What will the UK look like in 10-20 years time?

ninky_2

drc wrote: »

there will be a worldwide 'cap' on how many children a woman can have.

will that be like a dutch cap? hmmm. could be messy.

Pennywise

lostinrates wrote: »

ad and ninky have made me wonder.

I'm looking at a property I have almost dismissed because of road noise and pollution from the road. Dh likes it regardless of the major road network it sits next to. But in the future, as the car industry changes, might it not be that cars are considerably less noisy..like the electric vehicles that creap up on one, and continue to be less polutant? Maybe a purchase for the long term by a main road isn't as dream shattering in the long term?

Abolutely. Just think of the houses that were "blighted" by railway lines, viaducts, etc. close by. Thanks to Beeching, they're now close to landscaped footpaths, cycleways and tourist attractions. Opportunities abounded for people to buy old stations and convert them into housing or businesses, and to buy a bit of land to extend your garden.

StevieJ

I am not one for dissing our troops but I don't like them being used to smokescreen the increasing (although still mild) totalatarian stance of our govt.

Is it me or these quotes from Jacqui Smith sound rather spookey, like the pigs gradually changing the rules in Animal farm :cool:

She said: "The civil challenge means that, if people feel it appropriate to demonstrate against our troops coming home from defending this country abroad, we - as Government and others - will say in turn that we think that that's wrong.
"Not that they've broken the law - one of the things we're defending in this country is the right to free speech, but that isn't free speech that will go unhindered or unchallenged by either Government or, I think, the broader community."

mambury

blunt_crayon wrote: »

Have you tried the daily mail-o-matic headline generator?? http://www.qwghlm.co.uk/toys/dailymail/

My personal favourite:

ARE MUSLIMS INFECTING CLIFF RICHARD WITH AIDS?

now I've found something else to keep me from being a productive member of society!

This one made me giggle............

HAS RUSSELL BRAND BURGLED BRITAIN'S FARMERS?

Pennywise

blunt_crayon wrote: »

how would they actually enforce the cap though? it would be quite difficult to sterilise 3 billion women and infanticide is frowned upon.

Limit benefits and social housing and you'll soon find a reduction - the moment that an extra child means no extra money and no bigger house will be the moment when people suddenly decide they can practice safe sex afterall.

chewmylegoff

much the same as it is now, but everything will be more expensive, everyone will be paid more.

StevieJ

ad9898 wrote: »

I'm not sure about most of the things you mention, the economy for instance is very difficult to predict. One thing we can look at is energy, if we don't do something soon we are going to be in serious trouble. North Sea oil & gas are declining and we are importing quite a lot of gas from Norway. The problem is, due to peak oil, Norway is predicted to stop their exports by the mid 2020's, conserving what gas they have left for their own consumption.


There are lots of other issues connected to this subject, but I will leave it at just that one for now. Basically though, scientifically, we need Eureka moment in the next 20 years or so otherwise the way of life we have now will start to look unrecogniseable. Infinite growth in economies, population, energy usage etc.... is impossible in a finite world, so where much of the future is uncertain, that part is fact, and needs to be addressed urgently.

EUREKA

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article5949992.ece

ninky_2

StevieJ wrote: »

I am not one for dissing our troops but I don't like them being used to smokescreen the increasing (although still mild) totalatarian stance of our govt.

Is it me or these quotes from Jacqui Smith sound rather spookey, like the pigs gradually changing the rules in Animal farm :cool:

She said: "The civil challenge means that, if people feel it appropriate to demonstrate against our troops coming home from defending this country abroad, we - as Government and others - will say in turn that we think that that's wrong.
"Not that they've broken the law - one of the things we're defending in this country is the right to free speech, but that isn't free speech that will go unhindered or unchallenged by either Government or, I think, the broader community."

the day yusuf islam (cat stevens) was allowed to say, legally unchallenged, on national television, that salman rushdie should be burned to death for the writing the satanic verses was the day we should have laid down the boundaries for free speech in this country.

it is okay to criticize religion (even to the point of offence), to debate ideolgies and to have verbal disputes. it is not okay to threaten, or support threats, to peoples physical wellbeing or lives.

blunt_crayon

Pennywise wrote: »

Limit benefits and social housing and you'll soon find a reduction - the moment that an extra child means no extra money and no bigger house will be the moment when people suddenly decide they can practice safe sex afterall.

But drc was talking about a worldwide cap, not just in countries that are lucky enough to have benefits systems, social housing and easy access to contraception. surely it's the less developed countries that have the fastest growing populations as they have no means of controlling how and when they reproduce.

StevieJ

ninky wrote: »

it is okay to criticize religion (even to the point of offence), to debate ideolgies and to have verbal disputes. it is not okay to threaten, or support threats, to peoples physical wellbeing or lives.

Agreed, but this govt when trying to solve a problem/create legislation almost always overcook it and create problems elsewhere.