Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 9th October 2026

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UK Column News — 9th October 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:15
Speaker 1: Good afternoon. It's Friday the 9th of October, 2026, just
0:18
Speaker 1: after one o'clock. Welcome to UK Column News. I'm your host,
0:21
Speaker 1: Mike Robinson. Joining me in the studio today is Patrick Henningsen.
0:23
Speaker 1: And by video link, we have Basil Valentine, as usual, welcomes.
0:27
Speaker 2: The program both.
0:28
Speaker 3: It's great to be with you, Mike.
0:30
Speaker 1: Now, later in the program, we're going to have, well,
0:33
Speaker 1: we're going to be looking at the Russian threat. We're
0:35
Speaker 1: going to be looking at RAF Maram and what's been
0:37
Speaker 1: going on there. But we've got to begin today with
0:41
Speaker 1: the by-election, I think. So let's bring the result on screen.
0:44
Speaker 1: So Labour's Seagal Abdiwali, a good British name there, has
0:48
Speaker 1: claimed victory in the Holborn and St. Pancras by-election, retaining
0:52
Speaker 1: the seat previously held by Keir Starmer. Zach Polanski, as
0:56
Speaker 1: you can see, polled quite well for the Greens. The
0:59
Speaker 1: Tories came a distant third with Reform in fourth, and
1:02
Speaker 1: I guess they had their vote split by Restore taking
1:05
Speaker 1: part as well. George Galloway ended up well down the
1:08
Speaker 1: list with only 314 votes. Basil, let's welcome you to
1:14
Speaker 1: the programme. What are your thoughts on the by-election result,
1:18
Speaker 1: first of all?
1:20
Speaker 4: Well, in any normal cycle, it would be regarded as
1:24
Speaker 4: a very good result for the Greens. They massively increased
1:27
Speaker 4: their share of the vote. and turned the constituency effectively
1:31
Speaker 4: into a marginal. You've got to remember as well, of course,
1:34
Speaker 4: that Labour are still enjoying the burn and bounce. But
1:38
Speaker 4: that's not the way it's being portrayed in national media.
1:42
Speaker 4: The leader of the Jewish Greens has called on Polanski
1:45
Speaker 4: to resign. He was rounded upon last night by Caroline
1:49
Speaker 4: Lucas on Newsnight. Anyone would think this was a real
1:53
Speaker 4: crisis for Polanski. a really strange interpretation of the result.
1:59
Speaker 4: I mean, it would have been absolutely stunning if he
2:01
Speaker 4: had actually pulled off a win because Starmer, of course,
2:04
Speaker 4: had a relatively comfortable majority. So, you know, the hysteria
2:11
Speaker 4: that has accompanied the votes by the Green Party to
2:16
Speaker 4: declare Zionism racism, and we've got a report on the
2:21
Speaker 4: Green Party conference coming up has just caused a sort
2:25
Speaker 4: of establishment meltdown of the kind we've never seen before.
2:31
Speaker 4: The outcome of last night's debate on Newsnight, where supposedly
2:36
Speaker 4: different opinions were voiced, is that basically you have to
2:40
Speaker 4: be a supporter of Zionism to lead a British political party.
2:45
Speaker 4: There's a very, very clear, concerted attempt to marginalise opposition
2:50
Speaker 4: to Zionism as simply a fringe belief. All this while
2:56
Speaker 4: only last night, Gaza was heavily bombed again. You know,
3:02
Speaker 4: people burnt alive in tents every night. And this doesn't
3:06
Speaker 4: even cause a ripple in national or global media. We're
3:11
Speaker 4: in a very dark place, gentlemen.
3:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, we are.
3:14
Speaker 1: And it was fascinating, Patrick, because Basil's going to introduce
3:18
Speaker 1: the the Green Party conference in a second, but following
3:23
Speaker 1: that vote in the Green Party conference, the Green MPs
3:27
Speaker 1: that are in the House of Commons were very, very
3:29
Speaker 1: keen to distance themselves from that result.
3:32
Speaker 3: Well, the only thing that comes to mind immediately, and
3:35
Speaker 3: we'll talk about it after Basil's report, is Polanski did
3:38
Speaker 3: the opposite of what Corbyn did when they came for him.
3:41
Speaker 3: He absolutely charged against his attackers and personally accused based
3:47
Speaker 3: on what we're seeing from the conference, and you'll see
3:49
Speaker 3: more of it in a minute, I think that was
3:51
Speaker 3: the right decision, quite frankly. But we'll let the people
3:55
Speaker 3: be the judge.
3:56
Speaker 5: Yes.
3:57
Speaker 1: So, Basil, you went to the Green Party conference last weekend.
4:02
Speaker 1: We have a report from you here, but just give
4:04
Speaker 1: us an introduction to that.
4:07
Speaker 4: Yes, I always enjoy these kinds of things. Big gatherings
4:11
Speaker 4: of people, lots of talk. It really was the epicenter
4:15
Speaker 4: of political theatre last weekend. Big Zionist demonstration outside on
4:21
Speaker 4: the first day. the Saturday, but they got the wrong day.
4:24
Speaker 4: They thought that that was when the vote was going
4:26
Speaker 4: to be taken. They'd all been bussed down from London
4:29
Speaker 4: and caught the train and what have you. Turns out
4:31
Speaker 4: the big vote was actually on Sunday. They were very,
4:34
Speaker 4: to be honest, aggressive in the way they approached delegates
4:41
Speaker 4: on their way into the conference. And I was expecting
4:43
Speaker 4: an even bigger demonstration the following day on the Sunday
4:46
Speaker 4: when the vote was taken.
4:46
Speaker 2: But it was serene.
4:48
Speaker 4: Delegates just filing in quietly and peacefully. And let's see
4:54
Speaker 4: my report from the conference now.
4:58
Speaker 2: Coming up.
5:01
Speaker 4: So as you can see here on the key day, Sunday,
5:05
Speaker 4: the 4th of October, just after 10 a.m., and delegates
5:10
Speaker 4: are queuing up in near total silence. No demonstration, no
5:15
Speaker 4: counter demonstration. This is democracy at work in the Green Party.
5:22
Speaker 4: It's lunchtime here on Sunday at the Green Party Conference.
5:26
Speaker 4: Everybody is on tenderhooks waiting for the result of the
5:29
Speaker 4: big vote. Greg, very positive mood here all weekend. And
5:35
Speaker 4: I know the corporate media have been desperate to portray
5:39
Speaker 4: the controversial motion of Zionism is racism as sort of
5:43
Speaker 4: undermining the unity of the party. But from the evidence
5:46
Speaker 4: I've seen and what people have been saying in and
5:49
Speaker 4: out of the hall, that hasn't been the case.
5:51
Speaker 2: No, not at all.
5:52
Speaker 6: I think it's been a remarkable atmosphere. Jenny Jones from
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Speaker 6: the platform said it was the best behaved conference she'd
5:59
Speaker 6: ever experienced and she's experienced a few. It's been a
6:03
Speaker 6: really important day.
6:05
Speaker 7: To 1975 when the vast majority of member states of
6:09
Speaker 7: the United Nations defined that ideology as racism and why
6:14
Speaker 7: are we calling today on the Green Party to adopt
6:19
Speaker 7: that definition?
6:22
Speaker 8: I think A lot of the Greens are very united
6:25
Speaker 8: on opposing settler colonialism, which Zionism represents.
6:30
Speaker 9: As we heard.
6:31
Speaker 7: Senator Roberts' committee suggest, that's their prerogative.
6:34
Speaker 10: To decide under Senator Roberts for.
6:37
Speaker 7: The coming conference, H2. 5.
6:38
Speaker 10: We therefore don't need to support this amendment, or if
6:41
Speaker 10: it does pass when it comes to it, if we
6:43
Speaker 10: could get 10 votes of hands against, that would prevent
6:47
Speaker 10: a messy and conflicting set of motions being passed. voted on,
6:52
Speaker 10: all of which update the party.
6:54
Speaker 6: I've always known that the state of Israel is a
6:56
Speaker 6: racist endeavour, and always has been, that Zionism is racism,
7:01
Speaker 6: and now the Green Party has a very clear position
7:04
Speaker 6: as an anti-Zionist party. This will put it in good
7:07
Speaker 6: stead for the times ahead. It's an end to warm
7:11
Speaker 6: words that we used to get under Jeremy Corbyn and
7:14
Speaker 6: the Labour Party. We've now got people who are willing
7:17
Speaker 6: to stand up to racists, the sort of racists who
7:20
Speaker 6: abused us all getting into this hall.
7:23
Speaker 9: They actually, you know, they actually say what they are doing.
