The Sceptic

Welcome to episode 24 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following guests: Toby Young, the Daily Sceptic’s Editor-in-Chief and boss of the Free Speech Union, on a year of free-speech travesties – and the battles to come in the year ahead. Sam Bidwell, Director of the Next Generation Centre at the Adam Smith Institute, on the judge who declined to jail the woman who milkshaked Nigel Farage – and what this says about our justice system. And for our premium subscribers, I’m joined by Niall Gooch, public servant and writer for the Spectator, the Critic and UnHerd, on what it means for conservatives when they can no longer trust their country’s institutions.   Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. Follow Laurie on X. Read Laurie’s article on Tan Ikram here. Follow Toby on X. Read more about the Worker Protection Bill here. Follow Sam on X. Read Niall’s article here. Follow Niall on X. Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to episode 23 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following guests: David Shipley, a writer on prison reform for publications including the Spectator, on the two-tier justice in the Government’s heavy crackdown following the Southport killings. Nick Arlett, one of the Tooting Four, a group of anti-ULEZ campaigners who were arrested for peacefully protesting against the road tax and who’ve now been convicted of harassing the London mayor, Sadiq Khan – a charge they’re now going to appeal. And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to David Turver, author of the Eigen Values substack, for a deep dive into the eye-watering cost of Net Zero subsidies.   Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. Follow Laurie on X. Read David Shipley’s article on the Daily Sceptic. Follow David on X. Read Nick’s article here. Donate to the Tooting Four’s appeal fundraiser here. And follow Nick on X here. Read David Turver’s article here. Follow David on X. Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to episode 22 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following guests: Sam Bidwell, writer and commentator and the Director of the Next Generation Centre at the Adam Smith Institute, on the social and economic disaster of the latest immigration numbers – and how best to reverse it. Fleur Meston, co-host of the Bombshells podcast and campaigner against assisted suicide, on the passage of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill at its second reading. And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to Madeline Grant, parliamentary sketchwriter at the Telegraph, on her favourite parliamentarian to sketch, whether Starmer’s Army is up to snuff, and her bizarre dispute with a Labour MP over her coverage of the assisted dying debate. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. Follow Laurie on X.  Follow Sam on X. Read his article on Indefinite Leave to Remain here.  Follow Fleur on X.  Follow Madeline on X. Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to episode 21 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following guests:   David Frost, lead Brexit negotiator under Boris Johnson, Conservative peer and Telegraph columnist, on how to restore free speech in Britain, the grim reality of Starmerism and what Kemi Badenoch must do as Tory leader.   And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to Nick Dixon, comedian and broadcaster, on that mad woke Jaguar advert, the Trump win and what they both mean for the culture war.   Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. Follow Laurie on X.  Follow David on X. Read his article on Starmerism here.  Read Nick’s article on the Daily Sceptic here. And follow Nick on X.    Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to episode 20 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following guests: I speak to Matt Ridley, the acclaimed science writer and peer in the House of Lords, on the farmers’ revolt over inheritance tax changes that rocked Westminster this week. Writer and former parliamentary researcher James McSweeney, for a deep dive into Britain’s political class and why it gets so much so wrong – especially on Net Zero. And for our premium subscribers, I’m joined by Connie Shaw, an outspoken gender-critical student at Leeds University, who earlier this year experienced what trans activists say is myth – a man in the women’s bathroom. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. Follow Laurie on X.  Follow Matt on X  Read James’s article here.  And follow him on X.  Read Connie’s article on Leeds University here.  Follow Connie on X. Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to episode 19 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following guests: Douglas Carswell, former UKIP MP and now the President and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, on what Donald Trump’s U.S. election victory means for America – and Britain. Will Jones, Editor of the Daily Sceptic, on the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. Eugyppius, the pseudonymous commentator and author of Eugyppius: a plague chronicle, on the collapse of the German Government. And for our premium subscribers, Laurie is joined in the studio by Michael Murphy, writer for the Daily Telegraph, who gives us an exclusive inside look at his new documentary with Outpost Studios: Guardians of Israel.   Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. Follow Laurie on X.  Follow Douglas on X.  Read eugyppius’s article here.  Read Will’s article on the Daily Sceptic here. Subscribe to Outpost Studios and watch Michael’s documentary here. Watch Chuck Norris’s video here: https://ChuckDefense.com/Daily Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to episode 18 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following Daily Sceptic contributors: William Atkinson, Assistant Editor at Conservative Home, on Kemi Badenoch’s victory in the Tory leadership election and her prospects as leader. Jon Moynihan, Conservative peer, venture capitalist and author of Return to Growth, on Rachel Reeves’s tax-bonanza budget and why it’s taking us in the wrong direction. And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to Harry Miller, former police officer and founder of Fair Cop, who gives us his frank assessment of the Chris Kaba case and why unfounded witch hunts against officers are so damaging for police morale. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. Follow Laurie on X. Follow William on X.  Get your copy of Jon Moynihan’s book, Return to Growth: Volume One: How to Fix the Economy, here. Follow Harry on X. Watch Chuck Norris’s video here: https://ChuckDefense.com/Daily Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to this special episode of the Sceptic with C.J. Hopkins, playwright, novelist and political satirist. C.J. Hopkins has long written about authoritarianism lurking in Western societies. Now, as if to prove him right, he’s being persecuted by the German authorities for doing just that. In 2022, he criticised German government Covid measures by tweeting an image of a Swastika on a Covid mask – the cover of his book, The New Normal Reich. This was enough to see him dragged through the German courts in a Kafkaesque witch hunt that is still ongoing today. He’s currently crowdfunding an appeal at Germany’s highest court – and should he lose, he faces prison.   C.J. joins Laurie on this episode to tell his story, offering a chilling insight into the censorious state tyranny gripping Germany – and the West. Follow C.J. on X. Order his books here. Donate to his legal defence fund here. And find him on Substack. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. Follow Laurie on X. Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to this special episode of the Sceptic with James Esses, writer, campaigner and co-founder of Thoughtful Therapists. Back in 2021, James was a hard-working part-time master’s student in psychotherapy at the Metanoia Institute in London. In his spare time, he was also raising concerns online about the impact that transgender ideology – and the so-called gender-affirming approach to care – was having on vulnerable children. He never imagined that doing so would lead to him being kicked off his course without so much as an appeal. Three years later, he’s taken his college and the U.K. Council for Psychotherapy to court for that – and won. James joins Laurie on this episode to tell his story. They also speak about his research into how our institutions have been infiltrated by trans ideology; the impact of the Cass Review; the threat trans ideology still poses to kids; and why it’s up to adults to protect them; and much more. Follow James on X.  And find him on Substack. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. Follow Laurie on X. Produced by Richard Eldred.  Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to this special episode of the Sceptic with Professor David Starkey, the renowned and pugnacious historian, author and broadcaster.  Host Laurie Wastell speaks to Professor Starkey about New Labour’s constitutional revolution; why Margaret was mistaken to view Tony Blair as her heir; the problem with “human rights” and the ECHR; the disaster of devolution; why the Southport rioters were right to be angry; when Sir Keir Starmer called for him to be jailed; his prognosis for the Labour Government; the need for a post-Blair restoration; why David Lammy is a national embarrassment; and why the facts of life are conservative. Find David Starkey on YouTube here. And order his books here. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our donor-only content. Follow Laurie on X. Produced by Richard Eldred.  Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to episode 17 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following guests: Brendan O’Neill, Chief Political Writer at Spiked, on the anniversary of the October 7th pogrom against Israel – and his powerful new book on how the West failed this moral test. Jess Gill, student and political commentator, on how mass immigration has made London less safe for women like her. And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to lecturer and journalist Ralph Schoellhammer, on the success of the populist-Right Freedom Party in Austria’s recent elections. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. Follow Laurie on X. Get your copy of Brendan’s book here.  Follow Jess on X here.  Follow Ralph on X here.  Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to episode 16 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following Daily Sceptic contributors: Charlotte Gill, journalist, author of the Woke Waste substack and the Daily Sceptic’s newest columnist, on the Labour MPs involved in the Left-wing activist group, Hope Not Hate. Freddie Attenborough, Director of Digital Communications at the Free Speech Union, on the Irish Government’s U-turn on its draconian hate-speech bill. David Turver, Daily Sceptic regular and author of the Eigen Values substack, on Ed Miliband’s green cronyism. And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to freelance writer and confidence mentor Joanna Gray, on the difficulties of navigating the culture war – and how we can disagree with the woke warriors in our lives without starting a flaming row. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. Follow Laurie on X. Read Charlotte’s article on the Daily Sceptic here. Read Freddie’s article here. Read David’s articles here, here and here. And read Joanna’s article here. Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to episode 15 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following Daily Sceptic contributors:   Andrew Doyle, comedian, broadcaster and author of Free Speech and Why It Matters and The New Puritans, on how Labour’s plans for an “Islamophobia” definition could bring a blasphemy law to Britain.   Eugyppius, the pseudonymous commentator and author of the Substack, Eugyppius: a plague chronicle, on Germany’s recent state elections and how the rise of the AfD is upending the politics of migration in Europe.    And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to journalist and Daily Sceptic regular Ben Pile, on David Lammy’s recent claim that Britain’s biggest foreign policy threat is climate change – and the Foreign Secretary’s bizarre endorsement of ethnic cleansing in Azerbaijan.   Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. Follow Laurie on X. Read Andrew’s article on the Daily Sceptic here. Read Eugyppius’s articles here and here.  And read Ben Pile’s articles here and here.  Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to episode 14 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following guests: Ava, a 19 year-old charity volunteer from Liverpool, who tells the shocking story of how she was visited at her home by counterterror police – despite them telling her she hadn’t committed a crime – then questioned over her political views and warned to “bite her tongue” before posting online. Daniel Hannan, journalist, Conservative Peer and former MEP, on why we are failing to learn the lessons from lockdown, Labour’s plans to abolish hereditary peers and his take on the Conservative leadership contest. And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to evangelical journalist Julian Mann, on how Christians are being persecuted around the world – and how the woke Western media is turning a blind eye. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content: www.dailysceptic.org/donate/ Follow Laurie on X. Follow Ava on X. Read or watch Daniel’s speech to the House of Lords here, on the Daily Sceptic. And read Julian’s article here. Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to episode 13 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following Daily Sceptic contributors:   Sarah Phillimore, barrister and gender-critical campaigner, on how the barristers’ regulator is pushing to make lawyers embrace woke ideology;   Steven Tucker, regular Daily Sceptic contributor and author of Hitler and Stalin’s Misuse of Science, on lefty academics’ mad plans to “decolonise” exams.   David McGrogan, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Northumbria and author of the Uncibal Substack, on Sir Keir Starmer’s liberal authoritarianism – and why it can only get worse.   And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to Daily Sceptic’s Editor, Will Jones, on the cynical campaign to silence our sceptical journalism by self-appointed American news reliability index, Newsguard.   Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. Follow Laurie on X. Read Sarah’s article on the Daily Sceptic here. Read Steven’s articles here and here. Read David’s articles here and here. And read Will’s article on here. Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to episode 12 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following guests:   Ben Sixsmith, Online Editor at the Critic and author of the Zone substack, on Keir Starmer’s miserabilist plan to ban smoking outside pubs;   Len Shackleton, Professor of Economics at Buckingham University and a fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs, on the bizarre equal-pay ruling against Next that spells disaster for British business;   Reverend Doctor Bernard Randall, on how he’s been persecuted by the Church of England for delivering an LGBTQ-sceptical sermon in line with Christian doctrine – and how he’s fighting back;   And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to Alan Halsall, a leading volunteer in the Vote Leave campaign, on how his life was made a misery by the Electoral Commission because he campaigned for Brexit.   Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.   Follow Laurie on X: https://x.com/L_Wastell   Read Ben’s article on smoking here.   Read Len’s articles here and here.   Donate to support Reverend Randall’s legal appeal here.   Read Alan Halsall’s article on the Daily Sceptic here.   