Will 2010 predictions come true for south London experts?

10:10am Friday 1st January 2010

By Omar Oakes

American author Peter F. Drucker once said: “Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window.”

Even so, we remain fascinated with the notion that the future can be accurately foretold, even if our forecasts are frequently wrong, as was wonderfully demonstrated by our not-so-hot tips for 2009.

Among the many misplaced prophecies for 2009 were that Victoria Beckham and Katie Price would both become pregnant and that Russia would swing back towards communism. Also wrong were the predictions Princes William and Harry would share a joint wedding ceremony and that there would be a mass exodus of Anglican bishops lining up to convert to Catholicism. But they were not all wrong: the few predictions that did come true included an escalation of fighting in Afghanistan and an increase in the recorded cases of domestic violence.

So, confidently armed with the knowledge that things could not get much worse, we decided to have another stab at predicting what would happen in 2010.

For a head start on tomorrow’s news, we spoke to bookmaker Paddy Power, Surbiton-based clairvoyant Camilla Ventham Fraser and astrologist Deike Begg from Battersea.

THE BOOKMAKER Paddy Power, based in New Malden, specialises in sports betting, but is renowned in betting circles for offering lots of novelty wagers ranging from politics to reality television.

With the Conservative party heavily backed to win the general election at 1-12, former postman Alan Johnson MP is their favourite at 9-4 to replace a defeated Gordon Brown as Labour’s leader.

In football, England are third favourite to win the World Cup at 11-2 behind Spain 4-1 and Brazil at 5-1. Such a victory would surely make England captain John Terry a shoe-in for the BBC’s Sports Personality award, which is set at 10-1.

Scottish tennis sensation Andy Murray is the third favourite to win Wimbledon at 4-1, behind perennial favourites Roger Federer at 6-4 and Rafael Nadal at 7-2.

Among the more bizarre bets available are the odds offered on who will be the next Pope if Benedict XVI dies. The hot favourite is Nigeria’s Cardinal Francis Arinze at 5-1, with the rank outsider being U2 front man Bono at 1,000-1, who may have already done more than his fair share of preaching over the years.

THE PSYCHIC Camilla Ventham Fraser has been a commercial clairvoyant based in Surbiton for more than 40 years and has gravely warned that 2010 would be a highly turbulent year marked with death and disaster.

She predicts there will be a two-pronged terrorist attack, possibly at Waterloo station, due to her sense of “significant negative energy”, which will affect people’s desire to use public transport.

This will create a greater demand for local entertainment venues such as Kingston’s Rose Theatre, which will “host more musicals and enjoy greater prosperity because the fear of travel will increase”.

She predicts the Conservative party will win the next general election and that the Labour party will be virtually obliterated and return only 56 MPs, their worst result for 70 years.

Her crystal ball also says the recession will last throughout 2010 and the economy will only start growing again in May 2011. As a result, crime will increase and financial services will leave London.

Finally, and sadly, she predicted that Clint Eastwood and Dame Elizabeth Taylor will die before Easter 2010, probably in March.

THE ASTROLOGIST Deike Begg is a professional astrologer based in Battersea and a fellow of the Association of Professional Astrologers International.

Citing Pluto (the planet of wealth and power) moving into Capricorn (the zodiacal sign of restraint) on November 28, 2008, she said the world experienced an “earthshaking tremor” and that Britain was going through a period of transformation.

She said Saturn (the planet of limitation) is also at work and indicates that a new order of constraint and moderation is taking place.

So-called “green shoots” of recovery will be visible after spring 2010, with the planet of revolutionary changes, Uranus, moving into Aries.

This means many people will experience sudden changes, which may seem uncomfortable at first, but turn out to be a blessing in disguise.