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Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud. The podcast where a few of our writers from each week's issue reads out

their pieces. This week, we're going to be joined by Paulina Noiding, a Swedish writer who

reports on the country's latest crime surge. We'll also be joined by Toby Young, who talks

about how he was wrong to back Boris. And finally, Lloyd Evans, on his theatre review from the

magazine this week,

and why going to the theatre during the time of coronavirus, is just so different.

First up, Paulina Noiding.

We have an obvious problem, admitted the Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Levin recently.

He was referring not to the COVID pandemic, but to a summer of crime that has left even jaded

Swedes reeling in disbelief. There are regular bombings, hand grenade attacks and shootings. Young men are

killing each other at a horrific rate, ten times that of Germany. The feeling is growing that the

government has completely lost control.

Yet while Lavin has finally acknowledged the existence of the problem, he still seems in denial

about its true nature. Last month in Boutchirka, south of Stockholm, a 12-year-old girl walking her dog,

was killed by a stray bullet from a gang shooting.

And in a TV interview, her friends explained that shootings are simply part of daily life in their neighborhood.

One child said that she hears gunfire from her bedroom window almost every night.

And this is perhaps what's most shocking for

older Swedes. How resigned the children in these areas are, how much they've grown used to the violence.

It is all too much for Matslauving, the deputy national police chief, who earlier this month

decided to speak plainly about the nature of the criminals he and his

...