7:28
Speaker 9: And we've seen a degree of self-dealing. in terms of
7:32
Speaker 9: war profiteering from politicians and those close to them, like
7:36
Speaker 9: we have never seen in conflicts before.
7:39
Speaker 11: And I think these are.
7:41
Speaker 9: The last gasps, the last breaths of a system that
7:45
Speaker 9: has failed, and the elite that benefits from it are
7:48
Speaker 9: trying desperately to claw onto the system that feeds their avarice.
8:00
Speaker 4: So it's now lunchtime on Sunday the 4th of October
8:04
Speaker 4: here at the Green Party Conference in Brighton.
8:07
Speaker 11: The vote has been taken.
8:10
Speaker 4: I'm given to understand that the online portion of the
8:14
Speaker 4: voting was two-thirds in favour of the Zionism is racism
8:20
Speaker 4: motion and just one-third against. So that would seem to
8:25
Speaker 4: indicate that it's likely to be passed. We'll get the
8:30
Speaker 4: result of the vote in full in about half an
8:33
Speaker 4: hour's time. The mood here is certainly more excitable than
8:38
Speaker 4: it was this morning. I think everybody's glad that at
8:41
Speaker 4: least a vote has been taken. And now the whole
8:45
Speaker 4: event can move on to other business.
8:50
Speaker 11: We need to make.
8:50
Speaker 5: Sure our pro-Palestine voices are elected at every level of government,
8:55
Speaker 5: starting with Zach Lansky on October 8th.
9:05
Speaker 12: And he was unequivocal there. He said he was an anti-Zionist,
9:08
Speaker 12: and he named the genocide as a genocide. So I
9:11
Speaker 12: think there's more. I'd like to see him going further,
9:15
Speaker 12: but he's gone further than any leader of any big
9:18
Speaker 12: political party in the country, and this motion, if it
9:21
Speaker 12: goes through today, I think will only strengthen his position
9:24
Speaker 12: and strengthen the Greens' position because the vast majority of
9:27
Speaker 12: the public now have been absolutely horrified by the images
9:30
Speaker 12: that they've seen on their smartphones, on their laptops, not
9:33
Speaker 12: so much in the mainstream media, media but platforms like
9:37
Speaker 12: UK column and other independent platforms like that have told
9:40
Speaker 12: the truth and and this is getting through to people
9:43
Speaker 12: and people want to see meaningful action being taken against
9:47
Speaker 12: Israel now because they are absolutely disgusted by what's happening
9:51
Speaker 12: and frankly can't understand why the government isn't taking firmer
9:54
Speaker 12: action as it did for example back in the day
9:56
Speaker 12: against the apartheid regime in South Africa.
10:01
Speaker 4: So we understand that they are moving to a vote
10:04
Speaker 4: on the main motion in spite of the various amendments
10:09
Speaker 4: that have been tembled some of which required a card
10:12
Speaker 4: vote as you can see delegates are caucusing just on
10:18
Speaker 4: the fringes of the main hall and I'll bring you
10:21
Speaker 4: another update.
10:22
Speaker 2: As soon as we have it.
10:24
Speaker 4: And Kieran, I know you've been a keen supporter of
10:27
Speaker 4: today's motion. It looks like it's passed. We're waiting for
10:31
Speaker 4: the result of the vote, but at least a vote happened.
10:34
Speaker 11: Yeah, and I'm delighted.
10:35
Speaker 5: As I've said multiple times, I think this motion is
10:40
Speaker 5: deeply misunderstood, deliberately so, of course, by certain quarters in
10:44
Speaker 5: the media who want to stir up trouble.
10:46
Speaker 11: There was no civil war in there. There was a
10:49
Speaker 11: lot of.
10:49
Speaker 5: Collegiality, even between people who disagree on this. So that's
10:52
Speaker 5: the first thing to emphasise. Because these guys are always
10:55
Speaker 5: trying to paint, you know, things falling apart around politics
10:58
Speaker 5: and Palestine and radical.
11:00
Speaker 11: Left politics and so on. That's not true. That's not
11:02
Speaker 11: what's happening. That's the first thing.
11:04
Speaker 5: The second thing is, I'm delighted that the motion looks like,
11:06
Speaker 5: and we can't take anything for granted, but it looks
11:08
Speaker 5: like it's going to pass. The reason I'm delighted is,
11:11
Speaker 5: I think it does something very important.
11:14
Speaker 11: Contrary to what people have been saying... It makes it.
11:17
Speaker 5: Very, very clear that the violence that has been meted
11:22
Speaker 5: out against my family.
11:23
Speaker 11: Members as a Palestinian over the.
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Speaker 5: Past hundred years is not because of individuals, because of
11:29
Speaker 5: pure evil, because of religion, because.
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Speaker 11: Of ethnicity or culture.
11:35
Speaker 5: It's because of a very specific political ideology that married
11:39
Speaker 5: with economic interests at a given moment in history And
11:44
Speaker 5: I think that's really important to have that materialist analysis.
11:47
Speaker 11: It stops you from falling.
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Speaker 5: Into the trap of thinking that it's all about an
11:52
Speaker 5: ethnic group or culture or religion. It does the opposite
11:56
Speaker 5: of what its critics say it does. So Zionism is
11:59
Speaker 5: inseparable from what Israel has done to the Palestinians. It
12:02
Speaker 5: is the underpinning ideology that has operated in the ways
12:05
Speaker 5: that we have seen.
12:08
Speaker 4: So, you know, something of a historic day here with
12:10
Speaker 4: a major political party in Britain breaking from Zionism in
12:15
Speaker 4: a way that nobody has ever thought possible until this moment.
12:21
Speaker 4: The Green Party has just declared by a majority of 1,022
12:23
Speaker 4: to 813 that Zionism is racism. And this is a
12:34
Speaker 4: sea change in British politics, as you can see.
12:37
Speaker 6: It's been a fantastic venue, fantastic atmosphere, and the sizeable
12:42
Speaker 6: majority is a great message for Zach Polanski and Mothin
12:47
Speaker 6: Ali and all the others leading the Green Party.
12:50
Speaker 4: This is the first time a major political party has
12:52
Speaker 4: taken a stance like this, and as a Palestinian native yourself,
12:58
Speaker 4: originating from Hebron, it must be quite a moment.
13:02
Speaker 8: It is an amazing moment. It has been like a very,
13:05
Speaker 8: very tough day, especially with the proposed amendments, the four amendments.
13:11
Speaker 8: So it started with trying to pass without these amendments
13:15
Speaker 8: and we managed to dodge three out of four. The
13:19
Speaker 8: fourth wasn't that significant and we just got the news.
13:23
Speaker 8: It's the first time in history, this is a moment
13:26
Speaker 8: in history where majority in a main party actually stand
13:31
Speaker 8: for what's right stands for what we always feared to
13:36
Speaker 8: dress in in this big world in this big room
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Speaker 8: that zionism is racism so it is it is amazing
13:44
Speaker 8: tonight is the party and we're gonna celebrate um well
13:48
Speaker 8: done everyone in green party amazing news for everyone.
13:56
Speaker 4: Reza Shaheen there, Secretary General of the Palestine Solidarity Movement.
14:00
Speaker 4: And as you can tell from that report, there were dissidents.
14:04
Speaker 4: There was dissent, of course. But generally, there was a
14:07
Speaker 4: terrific atmosphere in the hall and, you know, in the
14:12
Speaker 4: conference center as a whole. And people were very positive.
14:15
Speaker 4: I don't think they anticipated quite the establishment meltdown that has.
14:21
Speaker 2: Ensued this week. Absolutely off the charts.
14:24
Speaker 4: And there's been very deliberate misrepresentation of what the motion
14:28
Speaker 4: calls for. News Corp have done some terrific analysis of.
14:33
Speaker 4: the media reportage of the passing of the motion. And
14:37
Speaker 4: almost every report, including interviews with advocates for the motion,
14:42
Speaker 4: where there have been any, have ignored the fact that
14:45
Speaker 4: the motion simply calls for a single state with equal
14:49
Speaker 4: rights for everybody. Same as any other country. That's what
14:54
Speaker 4: they're asking for. One person, one vote, universal human rights
14:59
Speaker 4: over the whole of historic Palestine.
15:01
Speaker 3: What's wrong with that?
15:03
Speaker 1: Indeed. And just speaking about the response, which has been
15:07
Speaker 1: off the charts insane. Of course, we should not pass
15:11
Speaker 1: by without mentioning the fact that the person who proposed
15:15
Speaker 1: the motion in the first place was on the receiving
15:18
Speaker 1: end of a significant hit piece in the BBC and
15:20
Speaker 1: other media this week, Basil.
15:24
Speaker 3: Yes, that's right.
