Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 2nd September 2026

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UK Column News — 2nd September 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon. It's Wednesday, the 2nd of September, 2026, just
0:11
Speaker 1: after one o'clock. Welcome to UK Column News. I'm your host,
0:14
Speaker 1: Mike Robinson. Joining me by video link today are Charles
0:17
Speaker 1: Mallett and Vanessa Bailey. Later in the program, we'll be
0:20
Speaker 1: reporting on the further militarization of the High North, Israel's
0:23
Speaker 1: expansion of influence in Europe. Well, is it a scam
0:28
Speaker 1: of plug in solar energy. Well, Charles will be talking
0:30
Speaker 1: about that later. And we'll be asking why no mainstream
0:33
Speaker 1: media is apparently covering what is being described as one
0:36
Speaker 1: of the biggest child recovery operations in American history. But
0:41
Speaker 1: of course, we're going to have to begin with Parliament
0:43
Speaker 1: because the school children are back in the House of
0:45
Speaker 1: Commons following the school holidays. And yesterday, Andy Burnham gave
0:50
Speaker 1: his inaugural speech as Prime Minister. Let's get, I'm sorry
0:53
Speaker 1: to do this to everybody, but let's get a feeling
0:55
Speaker 1: for what he said.
0:57
Speaker 2: With permission, Mr. Speaker, I wish to make a statement
1:01
Speaker 2: on the direction in which I will lead our country.
1:04
Speaker 2: I come before this House having visited each of the
1:08
Speaker 2: regions and nations of the UK over the last six
1:10
Speaker 2: weeks and Ukraine on the occasion of the 35th anniversary
1:16
Speaker 2: of its independence. The UK's steadfast support has helped sustain
1:22
Speaker 2: Ukraine's resolve over the last four and a half years,
1:27
Speaker 2: particularly so in the last two. That was the achievement
1:31
Speaker 2: of my predecessor, and as he stands down from this place,
1:36
Speaker 2: I want to pay tribute to the right honourable member
1:38
Speaker 2: for Holborn and St Pancras. He has given this country
1:44
Speaker 2: a lifetime of public service, Mr. Speaker, particularly for those
1:49
Speaker 2: fighting for justice. When my Right's Honourable Friend delivered in
1:53
Speaker 2: this House on his promise to the Hillsborough families and
1:57
Speaker 2: everyone involved in the Hillsborough Law Campaign, it was a
2:01
Speaker 2: moment I will never forget. His leadership took our party
2:06
Speaker 2: from one of its worst defeats to its best victories
2:09
Speaker 2: and created a platform to change this country for the better.
2:15
Speaker 2: We will use it well, Mr Speaker, and we wish
2:19
Speaker 2: his family the very best for the future. The position
2:24
Speaker 2: my Right Honourable Friend took on Ukraine, building on the
2:27
Speaker 2: work of his predecessors as Prime Minister, is one which
2:32
Speaker 2: I will not change, whatever the threats we face. We
2:39
Speaker 2: do not seek escalation, but instead will stand firm in
2:44
Speaker 2: providing what help we can to enable Ukraine to defend
2:48
Speaker 2: itself from this illegal invasion. Britain's defence starts in Ukraine
2:55
Speaker 2: and the defence of our nation will always be my
2:58
Speaker 2: first priority.
3:02
Speaker 1: So no change on defence and security policy. We're going
3:05
Speaker 1: to still go into war with Russia, apparently. But some
3:09
Speaker 1: of the other policy agenda setting included his attendance at
3:12
Speaker 1: the COP31, no doubt with all his other city leader colleagues.
3:18
Speaker 1: The continuing policy Politicking over early release from prisons. I'm
3:22
Speaker 1: going to mention that again in a second. Continuing nationalization
3:26
Speaker 1: of services, including bus services in Liverpool and interventions to
3:29
Speaker 1: prevent bus service collapses in the West Midlands. Water was mentioned,
3:34
Speaker 1: of course. Andy announced a forthcoming 10-year plan for Britain
3:38
Speaker 1: to set out stronger public control of essential services. But
3:43
Speaker 1: also on the city's agenda, he said that mayors are
3:46
Speaker 1: going to shape technical education. in the UK and work
3:49
Speaker 1: placements for young people. And he announced local industrial strategies.
