to ask how different you think the UK will look in 15-20 years?

[evilcherub]

It's changed so much since the turn of the century. How different do you think the UK will look in 15-20 years? Any radical changes? Do you think it will be better or worse for those currently living here?

I agree with the continuing rich/poor divide. I think people will find it harder to leave the nest as lack of work and house prices will keep poorer families from getting on the first rung.
I think there will be great leaps in medicine but the NHS will not be able to afford to bring it to everyone.
Green land will have to be built on as the need for housing swells (though I doubt local councils will be able to afford any new builds).
Council tax will either rise steeply or a lot of services will be done away with...local libraries, swimming pools, bin services, will be the first hit hard.

I hope that in 20 years time whaling will be completely banned world wide.
Recycling will be more efficient.
Fracking will be banned.
In general we will be taking much better care of the planet as our children are more aware of what a mess we're making of it now.

I think that if immigration continues there will be a radical step to the right politics wise that will be hard to shift further back to the left.

Less people going in to higher education but hopefully society realising that being in a skilled trade is valuable and it getting more respect.

The population of the planet overall is too high, there will be a number of years when it will be a stuggle with an ageing population but when that bump in the stats starts to die off then a natural ironing out of the generations will occur with more balance between ages.

The gap between rich and poor will widen and society will be less tolerant of people who don't work; lone parents will be stigmatised because of their reliance on benefits. The welfare state and NHS won't exist as they are today and people will be expected to be self reliant and do without if they can't provide for themselves. More people will rent their homes than will buy them. Schools will be much larger for a while until the drop in child birth means that they become smaller and many will have to close. The state will run nurseries that children can go to from birth because the government won't trust parent to raise the children properly.

There will be, or have been, a world war with probably a few limited nuclear exchanges.

After wars, everything is unpredictable. Most of the previous assumptions rely on the stability of the western global hegemony. If we're not victorious in the war, all bets will be off - we could be administrated from China, or under Sharia law.

I hope there will not be...

More "gated communities" cordoning off the haves from the have nots
Driverless cars that aren't safe
Robots or robotic additions to people that could get too powerful

I hope there will be...

Cures for more illnesses
A high-quality education for all, not just those with money
More affordable and reliable public transport

I don't think it has changed much since turn of century.
Guess I'm not predicting much change in next 15 yrs either.
More Really clever stuff in biology, esp. genetics-related, & nanotech.

No antibiotics .. So people will start dying from minor infections like in the past. Surgery will become last resort because of infection risk.
More people will be living in flats (not a bad thing)
People will need a licence to have children.

Artificial intelligence and virtual reality will finally be becoming a reality, driven initially by kinky porn, but soon after working their way into every aspect of life.

Publishing houses and film production studios will be obsolete. Derivatives of Amazon will be rampant. Streaming will dominate.

Population increase will mean more congestion, overburdened public services , less green space and lower quality of life generally.

No nhs

Possibly we will all be dead. Aliens or nuclear/biological warfare.

#optimistic

No welfare state.

Gated communities.

Many town centres dying.

Gosh I look on the dark side!

On a positive note the tech tycoons will live untill they are 150, unless they get bored and take a gamble by jetting off to colonise Mars.

I predict that this thread will be hijacked by inflammatory Islamophobes who will go sock puppet crazy...

China will implode, which will have major financial implications for developed world economies alongside those parts of the developing world that have been bought and paid for by the Chinese.

The world will continue to be vastly over-populated: desertification will increase, increasing demands will be placed on ever more limited natural resources and low-level intra-state conflict will increase.

"Islamic State" will cease to exist as a separate entity, but will continue to be a terrorist organisation without quasi-state structures.

On a positive note, though, perhaps the increasing population pressures in the UK will encourage more councils to redevelop brownfield sites, instead of plundering our ever-diminishing open spaces.

EastEnders will still be depressing.

I'm with ijkk
I don't think that the world has changed much. I think we're at peak traffic even- it won't get worse (or better sadly)

Every ageing generation (I'm assuming a median age of approx 40 on here) thinks society is going to wrack and ruin and imagines some Orwellian horror show 20 years in to the future.

Life will go on - some of it will be better, some of it will be worse.

We don't know the rich/poor divide will get worse in Britain - it depends on markets, governments, booms and busts...and whether we will all be living in collapsable virtual housing pods on the moon.

We will be a Muslim country. In fact, it's predicted that will happen in 4 years.

With the exception of the growth of the Internet, I don't think it's changed much at all in the last 15 years.

Different wars, but still fought over religion or ethnicity.

But to become a Muslim country we would need a Muslim population of over 50% and we are nowhere near that

4 years! That's hilarious, it takes longer than that to do something like phase in photo driving licenses, let alone take over an entire country.

Throwingshade
I predict that this thread will be hijacked by inflammatory Islamophobes who will go sock puppet crazy... but also
You're right. I'm outa here.

We will have found a way to store hydrogen making a cleaner power source, driverless cars will start to become the norm.

Quantum computing will become a reality that will not only advance us all as a civilisation but will speed up automisation of pretty much every job.

We will start to see the effects of mass big data, not only will you get very specific targeted ads at specific times of the month but nearly every company and agency will be able to profile you just from your online precence (remember if the product is free, your the product)

In the short term, a depression as correction in the world financial markets is long overdue, as everyone has tried to keep the plates spinning since 2008 and now the central banks have wriggle room left.

And to top it of I will eventually finish my hallway

More cars, more roads, countryside eroded and built on.
More crime, less job security.
I think it will be pretty much the same but with more people.

No NHS

A lot more water in places we don't want it (flooding from the sea, rivers, rain etc)

More extreme weather

Food becoming more expensive

Energy becoming more expensive

Increased migration

I seem to see the future differently to most people on this thread. Am sure there will be lots of good stuff too.