Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 21st October 2026

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UK Column News — 21st October 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:16
Speaker 1: Good afternoon.
0:16
Speaker 2: It's Wednesday, the 21st of October, 2026, just after one o'clock.
0:20
Speaker 2: Welcome to UK Column News. I'm your host, Mike Robinson.
0:22
Speaker 2: Joining me by video link today are Charles Mallett, Vanessa
0:24
Speaker 2: Bailey and Dr. Liz Evans. Now later in the program.
0:28
Speaker 2: We'll be reporting on the UK government decision to mask
0:31
Speaker 2: Medicaid with folic acid on the latest report from the
0:35
Speaker 2: COVID inquiry and the continuing propaganda in the corporate media
0:41
Speaker 2: about conscription. But we'll begin today with the Mecca Pact,
0:45
Speaker 2: which has resulted in the UK's latest involvement with Saudi
0:48
Speaker 2: Arabia in its war with Yemen. Welcome to the program, Vanessa.
0:53
Speaker 3: Hi, Mike, and good afternoon, everyone. And yes, another defensive
0:57
Speaker 3: war for the UK. Make that make sense. Anyway, let's
1:01
Speaker 3: start off with Netanyahu. We're, of course, in election fever
1:05
Speaker 3: in Israel. Netanyahu appearing on multiple TV channels. And this
1:10
Speaker 3: was a security conference that he spoke at fairly recently.
1:15
Speaker 3: But what is very interesting about this conference is the
1:18
Speaker 3: map that he displayed. You can freeze frame it and
1:21
Speaker 3: obviously blow it up. It's not terribly clear on screen.
1:26
Speaker 3: But there's a few interesting things about this. So apparently
1:29
Speaker 3: this map was actually created regarding a Middle East alliance
1:34
Speaker 3: created five months ago, so back in May 2026, created
1:38
Speaker 3: by Max Sayer and Marcus Schneider for a foundation that
1:43
Speaker 3: has been working with Israeli lawmakers since 1978. Well, people
1:48
Speaker 3: may notice that the Mecca Pact is already on the
1:51
Speaker 3: map So this was long before the Mecca alliance was
1:56
Speaker 3: announced that you see the Sunni alliance between Turkey, Saudi Arabia,
2:01
Speaker 3: Pakistan in dark green, and Egypt. But you'll also note
2:07
Speaker 3: that to the west, the southwest of Sudan, you will
2:12
Speaker 3: see that that's colored in blue, which is considered to
2:15
Speaker 3: be friendly to both UAA and Israel. And in the
2:19
Speaker 3: lettering there, it mentions, The rapid support forces, the genocidal
2:25
Speaker 3: ISIS-aligned forces that are carrying out a genocide right now.
2:29
Speaker 1: In Sudan, also, by the way, supported by the UK.
2:32
Speaker 3: We know there was a recent clandestine meeting in the
2:36
Speaker 3: UK where RSF representatives were allowed to speak. You'll also
2:42
Speaker 3: see that the Sunni alliance, which again is in dark green,
2:46
Speaker 3: the Israel-UAE hexagon alliance, which is in light blue and
2:51
Speaker 3: the dark blue coloring for the UAE, which demonstrates that
2:55
Speaker 3: it's the closest country in the Persian Gulf to Israel,
2:59
Speaker 3: is effectively being orchestrated to fully surround Iran. Interesting, Afghanistan
3:06
Speaker 3: isn't colored in yet. Although that's a Sunni majority country,
3:10
Speaker 3: there is also a strong Shia Islam presence there. And
3:15
Speaker 3: of course, Russia and Iran need Afghanistan for the North-South
3:20
Speaker 3: trade corridor, having been cut off in Armenia and Azerbaijan.
3:24
Speaker 3: So a lot to talk about. I could continue talking
3:27
Speaker 3: about the map itself. There's a lot of information within it.
3:30
Speaker 3: But let's move on to what's happening in the Mecca
3:34
Speaker 3: Pact itself.
3:34
Speaker 1: So first of all, the UAE.
3:37
Speaker 3: Has agreed with Saudi Arabia to re-enter the Yemen conflict
3:40
Speaker 3: amid Houthi or the resistance movement Ansarullah gains.
3:46
Speaker 1: And what does this mean? Of course, the UAE has for.
3:49
Speaker 3: A long time been in conflict, largely with Saudi Arabia
3:53
Speaker 3: in Yemen and over control of territory in Yemen, control
3:57
Speaker 3: of proxy forces. The UAE has been acting very much
4:01
Speaker 3: as an Israeli force, proxy in southern Yemen. So interesting
4:05
Speaker 3: that Saudi feels desperate enough to bring the UAE back online.
4:10
Speaker 3: Or is this being directed by Israel itself to maintain
4:15
Speaker 3: a sphere of influence inside Yemen? And as mentioned in
4:20
Speaker 3: the map itself, Egypt will come into the Sunni alliance,
4:24
Speaker 3: according to recent reports. It's going to be voted on
4:27
Speaker 3: in parliaments. whether Egypt sends military to Saudi Arabia to
4:33
Speaker 3: defend Saudi Arabia. This is the narrative, of course, that
4:36
Speaker 3: is being pushed out by all of these nations joining
4:39
Speaker 3: the war, the colonialist war against Yemen. What's interesting, Egypt
4:44
Speaker 3: has basically the largest personnel army in the Middle East.
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Speaker 3: It's second to Turkey and Israel from a firepower perspective,
4:54
Speaker 3: but its strength is anchored by massive ground forces, more
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Speaker 3: than 3,600 tanks and a significant air force. So Egypt
5:02
Speaker 3: coming into this war is a major issue or a
5:07
Speaker 3: major point within that map that Netanyahu was showing. But finally,
5:11
Speaker 3: of course, let's have a look at West Streeting. I
5:14
Speaker 3: apologize in advance because this is his justification for Britain
5:19
Speaker 3: entering the war on behalf of Saudi Arabia against Yemen
5:24
Speaker 3: with RAF Typhoon jets.
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Speaker 4: Today I've informed Parliament that we'll be deploying the RAF
5:32
Speaker 4: with typhoons to mount defensive counter air activity against what
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Speaker 4: is outrageous Houthi escalation that we've seen in recent weeks.
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Speaker 4: In particular, people will bring to mind the bombing of
5:46
Speaker 4: civilian airports that led to hundreds of casualties. This is
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Speaker 4: an intolerable escalation and the United Kingdom is the kind
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Speaker 4: of country that when our allies call for help, we respond.
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Speaker 4: people here at home are feeling in their pockets and
6:00
Speaker 4: at the pumps the price of regional instability and conflict
6:04
Speaker 4: in the Middle East. That's why the UK is responding
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Speaker 4: to protect civilians and to try and bring an end
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Speaker 4: to this conflict through diplomatic means, ultimately. But in the meantime,
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Speaker 4: we're here to protect civilians.
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Speaker 2: Well, as Vanessa has just said, according to the MOD
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Speaker 2: press release that went along with that statement. The typhoons
6:29
Speaker 2: will fly defensive counter air missions to protect Saudi cities
6:34
Speaker 2: and critical national infrastructure. The press release said that the aircraft, quotes,
6:38
Speaker 2: will not conduct offensive strikes against the Houthis. The UK
6:42
Speaker 2: is also sending an RAF A400M transport aircraft and military
6:46
Speaker 2: advisors to work with Saudi staff officers. The so-called air
6:53
Speaker 2: defense equipment and personnel, by the way, are already there
6:57
Speaker 2: and have been there for a little while. Yesterday's announcement extends,
7:01
Speaker 2: as I say, the RAF's 22nd of September announcement that
7:05
Speaker 2: an RAF Voyager tanker would provide air-to-air refueling support for
7:08
Speaker 2: Saudi air operations. And that support covers operations to, quote,
7:13
Speaker 2: degrade Houthi military targets in Yemen. So although they claim
7:17
Speaker 2: that the new fighter deployment is restricted to defense, UK
7:21
Speaker 2: tankers will continue to refuel Saudi aircraft that are striking
7:24
Speaker 2: targets inside Yemen. The Ministry of Defence has not said
7:27
Speaker 2: how many typhoons will be deployed, where they're going to
7:30
Speaker 2: be based, or for how long. The Liberal Democrat MP
7:34
Speaker 2: Mike Martin sits on the Commons Defence Select Committee, and
7:38
Speaker 2: he accepted that there was a shared interest in Middle
7:41
Speaker 2: East stability, but warned that the RAF is paper thin
7:45
Speaker 2: while Russia steps up threats to UK infrastructure. So absolutely
7:49
Speaker 2: determined to make sure that no matter what's going on
7:51
Speaker 2: in the Middle East, we're focused on Russia. And he
7:55
Speaker 2: called on ministers to confirm that the jets are not
7:57
Speaker 2: being withdrawn from tasks that support Euro-Atlantic security. Now, of course,
8:02
Speaker 2: there's been no Commons vote on this. The deployment was
8:05
Speaker 2: announced in a written ministerial statement, and commentators have noted
8:08
Speaker 2: that the tanker mission, already described as time-limited, was quietly
8:13
Speaker 2: extended in the same document. And I'll just remind everybody
8:16
Speaker 2: that this revives the long-running controversy over britain's role in
8:21
Speaker 2: yemen uh the campaign against arms trade won a 2019
8:25
Speaker 2: court of appeal ruling that the government's process for licensing
8:28
Speaker 2: arms exports to saudi arabia was unlawful uh that there
8:32
Speaker 2: was there were further challenges and the government then changed
8:35
Speaker 2: its routine on issuing licenses which apparently as far as
8:38
Speaker 2: the courts were concerned uh made things a bit better
8:42
Speaker 2: but nonetheless uh that is still an ongoing discussion that
8:46
Speaker 2: needs to be had um So let's move on then.
