As natural pigeons became a creature of the past, the government simultaneously began phasing in the drones, the pigeonbots. They looked and acted exactly like a natural pigeon as a result of inherited instincts combined with advanced programming, illustrating impressive advances in biotechnology. When the rumours of robot surveillance pigeons started to emerge a common joke and misconception was these metallic creatures would be walking the streets (incidentally this is why Thatcher adopted the moniker “the Iron Lady”). However the biotechnology blended the surveillance pigeons so perfectly into the community that their presence went almost completely unnoticed. Behind the robots “eyes” sat tiny cameras, recording and transmitting footage to secret databases. When their batteries ran low, they would automatically fly to their closest replenishment centre (there were over 230 around the country) to recharge.

Over time, as technology has improved, pigeonbots no longer need to be charged at the replenishment centres, due to the development of inductive charging. This phenomenon was first devised by Nikola Tesla and his discovery of AC based electricity resulting in his invention of the ‘Tesla Coil’ in the late 1800’s. This laid the foundations for inductive charging – the wireless transmission of power. Pigeon drones dock themselves on national grid power lines all across the country to charge using this technology.