Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News Podcast 26th March 2025

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UK Column News Podcast 26th March 2025 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon. It's just gone one o'clock on Wednesday, the
0:12
Speaker 1: twenty sixth of March twenty twenty five. Welcome to UK
0:16
Speaker 1: column News. I'm your host Charles Mannett, and joining me
0:19
Speaker 1: in the studio today is Mike Robinson.
0:21
Speaker 2: Welcome to the program, Mike.
0:22
Speaker 1: I've also got Vanessa Bailey and Carl Zar joining by
0:26
Speaker 1: video link now. Later in the program, we'll be looking
0:29
Speaker 1: at the Israel Turkey situation, kicking China out of Panama,
0:33
Speaker 1: and also Panunteer's latest adventures. But we're going to begin
0:37
Speaker 1: with what I would describe perhaps as an attack on
0:41
Speaker 1: both sea and air. And this is because the Department
0:45
Speaker 1: for Transport published yesterday the latest assault on systems which
0:49
Speaker 1: work relatively well. This time seafaring is the victim. With
0:53
Speaker 1: the release of the Maritime Decarbonization Strategy. It sets off
0:58
Speaker 1: on the same foot as the majority of such government
1:00
Speaker 1: output by creating a solution to a problem for which
1:04
Speaker 1: there is scant or no evidence. The strategy grandly claims
1:08
Speaker 1: to be setting out quote the best evidence and pathways
1:12
Speaker 1: towards maritime emission reduction goal of zero fuel lifestyle sorry
1:18
Speaker 1: life cycle greenhouse gas emissions by twenty fifty, with at
1:22
Speaker 1: least a thirty percent reduction by twenty thirty and an
1:26
Speaker 1: eighty percent reduction by twenty forty relative to two thousand
1:30
Speaker 1: and eight level. So a lot of jargon, gobbledegook and
1:34
Speaker 1: rather confusing language there. Now they're fairly thin on commitments. Indeed,
1:41
Speaker 1: they li the fact that the entire premise for the
1:43
Speaker 1: document and its proposed outcomes rest on modeling, which may
1:48
Speaker 1: need to be updated on a regular basis. Among the
1:52
Speaker 1: subjects raised, and this really is not an early April fool,
1:55
Speaker 1: is the assistance that wind may give to a vessel
1:58
Speaker 1: at sea. Indeed, here is the BBC apparently reinventing the
2:01
Speaker 1: sale just last year. Now, the document does concede that
2:06
Speaker 1: the maritime contribution to transport emissions is just five percent,
2:11
Speaker 1: but this is considered enough to completely destroy the system,
2:14
Speaker 1: based as I say.
2:15
Speaker 2: On modeling.
2:17
Speaker 1: Now, given the pregarious position in which we find ourselves
2:21
Speaker 1: with regard to food security and the fact that over
2:24
Speaker 1: ninety percent of imported food comes by sea, tinkering with
2:28
Speaker 1: the delivery mechanism would appear to be reckless in the
2:31
Speaker 1: extreme or deliberately destructive. Now, other points to note are
2:37
Speaker 1: the relationship with the rebranded Infrastructure Bank now referred to
2:42
Speaker 1: as the National Wealth Fund, and the tie in with
2:45
Speaker 1: the nascent and seemingly pointless GB Energy, which I spoke
2:50
Speaker 1: about last week. GB Energy reckons on delivering a possible
2:55
Speaker 1: five percent contribution of grid energy, but only if the
2:59
Speaker 1: sunshines and the wind blows, and with an eight point
3:01
Speaker 1: three billion pound ticket attached to it, so it's no
3:05
Speaker 1: surprise to see it enmeshed with this scheme to dismantle
3:08
Speaker 1: the effectiveness of the sea lines of communication. On that note,
3:12
Speaker 1: there's no reference to the role Navy yet, but presumably
3:16
Speaker 1: it can only be a matter of time now. To
3:20
Speaker 1: illustrate the absurdity of the strategy, this graph shows the
3:24
Speaker 1: projected decline of the use of so called fossil fuels
3:27
Speaker 1: to almost zero by twenty fifty. But as usual, the
3:31
Speaker 1: devil is to be found in the detail. Now, this
3:35
Speaker 1: fancy diagram shows all the many convoluted ways in which
3:40
Speaker 1: technology and innovation will deliver some sort of magic outcome.
3:45
Speaker 1: But I suspect we're not meant to look too closely,
3:47
Speaker 1: for if we do, we will see that it does
3:50
Speaker 1: not quite stack up. In the attempt to remove carbon
3:53
Speaker 1: dioxide from maritime activity. The strategy is unequivocal that there
3:57
Speaker 1: will be a massive increase in dangerous pollutants such as
4:01
Speaker 1: nitrous oxide and some sulfur oxides. The document states that
4:06
Speaker 1: nitrous oxide and ammonia are particularly harmful for human and
4:10
Speaker 1: animal health, and we may require policies that ensure solutions
4:14
Speaker 1: are implemented end quote, before going on to state that
4:17
Speaker 1: quote these processes could have further harmful effects on health
4:22
Speaker 1: and the environment. For example, ammonia can cause eutrefication, acidification,
4:27
Speaker 1: and stratospheric ozone depletion end quote. Added to this, of course,
4:32
Speaker 1: is the ever present caveat that carbon may be offset
4:36
Speaker 1: either by paying more or by involvement in some sort
4:38
Speaker 1: of auction process, which would appear to undermine the entire
4:42
Speaker 1: pretext of the scheme. So we should expect considerable pushback,
4:47
Speaker 1: and I would say if you are involved in maritime trade,
4:50
Speaker 1: then this is a heads up for you, but it
4:53
Speaker 1: would be excellent to hear your views, so please do
4:55
Speaker 1: get in touch now. Aligned with this, and as reported
4:59
Speaker 1: back in November, is the increase in air passenger duty
5:04
Speaker 1: slated to change next month, and we can see that
5:10
Speaker 1: costs for the passenger will go up across the board.
5:14
Speaker 1: And it must not be forgotten that it's the government
5:18
Speaker 1: which says that we expect the measure to have a
5:22
Speaker 1: negligible impact on the environment. So this is really the
5:26
Speaker 1: agenda being delivered in plain sight, and as always, the
5:30
Speaker 1: taxpayer is set to pick up the tab. There's been
5:34
Speaker 1: plenty of focus on fifteen minute cities and loaw traffic neighborhoods,
5:38
Speaker 1: but the reality, I think is that this will go
5:40
Speaker 1: far further, and certainly something we can talk about more
5:43
Speaker 1: in extra will also become relevant I think in the
5:46
Speaker 1: next report, although I won't go on to talk about that,
5:50
Speaker 1: and I might you're going to be flying next month
5:52
Speaker 1: if you've got any thoughts on this, and indeed sort
5:54
Speaker 1: of see travel and the threat to it.
5:57
Speaker 3: It is incredible that we are seriously in the twenty
6:00
Speaker 3: first century looking at sticking seal and I appreciate they're
6:04
Speaker 3: not cloth seals, but nonetheless effectively seals on cargo vessels,
6:11
Speaker 3: replacing diesel with bile fuel. Well, you're talking about food security.
6:17
Speaker 3: The using food product to produce fuel to transport food
6:22
Speaker 3: seems like, I mean, I don't even know.
6:25
Speaker 2: Where it is. They're just absolutely unbelievable.
6:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I suppose that there's a little bit
6:31
Speaker 1: of efficiency in that the that that photograph showing of
6:34
Speaker 1: the BBC with the with the new vessel enhanced with
6:38
Speaker 1: its sales. It turns out those sales are in fact
6:41
Speaker 1: made from wind turbine materials, so not a not a
6:45
Speaker 1: total waste perhaps.
6:46
Speaker 2: Well, otherwise they're will be going into landfill, right.
6:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, well exactly and will presumably at some point now,
6:53
Speaker 1: as I say, we'll talk about this more Nextra You've
6:55
Speaker 1: run a couple of interviews with Carl's r recently, and
6:59
Speaker 1: it's night and to introduce Carl to the program. But
7:02
Speaker 1: a few words to say first.
7:03
Speaker 3: Well, over the last few weeks, Mark Anderson has been
7:06
Speaker 3: reporting Donald Trump's comments about the Panama Canal. So let's
7:10
Speaker 3: just bring this on screen, and just so everybody knows
7:14
Speaker 3: where Panama is. Of course, he's been talking about making
7:18
Speaker 3: the point that Panama, he said he did not sell
7:23
Speaker 3: to China. He had sold the Panama Canal to Panama
7:25
Speaker 3: and not to China, and so he was pretty upset
7:28
Speaker 3: with the fact, at least that was his rhetoric, that
7:32
Speaker 3: China had so much influence in the area. So apparently,
7:36
Speaker 3: then out of nowhere, out of the blue, at the beginning.
