It might be another 18 months until the next Stormont and local council elections in Northern Ireland in May 2027, but all the political parties have been in election mode since the new school year began in September 2025.
So expect bundles of opinion polls throughout 2026 with all eyes on the race between Sinn Fein and the DUP as to who will be the top dog in the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Expect to see support for Jim Allister MP’s TUV creep up especially as distrust among pro-Union voters about DUP promises over the Protocol, the Windsor Framework, and the Irish Sea Border continues to fester.
The real danger for Unionism is Lagan Valley Syndrome developing in many constituencies, especially if opinion polls reflect a fairly even three-way split in the pro-Union vote between the DUP, UUP and TUV.
During last year’s Westminster election, the supposedly rock-solid pro-Union Lagan Valley constituency fell to the pan nationalist front in the form of an Alliance MP.
Speaking of Alliance, the bubble will finally burst and there will be an all-out civil war between those who want Alliance to become more openly middle of the road mirror image of the Liberal Democrats as its founding fathers intended, and those who want it to be a more clearly defined soft nationalist party which will allow Alliance to make gains west of the River Bann.
And speaking of leadership elections, even if the UUP’s Mike Nesbitt remains as party boss, the grassroots will hold its own unofficial leadership contest between MLAs Robbie Butler and Jon Burrows with both camps inviting their respective ‘candidates’ to address constituency and branch meetings.
Across the Irish Sea, expect a leadership coup against Labour PM Keir Starmer, with a Hard Left candidate winning thereby shifting the party policy-wise to the Looney Left.
Such will be the fanaticism of the new look Hard Left leadership, that they will decide to call a snap Westminster election. Unfortunately, this will backfire on Labour, and Hard Right Reform UK will gain control of the keys to 10 Downing Street.
With party boss Nigel Farage as PM, expect to see the rapid start of large scale deportations of asylum seekers and illegal migrants from the UK. Expect to see Reform propose a plan to have a series of deporting centres and camps established on remote Scottish islands rather than the current luxury of hotels.
The small boat crisis will come to a shuddering halt as Reform pumps millions of pounds into the Royal Navy to form an iron wall in the English Channel forcing the people trafficker gangs to start pushing people into other European Union countries.
Reform will undo any Labour bid in the meantime to get the UK to rejoin the EU, creating a financial crisis whereby the EU will say it actually doesn’t want the UK back!
Presidents Trump and Putin will do a Munich-style agreement which prevents World War III, with Ukraine being craved up politically. Given Trump’s interest in history, the US President will give the Crimea to the UK, making the region a British Empire dominion based on the fact that Britain won the Crimean War in the mid 19th century.
As for Gaza, American sources are hinting at evacuating thousands of Palestinians to South Africa while the Jerusalem-Washington political alliance begins the process of rebuilding the region as an Israeli-controlled dominion.
However, the big global power broker in terms of financial clout will be China as the Far Eastern communist super nation takes firm control of world economics, causing militant Christian fundamentalists to rethink Biblical predictions as to who is the Anti Christ. Beijing will replace the Vatican for this Biblical honour.
And speaking of religion, Islamic communities across mainland Britain will demand Sharia law to run regions where Muslims are in the clear majority culturally and numerically. As Sharia law is blatantly homophobic and transphobic as well as being overtly tough on women, expect Sharia law courts to start closing LGBT clubs and meeting places and cutting funding to LGBT and women’s rights organisations and groups.
Across Ireland, the safe-guarding crisis which has gripped one of the island’s largest Protestant denominations, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) will explode as more alleged victims come forward to tell their stories, potentially sparking as the saying goes - more heads will roll.
In the Republic, the broad Left alliance which saw Catherine Connolly sweep to power as Irish President will disintegrate as the various factions begin ideological feuds with Sinn Fein lighting the fuse over a border poll.
Southern Ireland will have to ditch its military neutrality and join the NATO alliance as part of the Russia/America pact on Ukraine. Mind you, this could be a real benefit to Southern Ireland as Trump stations thousands of American forces personnel across the island bringing millions of much-needed dollar investment to both the Republic and Northern Ireland.
While the UK farming industry enjoyed a festive present of a Labour climbdown on the so-called farm inheritance tax, the agricultural industry will be stepping up a gear in its campaign to get the tax scrapped completely.
Just as this year witnessed strikes by key medical staff, 2026 will see similar strike action by the farming community causing food shortages, rationing and long queues and panic buying in many shops and supermarkets.
Once politicians come back from their New Year holidays, expect to see more silly arguments over language on road and housing signs. Just as erecting flags has always been seen as a clear method of marking out sectarian turf, there’ll be more Irish language signs erected in republican areas, with Unionist areas retaliating with signs in both English and a Ballymena accent (sorry, that should read Ulster Scots!)
On the sporting front, there will be some notable achievements. My beloved Gunners will finally bring silverware to the Emirates with either the English Premier League title, or the Champions League title.
In Scotland, Edinburgh side Hearts will follow St Mirren in breaking the Old Firm domination of domestic titles by winning the Premiership, while in Northern Ireland, Linfield will launch a last gasp onslaught to retain the Gibson Cup.
Similarly, in the soccer World Cup, the Germans will reign supreme again, beating the English in the final. In rugby, Ireland will secure pole position for the next World Cup, while yet another Irish trainer will clinch the much coveted English Grand National in horse racing.
On the GAA front, the Sam will be won by an Ulster team, with a Munster squad becoming all-Ireland hurling champions. In cricket, England will continue to make fools of themselves at the wicket as they did in the recent Ashes tests in Australia, meaning that Ireland will move above England in world rankings.
In the meantime, a Happy New Year to all Pensive Quill readers, and roll on Easter!
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| Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. |
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