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Top Prediction Picks for Twenty Twenty-Six · Mark and Pete

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Top prediction picks for 2026. Welcome to Mark and Pete.
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We don't know the future. No one knows the future, least
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of all commentators, economists, politicians, profits for hire,
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all 2 blokes for the podcast. And yet we're going to do it
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anyway, and very, very thoroughly.
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Here's our first thought help. Prediction picks for 2026.
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In the year of our dear Lord 2026, the economy will be
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stagnant and very difficult to fix with more mad Mysterio
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pontificating and poor politics. AI wins by elections and is more
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real than the usual candidate picks.
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China spies will be up to their usual cyber security tricks.
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Sir Keir Starmer's hair gets slimier, causing gallons of oil
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slicks. Scotland beat England in the
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World Cup final and get their kicks.
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UK witchcraft is reinstated so the public can ride on
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broomsticks. Donald Trump claims to be world
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emperor, as he predicts, and his whole life is serialized on all
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networks and Netflix. Social media is banned.
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For every teenager who cannot get clicks causing far too many
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cross little devils, you will need a large crucifix.
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Oh, yes, indeed. Well, Mr. Pete, 2026, here we
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are. We've arrived at last.
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Yes, we survived 2025. But in 2026, is your pocket
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feeling nice and healthy bulging, or do you feel that
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it's looking empty and woeful? I think like the line in the
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poem with the economy being stagnant and difficult to fix.
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I think, yeah, that is a prophecy.
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But it's the safest prophecy since it may rain in Britain was
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a prophecy. I mean, yes, I'm, I'm my, my.
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Are my pockets feeling full? Well, yes.
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Of receipts and bills. It's not it's not looking good
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in the economy. In Unite EU, the Disunited
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Kingdom, we are looking at very deep problems ahead.
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I mean, technically we're not in a recession, but that's only
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technically. Actually, we've been in a
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recession for some time if you're talking about the actual
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health of the economy. And of course, there've been one
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misjudged event after another. But perhaps the biggest
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misjudgment was the electorate voting in this Starmer
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government because they they have really blown it for us.
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So 2026, well, things are going to get more and more expensive
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and income is going to be in real terms less and fewer, less
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and less, particularly with those tax hikes coming.
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Well, yes, tax certainly is on the horizon, maybe more, we'll
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see. I mean, you mention about
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recession. I look at it in the form of also
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regression. I mean Britain really isn't
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progressing. I mean, when we look at our
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world standing certainly from GDP, but also our influence on
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the world stage, we seem to be sliding down the league table.
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That's probably one of the biggest concerns.
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I mean, it's almost reaching to the point now where Poland, for
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example, good as they are doing, are actually now challenging us
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as being an economic force. Well, I must admit that, you
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know, for Britain, once known as sort of its industrious
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influence to the world, yes, maybe, maybe when we sort of
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allude to where the economy is going, well, we can all be rest
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assured that we have Rachel Reeves as Chancellor of the
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Exchequer. Yes, yes, that's that's a that's
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a great relief. I mean, often I give a Bible
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verse or comment from the Bible on this.
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And if I do were to do this here, I think the obvious
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comparison is to look back in the Old Testament to the story
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of Joseph and the story of Joseph.
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He went to to Egypt and to help them to store grain for to
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prepare for the future. They were being profligate.
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They were using up their grain as it was produced well in in
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the same year that it was that it was being stored.
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They were using it up over the winter and and Joseph had said
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stored it for seven years of of plenty.
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So they had enough for seven years of scarcity.
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This is one of the big stories in the Bible that you prepare
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financially for the future. In fact, there wasn't just a
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seven-year plan. There was a 14 year plan long
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term, just like the Mark and Pete mantra that we keep going
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on. Absolutely that's we've not been
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living in a biblical way. If you want to use the Bible as
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your guide, which I would suggest, but it's, it's common
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sense, isn't it? Why spend all your money and
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then be surprised when you haven't got any is one way of
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looking at it. And that's what's happened in
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Britain 2026. We're going to be poor because
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we we gave it all away, or rather we wasted it.
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I was going to use a a a worse term for what we did with it,
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but threw it away is perhaps. Well, interestingly enough, many
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people are concerned that the local election, certainly in the
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United Kingdom, are being delayed.
