‘The major trend in post war life in Britain has been an accelerating discontinuation with the past’, according to historian Edward Boyle.
Post Brexit and Covid-19 will continue this chapter of British history.
Massive changes will include shopping on-line and home deliveries which will become the norm for most goods in the cashless society already emerging.
Family and community values will return, and the classless society will flourish. Well-designed housing developments and land planning will play a major role in building the communities, based on family values.
The biggest hits will be taken by democracy and capitalism in the UK, shaken by the economic slowdown and cost-cutting of both goods and services.
The need for communities to support themselves and work together to maintain a United Kingdom will become even more important.
Becoming self-sufficient as far as possible, especially in environmentally-friendly food production, will become paramount in balancing the economy and maintaining a welfare state.
Farming will have to be more about feeding the UK nations than a victim of the Common Agricultural Policy which was not common, nor agricultural nor a policy, and sits alongside all the other failures of the United Europe dream.
Consumers will have to accept less consumption of goods, especially those with in-built obsolescence, as well as non-vital services and finite resources.
Major changes will be made to travel, with fewer cars, and fewer journeys by trains and boats and planes.
Education will face a massive reconstruction from pre-school nurseries to university degrees. and qualifications. Master craftworkers will once again pas on their skills to apprentices learning on the job at all levels – nursing, education, law, and general industry.
Politicians will have to prove they are more capable of representing their constituencies and taking part in government through qualifications and experience to convince the electorate they are worthy of the privileges they have gained through their election. The House of Lords is obsolete and unnecessary. The Houses of Parliament and their occupants will have to be costed for value for money and strictly budgeted to avoid costly privileges being paid for out of taxpayers funds.
Past mistakes, wrong decisions and incompetence have proved that democracy does not work for grass roots communities. A modern democratic capitalism is inevitable or even a modern capitalist democracy is needed to control IT and large multinational conglomerates, and to help repressed people and encouraging power-wielders in developing countries to be more humanitarian.
In industry, highly paid executives will have to accept the new brand of capitalism and democracy to fit in the closer-knit, community-based classless society.
Finally, the whole legal and taxation systems will come under a complete and comprehensive overhaul as part of the process.
David Parker