The Sceptic

Labour’s staggering hypocrisy over Reform’s record-breaking donations, the AfD’s seismic breakthrough in Germany and the extraordinary £483 billion climate-damage claim over North Sea oil and gas.
In Episode 96 of the Sceptic, guest host Ellie Hodges sits down with our very own Editor-in-Chief Toby Young to talk about Reform’s enormous £72 million donation. They get into donation caps, Labour’s proposed rules, the hypocrisy of Labour attacking Reform’s funding while taking huge sums from trade unions and what Reform should actually do with all that cash.
Then it’s over to Germany to find out what our resident Germany correspondent Eugyppius thinks of the AfD’s latest electoral breakthrough, why Friedrich Merz is a “dead Chancellor walking” and whether Germany’s AfD firewall is starting to crack.
And for premium subscribers, Ellie talks to energy expert David Turver about the eye-watering claim that the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil fields in the North Sea could cause £483 billion of climate damage – and whether the maths behind it makes sense.
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Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.
 
00:00 Intro
02:13 Toby Young on Reform’s £72M Donation
03:23 Donation Caps
05:43 Labour’s New Rules
07:41 Retrospective Legislation
09:05 Buying Political Influence
11:31 Union Funding
13:53 State Funding
15:00 Spending Reform’s £72M
20:40 Eugyppius on AfD’s Big Result
23:20 Merz’s Problems
28:05 The Firewall’s Impact
31:22 Can The Firewall Survive?
33:25 AfD & Europe
36:04 David Turvey on the £483Bn Claim
38:21 The Cost Of Carbon
40:27 Counting Climate Damage
49:59 Climate Policy

Prof David Betz on whether the Dover protests could be the start of something much bigger; is the West making the Ukraine war more dangerous and what do the numbers really tell us about Britain’s latest heatwaves?
In Episode 95 of the Sceptic, guest host Ellie Hodges talks to Prof David Betz of King’s College London about the protests in Dover and Portsmouth and the growing fury over mass migration. They get into ‘system disruption’, the radical Left’s influence, the Government’s likely response, Reform’s fading momentum, parallels with Germany and the risk that Britain’s economic fragility could fuel serious civil unrest.
Ellie then talks to former Conservative MP and defence tech entrepreneur Brooks Newmark about the war in Ukraine. They discuss NATO expansion, whether the West helped provoke the conflict, the danger of escalation, Russia’s hybrid warfare and whether Britain and Europe are actually ready for a wider war.
And for premium subscribers, meteorologist William M. Briggs takes a gander at Britain’s heatwaves and the alarmist claims surrounding them, from temperature records and ‘excess deaths’ to climate models, dodgy statistics and the assumptions lurking underneath it all.
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Produced by Richard Eldred.
Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.
00:00 Intro
01:42 David Betz on the Dover Protests
04:12 Danny Tommo and Tommy Robinson
07:22 Leaderless Protest
10:51 System Disruption
12:58 Situationist Tactics
16:43 How Should the Government Respond?
21:39 Reform vs AfD
26:50 Economic Shock and Legitimacy
29:28 Russia, Ukraine and Britain
34:11 What’s Changed?
36:25 Brooks Newmark on the Ukraine War
36:49 NATO Expansion
39:00 Russia, Security and Ukraine
41:11 Long-Range Weapons and Escalation
44:24 Russia’s Hybrid War
46:39 European Defence
49:21 NATO and Britain’s Readiness
52:33 Negotiating With Russia
54:30 Risk of a Wider War
57:25 William Briggs on What the Heatwave Data Shows
59:40 Weather and Climate Claims
01:00:53 Climate Certainty
01:01:08 The Limits of Climate Models
01:02:24 Models, Homogenisation and Deaths
01:05:13 The Climate Research Industry
01:07:32 Climate Catastrophe
 

An undercover journalist’s extraordinary journey onboard a migrant dinghy, the risk of war with Russia and Canada’s energy standoff with America.
In Episode 94 of the Sceptic, Ellie Hodges sits down with undercover reporter Christian Drogan to hear how he infiltrated migrant camps in northern France, paid €1,400 to cross the Channel and came face to face with smugglers, migrants and French authorities.
Strategist and ex-Royal Navy Commodore Steve Jermy on the West’s incompetent approach to the war in Ukraine, the risks of escalation with Russia and whether a negotiated path to peace is still possible.
And for our premium subscribers, Ellie speaks to the Daily Sceptic’s Energy Editor Dr Tilak Doshi about the growing trade and energy row between the US and Canada, and whether Mark Carney’s brinkmanship gamble will pay off.
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Produced by Richard Eldred.
Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.
 
