The Sceptic

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.