15:25
Speaker 4: Lubna Spatan, who was possibly going to appear on the
15:28
Speaker 4: programme today, We hope to get her another time. She
15:31
Speaker 4: must have had a very challenging week. Yes, the BBC
15:35
Speaker 4: and Times dredged up a story from 15 years ago
15:39
Speaker 4: about her offering a character reference for a Vietnamese national,
15:43
Speaker 4: I believe, who was mentally challenged and has subsequently been
15:50
Speaker 4: sentenced to an extremely long prison sentence in the United
15:53
Speaker 4: States for planning terrorist acts at Heathrow Airport. It's very
15:59
Speaker 4: difficult to find much about the case, and I couldn't
16:03
Speaker 4: possibly comment as to what Lubna's relationship with him was
16:08
Speaker 4: or is. Suffice to say that, as usual, rather than
16:14
Speaker 4: addressing the issues corporate media tries to body, the people
16:19
Speaker 4: that are proposing something a bit different in this case.
16:26
Speaker 1: Yes, and I'll just say people, if they see that
16:28
Speaker 1: BBC report, need to look at the last sentence in particular,
16:32
Speaker 1: which seems to undermine absolutely the rest of it.
16:34
Speaker 3: Hopefully we'll cover that next week. We will, absolutely. With
16:37
Speaker 3: the guests, one quick thing, two takeaways from that. One is,
16:40
Speaker 3: and we didn't show this, but we could do next week,
16:42
Speaker 3: but some people were outside demonstrating in favour of the motion,
16:46
Speaker 3: were wearing masks because they were afraid of getting doxxed.
16:49
Speaker 3: by all of these kind of Zionist organizations and hate
16:53
Speaker 3: speech organizations or whatever. So they're wearing masks. That's kind
16:56
Speaker 3: of disturbing in Britain. But then the counter-demonstration got the
17:00
Speaker 3: wrong day. So the Zionist counter-demonstration unfortunately missed the big
17:05
Speaker 3: vote on Sunday, which is a shame. So I guess
17:08
Speaker 3: they got to fire their communications and logistics director.
17:12
Speaker 2: Indeed.
17:13
Speaker 1: Let's move on to Andy Burnham then and what he's
17:15
Speaker 1: been up to because yesterday, Well, he was in Germany.
17:19
Speaker 1: He used his first face-to-face meeting with the German Chancellor
17:23
Speaker 1: Friedrich Merz to complete ratification of the Kensington Treaty. Now,
17:27
Speaker 1: we'll come on to that in a second, and to
17:28
Speaker 1: announce a package of agreements on hybrid threats, technology, space,
17:32
Speaker 1: and investment. He was received at the Federal Chancellery with
17:37
Speaker 1: military honors, as we can see, although he wasn't clearly
17:40
Speaker 1: too sure about what he was supposed to be doing,
17:43
Speaker 1: and well, I mean, does this look statesman-like to you, Patrick?
17:47
Speaker 3: It looks a bit awkward. Let's take another look at
17:49
Speaker 3: that again.
17:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, put it back on there.
17:51
Speaker 3: He's just bumping into Mertz.
17:53
Speaker 1: Bumping into Mertz, tripping, and yeah, it's... Bowing to the
17:57
Speaker 1: trumpet players, I guess. Not really sure what he's supposed
17:59
Speaker 1: to do there. But anyway, they both exchanged the instruments
18:04
Speaker 1: of ratification for the treaty, which Mertz signed with Burnham's predecessor,
18:08
Speaker 1: Keir Starmer, in London in July 2025. The Bundestag approved
18:13
Speaker 1: the treaty in March and with, by the way, AFD
18:17
Speaker 1: voting against and Derlinka abstaining. So AFD certainly not in
18:22
Speaker 1: support of this. So let's just remind ourselves of the
18:24
Speaker 1: Kensington Treaty here. It was described at the time as
18:27
Speaker 1: the first of its kind, except it wasn't, as we'll
18:29
Speaker 1: see in a second, but its remit is wide, as
18:32
Speaker 1: we can see on screen. Well, you can read those
18:36
Speaker 1: bullet points for yourselves, but as I say, It's not unique,
18:41
Speaker 1: just the latest iteration of similar agreements between the UK,
18:44
Speaker 1: UK and Germany, and UK and France, and Germany and France,
18:47
Speaker 1: for that matter. It puts the final piece of the
18:49
Speaker 1: puzzle in place in the formation of the so-called E3.
18:53
Speaker 1: We have to remember that the intent of the E3
18:55
Speaker 1: is to establish the UK, France, and Germany as the
18:58
Speaker 1: main driving force for defense union in Europe. So this
19:01
Speaker 1: becomes the main thing within the EI2, as it's known,
19:05
Speaker 1: which is the European Intervention Initiative. as the broader framework.
19:10
Speaker 1: Ursula von der Leyen's predecessor, Jean-Claude Uecker, put it when
19:14
Speaker 1: he was in charge of the European, the EU. This
19:21
Speaker 1: patchwork of bilateral defense pacts will serve as the foundation
19:25
Speaker 1: of European defense with Britain, France, and Germany as the
19:27
Speaker 1: core trifecta.
19:28
Speaker 2: That's how he was describing it.
19:30
Speaker 1: And we shouldn't forget what the then defense minister, Earl Howe,
19:33
Speaker 1: said about it here. I signed the UK into the
19:37
Speaker 1: European Union Intervention Initiative, the agreement states EI2 intends to
19:41
Speaker 1: contribute to ongoing efforts within European Union to deepen defence cooperation,
19:45
Speaker 1: notably PESCO. So E3 is the core of that much
19:51
Speaker 1: larger agreement. But getting back to yesterday, security dominated the agenda.
19:57
Speaker 1: Downing Street said Burnham expressed solidarity with Germany over the
20:01
Speaker 1: attempted Russian drone attack at Leipzig airport. Try not to laugh, Patrick,
20:05
Speaker 1: I know... I know it's not easy. And if you remember,
20:10
Speaker 1: the Germans formally blamed Moscow for the incident which took
20:14
Speaker 1: place in August, in which they claimed an explosive-laden drone
20:18
Speaker 1: was found near a Ukrainian cargo aircraft. Both governments launched
20:23
Speaker 1: a counter-hybrid threat partnership yesterday, covering information sharing, contingency planning,
20:28
Speaker 1: crisis response, with Russia blamed as the principal concern. But
20:32
Speaker 1: Burnham said attacks on infrastructure businesses and democracies are designed
20:37
Speaker 1: to make us weaker and more divided. And he said
20:39
Speaker 1: that Britain and Germany would work to, quote, find, expose
20:42
Speaker 1: and disrupt this activity. They also agreed to work together
20:47
Speaker 1: against what they described as malicious misinformation, by the way.
20:51
Speaker 1: The leaders reaffirmed support for Ukraine. They agreed to keep
20:54
Speaker 1: up pressure on Russia over the winter and discussed possible
20:58
Speaker 1: German participation in the global combat air program. which is
21:02
Speaker 1: the sixth generation fighter project that the UK is leading.
21:07
Speaker 1: Officials have been tasked with further talks. Migration and people
21:11
Speaker 1: smuggling gags were also discussed with Burnham, thanking German law
21:15
Speaker 1: enforcement for its work. And then, of course, we have
21:19
Speaker 1: a new UK-Germany industrial tech corridor. This is a flagship initiative,
21:25
Speaker 1: they said, under the treaty, which aims to connect AI
21:28
Speaker 1: and critical technology with major industrial buyers. It's backed by Allianz, Bosch,
21:33
Speaker 1: RWE and Siemens with a first round table of chief
21:37
Speaker 1: executives due within the next couple of months. Jonathan Reynolds,
21:42
Speaker 1: who's the business secretary, said that the agreements meant more jobs,
21:45
Speaker 1: more investment. So what could be wrong with that? And
21:49
Speaker 1: they're talking about joint quantum research, getting some money and
21:54
Speaker 1: supporting 10 projects in total and so on. So there
21:57
Speaker 1: we go with that. What else was going on? Well,
22:00
Speaker 1: the first UK-Germany Regional Growth Forum. And for that, we
22:05
Speaker 1: have German investor Atresia, which is on screen at the moment.
22:10
Speaker 1: They pledged £ 1 billion to deliver up to 4,000 affordable
22:14
Speaker 1: homes across the UK. Now, of course, when Count Benfis
22:17
Speaker 1: was standing in the by-election with Andy Burnham, he was
22:23
Speaker 1: making the point that he would make sure that at
22:26
Speaker 1: least one affordable home was built in this country. Well,
22:29
Speaker 1: apparently we're getting 4,000, but we'd require investment from a
22:33
Speaker 1: German fund, effectively hedge fund, investment fund, in order to
22:39
Speaker 1: get those built. And I just wonder what will happen.
