Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 4th September 2026

Transcript

UK Column News — 4th September 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon. It's Friday, the 4th of September, 2026, just
0:11
Speaker 1: after one o'clock. Welcome to UK Column News. I'm your host,
0:13
Speaker 1: Mike Robinson. Joining me by video link today is Basil Valentine.
0:17
Speaker 1: Later in the programme, we'll have more on live facial recognition.
0:21
Speaker 1: We'll also be taking a look at Israel's threats to
0:23
Speaker 1: the UK and the reaction of the Tony Blair Institute
0:26
Speaker 1: to allegations Blair was working to have the word Palestine
0:29
Speaker 1: dropped from school textbooks in Palestine. But we'll begin today
0:33
Speaker 1: with the sting on the Reform Party. Because, of course,
0:37
Speaker 1: yesterday evening, as everybody will know by now, Channel 4
0:39
Speaker 1: News broadcast hidden camera footage of Nigel Farage and his
0:44
Speaker 1: closest aides discussing foreign money donations to the Reform Party.
0:48
Speaker 1: Let's just have a look at a very short clip.
0:52
Speaker 2: What you're about to watch is a plot to break
0:55
Speaker 2: the law on party funding at the highest levels of
0:58
Speaker 2: Reform UK.
0:59
Speaker 3: It would technically be a donation we can't. able to
1:02
Speaker 3: even find out, am I going to tell you about
1:03
Speaker 3: all the sea even event?
1:05
Speaker 2: So the reality is we can easily get away with it.
1:08
Speaker 1: Those little clandestine projects are so valuable.
1:11
Speaker 4: And they take it right to the top.
1:13
Speaker 3: For the fact, a relatively modest investment.
1:15
Speaker 1: £ 30, 000.
1:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, amazing, right?
1:17
Speaker 2: Amazing.
1:21
Speaker 1: So the rest of that report is on the Channel
1:23
Speaker 1: 4 News YouTube channel, if anybody's actually interested in watching it.
1:27
Speaker 1: But the operation was run via two invented characters, one
1:31
Speaker 1: called William Lockwood, who was supposed to be a UK resident,
1:36
Speaker 1: and he was supposed to be the Anglo-American son of
1:38
Speaker 1: a wealthy financier. And the other party was his supposed father, Ian,
1:44
Speaker 1: who was running the family business in Wyoming. William was
1:48
Speaker 1: played by this guy, Lewis Wilson, formerly head of fossil
1:53
Speaker 1: fuel investigations at Global Witness. Ian was... The father was
1:58
Speaker 1: played by a Broadway actor. The operation set up and
2:03
Speaker 1: controlled a U.S. company to make payments in the father's name.
2:07
Speaker 1: So contact began in September 2025 at the National Conservatism
2:11
Speaker 1: Conference in Washington, D.C., where Wilson met James Orr, Reform's
2:17
Speaker 1: head of policy and Cambridge academic. James Orr agreed to
2:22
Speaker 1: help direct the family's money towards British right-wing causes, apparently.
2:27
Speaker 1: The family money was not to be given as a
2:30
Speaker 1: straight donation, but as payment for polling that Reform had
2:34
Speaker 1: already commissioned. In January 2026, Virginia Tonics at Mark's Club
2:40
Speaker 1: in Mayfair, James Orr, proposed that Lockwood's company settle an £ 18, 000
2:45
Speaker 1: invoice from the polling company JAL Partners. The results ran
2:50
Speaker 1: on the front page of the Daily Telegraph and were
2:53
Speaker 1: labelled as an opinion poll for the Daily Telegraph. But
2:56
Speaker 1: Reform's role was not disclosed on that report, nor was
2:59
Speaker 1: the funder. And Orr's had promised that Nigel doesn't know
3:04
Speaker 1: and Nigel won't know. Two more payments followed, one in
3:09
Speaker 1: April this year at Brown's Hotel for Aja's de facto
3:12
Speaker 1: chief of staff. We just bring this back on screen.
3:14
Speaker 1: I'll bring Dan Dukes on screen. He secured £ 4, 500 for
3:19
Speaker 1: another opinion poll, this time supporting Reform's local election slogans.
3:25
Speaker 1: and calling the arrangements an amazing sweet spot because they
3:29
Speaker 1: don't show up anywhere in public records. And then in
3:32
Speaker 1: June this year, £ 10, 000 was paid for an opinion poll
3:36
Speaker 1: of union members, and that made the front page of
3:40
Speaker 1: The Times. So that's a total of £ 32, 500 in five months,
3:45
Speaker 1: and that was all wired from the US company to
3:48
Speaker 1: the polling companies. Now, both of Farage's aides asked for
3:53
Speaker 1: a larger formal donation, Duke suggested that the father's money
3:57
Speaker 1: could be routed through the son, and he claimed that
4:00
Speaker 1: other reformed donors were using that same method. Orr told William,
4:08
Speaker 1: who was now considered to be a permissible donor by reform,
4:12
Speaker 1: and so a.
4:13
Speaker 5: Figure of £ 500, 000 was discussed.
4:24
Speaker 1: Or dismissed the Electoral Commission as completely useless and said
4:27
Speaker 1: that we can easily get away with it. So then
4:31
Speaker 1: on the 20th of July, over oysters at a restaurant
4:34
Speaker 1: near Clacton, Farage met both the Lockwoods and Inverticommas. He
4:42
Speaker 1: was told that the American had paid for the opinion polls.
4:45
Speaker 1: And despite the fact that we'd already been told that
4:48
Speaker 1: he wasn't told about those opinion polls, he didn't query
4:51
Speaker 1: that information, so perhaps he did know. And then when
4:56
Speaker 1: William outlined the next phase, Farage said it was all
4:59
Speaker 1: above board. So those are the basic facts, but I'm
5:03
Speaker 1: more interested in the people behind this thing because the
5:06
Speaker 1: undercover work was not Channel 4's. It was carried out
5:08
Speaker 1: by this company, Verbatim. Now, this is a so-called investigative nonprofit,
5:15
Speaker 1: which has only existed for eight weeks. Channel 4 News
5:19
Speaker 1: claims to have verified the work that they did afterwards.
5:23
Speaker 1: Verbatim discusses having journalists, but only two are identified on
5:28
Speaker 1: the website. One is Lawrence Carter. He's the sole director
5:32
Speaker 1: and he was seven years at Unearthed, which was Greenpeace
5:36
Speaker 1: UK's investigative unit as a senior reporter and a special
5:40
Speaker 1: projects editor. And then he co-funded the Center for Climate
5:43
Speaker 1: Reporting in 2021. And we're going to come back to
5:46
Speaker 1: that organization in a second, but their registered address, CCR's
5:50
Speaker 1: registered address, at Companies House is the same as verbatims.
5:55
Speaker 1: So Carter has a history of running exactly this type
5:57
Speaker 1: of sting. He posed as a headhunter to lure two
6:00
Speaker 1: former Exxon lobbyists into Zoom meetings, and he recorded those
6:04
Speaker 1: meetings in 2021. That was known as the Keith McCoy sting,
6:08
Speaker 1: and that triggered U.S. congressional inquiries. And he's also one
6:12
Speaker 1: of the two reporters who posed as relatives of a
6:16
Speaker 1: fictitious conservative donor to record Russell Vaught's who is a
6:22
Speaker 1: colleague of Trump's on Project 2025. That happened in 2024.
6:27
Speaker 1: And they used fake websites, a fake LinkedIn profile, and
6:32
Speaker 1: cameras hidden in a hotel suite. Lawrence Carter, by the way,
6:37
Speaker 1: does not allow his photograph to appear online, it seems.
6:40
Speaker 1: But if you just bring that back on screen for
6:42
Speaker 1: a second, we just have a look at the About
6:45
Speaker 1: Verbitum section here, because they say this is a not-for-profit
6:49
Speaker 1: investigative project. As I say, it's only existed for a
6:53
Speaker 1: few weeks. Now, the other named representative of verbatim is
6:59
Speaker 1: the guy that we mentioned earlier, Lewis Wilson, who played
7:02
Speaker 1: William Lockwood in the reform sting. He was formerly head
7:07
Speaker 1: of fossil fuel investigations at Global Witness, where his last
7:10
Speaker 1: story was an undercover investigation published with the BBC, revealing
7:15
Speaker 1: COP29 officials facilitating fossil fuel deals for a fake investor.
7:22
Speaker 1: So this is the same kind of operation that was, again,
7:27
Speaker 1: run on reform this time. His own site describes his
7:30
Speaker 1: work as investigations and strategic communications. And that's interesting because,
7:36
Speaker 1: of course, strategic communications is advocacy work. It's not journalism.