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This may be political ruse by the Labour Party, who knows, but
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at the end of the day, it is true that whatever the reasons,
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we can't ignore the fact that AI artificial intelligence is
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having a big influence on our society.
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Yes, and as the poem I alluded to.
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Maybe AI wins violent. Wins.
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Yeah, Yeah, I must admit that if if a candidate called AIAIL or
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something like that decided to stand, I might even decide to
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vote. To vote for them.
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But I mean, here you go. I mean, do you feel that talking
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to a chat bot gives you reassurance that you're going to
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get regional support from your politician?
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Well, yes, this is this sentence that you just lifted from the
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poem. Of course is is looking back to
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this use of AI. When people try get in touch
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with their MP, they get an AI bot, as they're often called an
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AI algorithm providing the responses.
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And The thing is with AI, they have often seen more personable
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and more intelligent than the MP himself or the the councillor
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themselves. So maybe you wish you voted for
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them, but this try attempt to put personalized through use of
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AIA response to more people. I understand the intention
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behind it could well be, you know, a good intention, but I
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don't think it's a good idea because, well, a couple of
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reasons. One is AI is in if you're using
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the more expensive versions is a learning algorithm.
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It learns from people's responses and tends to give
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what's needed. And so it will end up lying.
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You know, you could say what we yes, but the MPs would be lying
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anyway. Yeah, that's that's as maybe,
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but then there's a decision to lie.
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This would be accidental lying. It would be providing untruths
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that are there not, not spotted and and we're going to wander
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away more and more from the truth into a virtual world.
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So I I just don't think it's a good idea.
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Although, as you say, if if you're going to do that, you may
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as well have the AI stand for election itself.
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Yeah, exactly. But we're on a different
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technological front. We do have to be a little bit
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concerned about cyber security. As we've already seen, there's
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lots of spying going on. This is no longer a man in or a
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woman in a trench coat wearing a, or just a hoodie or a maybe
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with a bit of bad posture, looking a bit awkward and shifty
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on the on the streets of, of, of downtown London.
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But the fact is, is that China, as well as Russia and many other
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countries are clearly a threat. We could say putting a little
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bit of a balance there, maybe we're a threat to them, too.
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But what do you think about, you know, the cybersecurity
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concerns? Because it's not just about
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government. It's also about business and
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your data. Yes.
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One of the issues is that this is there's such a reliance on
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computing and then the Internet that this sort of 1
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interference, if you're talking about cyber warfare, you're
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talking about interfering with people's usage of computers and
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their communications, but also spying in the gathering
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information and, and both those things people are open to.
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Because it still seems even after a few years now that that
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that the use of the Internet has been very widespread in business
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and politics. It seems that people just don't
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understand it in general, understand what the risks are
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and understand how their information is no longer safe.
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You know, you the, the, the great politician Hillary
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Clinton, when asked about whether there was some
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information, she'd removed some information using Bleachbit,
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which was a bit of software which removes information said
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what with with bleach and as though she didn't understand
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what it was. And they referred to giving the
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files a wipe. Now she I think that she
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probably did, but it sort of illustrated this disconnect
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between the the old guard, you know, files in a filing cabinet
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and what exactly is a file when it's stored on your computer or
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in the cloud? What exactly is going on there?
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And so because of the widespread misunderstanding of what's
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involved this Internet in the cloud, cyber warfare is of God
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is an added risk because it's just not widely understood and
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those policies are not implemented to counteract it or
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they're not given the the attention that they deserve.
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But so I think it's it is a problem.
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But having said that, the US and Britain, you know, we have our
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expertise in that area as well. So I don't think it's just
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China, I think it's Britain and America.
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We're, we, we do the same to them as they do to us.
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So it's spying as usual, but as you say, in a hoodie with bad
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posture. Well, of course, 2026 is going
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to be a really important year for leaders all around the
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world. If we look at the United
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Kingdom, it's going to be a very important one for Sakir Starmer
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now, bearing in mind that we still have the, the problems
11:04
with energy costs rising and he refuses to drill in the, in the
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North Sea. Um, when I sort of look at him
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as an individual, I sort of think it's not gone well, has
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it? You know, when you think of his
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year and a half tenure and this year in particular is going to
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be crucial. Now, I am also concerned about
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his welfare because he's, he's beginning to look a little bit
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more grey and his hair seems to have ironically more oil
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slicking back to try and make him look a little bit more with
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it, but it's not working. What's going wrong with Sir Keir
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Starmer? He has more oil in his hair than
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he's been. He's been retrieved from the
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North Sea. Yeah, I know.