3:54
Speaker 1: Just if I remember rightly, wasn't that a Theresa May policy?
3:57
Speaker 1: But anyway, that's going to include what they describe as
4:02
Speaker 1: a triple helix of business, academia, and government. So more
4:06
Speaker 1: fusion doctrine right there. But devolution was the centerpiece, unsurprisingly.
4:11
Speaker 1: And he was talking about centralization, privatization, de-industrialization needing to
4:19
Speaker 1: be reversed, austerity and Brexit. These were the sequence of
4:23
Speaker 1: wrong turns as he described them since the 1980s. He's
4:27
Speaker 1: offering a devolution deal with Cornwall with or without an
4:31
Speaker 1: elected mayor and the same offer extended every part of
4:34
Speaker 1: England currently without devolved power. And he's talking about new
4:37
Speaker 1: mayoral powers including the technical education stuff that we just mentioned,
4:44
Speaker 1: employment support, fiscal devolution beginning with an overnight visitor levy,
4:50
Speaker 1: and that's going to start in 2027. He talked about
4:54
Speaker 1: number 10 North as a single front door to Whitehall,
4:57
Speaker 1: plus a redirection of civil service capacity out of London
5:01
Speaker 1: and into the regions. And he talked about talks with Scotland,
5:05
Speaker 1: Northern Ireland, and local devolution models at a National Economic
5:09
Speaker 1: Council meeting next month. So he is claiming, we'll just
5:14
Speaker 1: bring a little bit of the quotes on screen here.
5:17
Speaker 1: It took devolution out of the power of this place
5:19
Speaker 1: to allow our big city regions and the ability to
5:22
Speaker 1: set new ambitions for themselves, he said. The government is
5:25
Speaker 1: going to oversee the biggest redistribution of power. We can
5:29
Speaker 1: put more power into every postcode, he said. Now, just
5:32
Speaker 1: to interpret that last point, what he means is that
5:35
Speaker 1: central power will be applied in every postcode. He also
5:40
Speaker 1: announced separate things yesterday. Aside from this speech, he was
5:46
Speaker 1: talking about police forces in England and Wales having specialist
5:49
Speaker 1: rape and sexual offences teams in place by December 2027,
5:53
Speaker 1: which he said was a year and a half ahead.
5:57
Speaker 1: And this was apparently going to be based on the
6:00
Speaker 1: violence against women and girls strategy. Again, the wording of
6:04
Speaker 1: this is very strange. It isn't preventing violence against women
6:08
Speaker 1: and girls strategy. It is just the violence against women
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Speaker 1: and girls strategy. That was published in December last year.
6:16
Speaker 1: um uh so i say that the placing of these
6:20
Speaker 1: people charles i don't know if you've got any brief
6:22
Speaker 1: comment on the issue of of uh sexual violence teams
6:28
Speaker 1: in the police and the rollout of that.
6:32
Speaker 3: Well i think first of all good afternoon all and
6:35
Speaker 3: thanks mike uh yes with specific regard to those teams
6:39
Speaker 3: i mean i think there's a element of double accounting
6:42
Speaker 3: going on there in that they, to a large extent,
6:44
Speaker 3: already exist. And therefore, it's simply a matter of who
6:47
Speaker 3: gets what business, because the normal way of things is
6:51
Speaker 3: that they would deal with a certain element of those
6:54
Speaker 3: sorts of cases, whereas CID would take on the rest.
6:58
Speaker 3: And therefore, for him to present this as a new
7:02
Speaker 3: initiative is misleading at best. And also, as has been
7:07
Speaker 3: pointed out many times, specifically with this supposed campaign against
7:11
Speaker 3: violence against women and girls, of course, the majority of
7:13
Speaker 3: this happens in a domestic setting in the home. And
7:16
Speaker 3: no one has come up with an idea of how
7:19
Speaker 3: realistically that can actually be dealt with if indeed the
7:23
Speaker 3: epidemic exists in the way that it's described.
