Fed up with politicians in Westminster? Then why not set up your own country like the residents of Feckenham? Neil Connor explains.

Revolutionaries in France secured power in the name of liberty, equality and fraternity, in Russia for bread and peace, and in the United States for republicanism.

But on the outskirts of Redditch there is a new revolution taking place - in the name of cheap beer.

The residents of Feckenham have proclaimed their own state, set up a new ruling council and issued passports to residents who are protected by border guards.

A Court Liete presides over the new country, which declared its independence last month after the Government failed to respond to a letter demanding the cessation of taxation.

A ceremony was held at the village's Wake on June 25 when the new governing body was sworn in.

"We thought lower taxes would be a good way of getting cheap beer," said Liete Ian Bellion, letting slip the true ideology behind the seizure of power.

"We also asked the chancellor Gordon Brown for our taxes back, but he didn't respond."

The village staged a revolution after a scroll was found dating from the year 1237.

The scroll, which bore the seal of King Henry III, was found during a tree planting and revealed that the monarch had been so well served by the yeomen of Feckenham that he was moved to grant the hamlet independence.

King Henry had actually handed the village over to his Aunt Matilda, but declared that the people should rule Feckhanham if she did not produce a child.

The ancestry of Matilda is shrouded in mystery, so the Court Liete still lives in fear of counter revolution.

After a month of peaceful self rule, the barriers are to be raised this weekend to permit British people to join with the Feckenhamsters in a great celebration at the People's Palace (which was formally the Village Hall).

"We are having a Grand Revolutionary Ball this weekend, and we are hoping that the grand Liete is not assassinated," said Mr Bellion.

Feckenham is not the first community to declare its independence from the United Kingdom. The Mercian Constitutional Convention attempted to re-establish the ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia in 2003.

The group claimed the kingdom was still independent under international law after it was 'forcibly dismantled' by William the Conqueror in the 11th century.

The terms of the convention's new constitution were read from the steps of Birmingham Council House. However, political leaders refused to meet with the group, which claimed to represent an area which historically stretched from Bristol to the Mersey and from Humber down to the Thames.

In September 1967, a former English Major Paddy Roy Bates formally occupied a military base situated seven miles off the coast of Suffolk that was constructed by the British to defend the country from German air raids.

He claimed jus gentium, which is the Latin term for 'the law of nations', over the sea fort and named it Sealand. Mr Bates called himself Prince and gave the title of Princess to his wife.

His son Prince Michael was appointed Prince Regent as Sovereign pro tempore by Royal Decree in 1999.

According a statement on the website promoting the 'sovereign state': "Britain has stated clearly and demonstrated on a number of occasions either it has no jurisdiction within Principality territorial limits or it has no interest in events that have taken place within the Principality."

Just like Ealing's classic Pimlico film

The goings on in Feckenham echo scenes from a famous 1940s movie in which the inhabitants of a London street discover buried treasure and documents proving they are citizens of Burgundy. Passport to Pimlico is regarded as the finest of T.E.B. Clarke's six Ealing comedies.

The Burgundians install a makeshift government, restore the monarchy and implement a programme of civic building (a public lido).

But the residents of Pimlico prove that through all their dogged resistance, they will never lose sight of their true national identity, as one of them claims in a memorable scene: "We always were English and we always will be English, and it's just because we are English that we're sticking up for our right to be Burgundian!"