[Rainbow Six]

Malcolm, I agree 100% that the isolated communities in the Highlands and Islands would certainly be one of the best places to be in the UK in T2K. I'm not even sure that refugees would be a major problem. Potentially the biggest influx of refugees into the area would be likely to come from Glasgow. However, private car onwership in Glasgow is amongst the lowest in the UK (according to Strathclyde Uni in 2004 there were only 160,000 registered car owners citywide out of a population of over half a million). Therefore I'd think it's highly likely that a lot of people would have trouble evacuating the City to head north; those that did try to get out on foot would potentially have to deal with winter, disease, etc as they moved through relatively rural areas, so I think exposure to the elements would prove fatal to many as Simonmark has stated (personally I think that any most people going out of Glasgow would head south into Ayrshire, which would lead to a huge amount of tension in that area as refugees clash with locals).

I could see the emergence of certain towns as regional centres operating totally independently of any form of central Government - Fort William for sure, possibly Oban as well. I think it's fairly likely that people would come to these towns from far and near to trade with each other. I also think that it's possible that these towns would be able to raise self defence forces who could well be armed with shotguns and hunting rifles (which are likely to be more readly available in rural areas) plus the occasional MP5 SMG taken from police stocks (chances are that local police officers would be the core of these forces). They would be able to easily deal with any threat posed by refugee groups who do manage to make it that far north. Inverness would probably also do OK; as well as the chance of some troops being stationed at Fort George, it has two RAF bases near by that could help with providing local security.

Another thing to consider would be the clan system. It's probable that in some areas the clan chief would still be the main landowner in the area and would have a great deal of influence within the community (a while ago I did some brief work on an adventure that would have taken the PC's on a mission to recover the Honours of Scotland, the Scottish equivalent of the Crown Jewels. The adventure would have taken them to Fort William and then on to Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye, seat of the Clan MacLeod for nearly 800 years, where they would have met the Macleod of MacLeod).

Cheers

Dave