And get your copy of his book, Last Man Standing: Memoirs from the front line of Brexit, here.   Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to episode 11 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following Daily Sceptic contributors:   Dr. Freddie Attenborough, Communications Officer at the Free Speech Union, on the Labour Government’s chilling social-media crackdown in the wake of the Southport riots;   Andy Collingwood, writer and co-host of the Multipolarity Podcast, on the truth about Britain’s immigration history and why the Left’s claim that Britain has always been a nation of immigrants is just pure gaslighting;   David Turver, author of the Eigen Values substack, on how Britain’s Government of Net Zero-fanatic humanities graduates are running the economy into the ground;   And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to C.J. Strachan, the Daily Sceptic’s resident HR expert and the founder of Fair Job, on the shocking anti-white employment discrimination at Thames Valley Police.   Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.   Follow Laurie on X.   Read Andy’s article on the Daily Sceptic here.   Read David’s articles here and here.   And read C.J. Strachan’s article here.   Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to this special episode of the Sceptic, with Professor Nigel Biggar. Nigel Biggar is Emeritus Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford and the author of Colonialism: a Moral Reckoning. Nigel recently delivered the second lecture of Modern Dissent, a London lecture series challenging established ideas run by the Sceptic’s host, Laurie Wastell. The title of that lecture was “Deconstructing Decolonisation” and that’s the jumping off point for today’s episode. Laurie speaks to Nigel about what’s driving the decolonisers, both as a social movement and as an ideology; their unacknowledged Eurocentrism; the importance of patient, reasoned argument in the face of woke dogmatism; the influence of Christianity on the decolonise movement; whether a liberal-humanitarian defence of the British Empire can successfully counter the woke decolonial narrative, and the merits of a purely self-interested appraisal of colonialism; his views on how to improve the culture in our universities; and the difference the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act (now halted by the Labour Government) would have made to campus cancel culture. Watch Nigel’s full Modern Dissent lecture here. Get your copy of Colonialism: a Moral Reckoning Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. Follow Laurie on X. Produced by Richard Eldred.

Welcome to episode ten of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following Daily Sceptic contributors:   Claire Fox, the cross-bench peer and founder of the Academy of Ideas, on the fallout of the Southport attack and the crisis of multicultural Britain;   Dr. James Alexander, Professor of Political Science at Bilkent University, Turkey, on Labour’s devolution agenda and the real meaning behind its radical ‘New Britain’ document;   And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to J. Sorel, the pseudonymous Daily Sceptic columnist, on what we’ve learnt from Labour’s first few weeks in office and the tyranny of the Blob.   Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content: www.dailysceptic.org/donate/   Follow Laurie on X: https://x.com/L_Wastell   Read Claire’s article on the Daily Sceptic here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/08/01/on-southport-why-censorship-is-the-enemy/   Read James’s article here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/07/09/how-seriously-should-we-take-labours-new-britain/   And read J. Sorel’s article here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/07/25/the-conservative-party-fought-against-the-blob-and-lost/   Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to episode nine of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following Daily Sceptic contributors: Toby Young, Daily Sceptic Editor-in-Chief and the founder of the Free Speech Union, on Labour’s outrageous attack on free speech in universities; Our special guest this week Andrew Montford, Director of Net Zero Watch, on the Government’s heat pump con and why it threatens our whole energy grid; And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to eugyppius, the pseudonymous commentator and author of the Substack, eugyppius: a plague chronicle, on the palace coup against Joe Biden, the coronation of Kamala Harris and whether the U.S. corporate media is drinking its own Kool-Aid. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content: www.dailysceptic.org/donate/ Follow Laurie on X: https://x.com/L_Wastell Read Toby’s article on the Daily Sceptic here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/07/29/bridget-phillipson-has-shown-the-tories-how-to-win-the-culture-war/ Read Andrew’s article here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/07/18/dont-fall-for-the-governments-latest-heat-pump-con/ And read eugyppius’s articles here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/07/22/joe-biden-out-in-apparent-palace-coup/ https://dailysceptic.org/2024/07/15/a-failure-of-secret-service-security-so-astounding-the-conspiracy-theories-write-themselves/ Produced by Richard Eldred Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio