The Time Bubble

 Hi all, As you'll know if you've read my novels, I do like to explore alternative, dystopian futures on occasion. I have all sorts of ideas, often inspired by current affairs, that don't make it into print as they aren't substantial enough to make it into a full novel. So they sit on the backburner. What I'd like to do is explore some of these through short stories, so here is the first of what may become a series. Here, I imagine what might happen if future people in power looked back at what happened over 2020-2021 and used it as a template to pursue other objectives. Addendum (May 2022) - A year after I wrote this story, I am now halfway through writing my next novel which is going to explore this world in more detail. What you see here will be adapted into the new book, so this is now a preview of what's to come. It's interesting looking back at what I wrote a year ago and seeing what has transpired during that time. What I wrote as fiction now feels mo...

Here's some doom and gloom - I don't think anything can be done by this chancellor, any chancellor, any party. Fact is, this country has had its day. As usual there has been miles of text written, things said, endless opinions spouted on the subject of the budget. As a blogger attempting to find a fresh angle on things - well it isn't always easy. Listened to the Jeremy Vine show on the radio afterwards and it was "same old, same old". So how as a blogger do I write a completely original piece full of views never expressed by anyone else ever? Well the answer is, I probably can't. Only yesterday I stumbled across a reference on a forum advocating the exact same cunning scheme to extract cash from Tesco I proposed earlier in the week. Also today I read an article advocating drinking ourselves to death early to take the pressure off pensions - another topic I jokingly brought up last year. I suppose in a country of millions of people and a world of billions ...

Well, years on since the credit crunch and it's all doom and gloom, austerity, the UK billions in debt etc. And other countries in an even worse mess. But I know the answer! Never one to shy away from controversy I have come up with an awesome plan to save the world! Well starting with the UK anyway. Now throughout this article you will find a few pictures leading up to this answer, perhaps they will give you a clue as we go along. Here's one to get you started. Cheers! Go on, have another! As I say, there's a simple solution to all this. I can tell the Government exactly where it has been going wrong all these years. One of the things that we always hear about it the "Pensions timebomb", it's bankrupting the country, people are living too long etc. So they talk about raising the retirement age a year or two. Now pensions were a great idea when we were expected to live to three score years and ten. Retire at 65, "thank-you very much sir, here ...