7:26
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you for that. Now, Just bring him back
7:29
Speaker 1: on screen here, because as I mentioned, he talked about
7:32
Speaker 1: prisoner releases and he referred to indeterminate sentences. Now, these
7:36
Speaker 1: are sentences where individuals are kept in prison with no
7:38
Speaker 1: release date. I visited a prisoner in Strangeways in Manchester
7:42
Speaker 1: around a decade ago, and he described people in there. Now,
7:45
Speaker 1: remember this, Strangeways is an old Victorian prison. It's one
7:49
Speaker 1: of the worst prisons in the country. And he was
7:53
Speaker 1: talking about people in there on indeterminate sentences. sentences who
7:57
Speaker 1: only had to admit their guilt to be given a
7:59
Speaker 1: release date and go through the probation system. And they
8:02
Speaker 1: simply refused to do it. And I've always wondered why
8:05
Speaker 1: someone who'd committed a crime would take that position if
8:08
Speaker 1: they were, in fact, guilty. And then finally, I just
8:12
Speaker 1: want to mention the new assisted dying bill, because this
8:16
Speaker 1: is going to be brought forward in this parliament. And
8:20
Speaker 1: Burnham has done the same as his predecessor by announcing
8:23
Speaker 1: government neutrality on the topic. particularly with respect to the
8:29
Speaker 1: comments by ministers and so on. He is saying that,
8:34
Speaker 1: of course, any minister that had taken a position on
8:37
Speaker 1: this before they became a minister is entitled to maintain
8:41
Speaker 1: that position, but that they have to make clear, whether
8:44
Speaker 1: it's in Parliament, on media or on social media, they
8:47
Speaker 1: have to make clear that that's not a government position.
8:50
Speaker 1: So again, the government is.
8:53
Speaker 1: Allowing this topic to come back once again, see if
8:56
Speaker 1: they can get the right answer this time, as far
8:58
Speaker 1: as they're concerned. But they're not going to take any
9:02
Speaker 1: governmental position on it. Charles, just before we finish this topic, Charles,
9:08
Speaker 1: just tell us about this article here from Christopher Hill
9:13
Speaker 1: on Canada's euthanasia program.
9:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's just been published to the UK
9:20
Speaker 3: column website. And, you know, it's not a long article,
9:23
Speaker 3: but it is a really, really detailed read. And it
9:25
Speaker 3: goes into the way in which this agenda has absolutely
9:29
Speaker 3: forced its way, not just sort of into the system
9:31
Speaker 3: and into the public consciousness, but actually has become the
9:35
Speaker 3: fourth largest cause of death in Canada. And it is
9:38
Speaker 3: a lesson, it's absolutely a lesson to be learned on
9:41
Speaker 3: this side of the Atlantic. And he highlights in particular
9:45
Speaker 3: the case of one family, whose wishes were absolutely ridden
9:49
Speaker 3: roughshod over. I mean, it is horrific, but I really
9:51
Speaker 3: do commend it to people to read.
9:53
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you for that. I give people a little
9:56
Speaker 1: bit of a preview on the next topic, Charles. but
10:00
Speaker 1: let's just talk about the High North.
10:03
Speaker 4: Yeah.
10:03
Speaker 3: Well, and specifically, I'd like to do so with Andy
10:07
Speaker 3: Burnham's comments in mind, because, of course, we've just listened
10:10
Speaker 3: to him saying he does not seek escalation. And I
10:14
Speaker 3: think one might ask, well, he's got a funny way
10:16
Speaker 3: of showing it. But also, I would like you to
10:19
Speaker 3: consider what I'm about to report on as though you
10:22
Speaker 3: are a consumer of mainstream propaganda. And what are you
10:26
Speaker 3: supposed to take away from headlines like this in The Express, which,
10:29
Speaker 3: of course, was published last week. So if we just
10:32
Speaker 3: put that on screen and see that the public are
10:34
Speaker 3: supposed to believe that World War Three fears explode as
10:38
Speaker 3: Andy Burnham warned Britain faces inevitable Russian attack. And if
10:42
Speaker 3: you can't see it at the bottom in the breaking
10:44
Speaker 3: news banner, it says Doomsday Prediction says world ends in weeks. Now,
10:50
Speaker 3: I know one is used to sort of tabloid alarmism,
10:54
Speaker 3: but this does seem to be taking it a step further, although,
10:57
Speaker 3: of course, it is corroborated or running alongside it. Is the,
11:00
Speaker 3: in effect, the official narrative seen here from the Defence
11:04
Speaker 3: Ops Twitter feed and talking about an exercise that's undergoing
11:09
Speaker 3: or rather underway in Jan Mayen Island, the inhabited Norwegian
11:14
Speaker 3: territory up in the Arctic. And they're talking about deploying,
11:19
Speaker 3: integrating and operating in the high north. Of course, this
11:23
Speaker 3: is one of very many tweets about the same thing
11:25
Speaker 3: from various other NATO entities, Joint Force Command, Norfolk, pointing
11:31
Speaker 3: out fairly obviously that the Arctic is vast and that
11:34
Speaker 3: our commitment to its security is clear. What they don't
11:38
Speaker 3: articulate is how they're able to guarantee that if it
11:41
Speaker 3: really is the case. Then we go to Defence Industry Europe,
11:45
Speaker 3: which looks at the American side. The US Marine Corps
11:47
Speaker 3: say Operation Atlantic City builds a joint kill web with
11:52
Speaker 3: British and Norwegian forces on Jan Mayen for NATO High
11:56
Speaker 3: North defence. Of course, rather ironic that the word defence
11:59
Speaker 3: would be used when you're talking about a joint kill web.