00:00 Intro  
01:51 Christian Drogen on His Undercover Channel Crossing  
03:32 Getting Into the Migrant Camps  
04:36 Timeline of the Operation  
05:30 Posing as a Criminal on the Run  
07:14 Life Inside the Camps  
08:38 Danger in the Dunkirk & Calais Jungles  
09:17 Why Migrants Want Britain  
11:28 Demographics of the Boats  
13:13 What it Felt Like on the Dinghy  
14:13 Who Was on the Boat  
14:49 Border Force Reaction  
17:22 Home Office Criticism  
17:54 Could Anyone Repeat This  
19:42 How Smugglers Sell the Dream  
21:10 French Police Involvement  
24:22 How to Stop the Crossings  
28:29 Finding the Documentary  
29:15 Steve Jermy on the Ukraine War  
30:48 What the West is Getting Wrong  
33:06 Europe Preparing For War With Russia  
35:40 Why Supporting Ukraine And Nato is Flawed  
38:53 A Negotiated Path to Peace  
42:04 Does Negotiation Reward Aggression  
44:13 What the British Public is Missing  
48:16 Tilak Doshi on Carneys Gamble  
51:31 Who Has the Upper Hand  
56:00 Could the Dispute Backfire On Canada  
58:34 Ottawa vs Alberta  
01:00:38 A Larger Geopolitical Reshaping

Does the Right need to compromise on its principles to win elections? And what’s really behind the shaky science of the 97% climate consensus?
In Episode 93 of the Sceptic, guest host Ellie Hodges chats to writer and commentator Nick Rendell about why the Right needs to stop preaching to the choir, explain its policies more clearly and find a way for the parties on the Right to work together.
And for our premium subscribers, Ellie talks to social scientist and author of the Valid Science Substack Dr José Duarte about the extraordinary flaws in the research behind the 97% climate consensus claim, why we should be wary of consensus claims and where genuine disagreement among climate scientists remains.
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Produced by Richard Eldred.
Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.
00:00 Intro01:26 Nick Rendell on the Right’s Electoral Strategy01:31 Balancing Principles & Electoral Success04:36 Winning Over Net Zero Voters11:47 Making the Conservative Case More Convincingly15:39 The Case For a Right-Wing Electoral Pact19:48 What His Reader Backlash Reveals22:13 Political Purity & Rational Compromise25:22 Dr José Duarte on the 97% Climate Consensus25:34 Why Climate Consensus Research is Flawed26:22 Problems With Consensus Studies30:45 How The 97% Figure Was Constructed33:14 Measuring What Climate Scientists Actually Believe35:02 The Limits of Scientific Consensus37:17 Where Climate Scientists Still Disagree

Why trust in the mainstream media has collapsed, the rise of the ‘lanyard class’ and why cleaner air may be behind Europe’s heatwaves.
In Episode 92 of the Sceptic, Ellie Hodges is joined by veteran broadcaster and journalist Mike Graham to lift the lid on Britain’s increasingly cosy media establishment, the decline of Fleet Street and why so many journalists now seem cut from the same cloth. They also discuss his new book, Fake News: The Secret Deal Between Government and the Media, and the rise of independent journalism.
And for our premium subscribers, Ellie talks to Prof Roger Pielke Jr, who challenges some of the simplistic claims surrounding Europe’s heatwaves and explains why cleaner air may actually be contributing to warming.
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Produced by Richard Eldred.
Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.
00:00 Intro01:18 Mike Graham on ‘Fake News’08:46 Why Trust in the Media Has Collapsed10:55 How Journalism Changed14:26 The Working-Class Media Divide16:23 How Headlines Shape Public Opinion23:40 The Wild West of Fleet Street28:39 How Social Media Killed the Press30:27 The Collapse of Journalism’s Pay & Ambition32:09 The End of the 9-to-5 Journalist34:47 Building an Independent News Channel39:53 Roger Pielke on Europe’s Heatwaves40:34 Beyond the ‘Climate Change’ Explanation42:32 Why Europe is Warming43:14 The Role of Cleaner Air & Dry Soils44:12 Adapting to Extreme Heat45:39 The Problem With RCP8.548:40 What Happens to the Research?

The battle over Brexit’s broken immigration promises and the mystery of why a key piece of climate data has quietly disappeared from official reports.
In Episode 91 of the Sceptic, Ellie Hodges sits down with Migration Watch UK Chairman Alp Mehmet to discuss the soaring levels of migration since Brexit and whether Britain’s political class ever intended to deliver the border control voters thought they were getting.
And for our premium subscribers, Daily Sceptic Environment Editor Chris Morrison asks why decades of declining wind-speed data have disappeared from the Met Office’s latest climate report and explores what it means for public trust in Britain's climate institutions. 
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Produced by Richard Eldred.
Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.
 
