• Predictions for 2014

    1. Remember those people who used to say, “But what is a blog…?” Well this year you are going to be hearing them say, “But what is a mooc…?”
    2. Gay men are going to start shaving again. Now that so many straight men have bought into the idea that beards are hip, it is time to mess with their fashion sense again. Consider this the memo. (Next year, the end of tattoos!)
    3. Church of Scotland General Assembly will be unable to affirm last year’s compromise on a local option for ministers who happen to be gay.
    4. More revelations relating to Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien.
    5. Number of active bloggers decreases. Influence of those still blogging increases.
    6. The real purpose of the Pilling Report will be revealed with hindsight as evangelicals begin to argue about its contents. (May take a couple of years, but trust me on this one). Initially this will be in private – increasingly in public. Having been the great unifying factor for Evangelicals for the last 10 years, attitudes to gay people will become the source of greatest disunity amongst Evangelicals for the next decade. Unappealing and unsatisfying as it is, Pilling is a watershed – it was never designed to court liberal opinion so we might as well stop moaning about it. It was designed to divide evangelical opinion and is going to be jolly successful.
    7. The Independence Referendum will be lost here in Scotland but alas, not by enough to shut everyone up.
    8. Such terrible statistics in the Diocese of Glasgow and Galloway that we lose at least 4 seats on General Synod.
    9. Lord Carey will say that Christians are being persecuted in the UK, that the church is dying out or that the sky is going to fall in, and will say it at the most unhelpful time possible – probably around one of the English General Synods or Easter.
    10. We will hear about our first UK gay divorce.

    Trends to watch

    • Continued meltdown of the Church of Scotland. Ceasing to be a national church before our very eyes.
    • Internet increasingly rewards those who know how to manipulate images.
    • Economic polarization of the UK continues.

4 responses to “In praise of Easyjet staff on a very bad flight home”

  1. Robin Avatar
    Robin

    I’m sure I should have reacted in the same way as Mr Angry, which is why I never fly. It’s a form of claustrophobia – I also never travel by train if I can possibly avoid it, because passengers these days are powerless to open the windows and doors, and even to travel in a car with central locking is an ordeal. So, in effect, I can’t travel nowadays.

  2. Rosemary Hannah Avatar
    Rosemary Hannah

    The last time I had a Mr Angry he was sat next to me in a very public place where my reputation was at stake. Also I have a professional connection with him. Inevitably I felt it all reflected on me. It was a bad experience. A really bad experience. Anger of that kind is, I suspect, needing professional help of some kind.

  3. Beth Routledge Avatar

    I’ve done the getting off the plane and spending the night in a hotel business, and I do not recommend it. 22 hours late. Our families were interviewed on local news.

    Still not sure I wouldn’t rather do that again than sit through what sounds like one of the worst non-crashing flights in commercial aviation history.

  4. Christine McIntosh Avatar

    Wonderful tale, Kelvin – we’re enjoying it as we sit with our feet up looking out over The Minch at the end of a perfect day on Berneray …(sorry!)

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