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Hello, I'm Sam Holmes and welcome to Spectator Out Loud. Every week, a few of our favourite writers read their pieces from the latest issue.

This week we'll hear Matthew Lynn's thoughts on how gas shortages could lead to a very cold

winter. Tanya Gold, with a critical take on critics, and finally James Innes Smith bigs up the

bungalow. First up, Matthew Lynn. The stairs won't light, the boiler won't fire up, pipes are frozen on the water

is stock running.

Welcome to Christmas 2021.

Amid a fierce cold snap, with another beast from the east blasting across the country, the

UK's meagre stockpiles of gas have been exhausted, and the country has plunged into a crisis. Old

people are dying and the rest of us are doing our best to keep warm. The closest thing to the

apocalypse most of us would experience in our lifetimes has arrived. Well, perhaps, it is easy to sketch

out lurid scenarios of what might happen if the country runs out of gas. In reality, it won't be that bad.

Before we get there, we will see industrial closures and then some form of rationing.

But that doesn't mean it won't be a serious problem.

A gas emergency will cause huge disruption to the economy, widespread shortages,

and a political crisis from which even the Johnson administration,

with its formidable powers for bouncing back, may not recover.

There is no question there is a real risk of a serious shortage of gas this winter.

The price of every form of energy has rocketed in the past six months, but gas most of all.

At the start of September, if you're in

the market for a thousand cubic metres of gas, the standard trading unit, you could get one

for just over $500. By the middle of the month, that had jumped $800, and by its close it was

...