12:03
Speaker 3: So a great deal of focus on what's being described
12:07
Speaker 3: as Arctic sentry, the overall NATO commitment to continually exercising
12:12
Speaker 3: in the Arctic as though there is a necessity because
12:15
Speaker 3: of the clear and present threat presented by Russia. Now,
12:18
Speaker 3: in terms of how this is actually manifesting, I was
12:21
Speaker 3: interested to see on Monday in Lerwick in Shetland, the
12:26
Speaker 3: Depuy de l'Homme, the French spy ship or signals intelligence ship,
12:31
Speaker 3: which was alongside has subsequently moved off. And when I
12:35
Speaker 3: inquired of the French Navy exactly what she was doing there,
12:40
Speaker 3: I got this wonderfully opaque reply from Captain Hélène, who
12:44
Speaker 3: said that this French vessel made a routine stop in
12:48
Speaker 3: the Shetland Islands and you must have seen it during
12:50
Speaker 3: its transit through British territorial waters. So she has mastered
12:54
Speaker 3: her profession because she did not in one way answer
12:57
Speaker 3: the particular question I had asked, although she did confirm
13:00
Speaker 3: that it is nothing to do with Arctic century or
13:03
Speaker 3: any ongoing NATO exercises, which poses the question, what is
13:07
Speaker 3: she doing up there? Now what I want to do
13:09
Speaker 3: is look at how things are when the boot's on
13:11
Speaker 3: the other foot, and we go back a few years
13:13
Speaker 3: to look at the Telegraph reporting that Russian spy ship
13:17
Speaker 3: pictured tracking Royal Navy vessel in rare sighting. So of course,
13:21
Speaker 3: whilst we're supposed to consider that a French signals intelligence
13:24
Speaker 3: ship in Shetland at such a time is in effect
13:27
Speaker 3: a case of nothing to see here, not so when
13:30
Speaker 3: it turns out to be a Russian vessel. The point
13:36
Speaker 3: I think I'd like to make is that just a
13:38
Speaker 3: week or so ago, Intelligence Online were reporting that these
13:41
Speaker 3: two vessels, the Russian spy ship and the French spy ship,
13:45
Speaker 3: found themselves apparently accidentally absolutely side by side, which, of course,
13:50
Speaker 3: goes back to Burnham's point about whether or not escalation
13:53
Speaker 3: is sought, because it's perfectly easy to see that these
13:56
Speaker 3: kind of interactions can happen without any sort of incident whatsoever.
14:02
Speaker 3: So I think the public is absolutely having the fear stoked.
14:04
Speaker 3: And this is all about engineering a particular reaction and
14:07
Speaker 3: a particular response, one of which should be apparently, the
14:12
Speaker 3: idea that the youth of the United Kingdom will be
14:16
Speaker 3: signing up in particular for the Army Reserve, which has
14:19
Speaker 3: had a sort of a bit of a makeover on
14:21
Speaker 3: the recruitment side on the British Army pages at the minute.
