I have been thinking back in the last month about the strange atmosphere at the end of 2007 and early days of 2008. Lots of talk about "financial instruments" and other phrases that didn’t make a lot of sense (to me) at the time.

Business still seemed busy, but there were definitely some very worried people around. I went to a presentation at my then company’s US headquarters in January 2008, and still remember the presenter putting up a brilliant slide with a perfect cartoon depiction for the caption: “Change Is Coming…”.

I’ve been recycling it as a theme for discussion at our member networking meetings recently, based on the now seemingly universal assumption that a UK election is coming soon, along with an equally strong belief that the most likely outcome is for a change of government as a result.

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The first I can accept, but for the second, I remember a few cast iron election forecasts that didn’t happen, so I’ll hold my own counsel on any outcome for now.

It surprised me to hear that if a UK election happens this year, it will be one of seventy elections held around the world in 2024, so a busy year for potential change. And with that potential change comes........

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