I thought I’d get my crystal ball out again this year and see if I could come up with a few ideas as to what might happen over the course of this brand new 2016.
What follows is the best I can interpret the misty images in the aforesaid crystal ball. As last year they are just my ideas of what might happen based solely on hunches and gut feel; I have no inside knowledge and I haven’t been studying the form — so if you base any decision on any of this I will take no responsibility for your idiocy. However some of them do seem to be somewhat obvious.
Anyway, here we go …
UK
- David Cameron will not succeed in negotiating any meaningful changes to UK’s membership of the EU
- Nevertheless Cameron declares a triumph & campaigns for the UK to stay in the EU
- However the UK electorate will vote narrowly to leave the EU
- This could lead to the downfall of the current government and a General Election
- Labour’s Sadiq Khan wins the London mayoral election
- Boris Johnson is appointed to the cabinet in a summer reshuffle
- At least one very well-known UK company (or charity) goes into liquidation unexpectedly with 500+ job losses
- The government will go ahead with a third runway at Heathrow despite adverse environmental evaluations
- Consequently the value of property within 10 miles of the Heathrow flightpath falls by 20%
- Work starts on HS2 and Crossrail 2 despite the lack of available funding
- Construction work starts on London’s “garden bridge”, also despite a funding shortfall; the project will never be completed
- Inflation remains at about 1%
- Interest rates rise to 1% by YE
- The FTSE 100 closes 2016 down 10% on the 2015 close
- At least one major “accident” (transport? industrial? terrorist?) with 50+ fatalities — and there’s a good chance it will be in London
- Death of a senior member of the royal family
- Prince Harry comes out as gay (or at least bi)
- Artist Banksy is finally unmasked; he turns out to be someone already well known
- Bruce Forsythe and David Attenborough die
- Arsenal win Premier League
- Another warm, wet winter followed by a cold wet summer
World
- Donald Trump will not win the Republican nomination in the US Presidential election
- Hilary Clinton wins the US Presidential election by the tiniest of majorities
- Relations between Turkey and Russia deteriorate further
- Fighting in Ukraine flares up again
- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un dies unexpectedly, plunging the country into chaos and resulting in annexation by China
- Dalai Lama dies, precipitating a diplomatic crisis with China
- Major violence erupts in Egypt further damaging their tourist industry especially in the Nile Valley
- Assad remains in power in Syria, possibly in a strengthened position as the West comes to see him as the least worst option
- Greece will have further financial troubles and will again come close to leaving the EU — and they may even be forced to leave
- Cyprus reaches some form of vague reunification agreement
- The EU has to formally suspend Schengen Agreement
- A further downturn in Chinese economy causes worldwide downturn
- Oil prices remain low but fuel and domestic energy prices rise compared with the start of the year
- At least two major airline, train, cruise liner or ferry accidents with 200+ fatalities (in total)
- A naval vessel (Australian? Russian?) finds the wreckage of MH370, by luck as it is outside the search zone; it is too deep to be safely recovered
Personal
Six personal predictions have been documented but are redacted to protect both saints and sinners.
Let’s see if we can do any better this year than we did last. But do not put any money on this — I won’t be!
Do you have any good predictions for this year? If so please share them.