As we exit boom-to-bust noughties, the next decade is anyone’s guess

SO how was it for you? Good, bad or indifferent? It can’t have been that bad, I guess: you’re reading this so that means you got through to the end. What am I banging on about? The first decade of the 21st century, of course. It’s hard to believe it’s in its dying days: I can still remember the hangover from what we learned to call “millennium night”. But time speeds up as we get older, I’m finding.

I know what you’re thinking: history doesn’t fall neatly into 10-year units to match the patterns of the calendar. And the near obsession with decades is a comparatively recent phenomenon.

Were the 1530s very different from the 1520s? Probably not. And did the people around on earth then care about such artificial notions anyway? Again, probably not.