The Lost Weekend of UPC is a mammoth, socially progressive nation, ruled by Phoebe with an even hand, and remarkable for its conspicuous electricity pylons, keen interest in outer space, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, cheerful population of 9.09 billion Radiants are fiercely patriotic and enjoy great social equality; they tend to view other, more capitalist countries as somewhat immoral and corrupt.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, socially-minded morass — juggles the competing demands of Education, Environment, and Industry. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Urithiru. The average income tax rate is 97.5%.

The frighteningly efficient Radiant economy, worth a remarkable 1,171 trillion Diamond Broams a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is extremely specialized, is mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Book Publishing. Average income is an impressive 128,848 Diamond Broams, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The weather report is the prisoners' favourite programme, construction of the Really Big Hadron Collider is underway, foreign nations kill migratory animals at random in the hope that UPC will pay them to stop, and flu research is commonly shut down for fear of creating a superbug. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. UPC's national animal is the Windspren, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is the Church of Honor.

UPC is ranked 1,817^th in the world and 24^th in Europeia for Nicest Citizens, with 73.58 average smiles per day.