7:40
Speaker 1: But anyway, what about verbatim funding? Because, of course, this
7:44
Speaker 1: is a very big question here now, verbatim. states only
7:49
Speaker 1: that it does not accept funding from political parties, governments
7:53
Speaker 1: or corporations and depends entirely on grants from philanthropic organisations
7:57
Speaker 1: and public donations. It doesn't name any of the philanthropic organisations.
8:02
Speaker 1: The donations are run through a Stripe link. And of course, well,
8:08
Speaker 1: I should say that this organisation is set up as
8:11
Speaker 1: a company limited by guarantee and not by shares. So,
8:14
Speaker 1: of course, they then only accept file abbreviated accounts. So
8:19
Speaker 1: even though they're not due until next year, it's not
8:22
Speaker 1: going to give us very much information anyway. Well, what
8:27
Speaker 1: about the funding of the apparent parent organization, the Center
8:31
Speaker 1: for Climate Reporting? Well, their website carries largely the same
8:34
Speaker 1: funding wording as the verbatim website, and they don't name
8:37
Speaker 1: any past funding sources, but other websites do show past
8:41
Speaker 1: funding sources. And that information came from the CCR website.
8:45
Speaker 1: So I thought maybe the Wayback Machine has an answer.
8:48
Speaker 1: But in fact, it doesn't because they are blocking the
8:51
Speaker 1: Wayback Machine from recording any of the changes that happen
8:56
Speaker 1: on their website over time. So we have to go
8:59
Speaker 1: to organizations like this one, Influence Watch. And this Influence Watch,
9:04
Speaker 1: amongst others, notes that CCRs Disclosed funders as of the
9:09
Speaker 1: end of 2025 are organizations like the European Climate Foundation,
9:13
Speaker 1: the KR Foundation, the Melior Foundation, and the Swiss Philanthropy Foundation. Now,
9:18
Speaker 1: the KR Foundation's 2023 accounts record a grant to CCR
9:23
Speaker 1: of 693,552 Danish kroner for investigating the enablers of climate obstruction,
9:32
Speaker 1: as they describe it. But CCR has also cited support
9:36
Speaker 1: from the Energy Transition Fund, which is a project of
9:39
Speaker 1: the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. And the ECF itself is a
9:45
Speaker 1: re-granting body funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Hewlett, CIFF, Oak, IKEA,
9:53
Speaker 1: the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and others. So the question is,
9:57
Speaker 1: what's the upshot of this? Well, Dan Dukes and James
9:59
Speaker 1: Orr have stepped down from their roles at Reform, and
10:02
Speaker 1: Reform claims that those two will never be back. A
10:05
Speaker 1: co-founder of JL Partners, the opinion polling company that published
10:08
Speaker 1: the undeclared poll in The Telegraph, concedes that Lewis Wilson
10:12
Speaker 1: had concealed, that concealing the client breach information breached the
10:19
Speaker 1: polling rules from the British Polling Council, but that this
10:22
Speaker 1: was just a little bit of informal rule bending. And
10:25
Speaker 1: of course, Reform themselves deny any wrongdoing, saying no money
10:28
Speaker 1: changed hands, even though £ 32, 500 did change hands to the
10:32
Speaker 1: polling companies. So that's splitting hairs because Reform directly benefited
10:37
Speaker 1: from it. Reform is called verbatim Forum-funded climate change activists,
10:41
Speaker 1: and that's probably fairly accurate. But I would say there's
10:45
Speaker 1: much more digging to do here. Undoubtedly, this is going
10:47
Speaker 1: to reinforce the notion that reform is somehow an anti-establishment
10:50
Speaker 1: party in the minds of supporters under constant attack by
10:53
Speaker 1: the establishment. Basil, welcome to the program. I mean, I
10:57
Speaker 1: think this is a fascinating story, not just because of
11:00
Speaker 1: the reform situation, but also the organization that's been running
11:05
Speaker 1: this sting operation. What are your thoughts briefly?
11:10
Speaker 2: Well, you know what they say, Mike, there's no such
11:12
Speaker 2: thing as bad publicity. It's all good publicity. If you
11:15
Speaker 2: can spin it the right way and doubtless reform will
11:18
Speaker 2: be looking to spin it as indicative that they're being
11:21
Speaker 2: targeted by left wing establishment. If these people are linked
11:27
Speaker 2: in some way to climate change activism, uh, On the
11:32
Speaker 2: other hand, of course, superficially, it's not a good look
11:35
Speaker 2: at all and feeds into the narrative that Farage is
11:40
Speaker 2: out for what he can get and is indeed anything
11:43
Speaker 2: but a man of the people, but rather a money-grabbing
11:46
Speaker 2: fellow who will take every opportunity possible to line the
11:51
Speaker 2: pockets of the party, which I believe he still has
11:56
Speaker 2: a substantial financial interest in, Mike.
11:59
Speaker 1: Well, that's absolutely right, because it is set up as
12:01
Speaker 1: a limited company in and of itself. But anyway, we'll
12:04
Speaker 1: talk more about this in extra, no doubt. But Basil,
12:07
Speaker 1: let's move on then to live facial recognition.
12:11
Speaker 2: Yes, thanks, Mike. It seems the rollout of live facial
12:16
Speaker 2: recognition software by police forces all over the country is
12:20
Speaker 2: absolutely unstoppable. First of all, we go to Blackpool. The illuminations,
12:25
Speaker 2: as you can see from the picture there, I didn't
12:27
Speaker 2: realise the illuminations these days, includes a huge festival-size stage.
12:32
Speaker 2: And for the first time, Lancashire Police are planning on
12:36
Speaker 2: using facial recognition at the famous Blackpool Illuminations, which go
12:42
Speaker 2: up in a few days' time, a way of extending
12:45
Speaker 2: the holiday season up there on the Fylde Coast. Next,
12:49
Speaker 2: we go to Suffolk and Ipswich, where two people were
12:55
Speaker 2: arrested as a result of Facial recognition being rolled out
13:00
Speaker 2: in the town centre there. 27,500 faces were scanned, leading
13:07
Speaker 2: to just the two arrests, according to Suffolk Constabulary, reported
13:12
Speaker 2: there by the Ipswich Star. A few miles further north,
13:16
Speaker 2: up in Bury St Edmunds, and the police had less success.
13:20
Speaker 2: No arrests at all made following facial recognition exercise in
13:26
Speaker 2: Bury St Edmunds City Centre. Is that because the good
13:30
Speaker 2: folk of Bury St Edmunds are better behaved or perhaps
13:36
Speaker 2: the police were less adept at using their new toy?
13:41
Speaker 4: Who knows?
13:42
Speaker 2: And of course, Notting Hill Carnival couldn't possibly escape the action.
13:46
Speaker 2: 121 arrests there came as a result. of facial recognition,
13:52
Speaker 2: almost a fifth of the 636 arrests. I didn't realize
13:58
Speaker 2: that they actually had a special unit set up at
14:02
Speaker 2: the Notting Hill Carnival for victims of sexual assault. They
14:08
Speaker 2: were anticipating there would be enough victims of sexual assault
14:13
Speaker 2: for there to be a special treatment area required, which
14:18
Speaker 2: I must admit, I found really rather depressing, Mike. But
14:22
Speaker 2: that's this week's facial recognition. Where is it going to
14:25
Speaker 2: be next?
14:27
Speaker 1: Well, that's a very good question. We mentioned on Wednesday's
14:29
Speaker 1: programme that Bournemouth was there. And so this is just
14:33
Speaker 1: being rolled out hand over fist. Now, at the moment, Basil,
14:36
Speaker 1: as you point out here, it's not having much success.
14:39
Speaker 1: But of course, in the meantime, it's normalising the idea
14:42
Speaker 1: that the cameras will be there and watching the whole time.
14:46
Speaker 2: Yes, I mean, of course, the claim is if you
14:47
Speaker 2: haven't committed an offence, then you have absolutely nothing to fear.
14:52
Speaker 2: But is it the kind of society we want to
14:55
Speaker 2: live in? One where our faces are scanned every time
14:59
Speaker 2: we go to a town centre, every time we hit
15:02
Speaker 2: the street? I mean, this is the thin end of
15:04
Speaker 2: the wedge at the moment. It might be police vans,
15:07
Speaker 2: but how long before there are cameras on every street corner?
15:11
Speaker 1: Absolutely. And as we know, they're beginning to make those
15:14
Speaker 1: fixed in Oxford Street. So clearly the intention is to
15:19
Speaker 1: fix these on poles right across the country at some point. Now,
15:22
Speaker 1: let's move on to another topic, which I suppose in
15:25
Speaker 1: some sense is related, Basil, and that is terrorism and
15:29
Speaker 1: terrorism charges.