00:00 Intro
01:38 Alp Mehmet on Why Migration Soared After Brexit
03:54 The Decision That Opened the Floodgates
08:03 Bigger Boats, More Crossings, No Deterrent
11:58 Did Politicians Ever Intend to Cut Migration?
17:18 How Government Lost Control
22:19 The Student Visa Back Door
24:10 Why Nobody Wants to Cap Migration
26:15 The Warnings Nobody Listened to
28:00 Britain's Demographic Transformation
30:15 Chris Morrison on the Met’s Missing Climate Data
30:52 Why Hide Wind Data?
42:46 Climate Models Vs Reality
47:48 Net Zero’s Inconvenient Problem

Rupert Lowe on uniting the Right, are thousands really dying from summer heatwaves and how one academic’s investigation ended in a DEI superstar’s Cambridge resignation.
In Episode 90 of the Sceptic, the Daily Sceptic’s Editor-in-Chief Toby Young sits down with Restore leader Rupert Lowe to discuss his attempt to mend fences with Nigel Farage, whether Reform and Restore can still work together and what a united Right might look like ahead of the next election.
Professor of Evidence Based Medicine Carl Heneghan examines the UK Health Security Agency’s claim that nearly 3,000 excess deaths were caused by this summer’s heatwaves and asks whether the evidence really supports such alarming headlines.
And for our premium subscribers, Dr Nathan Cofnas, Postdoctoral Researcher in Philosophy at Ghent University, reflects on breaking the Jason Arday story, the extraordinary fallout that followed and whether he ever expected it to end with Arday’s resignation from Cambridge.
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Produced by Richard Eldred.
Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.
00:00 Intro02:03 Rupert Lowe’s Offer To Reform UK08:20 Prospects For A Reform–Restore Deal10:15 Restore Britain’s Election Plans15:12 Continuing To Challenge Reform UK17:07 Lowe’s Definition Of Corruption18:42 Restore Britain’s Economic Policy27:55 On Becoming Chancellor31:39 Carl Heneghan and the Problems With Heat Death Estimates35:16 Reliability Of Future Heat Death Data37:34 The Problem With Statistical Certainty39:27 Climate Alarmism And Media Headlines42:43 Downfall Of Anthony Fauci47:10 Lessons From The Covid Inquiry49:21 Nathan Kaunas on Breaking The Jason Arday Story56:00 The Response To Criticism Of Arday57:09 Carter-Ruck And Legal Threats58:03 Investigating Arday’s Academic Work01:03:18 Claims Of Unequal Academic Standards01:04:36 The Real Story Behind Arday01:06:11 Fears Of Legal Action01:06:38 Contacting Arday And Cambridge01:07:56 Initial Reaction To The Story01:08:39 Arday’s Extraordinary Biographical Claims01:11:00 The Story Goes Viral01:11:29 Concerns About Racial Motives01:13:53 Arday’s Resignation01:14:19 Attacks From Arday’s Defenders01:15:51 Simon Baron-Cohen’s Defence Of Arday01:17:31 The Story’s International Reach01:19:25 Responding To Racism Accusations01:21:08 Nathan's Controversial Blog Post01:27:04 Case For Affirmative Action01:28:11 Impact On University Hiring01:29:09 Cambridge’s Handling Of The Plagiarism Allegations01:30:14 Accountability For Arday’s Appointment01:32:09 Double Standards In Academic Hiring01:33:51 Vindication And Revenge

Why a major anti-Muslim terror scare appears to have been built on almost nothing, who’s really pulling the strings in Britain’s public debate and is the Government finally rowing back on Net Zero?
In Episode 89 of the Sceptic, Ellie Hodges sits down with journalist Charlotte Gill to discuss the growing influence of taxpayer-funded activist groups, the blurred line between activism and journalism and why critics of mass migration are so often smeared as “far-Right”.
Author Steven Tucker dissects the anti-Muslim terror plot in Suffolk that collapsed on contact with the facts and applies “eventism” – the theory that fear of an event is equivalent to the event itself – to explain why almost nobody involved has walked it back.
And for our premium subscribers, the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor Chris Morrison asks whether the new Government’s backing for more North Sea oil and gas is a genuine change of direction or just a change in rhetoric.
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Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.
 
