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Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud. Each week we choose three pieces from the magazine and ask our writers to read them aloud. Coming up on the podcast this week, Lionel Shriver argues that we should rise up in our road rage.

Ian Williams discusses the crackdown on China's stand-up comics,

and Matthew Denison explains why we shouldn't cancel Beatrix Potter.

First up, Lionel Shriver.

Whether you're more afraid of the forces of order or the forces of chaos is generally a matter of disposition.

A natural anti-authoritarian who despises being told what to do, especially when told to do something stupid. I'm more horrified by excesses of order.

Granted, my greater fear of the state may simply betray that I've largely lived in an orderly

Western world, and after a few dog-eat-dog nights of mayhem and carnage, I might change my tune.

Nevertheless, during the COVID lockdowns, for example, I was less distressed by the odd

neighbor who dared to invite a friend to tea than by most Britain's blind bovine compliance

with an economically self-destructive,

socially disastrous, politically despotic, and medically idiotic regime.

So it's a relief to see the British display some spunk.

Apologies to my betters at the spectator for celebrating law-breaking and the destruction of public property,

but the systematic vandalism of traffic cameras in Greater London warms the cockles of my heart

and puts a smile on my face. Due to go live in August, the vast expansion of Mayor Sadiq Khan's ultra-low emission zone

will hit about 700,000 motorists in London with a stonking 12-pound-50 charge per day

...