Fast Forward Futures

In October 2020, we produced detailed Global and UK Reports looking 10-15 years ahead. So far, we count close on 50 predictions from these reports - covering geopolitics, politics, economics and finance, culture and religion - that have already been borne out. Here are some selected highlights. (see also the Sector Highlights page).

We said, "The Cold War will get distinctly colder."

Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

In China, we foresaw demographic implosion, stalling economic growth and stagnating or falling living standards.

Commentators increasingly agree.

We believed it "...highly likely the nations of the Maghreb will remain or come within the orbit of political Islam, likewise much of the Sahel."

A spate of uprisings or coups - in Mali (August 2020), Chad (April 2021), Sudan (October 2021), Burkina Faso (January 2022), Niger (July 2023), plus Guinea (September 2021) and Gabon (August 2023) - is weakening Western influence.

In Scotland, we expected, "Political gravity will reassert itself at some point."

On 15th February 2023, Nicola Sturgeon resigned as Scottish First Minister following the earlier arrest of her (party Treasurer) husband on suspicion of irregularities in the handling of SNP finances.

We stated, "Despite insanely low interest rates, economic gravity will reassert itself sooner or later."

Since December 2021, the Bank of England has raised Bank Rate fourteen times in a row to 5.25%.

“If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of a hundred years, teach the people.”
Confucius (approx. 551-479 BC)

“Only the dead have seen the end of war”
Plato (approx. 428-348 BC)

“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you must, with the same weapons of reason that today arm you against the present.”
Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180)

“Never make predictions, especially about the future. A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.”
Jean de la Fontaine (1621-95)

“In spite of overwhelming evidence, it is most difficult for a citizen of western Europe to bring thoroughly home to himself the truth that the civilisation which surrounds him is a rare exception in the history of the world.”
Sir Henry Maine (1822-1888)

"The future is an unknown, but a somewhat predictable unknown. To look to the future, we must first look back upon the past. That is where the seeds of the future were planted."
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

“If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find we have lost the future.”
Winston Churchill (1874-1955)

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