00:00 Intro
01:55 Charlotte Gill and the Tarbell Fellowship
04:06 Transparency Concerns Around Funded Journalism
05:43 Bureau Of Investigative Journalism
07:56 The Far Right Label
08:46 Power of Migration Charities
10:14 Valentine's Day Cards Controversy
13:00 Scrutiny of the Charity Sector
14:44 Reforming Charity Funding Rules
16:18 Changing Landscape of Journalism
17:47 State of the MSM
19:32 Burnham's First Weeks in Office
20:52 Is Labour Turning Left?
21:57 Can the Tories Bounce Back?
23:00 The Greens' Uneasy Coalition
24:36 Steven Tucker on the Terror Plot That Wasn't
30:07 Why No One Has Retracted the Claims
38:10 What is Eventism?
42:19 Anticipatory Violence
49:25 Connecting The Dots Between The Two Stories
53:50 Chris Morrison on Burnham's U-Turn on Oil And Gas
01:00:44 Why the CAN Bill Matters
01:06:35 Who is Funding Net Zero?
01:09:43 Britain's Sky High Electricity Prices
 

The absolute state of British politics, how a vicar fell foul of the Church of England over Christian beliefs and why Net Zero is now a national security risk.
In Episode 88 of the Sceptic, Ellie Hodges sits down with PopCon’s Mark Littlewood to make sense of Andy Burnham’s chaotic first days in No 10, the sharp Left turn in his Cabinet and whether Farage's Clacton by-election battle is really the joke the media's making it out to be.
Dr Rev Bernard Randall tells his extraordinary story: suspended, reported to Prevent as a terror suspect and put through a seven-year church safeguarding battle – all for a sermon that was in keeping with Christian doctrine.
And for our premium subscribers, Ellie talks to former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove about why he believes Britain’s Net Zero policy has become a national security liability.
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Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.
00:00 Intro
02:23 Mark Littlewood On Burnham's Coronation
02:50 Radical Left-Wing Policy Or Just "Vibes"?
04:28 Does Changing Labour's Leader Change Anything?
07:43 "No 10 Of The North" Devolution
09:14 Burnham's Cabinet Reshuffle
16:19 How Serious Is The Clacton By-Election Really?
18:59 Count Binface - Establishment Stooge?
22:27 Farage - Establishment Hit Job?
24:11 Is Farage "Part Of The Establishment"?
26:16 Can Kemi's Tories Stage A Comeback?
30:54 Predictions For The Next General Election
33:48 Bernard Randall And His CofE Ordeal
37:24 What Was It Like Being Reported To Prevent?
39:24 The Toll On Him And His Family
42:15 Why The Controversy?
44:50 Was 2019 "Peak Woke" — Has It Improved?
46:32 What's Next And Advice For Other Chaplains
49:48 Sir Richard Dearlove On Net Zero's Security Risk
53:19 Top Energy-Security Priorities For Burnham
55:38 How Real Is The China/EV/Grid Threat?
59:33 Where Does Energy Rank Among National Security Threats?
1:01:02 Will Britain Be Forced Into A German-Style Rethink?
1:04:11 Doesn't Cutting Fossil Fuels Make Britain Safer?
1:05:11 Is It Too Late?
 

How the Government’s social media ban for kids is a Trojan horse for digital ID, why Britain’s free speech laws are broken and the eye-watering cost of Net Zero.
In Episode 87 of the Sceptic, Ellie Hodges is joined by Alan Miller, co-founder of the Together Declaration, to discuss the Government’s plans for an under-16s social media ban, the push for digital ID checks, VPN restrictions and what they could mean for free speech and privacy.
Barrister John Holbrook explains why he thinks Britain’s hate speech laws are failing, how they have helped fuel cancel culture and why he believes free speech protections need a major rethink.
And for premium subscribers, energy analyst and author Richard Lyon digs into the eye-watering cost of renewable subsidies – now topping £227 billion! – the growing pressures on the UK grid and why he believes Net Zero could leave Britain facing a serious energy trap.
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Produced by Richard Eldred.
Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.
 
00:00 Intro
02:29 Alan Miller on the Incoming Social Media Ban
09:13 Response to Katherine Birbalsingh on Child Safety
12:47 Has Australia’s Under-16 Ban Worked?
14:45 Expectations Under a Burnham Government
17:39 What Will Britain’s Internet Look Like in 5 Years?
23:57 Jon Holbrook on Being Cancelled
28:29 What Language Should Be Criminalised?
31:42 Repeal All Hate Speech Laws?
34:12 Protected Beliefs vs Cancel Culture
37:48 Reforming Online Speech Laws
41:08 Can These Reforms Roll Back Cancel Culture?
45:19 Richard Lyon on the True Cost of Net Zero
48:07 The Subsidy Clock
51:16 What Is the Energy Trap?
55:27 Being a Climate Sceptic is Irrelevant
1:04:15 A Sensible UK Energy Policy