The Sceptic

Steven Edginton on Tan Ikram’s campaign for Pakistani judges and the BBC’s migrant-rape blindspot. Plus: how to solve the prisons crisis and Burnham’s vibes-based energy plan.

In Episode 99 of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell speaks to Steven Edginton, investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker, on Britain’s most controversial judge, Tan Ikram, and his campaign for more Pakistani judges – plus, the BBC’s shameful reporting failures on a shocking migrant rape case.

Alexander Baker, Senior Researcher at the Prosperity Institute, on the roots of the prisons crisis – and how to solve it.

And journalist and Daily Sceptic regular Ben Pile on the vibes-based nonsense of Andy Burnham’s ‘Great British Grid’ plan – and why our energy bills keep going up under Labour.

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

 

00:00 Intro 
01:25 Stephen Edginton on Tan Ikram’s Dodgy Record 
10:35 Judicial Activism & Diversity 
17:34 Holding Controversial Judges to Account 
19:24 BBC’s Reporting 
28:45 Protests Against Illegal Migration 
31:56 Returning to Independent Journalism 
34:00 Alexander Baker on the Prison Crisis 
36:36 Who Is to Blame for the Prison Crisis? 
37:35 Shift Away From Punishment 
40:26 Impact of Emergency Prisoner Releases 
42:44 Failures of Probation 
44:41 Prison Conditions & Rehabilitation 
57:55 Reform’s Approach to Prison Building 
58:53 Political Will to Fix the Crisis 
01:00:11 Ben Pile on Labour’s Energy Promise 
01:08:38 The Great British Grid 
01:09:16 The Promise of Lower Bills and Faster Connections 
01:14:16 What Would Really Empower Energy Consumers? 
01:15:18 Rising Prices

Michael Rainsborough on Andy Burnham’s Ministry of Truth, Richard Lyon on peak oil and the energy trap and Jack Hadfield on the new wave of anti-immigration protests and the persecution of Danny Tommo.

In Episode 98 of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell speaks to Michael Rainsborough, Professor of Strategic Theory at Deakin University, on Andy Burnham’s sinister new National Centre for Information Defence.

Richard Lyon, engineer and energy economist, on his new book The Energy Trap, whether we’ve reached peak oil and the truth about the ‘energy transition’.

And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to independent journalist Jack Hadfield on the latest wave of anti-immigration protests and the shameful two-tier justice meted out to the protesters.

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

00:00 Intro
01:54 Michael Rainsborough on Burnham’s New Censorship Centre
05:40 The Political Impetus
06:39 Russia & UK’s Domestic Problems
11:04 The Meaning of Disinformation
17:36 Protecting What Matters
24:08 The State’s Loss of Legitimacy
30:29 Britain’s Approach to Governance
33:24 Richard Lyon on The Energy Trap
36:26 The Elitist Energy Debate
39:47 Climate Labels & Debate
42:02 The Case Against Net Zero
48:16 Heatwaves & Decarbonisation
51:07 A Better Energy Policy
57:24 Peak Oil
01:01:43 Oil & the Energy Transition
01:06:24 Jack Hadfield on the Boat Crisis
01:06:52 The New Anti-Immigration Protests
01:11:13 Growing Public Anger
01:14:21 Violence at the Protests
01:18:03 Violent Disorder Charges
01:25:31 Danny Tommo
01:32:36 RNLI & the Protests

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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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