As I promised a few days ago I’ve again dusted off my crystal ball to see what this year could bring. After all it can’t be a lot worse than 2016 — or can it?
What follows is my best interpretation the misty images in the aforesaid crystal ball. I remind you that they are just my ideas of what could happen; they’re 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 for your wanton act of idiocy.
As before, I’ve divided the predictions into three sections: UK, Worldwide and Personal — the latter are documented but currently redacted.
UK
- Brexit. The Supreme Court overturns the High Court judgement that Royal Prerogative cannot be used to trigger Article 50.
- Brexit. Article 50 will be triggered in the last week of March by government without the agreement of parliament.
- Brexit. It becomes apparent that no deal is possible with the EU and that the notification under Article 50 cannot be withdrawn.
- As a consequence, Theresa May resigns and asks Parliament to grant a General Election.
- Boris Johnson is sacked as Foreign Secretary and relegated to the back benches.
- The new Foreign Secretary is one of David Davies, Liam Fox, Michael Gove.
- Inflation will hit 2.5% by year-end.
- The Bank of England Base Rate will be reduced to 0%.
- The Pound falls by 20% (cf. 1 January) against the US Dollar and the Euro.
- FT100 falls by at least 10% compared with the start of the year.
- Unemployment rises by 10% compared with December 2016.
- GDP falls by at least 2% year-on-year; the UK is in recession by the end of the year.
- The Government will introduce legislation to implement Nordic model of prostitution.
- The Government also implements alcohol minimum pricing.
- There is at least one major incident (plane crash, train crash, terrorist attack, industrial accident etc.) with over 50 fatalities.
- At least one high street name goes out of business with over 500 job losses.
- At least 2 major hospitals are forced to close due to finance problems, with loss of jobs and healthcare; there is no allowance for anyone to pick up the slack.
- Two horses die in the Grand National, which is then permanently scrapped.
- There’s significant flooding somewhere in the UK in March, May and October.
- A meteor strike destroys two houses, but there are no fatalities.
- There is finally proof that there are non-native big cats living wild in the UK; there are enough to maintain a small breeding population.
- The Queen dies unexpectedly followed within 3 months by Prince Philip.
- Prince Charles ducks becoming King thus allowing William to take to the throne.
- Other Deaths: Paul McCartney, Bruce Forsythe, Bob Geldof, Michael Parkinson.
World
- Donald Trump is inaugurated as US President amid strident protests, possible rioting and several fatalities.
- During the year there are moves to impeach Trump which may succeed.
- Obama care is scrapped.
- NASA’s budget is halved.
- An accident (maybe a debris strike?) destroys the ISS with loss of the crew.
- Consequent on the above NASA abandons manned space flight for the foreseeable future.
- Trump visits Russia; Putin visits the US.
- US imposes severe restrictions on immigration.
- Against all the odds the USA abolishes the death penalty.
- Major banking collapse somewhere in the developed world, possibly Italy, USA or UK.
- Major cyber attack brings down power/utility infrastructure affecting hundreds of thousands, probably in USA but maybe Western Europe.
- Marine Le Pen is elected French President precipitating an existential crisis in the EU.
- Turmoil in South Africa after the arrest of a top politician.
- President Mugabe of Zimbabwe dies.
- Consequently the regime in Zimbabwe becomes even more repressive, in an attempt to prevent a civil war; this triggers a mass exodus of blacks to neighbouring countries.
- At least one major earthquake (magnitude 7.5+) with over 200 fatalities in Asia and another in South America.
- Scientists in Tasmania discover a small breeding population of Thylacine.
- At least two major civilian plane crashes each with over 100 fatalities.
- There is a significant downturn in air travel which causes at least one major carrier to fail.
- At least one conspiracy theory of 2012-16 turns out to be true.
- There’s a major epidemic of a new infectious disease across a whole continent (or more).
- IBM is bought by/merged with another large US corporation (possible contenders: Microsoft, Apple, Google).
- Other deaths: Rupert Murdoch, the Dalai Lama, Jimmy Carter, George HW Bush.
Personal
Personal predictions have been documented but are redacted to protect both the innocent and the guilty.
- Knee Surgery 1. [[REDACTED]]
- Knee Surgery 2. [[REDACTED]]
- Pension. [[REDACTED]]
- Deaths amongst Family & Friends. [[REDACTED]], [[REDACTED]], [[REDACTED]], [[REDACTED]]
- Anthony Powell Society. [[REDACTED]]
I wonder if I can do any better than my pathetic 32% score for 2016 — but I wouldn’t advise anyone to put any money on it!
And if you have any good predictions please do share them.
[Updated 7 January 2017]