7:39
Speaker 2: Of March, c K.
7:40
Speaker 3: Hudginson Holdings, which is based in Hong Kong, announced that
7:44
Speaker 3: it had agreed to sell control of a unit operating
7:47
Speaker 3: ports associated with the Panama Canal to a consortium including
7:51
Speaker 3: black Rock Global Infrastructure Partners and Terminal Investment Limited. So
7:56
Speaker 3: let me say hello to Carl. Welcome you to the program.
8:00
Speaker 3: What's the detail on this, Carl, and how is China
8:03
Speaker 3: responded to it?
8:07
Speaker 4: Mike, this is good to see you. And right now
8:11
Speaker 4: this is a big deal.
8:12
Speaker 5: C K.
8:12
Speaker 4: Hutchinson is one of the biggest multinational company basing Hong
8:17
Speaker 4: Kong and since nineteen ninety seventy has controlled both ports
8:21
Speaker 4: at both ends of Panama Canal. This has been a
8:26
Speaker 4: talking point by many in the United States national security
8:30
Speaker 4: circles as China's influencing Panama. Now Chinese government is actually
8:37
Speaker 4: very upset at this surprising deal that was announced. The
8:41
Speaker 4: pro Beijing newspaper Dot Combout, based in Hong Kong, has
8:45
Speaker 4: lashed out as this deal and calling the kaishin the
8:49
Speaker 4: Hong Kong billionaire who owns c K. Hutchinson has been
8:53
Speaker 4: has been spinelessly graveling to the Trump administration. But in
9:00
Speaker 4: a way this also showed that China in fact do
9:02
Speaker 4: not control c. K. Hutchinson as a company, because if
9:05
Speaker 4: they do, they could have just told them no deal
9:08
Speaker 4: or the deal is off. The current deal is structured.
9:12
Speaker 4: C c K. Hutchinson is going to sell forty three
9:14
Speaker 4: ports in twenty three countries, including two ports in Panama,
9:18
Speaker 4: but also their ports on Sewis Canal, very strategic, vital
9:25
Speaker 4: geopolitical strangleholds to a black Rock group consort led consortium,
9:31
Speaker 4: and the deal is broken by Goldman Sacks. So this
9:34
Speaker 4: is a big, great pr victory for the Trump administration
9:38
Speaker 4: because Trump claimed that he has reclaimed Panama Canal from China,
9:43
Speaker 4: and in doing so, he's handing a very sweet deal,
9:46
Speaker 4: swehard deal to his buddies in the Wall Street, to
9:49
Speaker 4: the golden people in the Goldman Sacks and Black Rock.
9:53
Speaker 4: Now China is upset because this would set a bad
9:57
Speaker 4: presidence for Chinese company is bending under pressure by from
10:03
Speaker 4: US government decree, especially coming up in April, there's a
10:09
Speaker 4: force sale of TikTok Us. Congress passed a law that
10:13
Speaker 4: TikTok must sell to American company by April or cease
10:17
Speaker 4: to operate on American soil. So if with a c K.
10:22
Speaker 4: Hutchinson deal goes through, this set a very bad example
10:26
Speaker 4: for other Chinese companies to follow, you know, especially with
10:31
Speaker 4: TikTok forced sale date that's coming up. This is why
10:35
Speaker 4: you know, Chinese government is voicing its displeasure at c K. Hutchinson,
10:40
Speaker 4: probably for not informing them of the deal beforehand, but
10:44
Speaker 4: also structure the deal in such a way it does
10:48
Speaker 4: not allow enough time for a third party to come
10:50
Speaker 4: in with a bit, So Chinese government actually don't have
10:53
Speaker 4: a time to organize a counter bit to this right now,
10:56
Speaker 4: and this is why they're understandably upset. But for Trump,
11:00
Speaker 4: this shows demonstrate another one of his great victory, you know,
11:05
Speaker 4: to reclaim American greatness.
11:09
Speaker 3: The South China Morning Post here is saying that China
11:13
Speaker 3: has not sent a delegation to Panama after the Port
11:16
Speaker 3: Dale and in the headline here it's saying Belton Road
11:20
Speaker 3: exit and Mike, I suppose my next question is what
11:24
Speaker 3: is the likely outcome of this for the Belton Roads initiative.
11:30
Speaker 4: That's a great question. Well, another Trump claim victory is
11:35
Speaker 4: that it forced Panama government to withdraw from the Beldien
11:38
Speaker 4: Road Initiative with China. Again, this is a p R
11:42
Speaker 4: victory because Panama since its last president, has canceled all
11:47
Speaker 4: the Beldien Row Initiative project with China, most importantly a
11:52
Speaker 4: four billion dollar high speed rail project. So currently there's
11:56
Speaker 4: actually no beld Row Initiative project in Panama. So it's
12:00
Speaker 4: very easy for Panamanian government to claim that they are
12:05
Speaker 4: withdrawing from v R I when in fact there's nothing
12:08
Speaker 4: going on, and it's a it's an easy PR victory
12:11
Speaker 4: for for the Trump administration also because they can claim
12:15
Speaker 4: another victory over China, another victory of America reclaiming the
12:20
Speaker 4: Panama Canal, and for the Panamanian government to curry favor
12:25
Speaker 4: with the Trump administration saying Okay, we're doing as you're
12:29
Speaker 4: We're doing as we have been told. We are tolding
12:32
Speaker 4: your line.
12:34
Speaker 3: Some of the coverage that I saw in Chinese language
12:37
Speaker 3: media and the translation services do a very good job
12:42
Speaker 3: of translating it, the language was being used was really aggressive.
12:45
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, betrayal, treason, this kind of thing.
12:50
Speaker 3: What what are the are there going to be any
12:52
Speaker 3: repercussions for Hutchinson and and its chief executive.
12:56
Speaker 4: Well, this is interesting part because Hutchinson is so all
13:00
Speaker 4: its oversea ports except but they're retaining all the ports
13:05
Speaker 4: that they operate in China and Hong Kong. So they're
13:08
Speaker 4: actually what they're doing is from purely business standpoint, they're
13:13
Speaker 4: reducing their geopolitical risks. They didn't want to get caught
13:15
Speaker 4: in between a geopolitical competition between China and the United States,
13:20
Speaker 4: and all its over seaports both in Swiss Canal and
13:23
Speaker 4: the Panama Canal could be subject to possible US sanctions,
13:28
Speaker 4: and and China has chose to not publicly attack c
13:35
Speaker 4: K Hutchinson through its official state media. I'm talking about
13:39
Speaker 4: shin Hua, I'm talking about People's Daily or CCTV. Instead,
13:44
Speaker 4: it used a kind of the proxy media, it's a
13:47
Speaker 4: pro Beijing newspaper in Hong Kong, by voicing its concerns
13:52
Speaker 4: and then having China's top liaison office in Hong Kong
13:56
Speaker 4: reposting this article. Well, the Chinese government is out have
14:00
Speaker 4: reframed from publicly naming the owner of c K Hutchinson,
14:05
Speaker 4: which is the Hong Kong billionairely Kaishin and the Kishin's
14:08
Speaker 4: youngest Sung actually is recently in Hong in Beijing attending
14:13
Speaker 4: a business forum attended by many global leaders, including American
14:18
Speaker 4: Tim Cook, who get to meet with Shijimpin. So I'm
14:22
Speaker 4: sure there's some kind of backroom deal that's being worked out,
14:25
Speaker 4: and so far a lot of the blame that the
14:28
Speaker 4: Beijing official media had placed on the Trump and administration
14:32
Speaker 4: for unilaterally pressuring private business to conform to unreasonable American demands.
14:42
Speaker 1: Cal obviously, I've just given a report on shipping, or
14:46
Speaker 1: at least the effect that this ridiculous strategy that the
14:49
Speaker 1: UK government's proposing, but of course not just the UK,
14:52
Speaker 1: that the whole of Europe is very much dependent upon
14:55
Speaker 1: freight coming into it from the parts world. The panamack
14:58
Speaker 1: and out will be that was very strategically important. But
15:01
Speaker 1: the Western governments and the media are predisposed to be
15:07
Speaker 1: in opposition to both Donald Trump and China. What's your
15:11
Speaker 1: sense of the response from Europe, the governments of Europe,
15:16
Speaker 1: European Union, and the media.
