Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud. I'm Fraser Nelson. Each week we ask a few of our

brilliant writers to read their piece for the magazine aloud. On this episode, we've got Matthew

Lynn reading his cover story about the vaccine wars and how the rollout has become the first

geopolitical battle of the century. Then we've got Anthony Selden and why we need a museum for Britain's

Prime Minister, a role which is 300 years old this Tuesday. I hope you're going to be celebrating.

And then finally, Sam Leith, our literary editor, about his own personal love of Doc Martin

Boots, the perfect footwear he

says for every occasion. First, Matthew Lynn. Armed guards are portraying the perimeter fence

of a sleek factory. Software experts are fending off hackers. Border officials are checking

trucks and ferries, not for weapons or illegal immigrants, but for a mysterious biochemical soup,

while spies and spin doctors are feeding social media with scare stories, flaming one national champion or another.

Welcome to the first great geopolitical battle of the 21st century. It may sound like something

ripped from the pages of a dystopian sci-fi novel, but in truth, we're already seeing the opening salvos in the vaccine wars.

Rather than cooperating with one another to roll out a global vaccination campaign to rid the world of COVID-19, the major powers of the world are instead descending into a fierce, increasingly nationalistic competition.

The EU is threatening to hold back

supplies from Britain. The Americans are scooping up supplies wherever they can, and the Russians and the

Chinese are engaged in a form of vile diplomacy, reminiscent of the Cold War. It is starting to turn

very, very nasty. We are seeing how quickly our globalized world collapses when

push comes to shove. The effect of all this on national security, on industrial policy,

and on the movement of people around the world will be felt for many years to come.

Rewind just a few weeks, and it all looked very different. First Pfizer and its German partner

Biotech, then Moderna,

...