The Sceptic

Banned from an anti-racism meeting for being too old and white, the geopolitical damage being done by Net Zero and why the Church of England seems hell-bent on trashing its own traditions.

In Episode 97 of the Sceptic, guest host Ellie Hodges speaks to Leicestershire Police and Crime Commissioner Rupert Matthews about the extraordinary moment he was told to leave an anti-racism workshop at De Montfort University for being too old and white.

Former government adviser Rupert Darwall discusses his new book The Age of Error and the West’s Undoing: Net Zero and the Destruction of the West and how the West went from prioritising energy security to relying on the weather.

And for our premium subscribers, Ellie talks to Steven Tucker about Leeds Minster’s extraordinary decision to display the names of thousands of Palestinians, including Islamic Jihad terrorists, during the Jewish New Year, why Western institutions seem increasingly determined to turn their backs on their own traditions, the Church of England’s enthusiasm for interfaith relations and the emergence of “multicultural personality disorder”.

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Read Steven’s articles here and here.

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

 

00:00 Intro
01:29 Rupert Matthews on Being Banned From an Anti-Racism Workshop
02:00 Why He Attended the Workshop
04:08 Being Told to Leave
08:51 Too Old and White
10:23 What Anti-Racism Means
12:27 Identity Politics and Community Relations
15:13 The Dangers of Anti-Racism
17:14 Rupert Darwall on the Net Zero Obsession
18:56 Suppressing Climate Debate
21:08 Energy Security After Ukraine
23:21 How Experts Gained Power
24:43 Elites vs Voters
26:17 Taking Back Control
28:49 Steven Tucker on the Church’s Islamic Jihad Tribute
38:37 Why Institutions Reject Their Traditions
50:02 ‘Multicultural Personality Disorder’
53:43 Critics of American Culture
01:05:28 The Future of Western Institutions

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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Watch the Undercover Migrant here.

Read Steve’s Mor Gallos – Using Power Wisely in the 21st Century Substack here.

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Read his article here.

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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Read Nick’s article here.

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Read his Valid Science Substack here.

Produced by Richard Eldred.

Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.

00:00 Intro
01:26 Nick Rendell on the Right’s Electoral Strategy
01:31 Balancing Principles & Electoral Success
04:36 Winning Over Net Zero Voters
11:47 Making the Conservative Case More Convincingly
15:39 The Case For a Right-Wing Electoral Pact
19:48 What His Reader Backlash Reveals
22:13 Political Purity & Rational Compromise
25:22 Dr José Duarte on the 97% Climate Consensus
25:34 Why Climate Consensus Research is Flawed
26:22 Problems With Consensus Studies
30:45 How The 97% Figure Was Constructed
33:14 Measuring What Climate Scientists Actually Believe
35:02 The Limits of Scientific Consensus
37:17 Where Climate Scientists Still Disagree