14:26
Speaker 3: So there are lots of suggestions that as a civilian,
14:29
Speaker 3: if you join the reserve, you might be doing all
14:32
Speaker 3: these sorts of exciting things, missing the critical detail, which
14:35
Speaker 3: is that the expected period of time that you would
14:39
Speaker 3: survive on the battlefield were there a kinetic conflict with
14:42
Speaker 3: Russia would probably be very, very small. I think the
14:45
Speaker 3: reality of the situation is probably rather better reflected by
14:49
Speaker 3: the regular page on the British Army website, which is
14:52
Speaker 3: a bunch of soldiers standing around with their hands in
14:54
Speaker 3: their pockets by an obsolete vehicle. Of course, the Land
14:57
Speaker 3: Rover due to be withdrawn from service without any replacement suggested.
15:02
Speaker 3: I mean, Mike, this propaganda is, we've been charting it
15:06
Speaker 3: for a long time, so perhaps we're not surprised by it,
15:08
Speaker 3: but I think it is still rather eye-watering. I mean,
15:12
Speaker 3: do you think that there is, can be described as
15:16
Speaker 3: sort of legitimate concern for the Arctic, or is this
15:18
Speaker 3: just posturing? What do you make of it?
15:21
Speaker 1: I think it's much more than just posturing. I think
15:24
Speaker 1: this is the beginnings of an effort to maintain control
15:28
Speaker 1: of the Arctic. There are obviously concerns about the development
15:31
Speaker 1: by Russia and China of the Arctic Silk Road route.
15:35
Speaker 1: And Russia and China have been putting huge amounts of
15:37
Speaker 1: money into that. This is all connected to the narrative
15:43
Speaker 1: from Trump over Greenland and so on. But the fact
15:47
Speaker 1: of the remains, none of us has the hardware to
15:53
Speaker 1: run a kinetic war in the Arctic or anywhere else.
15:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think this is exactly it. And this is
16:00
Speaker 3: the point that keeps sort of falling out of in examination, frankly,
16:03
Speaker 3: of anything. And we've seen this in Iran as well,
16:07
Speaker 3: you know, scrutinizing what it is that the Americans are
16:10
Speaker 3: actually capable of when measured against what they say they're
16:13
Speaker 3: capable of. And this seems to be yet another example
16:16
Speaker 3: of it. And exactly as you quite rightly point out,
16:18
Speaker 3: in terms of territorial waters, the fact that it is possible,
16:22
Speaker 3: at least, you know, insofar as the news you covered
16:25
Speaker 3: recently about China using the the northeast, sorry, yes, I
16:29
Speaker 3: do mean northeast, the northeast passage and how that might
16:32
Speaker 3: affect things. But going back to the point made by
16:35
Speaker 3: Joint Force Command Norfolk, the Arctic is vast. So how
16:39
Speaker 3: realistic is any of this? But it's certainly something we're
16:42
Speaker 3: going to keep our eyes on and absolutely see where
16:45
Speaker 3: it leads with regard to the conscription narrative.
16:49
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you for that. Vanessa, let me welcome you
16:52
Speaker 1: to the programme and bring us up to date with
16:55
Speaker 1: what's going on between Israel and Greece?
17:00
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, it's not only Israel and Greece. In fact,
17:03
Speaker 5: when we're talking about the capability of Europe to wage
17:06
Speaker 5: any kind of kinetic war against Russia or anyone else
17:10
Speaker 5: for that matter, interesting how Israel is now getting involved
17:14
Speaker 5: heavily across Europe in supplying weaponry, particularly air defense. So
17:21
Speaker 5: let's have a look. This is in Business Insider Europe's
17:24
Speaker 5: interest in David Sling is surging as it worries about
17:27
Speaker 5: air defense, Israel's missile director says. So let's start with Greece.
17:32
Speaker 5: This is an article in the Israeli media Israel Hayem. Israel,
17:37
Speaker 5: Greece finalize $ 3 billion. euros defense system. So that's around $ 3. 8
17:44
Speaker 5: million agreement. And let's have a look at what it
17:48
Speaker 5: actually includes, a 3 billion euro, 3.48 billion defense agreement
17:55
Speaker 5: between Israel and Greece, signed on Monday in Tel Aviv,
17:59
Speaker 5: I believe, with Israel set to construct a multi-layered defense
18:02
Speaker 5: system for the Greek military, Israel's defense ministry confirmed. Greece
18:07
Speaker 5: has dubbed the new program Achilles Shield a deal. The
18:10
Speaker 5: ministry ranks among the largest in the country's defense history.
