Guardian prediction for UK over the next 20 years (from Jan 2011)

2 The UK economy: 'The popular revolt against bankers will become impossible to resist'

It will be a second financial crisis in the 2010s – probably sooner than later – that will prove to be the remaking of Britain. Confronted by a second trillion-pound bank bailout in less than 10 years, it will be impossible for the City and wider banking system to resist reform. The popular revolt against bankers, their current business model in which neglect of the real economy is embedded and the scale of their bonuses – all to be underwritten by bailouts from taxpayers – will become irresistible. The consequent rebalancing of the British economy, already underway, will intensify. Britain, in thrall to finance since 1945, will break free – spearheading a second Industrial Revolution.

In 2035, there is thus a good prospect that Britain will be the most populous (our birth rate will be one the highest in Europe), dynamic and richest European country, the key state in a reconfigured EU. Our leading universities will become powerhouses of innovation, world centres in exploiting the approaching avalanche of scientific and technological breakthroughs. A reformed financial system will allow British entrepreneurs to get the committed financial backing they need, becoming the capitalist leaders in Europe. And, after a century of trying, Britain will at last build itself a system for developing apprentices and technicians that is no longer the Cinderella of the education system.

It will not be plain sailing. Massive political turbulence in China and its conflict with the US will define part of the next 25 years – and there will be a period when the world trading and financial system retreats from openness.

How far beggar-my-neighbour competitive devaluations and protection will develop is hard to predict, but protectionist trends are there for all to see. Commodity prices will go much higher and there will be shortages of key minerals, energy, water and some basic foodstuffs.

The paradox is that this will be good news for Britain. It will force the state to re-engage with the economy and to build a matrix of institutions that will support innovation and investment, rather as it did between 1931 and 1950. New Labour began this process tremulously in its last year in office; the coalition government is following through. These will be lean years for the traditional Conservative right, but whether it will be a liberal One Nation Tory party, ongoing coalition governments or the Labour party that will be the political beneficiary is not yet sure.

The key point is that those 20 years in the middle of the 20th century witnessed great industrial creativity and an unsung economic renaissance until the country fell progressively under the stultifying grip of the City of London. My guess is that the same, against a similarly turbulent global background, is about to happen again. My caveat is if the City remains strong, in which case economic decline and social division will escalate.

As an historian I do not put much stock in predictions about the future.

Britain the richest country in europe , the best universities ?
What a joke

Oh, and britain is already the most densely populated country in europe, apart from Malta.

We already have the best Universities in Europe and we have the third highest GDP in Europe.


What they failed to mention was the coming terrorist attacks and such.

2 fancy universities are representative for the rest of the country?

I guess you are refering to Cambridge and Oxford? And what of Imperial, UCL, King's, Edinburgh, Manchester? All world class institutions.

The UK has 18 Universities in the QS World University Rankings Top 100, second only to the mighty United States and as many as the rest of Europe combined.

In the Times rankings, the UK has 12 in the Top 100, the rest of Europe has 19 combined.
So yeah, it's not unreasonable to suggest that the UK has the best universities in Europe.

Britain the richest country in europe , the best universities ?
What a joke

Oh, and britain is already the most densely populated country in europe, apart from Malta.

Guardian doesn't seem to realise that emerging economies will have caught up in manufacturing in many ways by then, so that makes services a better bet. We'll be better than Germany because they'll be swamped by low-cost emerging economies doing the same thing, while we have services that they can't(yet) replicate. Stupid bloody guardian.

The UK has the best universities in Europe, that is one of it's national strengths,

England is by the way, the United Kingdom as a whole is less crowded than a number of European states.

Whats the point of having the best universities when no-one can afford them ?
Educating the chinese ?

Well nobody pays directly the fees? They are repaid over thirty years at reasonably affordable rates (and wiped if you don't repay it).

Well yeah, international students are an important part of the UK economy because their universities are really excellent. I'm hoping to do my Phd in the UK.