit who then declared independence. […]
[…] Ruthie’s obsession with Sealand is a matter of record. Several in fact. […]