The Sceptic

David Shipley on how Labour just admitted that multiculturalism is dead. Plus: Chris Morrison on killer carbon pipelines. In Episode 71 of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell and journalist David Shipley discuss the Labour Government’s bizarre, draconian and at times comical new social cohesion strategy, “Protecting What Matters” – and the grim truth it reveals about multicultural Britain. And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to Chris Morrison, the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor, on the Government’s mad plans to build carbon capture pipelines that could end up suffocating us in our beds. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.  Follow Laurie on X.  Follow David on X. Follow Chris on X. Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio. 00:00 Intro 00:01:30 David Shipley on Labour's Cohesion Report 00:04:17 English Ethnicity 00:06:31 Integration Emergency 00:07:16 Southport Fallout 00:10:05 Tinderbox Reality 00:13:03 Online Censorship 00:17:35 Modern Patriotism 00:25:23 Call to Action 00:28:41 Two-Way Integration 00:32:47 Hidden Extremism 00:37:36 Anti-Muslim Definition 00:40:40 Hate Crime Pledge 00:43:36 Report Verdict 00:44:40 Chris Morrison on Killer Carbon Pipelines 00:47:07 Asphyxiation Risk 00:49:03 Past Leaks 00:53:13 Safety Concerns 00:55:47 Pointless Cost 01:00:18 Net Zero Fantasy 01:04:18 CO2 Pollutant 01:08:32 Climate Politics 01:13:53 Human CO2 Share

Rob Bates on the great student visa scam, the trouble with Labour’s immigration reforms and the desperate smears of Hope Not Hate. In Episode 70 of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell speaks to Rob Bates, Research Director at the Centre for Migration Control, on Shabana Mahmood’s immigration reforms and whether they go far enough, the scandal of migrants using student visas to claim asylum and what Reform should do next on migration policy. Plus: Hope Not Hate’s bizarre attempt to smear Laurie in its ‘State of Hate’ report.   Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.  Follow Laurie on X.  Follow the Centre for Migration Control on X. Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Fred de Fossard on how the Equality Act fosters discrimination against white males, and Tilak Doshi on Germany’s chemicals industry bloodbath. In Episode 69 of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell speaks to Fred de Fossard, Director of Strategy at the Prosperity Institute, on the scourge of Labour’s Equality Act 2010, why Reform is right to repeal it and whether Restore Britain is a threat to Farage. And Dr Tilak Doshi, the Daily Sceptic’s Energy Editor, on how Net Zero is sending Germany’s chemicals industry down the drain, and why sceptics are the real climate scientists. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.  Follow Laurie on X.  Follow Fred on X. Follow Tilak on X. Read his latest articles on the Daily Sceptic here and here. Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Andrew Orlowski on AI and why it’s overhyped, and Ben Pile on the green zealots’ failed temperature predictions. In Episode 68 of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell speaks to Andrew Orlowski, Telegraph Business and Technology Columnist, on why AI is a bubble waiting to burst and why we won’t be seeing datacentres in space. And Ben Pile, journalist and Daily Sceptic regular, on the green delusions of the Telegraph’s resident solar evangelist, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, and why Tony Blair is criticising Ed Miliband over Net Zero. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.  Follow Laurie on X.  Follow Andrew on X. Follow Ben on X. Read his latest articles on the Daily Sceptic here and here. Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

The downfall of Mandelson and McSweeney, the scourge of Westminster ‘comms’ brain and why Blue Labour was always fake. In Episode 67 of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell speaks to Felix Hardinge, a writer and cultural critic who works in financial services. Laurie and Felix discuss the defenestration of Peter Mandelson and what his elevation to US ambassador in the first place says about Keir Starmer; his departed chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and whether his ‘Blue Labour’ politics really existed; why Starmer’s crackdown on the riots is what killed it off; why the PM is so uniquely hated – and why the Right would be worse off if he resigned; plus The Thick of It and how it convinced a generation of politicos that politics is really just media management, and why what the country really needs is ‘reheated Thatcherism’. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.  Follow Laurie on X.  Follow Felix on X. Read his latest on the Daily Sceptic here. Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

On this Special Episode of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell speaks to Kathryn Porter, energy consultant, commentator and the founder of Watt-Logic, on the suicidal delusions of our green elites’ electrification crusade. As we are told to use electricity more and more and gas less and less, while relying ever more heavily on costly and intermittent renewables, will the grid be able to cope?   Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. Follow Laurie on X. Follow Kathryn on X. Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel here. Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Tom Jones on Reform, the Tories and the future of the Right, and Tilak Doshi on Trump’s America vs the global blue team. In Episode 66 of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell speaks to Tom Jones, Deputy Online Editor at the Critic and Conservative councillor, about what the string of Right-wing Tory defections to Reform means for the future of the British Right. And Dr Tilak Doshi, the Daily Sceptic’s Energy Editor, on the Trump administration’s battles against the EU’s censorship agenda and Net Zero ideology worldwide – and within the liberal-globalist establishment at home. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.  Follow Laurie on X.  Follow Tom on X. Follow Tilak on X. Read his articles on the Daily Sceptic here and here. Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

