December 2021

December 2021 issue

Tech's positive economic impact, Gordon Brown on sharing vaccines with the rest of the world and what it's really like growing up poor in the countryside. Plus, is it OK for protestors to break the law?, the women who took on Oxford philosophy and Arm...

Past issues

© Hayley Warnham

Economics

Carlota Perez and the economics of hope

The Venezuelan social scientist takes a long view, and tells gloomy intellectuals—and a glum British left—why a smart, green and fair tomorrow is on the way

Up Front

Distilling the frenzy: my five years editing Prospect

Illustration: Ian Morris

How to fix worldwide vaccination

Illustration by Ian Morris

Licence to kill and the British state

David Allen Green

Letters: December 2021

Photo: sjscreens / Alamy Stock Photo

What you need to know about NFTs

Coral reefs are disappearing—is it too late to save them?

Stephen Collins's cartoon: Boris Johnson plans for winter

Stephen Collins

Carles Puigdemont walks free after his arrest in Sardinia. Images: Jordi Boixareu/Reuters/Alamy Stock Photo

Spain’s hunt for political prisoners

In data: our damaging inequality illusions

Activists from Insulate Britain have had plenty of run ins with the law in recent weeks. Photo: Reuters/Alamy

Is it OK for protesters to break the law?

Dominic Grieve & Peter Tatchell

Essays

© Hayley Warnham

Carlota Perez and the economics of hope

When everything collapsed: Regent Street in central London at the height of the pandemic last year. Photo: Jeff Gilbert / Alamy Stock Photo

The long shadow of Covid-19

© Homer Sykes / Alamy Stock Photo

Poverty in rural Britain is too often overlooked—as my story shows

Hephzibah Anderson

Proud past: Cable Street mural, depicting the 1936 stand by locals and the left against Oswald Mosley’s antisemitic blackshirts. Image © Louis Berk / Alamy Stock Photo

Divided we fall: learning the right lessons from Labour’s antisemitism crisis

Can bureaucracies ever protect you?

The story of Brazil’s self-styled strongman

Critical Thinkng

Why we need to reform sharia—now

The rise of Chinese classical music

Hawks: nature’s feathered killing machines

Arts & Books

Boo to the Boo-Hurrahs: how four Oxford women transformed philosophy

The rise of Chinese classical music

An improbable success: crowned in 1760 aged 22, George III remains Britain’s longest reigning king. Photo: Classic Image / Alamy Stock Photo

The sanity of King George

Medieval twittering: Simon Armitage’s enticing translation of a Middle English poem

A hubbub of activity: Jewish musicians of Rohatyn, where Tokarczuk’s epic begins. Image: © Historic Images/Alamy Stock Photo

The rise and fall of a Messiah: Olga Tokarczuk’s epic novel of Jewish life in Poland

Catherine Taylor

Lady Hale—a judge of immense integrity

The green-fingered George Orwell

Jonathan Franzen’s lessons in goodness

Sarah Hall’s sensuous and urgent virus novel

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

The best classical and opera in the UK this December

Alexandra Coghlan

The best television this November

The best films in the UK this November

The best podcasts new podcasts in the UK this November

Charlotte Runcie

Policy & Money

Investors will switch to green energy stocks. The only question is how fast

Alibaba founder Jack Ma disappeared from public life for three months after criticising Beijing's supervision of private business. Photo: Abaca Press / Alamy Stock Photo

China—the uninvestable country

Policy report: More affordable homes are urgently needed to level up housing

The government has announced an £11.5bn Affordable Homes Programme. Stuart Black / Alamy Stock Photo

Levelling up means building more homes—and not just in the southeast

Christopher Pincher

Will the government achieve their plan to build 300,000 homes a year? Image © Brian Lawrence / Alamy Stock Photo

The market won’t fix the housing crisis—empowering local communities will

And Finally

Armando Iannucci: Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnott’s “Failures of State” brought me to tears—of rage

Illustration: Hannah Berry

The masks we wear (or don't)

Hephzibah Anderson

Prospect puzzle and crossword—December 2021