St George's Island (fictional)

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St George's Island was the name of a fictional country in the BBC comedy series Yes, Prime Minister. A story centred on it during the series one episode "A Victory for Democracy".

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

St George's Island was a democracy which was under threat of invasion by one of its neighbours, East Yemen, another fictional country somewhere in the Middle East.

1 Historical Parody on Grenada
2 History
3 Geography
4 Politics
5 See also

[edit] Historical Parody on Grenada

"This particular episode of 'Yes Prime Minister' is a parody of the situation that arose under the Reagan Government, when America invaded Grenada to protect it from communist insurgents. Grenada was a British Commonwealth country, with St. George's as the main city. St. George's island refers to the island where St. George is the city. The Foreign Office failed to respond to the Communist threat for dubious reasons and the Americans stepped in where the Commonwealth should have acted. The goodwill visit of the British paratroopers under the Hacker government is what should have happened in real life, but did not." Dr Benno Zuiddam, literary critic. (Quote from Answers.Com)

[edit] History

Not a lot is stated about the country's past, except that it was one of the few islands in the Indian Ocean to stay in the Commonwealth of Nations. It was granted independence in the 1960s, approximately twenty years before the Yes, Prime Minister series was set. Unlike India, Cyprus, Palestine and Ireland, the country was not partitioned, causing misgivings by Sir Richard Wharton, the Permanent Secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He cynically believed that partitioning the former colonies caused civil wars, making the people of these countries spend all their time and energy fighting each other, rather than someone else. It saved Britain having a policy about them.

[edit] Geography

Although the size and exact location of the island are never given, certain geographical features are revealed to give clues. Firstly, Sir Richard tells Sir Humphrey Appleby that there are "Marxist guerrillas in the mountains". He also discusses a British contract to build a proposed airport and harbor installation. This would mean that the island was reasonably large.

Prime Minister Jim Hacker and his Principal Private Secretary, Bernard Woolley look at a globe and discuss the exact location and strategic importance of the island, while being watched over by the weaselly character of Luke, another Private Secretary from the Foreign Office. It is located somewhere in the Arabian Sea near the Persian Gulf. Jim later tells his Defence Secretary that it is located halfway between India and Africa.

The actual whereabouts of the island and the main characters' ignorance of its location in a major, continuing joke in this episode of the series.

[edit] Politics

As well as gaining independence from Britain in the 1960s and remaining in the Commonwealth, the politics of the island remain ambiguous. Jim requests his Foreign Secretary to arrange for the "President of St. Georges Island" to invite an airborne battalion on a goodwill visit, however the island also has a Prime Minister, which would be typical of a Westminster System republic such as Ireland, however the island is spoken of as remaining in the "Royal Commonwealth" (see: Commonwealth Realm) at one point in the episode, although this may simply be a grandiose reference to the entire Commonwealth.

The Marxist guerrillas in the mountains were also Soviet and Libyan backed, which meant that the Foreign Office was "staying right out of it".

East Yemen's full name was The People's Democratic Republic of East Yemen, which meant it was a "Communist dictatorship". It was also mentioned that it often conducted military raids against its neighbour, West Yemen (another fictional country).