The Sceptic (The Daily Sceptic)

Welcome to episode one of the Sceptic!

On the show this week:

Toby Young explains how the Sceptic will look going forwards.

Our environment editor Chris Morrison on why the mainstream media so often overlooks good news about the climate.

Norwegian journalist Kathrine Jebsen-Moore on why she feels ashamed at Norway’s recent decision to recognise Palestine as a state.

And Dr David McGrogan on the problems with human rights law.

Welcome to episode seven of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following Daily Sceptic contributors:

Special guest Ross Clark, Spectator columnist and author of Not Zero, on why Ed Miliband’s crusade against oil and gas could put Britain’s economy 6 feet under;

Tony Morrison, who writes on US politics for the Daily Sceptic, on the shocking assassination attempt against President Trump and what it means for America;

Dr Carole Sherwood, founder of Save Mental Health, on the trans-activist psychotherapists refusing to accept the findings of the Cass Review;

And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to Dr Gary Sidley, co-founder of the Smile Free campaign, on the technocratic tyranny of “nudge”.

Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content: www.dailysceptic.org/donate/

Follow Laurie on X: https://x.com/L_Wastell

Purchase your copy of Ross Clark’s book, Not Zero: How an Irrational Target Will Impoverish You, Help China (and Won't Even Save the Planet) here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Not-Zero-Irrational-Target-Impoverish-ebook/dp/B0B5W4F157

Read Tony’s article on the Daily Sceptic here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/07/17/there-can-be-only-one-winner-now/

Read Carole’s article here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/07/10/will-labour-protect-gender-confused-children-from-the-trans-ideologues-the-signs-arent-looking-good/

And read Gary’s article here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/06/26/how-government-psychological-manipulation-of-the-public-became-normal/

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

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Produced by Richard Eldred.

Welcome to Episode 32 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following guests:

Douglas Carswell, MP for Clacton from 2010-2017, first for the Conservative Party and then for UKIP, and President and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.

Chris Morrison, the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor, on how the global green agenda is falling apart – and why blowhards like Gavin Barwell are so enraged at the Daily Sceptic for leading the way.

And for our premium subscribers, Laurie is joined by Steven Tucker, journalist and author of books including Hitler and Stalin’s Misuse of Science, on the ghoulish decision to make Rotherham the 2025 ‘Children’s Capital of Culture’ – and what it says about our deranged cultural elites.

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Read Chris’s articles on the Daily Sceptic here and here.

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Read Steven’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.

Welcome to episode five of the Sceptic!

On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following Daily Sceptic contributors:

CJ Strachan, Daily Sceptic regular and the founder of the Fair Job initiative, on how “Equality, Diversity and Inclusion” took over the workplace – and how he’s fighting back;

Andy Collingwood, writer and co-host of the Multipolarity podcast, who gives us a deep dive into the Labour Party’s radical social agenda;

And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to journalist and Daily Sceptic regular Ben Pile, on how the BBC is trying to smear a Kenyan farmer as a shill for big oil and the menace of the Green 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 CJ Strachan’s articles on the Daily Sceptic here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/05/14/how-edi-took-over-the-workplace/ https://dailysceptic.org/2024/05/30/how-edi-took-over-the-workplace-part-two/

and find out more about his Fair Job initiative here: http://www.fairjob.co.uk/

Read Andy’s article here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/06/27/keir-starmer-wont-just-enact-a-radical-progressive-agenda-hell-change-the-constitution-to-make-it-irreversible/

And read Ben Pile’s article here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/06/23/why-is-bbc-verify-smearing-a-kenyan-subsistence-farmer-as-a-climate-change-denier-in-the-pay-of-big-oil/

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.

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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 25 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following guests:

Dr. Mike Jones, political scientist and migration expert, on the shameful history of Britain’s grooming gangs scandal.

Poppy Coburn, Assistant Comment Editor at the Telegraph, on how activist so-called experts have waged a campaign to deny the racial element to the grooming gangs abuse.

