Toby Young – the Daily Sceptic‘s founder and Editor-in-Chief, and founder and Director of the Free Speech Union – has been awarded a peerage and will take his seat in the House of Lords next year, Downing Street has announced. The Telegraph has more.
Toby Young has been awarded a peerage, Downing Street has announced.
The founder and Director of the Free Speech Union will take his place in the House of Lords next year.
He is also a prominent proponent of free schools and set one up in west London.
A peerage has also been awarded to Nigel Biggar, a Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at Oxford University.
Prof Biggar has become famous in recent years for speaking out against criticisms of the British Empire.
The Conservative names were part of a list announced on Friday afternoon.
As expected, Sue Gray – Sir Keir Starmer’s former Chief of Staff – will be sent to the House of Lords, just two months after she left her role following internal rows.
Sir Keir has nominated 30 Labour peers. The Prime Minister has argued that the extra appointments are needed because Labour –which won the July election – has fewer seats in the Upper House than the Tories.
Mr. Young and Prof Biggar were nominated by Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader. …
The Prime Minister also nominated Mary Bousted, the former Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, who repeatedly opposed the reopening of schools during the Covid pandemic.
The former First Minister of Wales has also been made a peer despite overseeing deteriorating performance of the NHS in the principality.
A number of prominent Jewish members have been ennobled in a bid to put to bed memories of the Jeremy Corbyn era.
They include Luciana Berger, who was forced out of Labour because of antisemitism but has since rejoined, and Mike Katz, the national Chair of the Jewish Labour Movement.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: In the Telegraph, Nigel Biggar – who is FSU Chairman – says it’s “time to come off the fence” as he states that he now identifies as “a conservative” and explains why.


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Such good news and so well-deserved after Toby Young’s rough ride in recent years. Many congratulations!
Thanks.
Toby’s elevation is to be welcomed, as he will reinforce the small band of sane voices in the upper chamber.
👍
Happy fir Toby to receive recognition. Sad the current gov’t just keeps filling the trough. How much does the useless House of Lords cost the taxpayer. An abomination. A waste of hard earned money.
Good news, and I am happy for Toby. Now we can see the benefit of keeping one’s trap shut, which despite his supposedly being a ‘free-speech’ advocate, Toby has been very cautious of just how far he strays from the path of acceptable proclamation. Now we see why he has distanced himself from James Delingpole, and especially some of James’s more batty opinions, for example. But Toby has refused to comprehend or define that, that which is happening to our world is not just erroneous and accidental but is taking us to a new geopolitical and geoeconomic order by design. Toby dances up to this boundary and then flees from it remorselessly.
Now he has got his long anticipated prize, will he at long last be more daring?
Is Toby a pure Maverick, somehow I doubt it. Nothing happens by accident.
“Now he has got his long anticipated prize”
Is he on record as saying he was trying to get a seat in the Lords?
“Toby dances up to this boundary and then flees from it remorselessly.”
How do you know he just doesn’t hold the same opinions as you?
“despite his supposedly being a ‘free-speech’ advocate”
Do you have examples of him opposing or suppressing free speech? Posts on this site are full of “conspiracy theories” and stuff about “zionism” – certainly not in keeping with his views – yet those posts remain.
Congratulations Toby and thank you for all of your efforts.
Thanks.
That is fantastic. I have to say seeing the DS headline, I thought it was a spoof article.
Good Lord!
Congratulations!!
👍
congratulations toby! so well deserved .
you and will and everyone here at daily sceptic are and have been a shining light in darkness since march 2020. you have been a life saver! friends out there when almost no one to talk to except for random strangers and one great family member. everyone else brainwashed. so congrats toby!
Ta.
Brilliant news for both Toby Young and Professor Nigel Biggar, who have stood up for freedom and against cancel culture. Well done Kemi Badenoch for nominating them. How did the Blob let this go through?
Huge congratulations!
Thanks.
