Editorial

Truly, this is the bleak midwinter—and not only literally.

Letters & opinions

You feature opposing opinions in December’s issue but

Trump’s nemesis

Robert Mueller is discreet, disciplined and on the president’s case

A Brexit cordiale

An open letter to the French President

Smile or die

The happiness industry is a symptom of the sad state of society

The exploitation link

Insecure working and predatory bosses. Are they by some chance related?

A man of his words

How William Tyndale shaped our world

The Tropical Trump

Will Brazil elect a hard-right strongman?

Transport infrastructure is key to powering prosperity post-Brexit

Transport infrastructure is critical to ensuring competitiveness on the global stage. Our panel of experts explain why improving surface access to regional airports can help Britain take off

Generation “no thanks”

Young people are drinking and smoking less, taking fewer drugs and having fewer babies

Has Christmas dinner had its day?

YES People who dislike Christmas dinner tend to critique

Pricing gets personal

Big Data means retailers can figure out exactly what you’re willing to pay— and they’re starting to charge it

A state of flux

Volatility will change the way politicians campaign—and govern

Intimacy rebooted

Sex robots are only a part of the imminent revolution in our bedrooms

Lab cuisine

Farmers’ markets and slow foods are sold as the heart-warming answer to our nutritional needs. But neither we nor the planet can wait

A POSTDIGITAL WORLD

Quantum computers will take us beyond the binary age, into a perplexing new era. And they are already here

The Great Globalisation Lie

Third Way evangelists presented globalisation as inevitable and advantageous to all. In reality, it is neither, and the liberal order is paying the price

The Orwellian eye

The writer whose brutal honesty brought clarity to the 20th century now helps us reckon with the post-truth 21st

Yemen’s moral quagmire

It’s the world’s deadliest humanitarian disaster— and a dozen other nations, including Britain, are making the situation worse

I predict a riot

Britain’s prisons are failing and the government has no plan

Giant ambition

Despite his many faults, Gordon Brown was a towering figure who made the right calls on the biggest issues facing our world

Prime ministerial resignations

Extracts from memoirs and diaries, chosen by Ian Irvine

Enter the serpent

The Biblical story of Adam and Eve has left us with a legacy of sexual shame, argues Miri Rubin

Behind the faç ade

Richard Rogers’s buildings like to let it all hang out. But his new memoir isn’t quite as revealing, says Gavin Stamp

The lure of utopia

Soviet artists dreamed of a perfect future even as Stalin persecuted them, finds Owen Hatherley

Making of the leisured classes

Anthony Powell was a beady observer of his own caste, argues Fatema Ahmed

Books in brief

You can write a history of anything, says Norman Davies

Recommends

In a triumphant start to its 250th anniversary year

Prospect Book Club

The Prospect Book Club meets every third Monday of the month (excluding bank holidays) at 6.30pm at 2 Queen Anne’s Gate, London, SW1H 9AA. To book tickets please visit prospectmagazine.co.uk/event

Leith on language

Internet: capital I or lower-case I? Internet or internet?

Life of the mind

For me the problem, I assumed, was my foreign correspondent

Matters of taste

Sitting in a crêperie on the Brittany coast, high blue

Wine

Once the world’s biggest wine import market, the wine

DIY investor

Evidence has recently emerged that the buyto- let (BTL)

Back innovators, not incumbents

It would have been hard not to feel sorry for Greg

Our skilful nation

The budget recognised two things. First, that we are

Britain is making— but who’s buying?

The forecasts released by the Office for Budget Responsibility

The generalist by Didymus

Each completed grid will contain solutions beginning

Enigmas & puzzles

Shown below is Santa’s Treasure Map with the capital

Brief encounter

The assassination of Bobby Kennedy when I was at boarding

State intervention is back

Industrial strategy needs more than just innovation

Industrial strategy: taking back control

Intervention alone will not be enough

The price of exports

The government can help exporters —with finance

Gateways to growth

Exports can rebalance the economy

The ties that bind

Britain is at the centre of a delicate global trade web

No need to reinvent the wheel

The UK hasn’t got the resources to create a new model of trade agreement

Eastern promise

The economies of the far east will become crucial for British trade

Trade—the numbers

The UK’s trade gap is large and represents a huge challenge.

It’s all about place

An industrial strategy needs clear objectives

Power to the people

Control of infrastructure projects needs to reside locally

Setting standards

Investors want openness and transparency

Industry and the regions

Time to look beyond Westminster

The patchwork economy

Globalisation should work for people, not vice versa

Investing in people

An industrial strategy needs the right people

The risks of intervention

Government must take care when making industrial policy