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.

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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 Nick’s article here.

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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.

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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.

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Read his article on Starmerism here. 

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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.

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Read Connie’s article on Leeds University here. 

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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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Read Will’s article on the Daily Sceptic here.

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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.

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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.

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And find him on Substack.

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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.

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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.