What is in Kelvin's Head?

  • How did I do with last year’s predictions?

    Here’s a run down of how I did at last year’s predictions.

    • Good results for Nigel Farage following the English local elections in May. Terrible results for Conservative Party.

    Exactly what happened. YES

    • No progress towards the marriage of same-sex couples in the Church of England

    Exactly what happened. Indeed, I think things may have gone into reverse. YES

    • Turbulent year for WordPress, which powers about half of the internet.

    The year began with Automattic dramatically cutting its contribution to development leading to stagnation in development and much acrimony. Subsequently restored. Deep divisions remain about Gutenberg. I’m claiming this as a YES.

    • 2025 will be the hottest year on record.

    Final figures yet to be calibrated but all reports indicate that this, unfortunately is a YES.

    • No trade deal for UK with US. Increasing talk of re-aligning economy closer to EU.

    Well, there was a trade deal in May called the Economic Prosperity Deal but it doesn’t seem to much and some of the basics have already been reversed. I suppose I have to be honest and say I didn’t get this quite right so it is a NO. But…

    • Ceasefire in Russia-Ukraine war but no long term solution.

    Hard to assess this one. No long term solution, certainly. There have been a series of ceasefires proposed but none seems really to have been fully implemented. Partial YES.

    • “Assisted Dying” aka doctor assisted suicide becomes legal in at least one of the jurisdictions of the British Isles.

    I have to put this down as a  NO  as it completed its parliamentary journey in the Isle of Man but hasn’t received Royal Assent yet, so not technically legal.

    • Turbulent year for economy but stock market higher at end of year than beginning. (FTSE currently at 8,173)

    Stock market at 9,931 today and there was quite a lot of volatility in the first part of the year. So this one is a YES.

    • There will be fewer Commonwealth Realms (ie countries which share the monarchy) by the end of 2025 than there are now.

    This one is a NO though there has been significant progress in that direction in Jamaica and moves that way in Grenada.

    • Philip Mountstephen.

    Well, I was pushing Philip Mounstephen’s name as he appeared to be the only senior bishop in the C of E who actually believed the [absurd] position of the C of E bishops on same-sex relationships. But it is a NO – nothing significant to report.

     

    So – five and a half out of ten this year. Not as good as some years. A couple of near misses.

     

    ,

2 responses to “Wikileaks and the Guardian”

  1. richard Avatar
    richard

    I don’t think there is a clear answer to that but one might take a guess. The Guardian might argue that what they are reporting is “honest comment” from a known source. Admittedly that is based on a recent Supreme Court judgment about defamation but the judges acnowledged a need for the law to evolve to meet modern media communications. National security arguments are a safer legal bet; ie interdict. That would open up a delicious can of worms for media types. The bully boy tactics of indiscriminate pressure being placed on commercial entities without a consistent
    legal approach suggests a reluctance by authorities to enter a Kafka-esque nightmare. Enter the tactics of personal discreditation. Mr Putin made some interesting observations today about current democracy and double standards.

    Reply
  2. Hermano David |Brother Dah•veed Avatar
    Hermano David |Brother Dah•veed

    To me, the original sin is the collusion between WikiLeaks and the disgruntled US soldier stationed in Afghanistan. What periodicals around the globe are now doing is perusing the published documents and bringing to light their contents, something any one of us with the time could certainly now do for ourselves.

    The pressure by governments to make WikiLeaks exposition more difficult is the question of did these businesses, internet data farms, domain name venders and financial institutions, look the other way and allow violations to their own policies and standards in support of WikiLeaks, another form of collusion? Were these policies and standards to which other clients are stringently held?

    Reply

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