8:51
Speaker 2: And Charles, let me welcome you to the programme now
8:53
Speaker 2: and let's have a discussion about food security.
8:55
Speaker 5: Thank you very much, Mike. And good afternoon all. Yes,
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Speaker 5: food security, I mean, absolutely related to everything else that
9:04
Speaker 5: we're reporting on, really, because, of course, while successive governments
9:07
Speaker 5: have absolutely paid lip service to government, it's now being
9:11
Speaker 5: seized upon. as another part of the national security architecture,
9:16
Speaker 5: which means that it's ripe as a subject for scaremongering
9:19
Speaker 5: and the suggestion that further government control is the only answer. Now,
9:25
Speaker 5: there was a debate in the House of Lords last week,
9:28
Speaker 5: which appears to reinforce this point, and it was led
9:30
Speaker 5: by Baroness Tether, the former Liberal Democrat MP. These are
9:35
Speaker 5: the remarks she opened with.
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Speaker 6: Food security is incredibly complex. Addressing it has also never
9:44
Speaker 6: been more pressing. We now face multiple global threats that
9:48
Speaker 6: could create profound food shocks, shocks that will fall unequally
9:52
Speaker 6: on our population. Noble Lords' multiple reports in recent years
9:57
Speaker 6: have warned that the UK is dangerously unprepared. for potentially
10:01
Speaker 6: catastrophic shocks to our food system. Professor Tim Lang's impressive
10:06
Speaker 6: report for the National Preparedness Commission last year paints a
10:10
Speaker 6: comprehensive picture of current vulnerabilities. The National Audit Office warned
10:15
Speaker 6: last month that the sector's ability to withstand events has
10:19
Speaker 6: not been tested. Farmers tell us that climate change is
10:23
Speaker 6: already a reality, creating huge unpredictability. Crops this year have
10:28
Speaker 6: been affected by drought, flooding, excessive rain and extreme heat,
10:33
Speaker 6: which has sometimes, of course, made it too hot to harvest.
10:36
Speaker 6: While some yields have held up, we've seen the worst
10:39
Speaker 6: cereal harvest on record. And with a supercharged El Nino,
10:43
Speaker 6: that's only likely to get worse. The Joint Intelligence Committee
10:48
Speaker 6: has given stark warnings about the potential for the collapse
10:51
Speaker 6: of ecosystems within five years and the threat to national
10:55
Speaker 6: security and food supply. We've seen cyber attacks on supermarkets
11:00
Speaker 6: and distributors. This week, the Director General of MI5 warned
11:04
Speaker 6: about the risk of AI-enabled drone attacks on UK soil.
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Speaker 6: A real concern... when almost 95% of retail food moves
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Speaker 6: through just 131 distribution centres.
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Speaker 5: So not much hope in her eyes, at least. And
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Speaker 5: of course, as she concluded with the points made by
11:29
Speaker 5: Ken McCullum, Director General of MI5, which I think would
11:32
Speaker 5: fall into the category of being unqualified and unsubstantiated, but
11:37
Speaker 5: nevertheless making this connection between so-called food security and national security.
11:42
Speaker 5: She referred there to last month's report from the National
11:47
Speaker 5: Audit Office, which will just pop on screen now. And
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Speaker 5: she does mention some of the things, particularly with regard
11:53
Speaker 5: to the risks, whether or not they're acute, discrete events
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Speaker 5: requiring an emergency response, whether cyber attacks, energy disruptions, animal
12:04
Speaker 5: plant or human disease outbreaks, because of course we can't
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Speaker 5: forget about them, or chronic risks such as climate change,
12:12
Speaker 5: which can gradually erode resilience over time. Now, a fairly
12:16
Speaker 5: staggering omission given the state of things is war. The
12:20
Speaker 5: National Audit Office didn't make an enormous point of mentioning war,
12:25
Speaker 5: which does seem very bizarre. However, the words power outage
12:29
Speaker 5: occurred 19 times in the document, which would seem to
12:32
Speaker 5: lay bare the consequences of the so-called just transition to
12:37
Speaker 5: intermittent and unreliable sources of energy. So it would seem
12:41
Speaker 5: to be no coincidence that the government has taken action
12:45
Speaker 5: on that front today. But just before we look at that,
12:47
Speaker 5: we'll see what it is that DEFRA is doing, which
12:50
Speaker 5: is to increase its focus on planning for catastrophic events
12:53
Speaker 5: where food supply would be affected they have increased their
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Speaker 5: national power outage planning. So the announcement that the Jackdaw
13:01
Speaker 5: gas field has been given a green light to begin
13:04
Speaker 5: production today might seem like less of a coincidence. Now
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Speaker 5: The critical point from the press release there is that
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Speaker 5: even on the path to net zero, the UK will
13:18
Speaker 5: still require oil and gas as part of our energy
13:21
Speaker 5: needs for decades to come. Of course, they're trying very
13:25
Speaker 5: hard to make it look like something it isn't. They
13:27
Speaker 5: also say that recent events in the Middle East have
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Speaker 5: triggered global energy shocks and pushed up bills for families
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Speaker 5: across the country. And at a time of global instability,
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Speaker 5: homegrown energy can be a source of national strength. And again,
13:41
Speaker 5: on the financial economic side of it, trying to make
13:43
Speaker 5: it sound better than it is, the Chancellor is also
13:45
Speaker 5: announcing today the establishment of a new energy wealth fund,
13:50
Speaker 5: which will use tax revenues from North Sea oil and
13:53
Speaker 5: gas to invest in renewable and low carbon energy projects
13:57
Speaker 5: and support the green transition. So in other words, this
14:01
Speaker 5: is all part of the plan Nothing to see here.
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Speaker 5: We're now going to go back to Baroness Tether for
14:07
Speaker 5: her solutions to the problems that she's identified.
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Speaker 6: The final theme I want to touch on is how
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Speaker 6: we can ensure our efforts on food security involve the
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Speaker 6: whole of society. We have a long-standing problem with food
14:21
Speaker 6: inequality and it's getting worse. The government announced small pots
14:25
Speaker 6: of funding for the Good Food Neighbourhoods programme to tackle
14:28
Speaker 6: fruit and veg deserts. But what's missing is is a
14:32
Speaker 6: coherent national strategy with teeth that draws together public health,
14:37
Speaker 6: planning policy, housing strategy, local government, agricultural policy and public attitudes.
14:43
Speaker 6: Now is the moment for a good food bill, something
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Speaker 6: that covers the full arc of the food system, allowing
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Speaker 6: coordinated decision-making at national and local level.
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Speaker 5: So she seems to be setting out a fairly clear
14:59
Speaker 5: pathway there. Food security as national security, which will lead
15:02
Speaker 5: into greater centralised control. And the only thing that we're
15:06
Speaker 5: waiting for is the emergency with which to justify this action. Now,
15:10
Speaker 5: the NAO report referred to home defence, the subject of
15:14
Speaker 5: much discussion over recent years. But recently, a publication from
15:18
Speaker 5: the House of Commons Library, which has been prompted by
15:21
Speaker 5: increasing threats against the UK and warnings by the government
15:25
Speaker 5: that Russia could attack. by the end of the decade.
