It is the end of an era and we are all lost for words

Date: 11/07/1996

MANY people are beginning to ask what is going to happen now that one of the most useful naturally occurring phenomena available to Europe's policy-makers, opinion-formers and speech-writers is about to disappear.

Just what do politicians, civil servants and journalists do when a vital tool of their respective trades is taken from them?

Old Father Time is on stand-by. Sombre music is being made ready. Eulogies are being prepared.

The end of the century is nigh.

Oh yes, we still have a year or three to go before the century actually ends, but I'm talking about the 'End of the Century', as featured in a trillion speeches and newspaper articles since about 1955.

It is said, and it is true, that old clichés never die but, to coin just one of them that is indeed still very much alive and well, there are exceptions to every rule.

The end of the century is that exception. This invaluable device, also known as the end of the millennium, or the start of the new millennium, has been used for decades to spice up any old speech, to give zest to any old half-baked political strategy, to give meaning and, crucially, focus to a bucket load of proposals and fervent desires which would, without a target date, a deadline, a goal to strive for, amount to less than a row of beans.

By the end of the century, we will have achieved this. By the end of the century, we will also have achieved that. It is a convenient peg for everyone concerned and yet seems, paradoxically, so wonderfully timeless.

Now it has all gone. Sticking an end-of-the-century target date into a carefully thought out stratagem for our future development has lost its magic. It has been rendered meaningless by the passage of time itself.

The end of the century has caught up with us, and suddenly we realise it was always more than just a handy piece of political and social punctuation. It actually exists. There is going to be an end of the century, it is just around the corner, and then what are we going to use to hold the tension, to add dramatic impact to our scribblings and rantings?

If I had kept every speech and piece of soap-box rhetoric that has come my way promising a new dawn in Europe by the end of the century, they would stretch from here until the end of the very same century. And that used to be a very long way.

In 1956, looking forward to the end of the century was a recipe for a thought-provoking speech. In those days, people of vision spoke of the end of the century because far-sighted, ambitious leaders knew a stirring image when they saw one.

“Ladies and gentlemen, what we are unveiling today is a new start, a fresh approach. We are forging new links which will serve this Europe well from now until (pause) the end of the century!” Rapturous applause, gasps and much foot-stomping. A politician then had few qualms about whether such a pledge would be kept - after all, who would remember so many years hence?

It was still a workable pitch in 1966: “If our strategy is followed diligently, then we believe we can achieve what are admittedly very tough targets before the end of the century...”

By 1976, the end of the century was more than just a hazy notion. It was out there, almost within reach and no speaker with anything to say could omit the reference, now with a little added spin: “As we enter the last quarter of this century, let me assure you that we are determined that this Europe of ours will see the end of the unemployment queues, with all that signifies for a healthy economy and thriving market for our goods, before the end of the millennium...”

And by 1986, the end of the century was not only a staple part of any serious speech, but people were openly talking about it, discussing how they were going to celebrate it and whether the correct terminology would be 'the year two thousand' or 'twenty-hundred'.

A chap called Prince even wrote a song referring to the year 2000 in the lyrics. It was, of course, entitled 1999.

But all this popularising of one of life's major fixed points devalued the political and journalistic currency. It was still possible, in 1986, to make a big-picture long-term pitch with the turn of the century as your deadline, timetable, or ultimatum for ridding the globe of chloro-fluoro-carbons or whatever, but the novelty was wearing thin.

Now, in 1996, the whole notion is a bit daft. This close to the great event, what possible impact does a political sales pitch have which goes something like this: “Let me just say that if we grab this nettle now, if we stop beating about the bush and if we seize the opportunity, then I assure you all, each and every one of you, that we will be fighting fit and ready to take on the world in time for the new millennium...”?

Too late, mate. Concorde is already booked up, the champagne is already on ice for the Eiffel Tower knees-up and folks are no longer impressed by this as a punch-line.

The trouble is, after 2000, where do you go, spiel-wise?

Already a few grand designs, a handful of star-spangled Euro-projects, are pencilled in for completion a few years the other side of the great millennium divide, but they just don't have the public-relations oomph.

Think how much more dazzling, more attractive the launch of the single currency would be if it had been built up from the start as an end-of-the-century special. Launching it in 2002 - when we are actually supposed to start using the stuff - somehow misses the mark. Excuse the pun.

And why do you think no timetable has been fixed for the eradication of BSE and the removal of the world-wide ban on British beef exports? Because there is no convenient peg to hang it on. Ten years earlier, everyone would have been faithfully promising measures to wipe out the disease by the end of the century.

As it is, the millennium is too near to be credible as an end date and speculating on reaching the goal “by the end of

the first decade of the new century” just doesn't have the same ring.

No, it will be a good few years, about 50 or 60 I would guess, before we find another such helpful and non-committal time-scale as the end of the century.

If you think of something in the meantime, I'll be at my table in the well-known millennium restaurant, Chez Vingtcents.