• 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.

     

4 responses to “Diversity Champions”

  1. Kenny Avatar

    We’re in there at 101 I think.

  2. Kelvin Avatar
    Kelvin

    Well, wishful thinking, Kenny, but I don’t think we are.

  3. Rosemary Avatar
    Rosemary

    Tell you what, while we tackle discriminaton on the basis of gender – and that may take some time – how about taking age discrimination head on? Because I am totally sick of being discriminated against because of my age when I know if I did not ned to give it, I might easily get the job otherwise. It is just an idea in somebody’s head …. like sexual orientation. How we do the job matters – not how young or how straight we happen to be.

  4. kelvin Avatar

    Yes Rosemary. In this area, at least, there is some progress to report in the church. We are just in the business of removing some age discrimination from the Code of Canons. We’ve been urged to do so on the grounds that that’s what employers who want to avoid prosecution do.

    I kind of wish we did things because we thought they were right rather than because we fear prosecution. It has alwas seemed rather odd to me that the same people who say that clergy are not employed in one breath insist we remove age discrimination on legal grounds in another.

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