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Yeah. See, that's, that's the thing,
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this ideological attachment to not drilling for oil.
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It's just the weirdest thing. I, I, I don't understand it.
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We need to bring in yes, that and also fracking.
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We need to just take a deep breath and be brave and do that.
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I mean it's I, I don't mean brave in that it's really going
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to cause huge problems. I mean brave in the standing up
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to the the backlash, the political backlash against it.
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Now Liz Truss of infamy the the brief Prime Minister has a new
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show, almost like a rival to Mark and Pete.
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It's on Spotify as our our main home is as as well as on YouTube
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and elsewhere. And she was referring back to
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the fact that that that her plan was to bring in more fuel
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yesterday in the North Sea and yes, fracking.
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She had this exactly what she was going to do and this was
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ignored as though she wasn't going to do this, that they
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weren't going to increase, weren't going to bring in more
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wealth into the country. There were no plans to do that.
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She was just reducing tax, which was not the case.
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They were both were going to happen.
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Pointing that out. It just highlights when she was
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pointing that out rather on her show, highlights what went wrong
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when she was ousted and they brought in back the UNI party
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because the Conservatives were broadly doing the same as as
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Labour have been doing, in some cases worse.
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Of course, they're the ones responsible for the vast
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increase in immigrants, particularly from Afghanistan in
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that debacle of the Afghanistan Afghani people being moved into
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the country very, very quietly and housing hotels.
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And so I, I, I think what we see with Keir Keir Starmer is yes,
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he's, he's also, he's like a plastic man in place.
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And we for some time, I think he's this politics is just so
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service level these days. But I think now at last people
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are seeing through it partly because things because he's so
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bad and the politics have been so bad and it's just getting
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worse and worse and worse. People are beginning at last now
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to see. So maybe rather than the parting
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of Sir Keir Starmer's fringe, we're going to get the parting
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of the Red Sea and at last we're going to move through into a
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different political future. What I'm saying is this taking
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out my my attempt at A, at A, at a biblical allusion is this
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there could be an election this year.
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It's all so bad. There you go.
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And here's so here's prophecy from from the from the Pete part
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of Mark and Pete. But don't repeat this.
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Get it repeat anyway, this week, this not this week.
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That that would be something, wouldn't it?
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This year. I think there could well be an
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ousting of Starmer. I, you know, I think that's more
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likely than my other prediction, which is there's a possibility
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of an election this year. Well, there you go.
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Because he may have. Something he may have something
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on a different front to cheer about, because this year we know
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that politics is a is a game in itself, but and the game on the
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on the whole green, green grass. Yes, Scotland and England are
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going to the World Cup. Now, of course, my prediction is
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of course, naturally of all of the teams, forget about Brazil,
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forget about Argentina, forget about France and Germany.
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Scotland surely must be the ones that will win the.
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World Cup. Now, of course, there's
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obviously maybe the mild outside chance that England might win a
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game. You never know.
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What are you about the excitement of the World Cup?
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Well, Scotland beating England, possible.
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Scotland beating England in the World Cup final?
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Yes, possibly the least believable lie in that time.
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And if we just honest to spend. A lot of money going there to
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watch it. Well, I well, if they were
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playing each other in the in the World Cup final, yes, that would
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that would boost the revenue of of the BBC Scotland that that
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doesn't disappear by and of Scotland, yes, it'll probably
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make more in that out of that than its entire economy for the
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year. It is interesting how, how is it
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that England and Scotland, part of Britain where the game was
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invented, are so rubbish at football?
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How is that? Can you explain that, Mark?
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How are we so terrible? Well, well, well, it's because
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we're so generous. You know, no, we.
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We don't want to. Have this goal.
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We don't want to score a penalty against you.
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We don't want to, you know, you know, just just have your way.
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I mean, it's yeah, in terms of the national mood, winning a
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sport, you know, really what's the national sport of of
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football, soccer as as it's preferred to incorrectly over
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the United States of America land does it does lift the mood.
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But I think even this is my prediction and prediction is
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that neither Scotland or England will win the World Cup.
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You heard it here first. Well, what about a different.