15:32
Speaker 2: Yes, well, I'm hoping to be joined by Tony Greenstein
15:34
Speaker 2: at this point, who, of course, two weeks ago to
15:37
Speaker 2: the day, was acquitted by a jury after a heartfelt
15:44
Speaker 2: personal speech at the end of his trial. And of course,
15:49
Speaker 2: also at the moment, four of the Filton Palestine activists
15:54
Speaker 2: are appealing the appendage of a terrorism connection to their
15:59
Speaker 2: criminal damage sentences. However, Tony does not appear to be
16:03
Speaker 2: on the line at the moment, but I'm delighted to
16:05
Speaker 2: say Somebody else is who we would do to be
16:08
Speaker 2: joined by later in the program. So we'll have a
16:10
Speaker 2: quick switcheroo here in the running order. And that is
16:14
Speaker 2: Hussein Hoz Shafay. Actually, Hoz, welcome to the program. Every
16:19
Speaker 2: bit as relevant to you for that matter. The shall
16:23
Speaker 2: we say, raising of the phantom threat of terrorism. You're
16:30
Speaker 2: planning on standing for the Workers' Party of Great Britain
16:33
Speaker 2: in the upcoming St Pancras and Hoban by-election caused by
16:37
Speaker 2: the resignation as an MP of Keir Starmer. and you
16:43
Speaker 2: will be travelling to the UK from Tehran. Given the
16:48
Speaker 2: new state's threat bill that was rushed through Parliament a
16:52
Speaker 2: few weeks ago, are we allowed to talk to each other, Ars?
16:57
Speaker 2: Are you expecting smooth passage back into the UK so
17:01
Speaker 2: that you can run for Parliament?
17:04
Speaker 3: No, not at all.
17:06
Speaker 4: You can talk to me because I don't work with
17:08
Speaker 4: the IRGC. I've never had anything to do with the IRGC.
17:13
Speaker 4: But the problem is that I have been targeted by
17:15
Speaker 4: the Jewish Chronicle. And apparently, because I'm willing to stand
17:20
Speaker 4: up for Iran, I'm willing to, you know, not just
17:24
Speaker 4: quietly go into the night and let Israel and America
17:27
Speaker 4: bomb the living daylights out of Iran, as well as
17:30
Speaker 4: Gaza and Lebanon. And because I've stood up and called
17:33
Speaker 4: out Israel, the Jewish Chronicle, the oldest Jewish newspaper, or
17:38
Speaker 4: call it what you will, has decided to target me.
17:41
Speaker 4: That's one issue that I've got. The other issue is
17:44
Speaker 4: that I am actually also on Section 12.1a charges myself
17:51
Speaker 4: for Palestine Action because I was actually the first person
17:54
Speaker 4: in the whole country at two minutes past 12 o'clock
17:57
Speaker 4: on the 4th of July, the evening of the 4th
17:59
Speaker 4: of July to declare my support for Palestine Action. Because
18:02
Speaker 4: at the end of the day, It is the only
18:06
Speaker 4: moral position to take after watching every demonstration and every
18:10
Speaker 4: petition and everything else get completely ignored by government. It
18:14
Speaker 4: leaves no option but direct action to try and affect
18:19
Speaker 4: and impact the kind of damage that the drones that
18:22
Speaker 4: were being made in Britain were having on the conflict
18:25
Speaker 4: and the genocide in Gaza. So I supported them. So
18:29
Speaker 4: I'm a wanted man by them.
18:31
Speaker 3: And.
18:32
Speaker 4: I'm actually my solicitors coming out to see me in
18:35
Speaker 4: the next week or so. And then I'm going to
18:36
Speaker 4: take a decision on a view on it. Because at
18:39
Speaker 4: the moment, I think what I'm assuming you do know
18:42
Speaker 4: what they did to George Galloway. They've shut down his
18:45
Speaker 4: bank accounts. Like this is a seven times parliamentary, you know,
18:51
Speaker 4: representative of, I don't know, four or five different constituents. And, uh,
18:58
Speaker 4: And it's just unbelievable that they can shut down someone's
19:01
Speaker 4: bank account whose pension is going into it and his
19:05
Speaker 4: parliamentary pension is going into that bank account. What's George
19:08
Speaker 4: going to do now? England and Britain is becoming an
19:13
Speaker 4: absolutely horrible state of.
19:20
Speaker 4: It just feels like we're going backwards. We're not going
19:23
Speaker 4: into a liberal democracy. We're going backwards into a more
19:26
Speaker 4: autocratic sort of You can't open your mouth. You can't
19:29
Speaker 4: have your view. If you say anything, you're going to
19:31
Speaker 4: get arrested. If you don't get arrested, they'll debank you.
19:35
Speaker 4: It's disgusting what they've done to a 72-year-old man with
19:39
Speaker 4: a heart condition. It's not bad enough that they arrested
19:41
Speaker 4: him at Gatwick. They've also now closed down all of
19:46
Speaker 4: his bank accounts. Not one bank account, all of his
19:49
Speaker 4: bank accounts. And much like Steve Sweeney, he's had a
19:53
Speaker 4: cheque sent to his address, which he can't cash because
19:57
Speaker 4: those cheques are only, can only be put into a
20:00
Speaker 4: bank account in England, you know, or Scotland. I'm sorry,
20:05
Speaker 4: I've spoken too much.
20:06
Speaker 3: My apologies.
20:07
Speaker 2: No, not at all, Hoss. It's why you're here. Is
20:12
Speaker 2: it possible for George to return to the UK? I mean,
20:16
Speaker 2: it seems not very long ago he was triumphant, of course,
20:20
Speaker 2: at the Rochdale by-election, and the win was really in
20:24
Speaker 2: the sails of the Workers' Party of GB. But that
20:28
Speaker 2: prompted that extraordinary outburst from Rishi Sunak taking the lectern
20:33
Speaker 2: into Downing Street and saying, condemning the will of the
20:37
Speaker 2: people as expressed through the ballot box in Rochdale. I
20:42
Speaker 2: fear that was an indication from the UK national security
20:45
Speaker 2: state that they weren't going to tolerate dissent of the
20:48
Speaker 2: kind George offers.
20:52
Speaker 4: Absolutely. And the thing is, the thing is this. When
20:57
Speaker 4: you go back to the time that he only spent
20:59
Speaker 4: about 100 days in Parliament between the 28th of February
21:03
Speaker 4: and the 4th of July, or not even the 4th
21:05
Speaker 4: of July, because Parliament ended before then. Every time George
21:09
Speaker 4: stood up to ask a question, the normal number of
21:12
Speaker 4: views that George's questions got was off the charts, whether
21:17
Speaker 4: he was grilling the Prime Minister or whether he was
21:19
Speaker 4: grilling a sitting minister. And to have someone who's got
21:24
Speaker 4: the oratory skills that George has got, able basically to
21:28
Speaker 4: pincushion the government and make them feel ashamed of what
21:32
Speaker 4: they're doing, then, you know, that's a dangerous person. And
21:36
Speaker 4: that's why on the 4th of July, 2024, they made
21:42
Speaker 4: sure that George didn't win his seat. George had his
21:45
Speaker 4: seat stolen off him. I've got the evidence. I've sent
21:49
Speaker 4: it to the police in Greater Manchester and the Greater
21:52
Speaker 4: Manchester Police decided not to act on the evidence that
21:55
Speaker 4: we gave them. And we gave them videos of two
21:58
Speaker 4: people walking in at 1228 with two boxes. What was
22:02
Speaker 4: in those boxes?
22:03
Speaker 3: We don't know.
22:03
Speaker 4: But they were taken straight into the counting area without
22:07
Speaker 4: anyone signing on what those boxes were, where they came from.
22:13
Speaker 4: And we don't know what was in there. And basically,
22:16
Speaker 4: I had George's numbers were 122 rolls of 100 each
22:21
Speaker 4: for him and for Paul Watt at 1202. When we
22:26
Speaker 4: came down to the final count, George's numbers were under 12,000
22:30
Speaker 4: and Paul Wall's was over 13,000. So that means somewhere
22:36
Speaker 4: along the line between 1202, which is when I had
22:39
Speaker 4: my staff counting how many rolls of paper there were,
22:42
Speaker 4: as in like, because every time there's a roll of
22:44
Speaker 4: a vote, vote, vote, when it goes into 100, it
22:48
Speaker 4: gets put into an elastic band and put on a table.
22:50
Speaker 4: This is George's table. This is on this table for George,
22:52
Speaker 4: for Paul Warke. We had 122 each. How is it
22:56
Speaker 4: that they suddenly had a thousand something extra on top?