15:29
Speaker 5: And we return to this idea of the whole of
15:31
Speaker 5: society approach, which now, of course, is coming from defence
15:35
Speaker 5: into how to tackle food. Where does this lead? Inevitably to,
15:40
Speaker 5: is this a return to conscription? So now we have
15:44
Speaker 5: food connected to conscription. There's no conscription or requirement for
15:47
Speaker 5: military service in the United Kingdom. the British Armed Forces
15:51
Speaker 5: are a professional volunteer force. Well, there'll be more on
15:53
Speaker 5: that in the programme later on. And I'll just finish
15:57
Speaker 5: off by dealing with a written question to the Secretary
16:01
Speaker 5: of State for Work and Pensions about the consultation on
16:04
Speaker 5: the renewal of glyphosate, which is up to expire in
16:08
Speaker 5: December of this year, asked by Samantha Dixon, and specifically
16:12
Speaker 5: bearing in mind its toxicity, whether it will consider its
16:15
Speaker 5: use in home gardens, schools and playgrounds. And amazingly, Stephen Timms,
16:19
Speaker 5: in his response, has said that the Health and Safety
16:25
Speaker 5: Executive is considering as part of the renewal the use
16:28
Speaker 5: by professionals only in home gardens, schools and playgrounds. And
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Speaker 5: I think it's just worth drawing that point out, that
16:36
Speaker 5: he seems to be suggesting that despite the well-publicised toxicity
16:41
Speaker 5: of this chemical, if it's applied by a professional in
16:44
Speaker 5: a children's playground or in someone's home, apparently that's better. Mike,
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Speaker 5: I don't know if you've got a quick closing comment
16:50
Speaker 5: on that, but otherwise, that's all from me.
16:52
Speaker 2: No, thank you for that, Charles. Very much related, in
16:56
Speaker 2: a sense, is the potential of mass medication, in this
17:01
Speaker 2: case with folic acids. Let me welcome Dr. Liz Evans
17:04
Speaker 2: to the program. Liz, what are your thoughts on this
17:08
Speaker 2: reinforcement of flour for use in bread?
17:15
Speaker 1: Yeah. Good afternoon, everyone. Good to be back.
17:18
Speaker 7: Yeah.
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Speaker 8: So in case you aren't aware, the UK recently have
17:21
Speaker 8: mandated the fortification of flour with folic acid. In November 2024,
17:29
Speaker 8: an amendment to the 1998 bread and flour regulations was
17:33
Speaker 8: quietly introduced by statutory instrument, placing a legal requirement on
17:37
Speaker 8: millers and flour producers to add folic acid to non
17:41
Speaker 8: wholemeal wheat flour. This was signed off by Daniel Zeichner,
17:45
Speaker 8: who is a minister of state for DEFRA, but there
17:47
Speaker 8: was no parliamentary debate and no full scientific impact assessment.
17:52
Speaker 8: And many people are unaware that in the UK, white
17:55
Speaker 8: flour has been fortified with calcium carbonate or chalk since
18:00
Speaker 8: 1941 and with iron, thiamine and niacin since the 1950s.
18:05
Speaker 8: And this is ironic considering that in 1757, parliament passed
18:11
Speaker 8: the making of bread act specifically to protect public health
18:15
Speaker 8: by banning additives like chalk and punishing those who adulterated
18:20
Speaker 8: flour so here are the list of the additives mandated
18:25
Speaker 8: in white flour from the 13th of december this year
18:28
Speaker 8: and note that the folic acid being added to your
18:30
Speaker 8: flour is not folate or vitamin b9 but is a
18:34
Speaker 8: synthetic oxidized version of folate called pteromonoglutamic acid, which the
18:40
Speaker 8: body must convert into folate to use. And this BBC
18:45
Speaker 8: headline from November 2024 states the government's justification for the
18:49
Speaker 8: policy to prevent 200 neural tube defect cases a year, NTDs,
18:56
Speaker 8: translating into around 28 fewer live births with spina bifida
19:01
Speaker 8: or anencephaly. Now, this number, 200, was derived from observational studies,
19:06
Speaker 8: computer modelling, and one risk of high-risk pregnant women with
19:11
Speaker 8: a previous NTD who were taking high doses of folic acid.
19:16
Speaker 8: And at this point, it's worth mentioning that even the
19:19
Speaker 8: WHO admit in point two on this slide that low
19:23
Speaker 8: folate concentrations cannot explain all cases of NTDs. And in
19:28
Speaker 8: point three, that there's no threshold for folate levels that
19:32
Speaker 8: prevent NTDs. So this cause and effect link between folate
19:37
Speaker 8: and deficiency and NTDs is certainly not the whole story.
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Speaker 8: And before we dive into the mandate, I just want
19:44
Speaker 8: to explain the important differences between folic acid and natural
19:48
Speaker 8: methylfolate and we have this helpful image from the Seeking
19:52
Speaker 8: Health website. So on the left, natural folate, vitamin B12,
19:58
Speaker 8: is an essential bioavailable nutrient found in whole foods. It's
20:02
Speaker 8: got a critical role in making new cells, including healthy
20:06
Speaker 8: red blood cells, in producing DNA and RNA, and in
20:10
Speaker 8: breaking down homocysteine, of which high levels are linked with
20:14
Speaker 8: heart disease and stroke, and we cannot live without natural folate.
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Speaker 8: Synthetic folic acid, however, behaves entirely differently in the human body.
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Speaker 8: It's an oxidized, unmethylated form of folate and must go
20:27
Speaker 8: through a slow four-step process to even be converted into methylfolate.
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Speaker 1: And I want to show you.
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Speaker 8: This 2023 infographic from DSM Firminic, who are one of
20:40
Speaker 8: the largest producers and suppliers of folic acid to the
20:43
Speaker 8: global food industry. And here they are promoting a premium
20:47
Speaker 8: alternative to folic acid called metafolin. But the detail in
20:52
Speaker 8: this infographic highlights major issues with their folic acid products. Firstly,
20:58
Speaker 8: It shows the complex pathway required to convert synthetic folic
21:02
Speaker 8: acid into the active natural L-methylfolate, but astonishingly then admits
21:08
Speaker 8: that up to 75% of people in the world may
21:11
Speaker 8: not be able to convert folic acid, which I thought
21:15
Speaker 8: was quite an astonishing admission from a folic acid manufacturer.
21:20
Speaker 8: This unmetabolized or unconverted folic acid in the bloodstream can
21:24
Speaker 8: persist for several hours. And it's worse in people with
21:27
Speaker 8: a slow MTHFR enzyme genetic variant, which is present into
21:32
Speaker 8: up to 40% of the UK population. And in the US,
21:39
Speaker 8: fortification has been mandatory for 30 years. And many people
21:43
Speaker 8: also take folic acid supplements. And this concerning study published
21:47
Speaker 8: in 2014 found unmetabolized folic acid in the blood of
21:52
Speaker 8: over 95% of Americans. And this unmetabolized folic acid can
21:58
Speaker 8: cause widespread harm. It blocks key brain receptors, preventing essential
22:04
Speaker 8: folate uptake to the central nervous system. It also masks
22:08
Speaker 8: B12 deficiency, which can lead to irreversible neurological damage. It
22:14
Speaker 8: fuels cell division, with studies suggesting an increased risk of cancer,
22:18
Speaker 8: including bowel and prostate cancers. And other side effects reported
22:23
Speaker 8: are headaches, anxiety, and sleep and digestive issues. So you
22:27
Speaker 8: may wonder how this mandate came about. Well, in July, sorry, 2002,
22:32
Speaker 8: the Food Standards Agency, first of all, advised health ministers
22:38
Speaker 8: not to mandate the fortification of flour with folic acid,
22:41
Speaker 8: following a review by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, SACN.
22:48
Speaker 8: Because they concluded that high intakes of folic acid could
22:51
Speaker 8: mask symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency in older adults. And
22:56
Speaker 8: then the slide that you just saw three years later
22:59
Speaker 8: in 2005, the SACN bizarrely published another review, this time
23:05
Speaker 8: recommending fortification despite the known risk to the elderly. The
23:10
Speaker 8: SACN continued to push for mandatory fortification despite this 2017 report,
23:16
Speaker 8: which admitted that around 0.5% of the population were already
23:20
Speaker 8: exceeding the upper safe limit. that measures would be needed
23:24
Speaker 8: to monitor folic acid intakes and blood levels and the
23:28
Speaker 8: evidence on folic acid and prostate and bowel cancer risk
23:31
Speaker 8: remained inconclusive with further research required. So not very reassuring.
23:38
Speaker 8: Now in 2019, the government ran a public consultation on
23:43
Speaker 8: fortification for 12 weeks. Now this was presumably not widely
23:48
Speaker 8: publicized because only around 1400 responses were received of which
23:53
Speaker 8: only 53% supported fortification, so not exactly a ringing public endorsement.
