The Free Land of This Train Stops at Retford is a colossal, socially progressive nation, remarkable for its punitive income tax rates, restrictive gun laws, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate, democratic, humorless population of 8.483 billion This Train Stops at Retfordians 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, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Welfare, Education, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Between Newark and Doncaster. The average income tax rate is 79.4%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The large but sluggish This Train Stops at Retfordian economy, worth 295 trillion cups of tea a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is quite specialized, is mostly made up of the Book Publishing industry, with significant contributions from Trout Farming and Basket Weaving. Average income is 34,782 cups of tea, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

This Train Stops at Retford recently hosted the least successful trade negotiations since The Phantom Menace, treason is relative, the ruling party has a devil of a time keeping order in the ranks, and the Museum of Blackacrean War Crimes is located on "Blackacre Did Nothing Wrong Avenue". Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. This Train Stops at Retford's national animal is the trolley man, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

This Train Stops at Retford is ranked 14,516^th in the world and 6^th in Mum for Highest Foreign Aid Spending, scoring 1,443.29 on the Clooney Contribution Index.