• Predictions 2023 – How did I do?

    1  Generative artificial intelligence will become significantly disruptive of many sectors this year. Education practices will change quickly as a result of this but education will be but one of many areas of life to be affected.

    Happening all around us (even to people who can’t see it happening around them) – prediction fulfilled.

    2 No progress for those seeking marriage equality in the Church of England. There will be a lot of talk about moving towards some form of official blessings for same-sex couples which would have the effect of thwarting those seeking actual equality, making it more difficult to achieve. Further division amongst pro-gay activists in the Church of England.

    Happening exactly as predicted. The recent developments following the LLF project make equality more even further away – prediction fulfilled.

    3  Indyref 2 will not happen on 19 October 2023 as Nicola Sturgeon had hoped, which is a shame for those seeking to separate Scotland from the rest of the UK as the autumn will be the high water mark for the Indepedence movement. It will be downhill into the next General Election after that.

    Happenning but not quite as I expected. Indryref didn’t happen but Indy polls are indeed riding high. However I didn’t see the mess the SNP would get itself into along the way. Prediction Fulfilled.

    4  Trump and Biden will both declare that they intend to run for the US presidency in 2024 and American politics will continue to be all about Donald Trump.

    Exactly as I said – prediction fulfilled.

    5  Covid recovery remains bumpy, particularly through supply-chain problems due to mismanagement of Covid in China.

    Pretty much as I said – we’ve largely forgotten the supply chain issues that continued from the end of last year into the new year and the spring. Prediction mostly fulfilled.

    6 No conclusive end to the war in Ukraine this year.

    Alas. Prediction fulfilled

    7 Governments in Westminster and Holyrood will announce some kind of “new deal” for the National Heath Service.

    Holyrood here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/programme-government-2023-24/pages/5/

    Westminster: Pay – here https://healthmedia.blog.gov.uk/2023/07/14/government-accepts-recommendations-from-nhs-pay-review-bodies/
    Westminster: Medicines here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/landmark-deal-to-boost-nations-health-and-save-nhs-14-billion

    Prediction fulfilled.

    8 – UK Government will not succeed in blocking Scottish Gender Recognition Reform.

    I remain surprised that the Scottish Governnent gave up on this. Prediction not fulfilled.

    9  Liam McArthur’s bill in the Scottish Parliamant to allow doctors to participate in the killing of terminally ill patients will fail to receive parliamentary approval but will receive more support than similar proposals have before.

    Bill hasn’t received approval but hasn’t gone to a vote either. Large levels of support in the media. Prediction partially fulfilled.

    10  Changes announced to the UK honours system, perhaps at the time of the Coronation, to remove references to empire. OBE becomes Order of British Excellence.

    Not happened yet. Prediction not fulfilled.

     

    Result – about 7 1/2 out of 10 this year I think. Not bad.

9 responses to “New statement on Civil Partnerships from the Scottish College of Bishops”

  1. Beth Routledge Avatar

    No occasion at which the Cope of Glory — which has attended blessings in the very furthest flung parts of Diocese — has been deployed can ever be thought truly informal.

  2. Stephen Peters Avatar
    Stephen Peters

    I think I’d like to become a Scottish Episcopalian in exile. (And after all, France and Scotland do have a long historic connection….)

  3. PamB Avatar
    PamB

    I have long maintained that we should start by annexing the Diocese of Carlisle.

  4. Kelvin Avatar

    One of the things that surprises me a little is that I’m unaware of people from England registering a Civil Partnership and then popping up here for a blessing. Straight people regularly come to Scotland to get hitched.

    1. Anne Jones Avatar
      Anne Jones

      Perhaps they don’t know that it’s a possibility.

  5. Kelvin Avatar

    Parts of this diocese are further south than the cathedrals in Carlisle, Newcastle and I think, even Durham.

  6. Zebadee Avatar
    Zebadee

    Could there not be a new border say from the Humber to the Mersey? Did not the old Kingdom of Strathclyde stretch down to Preston on the west side of Englandshire?

    1. Beth Routledge Avatar

      I’m all for extending the border down to about Cornwall. No need to do things by half measures.

  7. Stephen C Avatar

    I reckon this is an advance…but it is not straightforward!

    I long for the day when we will affirm that there will be no difference between the way we treat gay and straight people
    And that Bishops might feel free to go to what ever functions they like!
    I am 61, and I have decided “Bugger it!” (I am an Australian after all) I am going to do what I think is right. There must be some privileges in getting old. If the Bishop (of Adelaide) wants to take me to the High Court and contest my tenure for contesting his discriminatory and arbitrator rules then so be it, let him do so!

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