24:00
Speaker 8: And notably, there's been no debate in Parliament on this
24:03
Speaker 8: topic since 2018, although the House of Lords did debate
24:07
Speaker 8: the proposed changes in 2024, in which Baroness Merrin, the
24:13
Speaker 8: Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health and
24:16
Speaker 8: Social Care, expressed her excitement that the UK would be
24:20
Speaker 8: the first country to mandate folic acid. And here is
24:25
Speaker 8: Baroness Meron, who went on to reassure lords who raised
24:29
Speaker 8: safety concerns that safety is paramount. So the mandate comes
24:35
Speaker 8: into full effect in December 2026, and the only exceptions
24:41
Speaker 8: allowed are whole wheat flour, flour produced by small mills,
24:46
Speaker 8: and flour produced to make communion wafers, matzos, gluten or starch.
24:52
Speaker 8: So this mandate not only violates informed consent, but will
24:56
Speaker 8: severely restrict consumer choice as white flour is in so
24:59
Speaker 8: many products, even if you make your own bread using
25:03
Speaker 8: unfortified wholemeal flour. When eating out or buying food to go,
25:07
Speaker 8: you will be hard pressed to avoid ingesting folic acid. Now,
25:12
Speaker 8: the Heart co-chair, Dr. Claire Craig, has done a huge
25:15
Speaker 8: amount of work on this topic. And I would recommend
25:18
Speaker 8: the Heart Substack to read her in-depth research if you're interested.
25:23
Speaker 8: And this recent ex-post from Dr. Craig illustrates the ethical
25:27
Speaker 8: aspect of fortification. So the government are seeking to benefit
25:32
Speaker 8: one small group, but will inevitably cause harm to another
25:36
Speaker 8: much larger group who, to add insult to injury, don't
25:40
Speaker 8: stand to benefit in any way. Fortification is using a
25:44
Speaker 8: sledgehammer to crack a nut. The only people who can
25:48
Speaker 8: benefit from additional folic acid are women in early pregnancy
25:52
Speaker 8: who make up less than 2% of the population. Yet
25:56
Speaker 8: the whole population of 70 million men, women and children
26:00
Speaker 8: are being treated. 70 million people forced to ingest a
26:04
Speaker 8: synthetic drug through a staple food that none of the men,
26:08
Speaker 8: post-menopausal women, children or babies can benefit from at all.
26:13
Speaker 8: And for decades, women have been advised to take folic
26:15
Speaker 8: acid supplements before and during pregnancy. It's a standard part
26:19
Speaker 8: of antenatal care. But the government claims this misses the
26:23
Speaker 8: half of pregnancies, which are, quote, unplanned. But surely the
26:27
Speaker 8: answer can't be to medicate the whole population to target
26:31
Speaker 8: this tiny cohort. And in addition, mass medication through fortification
26:37
Speaker 8: gives no control over the dose an individual receives. And
26:41
Speaker 8: it's self-evident that individual doses will vary widely depending on
26:44
Speaker 8: the amount of fortified flour consumed. Worryingly, children may ingest
26:49
Speaker 8: the most folic acid as they are high consumers of
26:52
Speaker 8: other fortified foods such as breakfast cereals. This slide shows
26:57
Speaker 8: the UK's daily folic recommendations for different cohorts. You'll see
27:02
Speaker 8: there's no RDA for babies or children under 11 years,
27:05
Speaker 8: but presumably it's lower than for adults. And it states
27:10
Speaker 8: that long-term intake from fortified food and supplements should be
27:14
Speaker 8: under one milligram per day for adults and lower for children.
27:19
Speaker 8: But how on earth can that be measured or adhered
27:22
Speaker 8: to in practice?
27:24
Speaker 1: And in addition, the.
27:25
Speaker 8: Exposure to folic acid will be lifelong, despite no safety
27:28
Speaker 8: studies into the effects of long-term folic acid on health.
27:33
Speaker 8: And the policy fails to consider individual genetic and nutritional
27:36
Speaker 8: variations in folic acid processing. there's strong evidence that some
27:41
Speaker 8: people are much more at risk of serious side effects
27:44
Speaker 8: and toxicity from folic acid than others. Indeed, the NHS
27:48
Speaker 8: warns certain groups of people not to take folic acid
27:51
Speaker 8: supplements at all, including people with cancer, vitamin B12 deficiency
27:56
Speaker 8: or pernicious anemia, or a coronary stent, or taking several
28:01
Speaker 8: medications and supplements. So this is a lot of people
28:05
Speaker 8: for whom folic acid is not advised. And even the
28:09
Speaker 8: claimed benefit to the developing fetus is questionable. The Hungarian
28:15
Speaker 8: study cited to support the claim that folic acid reduces
28:18
Speaker 8: NTDs compared outcomes for pregnant women treated with a multivitamin
28:23
Speaker 8: including folic acid with a control group treated only with
28:27
Speaker 8: trace minerals. Now the headline result found six NTDs in
28:32
Speaker 8: the control group and none in the multivitamin folic acid group.
28:39
Speaker 8: This more detailed results table, which only actually appeared in
28:42
Speaker 8: the final report published two years later, tells another story.
28:46
Speaker 8: If you look closely, you'll see every category of fetal
28:49
Speaker 8: death was higher in the group treated with multivitamin plus
28:53
Speaker 8: folic acid, with 70 more fetal deaths in the multivitamin
28:57
Speaker 8: folic acid group. So when you adjust for total pregnancies,
29:02
Speaker 8: this works out to nine fetal deaths for every one
29:05
Speaker 8: NTD birth prevented. So who's behind the global push to
29:11
Speaker 8: adulterate flour with synthetic and toxic chemicals masquerading as essential nutrients? Well,
29:18
Speaker 8: the Food Fortification Initiative are a key player pushing fortification globally.
29:25
Speaker 8: When they were founded in 2002, only 38 countries mandated fortification.
29:30
Speaker 8: 25 years on, 86 countries now mandate the fortification of
29:35
Speaker 8: wheat flour and or other grains. And the map of
29:39
Speaker 8: countries who have mandated fortification is very interesting. The UK
29:44
Speaker 8: are the only country in Europe who adulterate their grains.
29:47
Speaker 8: The US is the most prolific fortifier of many grains,
29:51
Speaker 8: whereas Russia, China, India and much of Africa have kept
29:54
Speaker 8: their grains pure. And I'm sure it won't surprise UK
29:58
Speaker 8: column viewers that the WHO is keen on fortification, along
30:02
Speaker 8: with the World Bank and other key players. And the
30:06
Speaker 8: Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, or GAIN, seems to be
30:10
Speaker 8: the vehicle to bring national and supranational stakeholders together in
30:14
Speaker 8: public-private partnerships to push this fortification agenda. GAIN is a
30:20
Speaker 8: non-profit foundation based in Geneva, launched in 2002 at the UN.
30:25
Speaker 8: And of course, the Gates Foundation is right behind GAIN
30:29
Speaker 8: and has invested heavily in it. According to AI, the
30:33
Speaker 8: Gates Foundation is GAIN's single largest philanthropic funder, putting in
30:37
Speaker 8: well over $ 100 million so far. And this incredible October
30:44
Speaker 8: 2020 policy document shows that GAIN, along with the Food
30:47
Speaker 8: Fortification Initiative and others, even identified the COVID crisis as
30:52
Speaker 8: a golden opportunity to fast track fortification policies and even
30:56
Speaker 8: to advertise fortified foods in COVID public health communication. So
31:03
Speaker 8: the UK's fortification mandate means it will be extremely difficult
31:06
Speaker 8: to avoid ingesting folic acid if you don't want to.
31:10
Speaker 8: And it sets a dangerous precedent for future governments to
31:12
Speaker 8: seek to mass medicate the public through food. So what
31:16
Speaker 8: can we do to stop this? Well, there is some
31:18
Speaker 8: good news. This government petition recently passed the 100,000 signatures
31:23
Speaker 8: required to be considered for a parliamentary debate. It's such
31:27
Speaker 8: an important issue to push back on and it's great
31:29
Speaker 8: to see the public getting behind it. And whatever your
31:32
Speaker 8: political views, it was heartening to read this recent tweet
31:35
Speaker 8: from MP Rupert Lowe, stating his strong opposition to fortification
31:40
Speaker 8: and his intention to take part in any debate. So
31:45
Speaker 8: to finish, many organisations, including my own, the UK Medical
31:48
Speaker 8: Freedom Alliance, are running campaigns to raise public awareness and
31:51
Speaker 8: get this amendment repealed. And we're currently encouraging people to
31:55
Speaker 8: write their MP ahead of any debate to.