22:42
Speaker 1: They will invest. They will build them. They'll then sell them.
22:45
Speaker 1: Somebody's going to buy them. And of course, they're going
22:47
Speaker 1: to make a profit. But what are the chances these
22:49
Speaker 1: are going to end up in social housing and therefore
22:52
Speaker 1: government's going to buy them?
22:54
Speaker 3: So it's not really investment, is it? It's a money-making opportunity.
22:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's investment in the financial profit-making sense, not investment
23:03
Speaker 1: in the country.
23:03
Speaker 3: So are there no construction companies in the UK?
23:06
Speaker 2: Apparently not.
23:07
Speaker 3: That's a bit strange, actually. Brexit.
23:12
Speaker 1: But if we just put that back on screen for
23:13
Speaker 1: a second, you'll note they describe themselves as building smarter
23:16
Speaker 1: communities and sustainable futures.
23:19
Speaker 2: So we know exactly.
23:20
Speaker 1: What is going to end up there. And then the
23:24
Speaker 1: joint statement that they finally, well, actually published afterwards, although
23:29
Speaker 1: I'm sure it was written beforehand, that committed both countries
23:33
Speaker 1: to a space memorandum of understanding, including cooperation on access
23:37
Speaker 1: to space through the Saxavore Spaceport in Shetland. Joint cabinet
23:43
Speaker 1: consultations are expected in early 2027. And well, and by
23:48
Speaker 1: the way, Burnham also stressed the importance of a successful
23:51
Speaker 1: UK EU summit later on in the year. But for
23:54
Speaker 1: more on the Saxford spaceport, have a look at these
23:57
Speaker 1: two articles entitled, well, they begin with the words space
24:01
Speaker 1: wars on the UK column website. So we've got space
24:04
Speaker 1: wars overboard on the sea of peace, and we've got
24:06
Speaker 1: space wars, satellites, genocide in Oxfordshire there, and those both
24:11
Speaker 1: written by Charles. And Charles, in fact, spoke to people
24:14
Speaker 1: locally in Shetland about the spaceport and the impact that
24:19
Speaker 1: that's having on the islands. So do have a read
24:23
Speaker 1: of those articles if you want some more background on that.
24:26
Speaker 1: But absolutely massive that this treaty is now ratified in
24:31
Speaker 1: both countries. But let's move on, Patrick, then to the
24:35
Speaker 1: issue of the Russian threat, because that, of course, was
24:38
Speaker 1: a key part of Burnham and Mertz's rhetoric yesterday.
24:43
Speaker 3: The Russian threat, it's omnipresent. It's everywhere. It's constant. It
24:47
Speaker 3: never ends. We're just going to show you what's going
24:50
Speaker 3: on in the EU in response to the Russian threat.
24:53
Speaker 3: Take a look at this. This is a mainstream media
24:57
Speaker 3: journalist here expelled from the EU country of Latvia. That's
25:01
Speaker 3: a Baltic state, NATO member state, former BBC correspondent as well.
25:08
Speaker 3: Potentially here, he's accused of potentially serving Russian interests. Well,
25:13
Speaker 3: he supported the Ukraine war all along, but mainstream journalist
25:17
Speaker 3: Leonid Uragazin has been declared persona non grata by Riga's
25:22
Speaker 3: foreign minister and is set to be expelled from the country.
25:26
Speaker 3: This is a known journalist, appears at all the major
25:29
Speaker 3: press conferences and so forth. He's not a fringe individual,
25:33
Speaker 3: as we said, former BBC stringer as well. So, Is
25:38
Speaker 3: this the state of the European Union? He said something
25:42
Speaker 3: that upset them, is he argued on podcasts and columns
25:48
Speaker 3: that Russia was compelled to respond with force because it
25:51
Speaker 3: views itself as in an underdog, quote, under pressure from
25:55
Speaker 3: Western encroachment, NATO encroachment, criticized sanctions against Russia and claimed
26:00
Speaker 3: that ordinary Russians view the West as a greater threat
26:03
Speaker 3: than their own government. Now, one could say that's a
26:06
Speaker 3: truthful assessment and a realistic assessment of the situation. This
26:11
Speaker 3: got him kicked out of the country. So he's been
26:13
Speaker 3: there since the Crimean, you call it annexation. But in
26:20
Speaker 3: the spirit of German reunification, why don't we say Crimea
26:23
Speaker 3: was reunified with Russia? Oh, we can't say that. That
26:26
Speaker 3: would get us sanctioned. Absolutely. And you'd be labeled persona
26:29
Speaker 3: non grata in the EU. Anyway, this just reminds us
26:34
Speaker 3: of where we're at, and we showed you this a
26:36
Speaker 3: couple of weeks ago here. This is the state of
26:39
Speaker 3: play regarding Russian media in France. If you upload or
26:43
Speaker 3: repost any, quote, banned Russian state network RT videos, content, whatever,
26:49
Speaker 3: you'd be in violation of European Union sanctions, punishable by
26:53
Speaker 3: five years in prison under the French customs code. Honestly,
26:58
Speaker 3: we're not making it up. There it is, folks. Take
27:00
Speaker 3: a look. That is codified in the European Union. So
27:06
Speaker 3: there's no more gray area, Mike.
27:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, but the key point about that slide you've got
27:09
Speaker 1: on screen at the moment is this extends to independent bloggers,
27:12
Speaker 1: free websites, and individuals who upload or share banned content online.
27:15
Speaker 1: So this isn't even alternative media platforms like the UK column.
27:20
Speaker 1: This could be anybody, absolutely anybody, any individual who wants
27:23
Speaker 1: to share an RT comment piece or whatever.
27:27
Speaker 3: Suppose you embed a tweet on your blog post. You're
27:31
Speaker 3: showing information. You're discussing it. Is that a threat? Does
27:36
Speaker 3: that mean Putin has seized control of your mind?
27:38
Speaker 2: It does, yes.
27:38
Speaker 3: And your website. Pretty amazing here. So let's talk about
27:42
Speaker 3: the hybrid threats here. Here's a piece by fantastic Italian-British
27:47
Speaker 3: journalist Thomas Fazzi here. The Russian hybrid war narrative, a
27:51
Speaker 3: new NATO strategy of tension. He asked the question here, Mike,
27:55
Speaker 3: does the evidence support the narrative? Or does it rather
27:58
Speaker 3: point to a hybrid war, a campaign of psychological warfare
28:02
Speaker 3: being waged by the EU and NATO establishment against its
28:06
Speaker 3: own population? Well, let's look at his findings here. This
28:10
Speaker 3: might shock some people, but quite frankly, it doesn't shock us.
28:13
Speaker 3: Widely publicized cases of supposed Russian, quote, hybrid warfare, von
28:19
Speaker 3: der Leyen's jammed plane, Baltic cable cuts, DHL crash in Vilnius,
28:24
Speaker 3: Heathrow fire, the wave of drone sightings that swept Across
28:27
Speaker 3: Europe in the autumn of 2025, the Romanian TikTok campaign
28:31
Speaker 3: all turned out to be media-amplified speculation that collapsed under
28:36
Speaker 3: basic scrutiny. Yet almost every day, new claims are made
28:40
Speaker 3: with little or no evidence ever produced. We cover these
28:44
Speaker 3: things on a daily or weekly basis here.
28:47
Speaker 2: So where is the misinformation and disinformation coming from?
28:50
Speaker 3: At the column. And here, again, this is the conclusion. People,
28:53
Speaker 3: you really need to screenshot this. Because it's very important.
28:58
Speaker 3: This is the point. Ultimately, serious scrutiny of the, quote,
29:01
Speaker 3: Russian hybrid warfare narrative can only lead to one disquieting conclusion. A, quote,
29:07
Speaker 3: hybrid war is indeed being waged against Europe, but it
29:10
Speaker 3: is being waged by the EU and NATO establishment itself
29:14
Speaker 3: against its own people. population. That's exactly what's happening. And
29:19
Speaker 3: as I've said previously, I even said this at the
29:21
Speaker 3: Cheltenham conference, an iron curtain has dropped on Europe and
29:25
Speaker 3: folks were on the wrong side of it. And that's
29:28
Speaker 3: just the reality of the situation here. Let's go deeper
29:31
Speaker 3: into this and look at this Soviet model. Let's just
29:34
Speaker 3: call it the Soviet model that's been adopted by the West.
29:38
Speaker 3: And Ed Miliband, has gone to— look, if there was any
29:43
Speaker 3: hope that Ed's foreign policy realism on Israel might extend
29:46
Speaker 3: to NATO's disastrous proxy war against Russia and Ukraine, those
29:50
Speaker 3: hopes were dashed this week here. He's got the full—
29:53
Speaker 3: A wartime experience tour with Zelensky. Take a look at this.
