“In the offing” refers to things in the foreseeable future, not happening now, not even in five minutes, but sure to happen before too long. It’s an expression, deliciously inexact, yet often uttered with great conviction. The original nautical term, from which the phrase derives, meant ‘the more distant part of the sea seen from the shore’. Random House (dictionary.com) Perhaps more clearly put: ‘that stretch of the deep sea between the horizon and where ships anchor’. Certainly not a phrase one seems likely to require in the 21st century!

Except, I suppose, with reference to the end of the world for climate change believers. Or death for octogenarians. It’s all in the offing.