31:58
Speaker 1: Inform them of the issues.
32:00
Speaker 8: And you can find a link to a helpful template
32:02
Speaker 8: letter produced by Heart on the UKMFA website, along with
32:05
Speaker 8: other resources.
32:07
Speaker 1: Thank you.
32:08
Speaker 2: Liz, thank you very much for that. We'll talk more
32:11
Speaker 2: about this in Extra, I have no doubt. Now, if
32:14
Speaker 2: you like what the UK Column does, you'd like to
32:16
Speaker 2: support us, we absolutely need your ongoing support. Have a
32:18
Speaker 2: look at the website, details are there. You can join
32:21
Speaker 2: us as a member, you can make a donation. But
32:24
Speaker 2: if you join us as a member, you can, of course,
32:26
Speaker 2: get access to members-only content like UK Column News Extra,
32:30
Speaker 2: which immediately follows this program. pick up a copy of
32:35
Speaker 2: the column which is our quarterly magazine if you haven't
32:37
Speaker 2: got one so far and annual subscriptions are available for that.
32:40
Speaker 2: We very much appreciate that support too. Now tomorrow at
32:45
Speaker 2: 1pm Diane is speaking to Professor Norman Fenton on the
32:48
Speaker 2: capture of academia. We do have a short clip from
32:53
Speaker 2: that to show.
32:56
Speaker 9: The research isn't very good. The research gets done Even
32:59
Speaker 9: if it's an important area, it isn't very good because
33:01
Speaker 9: you've got to rush it. There's no such idea like,
33:04
Speaker 9: you know, it's not like in Einstein's time where you
33:06
Speaker 9: can spend your whole, you know, 30 years developing a
33:09
Speaker 9: single research hypothesis and then publish that. It doesn't work
33:14
Speaker 9: like that because you're not going to have enough publications
33:17
Speaker 9: to get further your career. To further your career, you've
33:20
Speaker 9: got to keep publishing all the time. So it's never
33:22
Speaker 9: properly finished work. It's always, in most cases, complete junk, actually.
33:27
Speaker 2: So Norman Fenton, absolutely calling modern scientific research as complete junk.
33:34
Speaker 2: And so I absolutely recommend people have a look at
33:37
Speaker 2: that to understand why he says that. Charles, let's come
33:41
Speaker 2: on to you now and let's continue with some complete junk,
33:44
Speaker 2: which is the COVID-19 inquiry.
33:45
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely. This will be brief, despite the length of
33:51
Speaker 5: the report that has actually been published. But yesterday, Baroness
33:54
Speaker 5: Hallett's sixth module or the report into the sixth module
33:57
Speaker 5: of the COVID inquiry was published. It's over 300 pages long.
34:02
Speaker 5: And as with many reports of this nature, what is
34:06
Speaker 5: of greater significance is what is not included rather than
34:10
Speaker 5: what is. But we'll just have a look at the
34:11
Speaker 5: executive summary and the way in which the report is framed.
34:16
Speaker 5: In April 2020, the high number of deaths of people
34:19
Speaker 5: in care homes brought into sharp focus the devastating impact
34:23
Speaker 5: of the COVID-19 pandemic. on the adult social care sector. Now,
34:29
Speaker 5: I think that is very problematic and suggests a degree
34:33
Speaker 5: of subjectivity that's entered into this report into the care
34:37
Speaker 5: sector that really shouldn't be there. So I've suggested an
34:39
Speaker 5: amendment which is to cross out pandemic and instead suggest
34:43
Speaker 5: that what she meant to write was the devastating impact
34:46
Speaker 5: of the COVID-19 policy on the adult social care sector.
34:51
Speaker 5: And because this enables the opportunity for flashback, I'm just
34:55
Speaker 5: going to explore how fact checking works, because it's notable
35:00
Speaker 5: that in this enormous document, the word midazolam is not
35:03
Speaker 5: even mentioned once. So we go back to full fact,
35:07
Speaker 5: saying that no evidence midazolam used to kill thousands of
35:09
Speaker 5: patients in April 2020, and this is the way it's done.
35:13
Speaker 5: They say, what was claimed? There was an unprecedented increase
35:17
Speaker 5: of out-of-hospital doctor's prescriptions of midazolam to the over 65s
35:21
Speaker 5: in March 2020. And full fact, rather incredibly, wrote our verdict.
35:26
Speaker 5: There was a large increase in out-of-hospital prescriptions of the
35:30
Speaker 5: drug for its use as a sedative and analgesic in
35:32
Speaker 5: April 2020. And then, we don't know details of the
35:36
Speaker 5: patients it was given to, but it is likely they
35:40
Speaker 5: were older as the drug is used in palliative care. Now,
35:43
Speaker 5: that is, I think, a timely reminder of how the
35:47
Speaker 5: world apparently was shepherded by those sorts of fact checkers. Now,
35:52
Speaker 5: to return to the report itself, one should always pay
35:56
Speaker 5: attention to the failings that are identified and indeed to
36:00
Speaker 5: the recommendations they point to. As has been a constant
36:02
Speaker 5: theme in the inquiry's reports, they say a major factor
36:05
Speaker 5: in the failure properly to protect the sector was the
36:08
Speaker 5: failure in pre-pandemic planning. Here we go. So, of course,
36:13
Speaker 5: in the list of recommendations, Appendix 3, the first one
36:16
Speaker 5: is improved pandemic planning. This is absolutely something the UK
36:21
Speaker 5: column has been forecasting, plotting all the way along. And
36:24
Speaker 5: I'd just like to take advantage of Liz being on
36:27
Speaker 5: the programme very briefly. Liz, just from what I've just
36:30
Speaker 5: been talking about there, first of all, it seems like
36:32
Speaker 5: a complete whitewash. They've absolutely missed all the central points.
36:37
Speaker 5: Just a quick comment from you on what it is
36:39
Speaker 5: that Baroness Hallett's put forward here.
36:42
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned the framing of the reports.
36:44
Speaker 8: I think this has been the whole issue with all
36:46
Speaker 8: of the pandemic inquiry reports. So I picked out this
36:50
Speaker 8: sentence in her introduction. The country was facing a deadly
36:54
Speaker 8: virus which was spreading rapidly and for which at least
36:58
Speaker 8: at the outset of the pandemic, there was no vaccine.
37:01
Speaker 8: So you've got like deadly virus, vaccine, obviously the answer.
37:06
Speaker 8: And this is the context within which we're operating today.
37:10
Speaker 8: And yet again, she's failed to address whether.
37:13
Speaker 1: The lockdowns or restrictions should have been imposed at all.
37:17
Speaker 8: I did a lot of work on Module 4, and
37:20
Speaker 8: it's the same story again. So many underlying assumptions have
37:24
Speaker 8: not been interrogated. They are saying that 43,000 recorded deaths
37:30
Speaker 8: involving COVID-19 in the two years from March 2020 have
37:36
Speaker 8: But did they really die from COVID is my question.
37:38
Speaker 8: No one really even questioned that. Or was it a
37:41
Speaker 8: denial of medical treatment? Many of them were denied treatment,
37:44
Speaker 8: taken off their drugs or put on the inappropriate drug
37:48
Speaker 8: protocols like NG163, which led to all the midazolam deaths.
37:53
Speaker 8: And that just hasn't been mentioned. Or post-COVID vaccination, because
37:56
Speaker 8: we know that straight after COVID vaccines, which they rolled
37:59
Speaker 8: out in the care homes in 2021, right at the beginning,
38:03
Speaker 8: we had a massive wave of deaths in the care homes.
38:06
Speaker 8: And of course that has been completely glossed over. And
38:10
Speaker 8: the impact of neglect and grief and lack of accountability
38:14
Speaker 8: and scrutiny in the care homes when everybody was banned
38:16
Speaker 8: from going in. So yeah, I think it's an absolute
38:20
Speaker 8: scandal and it's just a limited hangout.
38:26
Speaker 5: Same story again, I think encapsulates it perfectly more in extra,
38:29
Speaker 5: no doubt.
38:32
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
38:33
Speaker 2: Now, thank you, Charles. Thank you, Liz. Vanessa, let's come
38:37
Speaker 2: back to you. Bring us up to date with what's
38:40
Speaker 2: going on between Israel and Iran.
38:44
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, as I said, we're back in election fever
38:46
Speaker 3: in Israel and both Trump and Netanyahu are, of course,
38:51
Speaker 3: enthusiastically endorsing each other. This is rather a comical recording
38:58
Speaker 3: of a phone conversation between Trump and Netanyahu.
