The Sceptic

Guy Dampier: How to End Illegal Migration

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

Douglas Carswell: How to Save Britain

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

The EU’s Propaganda Machine – With Thomas Fazi

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

The Descent of South Africa – with Rob Hersov

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

Trump, Zelensky and the Delusions of Europe

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

The Rebirth of the Right? – With Ben Sixsmith

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

Germany is Shifting Rightwards

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

Guy Dampier: The Truth About the Grooming Gangs

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

Lucy Letby: Miscarriage of Justice? – with Peter Hitchens

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

Bonfire of the Globalist Pieties – with Andrew Orlowski

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