23:01
Speaker 4: And bizarrely, someone's walking in looking like that, looking to
23:05
Speaker 4: the left, looking to the right with two boxes that
23:07
Speaker 4: no one saw come in other than our guys captured
23:11
Speaker 4: them on camera. And we handed that to the Greater
23:14
Speaker 4: Manchester Police, the same police force that ignored to do
23:18
Speaker 4: anything about Cyril Smith. You know, not a corrupt police
23:23
Speaker 4: at all.
23:26
Speaker 2: Hussein Shafay, all the way from Tehran, thank you so
23:28
Speaker 2: much for joining us. And I'm delighted to say that
23:31
Speaker 2: Hoz will be joining us for UK Column News Extra
23:35
Speaker 2: after the top of the hour. Mike.
23:43
Speaker 1: Tony is there, if you would like to just discuss
23:46
Speaker 1: this with him as well.
23:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to go to Patrick and join
23:50
Speaker 2: him afterwards.
23:50
Speaker 1: That's okay, go ahead.
23:52
Speaker 2: Okay, Tony, welcome to the program, Tony Greenstein. Yes, hello.
23:57
Speaker 5: Hi. Sorry.
23:59
Speaker 2: I don't know if you caught any of what Oz
24:01
Speaker 2: was saying there. We all got our own views about
24:04
Speaker 2: George Galloway, but I know you're familiar with the debanking,
24:08
Speaker 2: apart from anything else, including the debanking of a charity
24:13
Speaker 2: that you support.
24:16
Speaker 5: Yes, that's right. As you know, I was charged with
24:21
Speaker 5: a terrorist defence in 2024. And soon after, I was
24:30
Speaker 5: debanked by Nationwide. And then the following year, HSBC and
24:38
Speaker 5: First Direct, and following that, Santander and Kent Reliance. So, yeah,
24:45
Speaker 5: I mean, I've had five banks and all debanked me.
24:51
Speaker 5: We have approached the National Crime Agency, who deny that
24:56
Speaker 5: they instruct. banks to do anything, but they have failed
25:01
Speaker 5: to answer a question which I asked them, which was,
25:05
Speaker 5: had they had any contact with any of the banks? And,
25:10
Speaker 5: of course, I put in a subject access request, and
25:15
Speaker 5: that has been, in essence, turned down. So it's a
25:21
Speaker 5: mystery who has contacted the banks, but clearly somebody has.
25:27
Speaker 5: The favourite organisation is the National Crime Agency. It could
25:31
Speaker 5: be the South East Counter Terror Police as well. But
25:36
Speaker 5: at the moment, I don't know. But solicitors are pursuing it.
25:41
Speaker 2: Speaking of Counter Terror Police, they're now going round raiding
25:46
Speaker 2: the homes of people who've been holding the placards saying
25:51
Speaker 2: that they oppose genocide. and support the Direct Action Group,
25:55
Speaker 2: who shall not be named. You, of course, had a
25:59
Speaker 2: tremendous win two weeks ago today. in court when making
26:04
Speaker 2: an impassioned plea to the jury and now of course
26:08
Speaker 2: the four of the philton activists are appealing the appendage
26:13
Speaker 2: of a terrorism connection to their criminal damage sentences uh
26:19
Speaker 2: we can only hope they're successful because it strikes me
26:23
Speaker 2: that adding a terrorism connection to a sentence when the
26:27
Speaker 2: jury have not been told that that is a possibility
26:30
Speaker 2: and uh The defendants are only guilty of, if anything,
26:35
Speaker 2: criminal damage. It's a much overused term, Tony, but it's Kafkaesque.
26:42
Speaker 5: Well, it is, yes, of course. I mean, it's outrageous
26:46
Speaker 5: that a jury is, in essence, sentencing you, is convicting you,
26:53
Speaker 5: not of the criminal damage, but of a terrorism offence.
26:57
Speaker 2: In essence.
26:59
Speaker 5: But it never knows what it's doing and when the jury.
27:03
Speaker 2: Sorry to interrupt, Tony, but interestingly enough, technically, I believe
27:09
Speaker 2: what the courts or the Crown Prosecution Service are doing
27:13
Speaker 2: is interpreting an aspect of terrorism law which defines terrorism
27:19
Speaker 2: as acting against a state. Of course, in this case,
27:23
Speaker 2: it can only be the state of Israel that they
27:25
Speaker 2: were acting against and therefore are deemed to be terrorists
27:30
Speaker 2: because they were interfering in the activities of a state,
27:34
Speaker 2: even if those activities are the production of weapons for genocide.
27:40
Speaker 5: Well, yes, Jeremy Johnson, the judge in the Filton 20,
27:46
Speaker 5: case looked at whether they were trying to influence the
27:51
Speaker 5: Israeli government and said no they weren't but then held
27:55
Speaker 5: they were trying to influence the British government and it's
28:00
Speaker 5: pretty much a stretch to say that if you occupy
28:03
Speaker 5: an Israeli arms factory here you're really trying to influence
28:09
Speaker 5: the British government but either way it's still outrageous that
28:13
Speaker 5: you're being convicted of something that the jury actually doesn't
28:17
Speaker 5: know it's convicting you of. I mean, that is the monstrosity.
28:23
Speaker 5: And although it's gone to the Court of Appeal, the
28:26
Speaker 5: Court of Appeal today is so reactionary and so blinkered,
28:31
Speaker 5: it will find for the government on virtually anything when
28:34
Speaker 5: it's involving terrorism, as we saw yesterday. with the prescription
28:39
Speaker 5: of Palestine Action. When they blatantly lied in the ruling, Dame,
28:46
Speaker 5: was it Sue Carr, the Lady Chief Justice, compared the Filton,
28:53
Speaker 5: Palestine Action rather, to the suffragettes and how the, whereas
28:58
Speaker 5: the suffragettes were peaceful and transparent in the way they operated,
29:05
Speaker 5: Palestine Action were secretive violent, terrorist, etc. And of course,
29:11
Speaker 5: anyone who has any knowledge of the suffragettes know between
29:17
Speaker 5: 1912 and 1914, the suffragettes engaged in a bombing and
29:22
Speaker 5: arson campaign that puts Palestine in action to shame. They
29:26
Speaker 5: tried to assassinate Asquith. They attacked Winston Churchill with whips.
29:30
Speaker 5: They bombed Lord George's home. They set fire to race
29:37
Speaker 5: course stands, churches. They poured corrosive liquids in post boxes,
29:43
Speaker 5: injuring a number of postmen and even killed people. But
29:50
Speaker 5: Sue Carr, the Chief Justice, has erased that from memory
29:55
Speaker 5: because the suffragettes form part of a national memory of
30:01
Speaker 5: where the state was quite happy to tolerate direct action,
30:05
Speaker 5: in complete contrast to what happened at the time.
30:09
Speaker 2: But that's... Well, no, of course, the wider legal... Sorry
30:12
Speaker 2: to interrupt. The wider legal point is that even if
30:15
Speaker 2: the Palestine action activists were attempting to influence the British state,
30:22
Speaker 2: what they were doing was trying to get the British
30:25
Speaker 2: state to act in accordance with the Geneva Convention on Genocide,
30:31
Speaker 2: the UK government as a signatory to it, as a
30:34
Speaker 2: legal obligation to take whatever action is necessary to prevent genocide,
30:39
Speaker 2: and of course has singularly failed to do so. So
30:43
Speaker 2: I don't know whether that's something the Court of Appeal
30:45
Speaker 2: would consider. It seems that one of the things that
30:49
Speaker 2: hallmarks the current raft of cases is the confining by
30:55
Speaker 2: judges of the trial very, very narrowly to the matter
31:02
Speaker 2: at hand. I mean, in the case of the Filton activists,
31:05
Speaker 2: the judge has done everything he can to prevent the
31:09
Speaker 2: defendants from being able to explain why they were taking
31:12
Speaker 2: the actions they did, even if, as I say, they
31:15
Speaker 2: were trying to get the government to live up to
31:17
Speaker 2: its legal obligations.
31:20
Speaker 5: Well, yeah, I mean, the problem really is that the
31:24
Speaker 5: definition of terrorism in the Terrorism Act bears no relationship
31:30
Speaker 5: to the definition of terrorism that most people understand, and
31:34
Speaker 5: the international definition. The definitions in four or five dictionaries
31:40
Speaker 5: I've examined say virtually nothing about influencing a government. It's
31:46
Speaker 5: about terror or fear directed at a civilian population. So
31:52
Speaker 5: they've redefined terrorism in such a way that damage to property,
31:58
Speaker 5: health and safety, disruption of an electronic network is terrorism.
