The Spectator

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters: Jeff Jarvis defends internet companies, Royal Society fellows defend Lord Lawson

From our UK edition

A net gain Sir: Jamie Bartlett tries to balance plus and minus, and ends with zero (‘Little Brothers are watching you’, 7 December). But I wonder: why lead with the negative? Yes, data can be misused, marketers and government can misbehave (no — they will). But what are we to do? Block progress? Why don’t we write the rules instead? A billion-plus people are sharing their observations, questions, answers and lives online because they — we — find benefit in connecting with each other: offering services, gathering information and knowledge, and finding efficiencies. I engage in willing transactions with Google (though not the NSA) to deliver greater relevance with less noise. I celebrate the redistribution of power and challenge to institutions.

The Spectator

What happened in 2013, from Depardieu’s hug to Sachin’s last bow

From our UK edition

January David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said he wanted to ‘negotiate a new settlement with our European partners’, and that before the end of 2017 would ‘give the British people a referendum with a very simple in or out choice’. Gérard Depardieu hugged President Vladimir Putin at the Black Sea resort of Sochi as he received a Russian passport. French troops were welcomed in the streets of Timbuktu as they drove back Islamist forces in Mali. HMV, the record shop, and Blockbuster, the DVD rental firm, went into administration. There were riots in Belfast. A helicopter crashed into a tower block at Vauxhall in London. The City of London approved a 620ft tower nicknamed the Scalpel.

The Spectator

Joy to the world | 12 December 2013

From our UK edition

Pessimism sells. It shifts books and newspapers, sends ratings soaring. It fills lecture halls, wins research grants, makes political careers. We are fed this constant diet of doom, predicting anything from meteorological Armageddon to a tyranny of austerity, and so it is little wonder that we tend to miss the bigger story. A cold, dispassionate look at the facts reveals that we are living in a golden era. and that, if you use objective measures, 2013 has been the best year in human history. As a public service - and one which is rarely provided in broadcast or print - The Spectator will below provide evidence for these assertions. We can start from crude figures: $73.5 trillion, the world’s economic output this year.

The Spectator

Spectator survey: What would you tell your 14-year-old self?

From our UK edition

Joan Bakewell Broadcaster and journalist Those early teenage years are a time of doubt and discovery. Take time to be alone and speak honestly to yourself. Weigh up what you think others — family, friends, teachers — think of you. Then consider what you feel about the world and your place in it. Read the world’s great books and see the best of theatre and cinema. Take time to be thoughtful, and then come out bold and confident in yourself. Aim for the good things in life, which are not money and property, or even travel and glamour. Instead learn to value friendship, the beauty of nature, kindness across generations and the deep pleasure of the arts. Then get on with enjoying life to the full.

The Spectator

Christmas past in Spectator letters

From our UK edition

This is a selection of seasonal letters from The Spectator’s 185-year archive, now online at archive.spectator.co.uk. The emblem to the right is by our cartoon editor, Michael Heath. It was his first drawing for the magazine, and appeared in 1959.   Spare the turkey Sir: Of the thousands who within the next few days will be ordering their Christmas turkeys, are any aware of the fact that the useless custom that makes it the proper and correct thing to have its most useless head upon the dish condemns the poor thing to a cruel and lingering death, while but for this custom, its head would be cut off comfortably and at once, and death would be instantaneous?

Friday

The Spectator

In pictures: Nelson Mandela, 1918-2013

From our UK edition

Adopting a boxing pose in 1950. Speaking in the early 1960s. After being sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia trial, Mandela and seven other men leave the Palace of Justice in Pretoria 16 June 1964 with their fists raised in defiance through the barred windows of the prison car. Mandela and his wife Winnie raise their fists on his release from Victor Vester prison on 11 February, 1990. Mandela and South African President Frederik de Klerk with their Nobel Peace Prizes in 1993. Visiting his former Robben Island prison cell in 1995. Mandela congratulates François Pienaar after South Africa's victory in the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Celebrating his 90th birthday in 2008. With Bill Clinton on the eve of his 94th birthday in July 2012.

Thursday