And for our premium subscribers, journalist and Sceptic regular Ben Pile, on the dodgy politics of Environmental and Social Governance – ESG – and why a major green finance initiative just collapsed.

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Read Mike on the omerta over Rotherham here. 

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Read Poppy on grooming gang deniers here.

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Read Ben’s article on the Daily Sceptic here.

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Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel here.

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.

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Read David Shipley’s article on the Daily Sceptic.

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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 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.

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Produced by Richard Eldred. 

Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to episode three of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following Daily Sceptic contributors:

David Turver, author of the Eigen Values substack, on the elites’ Net Zero delusions and Labour’s ‘GB Energy’ plan;

the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor, Chris Morrison, on how the Met Office is gaslighting us about the weather;

and Dr. Freddie Attenborough, Research and Communications Officer at the Free Speech Union, on the Australian Government’s bid to censor the entire Internet.

And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to Daily Sceptic regular Steven Tucker, on the paranoid woke inquisition’s attempts to find racism everywhere, from tabloid coverage of the England team to gardening.

Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content: www.dailysceptic.org/donate/

Follow Laurie on X: https://x.com/L_Wastell

Read David’s article on the Daily Sceptic here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/06/10/labours-claim-that-net-zero-2030-will-cut-energy-bills-doesnt-add-up/

Read Chris’s article here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/06/09/met-offices-risible-claim-of-warmest-may-points-to-massive-urban-heat-corruptions-in-database/

Read Freddie’s article here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/06/06/free-speech-prevailed-says-elon-musk-as-australia-drops-bid-to-censor-internet-globally/

And Steven’s articles here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/06/13/euro-2024-special-why-is-printing-images-of-black-footballers-after-they-have-lost-now-suddenly-racist/

https://dailysceptic.org/2024/06/12/the-race-politics-of-gardening/

Produced by Richard Eldred. 

Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to Episode 31 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following guests:

I speak to Thomas Fazi, columnist at UnHerd and Compact magazine, on how the EU's propaganda network of leftist NGOs is manufacturing consent for its globalist agenda. 

David Shipley, writer on prisons and justice, on the outrageous two-tier sentencing guidelines being introduced by the Sentencing Council – and why it’s a democratic outrage.

And for our premium subscribers, Laurie is joined by former Metropolitan Police officer Paul Birch, on his experiences in the police, the trouble with “community policing” and how the thin blue line went woke.

Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. 

Follow Laurie on X. 

Follow Thomas on X.

And read his report, ‘The EU’s Propaganda Machine: How the EU funds NGOs to promote itself’, here.

Follow David on X.

Subscribe to Paul’s Substack here.

Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel here. 

Produced by Richard Eldred.

Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

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 33 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following guests:

Guy Dampier, Senior Researcher on Nationhood at the Prosperity Institute, on what Britain can learn from Donald Trump on how to solve the problem of illegal immigration.

William Yarwood, Media Campaign Manager at the Taxpayers’ Alliance, on the great Motability scandal.

And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to David Shipley, writer on prisons and justice, on Adolescence, the skewed focus of Prevent and the twee tyranny of Paddington Bear.

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Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel 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.

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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 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.

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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.

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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.

Is Net Zero dead? In this Sceptic short, host Laurie Wastell is joined by Dr Tilak Doshi, economist, former contributor to Forbes and now the Daily Sceptic’s Energy Editor, to discuss how Donald Trump’s “Drill, baby, drill!” energy revolution is upending the global green agenda, why the climate censorship regime is collapsing and whether the writing is on the wall for Ed Miliband.

NOTE: Premium subscribers will notice that this is an extract from the premium section of Episode 30. We’re sorry that there is no new episode today. This is due to circumstances beyond our control. The Sceptic will return next week as usual.

Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.

Follow Laurie on X.

Read Tilak’s piece on the Daily Sceptic.

And follow him on X.

Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel.

Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to Episode 26 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following guests:

Dr. Freddie Attenborough, Digital Communications Director at the Free Speech Union, on how Labour’s “Islamophobia” definition has stifled discussion of the Pakistani-Muslim rape-gangs scandal – and what that means for local inquiries.

David Turver, author of the Eigen Values Substack, on how we narrowly avoided blackouts during the cold snap last week, and what that says about the parlous state of Britain’s energy grid.

And for our premium subscribers, Laurie is joined by freelance investigative journalist Charlotte Gill, author of the Woke Waste Substack, on the shady Left-wing funding networks and foreign billionaires influencing our politics.

Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. 

Follow Laurie on X.

Read Freddie’s article here.

Follow the Free Speech Union on X.

Read David’s articles on the Daily Sceptic here.

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Read Charlotte’s latest on the Daily Sceptic here.

Follow her on X.

Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel here.

Produced by Richard Eldred.

Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

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.

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Read Laurie’s article on Tan Ikram here.

Follow Toby on X.

Read more about the Worker Protection Bill here.

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Read Niall’s article here.

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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

Welcome to episode two of the Sceptic!

On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following Daily Sceptic contributors:

• Ben Pile for a deep dive into the recent European elections and what it means for the EU’s Net Zero crusade
• Journalist Charlotte Gill on the madness of taxpayer-funded woke waste
• Dr. Noah Carl, Editor at Aporia, on the Lancet’s worrying embrace of gender ideology

And for those donating £5 a month or more to the Daily Sceptic, Laurie speaks to Molly Kingsley, the founder of UsForThem, about the infected blood scandal and its lessons for the Covid vaccines.

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Follow Laurie on X.

Read Molly Kingsley’s article on the Daily Sceptic here.

Read Charlotte Gil’s article here.

Read Dr. Noah Carl’s article here.

And read Ben Pile’s article here.

Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to episode eight of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following Daily Sceptic contributors:

Dr David Livermore, microbiologist and Daily Sceptic regular, on the growing concerns about the Lucy Letby verdict, and how the Daily Sceptic led the world in raising them;

Dr Angus Dalgleish, emeritus professor of oncology at the University of London and co-signatory of the Great Barrington Declaration, on how the first report of the Covid Inquiry has blown up the establishment’s pro-lockdown consensus;

And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to Steven Tucker, author and regular Daily Sceptic contributor, on French politics, immigration and the West’s “post-human” elites through the eyes of the celebrated French novelist, Michel Houellebecq.

Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content: www.dailysceptic.org/donate/

Follow Laurie on X: https://x.com/L_Wastell

Read David’s article on the Daily Sceptic here: https://dailysceptic.org/2023/09/11/lucy-letby-must-be-allowed-an-appeal/

Read Angus’s article here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/07/18/the-covid-inquiry-is-right-to-name-and-shame-matt-hancock/

And read Steven’s articles here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/07/11/alienation-in-an-alien-nation-michel-houellebecq-explains-the-true-horror-of-french-politics/

https://dailysceptic.org/2024/07/12/president-macron-and-our-post-human-future-according-to-michel-houellebecq/

Produced by Richard Eldred. 

Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to this Special Episode of the Sceptic.

Two-tier policing. Two-tier justice. Two-tier Keir. Well, we’ve spoken about all of those things on the Sceptic, especially how they’ve been in evidence in the Government response to the disorder up and down the country after the Southport murders. Much of this was in towns in the Midlands and the North, but it was in London, outside Downing Street, just two days after the attack, that my next guest was part of a peaceful protest against knife crime – when he, along with dozens of others, was arrested, placed in a prison cell and held for nearly 24 hours. Never charged – for there was nothing to charge him with – he’s now suing the Metropolitan Police for false imprisonment and assault. 

Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.

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Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel.

Watch Alex on YouTube here.

Produced by Richard Eldred.

Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to Episode 30 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following guests:

Tom Jones, Conservative councillor and writer for publications including the Critic and UnHerd, on Ukraine, the bust-up in the Oval Office and the parlous state of Europe's armed forces.

