The Sceptic

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.

Harrison Pitt on Alaa Abd El-Fattah and British citizenship, Islamism and West Midlands Police and the fightback against anarcho-tyranny. In Episode 63 of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell speaks to Harrison Pitt, Senior Policy Fellow at Restore Britain, Fellow at the New Culture Forum and Contributing Editor at the European Conservative. They discuss the Alaa Abd El-Fattah debacle and why the Egyptian activist is at best only “administratively British”, the latest in the Maccabi Tel Aviv fan ban row and how West Midlands Police is carrying the can for the failures of multiculturalism. And for premium subscribers, they discuss Harrison’s policy papers at Restore Britain, the scourge of anarcho-tyranny, plus: what the late Peter Whittle meant to him – and conservatism. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.  Follow Laurie on X.  Follow Harrison on X. Read his Restore Britain policy paper here. Read his obituary of Peter Whittle on the Daily Sceptic 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.

Intellectual historian Dr Carl Trueman on politics, psychology and the ‘modern self’. In this special episode of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell is joined by intellectual historian Dr Carl Trueman, to discuss his book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution. Many of the ideas that drive our politics today are strange by historical standards. Why is such great importance placed on sex, sexuality and identity politics? Why have questions about the family become so ardently politicised? When did our therapeutic society stop believing that “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me”? And why are we so often told that morality and truth are wholly subjective – whatever ‘feels right’? Across so many domains, the personal has become political. In this conversation with Sceptic host Laurie Wastell, intellectual historian Dr Carl Trueman explains how today’s ‘me, me, me’ social imaginary stems from what he calls The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, in his book of that title. In an argument encompassing Rousseau, Nietzsche, the Romantic poets and the Sexual Revolution, Dr Trueman sets out how our dominant social ethos of “expressive individualism” arose – and shows what its consequences have been. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. Follow Laurie on X. Buy The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self here. 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.

Andrew Orlowski on Britain’s weird utilitarian cult, Jack Rankin MP on the Tories vs the Blob and Ben Pile on green rent-seeking. In Episode 61 of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell speaks to Andrew Orlowski, business and technology columnist at the Telegraph, on Britain’s weird utilitarian cult, the ‘Mansards’, and why they’re everywhere. Jack Rankin, Conservative MP for Windsor, on where the Tories went wrong in their 14 years in power and whether they can recover. Plus: why he’s referred ‘Hope not Hate’ to the Charity Commission. And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to Ben Pile, journalist and Daily Sceptic regular, on the scourge of the rent-seeking Green Blob, and the worrying campaign to bring back lockdown measures because of the flu. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.  Follow Laurie on X.  Follow Andrew on X. Follow Jack on X. Follow Ben on X. Read Ben’s articles on the Daily Sceptic 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.

Rachel Reeves’s disastrous benefits Budget with John O’Connell of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, and Tilak Doshi on the great COP flop. In Episode 60 of the Sceptic, host Laurie Wastell speaks to John O’Connell, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, on Rachel Reeves’s disastrous benefits Budget. And for our premium subscribers, Laurie speaks to Dr Tilak Doshi, the Daily Sceptic’s Energy Editor, on how the COP 30 climate summit in Brazil utterly flopped and what that says about the Net Zero agenda, plus Sadiq Khan’s giant eco-hypocrisy. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.  Follow Laurie on X.  Follow John on X. Follow Tilak on X. Read Tilak’s articles on the Daily Sceptic here and 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.

Kathryn Porter on just how much Net Zero is costing us, why Ed Miliband’s claims about renewables are so laughable and how the Green Crusade is putting us at risk of blackouts this winter. In the Sceptic this week, host Laurie Wastell speaks to Kathryn Porter, energy consultant and commentator, for a deep dive on just how much Net Zero is costing us, why Ed Miliband’s claims about renewables are so laughable and how the Green Crusade is putting us at risk of blackouts this winter. Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content.  Follow Laurie on X.  Follow Kathryn on X. Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel here.  Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.