I have slipped into my soothsayer’s kaftan, fortified myself
with a fragrant joint and am quite ready to share with you my clairvoyant
predictions of the world our grand-children will enjoy 30 years on. By then I
will be snugly ensconced in my mausoleum and will be impervious to all those
hoots of derision directed my way.
 |
| The Future revealed |
The world of 2045 will naturally be quite different from
that of today, at least on the surface. Starting at home, the United Kingdom,
renamed the United Commonwealth, will no longer be a monarchy. Although Charles
and Camilla were an eccentric couple, what put paid to the monarchy were the
gross abuses of the Lords starting with Lord Sewel but embracing almost all the
free-loading and overfed members of the upper chamber. The electorate rejected
the right of peers to their privileges and soon questioned the whole world of
privilege, starting at the top. An elective 2nd chamber was
substituted with a popular franchise. Charles decided to abdicate while William
and Kate renounced all their rights and retired peacefully to farm near
Sandringham.
Cameron, spurred on by Osborne, negotiated an associate status
for Britain within the European Union but this was resoundingly rejected at a
referendum and total exit was preferred. Boris Johnson then headed a vigorously
nationalistic government but the loss of Gibraltar moved opinion against him
and then the reign of aged Jeremy Corbyn was upon us. Buoyed up by the youth
vote, he presided over the demise of the monarchy but economic management was
deficient – the transvestite drummer from the pop-group Snarl had become Chancellor of the Exchequer. Corbyn’s suppression
of the SNP was a trifle heavy-handed with its leaders arraigned for the
Edinburgh Treason Trials – life sentences commuted to 10 years. Huge increases
in welfare spending and over-reliance on wind power soon necessitated an IMF
bail-out and the joys of Austerity. The new Radical Right government,
privatised the NHS, reintroduced fox-hunting, levied a hefty entry charge on
all immigrants and was much admired in the USA.
Europe became fractured. After Grexit in 2016 and the 2017 Spanish
insurrection, the Eurozone unravelled. The Teutonic Thaler Zone, Germany,
Austria, Benelux, Slovakia and Scandinavia (with Poland a reluctant associate)
showed only stodgy progress held back by lack of enterprise and an ageing
population. The Baltics were re-annexed by Russia without any NATO response.
France led the dynamic Mediterranean Zone with Spain, Portugal, Italy and much
of the Balkans. Greece was readmitted after 10 years of reform and success with
her own drachma. Partitioned Turkey became an associate. Large investments were
made in the associated Maghreb and Egypt, stemming the flow of refugees and
developing modern economies.
The Middle East played out the turbulent Sunni- Shia
division with Iraq disappearing partly into the Sunni theocracy and partly into
the Shia one. Turkey lost her Eastern provinces to nascent Kurdistan and her
Anatolian provinces joined the Sunni theocracy. By 2030, the Arab world tired
of religious conflict and bloodshed; many states were impoverished by the
collapse of the use of oil. Secular governments reasserted an uneasy sway.
India developed substantially but corruption was an endemic
handicap. China suffered boom and bust, even after the demise of the communist
party, as managing her vast economy was beyond the abilities of her central
civil service and government. More admirable was the South East Asia
Federation, comprising Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, The Philippines and the
former Indo-China. This area grew exponentially, creating a highly efficient
liberalised global player and a rival to China and Japan.
The big change was in the complacent USA, whose growth
faltered as the spirit of enterprise dimmed. NAFTA had brought many benefits but
the opportunities were greatly enhanced by her association with newly dynamic
Republican Britain and her old dominions Canada, Australia, New Zealand and
Ireland. Common culture had brought them close together and their joint
resources dwarfed any others. After the USA apologised handsomely to Britain
for her unfortunate disloyalty in 1776, (graciously accepted), Britain and her friends
joined the United States – “of America” was dropped - in 2040 after
overwhelming electoral approval and the appropriate Constitutional amendments. The
future of our world was assured.
SMD
30.07.15
Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2015
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