29:57
Speaker 3: I mean, pretty incredible here. And, well, it gets better.
30:03
Speaker 3: So he's done all this. Those are the obligatory photos
30:06
Speaker 3: with Zelensky, like every leader who's been shuffling in there
30:09
Speaker 3: for the last, what, four years now?
30:11
Speaker 2: Right.
30:11
Speaker 3: Going on five years. And then we've got this. We'll
30:14
Speaker 3: bring this up. And this is meant to really pull
30:16
Speaker 3: at your heartstrings. No child should have to live in
30:20
Speaker 3: fear of missile attacks. Yeah, just ask the children of Gaza.
30:23
Speaker 1: No child should have to live with the fear of
30:25
Speaker 1: being hugged by Ed Miliband.
30:27
Speaker 3: He says, today I met Ukrainian children and families affected
30:31
Speaker 3: by Russia's brutal aggression. Their courage is extraordinary. The UK's
30:35
Speaker 3: support for Ukraine remains unwavering here. And this is, we'll
30:41
Speaker 3: take a look at, there it is, Mike.
30:42
Speaker 2: The teddy bears.
30:43
Speaker 3: The teddy bears. Right. We'll go back. I mean, this
30:47
Speaker 3: is just top drawer. Look at that. Top drawer propaganda.
30:50
Speaker 3: I mean, you're going to look back and cringe when
30:53
Speaker 3: you look at this. Even Ed Miliband will cringe when
30:56
Speaker 3: he looks at this in six months or a year,
30:59
Speaker 3: especially when the surrender terms are issued to Zelensky. I mean,
31:05
Speaker 3: it's just beyond. So this is his statement here. In Kiev,
31:09
Speaker 3: full of emotion, having been taken on this extravagant propaganda tour,
31:14
Speaker 3: the same one they take Kalia Kallis on, the same
31:17
Speaker 3: one they take Karl Bilt on, the same one they
31:20
Speaker 3: take Ursula von der Leyen on. Here's Ed Miliband.
31:24
Speaker 13: So today we're announcing more sanctions on Russia, on the
31:30
Speaker 13: war machine of Putin, on the shadow fleet. on the
31:34
Speaker 13: oil companies, on the crypto, on the financing of the war.
31:38
Speaker 13: We are here to announce more humanitarian support. We are
31:41
Speaker 13: here to announce more support for energy. And I believe
31:46
Speaker 13: I speak on behalf of the British people that we
31:49
Speaker 13: stand with you, Mr President. We stand with you as
31:53
Speaker 13: we have stood with you since 2022 and indeed since 2014.
31:55
Speaker 13: We stand with you in this conflict. We are your
32:02
Speaker 13: brothers and your sisters in this conflict, and we are
32:08
Speaker 13: going to be with you as long as it takes.
32:13
Speaker 1: Does he believe that in the same way that Burnham
32:16
Speaker 1: believes that Iran was involved in the RAF?
32:19
Speaker 2: Fairford incident?
32:21
Speaker 3: Probably, yeah. So in that sort of neighborhood here. So
32:24
Speaker 3: the question is, do the British people stand with Zelensky?
32:28
Speaker 3: Do they support the war? Are they willing to go
32:30
Speaker 3: to war with Russia? Because isn't that where NATO and
32:33
Speaker 3: Britain are pushing the situation here? Well, it's debatable whether
32:37
Speaker 3: that's actually true. Does he actually speak for the people? Well,
32:40
Speaker 3: the polls don't seem to think so. Mike, let's bring
32:43
Speaker 3: this one up on stage here. humiliation for labor as
32:46
Speaker 3: half of Brits think the UK can't defend against a
32:50
Speaker 3: Putin attack. Andy Burnham comes under growing pressure to hike
32:54
Speaker 3: defense spending to 3% of GDP by 2030. So this
32:57
Speaker 3: is being framed in kind of to hype up defense spending,
33:01
Speaker 3: this polling here. But the devil's in the detail, 24%
33:05
Speaker 3: feeling not all that confident in national defenses. I think
33:09
Speaker 3: that's a low estimate if people actually knew the truth. Now,
33:12
Speaker 3: what I'm saying here, Mike, is consider the fact That
33:15
Speaker 3: what if there wasn't censorship? What if we didn't have
33:18
Speaker 3: European and British governments, French governments going frantically trying to
33:22
Speaker 3: erase any countervailing opinions, accusing everybody of being a Russian
33:27
Speaker 3: disinformation agent if their narrative doesn't match what's coming out
33:31
Speaker 3: of the Times or the Murdoch Press? What would the
33:34
Speaker 3: political and the polling look like at that point? You know,
33:37
Speaker 3: it would be totally different. Again, we've adopted a Soviet-esque
33:41
Speaker 3: type model in the West, which is very strange. considering
33:45
Speaker 3: all the Cold War and all that. So a British
33:48
Speaker 3: diplomat was attending the Valdai Conference this past week, an
33:52
Speaker 3: international conference. People come from all over the world. His
33:55
Speaker 3: name is Ian Proud. He's a veteran Foreign Service diplomat
33:59
Speaker 3: in Moscow, assigned to Moscow. He's responsible for putting sanctions
34:02
Speaker 3: on Russia. And so he's retired now. He's doing podcasts.
34:07
Speaker 3: He's a fantastic commentator, by the way. Here he is.
34:10
Speaker 3: This is Ian Proud. We'll bring his image up. This
34:14
Speaker 3: is a great interview with Neutrality Studies here, but Britain
34:16
Speaker 3: arrests its own diplomats. When he came back to Heathrow,
34:19
Speaker 3: he was detained under the Terrorism Act, and his devices
34:23
Speaker 3: were seized, and he was not allowed to leave. And
34:27
Speaker 3: after a long interrogation, he eventually was let go. But
34:31
Speaker 3: the whole experience was very, very unnerving for him and
34:34
Speaker 3: his family. He's talked about it publicly here. Again, Ian
34:38
Speaker 3: Proud is his name. I think he's doing great work.
34:40
Speaker 3: Here's his channel. So this is what he's all about.
34:43
Speaker 3: The name of his channel is The Peacemonger. So he
34:46
Speaker 3: is an absolute diplomat seeking peace, seeking peaceful resolutions and
34:52
Speaker 3: building bridges across cultures and trying to put an end
34:57
Speaker 3: to this war so that we all avoid the worst
34:59
Speaker 3: possible disaster. For this, Mike, he is being harassed by
35:04
Speaker 3: the British government, who he used to work for, who
35:07
Speaker 3: he's still loyal to. And it's a pretty incredible situation.
35:12
Speaker 3: So Here's another great commentator, Russian-American, served in the U.S. military,
35:17
Speaker 3: if I'm not mistaken, Stanislas Kaprivnik here. And he's saying
35:21
Speaker 3: years of negative coverage fed a cultivated prejudice against Russia.
35:25
Speaker 3: The recent, quote, plague in Russia, PSYOP, and the RAF-based
35:30
Speaker 3: attack stories show the same clickbait dynamic. Meanwhile, Russian journalists
35:34
Speaker 3: are banned in EU capitals while Russia welcomes BBC correspondents.
35:40
Speaker 3: That's strange. Old Europe has adopted the Soviet model. There
35:44
Speaker 3: it is. And he would know Stanislas Kaprivnik here. The
35:48
Speaker 3: Epstein story goes unreported. Attention diverted to Iran. What Proud's
35:53
Speaker 3: case shows, the last bastion of free speech. YouTube podcasts
35:57
Speaker 3: is the next target. And that's what we saw in
36:00
Speaker 3: the French and EU legislation as well. And just to
36:05
Speaker 3: finalize that in conclusion, Stanislaus is saying the main reason
36:10
Speaker 3: why people in the US and the UK are so
36:12
Speaker 3: fabulously biased against Russia is that for years they have
36:15
Speaker 3: been brainwashed with, quote, news about Russia, which cunningly feeds
36:20
Speaker 3: a racist bias. So he's coming right out and saying that.
36:25
Speaker 3: And I do think there is some truth to that
36:26
Speaker 3: historically as well. Certainly, that's a grounded argument here. But
36:32
Speaker 3: Just this takes the biscuit here. We can't leave without
36:35
Speaker 3: showing you this. We'll bring this up on screen here.
36:38
Speaker 3: The EU Parliament, Ursula von der Leyen is presiding over
36:42
Speaker 3: this institution, slams the Russian state Duma elections as a
36:46
Speaker 3: complete sham. So the EU Parliament, let me get this straight,
36:49
Speaker 3: the EU Parliament refuses to recognize the Russian state Duma as, quote, democratic.