39:02
Speaker 1: So let's just kick off with that.
39:05
Speaker 10: So grateful for this incredible endorsement. You've been an incredible
39:09
Speaker 10: leader of the free world of America, by far the
39:13
Speaker 10: greatest friend Israel has ever had and will have in
39:15
Speaker 10: the White House and all of civilization. is emboldened by
39:20
Speaker 10: your boldness. Donald, we have a job to finish. You
39:24
Speaker 10: said it and we'll finish it together. We'll finish it
39:28
Speaker 10: and no one else will do it.
39:29
Speaker 1: Actually, I actually crafted that one myself. That wasn't one
39:32
Speaker 1: that was put out by some guy writing something. That
39:35
Speaker 1: was crafted by me. You're a warrior.
39:37
Speaker 11: You've been treated unfairly by your country and.
39:40
Speaker 4: Probably some others also, but you've been treated unfairly by
39:43
Speaker 4: this region.
39:45
Speaker 7: Well, let me tell you, what I can say is
39:48
Speaker 7: that our alliance has proved that.
39:50
Speaker 1: We can do amazing things together. We still have a
39:53
Speaker 1: job to finish. We have peace that we can broaden.
40:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then he goes on about the Abraham Accords.
40:16
Speaker 3: And I have to say, it's very important to point
40:18
Speaker 3: out that this is now being framed as a civilizational war.
40:22
Speaker 3: It's no longer Iran's nuclear weapons, although that is still
40:26
Speaker 3: part of the narrative. It's very much now being put
40:28
Speaker 3: in the frame of being a civilizational war to pull
40:32
Speaker 3: everyone into this war against a force that is going
40:36
Speaker 3: to destroy.
40:36
Speaker 12: All of us.
40:37
Speaker 3: Um, let's have a look very quickly at what Netanyahu
40:40
Speaker 3: is saying on X. Of course, he's accusing all of
40:43
Speaker 3: the opposition parties that are many of them, even more extremist, uh,
40:47
Speaker 3: than Netanyahu's coalition, uh, accusing them all of being terrorists basically,
40:53
Speaker 3: which is incredibly ironic as he's the ones that has
40:56
Speaker 3: been conducting a genocide for more than, uh, the years, uh,
41:02
Speaker 3: since October the 7th. But of course, um, he's been
41:06
Speaker 3: heading up for a very long time. And then he basically,
41:10
Speaker 3: if we can just have that back on, we've achieved
41:12
Speaker 3: tremendous accomplishments.
41:14
Speaker 1: We've changed the Middle East. Only we will complete the.
41:17
Speaker 3: Mission together with President Trump and eliminate the Iranian threat forever.
41:22
Speaker 3: So as I said, this is ramping up. The rhetoric
41:26
Speaker 3: is definitely ramping up. And in fact, Hegsath, the Minister
41:31
Speaker 3: of War, had a secret meeting on Monday at the
41:36
Speaker 3: Avda Air Base in southern Israel, where the U.S.
41:39
Speaker 1: Refueling planes and fighter jets are deployed. And what was discussed?
41:45
Speaker 3: Well, obviously, the day after the meeting, there was, in fact,
41:51
Speaker 3: reports on the U.S. deploying a third carrier strike group
41:55
Speaker 3: to the Middle East amid Iran tensions. Basically, the USS
42:00
Speaker 3: Theodore Roosevelt Strike Group and the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit
42:05
Speaker 3: are expected to arrive by the end of November, which
42:08
Speaker 3: adds roughly 10,000 sailors and Marines to the forces already
42:14
Speaker 3: basically in the Middle East. Now, I also, as I said,
42:19
Speaker 3: Netanyahu has been doing the rounds. This is a very
42:22
Speaker 3: short excerpt from an interview that he did And if
42:27
Speaker 3: you remember last week, we showed the members of opposition
42:31
Speaker 3: parties talking about the possibility of a Palestinian state, and
42:34
Speaker 3: all of them categorically said no. So here is Netanyahu
42:38
Speaker 3: very quickly as part of a much longer interview.
42:42
Speaker 10: That's the end of Israel.
42:43
Speaker 13: So you would block the creation of a so-called Palestinian state?
42:47
Speaker 1: Block it?
42:48
Speaker 10: I have been blocking it.
42:49
Speaker 9: And you will commit to continue blocking it?
42:52
Speaker 10: We cannot have a Palestinian state because that's the end
42:54
Speaker 10: of a Jewish state. We have to be crazy to
42:57
Speaker 10: do it, but they're completely crazy.
43:03
Speaker 3: So categorically, Netanyahu is now saying there will be no
43:07
Speaker 3: Palestinian state whatsoever. And on that subject, I want to
43:11
Speaker 3: bring in, Mike, you sent this to me actually last
43:14
Speaker 3: week after last week's news, but this is from the
43:17
Speaker 3: National Security Institute in Tel Aviv, a shocking document, the
43:22
Speaker 3: new national security concept conceptualization and questions for discussion. Now,
43:28
Speaker 3: I've just taken three sections out of this, but I
43:32
Speaker 3: would ask people to imagine that Russia or China or
43:36
Speaker 3: Iran were making these kind of statements. So first of all,
43:40
Speaker 3: the state's Jewish identity takes precedence over its democratic system
43:46
Speaker 3: of government. This is the only democratic government in the
43:49
Speaker 3: Middle East, by the way. This priority is intended to
43:52
Speaker 3: guarantee Israel's continued existence as a Jewish state, even at
43:56
Speaker 3: the cost of eroding its democratic values. The state's Jewish
44:00
Speaker 3: identity rests on ethnic, religious and national foundations and is
44:05
Speaker 3: preserved through the inspiration of the Jewish spirit and tradition.
44:09
Speaker 3: This principle dictates the need to maintain the primacy of
44:12
Speaker 3: Jewish identity over other national identities such as Arab, Islamic
44:17
Speaker 3: or Christian.
44:18
Speaker 1: Very clear.
44:19
Speaker 3: They also go on to say that a meaningful peace
44:21
Speaker 3: agreement is unattainable in the Middle East. Then they talk
44:26
Speaker 3: about the rejection of the independent existence of Arab states.
44:31
Speaker 3: The underlying premise is that most Arab states are not
44:34
Speaker 3: genuine nation states, but collections of tribes and ethnic groups.
44:39
Speaker 3: lacking a shared history and a foundational national vision. Consequently,
44:43
Speaker 3: undermining their stability is viewed as a natural process, one
44:48
Speaker 3: that Israel can manage more effectively than it can contend
44:51
Speaker 3: with strong nation states and one that it should even encourage.
44:55
Speaker 3: I mean, we're entering into eugenicist, transhumanist territory here when
45:01
Speaker 3: added to their expertise in tech, surveillance tech. And then finally,
45:06
Speaker 3: war as a foundational state is essential to national security
45:10
Speaker 3: and cannot.
45:11
Speaker 1: Be replaced by a state of peace, which, as noted.
45:14
Speaker 3: Is merely a means rather than an end. I don't
45:16
Speaker 3: quite understand the silence's filth. I'm sure someone will tell
45:19
Speaker 3: us in the audience. And therefore, its pursuit is an
45:23
Speaker 3: expression of weakness. According to this view, regarding war as
45:26
Speaker 3: a necessary evil to be avoided, along with decades-long pursuit
45:30
Speaker 3: of arrangements and peace, are at the foundation of the
45:33
Speaker 3: mistake that led to October the 7th, War is necessary
45:38
Speaker 3: and preventive war is preferable because it secures a significant
45:41
Speaker 3: achievement at the outset. Its intensity may vary with circumstances,
45:46
Speaker 3: but its constant presence is an asset to national security.
45:51
Speaker 3: So I'm just going to allow that to sink in.
45:53
Speaker 3: But please ask yourself, if Russia or China or Iran
45:57
Speaker 3: had made such a statement, what would be the outrage
46:01
Speaker 3: level in Western media and regime circles?
46:05
Speaker 1: Now, this was on October the 7th.
46:08
Speaker 3: When I talk about it being framed now as a
46:10
Speaker 3: civilizational war, this was Marco Rubio in Athens on October
46:15
Speaker 3: the 7th giving this speech. The full speech is in
46:19
Speaker 3: the show notes.