15:19
Speaker 4: I mean, right now with the new Trump administration, the
15:24
Speaker 4: European foreign policies in shambles. It's a lot of European
15:28
Speaker 4: leaders are kind of running around like headless chickens. They're
15:31
Speaker 4: they're talking about, you know, continuing the proxy war in
15:34
Speaker 4: Ukraine without the United States. They're they're they're talking about,
15:38
Speaker 4: you know, possibly forming a security pack without US. I mean,
15:43
Speaker 4: this is very ridiculous talk. And the fact that they
15:47
Speaker 4: are now being placed under tariffs by the Trump administration
15:53
Speaker 4: on one hand. On other on other hand, they want
15:55
Speaker 4: to continue the same policy they follow under the Biden initiation,
16:01
Speaker 4: which is to be aggressive towards China in terms of
16:04
Speaker 4: the trade. It just doesn't not make sense. I mean,
16:06
Speaker 4: Europe is not really piloting a third way here. There's
16:10
Speaker 4: a real opportunity for Europe to form have its own
16:14
Speaker 4: independent foreign policy that serves European interests. Yet, for some
16:18
Speaker 4: odd reasons that European leaders designed not to do that
16:22
Speaker 4: but follow the same failed neoliberal foreign policy that was
16:29
Speaker 4: under the Biden initiation, even though the tomb has changed
16:32
Speaker 4: in Washington. You know, this is something maybe you can
16:36
Speaker 4: help me to understand why is the European leader persists
16:40
Speaker 4: in such self defeating ways.
16:43
Speaker 2: Because they're off their heads, Carl, But we'll talk about
16:45
Speaker 2: that next.
16:46
Speaker 1: Try to get to the botto of that extra if
16:47
Speaker 1: we perhaps extended somewhat, Carl, thanks very much, indeed, and Vanessa,
16:52
Speaker 1: will I move across to the Middle East and to Yemen, Yes.
16:59
Speaker 5: Well, Yemen and Iran, where Trump has reignited the war
17:04
Speaker 5: against Yemen in defense of the security of Israel, while
17:10
Speaker 5: is committing recommitting a slightly paused genocide against Palestinians in
17:15
Speaker 5: Gardena in the West Bank. And effectively, you know, under
17:19
Speaker 5: the first Trump administration, Trump scuppered the nuclear deal.
17:23
Speaker 6: He's now threatening Iran.
17:24
Speaker 5: With war effectively if they don't rejoin negotiations for the
17:29
Speaker 5: nuclear deal.
17:31
Speaker 7: That he effectively got rid of under his first administration.
17:36
Speaker 7: And of course the supreme leadership in Iran is pushing
17:39
Speaker 7: back very hard and saying that they don't breathe to
17:42
Speaker 7: negotiations with what is effectively a pulley.
17:45
Speaker 8: In the United States, particularly under President Trump.
17:48
Speaker 6: So what's actually happening.
17:50
Speaker 7: We're seeing a massive build up of US military assets,
17:55
Speaker 7: both in West Asia or the Middle East, but also
17:59
Speaker 7: in Diego Garcia Base, which I'll talk about more and
18:03
Speaker 7: explain exactly where it is. So, first of all, we've
18:06
Speaker 7: got second aircraft carrier to the Middle East. Basically there's
18:12
Speaker 7: already the USS Harry Truman, which will extend its deployment
18:18
Speaker 7: in the Red Sea for the war against Tiana. Now
18:22
Speaker 7: the USS Carl Vincent and accompanying destroyers will join.
18:27
Speaker 6: In the coming weeks. But not only this, there are F.
18:31
Speaker 7: Thirty five fighters heading towards Israel. The Gold Refueling Group
18:37
Speaker 7: is confirmed that they're trying a pair of F thirty
18:39
Speaker 7: five fighters into Israel, and further deployments in the Middle
18:46
Speaker 7: East continue. That's being reported across the board from the
18:50
Speaker 7: various open source intelligence agencies on social media.
18:55
Speaker 5: But then in particular, we've seen us C seventeen cargo carriers.
19:03
Speaker 6: We can just have a look at that, cargo.
19:05
Speaker 5: Planes flying into the Diego Garcia basis. Now the C
19:12
Speaker 5: seventeens are troop carriers and will be used to.
19:16
Speaker 8: Carry cargo to operating bases.
19:21
Speaker 5: Then and finally, and this is probably the most sinister
19:24
Speaker 5: move by the United States, which is the bringing in
19:28
Speaker 5: of B two Spirit or stealth bombers.
19:31
Speaker 8: If we can just have a look at that again,
19:33
Speaker 8: these are.
19:33
Speaker 7: Coming into Diego Garcia and we're hearing numbers between four
19:40
Speaker 7: to seven B two Spirit bombers.
19:43
Speaker 8: Now, what's interesting.
19:44
Speaker 6: These bombers in particular have been used to deploy bunker
19:50
Speaker 6: buster bombs that of course.
19:51
Speaker 5: Are designed to target the underground weapon facilities potentially in
19:57
Speaker 5: this case in Iran, but they also have the capability
20:02
Speaker 5: to carry nuclear weapons. So this is where this becomes
20:06
Speaker 5: extremely dangerous as regards escalation.
20:10
Speaker 8: Whereas Diego Garcia, well, it's.
20:12
Speaker 6: In the middle of the indianet Ocean. It's actually a.
20:15
Speaker 7: British base that has been leased to the United States
20:20
Speaker 7: for ninety nine years. It's a base which is shrouded
20:24
Speaker 7: in secrecy.
20:26
Speaker 5: I'll come onto that at the end, but if we
20:30
Speaker 5: have a quick look at the tag.
20:31
Speaker 8: So the Indian Ocean island was notably used.
20:34
Speaker 7: As a primary launchpad for bomber strokes and the opening
20:37
Speaker 7: phases of operation during Freedom afging to start two thousand
20:42
Speaker 7: and one Operation Iraqi Freedom.
20:44
Speaker 6: I love this use of the.
20:46
Speaker 7: Word freedom by the United States in two thousand and
20:49
Speaker 7: three and actually against.
20:50
Speaker 5: Sobia by NATO in nineteen ninety nine. It's very important
20:55
Speaker 5: to know here this is from the article that.
20:58
Speaker 9: Diego Garcia, unlike Basis in the Middle East or aircraft
21:01
Speaker 9: carriers operating in the region, is largely out of the
21:04
Speaker 9: reach of the missiles and drones available now to either.
21:08
Speaker 6: And Schrouller or Iran.
21:11
Speaker 7: Iran's current longest range ballistic missiles are generally assessed to
21:15
Speaker 7: have maximum ranges around.
21:16
Speaker 6: One thousand, two hundred and forty two miles.
21:19
Speaker 7: However, I have to say, in the last forty eight hours,
21:21
Speaker 7: Iran has unveiled missiles that have a range of one.
21:25
Speaker 8: Thousand, seven hundred miles, and they've also.
21:29
Speaker 7: Unveiled new underground military development centers and bases and missile
21:34
Speaker 7: lage centers, and.
21:36
Speaker 8: The three disputed islands at the mouth.
21:39
Speaker 7: Of the Straight Moves which directly threaten actually the Gulf State.
21:45
Speaker 7: So clearly Iran is responding to Trump's military escalation with
21:49
Speaker 7: their own version of a military escalation against what Trump
21:53
Speaker 7: is progressing with. This is actually back in twenty fifteen
21:58
Speaker 7: April twenty fifteen, a bombing of the Adan Mountain in
22:05
Speaker 7: Yama using the B two bombers, just to give people
22:09
Speaker 7: an idea of the bombs that will be deployed by
22:12
Speaker 7: these bombers, and the bomber itself, the B two.
22:15
Speaker 8: Bomber costs one million dollars to make.
22:19
Speaker 6: So the fact that seven of those bombers, I think
22:21
Speaker 6: there's only twenty two in existence and now being moved.
22:24
Speaker 7: To Diego Garcia is a strong signal from Trump now
22:29
Speaker 7: coming onto a BBC article that I found this morning
22:34
Speaker 7: which was kind of interesting. This was what I found
22:37
Speaker 7: on the secret of tropical island. They don't want you
22:40
Speaker 7: to see.
22:41
Speaker 2: Now.
22:41
Speaker 7: Why I say this is interesting? What does the BBC
22:44
Speaker 7: talk about? It talks about the fact that, of course Mauritius,
22:48
Speaker 7: which one independence from the UK and sixty eight contains
22:51
Speaker 7: that the islands are its own and the UN's highest
22:54
Speaker 7: support was ruled in an advisory opinion that the UK's
22:57
Speaker 7: administration of the.
