When we were children, people of my generation really did used to say “let’s all meet up in the year 2000”. Then it seemed so far in the future, now well in the past.
That moment of the turn of the millennium was something unique; it felt truly special. Fortunately the ‘Y2K bug’ that had had every IT department in overdrive came to little; people enjoyed the fireworks and sense of hope.
Then in what seemed like no time, every organisation had worked up a strategy that was dubbed ‘Vision 2020’. But the actual 2020 was not the experience anyone had envisioned: it was the year the Covid pandemic hit.
Now, 2025. Again, we have a year with an auspicious-sounding ring to it. The end of the first quarter of the 21st century. It may be a long time to wait for another really big sounding one.
And a new generation is born. If you wondered what comes after Generation X, Generation Y and Gen Z, the answer is Generation Alpha – children born in the last 15 or so years. But from January 2025 (according to those who assign themselves the role of deciding these things) newborns will grow up as part of Generation Beta.
They will be growing into a world that remains unpredictable. Where once, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we used to talk of a peace dividend and it seemed a corner really had been turned, now Western nations are facing a wider more diverse range of threats and issues than ever.
In 2025, eyes will be firmly fixed on Syria, with both hope and trepidation. We hope and pray for peace for Ukraine; it must be a just peace. And in the middle east there must be a renewed drive towards a two-state solution.
In the West, we will soon see the second inauguration of President Trump, and very much has been written about that. America, of course, remains our most important international relationship, and the free world’s ‘indispensable nation’.
Something that worries me is the apparent attractiveness to some, not just in the US but other countries too, of tariffs and other trade barriers. I predict that international trade will be a big theme in 2025, and “comparative advantage” a phrase we will hear a lot more in our news bulletins.
At home, we are facing the effects of the budget throughout the economy. I will continue to oppose policies that hit our farmers and small businesses, which are the bedrock of East Hampshire’s local economy; we will hold the government to account on recompensing public service providers for costs. I do worry about what may happen with the labour market this year; we have got used to low unemployment but it cannot be taken for granted.
Locally, two big developments will be the government’s proposed new, considerably higher, housing targets for many rural areas, including East Hampshire, and the proposed re-organisation of local government, which again affects many areas in the south, including ours. I hope we will get firm news soon on the new Basingstoke hospital, and there will be an important debate about the proposed development(s) for Havant Thicket reservoir.
It should be a big year for technology. The fruits of research and development on battery technologies can underpin further decarbonisation. This could also be the moment that AI’s potential is mainstreamed; the ethics issues also need to be gripped. Here, the Online Safety Act, on which I worked in different roles, comes into force; in America they may ban TikTok; and many countries will be watching what happens in Australia with their restriction on children accessing social media.
One way and another, 2025 looks indeed set to be a highly significant year.