03-23-2021, 08:59 PM
MODERN BRITAIN
Out of the over 50 million residents in Britain only approximately 500,000 are witches, wizards and squibs. The same relative numbers apply to all countries in the world. They are required by wizarding law to "hide in plain sight". They've got their enchantments and cover-ups for their occupations if they work in the wizarding society instead of a muggle occupation.
~ CORPORAL PUNISHMENT
In the summer of 1987 all kinds of corporal disciplining was outlawed in state schools and private schools receiving any funding from the government. Before that, CP was a common practice. In Hogwarts it was prohibited in the early 1970s.
The law does not apply to home discipline, but the legal guardian has a free hand in physically disciplining their own children. As well as to permit others to, outside school. The Child Welfare law however requires "reasonable chastisement", but does not define it in any detail. It made the prosecution and sentencing of actual abuse cases difficult, as the line between reasonable and unreasonable depended on the opinion of the jury or judge.
~ OPPOSING TO FIREARMS
Since 1920 gun license could be gained only with a "good reason" and since 1967 the police hasn't licensed them to anyone with a criminal background or history of mental illness. Even the police themselves have never primarily carried firearms, but only the minority. On the timeline of this game only 17% of London constables carry a firearm. From 1991 onward the armed police respond in a special group van, to decrease the response time.
~ MOBILE PHONES
During our timeline 93% of private individuals are stuck with landline home phones and phonebooths. Mobile phone tech had barely begun and was ridiculously expensive to buy and use.
The first hand-held model was released in 1985. They could only be purchased from the operator's own shop. They were large and heavy, the battery (stand-by and talk time) weren't long-lasting and there were no special features, not even text messaging. They worked only on a small area, at the best covering the whole of London. The first network reaching abroad, GSM, was opened in 1991 but was targeted at international business owners. In 1994 GSM was offered also to private users, but the range covered only England and Scotland.
In the 1980's purchasing a mobile phone was recommendable only to business owners for keeping in contact with the office, for them the high price and high minute rates were paid back by spared time. For private use and the public, mobile phones and their use became affordable around the mid '90s and even then only to the established middle-class and upper class.