22:58
Speaker 5: Territory is on the full and lost end. It is
23:01
Speaker 5: said that the Jagos Island should be.
23:03
Speaker 7: Handed over to Mauritius in order to complete the UK's decolonization.
23:08
Speaker 8: CLI Baldwin, senior legal advisor a Human Right.
23:11
Speaker 7: To Watch, says the force displacement of the Tragossians, why
23:16
Speaker 7: the UK and US their persecution on the grounds of
23:19
Speaker 7: race in the Ongang Convention of their return to their
23:22
Speaker 7: homeland amounts to crimes against humanity.
23:25
Speaker 6: So, while explaining that this island.
23:28
Speaker 7: Is shrouded in secrecy, media is forbidden entry. The BBC
23:33
Speaker 7: apparently had to go through a huge number of hoops to.
23:36
Speaker 5: Be able to actually get onto the island and be
23:40
Speaker 5: given a very much guided tour around. Interesting that the
23:43
Speaker 5: security company g fours was sent to accompany them, and
23:48
Speaker 5: all they mentioned are in this basically colonization issue, which
23:53
Speaker 5: is a major issue. But they also talk about the
23:56
Speaker 5: fact that potentially the CIA has black sites on DA
24:01
Speaker 5: regards here. But for me, this doesn't explain the extreme
24:05
Speaker 5: secrecy over the military basis.
24:09
Speaker 7: On this island, and one wonders what else is being
24:12
Speaker 7: developed there?
24:14
Speaker 3: Some good questions, Thank you, Vanessa. Okay, well, the's sticking
24:17
Speaker 3: with defense. Then the Treasury was tweeting out this message
24:21
Speaker 3: today that national security is the first responsibility of any
24:25
Speaker 3: government and through boosting our defense sector we can protect
24:28
Speaker 3: the UK and help grow the economy. Richel Reeves, of course,
24:32
Speaker 3: today is giving her Spring Statement and many many cuts expected,
24:37
Speaker 3: but let's have a listen to what Rachel Reeves had
24:39
Speaker 3: to say about defense and war this morning.
24:43
Speaker 10: I'm going to set out in the Spring statement increases
24:46
Speaker 10: in defense spending for next year worth two point two
24:49
Speaker 10: billion pounds. As we take defense spending as a share
24:53
Speaker 10: of our economy to two and a half percent. The
24:56
Speaker 10: world is changing. We can see that before our eyes.
24:59
Speaker 10: But we're not a passive government or an active one
25:01
Speaker 10: stepping up our defense capability to keep our country safe
25:05
Speaker 10: and secure because a strong economy depends on strong defense.
25:09
Speaker 10: As we invest in our defense, we can also bring
25:12
Speaker 10: more good quality jobs, paying decent wages to communities across
25:16
Speaker 10: our country.
25:20
Speaker 3: So as Rachel Reeves is busy cutting the heart out
25:22
Speaker 3: of government budgets, and I'm not suggesting that that isn't
25:24
Speaker 3: a good thing in and of itself, but the question is,
25:28
Speaker 3: we can be pretty well assured that the money saved
25:30
Speaker 3: is going straight in the bullets and bombs, so maybe
25:33
Speaker 3: that's not such a great thing. In the meantime, King
25:36
Speaker 3: Charles was welcoming British and French war chiefs to Windsor
25:40
Speaker 3: Castle on Monday, and this was all about continuing efforts
25:44
Speaker 3: to build the Coalition of the Willing. Here's another delightful
25:48
Speaker 3: image with Radigan meeting his French kind of part So
25:52
Speaker 3: they were discussing UK and French efforts to build a
25:56
Speaker 3: European defense union as we talk about over the last
25:58
Speaker 3: number of weeks and in fact the last number of years,
26:01
Speaker 3: as well as the growing defense partnership between Britain and France.
26:06
Speaker 3: They're desperate to keep momentum in this EU defense union
26:10
Speaker 3: process at the moment, and I just sort of get
26:11
Speaker 3: the feeling that momentum has come out but a little
26:13
Speaker 3: bit in the last couple of weeks. But nonetheless, if
26:16
Speaker 3: you remember last week, following the so called high level
26:21
Speaker 3: meetings in London and Paris, there was an operational planning
26:24
Speaker 3: meeting held at the UK's permanent joint headquarters at Northwood.
26:29
Speaker 3: Now there's going to be more of these joint planning
26:31
Speaker 3: meetings at North Northwood this week, where intensive discussions will
26:36
Speaker 3: continue over several days. And just as a side and
26:39
Speaker 3: aside here the Swanska contract of one hundred ninety six
26:44
Speaker 3: million pounds you could see on this graphic here it
26:46
Speaker 3: was initially one hundred and ninety six million pounds. That
26:49
Speaker 3: contract's now have been extended to twenty thirty one, so
26:51
Speaker 3: I'm not quite sure what the total value of that
26:54
Speaker 3: contract is. Skanska Swedish company provides, although it's the UK
26:59
Speaker 3: arm of the Swedish company, provides all the non military
27:02
Speaker 3: facilities management at Northwood, which we would remind you contains
27:08
Speaker 3: UK military headquarters, Nittle Maritime headquarters and until twenty nineteen,
27:13
Speaker 3: EU Operations headquarters for eunav FOR and other EU projects
27:18
Speaker 3: that we were involved with, maybe because that was maybe
27:22
Speaker 3: until twenty nineteen, because we all know brexits not really
27:28
Speaker 3: real in any practical sense. And I don't know whether
27:30
Speaker 3: you've got any thought on whether they've actually pulled the
27:33
Speaker 3: infrastructure out of Northwood or whether we still have hotlines
27:37
Speaker 3: and encryption to Brussels.
27:40
Speaker 1: I think it would be hard to see that it
27:42
Speaker 1: would be destroyed altogether. That would seem reckless, I think,
27:48
Speaker 1: even if it would be the appropriate thing to do.
27:50
Speaker 1: And actually that yesterday Mike Martin MP, who is x ON,
27:54
Speaker 1: he was asking Loop Pollard on Forces Minister in a
27:58
Speaker 1: Defense committee about not specifically about this, but concerning government
28:02
Speaker 1: policy around operational security, specifically with regard to the leak
28:08
Speaker 1: in the United States, and it was just interesting. The
28:12
Speaker 1: polod was very he was very vague on exactly what
28:15
Speaker 1: government would do. Mike Martin was talking about a staff
28:18
Speaker 1: sergeant of his in Afghanistan who was sacked for incorrectly
28:24
Speaker 1: changing something from being top secret secret. And it's just
28:27
Speaker 1: making the analogy and just with this in mind and
28:30
Speaker 1: this capability, it was just interesting that Pollod was very
28:34
Speaker 1: very evasive on the issue of what exactly would the
28:37
Speaker 1: government policy be, and he was effectively suggesting that, well,
28:40
Speaker 1: it would just be taken on its own merits, depending
28:42
Speaker 1: on who it was and what sort of information. So
28:44
Speaker 1: when you consider that in light of this, I would say, yeah,
28:49
Speaker 1: very opaque.
28:51
Speaker 2: Yes indeed.
28:51
Speaker 3: So look, these meetings will also provide an opportunity, the
28:56
Speaker 3: government says ahead of the UK Franz Summit in twenty
29:00
Speaker 3: twenty five for further discussion. And this summit is going
29:04
Speaker 3: to enhance the twenty ten Lancaster House Treaties on Security
29:08
Speaker 3: in Defense, which the Ministry of Defense says already provide
29:12
Speaker 3: the UK and France with quote a firm foundation of
29:15
Speaker 3: in depth military cooperation on match between European partners. It's
29:20
Speaker 3: unclear how the Lancaster House Treaties could be enhanced because
29:25
Speaker 3: the then Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas
29:29
Speaker 3: Sarkozi signed to so called Defense Treaties at ten Downing
29:33
Speaker 3: Street following the summit held at Lancaster House. No debate
29:37
Speaker 3: was held in Parliament, and these treaties took us into
29:40
Speaker 3: a fifty year defense pact with France. Now, why is
29:43
Speaker 3: this important? Well, one reason is that the Franco British
29:46
Speaker 3: Access has been Access has been driving this EU defense
29:49
Speaker 3: union policy since nineteen eighty four. And we can imagine
29:53
Speaker 3: an EU nuclear button, or well, can we imagine an
29:56
Speaker 3: EU nuclear button in the hands of Ursula of Vonderlea.
