The Republic of Wilkshire is a behemoth, cultured nation, ruled by President Paul Williams with a fair hand, and remarkable for its keen interest in outer space, hatred of cheese, and restrictive gun laws. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful population of 50.615 billion Wilkshireans love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Environment, and Administration. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Vasbury. The income tax rate is 100%.

The frighteningly efficient Wilkshirean economy, worth an astonishing 17,808 trillion wilkoes a year, is extremely specialized and mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an amazing 351,839 wilkoes, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The government has little issue with allowing its citizens to languish in foreign jails, strict term limits have been applied to all elected offices, councils up and down the country wrangle over legal matters, and sullen teenagers in bright orange 'community payback' onesies can be seen picking litter at the roadside. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a very well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Wilkshire's national animal is the cat, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Wilkshire is ranked 307,766^th in the world and 4,701^st in The North Pacific for Fattest Citizens, with 0.6 Obesity Rate.