The Protectorate of Brocklehurst is a colossal, cultured nation, ruled by Prime Minister Malcolm Tucker with a fair hand, and renowned for its complete lack of prisons, smutty television, and devotion to social welfare. The hard-nosed, democratic, devout population of 8.115 billion Brookes 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 medium-sized government juggles the competing demands of Administration, Education, and Welfare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Eckington Thames. The average income tax rate is 38.3%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The strong Brocklehurstian economy, worth 670 trillion crisps a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is broadly diversified, is led by the Tourism industry, with significant contributions from Beef-Based Agriculture, Basket Weaving, and Information Technology. Average income is 82,642 crisps, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The nation's arms dealers guarantee discretion and untraceable transactions, cults that offer eternal life after death to those who follow a self-sacrificing saviour are frowned upon, glittering new sports stadiums adorn every city and town, and 100-year-old politicians are now a thing of the past. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Brocklehurst's national animal is the badger, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

Brocklehurst is ranked 14,618^th in the world and 2^nd in Lewisham for Largest Basket Weaving Sector, scoring 6,551.79 on the Hickory Productivity Index.