Predictions for 2006

The smug feeling of getting 9 predictions right out of 11 last year still lingers. So, in a burst of hubris, here are the Kensington Review’s predictions for 2006. And as usual, unlike the nonsense of Nostradamus, the obtuse Oracle at Delphi or the open-to-misinterpretation horoscopes of the daily newspaper, these are empirically verifiable. Nine out of 11 will take some doing to beat, though.

• Robert Mugabe will remain as dictator of Zimbabwe on December 31, 2006 unless he drops dead.
• US troop levels in Iraq will not fall below 100,000 at year-end.
• Karl Rove will be indicted by Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald
• The Republican Party will not lose control of the US Senate or the House of Representatives in the November 2006 elections
• Human-to-human transmission of the avian flu (H5N1) will remain virtually impossible as the virus won’t evolve that way.
• The Patriot Act will be renewed with some small safeguards for civil liberties.
• There will not be an Al Qaeda attack on US soil in 2006
• The US will reach the quarterfinals of the soccer World Cup, but England’s Wayne Rooney (Liverpool) will have everyone asking “Why can’t Beckham do that?” (That bit about Rooney isn’t really a prediction – anyone who’s seen him play is already asking that question).
• Bloc Quebecois will take over 60 seats in the Canadian election in January (the Bloc has 54 going into the election), and Quebec sovereignty will rear its ugly head.
• Broadway theatre box office will exceed $900 million in 2006
• Toyota will become the world's largest car manufacturer, surpassing General Motors.