46:22
Speaker 11: Today, we find ourselves at a crossroads because the next
46:28
Speaker 11: decade and the decisions we make will write the story
46:32
Speaker 11: of the next century. The course we take will determine
46:35
Speaker 11: whether the West maintains its place at the head of
46:38
Speaker 11: the world or resigns itself to a future of atrophy
46:42
Speaker 11: and servitude and decline. We will either choose to act
46:48
Speaker 11: now or lose the choice to act at all. Now
46:53
Speaker 11: it's become fashionable today to believe that enlightened foreign policy
46:58
Speaker 11: means prioritizing the global community over one's own people. And
47:03
Speaker 11: I think here, too, we have much to learn from
47:05
Speaker 11: the men of ancient Greece, because they knew that there
47:08
Speaker 11: was nothing selfish or wrong about loyalty to your nation,
47:13
Speaker 11: nor anything selfish or wrong about fighting to defend its interests.
47:20
Speaker 3: And then finally, Rubio accuses Iran of Nazi tactics in
47:24
Speaker 3: the Strait of Hormuz by targeting commercial shipping, not mentioning,
47:27
Speaker 3: of course, that it's the U.S. that is sending the
47:29
Speaker 3: commercial shipping. into the Iranian mined shipping lanes, which they
47:35
Speaker 3: have been informed about.
47:38
Speaker 2: Thank you, Vanessa. Thank you for that. Charles, Iran, of course,
47:43
Speaker 2: continues to be a target, second perhaps to Russia, but
47:47
Speaker 2: nonetheless within the mainstream press in this country. So let's
47:52
Speaker 2: bring us up to date with what is going on
47:54
Speaker 2: with the Fairford PSYOP.
47:58
Speaker 14: Thanks, Mike.
47:58
Speaker 5: Yes, well, it's a close run thing between Russia and Iran.
48:01
Speaker 5: But I would say that doubt as to whether this
48:04
Speaker 5: is political theatre or a serious police investigation with regard
48:08
Speaker 5: to Fairford appears to be receding. At the BBC, we
48:11
Speaker 5: have a look at reported yesterday that counterterrorism policing have
48:15
Speaker 5: re-arrested two of the suspects in the Fairford drama, this
48:19
Speaker 5: time on suspicion of assisting Iran intelligence, as the BBC
48:24
Speaker 5: puts it. Note the importance of getting the word Iran
48:28
Speaker 5: into that headline. Now, as to counter-terrorism policing themselves, they
48:33
Speaker 5: appear to be willing participants in the performance and the
48:36
Speaker 5: rolling video that you're looking at now on their website.
48:39
Speaker 5: I Might Venture could be described as... theatrical, or at
48:42
Speaker 5: the very least, choreographed. Now, the important point here is
48:46
Speaker 5: that the BBC had this story a day before counter-terrorism
48:51
Speaker 5: policing themselves had published anything about it. You're now looking
48:54
Speaker 5: at their latest news section, which is what it looked
48:58
Speaker 5: like until later on this morning. They have now updated it,
49:01
Speaker 5: and part of it reads, a 24-year-old national and a
49:05
Speaker 5: 25-year-old dual UK-Iranian national have been arrested on suspicion of
49:12
Speaker 5: assisting a foreign intelligence service under Section 3 of the
49:15
Speaker 5: National Security Act 2023. And then they have... added the
49:21
Speaker 5: country to which the investigation relates is Iran. Now, why,
49:24
Speaker 5: one may ask, is there any need to mention the
49:27
Speaker 5: country to which the investigation relates, especially if we're told
49:30
Speaker 5: it's very sensitive and that it is just that, an investigation?
49:34
Speaker 5: So this does now look very much like the precise
49:37
Speaker 5: definition of a fishing expedition by police, which has now
49:40
Speaker 5: used the Explosives Act 1875, the Terrorism Act 2006, and
49:43
Speaker 5: most recently, the National Security Act 2023, in order to
49:49
Speaker 5: try to make something fit. Now, running concurrently to this
49:53
Speaker 5: is the establishment's messaging campaign to cement in the minds
49:57
Speaker 5: of the public the clear and present danger from Iran,
50:00
Speaker 5: by which any future actions may be justified. This exchange
50:05
Speaker 5: took place in the House of Lords at the end
50:07
Speaker 5: of last week.
50:10
Speaker 15: The Prime Minister has confirmed that Iran is highly likely
50:13
Speaker 15: to have been behind the incident at RAF Fairford. Iran
50:16
Speaker 15: has aided and abetted the Houthis and the Iranian Revolutionary
50:19
Speaker 15: Guard Corps have rightly been designated under the National Security
50:23
Speaker 15: State Threats Act 2026. The Iranian regime recently slaughtered thousands
50:28
Speaker 15: of peaceful demonstrators on the streets of Iranian cities. We
50:32
Speaker 15: on these benches have consistently called for the IRGC to
50:35
Speaker 15: be prescribed. They have now been designated under the NS
50:38
Speaker 15: National Security Threats Act, as I said. We support that,
50:42
Speaker 15: but what further steps will the ministers take to stand
50:44
Speaker 15: up to Iran in light of the recent incident at
50:46
Speaker 15: RAF Fairford?
50:48
Speaker 5: Well said.
50:51
Speaker 14: Well, I thank the noble Lord for those questions. And
50:55
Speaker 14: he's right on Fairford to say that we are now
51:01
Speaker 14: highly confident, it's highly likely, that this was an attack
51:05
Speaker 14: coordinated in Iran and was certainly directed by the IRGC.
51:10
Speaker 14: And he's also right that Iran's responsible not just for
51:13
Speaker 14: direct attacks on the UK in the region, but also
51:18
Speaker 14: on dissidents and citizens here in the UK. And let
51:23
Speaker 14: me quote Ed Miliband, the Foreign Secretary. He communicated the
51:26
Speaker 14: message that the UK will not tolerate intimidation threats or
51:29
Speaker 14: hostile activity on UK soil. And he communicated our, quote,
51:33
Speaker 14: unwavering resolve to combat threats from Iranian-linked groups on UK soil,
51:37
Speaker 14: including attacks on the British Jewish community.
51:42
Speaker 5: Is it possible that Lord Wood, their responding, could have
51:45
Speaker 5: looked less confident in uttering the words, we are now
51:49
Speaker 5: highly confident? Also, he uses the word attack in reference
51:53
Speaker 5: to Feathered. Well, what attack? And these remarks in this
51:56
Speaker 5: debate went completely unchallenged. It can be no coincidence that
52:00
Speaker 5: these debates and reports run concurrent to a sustained barrage
52:03
Speaker 5: of fear-mongering propaganda from the mainstream, the Express in particular.
52:07
Speaker 5: And we will have a look at a couple of
52:09
Speaker 5: headlines from their site over the last couple of days.
52:11
Speaker 5: Conscription age limit for women as UK told to prepare
52:15
Speaker 5: for war. That's from Monday the 19th. followed only a
52:18
Speaker 5: few minutes later by what happens if you refuse conscription
52:22
Speaker 5: as UK told to prepare for war. That was Monday.
52:26
Speaker 5: And then just yesterday, World War Three conscription to target
52:32
Speaker 5: a group as Brits who face humiliating punishment. Now, no
52:38
Speaker 5: point of speculation is either substantiated or qualified, only the
52:42
Speaker 5: ensuing articles. And I might say this is a brilliant
52:44
Speaker 5: insight into the way in which mainstream disinformation works, because
52:49
Speaker 5: yesterday's article about one UK group, if we just pop
52:52
Speaker 5: that back on, is almost a carbon copy of UK
52:55
Speaker 5: conscription to target one specific group as army issued terrifying warning,
53:00
Speaker 5: which was from the 14th of January of this year.
53:03
Speaker 5: So they are absolutely packaging and just spitting back out
53:06
Speaker 5: the same thing. They're also citing a historian apparently called
53:09
Speaker 5: David Swift, who's written one book about the First World
53:12
Speaker 5: War and otherwise several others about leftist politics. And there
53:15
Speaker 5: are links in the show notes if you actually want
53:17
Speaker 5: to spend the time reading what it is that the
53:20
Speaker 5: Express has put out. I would wish you luck if
53:22
Speaker 5: you are going to embark upon that. And I would
53:24
Speaker 5: just point back to 2002, October 2002, and the words
53:29
Speaker 5: of Senator Robert Byrd, who spoke in relation to the
53:33
Speaker 5: deception he believed was being played out in the justification
53:37
Speaker 5: for war with Iraq.
53:40
Speaker 16: We began voting for the Tonkin-Guff resolution. We were basing
53:44
Speaker 16: our votes on bad information. We learned that the claims
53:49
Speaker 16: that the administration then in power had made on the
53:54
Speaker 16: need for the Tonkin-Gough resolution were simply not true. And
53:59
Speaker 16: history is repeating itself. We tragically and belatedly learned that
54:04
Speaker 16: we had not taken enough time to consider the Tonkin-Gough resolution.
