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Hello and welcome to Spectator Outloud. Every week a few of our favourite writers read out their

pieces in the latest issue.

This week, we hear from Jessica Douglas' home, the founder of the Mihay Eminescu Trust,

a foundation to preserve Europe's cultural heritage of medieval villages, and she asks,

why is modern architecture just so ugly? We'll also be joined by Paul Wood, who writes about the Taliban's resurgence in

Afghanistan as the Americans prepare to withdraw. And finally, Andrew Watts reads his notes on

pride flags. First is Jessica Douglas home. In Cheshim and Amersham last week, Tory voters punished

the government, not only for building on greenfield sites,

but for allowing the construction of too many ugly, badly designed buildings.

The British public have fed up with modern architecture. Despite polls that prove this time and

time again, architects simply ignore people's views. Indeed, if the

public has the temerity to criticise their latest works, there is uproar, as I've discovered to my

cost. At a dinner in late 2019, I asked Norman Foster, this architect of such things as London's widely derided City Hall and the Berlin Reichstag, if he was pleased by the government's new building better, building beautiful commission.

The commission's mission was to tackle the challenge of poor quality design and build of homes and places across the country

and to ensure popular consent. It was chaired by the late Sir Roger Scruton.

How wrong I was to assume that Foster would applaud the initiative. Refusing to discuss it,

he lost his temper, spewed ridicule on

scrutiny and stomped away. But Foster's response is not unusual. The chasm is widening

between what people want to enhance our cities, our countryside and our lives and what architects

are giving us.

...