30:01
Speaker 3: We can probably, if we can, we can probably appreciate
30:04
Speaker 3: the problem that that might cause. Now, The Wall Street Journal,
30:06
Speaker 3: and thanks to Vanessa for popping this through to me,
30:09
Speaker 3: published this article yesterday. Trump prompts European calls for a
30:13
Speaker 3: homegrown nuclear umbrella, and they're pointing out that Macron has held,
30:19
Speaker 3: already held a nuclear drill under the streets of Paris
30:23
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty two, which is supposed to send a
30:25
Speaker 3: message to Moscow. They're highlighting the Trump's alleged cooling on
30:30
Speaker 3: NATO is the excuse for driving this a European deterrent.
30:34
Speaker 3: Nuclear deterrent they're talking about, led by France and the
30:37
Speaker 3: UK could be problematic because of legal, political and technical difficulties.
30:42
Speaker 3: That Germany, Poland and Denmark are already showing interest that
30:46
Speaker 3: sharing nuclear weapons means sharing sovereignty. Well, that's the sovereignty
30:50
Speaker 3: issue is something that we've highlighted with European Defense Union
30:53
Speaker 3: for a long time, and that they're pointing out again
30:58
Speaker 3: that Britain's arsenal nuclear arsenal field tests, that dependence on
31:03
Speaker 3: the United States from maintenance and even for the missiles
31:05
Speaker 3: in the first place and so on. So you know,
31:08
Speaker 3: the huge cost of this to provide this so called
31:11
Speaker 3: nuclear blanket over Europe is nuts. And the other the
31:16
Speaker 3: final point was a compliance with the non Proliferate non
31:19
Speaker 3: Proliferation Treaty. Well, at the moment, they're already setting us
31:22
Speaker 3: up for that because they're accusing Russia of being in
31:26
Speaker 3: breach to the non Proliferation Treaty already, So maybe they
31:29
Speaker 3: don't need to worry about that. But we'll keep you
31:31
Speaker 3: posted on this, but you know, it is it is
31:34
Speaker 3: a developing story. We'll see whether the momentum has actually
31:38
Speaker 3: come out of it or whether they can keep it
31:40
Speaker 3: going for the foreseeable future. Yeah, just greatly on Russia.
31:45
Speaker 3: I think it does telegraph a couple of things. First
31:47
Speaker 3: of all, that there is a high state of unreadiness
31:50
Speaker 3: for war. Secondly, if there really is a threat, then
31:53
Speaker 3: what on earth is putin waiting for I mean, if
31:56
Speaker 3: he really is to invade the entirety of Western Europe,
31:58
Speaker 3: then surely he would have done it by know before
32:00
Speaker 3: there has been a chance to put all this in place.
32:03
Speaker 2: Indeed, good point.
32:05
Speaker 3: Okay, let's move on. If you like what the UK
32:07
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Speaker 3: absolutely help us greatly. Tickets almost gone now for UK
32:46
Speaker 3: Column on location, which is on Saturday the fifth of
32:48
Speaker 3: April in Cheltenham. Katherine Gunn, Alex Thompson, Patrick Hennison, Rajameyer
32:53
Speaker 3: and Brian Gerish all speaking at that UK Colm Q
32:56
Speaker 3: and A will be part of that, I'm quite sure
32:57
Speaker 3: as well. If you want to get ticket, you need
33:00
Speaker 3: to get it very very soon. But if you can't
33:02
Speaker 3: join us in person, you can at least join us
33:05
Speaker 3: on the live stream. So the live stream is available
33:07
Speaker 3: now on the UK home Shop if you'd like to
33:10
Speaker 3: go and pick up a ticket for that.
33:11
Speaker 1: And I think just to make it clear, with a
33:13
Speaker 1: live stream ticket, even if you can't watch it as
33:16
Speaker 1: it's going out, you will have access to it afterwards.
33:18
Speaker 1: So even if you can't sit down and watch it
33:20
Speaker 1: on the fifth of April, do please consider getting a
33:23
Speaker 1: ticket because you will have access to it thereafter, absolutely right.
33:27
Speaker 3: Yesterday's interview with on moral courage and what has required
33:32
Speaker 3: stopping sexual indoctrination in school with You McCarthy is available
33:36
Speaker 3: on the UK Colme website and tomorrow one pm Ben
33:40
Speaker 3: is speaking to Raja Maya and he is of course
33:45
Speaker 3: against near overwhelming opposition for Waldham Council is galvanizing local
33:50
Speaker 3: support and local community to disrupt the local party machinery
33:55
Speaker 3: and Raja will be speaking at the conference as well,
33:58
Speaker 3: so he'll be talking about how they are unseating labor
34:01
Speaker 3: councilors in particular in that part of the world and
34:05
Speaker 3: so join Ben and Raja at one pm tomorrow if
34:08
Speaker 3: you can. Now let's move on then to Palanteer. Well,
34:13
Speaker 3: just before we get to that, let's just talk about
34:15
Speaker 3: the Data Use and Access Bill, because this continues its
34:20
Speaker 3: way through Parliament at the moment, it's gone through the
34:23
Speaker 3: committee stage and it's about to go to the report stage,
34:28
Speaker 3: although there's no firm date for that just yet. In
34:32
Speaker 3: the meantime, the COVID inquiry also rumbles on, and just
34:37
Speaker 3: over a week ago it entered into evidence a statement
34:41
Speaker 3: written statement made by Lewis Mosley, who's executive vice president
34:47
Speaker 3: of Pollunteer, and he wrote this statement in January, but
34:51
Speaker 3: it's been published as I say, about a week ago
34:54
Speaker 3: on the website and in this statement mostly had this
35:00
Speaker 3: to say, common operating system. The UK Government needs to
35:05
Speaker 3: invest in a common operating system solution that would sit
35:08
Speaker 3: on top of and be able to integrate with the
35:12
Speaker 3: multitude of source systems across government, in fact, across local
35:16
Speaker 3: and central government, healthcare and bodies of national strategic importance
35:22
Speaker 3: in peacetime. He said this system will be used to
35:25
Speaker 3: improve collaboration between these organizations and to optimize procurement amongst
35:30
Speaker 3: other things. But in an emergency, the common operating system
35:35
Speaker 3: would be rapidly reconfigured to respond to the crisis at hand,
35:39
Speaker 3: he said. HM government must be able to respond to
35:43
Speaker 3: the black Swan events. COVID nineteen was an airborne disease pandemic,
35:48
Speaker 3: he claimed, but the next national emergency could take a
35:52
Speaker 3: different form, for example, a contact disease, a widespread energy outage,
35:57
Speaker 3: a global supply chain disruption, nuclear disaster, or a war
36:02
Speaker 3: for example.
36:03
Speaker 2: What does he know?
36:05
Speaker 3: So this so called evidence was basically a sales pitch
36:10
Speaker 3: for Plunteer, a company which is already way too embedded
36:14
Speaker 3: in the UK national infrastructure and our personal data. So
36:19
Speaker 3: particularly because they're trying very hard to worm their way
36:22
Speaker 3: into the Stargate project in the United States and will
36:26
Speaker 3: be with the equivalent AI project here in the UK.
36:29
Speaker 3: I think this is something that we need to be
36:32
Speaker 3: very much aware of and I think we should be
36:34
Speaker 3: absolutely calling to get Palenteer out of the UK completely.
36:38
Speaker 3: I think that would be my advice. So, look, this
36:41
Speaker 3: is the kind of data sharing which the data use
36:44
Speaker 3: and access built enables. This piece of legislation is a
36:48
Speaker 3: critical part of the technocracy infrastructure that's being built at
36:51
Speaker 3: the moment, and it needs to be resisted. So I
36:54
Speaker 3: think I would urge that anyone who's not speaking out
36:57
Speaker 3: in this topic really needs to start very very soon.
37:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, I quite agree, and I think the sort of
37:03
Speaker 1: kicking out process should not be limited to palanted. There
37:07
Speaker 1: are a number of organizations now which presumably in a
37:11
Speaker 1: fairly short space time, we'll have to start competing with
37:13
Speaker 1: one another for control of the data that the government
37:15
Speaker 1: is prepared to hand over to them. You know, I
37:18
Speaker 1: think we can talk about that more an extra But
37:20
Speaker 1: obviously we've covered many, many organizations that are now very
37:24
Speaker 1: much integrated with government and our data and therefore the
37:29
Speaker 1: facto control over our lives. But it's interesting to see
37:33
Speaker 1: how he will weaponize that the emergency be whatever type
37:39
Speaker 1: of emergency it needs to be, to push his particular
37:43
Speaker 1: product over the line, exactly like the government and indeed
37:46
Speaker 1: the media might do.
37:46
Speaker 2: Yeah.