36:56
Speaker 3: That's the EU Parliament, right? That's the most undemocratic... So
37:01
Speaker 3: we're going to have to give a laughing emoji. That's
37:03
Speaker 3: the most undemocratic institution probably in the Western world at
37:07
Speaker 3: the moment. I mean, honestly, they're making it too easy
37:10
Speaker 3: for us here, Mike. But just to show people, if
37:14
Speaker 3: you want to know the truth about what happened in
37:17
Speaker 3: Ukraine here, amazing book review, Maidan, Killings, and the False
37:22
Speaker 3: Flag Case. This is by Freddie Ponton. We've got this
37:25
Speaker 3: up at 21st Century Wire, and it links to a
37:27
Speaker 3: book that you can access by the author. Ivan Kachanovsky here,
37:33
Speaker 3: the Maidan massacre in Ukraine. This is a peer-reviewed work, Mike.
37:37
Speaker 3: Peer-reviewed work that proves it was a false flag attack
37:41
Speaker 3: in the Maidan in February of 2014. That is the
37:44
Speaker 3: whole basis of the West Ukraine narrative. It's a peer-reviewed
37:48
Speaker 3: work by a fantastic Ukrainian academic. And it's... It's conclusive.
37:56
Speaker 3: It was a false flag attack. So we encourage people
37:59
Speaker 3: to go. We've got the links in the show description
38:01
Speaker 3: on the show notes on that. You can go and
38:03
Speaker 3: get that book. And this is also public and open
38:06
Speaker 3: source as well.
38:07
Speaker 2: Yes.
38:07
Speaker 1: And of course, the link to that will be in
38:10
Speaker 1: the show notes. And if you're on YouTube and you're
38:13
Speaker 1: not seeing show notes, you need to go to the
38:15
Speaker 1: UK column website for those. And speaking of which, we
38:18
Speaker 1: do need your ongoing support. please head over to the
38:21
Speaker 1: UK column website and you'll find the details there. You
38:24
Speaker 1: can make a donation. You can join us as a member.
38:27
Speaker 1: And thank you once again to everybody that is helping
38:29
Speaker 1: out in this way. If you can't support us financially,
38:32
Speaker 1: do share this program or anything else on the website
38:35
Speaker 1: that you like, because that helps us massively as well.
38:39
Speaker 1: And do pick up a copy of the column. Issue
38:42
Speaker 1: three is out at the moment. Now, tonight at nine,
38:47
Speaker 1: Jerem is... covering, sorry, Carl is covering another in his
38:52
Speaker 1: Chinese history series. Do have a look at that. And
38:55
Speaker 1: just an announcement about Tuesday at 1pm, Sovereign Soil, Charles
38:59
Speaker 1: is interviewing Tracy Worcester about the state of soils and
39:04
Speaker 1: how to look after those here in the UK and everywhere, actually.
39:08
Speaker 1: But anyway, let's move on then to RAF Marham, because
39:13
Speaker 1: essential resurfacing work has been completed at RAF Marham. helping
39:19
Speaker 1: to maintain a safe and resilient air force, airfield, so
39:22
Speaker 1: says the British Ministry of Defence. And big deal, you
39:25
Speaker 1: might say, they fixed some potholes in a runway.
39:28
Speaker 2: So what? Well, this is a big deal.
39:30
Speaker 1: Deal because if you remember back to mid 2025 at
39:33
Speaker 1: the nato summit uh then prime minister keir starmer announced
39:36
Speaker 1: the purchase of a bunch of new f-35a fighter jets
39:40
Speaker 1: which can carry both nuclear and convention conventional weapons and
39:44
Speaker 1: that britain will join nato's dual capable aircraft nuclear mission Now,
39:48
Speaker 1: the decision they claimed would support 20,000 jobs in the
39:52
Speaker 1: F-35 program in the UK, with 15% of the global
39:56
Speaker 1: supply chain for the jets based in Britain. And they
39:59
Speaker 1: said that would support highly skilled jobs and opportunities for
40:01
Speaker 1: working people and delivering a defense dividend across the country.
40:04
Speaker 1: So in other words, jobs reliant on killing people in
40:08
Speaker 1: perpetual war. Patrick, that is absolutely the new economic reality
40:12
Speaker 1: of the Western world at the moment.
40:13
Speaker 3: Military Keynesianism, good defense jobs. Yes.
40:17
Speaker 1: So as I say, the new F-35s will be based
40:19
Speaker 1: at RAF Marham and the government is expected to procure
40:22
Speaker 1: 138 F-35s over the lifetime of the program. Now, just
40:27
Speaker 1: so as you know where RAF Marham is, let's bring
40:29
Speaker 1: the map on screen. It's just up the road from
40:32
Speaker 1: RAF Lake and Heath, which hosts US F-35s. And that
40:36
Speaker 1: has become a nuclear base as well, or at least
40:39
Speaker 1: the infrastructure personnel and training for a nuclear mission at
40:41
Speaker 1: Lake and Heath are documented in US government sources. And
40:45
Speaker 1: a July 2025 delivery of actual weapons is widely reported
40:49
Speaker 1: and generally accepted by analysts, but it rests on flight tracking.
40:55
Speaker 1: And really, there is no official statement from either government
40:59
Speaker 1: at this point in time. So East Anglia has become
41:02
Speaker 1: the new capital of Britain at this point. That's nice,
41:05
Speaker 1: isn't it?
41:06
Speaker 3: It just makes you feel good, doesn't it?
41:08
Speaker 2: Doesn't it just?
41:09
Speaker 1: So Basil, let's come back to you then. And Of course,
41:14
Speaker 1: there's been quite a furor over the last few days
41:17
Speaker 1: about whether or not Britain maintains a diplomatic presence in Israel.
41:23
Speaker 4: Well, not in Israel, Mike. In the occupied territories in
41:26
Speaker 4: East Jerusalem, the British embassy is in Tel Aviv. But
41:32
Speaker 4: there's been a consulate in East Jerusalem since the days
41:35
Speaker 4: of the Ottoman Empire. And in retaliation for Britain's milquetoast attacks,
41:41
Speaker 4: sanctions on the expansion of the E1 settlement bloc that
41:44
Speaker 4: David Miliband announced a few weeks ago, Israel sought to
41:49
Speaker 4: close the consulate in East Jerusalem, even though under international
41:53
Speaker 4: law it has no jurisdiction over that territory. As a result,
41:59
Speaker 4: Britain threatened to expel up to 27 Israeli diplomats from
42:04
Speaker 4: the Israel.
42:06
Speaker 2: Embassy in the UK.
42:07
Speaker 4: And this row has been escalating all week. It finally
42:17
Speaker 4: reached a head when the government were advised by UK
42:23
Speaker 4: Attorney General, that Israel would indeed be acting unlawfully if
42:26
Speaker 4: it closed the consulate on the site in East Jerusalem,
42:30
Speaker 4: which is recognised by the UN and most of its members,
42:33
Speaker 4: including the UK, I mean, I think, in fact, practically everybody,
42:36
Speaker 4: as being occupied Palestinian territory. Interestingly, this incident highlighted the
42:42
Speaker 4: growing frustration among Israel's longtime allies over its settlements in
42:48
Speaker 4: the occupied West Bank. Now, Patrick Winter, writing in The Guardian,
42:54
Speaker 4: slips in the viewed by much of the world as
42:57
Speaker 4: illegal under international law. It is illegal under international law, Patrick, period.
43:04
Speaker 4: In his statement to the UK Parliament, Miliband said settler
43:07
Speaker 4: terrorists supported by Netanyahu's government are committing ethnic cleansing in
43:12
Speaker 4: the West Bank. Israel disputes this. They are, of course,
43:16
Speaker 4: simply burning people out of their houses. cementing up wells,
43:22
Speaker 4: bulldozing olive trees and murdering people. Diplomats from other Western countries,
43:30
Speaker 4: this is interesting, this is the Guardian reporting, earlier in
43:34
Speaker 4: the week were very worried about the closure of the
43:37
Speaker 4: consulate in East Jerusalem, setting a precedent, and that Britain
43:41
Speaker 4: had to respond strongly because of the implications beyond the
43:45
Speaker 4: immediate dispute. Shutting down the consulate would involve Israel claiming
43:50
Speaker 4: authority in Jerusalem, something it doesn't have under international law.
