British Thought Leaders

Belinda Brown is a researcher, author and commentator on issues such as gender, family and community. Belinda also writes for the Conservative Woman @TheConWom, is Children and Families Spokeswoman for the Heritage Party and a patroness of the Scottish Family Party. @bbhippopotamus

Simon Cheng is an exiled Hong Kong activist and founder of the UK-wide diaspora group Hongkongers in Britain. Simon made the news in 2021 after he was detained and allegedly tortured in China. In this episode of British Thought Leaders, Simon talks about his experience with the CCP and the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement. Simon also discussed the incident where protestors were attacked at the Chi...

Will Knowland is an educator, writer & cultural commentator. He is outspoken on topics such as masculinity, morality and the role of men in modern society. Will was sacked from his role at Eton College for refusing to take down YouTube lecture questioning 'toxic masculinity' but was subsiquently cleared of professional misconduct. In this video he talks about this experience. @KnowlandKnows

Lord Alton is a former Liberal Party Member of Parliament for a Liverpool constituency and Chief Whip – who has sat as an Independent Crossbench member of the House of Lords since 1997 when he was made a life peer. He is a Visiting Professor at Liverpool Hope University and author of several books. Alton is known for his human rights work including the co-founding Jubilee Campaign and Jubilee Acti...

Andy Shaw is the co-founder and organiser of London’s free-speech comedy club, Comedy Unleashed. The Times described it as ‘the comedy night that takes the PC out of the stand-up elite’. The club has hosted 100s of comedians who challenge conventional thinking and it has gained a reputation for hosting comics that have been cancelled or banned. Andy also writes spoofs for the Spectator magazine, i...

David Kurten is the Leader and one of the founding members of the Heritage Party. The Heritage Party stands for free speech and liberty, traditional family values, national sovereignty, and financial responsibility. ​ David was a member of the London Assembly from May 2016 to May 2021, and sat on the Education, Environment, Fire & Emergency, Housing and Transport committees at City Hall.

Ben Pile is an independent climate researcher, commentator and blogger. He runs the Climate Resistance website, which challenges mainstream views on environmentalism. He also writes for publications such as Spiked Online. @ClimateDebateUK | http://benpile.substack.com | http://youtube.com/@ClimateResistance | UKclimatedebate.co.uk

Giles William Udy is an English writer and historian of the Soviet Gulag system, Soviet influence on British politics 1917-56 & how history repeats itself. He is a member of the council of the Keston Institute and holds an MBA from the Cass Business School. He is a regular contributor to The Times, The Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the i, UnHerd and the magazine Standpoint. Udy has made a l...

Rahima Mahmut is a Uyghur singer, human rights activist, and award-winning translator of the poignant prison memoir The Land Drenched in Tears by Soyungul Chanishe. Currently, she is the U.K. Director for the World Uyghur Congress and Executive Director at Stop Uyghur Genocide. @MahmutRahima | @uyghurcongress | @UyghurStop

Dennis Hayes is professor of education at the University of Derby in England. He is the founder and director of the campaign group Academics For Academic Freedom (AFAF). AFAF was founded in late 2006, initially to promote its Statement of Academic Freedom but has subsequently undertaken the defence of many academics who have been threatened with disciplinary action or censored for their beliefs or...

Dr Alka Sehgal Cuthbert is an educator, academic, author and campaigner who believes passionately in the essential importance of impartiality both in education and as a prerequisite for the civilised conversations necessary for democracy to flourish. Alka became director of Don’t Divide Us following two years as its founder lead on education, a campaign which she felt impelled to join as a counter...

On this episode of British Thought Leaders, we speak with Harry Miller, a retired police officer from Humberside. Harry was investigated by his own local force over posts he made on Twitter and ended up challenging the police in court. In a landmark ruling, the Court of Appeal said that Harry’s rights to freedom of expression had been violated and that his treatment could have a “chilling effect o...

On this episode of BTL, we interview Leilani Dowding a former glamour model, television celebrity, and the UK representative at Miss Universe 1998. After finishing modelling Leilani was involved with the TV programmes such as “Real housewives of Cheshire” but became considerably more vocal about social issues. Since the lockdown she has been very active in the media talking about issues such as lo...

Professor Andrew Tettenborn, Professor of Law at Swansea University, talks to us about the loss of free speech in British universities and the forces behind these changes, what rising numbers of foreign students mean for these institutions, how foreign powers seek to influence British university education, and his own personal run-in with the censorship of the Chinese Communist Party.

We talk to Elliott Rowland, tailor at Redwood and Feller a company that has been making bespoke suits in London's Westminster since 1946. Redwood and Feller provide the finest levels of craftsmanship to the British Aristocracy, politicians and celebrities and work under a Royal Warrant. Elliott talks to us about the culture and tradition behind bespoke tailoring, inheriting skills from his father...

On this episode of British Thought Leaders we sit down with Benedict Rogers, founder CEO of Hong Kong Watch and deputy chair of the conservative party human rights commission. Benedict human rights activist, whose work focuses on Asia and has written a number of books on China and the region. He is also the East Asia team leader of Christian Solidarity Worldwide and co-founder of the International...