37:47
Speaker 3: And the problem is that government civil servants they're not
37:51
Speaker 3: technically literate actually in most cases, and so they can
37:55
Speaker 3: be drawn into contracts and perhaps the British taxpayer doesn't
37:58
Speaker 3: need to be paying for absolutely.
38:00
Speaker 1: And you know, when we think about your report last
38:03
Speaker 1: week about that you know you called it the UK doge,
38:06
Speaker 1: the abandonment of the credit cards, presumably to either be
38:09
Speaker 1: replaced by fewer credit cards or some other perhaps digital
38:12
Speaker 1: method of paying for stuff. Who knows, but this all
38:16
Speaker 1: seems to be aligned with that, you know, in so
38:19
Speaker 1: far as reform will be to create efficiencies, but also
38:24
Speaker 1: that will bring in organizations exactly like Paneteer to be
38:27
Speaker 1: able to claim that very efficiency anyway, carry on more
38:32
Speaker 1: an extra thing absolutely. Now we will move on to
38:37
Speaker 1: domestic and agricultural and land affairs now with the news
38:42
Speaker 1: that Angela Rayner put the Planning and Infrastructure Bill before
38:46
Speaker 1: Parliament on Monday for its second reading. Now her rhetoric
38:51
Speaker 1: has not abated since the first reading, and it's the
38:54
Speaker 1: very clearest of indicators that the government gives absolutely no
38:58
Speaker 1: regard to the considering of the public that they're supposed
39:02
Speaker 1: to serve. As an example, Rayner stated that ev electric
39:06
Speaker 1: vehicle charge points will have regulations stripped away, with just
39:10
Speaker 1: a permit rather than a license needed. This is because
39:13
Speaker 1: they kun as a critical infrastructure, a term upon which
39:17
Speaker 1: so much has been hung in the past few years.
39:19
Speaker 1: She reinforced the point that any challenges to propose government
39:23
Speaker 1: infrastructure projects or large developments will be newted by amendments
39:28
Speaker 1: to the process, giving only one appeal as opposed to
39:31
Speaker 1: three in saying that it will slice through the bureaucracy
39:35
Speaker 1: and speed up transport projects. She spoke very dismissively about
39:40
Speaker 1: the meritless cases being dragged through the courts. So there
39:44
Speaker 1: was some pushback, but really only from Conservative MPs, and
39:49
Speaker 1: that makes it abundantly clear that the requirement to represent
39:52
Speaker 1: the views of constituents has evaporated all together. In the
39:55
Speaker 1: House of Commons, it emerged with the result of three
39:59
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty votes versus seventy four for the bill
40:01
Speaker 1: to progress and not a single Labor vote against. A
40:06
Speaker 1: few contributions are noteworthy, though none was given any consideration
40:10
Speaker 1: by the Deputy Prime Minister, Bradley Thomas. Conservative MP asked
40:14
Speaker 1: whether two hundred and twenty five thousand homes have yet
40:16
Speaker 1: been built because the Labor government pledged that they would
40:20
Speaker 1: construct one and a half million of them during this parliament.
40:23
Speaker 1: That went unanswered. Sir Jeffrey Clifton Brown said, if we
40:26
Speaker 1: are to override local people, we might just as well
40:29
Speaker 1: have a nationally directed planning system rather than a local
40:33
Speaker 1: planning system. Will she think carefully about that balance? Now,
40:37
Speaker 1: of course she did not commit to thinking about that balance,
40:41
Speaker 1: but the question in itself did indicate that the government can,
40:44
Speaker 1: of course just override the wishes of the population. Now,
40:48
Speaker 1: as to Rayner herself, I think we would just consider
40:53
Speaker 1: her words here. She said, make no mistake, the bill
40:56
Speaker 1: will transform the lives of working people and Britain's prospect
41:00
Speaker 1: for years to come. Yes, indeed, But I think we'd
41:03
Speaker 1: be minded to interpret her message in a different manner
41:06
Speaker 1: from the one she may have intended.
41:09
Speaker 2: Now.
41:09
Speaker 1: Another contributor to the debate was Sir Ashley Fox, and
41:13
Speaker 1: he made an obvious statement, but one that is worth repeating.
41:16
Speaker 1: He said, I'm concerned about the abuse of power, particularly
41:19
Speaker 1: in relation to agricultural land and green spaces. By simplifying
41:23
Speaker 1: land acquisitions and reducing protections for affected landowners, the bill
41:28
Speaker 1: could pave the way for large scale developments that displace communities,
41:31
Speaker 1: damage the environment, and undermine agricultural interests. I think the
41:36
Speaker 1: only thing I'd fall out with is by saying could
41:38
Speaker 1: pave the way, I should think it would be absolutely
41:40
Speaker 1: certain that it will pave the way. Now, following on
41:45
Speaker 1: from this, we had specific references to compulsory purchase, which
41:51
Speaker 1: brings us on to Natural England, because, of course reported
41:54
Speaker 1: after the first reading of the bill it was a
41:56
Speaker 1: Natural England that were going to be given power to
41:59
Speaker 1: seize land by compulatory purchase if they Natural England required it.
42:04
Speaker 1: So here we see that Tony Juniper, the chair of
42:07
Speaker 1: Natural England for a very long period of time, has
42:10
Speaker 1: just been reappointed, which is significant, not least because he's
42:15
Speaker 1: presided over the unaccountable land grabbing that's been going on,
42:18
Speaker 1: especially via designation of sites of Special Scientific Interest, which
42:22
Speaker 1: Sandy spoke about recently, but also because of his close
42:25
Speaker 1: friendship and working relationship with the King, with whom he
42:29
Speaker 1: has co authored books and of course actively promoted the
42:32
Speaker 1: drive towards fifty percent of land and sea to be
42:35
Speaker 1: in nature recovery by twenty fifty under the Terror Carter.
42:40
Speaker 1: Now from Natural England we move to the Animal and
42:44
Speaker 1: Plant Health Agency and inevitably biosecurity, the marketing of which
42:48
Speaker 1: reaches newbounds every day. Here's a reference to what is
42:52
Speaker 1: being described as an emergency response to reports of foot
42:56
Speaker 1: and mouth in Germany. Now, regardless of what you think
43:00
Speaker 1: about any diagnosis of such a disease, there is no
43:03
Speaker 1: debate about whether animals recover from it. They do recover,
43:07
Speaker 1: and it is well documented, as the government says foot
43:12
Speaker 1: and mouth disease poses no risk to human or food safety,
43:16
Speaker 1: but is a highly contagious viral disease of cattle, sheep,
43:20
Speaker 1: pigs and other cloven hoofed animals. So we're obviously still
43:24
Speaker 1: supposed to be in fear and we're still supposed to
43:28
Speaker 1: consider it is proportionate to slaughter on suspicion, and that
43:32
Speaker 1: leads us back to bird flu, but this time in sheep.
43:38
Speaker 1: This is the Australian broadcaster ABC reporting here that the
43:41
Speaker 1: news has sparked biosecurity warning even in Australia, and this
43:46
Speaker 1: of course links back to the Chief Vet Christine Middlemiss,
43:50
Speaker 1: whose last job was in New South Wales, where she
43:52
Speaker 1: led the charge for a new and very stringent bisecurity
43:56
Speaker 1: regime which critically conferred responsibility for it it onto the
44:00
Speaker 1: population at large, saying it was effective a community issue
44:04
Speaker 1: and everybody bore some sort of responsibility for it. Now
44:08
Speaker 1: Here is Christine Middleness speaking on BBC Farming Today's Morning
44:11
Speaker 1: about the peril that we're in.
44:15
Speaker 11: We don't think there's an increased risk if there's not
44:19
Speaker 11: a clear pathway, So I wouldn't be worrying about necessarily
44:23
Speaker 11: being needing a poultry farm. But don't leave open sheep
44:27
Speaker 11: feed if you can avoid it where well, birds can
44:30
Speaker 11: come along and then bird droppings in the feed and
44:33
Speaker 11: then the sheep eats them. These sorts of things are
44:36
Speaker 11: important to be aware of.
44:38
Speaker 10: How worried are you that there has been a case
44:41
Speaker 10: in sheep full stop?
44:43
Speaker 11: Well, this is our surveillance working. You know, we have
44:46
Speaker 11: a risk based program and it said, well, there is
44:48
Speaker 11: risk and we found one sheep and the other sheeper negative.
44:52
Speaker 11: So that actually is quite comforting that we have a
44:54
Speaker 11: program in place and it's doing what we asked it
44:57
Speaker 11: to do. And they say the risks to gener public
45:00
Speaker 11: remains a slow and additionally Food Standards Agency say the
45:05
Speaker 11: risk to the general public is very low.