43:55
Speaker 4: So it is effectively a challenge to the status quo. Well,
43:59
Speaker 4: that's never bothered the Israelis. Unsurprisingly, as is often the case,
44:05
Speaker 4: it would be the Palestinians who pay the price for
44:08
Speaker 4: the consulate's closing. Amjad Iraqi, the International Crisis Group's senior
44:14
Speaker 4: analyst on Israel and Palestine, said that it's quite telling
44:18
Speaker 4: that the Israeli government's response was primarily about blocking the
44:23
Speaker 4: UK's ability to support Palestinians rather than the core of
44:28
Speaker 4: UK-Israeli relations themselves. For the Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar,
44:33
Speaker 4: the response is low cost.
44:36
Speaker 2: It's just the Palestinians, after all.
44:39
Speaker 4: Well, this row brewed all week, and I was very
44:43
Speaker 4: curious to see how it was going to play out.
44:45
Speaker 4: I couldn't really see Britain expelling 27 Israeli diplomats from
44:51
Speaker 4: the Israeli embassy in Kensington. I mean, if you think
44:55
Speaker 4: there was a big furore about the Green Party vote,
44:59
Speaker 4: that would have really set the cat amongst the pigeons.
45:04
Speaker 4: So as we can see here from CBS's reporting, a
45:09
Speaker 4: tense truce was reached. The diplomatic feud remains. Just yesterday,
45:15
Speaker 4: a major diplomatic confrontation was averted. allowing the consulate to
45:21
Speaker 4: remain open, but under a new name and with significantly
45:26
Speaker 4: reduced staff. Under the new arrangement, Britain's Consul General, who's
45:31
Speaker 4: the senior diplomat at the consulate, and 19 other diplomats
45:36
Speaker 4: will leave, while no more than seven diplomats will remain.
45:40
Speaker 4: There's your 27 at what is now.
45:43
Speaker 2: The UK mission.
45:45
Speaker 4: Israeli officials have not said explicitly whether the remaining diplomats
45:48
Speaker 4: will retain their accreditation and diplomatic immunity. Britain's top diplomat,
45:55
Speaker 4: Ed Maliband, said in his statement that without an understanding,
45:58
Speaker 4: we would not have had the necessary assurances for the
46:01
Speaker 4: security and protections of our staff and the premises, indicating
46:05
Speaker 4: that those diplomatic protections are likely to be part of
46:09
Speaker 4: the agreement. Absolutely essential, of course, that those Diplomats are
46:13
Speaker 4: still recognized as diplomats. Miliband said the newly renamed UK
46:18
Speaker 4: mission would remain independent and operational, continuing to work with Palestinians.
46:23
Speaker 4: He also pledged to rebuild Britain's diplomatic presence in the
46:27
Speaker 4: coming months and significantly ruled out any retaliatory measures as
46:32
Speaker 4: long as credible discussions with Israel continue. I'm not sure
46:38
Speaker 4: how credible any discussions with Israel are. but significant that
46:44
Speaker 4: the Israelis have effectively exercised jurisdiction over the consulate in
46:50
Speaker 4: East Jerusalem, even though it's Palestinian soil. And there's no retaliation.
46:58
Speaker 4: 20 British diplomats are being expelled. Why aren't we expelling
47:02
Speaker 4: 20 Israeli diplomats as they planned to do at the
47:05
Speaker 4: beginning of the week?
47:07
Speaker 1: How much of this, Patrick, is to do with the
47:09
Speaker 1: retaliation a real diplomatic spot and much of it is
47:13
Speaker 1: posturing in order to support Netanyahu's position in the upcoming election.
47:17
Speaker 2: Do you think?
47:18
Speaker 3: Well, the first impression I got, this is like the
47:20
Speaker 3: geopolitical equivalent of the battered wife syndrome. It's like you
47:24
Speaker 3: can abuse us, but we can't do anything back to you.
47:27
Speaker 3: Let's just have credible discussions and call it even. I mean,
47:30
Speaker 3: it's really kind of embarrassing on one level that Britain
47:33
Speaker 3: can't defend its own sovereignty. against, let's just be clear,
47:38
Speaker 3: this is a government and a leader that are in
47:41
Speaker 3: the international courts of justice for genocide. There's arrest warrants
47:45
Speaker 3: out for Netanyahu. And that's what you're dealing with. It
47:49
Speaker 3: is a criminal enterprise. It is an organized crime syndicate
47:53
Speaker 3: masquerading as a country at this point, completely out of
47:56
Speaker 3: the bounds of all international law and norms.
47:58
Speaker 5: Yes.
47:59
Speaker 3: What's the problem? So yeah, the election, 100% Mike, 100%.
48:04
Speaker 3: Netanyahu's got to look tough. You've got to look. So
48:07
Speaker 3: this is also the telltale sign of a failing empire
48:12
Speaker 3: or hegemon is they start attacking their allies throughout history.
48:16
Speaker 3: This is what the US is doing right now. It's
48:19
Speaker 3: what Trump is doing. It's what Israel is doing. That
48:21
Speaker 3: is not a good harbinger for future success.
48:26
Speaker 2: Briefly, Basil.
48:28
Speaker 4: Well, elements in the foreign office were opposed to the
48:30
Speaker 4: introduction of sanctions in the first place because they feared
48:33
Speaker 4: it would boost Netanyahu's re-election campaign. Jonathan Cook has pointed
48:40
Speaker 4: out that Western governments, particularly in the United Kingdom, Europe,
48:46
Speaker 4: and indeed even America now, want to see Netanyahu defeated
48:50
Speaker 4: so that they can pretend there's a great reset in
48:53
Speaker 4: Israel and we can go back to October the 6th, 2023,
48:56
Speaker 4: and continue to flannel about the two-state solution and the
49:00
Speaker 4: big bad bogeyman is gone and, you know, Everything's back
49:04
Speaker 4: to normal, as it were. So, you know, whether or
49:06
Speaker 4: not that's the case remains to be seen. But the
49:09
Speaker 4: chances of Netanyahu being beaten are apparently decreasing. He's riding
49:15
Speaker 4: high in the polls and every indication is that the
49:18
Speaker 4: next Israeli government will be. identical to the current one.
49:22
Speaker 2: I think it may even be worse.
49:23
Speaker 1: Anyway, let's move on then to economic issues. So Trade
49:27
Speaker 1: Press in the United States has counted 16 trucking firms
49:31
Speaker 1: entering bankruptcy in less than a month as a result
49:34
Speaker 1: of the Hormuz blockade and the profiteering of oil companies. Now,
49:37
Speaker 1: let's just make sure we understand this, because Eight of
49:41
Speaker 1: the largest oil producers made a combined $ 93 billion in
49:44
Speaker 1: order to 2026. And that was up from under 50
49:47
Speaker 1: billion a year earlier. And that's before the latest price hikes.
49:51
Speaker 1: So just so we know, they are Saudi, Aramco, BP, Shell, Equinor,
49:56
Speaker 1: Total Energies, ENI, Chevron, and ExxonMobil. In Britain here, the
50:01
Speaker 1: situation isn't any better because whole years here are.
50:05
Speaker 2: Warning they are going to be next.
50:07
Speaker 1: And of course, as everybody knows, the average price of
50:09
Speaker 1: diesel has crossed £ 2 a litre in this country for
50:11
Speaker 1: the first time at the start of this month. And
50:14
Speaker 1: that beats the record set in June of 2022. And
50:19
Speaker 1: at the end of February, before the war with Iran
50:22
Speaker 1: disrupted global oil supplies, diesel was £ 1.
50:25
Speaker 2: 42. So that is a.
50:27
Speaker 1: Significant rise in a very short period of time. The
50:30
Speaker 1: Road Haulage Association estimates that operators are now paying about
50:34
Speaker 1: £ 350 more per lorry every week than in February, with
50:37
Speaker 1: average margins of around 2%. And many companies are locked
50:41
Speaker 1: into fixed price contracts with the companies that they supply
50:46
Speaker 1: for or they ship goods for.
50:48
Speaker 2: And so that.
50:49
Speaker 1: Extra cost can't easily be passed on. And so they
50:52
Speaker 1: have said that the situation is completely unsustainable. And the
50:56
Speaker 1: casualties are mounting. Cumbrian haulier JT Leyland entered administration on
51:01
Speaker 1: the 21st of September. That was 43 staff made redundant.
51:06
Speaker 1: Its final accounts show just £ 1, 300 in the bank, as
51:10
Speaker 1: we can see here. And then a few days before that,
51:13
Speaker 1: Caerphilly-based CVH Transport Service, which was a family firm running
51:17
Speaker 1: back to 1973, went into creditors' voluntary liquidation. In August,
51:22
Speaker 1: Immigrant Operators Chamber said Chippers and Cook, trading since the 1970s,
51:27
Speaker 1: also collapsed alongside several other smaller carriers. So official figures
51:32
Speaker 1: aren't showing this yet, certainly not on the American scale.
51:36
Speaker 1: But insolvency service data shows 226 road freight and removal
51:41
Speaker 1: businesses in England and Wales failed between January and July.
