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Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud.

Each week we choose three pieces from the magazine and ask their writers to read them aloud.

I'm Oscar Edmondson and on the podcast this week.

Mary Wakefield tells us about her frustrating experience trying to give blood.

James Ball, on whether this is the beginning of the end for Mark Zuckerberg,

and Christopher Howes reads his notes on signatures.

Up first, Mary Wakefield.

I read about the national shortage of blood last week, with a feeling of gloomy inevitability.

The brains of the nation are scrambled. Westminster's is insane, so of course the country's bleeding out. But at least I thought, I can help a bit. I've given blood in the past,

and I kind of enjoy it. There's the feeling of warmth and purpose and biscuits. I'd never actually pay for a packet of custard creams,

but like most English, women and men,

I'm a sucker for one or two free on a saucer in a medical setting.

Our blood donor scheme is actually all-round cheery.

Each country has its own circulatory system,

a flow out from the veins of donors, off to hospitals and

interpatients. Some countries have to resort to paying donors for blood, and the inevitable result

is a contaminated supply. Addicts, desperate for cash, lie about their blood-borne diseases.

There's almost no way to screen them out. So the best systems in

the world rely on unpaid donors willing to give without knowing where their blood will go.

...