45:11
Speaker 1: So at the same time risk of the public is low.
45:13
Speaker 1: We should be worried and it cannot affect you, but
45:17
Speaker 1: it can at the same times, all very confusing and
45:19
Speaker 1: of course give them what she said, is it in
45:21
Speaker 1: fact as possible that sheep could come into contact with
45:24
Speaker 1: wild bird droppings that are not necessarily in stocks of
45:26
Speaker 1: feed like those that might be found in the middle
45:28
Speaker 1: of field, so that the whole narrative is of course
45:30
Speaker 1: preedently absurd. It certainly seems to have set mic off,
45:34
Speaker 1: but it does illustrate the part that confirmation bias will
45:37
Speaker 1: be allowed to play. Now that this so called surveillance
45:40
Speaker 1: will move to species in proximity to poultry birds, and
45:45
Speaker 1: it's beyond question that if you want to find it,
45:48
Speaker 1: you only need to test for it, and then it's
45:50
Speaker 1: of no consequence at all whether there is any discernible
45:53
Speaker 1: or observable disease. Now, to round off this report, we're
45:59
Speaker 1: going to look at pesticide and the way in which
46:06
Speaker 1: language is manipulated by the government at every turn. So
46:14
Speaker 1: this is the recently announced and much vaunted Pesticides National
46:18
Speaker 1: Action Plan, referred to here by the fresh produced journals
46:21
Speaker 1: or I've skipped ahead, But we're supposed to take away
46:24
Speaker 1: the message that pestic pesticide use will be reduced by
46:28
Speaker 1: ten percent by of course none other than twenty thirty.
46:33
Speaker 1: But if you look closely, you'll see that this is
46:35
Speaker 1: not what's being said at all. And the text highlighted
46:39
Speaker 1: then that the red box on screen says that UK
46:42
Speaker 1: governments will support farmers to increase their use of sustainable
46:46
Speaker 1: farming practices to reduce the potential harm from pesticides by
46:51
Speaker 1: ten percent by twenty thirty. So in fact, it's not
46:56
Speaker 1: a reduction of pesticide use. It is exactly like carbon offsetting.
47:01
Speaker 1: It's a form of stated mitigation based on modeling, no doubt,
47:06
Speaker 1: which doesn't do what we're supposed to believe it does. Now.
47:09
Speaker 1: Of course, the other thing to note is that doesn't
47:11
Speaker 1: make any mention of herbicides or fungicides or of their
47:15
Speaker 1: consequences on the environment and the food chain. And I
47:18
Speaker 1: should point out, no, it hasn't be in time today,
47:21
Speaker 1: but I will be dealing specifically with lifestate herbside in
47:25
Speaker 1: the coming weeks. So that takes us back to Vanessa
47:31
Speaker 1: and what's been going on in Turkey.
47:37
Speaker 5: Well, actually it's more about the potential for Israeli Turkey
47:43
Speaker 5: conflict inside Syria, for influence inside Syria. So first of all,
47:49
Speaker 5: we'll look at what the two countries perceive as their
47:53
Speaker 5: agenda or their rights in Syria. First of all, oua
47:58
Speaker 5: Turkey very much of the if we can just help
48:04
Speaker 5: the slide.
48:06
Speaker 7: Of the HTS al Fada factions inside Syria that have
48:12
Speaker 7: taken control of Damascus since the eighth of December are
48:15
Speaker 7: conducting ethnic cleansing programs in pretty much all of Syria.
48:20
Speaker 5: But Idowan advocates re unified and stable nation inclusive of
48:25
Speaker 5: all societal groups, which of course means.
48:29
Speaker 7: That he has control of all of Syria, because Syria
48:33
Speaker 7: will be controlled by HTS and the Syrian National Army
48:38
Speaker 7: which is the former Free Syrian Army or under control
48:42
Speaker 7: of Turkey, and of course aligned also with Katara, another
48:46
Speaker 7: controller of the Muslim brotherhood factions inside Syria. But let's
48:50
Speaker 7: talk a look now what Israel perceives as its agenda
48:54
Speaker 7: in Syria, and of course Israel is very much along
48:59
Speaker 7: the lines of the Clean Bread doctrine from nineteen ninety seven,
49:03
Speaker 7: which talks about the fragmentation of the region into smaller states,
49:08
Speaker 7: and basically Israel is using the persecution of the other whites,
49:14
Speaker 7: the Drews, Sects, and the Prooks in Syria to create
49:19
Speaker 7: statelets which will effectively still be under the control of
49:22
Speaker 7: Israel acting as proxies of Israel. And of course we
49:26
Speaker 7: know now that Russia is effectively in discussions with Israel
49:30
Speaker 7: over Russia, consolidating its military basis and the coastal area
49:34
Speaker 7: red area there and potentially taking control of that partitioned segment,
49:40
Speaker 7: which would, in light of commerce, give all the Alwhites
49:44
Speaker 7: that are currently being slaughtered of The attach theory project
49:52
Speaker 7: very much of.
49:53
Speaker 6: Turkey, although it's a little bit more complex than that.
49:56
Speaker 7: Now, what has been happening recently, We've talked about the
49:59
Speaker 7: fact that Russia and Israel mine in line to push
50:03
Speaker 7: back against Turkish expansionism in Syria and in the region,
50:07
Speaker 7: but what's happening more recently is that it's.
50:10
Speaker 6: Actually escalated beyond that.
50:12
Speaker 7: So we've seen this is a.
50:17
Speaker 5: Zion Syria, Turkish sorry in Syria, Turkish presence in military airports,
50:24
Speaker 5: and aerial friction with Israel.
50:27
Speaker 6: So what does this actually mean?
50:29
Speaker 5: Yesterday Israel bomb an area of Syria to the east
50:35
Speaker 5: of Hans Palmira and the T four military base, which
50:40
Speaker 5: were the former Syrian Arab Army air bases.
50:44
Speaker 6: And military bases.
50:45
Speaker 5: But the redline there shows Israel's potential.
50:48
Speaker 8: David Corrible, which will extend.
50:51
Speaker 6: From the Sabia.
50:52
Speaker 9: We've talked about it before for the East with Jordan
50:57
Speaker 9: and things with the Kurdish.
51:01
Speaker 6: Settlement in the and by you.
51:10
Speaker 7: Planned, So these two military.
51:16
Speaker 6: What is import.
51:20
Speaker 10: All?
51:20
Speaker 2: Fanasa? Vanessa.
51:22
Speaker 3: I'm really sorry, but your connection is just breaking up
51:26
Speaker 3: so badly that we can't actually, uh just give us
51:31
Speaker 3: a quick sign check.
51:34
Speaker 6: Okay, can you hear me?
51:36
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, no we can't. So so look what why
51:40
Speaker 3: don't you? Why don't you try to restart the connection
51:43
Speaker 3: and we will. We'll cover another topic and then we'll
51:45
Speaker 3: come back to this.
51:48
Speaker 1: Well, thanks for being with us.
51:49
Speaker 2: We'll say, I.
51:52
Speaker 3: Sorry, hold on a second, let's let's Vanessa say something
51:56
Speaker 3: that is better.
51:57
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, So, so where.
51:59
Speaker 5: We're sorry, we're back to internet problems.
52:02
Speaker 2: Yes, no, it's fine.
52:06
Speaker 4: So yeah.
52:06
Speaker 5: What is interesting is that Turkey has been moving its
52:09
Speaker 5: own military advisors into these spaces to develop military capability
52:16
Speaker 5: for HTS for the factions that should have control of
52:21
Speaker 5: unified Syria. And then if we look at another article
52:27
Speaker 5: that has been published recently, Israel and Turkey on collision
52:31
Speaker 5: course in Syria after Kalmra strikes. So again, this points
52:34
Speaker 5: out that Israel was effectively potentially targeting Turkish military in former.
52:42
Speaker 6: Syrian Arab army bases in this area.
52:45
Speaker 5: And then from the article a quote.
52:48
Speaker 6: From Nimrod.