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But if they did, as I say, if they did, it would lift the
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mood. But I think we're going to be in
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such a dire state state that even that will not lift the mood
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enough and mood enough unless there's an election and we kick
17:28
out these bunch of no hopers and bring in something new, which
17:33
would be Reform. Now we're big fans oversea of
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Reform and Nigel Farage. He's a bit milk toast for our
17:44
tastes. Here is I don't think he's going
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to go far enough, but at least it would be a change from all
17:50
the rubbish we've had for the past few decades.
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Well, indeed. And then?
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We'd have something to cheer to cheer about whether or not
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Scotland and England win the World Cup.
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Well, when we think of the dark arts, we have to sort of think
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about, you know, what does it mean for Britain spiritually?
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I reference the fact that, you know, the, the as you've already
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talked about the mood of the people.
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We now have a new Archbishop of Canterbury.
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Maybe it's possible we could sort of learn lessons from the
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past, maybe bring back witchcraft.
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It could be something that could be the answer.
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What's so you about the way? Britain is going yeah, bring
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that just. Point of view.
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Yeah, bring that they can't be, can't be less Christian than the
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current Church of England, can they?
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I mean, yeah, it's interesting. Witchcraft is it's often seem to
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be an old religion that people relate it to the Wicker
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religion. This is all really if you if you
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actually try and look at the where, what is the historical
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basis for believing this is an old religion and not something
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made-up in the 19th century? It's a bit scanty to be honest.
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It it seems to be quite recent. So.
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But witchcraft as people often think of it, is as Shakespeare
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portrayed it with some hook nosed croons around a fire
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saying when will we three meet again?
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It's a bit hurt like Kier Starmer and his cabinet when he
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calls. Yeah, but yes, but Christian
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Christianity in Britain, I think he is growing and there are
19:25
signs that churches other than the Church of England are seeing
19:29
a revival, especially Roman Catholics and Pentecostal
19:33
denominations. So they are two sort of
19:36
different ends of the spectrum, you might think, except for the
19:39
the charismatic review, all at the end.
19:41
Renewal of churches at the end of the 20, mid and late 20th
19:45
century started in the Roman Catholic Church.
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So there you go. You know, it's it's not always
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things aren't always as they say, but I think like as as as
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you alluded to in the poem, if we were to switch all of us to
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the religion of witchcraft, presumably we then be able to
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fly around on broomsticks and really reduce our common
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footprint. Well, at.
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Least we'd have a decent spell. Thank you for that.
20:15
Now, the fact of the matter is, is that when you look at the
20:17
world, irrespective of what we think, maybe there's that little
20:20
glimmer of hope. Yes, the wizard himself, Donald
20:24
Trump, Now, I predict that he will be declaring that he is
20:28
world emperor. You can already see and I know
20:31
that Mister Pete, you've already packed your bags to go on
20:34
holiday to Venezuela, that clearly he is is he is making
20:40
his intent very clear. What say you about what other
20:44
predictions will come from Donald Trump in 2026?
20:48
It's difficult to see. Now my take on Donald Trump's
20:53
recent by recent depends when you're listening to this.
20:56
But if you're listening to this in in the week that it's first
20:59
broadcast, the first week of of 2026, you will have known that
21:04
Donald Trump has used the US military for effectively a
21:08
police action arresting Maduro and President Maduro and
21:12
Venezuela and bringing him back to the US for trial in New York
21:15
for drugs offences. Now, in doing so, it's making a
21:19
big statement. Just leaving aside the actual
21:22
action itself, what is he doing? Just showing that he's prepared
21:25
to go in anywhere and sort things out.
21:28
And if he says I'm not happy with that or I'm going to do
21:32
something about it, he actually does it, which is a change from
21:35
presidents of of recent times. In fact, Donald Trump has
21:38
specifically in a press conference referenced this and
21:42
said, I am not Obama, which who chose the appeasement route,
21:49
especially with Iran, which Trump hasn't.
21:53
Now, I think this is the right approach, that you have a strong
21:59
approach to people. It's not that you as U.S.
22:03
President should be pushing people around Willy nilly across
22:06
the wall stage. It appears like that.
22:08
But what he's doing seems to be very strategic.
22:11
Why Venezuela, well, has strongly invested in their not
22:17
just financially, but strongly invested in other ways,
22:20
including in terms of influence and how they get drugs into the
22:26
United States to weaken the United States.
