Chris Bennett: Looking forwards after tumultuous 2016

Predictions are dangerous at the best of times but it has become a tradition to indulge in a little crystal ball gazing at Christmas.

By anyone’s standards 2016 was a pretty momentous year, mainly for the unpredictability of happenings rather than the happenings themselves. I doubt there will be many commentators saying ‘I told you so’ in the review of the year tsunami we will be subjected to over the Christmas break. Love it or loathe it the people voted out a layer of government. They have: ‘had enough of experts,’ as Michael Gove put it.

For me Christmas conjures up echoes of the 19th century, Dickensian scenes where goodwill wins out against the greed and oppression of a newly commercialised world. As my colleague Moneo puts it, the power of human level interaction shining through.