32:04
Speaker 5: That is not most people's definition. So it's Orwellian in
32:07
Speaker 5: a sense. They're changing the meaning of words in order
32:11
Speaker 5: to fit into the needs of the state as they
32:14
Speaker 5: see it. And that is really the problem. In my trial,
32:17
Speaker 5: they also tried to limit, quite absurdly, what they called
32:25
Speaker 5: political issues. So I was charged with inviting support for Hamas,
32:31
Speaker 5: a proscribed organization, But the judge, Bard, ruled out introducing
32:38
Speaker 5: the things I had written on Hamas, which were critical
32:41
Speaker 5: of Hamas, from the jury bundle, a decision that the
32:44
Speaker 5: Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Edith, upheld. So my response
32:50
Speaker 5: to that was quite simple. I disregarded the judge's direction.
32:53
Speaker 5: I repeatedly mentioned what I had written. I read out
32:58
Speaker 5: the titles of it, which were in itself enough, and
33:01
Speaker 5: the jury understood everything. that in essence, they were trying
33:04
Speaker 5: to keep evidence from them in order to secure a
33:08
Speaker 5: wrongful conviction. And I succeeded. And that is what I
33:13
Speaker 5: suggest for defendants in most trials. You jettison your barrister
33:19
Speaker 5: when it comes to a closing speech. Take it yourself.
33:22
Speaker 5: and proceed accordingly and take little or no notice of
33:27
Speaker 5: what the judge says when the judge tries to stop
33:31
Speaker 5: you explaining why. And don't forget, I mean, if the
33:34
Speaker 5: worst comes to the worst, contempt of court is a
33:37
Speaker 5: two-year sentence. If you're convicted, it's up to 14 years
33:42
Speaker 5: and you're a terrorist, which means even after you serve
33:45
Speaker 5: your sentence, you're subject to very severe restrictions. So, I mean,
33:50
Speaker 5: that was my tactic and it worked.
33:53
Speaker 2: It did, it did, yeah. Tony, sorry, we've got to
33:56
Speaker 2: leave it there. Justice itself, of course, is supposed to
33:59
Speaker 2: be blind, but it seems that the Crown Prosecution Service
34:04
Speaker 2: and judges are trying to blindfold the juries themselves, Tony.
34:08
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining us today.
34:10
Speaker 1: Okay, thank you very much. Thank you, Basil. Technical problems today.
34:19
Speaker 1: Thank you, Basil. Thank you, Tony. Thank you, Hos. Now,
34:23
Speaker 1: let's move on. Patrick Henningsen is still away, but he
34:27
Speaker 1: has sent us this report on the state of the
34:29
Speaker 1: US dollar.
34:30
Speaker 7: This is an exclusive report for our UK column viewers.
34:35
Speaker 7: And a lot of you have been following the news.
34:37
Speaker 7: There's been a lot of fear mongering about the economy. Obviously,
34:40
Speaker 7: the war is raging still in the Persian Gulf. The
34:43
Speaker 7: United States has restarted military escalation with Iran and the
34:48
Speaker 7: markets are screaming, the bond markets are basically out of control.
34:53
Speaker 7: And the bottom line here is I want to explain
34:56
Speaker 7: to you what some of the forces that are driving this.
34:58
Speaker 3: It's really important because it's.
34:59
Speaker 7: Going to affect Everybody, no matter who you are, no
35:03
Speaker 7: matter what you do, whether you're living in the United
35:05
Speaker 7: States or whether you're living in Europe or anywhere in
35:08
Speaker 7: the world, quite frankly, you're going to be affected by
35:11
Speaker 7: the crash of the U.S. bond market and ultimately the
35:16
Speaker 7: debasement of the U.S.
35:17
Speaker 3: Dollar.
35:18
Speaker 7: So many economies around the world, including the city of London,
35:21
Speaker 7: run on the U.S. dollar, more or less. So it's
35:24
Speaker 7: going to affect everybody. The bottom line is this. The
35:27
Speaker 7: United States is bankrupt. They are absolutely bankrupt. They're in
35:31
Speaker 7: a debt spiral. I'll show you how this debt spiral
35:34
Speaker 7: works in just a moment. But just suffice to say,
35:38
Speaker 7: it's terminal. It really looks like there is no way
35:41
Speaker 7: out of this. We've reached the end of an epoch.
35:46
Speaker 7: We've reached the end of an era of U.S. dominance
35:50
Speaker 7: as the global reserve currency. It's going to take a
35:52
Speaker 7: while to unwind. But the structural realities are now coming
35:57
Speaker 7: into play, and there's really no way to reverse them.
35:59
Speaker 7: But they're going to try, and we'll show you how
36:02
Speaker 7: that works. So you've probably seen Scott Bessett, the U.S.
36:06
Speaker 7: Treasury Secretary. This is Trump's financial henchman. This is basically
36:11
Speaker 7: the equivalent of in the Game of Thrones movie. You know,
36:13
Speaker 7: the character of Littlefinger, the master of the coin, that's
36:17
Speaker 7: Scott Bassett here. And this was a clip that was
36:21
Speaker 7: aired just about a week ago. And it's very telling.
36:24
Speaker 7: This is one of the most important clips, I think,
36:26
Speaker 7: of this entire drama. And really pay attention to what
36:31
Speaker 7: Scott Bassett is saying here.
36:34
Speaker 3: Why not impose the sanctions today?
36:38
Speaker 8: Well, we are giving everyone the opportunity to. to remedy
36:43
Speaker 8: bad behavior. Why would I want to blow up the
36:45
Speaker 8: global financial system? And if people do not want to
36:50
Speaker 8: meet our expectations, then we expect, and they should expect,
36:54
Speaker 8: that they will leave the dollar system.
36:56
Speaker 7: So what Bess is talking about there is what he's
36:59
Speaker 7: calling an economic D-Day or Operation Outcast. And he admitted
37:04
Speaker 7: two things there, which are extraordinary. He basically said that
37:08
Speaker 7: this will blow up the global financial system. So he's pausing,
37:12
Speaker 7: he's giving countries a chance to sort of prepare for
37:15
Speaker 7: secondary sanctions, banks and so forth. Anybody that's trading or
37:19
Speaker 7: doing any commercial activity with Iran, that's the excuse for
37:22
Speaker 7: this anyway, is going to be hit with asset seizures, sanctions,
37:27
Speaker 7: basically financial Armageddon. Now, the other thing he said was
37:33
Speaker 7: even more telling, and that was that anybody who doesn't
37:36
Speaker 7: comply will.
37:37
Speaker 3: Be banned from the U.S. dollar system.
37:41
Speaker 7: So he's basically admitting that what they're doing with sanctions
37:46
Speaker 7: is really pushing the de-dollarization trend.
37:50
Speaker 3: So it's pushing people out of the dollar. And the
37:52
Speaker 3: reason they're moving out of the.
37:53
Speaker 7: Dollar is for safety, to basically stay clear of the
37:56
Speaker 7: United States government that its long hand can't reach in
38:00
Speaker 7: and steal their assets, steal their gold, steal their dollars
38:04
Speaker 7: on reserve, wherever they are in the world. So he's
38:07
Speaker 7: admitting that what they're doing, the policy they're pursuing... to
38:11
Speaker 7: supposedly to punish Iran, but it's really not just about Iran.
38:15
Speaker 7: It's about enforcing U.S. hegemony, total control, total compliance and
38:22
Speaker 7: conformity to U.S. foreign policy globally, and using the dollar
38:27
Speaker 7: as that weapon. That's what he's admitted there. So he's
38:30
Speaker 7: basically said the quiet part of out loud. So how
38:34
Speaker 7: are they going to fix this U.S. economic system? The dollar,
38:37
Speaker 7: the U.S. economy is hemorrhaging. We'll show you why. Scott Bassett,
38:41
Speaker 7: here he is. He's basically trying the ultimate caper here.
38:45
Speaker 7: And this is Bassett's bond buyback scheme. And it's important
38:50
Speaker 7: to understand this along a timeline here. Now, there are
38:53
Speaker 7: multiple different kinds of bonds. You've got the short term,
38:57
Speaker 7: the midterm, and the long term. What we're concerned about
39:00
Speaker 7: here are the long-term interest repayments, 5.2%. This is like
39:06
Speaker 7: an over 20-year high. And what this really means here
39:10
Speaker 7: is that these are the people, the long-term investors, are
39:13
Speaker 7: the ones who are buying U.S. Treasury bills. This funds
39:17
Speaker 7: the U.S. government, okay? So they have to basically write
39:21
Speaker 7: an IOU and then promise to pay these investors back
39:24
Speaker 7: at this high interest rate over time. And what's important
39:27
Speaker 7: is that the market sets the interest rate. there on
39:30
Speaker 7: the long-term bonds, US treasuries. But on the short-term treasuries,
39:35
Speaker 7: the Federal Reserve sets that price. And so that price
39:39
Speaker 7: is basically associated with things like mortgage payments, car loans,
39:44
Speaker 7: and credit card rates, and so forth. So the lower
39:48
Speaker 7: interest repayments here, those are on the short term, four
39:53
Speaker 7: to 52 weeks. And then in the middle, you have
39:55
Speaker 7: the midterm. So each of these has debt attached to them.
