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Hello and welcome to the edition podcast from The Spectator.

Every week we take a look at some of the most important and intriguing stories from the issue with the writers behind them.

I'm Laura Prendergars, the Spectator's executive editor.

This week, with the energy crisis picking up pace, who are set to be the winners and losers in this Cold War for gas? Plus, can the police reform with Crested a Dick still in charge?

And finally, what's the future for British butchery?

First up, at the moment we're seeing queues for petrol and rising gas prices all in the face of the government's net zero agenda.

And internationally, things are looking just as turbulent, with China buying up as much fuel as possible,

America becoming more isolationist when it comes to its own energy, and Russia feeling more powerful in its place,

thanks to its Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

These are the issues that Serb Kennedy addresses in his cover piece this week for The Spectator.

Seb is the founding editor of Energy Flux, a specialist newsletter all about the clean energy

transition. He joins me now, along with senior reporter for energy and commodities for Bloomberg

and co-author

of the World for Sale, Jack Farchie.

Seb, in your cover piece for the magazine this week, you write about the world's fight for

gas and you say that China has started buying up stock at any cost. Can you explain to a layman

why exactly that's now happening? Yes, so gas is a globally traded commodity. It's traded in liquefied form aboard

these enormous vessels called LNG vessels, liquefied natural gas vessels. And when supply is a bit

tight, which is what we're seeing at the moment, then you essentially have a bidding war between

regions. So you've got China and other Asian

...