51:44
Speaker 1: That's fewer than last year. But the point is that
51:47
Speaker 1: the monthly count jumped by 20% in July. And those
51:51
Speaker 1: figures also, of course, predate the latest surge in prices.
51:55
Speaker 1: So on the continent, the picture is pretty much the same.
51:59
Speaker 1: So Belgium recorded 456 transport bankruptcies in the first half
52:03
Speaker 1: of 2026. And that's a record. In Germany, restructuring consultancy
52:08
Speaker 1: Falkensteg accounted 18 insolvencies amongst the larger transport firms in
52:14
Speaker 1: the first half. And that's triple the figure.
52:16
Speaker 2: Of a year earlier.
52:17
Speaker 1: The German Haulage Federation says diesel has risen by 40
52:22
Speaker 1: cents a liter since the war began. And that's adding
52:25
Speaker 1: more than 700,000 euros a year to the fuel bill
52:28
Speaker 1: of a 50 truck fleet. So Italy, Romania, Slovenia, all
52:33
Speaker 1: have introduced fuel tax relief on diesel rebates in Britain.
52:37
Speaker 1: The 5P fuel duty cut has been extended until the
52:41
Speaker 1: 31st of December, but freight operators have received no targeted support.
52:46
Speaker 1: They're now hoping, praying that the government is going to
52:49
Speaker 1: do something on the budget, which is on the 28th
52:52
Speaker 1: of October. But I'm going to suggest that that kind
52:54
Speaker 1: of passive begging of the Treasury for a bailout isn't
52:57
Speaker 1: going to achieve anything. And perhaps Westminster, I mean, they're
53:01
Speaker 1: in a better position than most, even the farmers, to
53:04
Speaker 1: blockade Westminster until the entire war agenda is dropped, which
53:08
Speaker 1: is causing this problem in the first place.
53:09
Speaker 3: Oh, you mean go French, go full French?
53:11
Speaker 2: Go full French, absolutely.
53:13
Speaker 3: You know, but it's all worth it, Mike, because Putin,
53:17
Speaker 3: because the Russian threat, it's all worth it. We need
53:20
Speaker 3: to just knuckle down. And those good defense jobs are coming.
53:24
Speaker 3: Don't worry about the economy or the fact you can't
53:26
Speaker 3: put petrol in your car because we need the Russian threat,
53:30
Speaker 3: the Russian threat.
53:31
Speaker 1: Can I just say, by the way, these good defense
53:33
Speaker 1: jobs that are coming, well, Babcock's laying people off at
53:36
Speaker 1: the moment in Plymouth. So I'm not seeing much evidence
53:38
Speaker 1: of these good defense jobs coming.
53:41
Speaker 3: Putin, Russian threat.
53:43
Speaker 2: He'll come to our rescue, maybe.
53:44
Speaker 3: We can't let Putin win. And so we all got
53:47
Speaker 3: to get together to blitz spirit. Come on. Right. Okay.
53:52
Speaker 2: Yes, Basil, let's end with it, or in case you
53:55
Speaker 2: missed it.
53:57
Speaker 4: Yes, thanks, Mike. Everybody's favourite bit of the week. A
54:02
Speaker 4: few stories you may have missed. Certainly the first one,
54:05
Speaker 4: completely ignored by corporate media, but we are the antidote
54:09
Speaker 4: to mainstream propaganda. Kill the Israeli soldiers who got abducted
54:13
Speaker 4: before they get to the Gaza border, so said a
54:17
Speaker 4: senior journalist. Israeli officer on October the 7th. I thought
54:20
Speaker 4: that was well worth pointing out this week after all
54:24
Speaker 4: the hand-wringing that we've seen. Following on from Patrick's earlier segment,
54:30
Speaker 4: a multiple-casualty hybrid attack by Russia is Europe's new worst-case scenario, apparently.
54:37
Speaker 4: Fears are growing, one of my favourite corporate media phrases.
54:42
Speaker 4: I remember pointing that out to my father once when
54:46
Speaker 4: he first... noticed it, and an extraordinary thing. I'm not
54:50
Speaker 4: sure how fears grow, but anyway. Now, this next clip
54:55
Speaker 4: is absolutely fascinating in case you're wondering where your pounds
55:00
Speaker 4: are going in support of Russia.
55:03
Speaker 2: We can see now.
55:06
Speaker 4: This is Daria Kochurina, wife of Dmytro Kandysenko, a deputy
55:13
Speaker 4: head in Ukraine's state audit service. and she's posing with
55:18
Speaker 4: her new Lamborghini in Monaco, Monte Carlo. That's where your
55:24
Speaker 4: pounds are going in support of Ukraine, or some of
55:27
Speaker 4: them anyway, so it appears, unless, of course, she perhaps
55:31
Speaker 4: won the money to buy that Lamborghini on a slot machine.
55:35
Speaker 4: Who knows? I don't want to defame her or the
55:38
Speaker 4: Ukrainian government, but certainly very interesting. She's not the only
55:42
Speaker 4: one with such ostentatious wealth. Next up in the Israeli elections,
55:50
Speaker 4: one of the occupation parties is distributing these gold noose
55:54
Speaker 4: pins to high school students to promote the death penalty
55:59
Speaker 4: law against Palestinian detainees. Absolutely charming. But you must remember
56:05
Speaker 4: Zionism is not racism. You must remember that at all times, children.
56:11
Speaker 4: Next up, this is another fascinating clip. Apologies for the
56:17
Speaker 4: poor picture quality. The sound was even worse. It shows
56:23
Speaker 4: Flavio Bolsonaro, who stands every chance of being the next
56:28
Speaker 4: president of Brazil, promising the country to Israel, standing there
56:33
Speaker 4: in front of assorted Masonic symbols. You can see the
56:37
Speaker 4: divider and the G on the front of the dais
56:40
Speaker 4: where he's speaking. This is a Masonic meeting. It's definitely him.
56:45
Speaker 4: and other Masonic symbols behind. And in his speech there,
56:50
Speaker 4: he's promising Brazil to Israel. The Colombian president felt that
56:58
Speaker 4: his election had been stolen with the installation of a
57:02
Speaker 4: far-right pro-Israel regime in Colombia. And indeed, the United States
57:08
Speaker 4: and Israel seem to have been rather successful installing puppet
57:12
Speaker 4: governments throughout South America at the moment. Hopefully that tide
57:17
Speaker 4: will turn. Next up, the charming Secretary of War, Pete
57:21
Speaker 4: Hegseth himself, wants to live stream the execution of the
57:30
Speaker 4: Fort Hood shooter, Nidal Hassan, the army psychiatrist who killed
57:36
Speaker 4: 13 people, will be executed by firing squad. on the
57:40
Speaker 4: 3rd of December, and this is going to be live-streamed.
57:44
Speaker 4: Paul Daly, an opinion piece in The Guardian, Execution TV,
57:49
Speaker 4: Exit has taken the once greatest democracy, well, I'm not
57:52
Speaker 4: sure if it was ever that, but anyway, to a
57:54
Speaker 4: horrific new low. I pointed out in my speech at
57:58
Speaker 4: our 20th anniversary event, we are in danger of going
58:02
Speaker 4: back to the Middle Ages and a new era of barbarism.
58:06
Speaker 4: Don't worry, though, because... Britain is running out of gas
58:10
Speaker 4: by the end of winter. Apparently, according to a new
58:14
Speaker 4: report from Europe's gas transmission operators published yesterday, UK storage
58:19
Speaker 4: facilities could be completely depleted if we have any harsh
58:22
Speaker 4: conditions over the next few months. Snow is predicted this weekend.
58:27
Speaker 4: But don't worry, as you sit there shivering, you can
58:31
Speaker 4: watch someone getting shot to death by firing squad on
58:36
Speaker 4: live TV.
58:38
Speaker 1: That'll warm us up, won't it, Patrick? It is getting
58:45
Speaker 1: close to the end, it has to be said.
58:46
Speaker 3: Jesus is coming, folks. Look busy.
58:49
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
58:49
Speaker 1: Well, look, we've got to leave it there for today. Basil,
58:52
Speaker 1: thank you very much. Thank you, Patrick. Thanks for everybody
58:55
Speaker 1: that's watched. We'll be back in a few minutes' time
58:58
Speaker 1: if you're a UK Column member for UK Column News Extra.
59:01
Speaker 1: If you're not a member, maybe you'd like to join
59:03
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59:06
Speaker 1: as the other members-only content. has a great weekend we'll
59:11
Speaker 1: be back with another news program at 1 p.m as
59:14
Speaker 1: usual on monday we'll see you then thanks for joining
59:17
Speaker 1: us bye