22:27
Are China and Russia, the two league rivals of the United
22:33
States and those causing the, the instability on the world
22:36
stage along with Iran. And now Iran is also has very
22:42
strong links with Russia. So in in doing what he he did
22:45
recently, we're seeing Donald Trump pushing for American
22:51
dominance again, which is actually a good thing.
22:55
I mean I think what the the line about him claiming to be world
22:59
emperor is in a way redundant in because he pretty much is, isn't
23:04
he? Well, there you go.
23:07
In his own mind, yes. Well, what I'm saying is maybe
23:11
not world emperor, but America is an empire.
23:13
It just doesn't like to call itself that.
23:16
Of course. And if it behaves like an empire
23:19
in that it policies the world for good.
23:22
So we shouldn't be like the world's policeman.
23:24
Well, not in the sense that they go and interfere all the time,
23:27
but with big egregious activities like sending in drug
23:33
cart drug cartel members as what's happening from Venezuela
23:37
and sending in drugs to flood the the US market.
23:40
Thus then that this is a big thing you want to stop, but it's
23:44
really APR thing saying look, sort, sort yourselves out, stop
23:49
causing trouble or America is going to come in and sort you
23:52
out. Now it just so happens this is
23:56
my opinion, that The thing is, it's not that you don't want any
24:00
dictators or emperors, it's just that you want good ones.
24:04
Well, indeed. Well, we know that Donald Trump,
24:06
he's got his little finger hovering over lots of buttons,
24:09
but for children in 2025 and now in 2026 may have something
24:16
slightly more concerning. Their buttons may not get the
24:19
clicks, particularly on applications, as we saw in
24:22
Australia with the ban on social media.
24:25
So, Mr. Peter, I ask you, do you think that 2026 for the youth of
24:30
the world, there is this horrifying plausible dystopia
24:34
that they cannot get the social? Media fix well, it it's, it's
24:39
interesting about the the social media idea of of young people,
24:43
because just the signs that I see, there's the only anecdotal
24:49
signs. It just seemed to me that the
24:51
social media reign of terror is at least weakening.
24:56
And I, I, I don't think it will just, I don't think it will be
25:00
necessary. I think young people or children
25:03
are moving away from social media and they will be moving.
25:08
I mean, obviously there'll be something else for us to worry
25:10
about in the future that they're involved.
25:13
I don't, I think that fads change, things move.
25:18
But you know, in the IT, it, it, it's early days of the Internet
25:23
still, I think. But I think the social media
25:25
holding sway over the entire Internet as it has come to do in
25:29
the past 20 years is coming to an end.
25:33
I think we're going to have some other way and some other thing
25:38
that's worrying coming in. What it is, I don't know.
25:41
It may well be AI and a is if anything, more worrying because
25:46
AI tends to be centralised and it it does that because of the
25:50
immense computing power that's needed.
25:55
And so it brings it more, brings the use of the Internet more
25:58
under the control of people with lots of money and power.
26:02
So that I think, yeah, that isn't the issue.
26:05
Isn't that social, Yeah, social media being banned for
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teenagers? I think he's, I think it's a
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good thing. But I I think that in the end he
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won't bother them because they would have moved on from it.
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Well, I think the 2026 will be a a very turbulent year.
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One more time. I'm wondering, Mr. Pete, whether
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we can go back to 2025 or maybe can we just roll on to 2027?
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Yes, maybe, maybe we'll skip it. Maybe we'll skip it.
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Yeah, but I mean it. And our predictions for the in
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the program mentioned carrying a large crucifix certainly
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carrying carrying the cross or metaphorically with you having
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Jesus with you as you go through the is no bad thing because you
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need the spiritual strength and the insight that faith in God
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and trusting in God to uplift you, but also to speak to you
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through his word and by his Spirit by you for your prayers
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each day is a good thing. But let me just just give a
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Bible verse which is Matthew 24 verse 36, which begins in the
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King James Version with these words.
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But of that day and hour knoweth no man is talking about the
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return of Jesus Christ in power. Maybe it'll be 2026.
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That's not my prophecy. My prophecy is this that will
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get most of it wrong in our prophecies because if Jesus
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didn't even know when he was going to return, then I think
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even Mark, the great Mark and Pete are going to be wrong with
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a lot of the prophecies. But that being said, we like to
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be held accountable. So make sure you save this
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episode, bookmark it, come back to us at the end of the year and
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say if we did in in get anything wrong at all.