Top 10 Things We’ve Lost in the Noughties

The Guardian has created a list of all the things we’ve bid goodbye to as we begin to settle in to a new year and a new decade. Originally a list of 21 farewells, we’ve whittled it down to the big 10- see if you agree.

1.Musical Moments
The cassette, Top of the Pops- all now so retro. But then again, the former was a pain when the tape got tangled and did you ever really watch the latter  towards the end? Goodbye and good riddence.

2.The Wonderous Woolworths
Many of us are still smarting from the loss of old Woolies- where do we buy pick-and-mix, single pens and many other random products at the drop of a hat now? A nation continues to mourn.

3.Technology’s Graveyard
Floppy disks and their frustratingly low storage capabilities? Binned. Huge chunky TV’s with fuzzy tuning? Gone. Make way for HD, plasma screens and the teeny tiny USB. What a relief!

4.Financial Imprudence
We’ve seen MP’s claim for dry cleaning and duck islands while the 120% mortgage and Lehman Brothers (among other banks) both crumbled under the financial recession.  Time will tell whether we’ve learned our lesson on over-spending and borrowing.

5.Up in a Puff of Smoke
As of 2007 it was illegal across the UK to smoke in pubs. Cleaner air, and no need to go home reeking of someone else’s cigarette habit. Lovely stuff.

6.European Currency
While some have resisted, the Italian lira, French franc and the Spanish peseta were among the currencies replaced by the euro.  And the days of popping over to Spain on the cheap are gone (at least for now), as the euro goes from strength to strength against the weak pound.

7.Hope?
Curiously, the Guardian also includes ‘Hope’ in its list, saying “No money, no jobs, no action on climate change, no end to unwinnable wars. 2009: the year all hope died” Chirpy.

8.George W Bush
A legend for all the wrong reasons, we haven’t heard from him since Obama-rama began.  But that’s not necessarily a bad thing…

9.Saddam’s Weapons of Mass Destruction
A key justification on going to war, and where are they? We still don’t know.

10.Supersonic passenger air travel

The crash that killed all 109 on Air France flight 4590 in July 2000 was the beginning of the end for Concorde. Cheap flights muscled in and it died a slow death, finally leaving our skies for good in 2003.