David Frost on the never-ending scourge of New Labour’s “stakeholder” revolution – and why Britain must reclaim free-market thinking. In Episode 65 of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell speaks to David Frost. David Frost, Lord Frost of Allenton, is a former diplomat and was the chief Brexit negotiator under Boris Johnson. He is a columnist at the Daily Telegraph and is now a non-aligned peer and the Director-General of the Institute of Economic Affairs. Laurie and David discuss David’s plans at the IEA and why the case for free-market thinking is more important than ever; the “Stakeholder State” and why it stops governments from doing anything; why it didn’t come about by accident but rather was built by New Labour; why those complaining about “division” and “populism” really just hate democracy; why the claim that free markets are bad for “communities” is nonsense; the tyranny of “independent” experts; why consensus isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and why sometimes, the best thing is for the state to just get out of way. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.  Follow Laurie on X.  Follow David on X. Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Theodore Dalrymple, on the 25th anniversary of his acclaimed Life at the Bottom, on crime, the underclass and liberal hypocrisy. In Episode 64 of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell speaks to Anthony Daniels. Better known under his pen name, Theodore Dalrymple, the former prison doctor and psychiatrist turned writer and cultural critic has featured in the Spectator, City Journal, the Telegraph and the Wall Street Journal among many others, and is the author of numerous books and essay collections, including the acclaimed Life at the Bottom, of which the 25th anniversary edition is out this spring. Laurie and Tony discuss the violence and nihilism Tony observed as a prison doctor in the 1990s, why he started writing about it and why Life at the Bottom was so well received and had such a lasting impact. They also discuss how liberal ideology causes crime, not poverty, the hypocrisies of the “caring classes”, the unforeseen consequences of the therapeutic mindset, what has changed since the book came out, modern anarcho-tyranny and his awkward encounter at the New Statesman. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.  Follow Laurie on X.  Pre-order the 25th Anniversary Edition of Life at the Bottom here. Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel here.  Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Harrison Pitt on Alaa Abd El-Fattah and British citizenship, Islamism and West Midlands Police and the fightback against anarcho-tyranny. In Episode 63 of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell speaks to Harrison Pitt, Senior Policy Fellow at Restore Britain, Fellow at the New Culture Forum and Contributing Editor at the European Conservative. They discuss the Alaa Abd El-Fattah debacle and why the Egyptian activist is at best only “administratively British”, the latest in the Maccabi Tel Aviv fan ban row and how West Midlands Police is carrying the can for the failures of multiculturalism. And for premium subscribers, they discuss Harrison’s policy papers at Restore Britain, the scourge of anarcho-tyranny, plus: what the late Peter Whittle meant to him – and conservatism. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.  Follow Laurie on X.  Follow Harrison on X. Read his Restore Britain policy paper here. Read his obituary of Peter Whittle on the Daily Sceptic here. Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel here.  Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

