into the western lands (the round up of the year)

so this is the ninth anniversary of this mix (soon it will be 10). 

the cover photo is horsemouth out in canning town (as photographed by max) a good old nine years ago. . 

another year is rolling to the end. 

tonight the last meeting of the communal endeavour of the year. 

the bid for the EPC C for the houses is in (god only knows when we will get the reply on that).  and, once we get the reply on it, there's another round of all hands on deck as we negotiate with the department of energy security and net zero (or densz as horsemouth calls them) what they are willing to pay for and what they are not willing to pay for. 

tomorrow night the bell-ringing (the area of horsemouth's life where progress is being made).

yesterday the visit to TESCOs and a walk round the common. 

'becoming helpless and infirm he was put upon the parish'  kilvert describes a suicide. 

horsemouth supposes soon there will be round up of the year pieces in the sunday supplements (these will remind him how shit it was). 

so how is the world doing?

well the genocide in gaza continues. but then so does the second congo war. the syrian civil war is halted but then the civil war in sudan continues. (and then there's yemen). ukraine continues for the minute (georgia may follow it soon).

here is a list of conflicts in africa to be going on with and here's a list of ongoing armed conflicts round the world. 

the arab spring has led to widespread carnage. the orange revolution has led to widespread carnage. just say no to democracy says horsemouth (by far and away the best option is to flee). 

will 2025 be worse or better than 2024? it's hard to say really. 

the world will be warmer (because there will be more CO2 in the atmosphere). the attempts to reconfigure capitalism into a net zero form (to alibi this) will continue (meanwhile) the numbers of people fleeing famine and political instability as a result of climate change will rise. islands will sink beneath the sea, low lying states will be flooded more often, drought will strike other regions (and more so). there will be more political instability.

and more people will need to flee.

meanwhile the west will grow older. the proportion of workers to pensioners will decrease. 

horsemouth expects both labour and the conservatives to continue to be shit at politics. he expects nothing labour will do will shift the dial on the economy (they'll just annoy people). he expects there will be no growth (to speak of) and there may even be a further recession. he expects reform to become the third party at the next UK general election (to be held no later than wednesday 15th august 2029), barring something unfortunate like nigel farage's death. 

in terms of domestic politics the next election is a long way off but before that there are council elections (some of them at least 1st may 2025 but not all of them because of local government reorganisation), elections in wales (7th may 2026), scotland (7th may 2026) and northern ireland (6th may 2027). 

so there are plenty of opportunities for disgruntled electorates to register their disgruntlement either by staying away or by showing up and voting for the 'toys-out-the-pram' party (reform for example). 

does horsemouth expect more racist rioting (of the type we have seen in 2024) in 2025? 

er. hmm. yes he does.  (he doesn't see why not).