54:09
Speaker 16: We had not asked the right questions. We had not
54:12
Speaker 16: gotten enough questions answered. We learned that we should have
54:16
Speaker 16: been demanding more from that administration rather than accepting the
54:20
Speaker 16: administration at its word. But it was too late.
54:27
Speaker 5: And yet, at the moment in the United Kingdom, not
54:29
Speaker 5: a single member of either the House of Commons or
54:32
Speaker 5: the House of Lords has interrogated or scrutinized the government's
54:35
Speaker 5: messaging since late February, and nor has a single whistleblower
54:38
Speaker 5: stepped forward to suggest that there is something else afoot.
54:43
Speaker 2: And nor has the mainstream media asked any of these
54:46
Speaker 2: people any of the pertinent questions either. Vanessa, let's come
54:50
Speaker 2: back to you and bring us up to date with France.
54:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, this is just a very quick section
54:58
Speaker 3: and we can discuss it further in extra, but there
55:01
Speaker 3: is an absolute flurry of social media posts talking about
55:06
Speaker 3: the fact that all of the protests across Europe are
55:09
Speaker 3: down to First of all, migrants and then Islamists.
55:14
Speaker 1: And I was wondering where.
55:16
Speaker 3: These narratives were coming from. So I just wanted to
55:19
Speaker 3: play these two videos. And as I said, we can
55:22
Speaker 3: then discuss it further in extras. First of all, let's
55:25
Speaker 3: see what Trump has to say about it.
55:30
Speaker 7: I told him a long time ago, you're making a
55:33
Speaker 7: big mistake in France. You're letting everybody from the world
55:36
Speaker 7: come in. The whole world was coming in. And, you know,
55:40
Speaker 7: as you know, Paris is going to be a Muslim
55:42
Speaker 7: city very soon. And that wasn't the deal. That wasn't
55:45
Speaker 7: the deal. I told Emmanuel, you should close up your borders.
55:49
Speaker 7: And let's see, I've known him for probably eight or
55:52
Speaker 7: nine years. I told him as soon as I met him,
55:55
Speaker 7: I said, you're making a big mistake. We closed our borders.
55:58
Speaker 7: He didn't.
55:59
Speaker 1: And you know what?
56:00
Speaker 7: His borders are a problem. And he also has a
56:03
Speaker 7: little bit of a problem with energy, but they have gone,
56:05
Speaker 7: you know, they're doing better than others. But Emmanuel should
56:09
Speaker 7: have closed his borders a long time ago. I told
56:11
Speaker 7: him to do it.
56:15
Speaker 3: And then very quickly, let's move on to Netanyahu, who
56:18
Speaker 3: I think on the same day made this statement.
56:23
Speaker 12: It's not surprising because on October 7th, Emmanuel Macron, the
56:27
Speaker 12: president of France, called me and told me they were
56:30
Speaker 12: going to work toward a ceasefire, a diplomatic solution. And
56:34
Speaker 12: I told him, Emmanuel, that's not going to happen. What
56:38
Speaker 12: you have here is ISIS. Hamas is ISIS. And in
56:41
Speaker 12: some ways, even worse. And if we don't eliminate them here,
56:45
Speaker 12: you'll have them in Paris. And that's exactly what's happening.
56:49
Speaker 12: And it's heartbreaking to see this. It's heartbreaking to see
56:52
Speaker 12: the decline of France, to see what's happening in Paris,
56:56
Speaker 12: a city that my wife and I love and where
56:58
Speaker 12: we've often visited. And I see that they didn't prepare
57:01
Speaker 12: in time. They didn't prepare and they simply gave up.
57:05
Speaker 12: They surrendered to the invasion of radical Islam. That's what's happening.
57:12
Speaker 3: But wait, isn't that the same radical Islam that Israel
57:15
Speaker 3: treated in hospitals, gave weapons to and sponsored to overthrow Syria?
57:21
Speaker 3: He also goes on to say in that interview that
57:23
Speaker 3: a far-right government in France would be extremely helpful for Israel.
57:27
Speaker 3: And of course, we've seen Israel supporting far-right governments in
57:30
Speaker 3: Latin America and Eastern Europe. And he described Europe as
57:35
Speaker 3: the lost continent. So I raise the question, who is
57:38
Speaker 3: running the narratives about the protests in Europe?
57:43
Speaker 1: Good question.
57:43
Speaker 2: We will discuss that in extra, I've no doubt. Now,
57:46
Speaker 2: let's just finish with this, because back in March this year,
57:51
Speaker 2: I reported on Ofcom's fining of 4chan, the highly controversial
57:56
Speaker 2: online forum. The fine was for £ 450, 000 for not complying
58:01
Speaker 2: with the age check requirements that Ofcom was trying to impose,
58:04
Speaker 2: plus £ 50, 000 for not carrying out a risk assessment. plus £ 20, 000
58:11
Speaker 2: for not updating its terms and conditions to include child
58:14
Speaker 2: protection provisions. Now, at the time, I argued that Ofcom
58:19
Speaker 2: had zero chance of collecting these fines and that the
58:23
Speaker 2: whole exercise is no more than a PR stunt. Well,
58:26
Speaker 2: here we are six months later and Ofcom's chief executive
58:29
Speaker 2: has admitted to MPs that they are indeed unable to
58:32
Speaker 2: recover Online Safety Act fines from companies based abroad. giving
58:37
Speaker 2: evidence to the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee yesterday.
58:42
Speaker 2: Dame Melanie Dawes said that Ofcom had issued 11 fines
58:46
Speaker 2: under the Act since March 2025. Only two have been paid.
58:50
Speaker 2: One is under appeal, one's not yet due, and that
58:53
Speaker 2: leaves nine outstanding. So let's just have a quick listen
58:57
Speaker 2: to what she had to say. Sorry, let me forward
59:03
Speaker 2: that on. So again, just as number five, Chris, please.
59:09
Speaker 9: We won't be able to.
59:10
Speaker 13: To recover every single fine on online safety. If foreign
59:13
Speaker 13: courts decide to try and get in our way, there
59:17
Speaker 13: will be a point at which we have to. accept
59:20
Speaker 13: that we won't be able to recover that money but
59:21
Speaker 13: we will always seek to go as far as we
59:23
Speaker 13: can and in the end what encourages me about the
59:26
Speaker 13: companies we find is that they've actually done the things
59:28
Speaker 13: that we want to protect the public and that is
59:30
Speaker 13: the real test of uh of our implementation of the.
59:34
Speaker 2: Act so i'm going to say really because if that's
59:38
Speaker 2: true uh why has ofcom now opened an investigation in
59:42
Speaker 2: the porn hub uh to give just one example uh
59:45
Speaker 2: because they haven't complied, no mention of 4chan directly in that.
59:51
Speaker 2: And she wasn't asked about it directly either. So Ofcom
59:55
Speaker 2: and the government are now reviewing whether the Online Safety
59:58
Speaker 2: Act's business disruption powers, in other words, court orders requiring
1:00:02
Speaker 2: UK internet providers, payment firms and advertisers to cut off
1:00:07
Speaker 2: a non-compliance service should be strengthened, including the possibility of
1:00:11
Speaker 2: interim measures before an investigation concludes. Child safety campaigners argue
1:00:17
Speaker 2: that the current regime leaves dangerous foreign sites beyond reach.
1:00:22
Speaker 2: Critics warn that preemptive blocking powers would push Britain towards
1:00:27
Speaker 2: a national firewall, China-style, and would do little to more
1:00:31
Speaker 2: than push users towards VPNs. Of course, that is another
1:00:34
Speaker 2: target upcoming. But for now, 4chan' s fines and others remain unpaid,
1:00:40
Speaker 2: and 4chan continues to operate just as it should. We're
1:00:45
Speaker 2: going to talk about that in extra as well, but
1:00:47
Speaker 2: we've got to leave it there for today. I want
1:00:49
Speaker 2: to say thank you very much to Liz, Charles and
1:00:52
Speaker 2: Vanessa and everybody that's been watching. If you're a UK
1:00:55
Speaker 2: column member, stay on the live stream and join us
1:00:57
Speaker 2: for extra in a few minutes. Otherwise, have a great
1:01:00
Speaker 2: day and don't forget the interview tomorrow at 1pm. We'll
1:01:04
Speaker 2: be back for the news at 1pm as usual on Friday.
1:01:06
Speaker 2: We'll see you then. Thanks for joining us.
1:01:08
Speaker 1: Bye-bye.