Did the psychics’ predictions for 2021 come true?

Centenaries

2022 will see the 100th anniversary of: the BBC; Reader’s Digest; Ulysses by James Joyce; insulin treatment for diabetes; canned baby food; Fascist government (Mussolini’s arrival as Italian prime minister); the first female barrister; ski slalom race; Test matches between England and New Zealand; water skiing; football pools; discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb;

… but not, interestingly, the 1922 Committee, which wasn’t set up until April 1923.

Talking shop

How much Christmas shopping did we manage to do before last year’s ‘cancelled’ Christmas? Volume of sales in December 2020 relative to December 2019:

Department stores –5.1%

Clothing stores –13.7
Household goods stores +10.9%

Other non-food stores –0.2%
Source: Office for National Statistics

Taking a pew

How many more people attend church at Christmas than at other times of the year? Figures for 2019:

— The Church of England estimates that its population of ‘regular worshippers’ is 1.11m.

— The ‘usual Sunday’ attendance (which is measured using October figures) was 690,000.

— 2.33m attended Christmas services and 34% took communion.

— The median attendance at a Christmas service was 75 (compared with 26 on a usual Sunday).

— The mean attendance was 159 (compared with 46 on a usual Sunday).

— By comparison, 1.18m attended church services at Easter 2019.

Guess not

What was supposed to happen in 2021, according to internet psychics?

Craig Hamilton-Parker:

— ‘Britain will have a jobs crisis. The hoped-for re-employment of labour will not happen’

— ‘Trump TV will be launched and will become popular’

Linda Willow Roberts:

— ‘The Cambridges and Sussexes will meet somewhere for a holiday get-together – likely Canada’

Judy Hevenly:

— ‘Scotland breaks away from the United Kingdom to become an independent state’

Nikki, ‘psychic to the stars’:

— ‘Collapse of the Pyramids in Egypt’

— ‘Woodpeckers will become extinct’