What will Britain/UK be like in 5 years time.

[pontypridd]

In particular the UK after Covid and Brexit.

My kids will be almost grown up by then. What will UK and Britain be like in 5 years time?

Probably not that different from now! I don't actually think Covid will have much long term impact. It will acceleration certain changes which were going to happen anyway (cashless society, shift to online shopping & decline of high street, greater working from home) but thats it really. I'm a historian by background with a specialism in the eatly 20thc and I think people would be amazed at how rapidly Spanish Flu just faded from the collective consciousness, and that was much worse than Covid. I don't actually think Brexit will be as big a deal either, despite being very Remain personally. Ultimately the UK is always going to remain quietly aligned to the EU I think, just because the EU is too close and too powerful for anything else to happen longterm.

@SomewhereEast do you think wfh is going to be ubiquitous? I have my doubts about that, my employer has said that we are not going to wfh long term despite wfh now, its hard to train new staff, we are going back to pre pandemic work habits. If people don't wfh full time and have to be in the office at least 2-3 times a week, they wouldn't be able to move very far. Not more than a 1-2 hour commute anyway! Which is roughly the status quo currently.

I was a child of SARS as i grew up in a country badly affected by SARS (not china or hong kong). I wasn't allowed to go to school for some time and had mandatory temperature checks daily for 2 years but other than that, there was no long term impact.

Thriving I imagine, after suppression things always bounce upwards.

Does anyone remember only 13 years ago the carnage that was the credit crunch. Institution after institution fell, endless queue at banks, folding, people with boxes from their desks...

Anyway... We will be thriving I'm sure, until the next cyclical issue crops up.

I hope you’re all right. I really hope so. Feeling really worried for kids’ futures at the moment.

Perhaps I don’t need to be ...

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55081926?fbclid=IwAR23HaPO3uhINUNUp7U5E6dij_fUjIjMuWA5yoB3Wm-EzGs22-h30rQ98xM

Lower payon average, I suppose.