39:59
Speaker 7: And so you've got debt in the long term, the midterm,
40:02
Speaker 7: and the short term. What Besant is trying to do here,
40:05
Speaker 7: and this is the This is the trick. He's basically
40:09
Speaker 7: trying to move that debt from the high cost.
40:13
Speaker 3: The US has to pay all that back at that
40:14
Speaker 3: high interest rate.
40:15
Speaker 7: He wants to erase that side of the balance sheet
40:18
Speaker 7: and push that all over to the short term side.
40:21
Speaker 7: So what he's doing here is yield curve management or manipulation,
40:26
Speaker 7: or we'll call it financial engineering is a better word.
40:30
Speaker 7: So this is just basically refinancing U.S.
40:34
Speaker 3: Debt.
40:34
Speaker 7: Ultimately, what they're trying to do is they're robbing Peter
40:37
Speaker 7: to pay Paul. How are they going to raise the
40:40
Speaker 7: money for this bond buyback? They're going to sell short-term bonds.
40:45
Speaker 7: And to raise money from that sale, then they're going
40:47
Speaker 7: to use that money to buy back the old long-term
40:52
Speaker 7: high interest, the expensive debt. A lot of people don't
40:56
Speaker 7: understand the U.S. doesn't just print money. The Federal Reserve
40:59
Speaker 7: doesn't print money. It raises money to pay for its
41:02
Speaker 7: imperial largesse, its deficit spending, by putting out bond auctions.
41:08
Speaker 7: They've been doing this for the better part of 80 years,
41:11
Speaker 7: at least after the Second World War. This is how
41:14
Speaker 7: the United States has raised money. And with the world
41:17
Speaker 7: reserve currency, it's been a pretty good system, although its
41:20
Speaker 7: underlying structures are highly unstable. They're hoping that they're going
41:25
Speaker 7: to be able to pay off this massive national debt
41:29
Speaker 7: by devaluing the dollar. And then somehow that this is
41:33
Speaker 7: going to be offset by this boom in productivity from
41:37
Speaker 7: AI and robotics. And that's the plan. But is it
41:41
Speaker 7: actually going to work? We already can see the AI
41:45
Speaker 7: industry is a massive bubble. It's probably not going to
41:49
Speaker 7: be able to deliver, at least not in the short term,
41:53
Speaker 7: in the next few years, even a fraction of what
41:56
Speaker 7: it's promised. So you're looking at a whole disaster here.
42:00
Speaker 7: So what's going to be the solution? Well, there is
42:02
Speaker 7: one waiting in the wings, and it looks like it's
42:05
Speaker 7: very possible that this is a planned takedown of the
42:08
Speaker 7: US dollar to create a currency reset. And what is
42:11
Speaker 7: that currency reset going to look like? Take a look
42:13
Speaker 7: at the Genius Act here. This was rammed through by
42:16
Speaker 7: the Trump administration, which is basically pushing through.
42:19
Speaker 3: This idea of stable coins.
42:21
Speaker 7: And all these stable coins have to be backed mandatorily
42:24
Speaker 7: by real securities, i.e.
42:27
Speaker 3: U.S. Treasury bonds.
42:28
Speaker 7: So it's mandatory purchasing of all these stable coins, have
42:32
Speaker 7: to purchase bonds.
42:33
Speaker 3: So they think this is going to fill in.
42:36
Speaker 7: This gap that's been left by all these foreign countries
42:39
Speaker 7: that are no longer buying U.S.
42:40
Speaker 3: Debt.
42:41
Speaker 7: That by replacing this fake stablecoin economy sitting behind the
42:47
Speaker 7: US dollar economy, and that's going to somehow extend the
42:50
Speaker 7: life of the US dollar as a world reserve currency.
42:54
Speaker 7: They're gonna use crypto or what they're calling stablecoins to
42:58
Speaker 7: do this. So remember, all this is happening. with an
43:01
Speaker 7: administration that's been shorting the market on oil and on
43:05
Speaker 7: the stock market, using announcements, using the present social media
43:09
Speaker 7: account to make billions and billions of dollars by basically
43:13
Speaker 7: shorting the market and then putting call options on to
43:17
Speaker 7: sort of ride the rebound as well. They're going to
43:21
Speaker 7: short everything, okay? These are people that have proven themselves
43:25
Speaker 7: to be ruthless. It's likely that if this is the case,
43:29
Speaker 7: If this actually goes through, if this is the system,
43:32
Speaker 7: whether it gets adopted or not, it's hard to see.
43:37
Speaker 7: But banks have already prepared for this. They're already issuing
43:40
Speaker 7: their own stable coins. They've already created a cartel and
43:43
Speaker 7: an organization with their own stable coins. So it does
43:47
Speaker 7: look like this is an option waiting in the wings
43:50
Speaker 7: right now in the very near future. You're going to
43:53
Speaker 7: see a massive consolidation. These people will have extracted wealth
43:58
Speaker 7: during the crash, and they will use it to consolidate,
44:02
Speaker 7: and then they'll move in to basically buy everything on
44:05
Speaker 7: pennies on the dollar.
44:06
Speaker 3: This is Nathan Mayer Rothschild from 1815 and the Battle
44:10
Speaker 3: of Waterloo.
44:11
Speaker 7: That's what we're looking at here. That's the risk. That's
44:14
Speaker 7: what it looks like from our vantage point. We are
44:18
Speaker 7: looking at a major upheaval, potential currency reset, a US
44:23
Speaker 7: economy that's unfixable in its current form, and a whole
44:27
Speaker 7: bunch of gangsters and oligarchs that are positioning themselves to
44:31
Speaker 7: ride the crash and then come out to be the
44:34
Speaker 7: next dynasty of oligarchs for the next hundred years. But
44:39
Speaker 7: let's see how this plays out in the next few
44:41
Speaker 7: weeks and months. And again, we will not attempt to
44:44
Speaker 7: give you any financial advice, but we will say, Keep
44:48
Speaker 7: your eyes on the news as close as possible because
44:51
Speaker 7: this absolutely will affect everybody in one way or another.
44:54
Speaker 3: I'm Patrick Henningsen. Back to you.
45:00
Speaker 1: Thanks, Patrick, for that. Now, that was a slightly shortened
45:03
Speaker 1: version of the report. We'll have the full report on
45:05
Speaker 1: the UK column website later today. Now, let's very quickly
45:09
Speaker 1: run through a few ads. If you like what the
45:10
Speaker 1: column does, we do need your ongoing support. Take a
45:13
Speaker 1: look at the website. There are various options. You can
45:16
Speaker 1: make a donation. where you can join us as a member.
45:19
Speaker 1: And that absolutely keeps us going. So thank you very
45:24
Speaker 1: much to everybody that has and does continue to contribute.
45:28
Speaker 1: Pick up a copy of the column, our quarterly magazine.
45:32
Speaker 1: Issue three will be out very, very shortly. And don't forget,
45:35
Speaker 1: the last few tickets for the 20th anniversary event on
45:39
Speaker 1: the 18th to the 20th of September in Plymouth are available.
45:43
Speaker 1: And if anybody would like to grab one of those,
45:46
Speaker 1: you'd be more than welcome. Tonight at 7, Germ is
45:49
Speaker 1: talking about Oscar Pistorius with forensic scientist David Klatso. And
45:55
Speaker 1: so that's tonight at 7. And at 9, Carl is asking,
46:00
Speaker 1: is America running out of options? And a final reminder
46:03
Speaker 1: before Sunday that at 7 p.m., Jake is painting Mark Plain,
46:09
Speaker 1: not the Beeb, if you would like to join us
46:12
Speaker 1: at 7 for that. And just a very brief recap.
46:15
Speaker 1: to let you know that Military Matters episode 10 will
46:18
Speaker 1: be out on Tuesday at 1pm in the 1pm slot then. Basil,
46:22
Speaker 1: back to you. And, well, we do have to cover
46:25
Speaker 1: this topic because as many people ask, is Israel running
46:29
Speaker 1: the UK or is the UK running Israel? But we
46:32
Speaker 1: seem to have threats coming.
46:36
Speaker 2: Yes, we do indeed. We'll come to that in a moment.
46:38
Speaker 2: But first of all, the inverted language of Prime Minister Netanyahu.
46:46
Speaker 3: We are protecting Europe.
