Prophecies

Wel, its that time of year when everyone reflects on the past year and makes predictions for the new one.

In that vein, lets have a look at what I think the future has in store.

First off, financial collapse. Even after the Conservatives get in, it seems pretty inevitable that there will be a further financial crisis in the UK: the double dip will happen. The room for maneuvre for any new government is limited, unless they are ruthless and get things implemented immediately so as to exploit the 5 years they have to get back to prosperity and have the population vote for them again. The bad news is that I think it'll take longer than a single term of parliament to recover, which means any new government is hamstrung in that anything they do will have to last the term of government and beyond, so it must be popular with voters in order to make re-election a possibility. I fully expect some third party to be involved in the collapse, so they can be blamed for the crisis rather than the government.

Sadly, another prediction is the loss of further freedoms in the name of security. Just weeks after body scanners were deemed against human rights, we have a convenient attack on an airplane. Not only that, but the way the explosives were concealed on the bomber is exactly the sort of concealment that can only be detected by millimetric radar body scanners. Doubly convenient.
So, as the silent majority doesn't seem to be vocal on the issue, rights will be eroded even more this year. I fully expect travel to be limited even more, or at least made more difficult through extra checks, violations of privacy such as body scanners, etc. It may be cynical of me, but I don't expect a Conservative government to roll back the legislation enacted by Labour eroding our rights and freedoms.

This year I expect a full-frontal attack on drinking. Not just the binge drinking which causes 90 percent of problems, but ALL alcohol consumption. The first shot was fired on New Years day, when it was all over the news about how much alcohol costs the NHS every year. The first shot of the year from the righteous prohibitionists.

I could go on, but one final prediction I'l make is this: riots.
There will be riots in the streets this year, for several different reasons: it may be Christian/Muslim conflict, it could be taxpayers demanding MPs expenses back, it could be frustration over the double-dip-depression, it could be over the cutbacks made after the election, it could be over more erosions for freedom. In fact there are lots of reasons why people should be taking to the streets by the thousand. What amazes me is the fact that as yet, they've failed to do so.