Congratulations Toby, well deserved.
You could reform the Lords by getting to the chamber really early (about 11am) and locking the doors on the useless bigger!
I object to the House of Frauds and the system of patronage (and selling power) which it represents.
However, just occasionally someone is appointed who really deserves it – and that describes Toby Young, so on this occasion I am not complaining.
I couldn’t have said it better.
👍
His biggest contribution to free speech would be to refuse it. They’ve strived to put Nigel Farage on the establishment hook for years.
No, Nigel has often said he should be given a peerage for “single-handedly destroying Nick Griffin and the British National Party”, and for handing the previous election to the Tories by forcing his own Brexit Party candidates to stand down.
That’s brilliant very well deserved seriously when I first read that I thought it was a wind up!!!
Please don’t go MSM on us. Like to think Tobes can persuade the Lords of the stupidity of their ways on climate change, net zero, vaccine fraud, alphabet nonsense etc. etc. Probably just a pipe dream.
Keep ‘em on their toes Tobes!
Suprised at this, free speech and the house of lords, not what I would have thought.
Congratulations!
Just had a thought. Does being a member of the House of Lords curtail what you can say or do in any way under Parliamentary rules? Does it take a lot of time away from the FSU and DS?
I hope not. And if not, Toby will be a force for good together with Claire Fox.
👍
At last! He has had it coming for a long time. Congratulations to Toby, his team and the UK!
👍
Many many congratulations. Very well deserved. I guess he will have to put a throne in the garden shed.
Lol.
I don’t think he will change
Really excellent news for the season! Many many congratulations Toby and recognition for so much innovative work gone before – get in and shake them all up.
Will do!
This story is unfolding so there will be updates. Two people confirmed killed and many injured at a German Christmas market. We’re off to Dusseldorf on Sunday so I’m certainly hoping there’ll be no such dramas as this has now become predictable every year, hence the heavy police presence;
”At least two people killed after a car crashed into shoppers at a Christmas market in Germany with distressing CCTV taken at the scene showing a vehicle mowing down people in the crowded space.
The horrific incident unfolded at the market in Magdeburg, east Germany, on Friday evening with unconfirmed reports as many as 11 could have been killed and outlet MDR reporting 70 people were injured 15 of whom were said to be serious. Dozens of emergency workers including police, paramedics and firefighters were seen at the site of the crash.
According to local broadcaster MDR, the driver has been has been arrested and a suspected explosive device was found inside the vehicle. Local government spokesperson Matthias Schuppe told the broadcaster the incident was an attack.
Unconfirmed reports have said the suspect is said to be a man from Saudi Arabia who was born in 1974. He is alleged rented the vehicle shortly… Read more »
That he’s a man of 50 from Saudi-Arabia has been officially published as “results of the investigation so far”.
It’s the way they must *always* tag on somewhere ”it’s not yet known if the incident was terror-related”, or similar. Despite the fact there was an explosive device found in the car, he was deliberately trying to take out as many people as he could by driving in a zig-zag fashion, and then there’s his ethnicity. It just blows my mind how they never cease to gaslight and insult the intelligence of people. And what happened to the ‘diversity barriers’ that are supposed to prevent this sort of thing in the first place? That was an epic fail, evidently! It says he’s been working as a doctor in Germany for several years. A toddler is said to have been killed. Sick, evil f***er. These are family events, but it’s not ‘terror-related’, honest! Fecking morons, honestly. Keep on taking pen knives off white elderly ladies instead, stupid muppets!
I must point out how pathetic this is. Here are the German police in their endeavour to cut down on knife crime at the Christmas market, so they home in on a likely far right-looking older lady and confiscate her Swiss Army knife. Good job! Who knows what she might have got up to with that thing…She probably only needed it for the corkscrew!