46:48
Speaker 9: Europe, which has forgotten so many things since the Holocaust,
46:52
Speaker 9: can learn from us many things, and mainly the main thing,
46:54
Speaker 9: the united determination between good and evil, which must, at
47:00
Speaker 9: the moment of truth, go to war for the good,
47:02
Speaker 9: for life. Europe, which was forced after World War II
47:07
Speaker 9: to protect the good, is now being deeply tortured morally.
47:14
Speaker 9: Europe loses control over its identity, its values, its obligation
47:19
Speaker 9: to protect its civilization from barbarism. But Israel does not
47:24
Speaker 9: forget this eternal obligation.
47:31
Speaker 2: Really bizarro stuff there from Netanyahu claiming to be fighting
47:36
Speaker 2: the forces of barbarism when, of course, it's his own
47:40
Speaker 2: forces under his direction that have been acting in the
47:43
Speaker 2: most barbaric ways imaginable. As we can see in this slide,
47:48
Speaker 2: Israeli settlement leaders, Turgaza, calling for the starvation of Palestinians.
47:54
Speaker 2: And that's something they've been quite successful at doing. Let's
47:58
Speaker 2: see the next clip. that was that was one of
48:17
Speaker 2: dozens of clips i could have shown you children in
48:20
Speaker 2: gaza starving begging for money eating from rubbish chips or
48:24
Speaker 2: whatever really the most hellish conditions imaginable have been very
48:29
Speaker 2: deliberately engineered uh uh Of course, Gaza also has a
48:35
Speaker 2: record number of orphans. Just under 40,000 children have lost
48:41
Speaker 2: one or both parents. A similar number have lost one
48:45
Speaker 2: or both legs or an arm. It seems that the
48:51
Speaker 2: call by the heritage minister to find things more painful
48:56
Speaker 2: than death has indeed been heeded. The army must find
49:01
Speaker 2: ways more painful than death for the civilians in Gaza,
49:05
Speaker 2: not for Hamas, for the civilians. Amichai Eliyahu, heritage minister,
49:11
Speaker 2: saying that killing them is not enough. Let's see the
49:17
Speaker 2: next clip to see that in action.
49:22
Speaker 10: We want to bring a million people to Judah and Samaria.
49:25
Speaker 10: We turn this land, our ancestral land, into an inseparable
49:28
Speaker 10: part of the land of Israel, of the state of Israel,
49:31
Speaker 10: the land of the dead and the dead. We take
49:32
Speaker 10: terrible and dangerous ideas off the table. of the separation
49:39
Speaker 10: of the land and the separation of the land from
49:41
Speaker 10: the enemy, and that's not important, because they saw it.
49:45
Speaker 10: And yes, this has to continue, and in order for
49:47
Speaker 10: it to continue, this is now your job, to do
49:49
Speaker 10: what is necessary to convince the people of Israel to
49:52
Speaker 10: make the right choice and to allow the State of
49:54
Speaker 10: Israel to move forward through national pride and determination in
49:58
Speaker 10: the Land of Israel, and security, and a very clear identity,
50:01
Speaker 10: a Jewish identity of the State of Israel.
50:05
Speaker 2: Israeli ministers are now openly calling for the complete ethnic
50:09
Speaker 2: cleansing of Gaza. Indeed, they're now seeking Donald Trump's approval
50:14
Speaker 2: for it. That was reported this week. Gideon Saar, the
50:19
Speaker 2: Israeli foreign minister, directly petitioning Trump. to give the green
50:23
Speaker 2: light to the complete ethnic cleansing of Gaza. They want
50:27
Speaker 2: everybody out so they can steal the land, having bombed
50:30
Speaker 2: it to smithereens, massacred tens of thousands of people. Now
50:35
Speaker 2: they want to push the rubble and the people into
50:39
Speaker 2: the desert. Here's Dr Mark Perlmutter. who has just returned
50:45
Speaker 2: from a tour in Gaza. There's not been a single
50:48
Speaker 2: doctor that's been to Gaza who wouldn't be able to
50:50
Speaker 2: testify that children are being shot in the head by
50:53
Speaker 2: Israeli snipers. Remember, kids, these are our allies. We have
50:58
Speaker 2: a special military relationship, and if you seek in any
51:01
Speaker 2: way to disrupt the flow of weapons so that the
51:05
Speaker 2: sniping of children in the head can continue, then you
51:07
Speaker 2: may very well find yourself killed. in the crosshairs of
51:11
Speaker 2: the United Kingdom government. Let's play the next clip, please.
51:45
Speaker 2: That was posted on social media by Itamar Ben-Gavir, the
51:49
Speaker 2: homicidal psychopath who is the Israeli security minister who has
51:54
Speaker 2: also called for 30 or 40 Palestinians to be slaughtered
52:02
Speaker 2: every day regarding them as simply animals. He took that
52:06
Speaker 2: particular concentration camp processing video down because Obviously, the Hasbara
52:14
Speaker 2: people said it wasn't an ideal look. But frankly, it's
52:17
Speaker 2: really very mild because many, if not most of the
52:22
Speaker 2: Palestinians who come out of the Israeli torture gulag do so. Well,
52:27
Speaker 2: I was going to say in a coffin, but they're
52:28
Speaker 2: not given the dignity of a coffin, but they come
52:30
Speaker 2: out dead, tortured, raped to death. Not just a little
52:35
Speaker 2: bit thinner, like in that video. Now, of course, Britain
52:40
Speaker 2: is finally preparing to get tough with Israel, of course,
52:43
Speaker 2: particularly not over Gaza, not the genocide.
52:45
Speaker 1: Carry on with that.
52:46
Speaker 2: Carry on with the genocide in Lebanon. But over the
52:49
Speaker 2: expansion of the E1 settlement bloc, in the West Bank,
52:53
Speaker 2: just east of Jerusalem, which would make a contiguous Palestinian
52:57
Speaker 2: state on the West Bank a physical impossibility. Britain, of course,
53:02
Speaker 2: clings to this two-state solution myth, and therefore action like this,
53:08
Speaker 2: or the prospect, even of mild sanctions against the illegal settlements, produces, well,
53:18
Speaker 2: What we can only call is really a rather gangsterish
53:21
Speaker 2: response from the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Saar, as we
53:26
Speaker 2: can see now in an interview with Israeli television this week.
53:31
Speaker 10: Let's talk about Britain.
53:33
Speaker 3: Please.
53:33
Speaker 8: How far are you away from the possibility that they
53:36
Speaker 8: will actually be eliminated?
53:36
Speaker 3: I want to say just one thing.
53:38
Speaker 6: If Britain will act against the State of Israel, the
53:41
Speaker 6: State of Israel will act against Britain. How? Look.
53:45
Speaker 9: Are there tools?
53:46
Speaker 3: Of course there are tools.
53:48
Speaker 6: I say this clearly and firmly. The time has come
53:52
Speaker 6: that we can act against the State of Israel, and
53:56
Speaker 6: the State of Israel does not object.
53:58
Speaker 3: If they act, I think they will make a big mistake.
54:01
Speaker 6: This will also, in my opinion, be an intervention in
54:05
Speaker 6: the election system of the State of Israel. It will
54:10
Speaker 6: work the other way around, as they might dream it
54:13
Speaker 6: will work.
54:13
Speaker 3: But if.
54:37
Speaker 2: A supposed ally, a loyal ally in Britain. We've been
54:40
Speaker 2: running diplomatic cover, providing weapons, providing spy flights over Gaza
54:45
Speaker 2: so that the Israelis can massacre British veterans like the
54:48
Speaker 2: ones working for the World Kitchen Organization. But that's not
54:53
Speaker 2: good enough if we try to follow this late stage
54:58
Speaker 2: international law, Mike. Retaliation and not just diplomatic. What could
55:03
Speaker 2: he mean?
55:05
Speaker 1: I can't imagine, but we'll consider the possibilities during Extra
55:09
Speaker 1: after this program. Now, let's just very quickly mention the
55:12
Speaker 1: Middle East Eye article here, headlined Israel's Sense of Impunity.
55:17
Speaker 1: Exclusive Blair asked Palestine Authority to remove Palestine from textbooks.
