Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Nine for 2009

As I said some moments ago in a Twitter update, it's about time I do a 2009 Predictions type post as is customary at this time of year. This is so you can make a complete prat of yourself by getting everything wrong so here goes, in no particular order.
  1. There will not be a general election. I caveat this by saying "events" may occur that change things. However on current trends I just can't see Brown risking it. He will hold out as long as he can.
  2. The Tories will suddenly realise the landscape has changed and voters are no longer buying the "tax cut equals no more hospitals" crap that the Labour Party have been pumping for the last decade. This will result in them offering a specific tax cut with a specific spending cut commitment where they actually detail what spending will be cut and won't just use made up figures. The key here will be the ongoing work of people like Philip Hammond MP that will identify very specific ongoing waste that can be slashed.
  3. Arsenal will not finish in the top four of the Premiership and Liverpool will not win it.
  4. Windows 7 will be delayed whilst Microsoft continue to convince people that Vista really doesn't suck.
  5. Another big high street name will collapse within six months and someone on the UK Rich List will suddenly become skint as a result.
  6. There will be a slight UKIP resurgence in advance of the June 2009 Euro Elections and they will hold most of their seats.
  7. Blogging about politics will continue to be popular but political parties will continue to fail to grasp the Internet because they'll carry on looking at America as a model.
  8. Barack Obama will make some foreign policy decisions that will see him labeled a neo-con in sheeps' clothing by many on the Left.
  9. Peter Mandelson will be on Strictly Come Dancing 2009 and the public will actually warm to him and like him.
Let's see how many I get wrong! I'm betting at least eight.

14 comments:

Nich Starling said...

I am yet to find anyone to convince me that Vista does suck.

I have never had it crash on me, networking it is so simple it is untrue (especially compared to XP which was painful), the media centre.extender features are dead easy, and in short, ignoring the fact that it is not Apple (and some people would buy a dog turd if it had an Apple badge on it), it really is not bad at all.

Oh, and here is a prediction for 2009. Everton will finish 5th in the league and will get a UEFA place again.

Anonymous said...

1. Yep. Nothing would surprise me, though.

2. I suspect so. Although the usual suspects will no doubt mobilize to convince everyone the Tories want to kill their first born.

3. Pass.

4. Could be. But why does it look like KDE 3.x? Is Microsoft going for that lucrative market of disillusioned KDE4 users? I think we should be told.

5. Maybe. I'm no expert, but Woolworths still gives me the impression of being something of an exception. And Zavvi was hit by the Woolies fallout. The other casualties so far, for all the media hype, don't really strike me as "big names" at all. Mind you, it all depends how things go generally over the next year; if they get even worse, who knows?

6. Let's hope so. I can't help feeling the Tories might entice back the softer anti-EU vote, despite doing sod-all to deserve it.

7. Are these 2009 predictions, or January predictions?

8. The thought is too depressing to contemplate.

T England. Raised from the dead. said...

Norfolk Blogger said...
"I am yet to find anyone to convince me that Vista does suck"

I'm not sure this will convince you it sucks but it's funny ;o)
Vista sucks

CityUnslicker said...

hope that last one is wrong...

Happy New Year Dizzy.

Not a sheep said...

All possible except for people warming to Peter Mandelson.

Anonymous said...

Arsenal will finish season in 4th place. Villa will slip.

Mandelson will not contest SCDancing. He will come a cropper again. Financial or sexual. It is in his DNA.

More than one High Street name will come a cropper.

Brown will revert to his status as 'Britain's least admired PM' plumbing depths not enjoyed even by Sunny Jim.

Anonymous said...

Arsenal will turn it's season around at the end of February but still get no silverware.

Mandy might take part in Dancing on Ice, assuming it's in hell just as it freezes over.

Topshop, Wilkinsons, Petsmart, Tchibo and Clarks will fold by September, and Burger King franchises will be thin on the ground.

Obama will take such a long time to come up with policies that people will think he's a lame duck.

Anonymous said...

Arsenal will finish 3rd, Dizzy, without a doubt.

Anonymous said...

Oops. "S" above is me. Don't know what happened there.

Shug Niggurath said...

1. If Brown gets his way there will not be a general election. Ever again.

2. Aye.

3. Arsenal #4, Liverpool #3

4. Or rather while Microsoft recoup investment in Vista from corporates.

5. In January.

6. Or the Sun will help make it a referendum issue and they'll actually make some gains.

7. They'll fail to grasp the internet because they can't control it.

8. Aye. But then in true Bill Hicks fashion I'm sure the corporates have already had him in for the alternative Kennedy assassination Super 8.

9. Think Prescott not Mandelson. He'll be too busy trying and failing to extricate himself from a cash related scandal over the Royal Mail sell-off.

Anonymous said...

1. The US and UK government (local and national) will be declared BANKRUPT.

2. HyperStagflation will ensue as 'quantitative easing' is seen as the solution

3. Afghanistan will become Vietnam

4. Lisbon Treaty will be ratified

5. UK Bloggers will be attacked by government. This is true of EU and US bloggers.

6. Manchester United will take the title, Arsenal will not be in the top 4; Wenger to resign

Linda said...

Well, if political parties continue to look to America as a model they will see that the Huffington Post blog has a huge amount of political clout!

Happy,Happy New Year!

Anonymous said...

You missed something out Dizzy:
"Windows 7 will be delayed whilst Microsoft continue to convince people that Vista really doesn't suck."

That should read "continue trying to convince"

And for the person who likes Vista may I say that most of the prejudice against Vista is due to its needing the proessing power and memory of several Cray Supercomputers just to run itself. Everybody has sussed Microsoft / Intel's trick of making each other's products obsolete every three years so we all feel presured into renewing when in fact were it not for this built in obsolescence a Pentium 2 could still do everything 95% of users will ever attempt.

Anonymous said...

Ian, you'd be amazed what a Pentium II can do. I am using two such machines to run Windows Server 2003 R2 no less, complete with Active Directory, dns, dhcp, all the works.

And they are just fine and dandy for a small number of users (10 or so).

Of course, they are maxed out with 512Mb of RAM, (yes Mb). And super-large 80Gb hard drives. Wow!