In this Special Episode of the Sceptic, we bring you highlights from our five most popular episodes of 2025. Deputy Comment Editor at the Telegraph Poppy Coburn on race and the rape gangs; author and comedian Andrew Doyle on Labour's shameful denialism about it; historian David Starkey on the lies of the multiculturalists; and former UKIP MP Douglas Carswell on how to reclaim Englishness from the Blairite ascendancy. Plus: the Mail on Sunday’s Peter Hitchens makes the case for Lucy Letby to have a retrial. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.  Follow Laurie on X.  Follow Poppy on X.  Follow Andrew on X.  Follow David on X.  Follow Douglas on X.  Follow Peter on X. Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel here.  Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Intellectual historian Dr Carl Trueman on politics, psychology and the ‘modern self’. In this special episode of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell is joined by intellectual historian Dr Carl Trueman, to discuss his book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution. Many of the ideas that drive our politics today are strange by historical standards. Why is such great importance placed on sex, sexuality and identity politics? Why have questions about the family become so ardently politicised? When did our therapeutic society stop believing that “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me”? And why are we so often told that morality and truth are wholly subjective – whatever ‘feels right’? Across so many domains, the personal has become political. In this conversation with Sceptic host Laurie Wastell, intellectual historian Dr Carl Trueman explains how today’s ‘me, me, me’ social imaginary stems from what he calls The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, in his book of that title. In an argument encompassing Rousseau, Nietzsche, the Romantic poets and the Sexual Revolution, Dr Trueman sets out how our dominant social ethos of “expressive individualism” arose – and shows what its consequences have been. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. Follow Laurie on X. Buy The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self here. Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel here. Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Toby Young on a year of free-speech battles, and Chris Morrison on the OBR’s junk climate science and the attempt to sue Shell over the weather.   In Episode 62 of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell speaks to Toby Young, the Daily Sceptic’s Editor-in-Chief and the Director of the Free Speech Union, to review the many free speech battles that we’ve been fighting this year in Starmer’s two-tier tyranny. And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to Chris Morrison, the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor, on how the Office for Budget Responsibility was taken in by junk climate science, the campaign to sue Shell Oil because of the weather and the Government’s response to the ongoing criticisms of the Met Office.   Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content  Follow Laurie on X.  Follow Toby on X. Follow Chris on X. Read Chris’s articles on the Daily Sceptic here, here and here. Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel here.  Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Andrew Orlowski on Britain’s weird utilitarian cult, Jack Rankin MP on the Tories vs the Blob and Ben Pile on green rent-seeking. In Episode 61 of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell speaks to Andrew Orlowski, business and technology columnist at the Telegraph, on Britain’s weird utilitarian cult, the ‘Mansards’, and why they’re everywhere. Jack Rankin, Conservative MP for Windsor, on where the Tories went wrong in their 14 years in power and whether they can recover. Plus: why he’s referred ‘Hope not Hate’ to the Charity Commission. And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to Ben Pile, journalist and Daily Sceptic regular, on the scourge of the rent-seeking Green Blob, and the worrying campaign to bring back lockdown measures because of the flu. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.  Follow Laurie on X.  Follow Andrew on X. Follow Jack on X. Follow Ben on X. Read Ben’s articles on the Daily Sceptic here and here. Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel here.  Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Dr David Starkey on the lies of multiculturalism and the Blairite delusion of politics as spin. Plus: Steven Tucker on the Green zealots’ mental health madness. In this special episode of The Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell is joined by Dr David Starkey, the eminent, insightful and acerbic historian, author and broadcaster. They discuss the lies of multiculturalism: the Stephen Lawrence inquiry and the Windrush myth; Labour’s disastrous Budget and why it thinks it can wish the realities of economics away with ‘Modern Monetary Theory’; why leftists in general believe they can remake reality through strength of ideological conviction and propaganda; New Labour’s sinister yet overlooked Parekh Report and its ludicrous claim that Britain has always been “multicultural”; plus why the introduction of “hate crimes” was social engineering. And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to Steven Tucker, Daily Sceptic columnist and the author of 10 books, on the Green alarmists claiming that climate change will affect people’s mental health – and the Left’s two-tier standards about what you’re allowed to be nostalgic about. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.  Follow Laurie on X.  Follow Dr Starkey on X. Subscribe to his YouTube Channel here. Read Steven’s latest on the Daily Sceptic here. Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel here.  Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Rachel Reeves’s disastrous benefits Budget with John O’Connell of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, and Tilak Doshi on the great COP flop. In Episode 60 of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell speaks to John O’Connell, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, on Rachel Reeves’s disastrous benefits Budget. And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to Dr Tilak Doshi, the Daily Sceptic’s Energy Editor, on how the COP 30 climate summit in Brazil utterly flopped and what that says about the Net Zero agenda, plus Sadiq Khan’s giant eco-hypocrisy. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.  Follow Laurie on X.  Follow John on X. Follow Tilak on X. Read Tilak’s articles on the Daily Sceptic here and here. Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel here.  Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Why Shabana Mahmood’s asylum crackdown is not all it’s cracked up to be, and how the Met Office and the BBC push climate alarmism. In Episode 59 of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell speaks to Rob Bates, Research Director at the Centre for Migration Control, on why Shabana Mahmood’s asylum crackdown is not all it’s cracked up to be. And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to Chris Morrison, the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor, who gives us the latest on the Met Office’s dodgy data shenanigans, plus why the BBC is so wrong on the climate. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.  Follow Laurie on X.  Follow the Centre for Migration Control on X. Follow Chris on X. Read Chris’s articles on the Daily Sceptic here, here and here. Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel here.  Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Kathryn Porter on just how much Net Zero is costing us, why Ed Miliband’s claims about renewables are so laughable and how the Green Crusade is putting us at risk of blackouts this winter. In the Sceptic this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to Kathryn Porter, energy consultant and commentator, for a deep dive on just how much Net Zero is costing us, why Ed Miliband’s claims about renewables are so laughable and how the Green Crusade is putting us at risk of blackouts this winter. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.  Follow Laurie on X.  Follow Kathryn on X. Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel here.  Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Chris Bayliss on Aston Villa vs Maccabi Tel Aviv and the rise of Muslim sectarianism in Birmingham and Ben Pile on Bill Gates vs Net Zero and the BBC’s climate misinformation. In Episode 58 of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell speaks to Chris Bayliss, independent consultant and writer, on what the banning of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from this week’s Europa League match against Aston Villa says about multicultural Britain and our sectarian second city. And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to Ben Pile, journalist and Daily Sceptic regular, on how Bill Gates has turned against the Net Zero agenda, plus the BBC’s climate misinformation. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.  Follow Laurie on X.  Follow Chris on X. Follow Ben on X. Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel here.  Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

A look back on a week of grim migration news, and the horrifying truth about wind turbines. In Episode 57 of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell speaks to David Shipley, journalist and friend of the show, on a week of grim and horrifying migration news, how accusations of racism enabled the Southport Killer and the media's warped priorities over the grooming gang inquiry. And for our premium subscribers, I speak to the Daily Sceptic's Environment Editor Chris Morrison on how wind turbines are killing birds, how the Left are trying to censor climate dissent and the fallacy of so-called climate tipping points. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.  Follow Laurie on X.  Follow David on X. Follow Chris on X. Read Chris’s articles on the Daily Sceptic here, here and here. Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel here.  Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.