Michael Wolff, author of several books on team Trump, on what really makes the Donald tick.

And for our premium subscribers, Laurie is joined by Dr Tilak Doshi, economist, former contributor to Forbes and now the Daily Sceptic’s Energy Editor.

Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. 

Follow Laurie on X. 

Follow Tom on X and check out his substack.

Follow Michael on X.

Read Tilak’s latest on the Daily Sceptic here. 

And follow him on X.

Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel 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/

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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 four of the Sceptic!

On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following Daily Sceptic contributors:

The mysterious and ever-incisive Daily Sceptic columnist J Sorel, on Keir Starmer’s technocratic plan to end parliamentary democracy;

David McGrogan, associate law professor at Northumbria University, on a recent Supreme Court ruling that puts the future of UK oil and gas in question and the “tyrannical tendency” of BBC disinformation reporter Marianna Spring;

And Alex Kriel, the founder of thinkingcoalition.org, on the elephant in the room in the General Election campaign: lockdowns. 

And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to pseudonymous commentator Eugyppius, author of the influential Substack, eugyppius: a plague chronicle, who gives us a deep-dive into German politics and the right-wing wave sweeping Europe.

Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content: www.dailysceptic.org/donate/

Follow Laurie on X: https://x.com/L_Wastell

Read J Sorel’s article on the Daily Sceptic here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/06/21/starmerism-means-the-wholesale-transfer-of-power-from-parliament-to-civil-servants-judges-and-quangocrats/  

Read David’s article on Marianna Spring here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/06/21/springtime-for-tyrants/ 

Read Alex’s article here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/06/18/nhs-waiting-lists-dont-mention-lockdown/ 

And Eugyppius’s articles here: https://dailysceptic.org/2024/06/17/after-months-of-freaking-out-about-the-right-the-german-government-inches-towards-collapse-as-the-social-democrats-realise-theyre-wildly-unpopular/ 

https://dailysceptic.org/2024/06/17/after-months-of-freaking-out-about-the-right-the-german-government-inches-towards-collapse-as-the-social-democrats-realise-theyre-wildly-unpopular/ 

Produced by Richard Eldred. 

Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

In this Special Episode of the Sceptic, Laurie speaks to Ben Cobley, commentator and author of The Tribe: The Liberal-Left and the System of Diversity and The Progress Trap: The Modern Left and the False Authority of History, out next month.

They discuss Ben’s concept of the “system of diversity” we find ourselves living in our multicultural society, Laurie’s research on hate crime and why that’s a prime example of it, why it’s so unforgiving, the concept of ‘community leaders’ and whether they are authentic, and ‘Islamophobia’ and the unholy fusion of ultraconservative Islam with Left-wing sociology.

In the premium section, they discuss why Labour is so afraid of a national grooming gangs inquiry, why the wheels are coming off for Jess Phillips, how to recover from our two-tier society and Ben’s new book on the falsehoods of progressivism.

Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content

Follow Laurie on X

Follow Ben on X

Pre-order The Progress Trap here

Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel

Produced by Richard Eldred.

Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to this Special Episode of the Sceptic, with Professor David Starkey CBE, the eminent and acerbic historian, author and broadcaster.

In a wide-ranging conversation, host Laurie Wastell and Professor Starkey discuss the grooming gangs scandal, why Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter represents the end of the long 20th Century, Trump’s second term, free speech, state censorship and the “noble lie” of multiculturalism, the parallels between communism and liberalism and why Keir Starmer’s response to the Southport massacre has been “contemptible beyond contempt”. In the premium section, they discuss English individualism and why it gave birth to the modern world, the challenge of imported ethnic tribalism, national identity in an age of immigration and what is to be done.

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Follow Laurie on X.

Follow Professor Starkey on X.

Subscribe to his YouTube Channel.

Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel.

Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to Episode 29 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following guests:

Eugyppius, pseudonymous commentator and author of the substack Eugyppius: a plague chronicle, on the election in Germany and JD Vance’s bombshell Munich speech.