52:51
Speaker 5: Gorian from the Midven Institute. Unlike Turkey, which supports a strong,
52:56
Speaker 5: centralized and stable Syria, Israel at the moment appears to
53:00
Speaker 5: prefer Syria fragmented, with the belief that it could better
53:04
Speaker 5: bolster Israel's security. So confirmation there and Nata Yahoo today
53:10
Speaker 5: put out an announcement that he was to convene a
53:13
Speaker 5: security meeting over Turkish involvement in Syria. So, as I said,
53:18
Speaker 5: we seem to be heading to at least some degree
53:21
Speaker 5: of contestation ob Cirin territory between Israel and Turkey, and
53:28
Speaker 5: I'm quite sure that the destabilization currently ongoing in Turkey
53:32
Speaker 5: is no coincidence on that basis also, and then in
53:37
Speaker 5: the South, what has Israel been doing again? It's been
53:40
Speaker 5: expanding and advancing. This is a headline in the Jerusalem
53:45
Speaker 5: Post today the IDF engages in firefight with so called
53:48
Speaker 5: terrorists in southern Syria. In reality, Israel is trying to
53:53
Speaker 5: expand its land land grab in the south, and it
53:56
Speaker 5: was pushed back by local fighters in the areas where
53:59
Speaker 5: it's trying to advance. They are now, of course termed terrorists.
54:04
Speaker 5: And if we have a quick look at the map,
54:05
Speaker 5: you can see the two areas that I'm talking about
54:08
Speaker 5: that we're under attack. First of all, in the south
54:10
Speaker 5: there in a village called Zawaya, west of Data, that
54:15
Speaker 5: is where Israel as advancing and entrenching and the bombing
54:19
Speaker 5: of those bases, as I said, in Central Syria, which
54:22
Speaker 5: again also demonstrates the extent which Turkey is also trying
54:27
Speaker 5: to expand into Central Syria. And at the same time,
54:32
Speaker 5: in Heimomeme, Russia is moving greater numbers of troops into
54:36
Speaker 5: haimomm under the pretext of protecting.
54:39
Speaker 8: Its own convoys.
54:40
Speaker 5: There are more than seven thousand Syrian ala Whites that
54:44
Speaker 5: have gathered in the Heimomine base for protection, and in
54:49
Speaker 5: fact the military hardware is being built up around the base. Now, yes,
54:55
Speaker 5: it could be protection for Russian convoys, it could also
54:58
Speaker 5: be the start of that consolidation of Russian military presence
55:03
Speaker 5: in the coastal area and then providing of that pretext
55:07
Speaker 5: of protection for the ala Whites and the Christians and
55:11
Speaker 5: even the Sunnis that are opposed to the tach theory
55:14
Speaker 5: projects so very fluid, a lot of swapping and changing
55:19
Speaker 5: of alliances in order to consolidate power inside Syria within
55:24
Speaker 5: my opinion, very little regard for the actual Syrian people,
55:28
Speaker 5: which I guess is pretty normal.
55:31
Speaker 3: And do you think that Israel will have been involved
55:34
Speaker 3: in some way in this destabilization within Turkey itself.
55:39
Speaker 5: I think it's too much of a coincidence that it's
55:42
Speaker 5: been kicked off now. I do also think that there's
55:45
Speaker 5: potential that Erduwan is playing a part in this because
55:48
Speaker 5: by creating the instability, he can bring in emergency law,
55:55
Speaker 5: which then potentially would allow him to make changes in
55:57
Speaker 5: the constitution to extend presidency beyond the next three years,
56:03
Speaker 5: which is currently not able to do. And also it
56:07
Speaker 5: scuppers the deal with the PKK, the Kurdish so called
56:11
Speaker 5: terrorist factions that he was in the process of negotiating.
56:16
Speaker 5: He may well not want that.
56:18
Speaker 6: To go through because of course it's.
56:19
Speaker 5: Occurred Kurdish separatist factions that are under the control of
56:24
Speaker 5: Israel and the US in the Northeast that potentially would
56:28
Speaker 5: become that autonomous region linked with Israel. So it's very
56:34
Speaker 5: messy at the moment, and I think a lot of
56:37
Speaker 5: things don't add up, a lot of things are not
56:41
Speaker 5: as they appear initially, So I do think that destabilization
56:45
Speaker 5: that is ongoing in Turkey has a lot to do
56:50
Speaker 5: with what is going on in Syria.
56:51
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, thank you, thank you very much, Vanessa. No,
56:56
Speaker 1: we'll just moved to free speech, or at least something
56:59
Speaker 1: that's been hail to the case about free speech, and
57:01
Speaker 1: this is the news that the Office for Students has
57:05
Speaker 1: handed down a fine or five hundred and eighty five
57:07
Speaker 1: thousand pounds to the University of Sussex for apparently infringing
57:12
Speaker 1: free speech. Now, they said back in twenty twenty one
57:16
Speaker 1: when the investigation began, that the investigation is focused on
57:20
Speaker 1: whether or not the university has met its obligations for
57:23
Speaker 1: academic freedom and freedom of speech within the law for
57:27
Speaker 1: all students and staff, whatever their views. And they go
57:31
Speaker 1: on to say that students are entitled to be taught
57:33
Speaker 1: by academic staff with a wide range of views, and
57:36
Speaker 1: who can freely express lawful views, no matter how controversial
57:40
Speaker 1: they are, without fear of losing their jobs or privileges.
57:44
Speaker 1: All students in staff are also entitled to the protections
57:47
Speaker 1: offered by equality legislation, and these must extend to all
57:51
Speaker 1: protected characteristics, including philosophical beliefs well the range of interviews
57:57
Speaker 1: that Diane has been running, I think would contradict that
58:02
Speaker 1: statement in so far as academics who've spoken out are
58:06
Speaker 1: actually concerned. But at the heart of this is that
58:09
Speaker 1: the University of Sussex was said to have promoted transgender
58:13
Speaker 1: ideology with the policy requirement to quote positively represent trans
58:18
Speaker 1: people end quote, and a prohibition on what was described
58:22
Speaker 1: as transphobic propaganda. Now this has been effectively rebutted to
58:31
Speaker 1: a certain extent by Sasha Rosenel, the vice chancellor, who
58:35
Speaker 1: has written an article here at Politics Home, and her
58:40
Speaker 1: point is that the university in actual fact itself was
58:45
Speaker 1: backing Kathleen Stock, who is the professor at the heart
58:49
Speaker 1: of this, and indeed that there is much more to
58:52
Speaker 1: it than meets the eye, and she's describing it as
58:55
Speaker 1: being an exercise in political scapegoating. So I think there's
58:59
Speaker 1: definitely more to come out there with regard to how
59:02
Speaker 1: this has actually affected the university itself or indeed what
59:06
Speaker 1: the mood is there. This is taken from the student
59:09
Speaker 1: union website and their gender inclusive language policy, and they
59:14
Speaker 1: say to quote from their policy, pronouns must be stated
59:19
Speaker 1: at the beginning of every meeting, even if they've been
59:22
Speaker 1: stated at previous meetings. Sorry, gender neutral language must be
59:27
Speaker 1: used wherein individual's pronouns are not known. So the student
59:32
Speaker 1: body very much minded towards a position that meant that
59:39
Speaker 1: Kathleen Stock, and indeed her views and indeed her writings,
59:44
Speaker 1: were not going to be tolerated. And Kathleen Stock herself
59:50
Speaker 1: a tweet or her Twitter account shown on screen there,
59:54
Speaker 1: who's also a contributing editor to Unhurt, has said that
59:58
Speaker 1: she will be writing a about this in due course
1:00:01
Speaker 1: in effact to set the record straight. There seems to
1:00:04
Speaker 1: be much more to it than meets the eye, not
1:00:06
Speaker 1: least because the investigation took over three years and a
1:00:09
Speaker 1: lot of the process that should have been followed wasn't,
1:00:12
Speaker 1: so this will be one to follow. So whilst on
1:00:15
Speaker 1: surface this does appear to be about free speech, that
1:00:18
Speaker 1: there may well be other issues at place, so it
1:00:20
Speaker 1: might not be, or rather it could be a little
1:00:22
Speaker 1: bit too early to chalk it up as a victory
1:00:24
Speaker 1: for free speech. Now that brings us to the end
1:00:28
Speaker 1: of the news program today, So thank you to Vanessa
1:00:31
Speaker 1: and Carl for joining, and of course for Mike being
1:00:35
Speaker 1: the studio with me today and I don't forget the
1:00:38
Speaker 1: interview with Raja Meir going out tomorrow at one o'clock. Also,
1:00:42
Speaker 1: please do buy a ticket to the live stream for
1:00:46
Speaker 1: our UK Column on location event on Saturday, the fifth
1:00:49
Speaker 1: of April, and tell your friends and indeed anybody else
1:00:53
Speaker 1: that you bump into and otherwise we will look forward
1:00:57
Speaker 1: to seeing you at one o'clock on Friday, unless you're
1:01:00
Speaker 1: OK Colin member, in which case please hang around for
1:01:02
Speaker 1: extra in ten minutes or so.
1:01:04
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Bye bye bye,