”German police are profiling old white ladies at Christmas markets to confiscate the knives they’re carrying for self-protection. The same profiling is not applied to illegal aliens who pose a threat to said old ladies.”
https://x.com/stillgray/status/1869378844454686824
Nobody carries a knife like that “for self-protection”. It’s just a handy tool to have. Eg, it usually includes a tooth pick. Doubtlessly an especially dangerous weapon to carry around.
You can see the footage here. It’s hard to focus on the car, it’s going so fast, though the film appears to have been sped up. I don’t know how many lives relieving that white, elderly lady of her Swiss Army knife saved compared to what a vehicle, driven at speed by a sadistic, death-loving psychopath intent on mass-murder can do in the way of damage;
https://x.com/TPointUK/status/1870192877219049801
See how the MSM are reporting it. It’s the car what done it! Christ..
”These evil cars in Germany are out of control.
Why do these cars keep doing this?”
https://x.com/WallStreetMav/status/1870204764408955369
This (confiscation of the pen knife) is part of the German home secretary’s preferred method of dealing with (mostly muslim immigrant) knife crime: Declare areas to be so-called arms prohibition zones (Waffenverbotszonen) where the police may stop and search everyone and confiscate everything they deem a weapon (and possibly, charge the owner with a crime).
As to It’s the car wot done it!: We all know the dangers of reckless driving! The solution is to lower the speed limits!
[sarcasm]
I wouldn’t be surprised if someone actually demanded that.
Here we go.
The attack on the #Magdeburg winter market is tragic.
But a general speed limit would have prevented it!
For how much longer do we want to accept motorized violence?
Background: Much to the chagrin of the woketurds, there’s no general speed limit on German roads and despite they’ve done their best to plaster special speed limits all over Germany, there are still some bits of motorway left where everyone is free to drive at a speed which suits him.
The unkown person who posted this has meanwhile claimed that it was supposed to be a joke.
What’s this got to do with Toby Young being given a peerage?
What are your views on that?
It seems like you are trying to draw everyone’s attention away from him toward yourself, like a bull in a china shop.
WHat splendid news. It almost restores ones faith in the honours system – almost.
Congratulations! A thoroughly deserved honour. At least there are some in high places who appreciate Toby’s extraordinary efforts.
Thanks.
Well deserved recognition. The real work begins.
Thanks Neil.
“RAFT”
https://order-order.com/2024/12/20/starmer-hands-out-raft-of-peerages-to-political-allies/#:~:text=STARMER%20HANDS%20OUT-,RAFT,-OF%20PEERAGES%20TO
What a list of charlatans and grifters.
I honestly thought the headline was a send-up, someone having a laugh, then a quick look at the comments told me it was real!!!
Astonishing, wonderful news— our own fearless leader now has a voice in the House of Lords!!! Congratulations, Lord Toby Young! I wonder what his new title will be, after it’s all processed by the House of Lords committee?
Then I thought, “But how on earth is this possible? Who could have nominated him, since all politicians hate him except for Reform???”
Then the awful news hit: The Nigerian Birth Tourist is handing out British peerages like an African queen, already imagining how they will kneel before her. So that’s why we had to endure all those tedious sycophantic articles about her in the News Round-Up. More of them on the way, I expect. As soon as she was shoehorned into the leadership post by the Globalists, she started scanning her spidey radar around for support, first pouncing upon J.K.Rowling to offer a peerage, hoping to bask in JK’s reflected glory, but JK remained silent.
Be that as it may, our Toby’s light will shine brightly in the House of Lords, as he remains faithful to that… Read more »
What a great photo of him, too— his wonderful facial expression showing that he’s not about to let it go to his head.
The Free Speech Union having at least two voices now in the House of Lords can’t be a bad thing. Congratulations Toby.
Thanks you.
An outstanding appointment.
Difficult to think of anyone more deserving.
Many congratulations, Lord Young.
Cheers.
Congratulations but I have to say that it doesn’t sound like a particularly subversive line up to me. If that is subversion than we are more disciplined by totalitarianism than we like to imagine.