Professor Eric Kaufmann, Director of the Centre for Heterodox Social Science at the University of Buckingham and the author of books including Whiteshift (2018) and Taboo (2024), on a recent controversy over whether Rishi Sunak is English – and whether the Trump administration can reverse woke culture.

And for our premium subscribers, Laurie is joined by Chris Bayliss, independent consultant and writer for publications including the Critic, on what’s behind the shocking recent wave of migrant terror attacks across Europe.

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Follow Laurie on X.

Follow Eugyppius on X.

Read Eugyppius’s latest on the Daily Sceptic here.

Follow Eric on X.

Read his article on the Daily Sceptic here. 

Follow Chris on X.

Read Chris’s article here.

Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel here.

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.

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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 this Special Episode of the Sceptic, with Andrew Orlowski, business columnist at the Telegraph and writer for publications including the Critic, Spiked and UnHerd.

Host Laurie Wastell and Andrew discuss Andrew’s work writing on business and technology, AI and whether it’s all it’s cracked up to be, the strengths of British innovation and why we fail to commercialise it, why the Left sneers at business, how Net Zero and mass low-skilled immigration are damaging our productivity and the rent-seeking of Amazon and Big Tech. In the premium section, they discuss why the policy-making class needs more engineers, whether the Conservative Party has a future, the impact of Trump 2.0 and Elon Musk’s coming war with Ofcom.

Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.

Follow Laurie on X.

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Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel.

Produced by Richard Eldred.

Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to Episode 34 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following guests:

Fred de Fossard, Director of Strategy at the Prosperity Institute, on Trump’s tariffs on how Britain should respond to them.

Sam Bidwell, Director of Research at the Adam Smith Institute, on the UK MPs campaigning for an airport in Mirpur, Pakistan and what this says about the growing problem of Muslim sectarianism in Britain.

And for our premium subscribers, Laurie is joined by Dr Mario Trabucco della Toretta, classical archaeologist and writer, on the wonders of the British Museum – and what the ‘decolonise’ crowd gets so wrong about the Elgin Marbles.

Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. 

Follow Laurie on X. 

Follow Fred on X.

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Follow Mario on X.

Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel here. 

Produced by Richard Eldred.

Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to Episode 27 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following guests:

David Shipley, writer on prison reform for publications including the Spectator, on the Government’s failings over the Southport attack and the serious questions for Keir Starmer and the Government about why we were kept in the dark about it. 

Fred de Fossard, Director of Strategy at the Prosperity Institute (formerly the Legatum Institute) and writer for publications including the Critic, on how the inauguration of Donald Trump is set to blow a hole in woke capitalism – and whether Britain can ever follow suit. 

And for our premium subscribers, Laurie is joined by author and historian Ed West, on why the fallout of the grooming gangs scandal could make it Britain’s Chernobyl.

Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. 

Follow Laurie on X.

Read David on the Southport riots here. 

Follow David on X.

Read Fred’s report on Woke Capitalism here.

Follow Fred on X.

Subscribe to Ed’s Wrong Side of History substack here.

Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel 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 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 six of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following guests:

Frank Haviland, editor at the New Conservative and author of The Frank Report substack, on Labour’s shallow election victory and the grim rise of Muslim sectarianism;

Special guest David Frost, the Conservative peer and former chief Brexit negotiator, for a deep-dive into what the Tories’ calamitous defeat means for the future of the party and British politics;

And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to the Daily Sceptic’s editor-in-chief Toby Young, on his trip down under to spearhead a global movement for free speech.

Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content: www.dailysceptic.org/donate/

Follow Laurie on X: https://x.com/L_Wastell

Produced by Richard Eldred. 

Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to this Special Episode of the Sceptic, with Ben Sixsmith, Online Editor at the Critic.

Host Laurie Wastell catches up with Ben at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship Conference. They discuss the conference and the state of the Right internationally; Kemi Badenoch and “muscular liberalism”; free speech, the grooming gangs and Britain’s international reputation; JD Vance’s Munich speech; how Trump’s domestic agenda is showing the world’s conservatives how to get things done and much more.

Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.

Follow Laurie on X.

Follow Ben on X.

Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel.

Produced by Richard Eldred.

Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

Welcome to this special episode of the Sceptic with Professor Eric Kaufmann, on his new book, Taboo: How Making Race Sacred Produced a Cultural Revolution.

Eric is Head of the Institute of Heterodox Social Science at the University of Buckingham, a member of the advisory board of the Free Speech Union and a senior fellow at Policy Exchange.

Host Laurie Wastell speaks to Eric about the thesis of this book, that what we know today as wokeism stems from the emergence of the race taboo in the 60s; what people get wrong about woke; its origins in the West’s Christian heritage; its impact on the immigration debate; why Conservative politicians won’t talk about demographics; why younger generations are woker, why that’s a problem, and the ‘Zoomer Right’ phenomenon; the culture war under a Labour government and how to fight back; and the need for a counter-narrative to woke.

Get your copy of Taboo: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Taboo-Making-Produced-Cultural-Revolution/dp/1800752660

Sign up for Eric’s 15-week open online course on woke at the University of Buckingham: https://www.buckingham.ac.uk/courses/occasional/woke/

Visit Eric’s research centre at Buckingham: www.heterodoxcentre.com

Visit Eric’s website: www.sneps.net

Follow Eric on X: https://x.com/epkaufm

And find him on substack: https://erickaufmann.substack.com

Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content: www.dailysceptic.org/donate/

Follow Laurie on X: https://x.com/L_Wastell

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 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 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.

Last month the grooming gangs scandal broke into the political conversation in Britain in a way it never had before – so much so that after days of headlines, the Labour Government was forced to launch five inquiries into affected areas like Oldham. While many think this still doesn’t go far enough, it’s clear the conversation has changed. Instrumental in that change has been the landmark GB News documentary Grooming Gangs: Britain’s Shame, and its research which found that group-based on-street child grooming had blighted more than 50 towns and cities across the UK.

In this Special Episode of the Sceptic, Laurie speaks to one of the duo behind that documentary, Guy Dampier, Senior Researcher at the Prosperity Institute and a writer for publications including the Telegraph, about his experiences making it and what he learnt about the communities where this scandal took place.

NOTE: Due to technical issues, this week’s other two interviews, recorded at this week’s ARC Conference, will be arriving next week.

Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.

Follow Laurie on X.

Follow Guy on X.

Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel.

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 this Special Episode of the Sceptic, with South African businessman Rob Hersov.

Speaking at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) Conference, host Laurie Wastell and Rob discuss the history and decline of post-apartheid South Africa, the corruption of the ruling ANC, its chilling “expropriation without compensation” laws, the impact of Trump and Musk’s attention to South Africa, why its policy of “Black Economic Empowerment” is like DEI on steroids, the far-Left parties who chant “Kill the Boer”, and why Western liberal media refuses to admit what a basket case South Africa has become.

Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.

Follow Laurie on X.

Follow Rob on X.

Subscribe to Rob on YouTube.

Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel.

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 28 of the Sceptic! On the show this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to the following guests:

Peter Hitchens, columnist at the Mail on Sunday and author of books including The Abolition of Britain, on the bombshell expert findings about Lucy Letby and why her case must now be heard again.

Barrister Adam King, on his client with the Free Speech Union, former Royal Marine Jamie Michael, being found not guilty of stirring up racial hatred – and what it says about the Government’s post-Southport crackdown.

And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to pseudonymous commentator Eugyppius, author of the substack Eugyppius: a plague chronicle, on the chaos in German politics after the fall of the German establishment parties’ cordon sanitaire against the AfD.

Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. 

Follow Laurie on X.

Follow Peter on X.

Follow Adam on X. 

Join the Free Speech Union here.

Read Eugyppius’s latest on the Daily Sceptic here. 

Follow Eugyppius on X.

Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel here.

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.