Will 2021 bring debt, Charles III, and oil under the Isle of Wight? In this month's Prospect, we asked experts in their field—including Bryan Appleyard, Samuel Brittan, Tom Ravenscroft and Lucy Prebble—how the country would look in ten years' time. On Twitter, our readers responded with their own predictions. Here are some of the best, which were printed in our October issue:
Amanda Craig Overcrowded, shabby, depressed public spaces, but for the rich, the opposite. Private wealth and public squalor—like the US. AmandaPCraig
Thierry Gregorius The Big Society will have appointed its own government, possibly via X Factor. Thierry_G
Natalie Day Twitter will be today’s beta video. natalieday1
Bob Gibson Fewer high street areas—some small towns will die unless they create their own niche market or reason to survive. Venonis
Sue Radcliffe We will mine landfill sites for plastics and other recoverables. Gone2plot
Kathleen Richardson Online social networks will become more important as they become legal proxies of individuals (like signatures). robotanth
Londiniensis Chinese billionaire’s horse beats the King’s horse at The Derby. Londiniensis
Elizabeth Hunter The nation’s academics are the only people still transmitting or digesting text longer than 140 characters. TheosElizabeth
Scott Jordan Harris The way my eyes are going, dim and blurry. ScottFilmCritic
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Read more on Britain in 2021 in this month's issue, with predictions by Andrew Roberts, Bryan Appleyard, Juliet Gardiner, Simon Jenkins, Samuel Brittan , Maria Misra, Tom Ravenscroft, Simon Baron-Cohen, Lucy Prebble, Martin Sorrell and Giles Andrews
