The Top 10: Things We Talked About For Ages Which Then Went Away

To give us some idea of what life might be like if our relationship with the EU is ever resolved, a list of things that once dominated the national conversation

What’s the beef?: Agriculture minister John Gummer fed his daughter a beefburger in front of the press, in May 1990, to show there was nothing to fear from mad cow disease (PA)

This was Voices editor Hannah Fearn’s idea, as she tried to imagine what life might be like after Brexit. A popular one with a lot of good nominations, so I made it a Top 20. In approximately chronological order, then...

1. Hell. Nominated by Zeno Dead Centre.

2. Temperance. Mass movement in 19th century Britain; Prohibition in the US, 1920-33. Thanks to Robert Wright.

3. The H Bomb and the risk of mutual mass destruction. “Still there, but not talked about so much,” said Steven Fogel.

4. The Domino Theory, and which southeast Asian country would next fall under the influence of Soviet communism. Another from Steven Fogel.

5. Balance of payments. 1960s and 1970s. Also: inflation, 1970s; monetarism, and measures of the money supply, 1979-83. Thanks to Philip Cowley, Michael Crick, Vic Harris, Allan Holloway, Paul T Horgan, Robert Hutton, John Peters and Robert Wright.

6. The coming Ice Age. Nominated by Stephen Grove, Alwyn W Turner and Michael Walsh.

7. Hole in the ozone layer. The Montreal protocol was signed in 1987; levels of ozone stabilised in the mid-1990s and began to recover in the 2000s. Similar good-news story: acid rain in the 1980s and early 1990s. Thanks to Charlotte B1, Patrick O’Flynn, Robert Wright, Church Mouse, David Mills, Duncan Weldon and James Johnson.

8. UFOs. Sightings peaked in the 1990s. Nominated by John Peters.

9. Japan becoming the world’s biggest economy. Before the Japanese economy stagnated in 1991. John Peters again.

10. BSE, and the human epidemic of CJD caused by “mad cow disease”. Thanks to David Milstead, Michael Walsh and K Marxette.

11. The Troubles in Northern Ireland. From the late 1960s until the permanent IRA ceasefire in 1997, 3,500 died. Nominated by Robert Corbishley.

12. Joining the euro. An issue in British politics from the Maastricht Treaty 1992 until the Labour government’s decision not to join in 2003.

13. Road rage. It was big in the 1990s. From Ross Allen.

14. Y2K or millennium bug. Not a problem when the date finally changed, thanks to a lot of hard work by software engineers. Thanks to Andrew Ruddle and Neil Wright.

15. ID cards. Planned by Tony Blair until he stepped down in 2007. (Although why should ID be short for “identity”?) Nominated by Mark D.

16. Swine flu, bird flu and SARS. From Chris Rowland, Church Mouse, Mild Bill Hickok and Manterik.

17. Big Brother. TV show, 2000-18. Thanks to Tracy Harrison.

18. Genetically modified crops. The Daily Mirror mocked up Tony Blair as “The Prime Monster” for wanting to bring in “Frankenstein foods” in 1999. From Rob Fuller.

19. The deficit. From 2008 until Theresa May first declared the “end of austerity” in 2018. Thanks to Sue Marsh.

20. Change UK. Founded in March this year; touched 9 per cent in the opinion polls before changing name to The Independent Group for Change, on 0 per cent, in July.

Next week: Underrated Elton John songs.

Coming soon: Chiasmuses, or “reversal aphorisms”, such as “ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country”.

Your suggestions please, and ideas for future Top 10s, to me on Twitter, or by email to top10@independent.co.uk