55:22
Speaker 1: Former UK envoy says, now the Middle East Eye quotes
55:27
Speaker 1: Jeremy Greenstock, who was Britain's ambassador to the UN between
55:30
Speaker 1: 1998 and 2003. who made the claim on the David
55:34
Speaker 1: Hearst podcast. He said that Tony Blair was recently sent
55:37
Speaker 1: by Donald Trump, Donald Trump's Board of Peace, to ask
55:40
Speaker 1: the Palestinian Authority to replace any mention of the word
55:43
Speaker 1: Palestine in school books with the Jewish, replaced with the
55:47
Speaker 1: Jewish designation of Samaria. The quote is, he recently, I understand,
55:52
Speaker 1: was asked by the Board of Peace to go to
55:54
Speaker 1: Ramallah and ask to remove from the Palestinian curriculum any
55:57
Speaker 1: mention of the word Palestine in if there were to
56:00
Speaker 1: be treated by the Board of Peace as capable of
56:03
Speaker 1: coming to an agreement with Israel to end the current
56:06
Speaker 1: conflict that had stemmed from 7th of October onwards. But
56:10
Speaker 1: the very fact that the Board of Peace could ask
56:12
Speaker 1: for that to be done in Palestinian educational curriculum makes
56:15
Speaker 1: me wonder what principles the Board of Peace is working
56:18
Speaker 1: on and what understanding they have of justice, of the
56:21
Speaker 1: sense of fairness, of the history of all this. Middle
56:25
Speaker 1: East Eye writes this as part of a concerted effort
56:27
Speaker 1: by Israel to erase the word Palestine from history books
56:31
Speaker 1: and museums and so on. But the question is, what
56:35
Speaker 1: has the response been? Well, there was a statement issued
56:39
Speaker 1: by the Tony Blair Institute regarding the Middle East Eye article.
56:44
Speaker 1: And of course, they were extremely cross about it. And
56:49
Speaker 1: they went on to tweet this and used the term
56:52
Speaker 1: complete fabrication. You can imagine what the responses on Twitter
56:58
Speaker 1: were to this. But I just thought it was interesting
57:01
Speaker 1: that the Board of Peace itself also used the fabrication,
57:05
Speaker 1: or in this case, they said entirely fabricated. So the
57:08
Speaker 1: same kind of language coming out from both organizations. I wonder,
57:12
Speaker 1: were they speaking to each other? They were clearly completely
57:16
Speaker 1: upset about the allegation. But nobody in the comment sections
57:22
Speaker 1: on either of those Twitter posts was in any way
57:25
Speaker 1: surprised by the allegations or prepared to believe the denials
57:31
Speaker 1: from the Tony Blair Institute or the Board of Peace. Basil,
57:34
Speaker 1: let's end the program today with some more in case
57:38
Speaker 1: you missed it.
57:40
Speaker 2: Yes, in case you missed it, although as we get
57:43
Speaker 2: deeper into it, it might be a case of, I'm
57:45
Speaker 2: glad I missed it. uh, starting with reform, who we
57:49
Speaker 2: talked about at the top of the program. Of course,
57:50
Speaker 2: this is a different story. Uh, they're banning three journalists
57:54
Speaker 2: from his conference because they didn't like the way they
57:57
Speaker 2: were being reported. Well, I'm afraid if you want to
58:00
Speaker 2: play with the big boys in politics, Nigel, you have
58:03
Speaker 2: to take the rough with the smooth. And if you
58:05
Speaker 2: want to go down that road, then there aren't going
58:07
Speaker 2: to be any journalists at all at the reform conference in,
58:11
Speaker 2: in due course.
58:12
Speaker 3: Next up.
58:12
Speaker 2: Well, this is, uh, a real horror story. Um, Britain
58:17
Speaker 2: must lead NATO into a new era of war, says
58:21
Speaker 2: David Petraeus, former head of the CIA and of course
58:24
Speaker 2: a former army general, warning that the West is facing
58:27
Speaker 2: an unprecedented and generational challenge from rogue states such as Russia.
58:33
Speaker 2: Of course, I thought it was interesting this week that
58:35
Speaker 2: Diane Abbott, much maligned, of course, for her maths, if
58:40
Speaker 2: nothing else, She said that the threat from Russia was
58:44
Speaker 2: a phantom invented by NATO. And I'm afraid to say
58:48
Speaker 2: I'm inclined to agree with her. Next up, yes, he's
58:53
Speaker 2: one of these vampires now, a la Blair. You can't
58:57
Speaker 2: kill him, unfortunately. Keir Starmer stepping down as an MP
59:03
Speaker 2: to apparently work in international affairs. Well, we've all got
59:08
Speaker 2: something to look forward to, therefore. Tony Blair. But what
59:11
Speaker 2: exactly in international affairs is Keir Starmer going to do? Well,
59:15
Speaker 2: we had a big clue a couple of months ago
59:17
Speaker 2: before he left office. Yes, he wants to be the
59:20
Speaker 2: chief of NATO after leaving number 10. And we all
59:25
Speaker 2: know that if you do the Anglo-American Zionist Empire's bidding,
59:30
Speaker 2: If you're prepared to support genocide and war crimes and
59:35
Speaker 2: all the rest of it, then you get rewarded with
59:37
Speaker 2: nice little sinecures like being made head of NATO. Next up,
59:42
Speaker 2: this is a particularly interesting one from during the week.
59:47
Speaker 2: And it's more to do at the moment with Australia
59:50
Speaker 2: and Canada than us. But let's have a look.
59:54
Speaker 11: When we are dealing with the security forces of the
59:56
Speaker 11: Jewish community, they're not allowed to carry weapons in Canada.
1:00:01
Speaker 11: We also, back in Michigan, what is the meaning of
1:00:05
Speaker 11: armed security that can prevent horrific incidents? So this is very,
1:00:11
Speaker 11: very important. By the way, in Bondi Beach, you have
1:00:14
Speaker 11: in Australia, they can carry weapons, but only in the institutions.
1:00:18
Speaker 11: But since the event was on the beach, so they
1:00:23
Speaker 11: were unarmed. So weapons, carrying weapons is very important that
1:00:30
Speaker 11: the security forces of the community will be armed. It
1:00:34
Speaker 11: can save lives because if they add guns in Bondi Beach,
1:00:40
Speaker 11: it wouldn't take 12 endless minutes of massacre to do something, okay?
1:00:47
Speaker 11: So with Canada, it was clear that it's about to
1:00:51
Speaker 11: happen and I hope, that Carney and his government will
1:00:56
Speaker 11: do something.
1:00:59
Speaker 2: What he's calling for there is for Jewish defense organizations
1:01:04
Speaker 2: to be armed, even in countries like Canada, potentially the UK,
1:01:08
Speaker 2: where carrying of firearms is at least currently restricted to
1:01:13
Speaker 2: the police force. The monopoly on violence being one of
1:01:18
Speaker 2: Hegel's identifying marks of the modern state. Now, talking about
1:01:22
Speaker 2: modern states, what do they look like? How big are they? Well,
1:01:25
Speaker 2: the UN is going to vote on adopting a new map.
1:01:29
Speaker 2: You can see the two there showing the true scale,
1:01:32
Speaker 2: not just of Africa, but also the smaller size of Europe, because,
1:01:36
Speaker 2: of course, the Earth is curved. For those who've forgotten,
1:01:40
Speaker 2: it's not flat, as some believe. It bulges at the
1:01:45
Speaker 2: middle and therefore bulges the African countries around the equator. Likewise,
1:01:50
Speaker 2: South American countries are actually much bigger than they look.
1:01:54
Speaker 1: On the map.
1:01:55
Speaker 2: And finally, something a bit of nostalgia this week, really.
1:01:59
Speaker 2: I can just about remember these trains, perhaps not these
1:02:06
Speaker 2: exact ones, but here's a quick reminder of some of
1:02:10
Speaker 2: the things or one of the things we've lost in
1:02:14
Speaker 2: modern Britain.
1:02:16
Speaker 12: Britain's nationalised railways open the first travelling taverns. With oak beams,
1:02:20
Speaker 12: settees and that oldie-worldie atmosphere, the tired businessman can in
1:02:24
Speaker 12: future pretend he'd already in the country pub. An extra attraction,
1:02:28
Speaker 12: no licensing hours. The railways simultaneously step up dining comfort
1:02:32
Speaker 12: for the travellers. Previously accustomed to an ounce of soot
1:02:35
Speaker 12: with every meal, diners can from now on be assured
1:02:38
Speaker 12: of four-star hotel efficiency.
1:02:40
Speaker 2: MUSIC Yes, thank you for the film there from a
1:02:48
Speaker 2: bygone era, Mike.
1:02:50
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
1:02:51
Speaker 1: Basil, thank you very much for that. We do have
1:02:53
Speaker 1: to end there, however, hopefully on a note of nostalgia.
1:02:58
Speaker 1: But anyway, we will leave it there for today. Thank
1:03:00
Speaker 1: you very much, Basil, Hos and Tony as well. And
1:03:04
Speaker 1: we will be back in a few minutes if you're
1:03:07
Speaker 1: a UK column member for some news extra. Don't forget
1:03:10
Speaker 1: the interviews tonight and also Jake's on 7 p.m. on Sunday.
1:03:16
Speaker 1: We will see you again on Monday at 1pm for
1:03:18
Speaker 1: another news program. Have a great weekend. See you then.
1:03:21
Speaker 3: Bye-bye.