18:14
Speaker 5: Never before has the Israeli Ministry of Defense delivered a single,
18:18
Speaker 5: fully integrated array built to counter threats as varied as
18:22
Speaker 5: ballistic missiles, aircraft, and hostile drones. The two countries also
18:27
Speaker 5: finalized a smaller supplementary contract valued at 26 million euros
18:32
Speaker 5: for Israel to provide Greece with drone dome system. So
18:36
Speaker 5: very interesting. Now, as regards Greece, I would say probably
18:41
Speaker 5: the enemy they are thinking of is Turkey, and we
18:43
Speaker 5: can talk about that a bit later. But then let's
18:46
Speaker 5: have a look at who else Israel is supplying. So
18:49
Speaker 5: first of all, German parliament approves a 3.5 billion expansion
18:56
Speaker 5: of the Arrow 3 deal with Israel. And this was
18:58
Speaker 5: back in December 2025. So basically, this is an expansion
19:05
Speaker 5: to the Arrow 3 long-range missile defense system deal with Israel.
19:10
Speaker 5: And then coming on to Romania, Romania buys Israeli air
19:14
Speaker 5: defense system in Rafael's biggest deal ever. And let's have
19:18
Speaker 5: a look at what that includes. Romania's Ministry of National
19:22
Speaker 5: Defense has finalized a landmark agreement with Israel's Rafael advanced
19:26
Speaker 5: defense systems. the acquisition of SPIDER, short and very short
19:31
Speaker 5: range air defense systems. It's the largest contract in Rafael's history,
19:35
Speaker 5: the second largest defense deal in Israeli defense industry history,
19:39
Speaker 5: following the sale of the Arrow 3 missile defense system
19:42
Speaker 5: to Germany. The initial order is part of the first
19:45
Speaker 5: phase of a strategic framework valued at more than $ 2
19:48
Speaker 5: billion and positioned SPIDER as a central component of Romania's
19:52
Speaker 5: SHORAD short-range air defense and very short-range air defense modernization effort.
19:59
Speaker 5: And we don't stop there. We move on to Finland.
20:03
Speaker 5: The David Sling system, Finland quietly extends defense cooperation with
20:08
Speaker 5: Israel through 2034, despite the Gaza backlash. And again, what
20:15
Speaker 5: does that involve? If we bring on Finland, have signed
20:20
Speaker 5: a 10-year memorandum with Israel covering defense research development and procurement,
20:25
Speaker 5: extending a military relationship that has become increasingly important to
20:29
Speaker 5: Israel's defense industry, despite growing political opposition. to cooperation with
20:34
Speaker 5: Jerusalem in Finland. The memorandum, first reported by the Finnish broadcaster,
20:40
Speaker 5: runs until 2034 and replaces an earlier arrangement that was
20:43
Speaker 5: renewed in five-year periods. Finland proposed extending the agreement in
20:49
Speaker 5: early 2024 as the previous memorandum was approaching expiration. And
20:55
Speaker 5: an article in The Cradle, I think, towards the end
20:59
Speaker 5: of 2025 shows that Europe remains the top buyer of
21:03
Speaker 5: Israeli arms despite threats of sanctions over the ongoing genocide
21:08
Speaker 5: in Palestine. And then, of course, there has to be
21:12
Speaker 5: a degree of quid pro quo. And in the last
21:17
Speaker 5: 48 hours, articles in Greek media have pointed out that
21:21
Speaker 5: Greece delivers its second shipment of military equipment into Lebanon.
21:29
Speaker 5: And that includes, if we can bring it up, to
21:33
Speaker 5: the Lebanese armed forces. Now, that is important because, of course,
21:36
Speaker 5: supplying the Lebanese armed forces is intentionally to reduce the
21:43
Speaker 5: need for Hezbollah to defend the country against Israel. Continuing
21:48
Speaker 5: the support for the Lebanese army's operational capabilities and security,
21:52
Speaker 5: the delivery took place on Saturday at the port of
21:55
Speaker 5: Beirut and consisted of 13 M113 armoured personnel carriers and
22:00
Speaker 5: 10 general-purpose military vehicles. described as fully operational and equipped,
22:05
Speaker 5: along with an ample quantity of spare parts. And we
22:09
Speaker 5: needn't think that it's only European countries as such. Britain,
22:13
Speaker 5: of course, has long been involved in providing equipment to
22:16
Speaker 5: the Lebanese armed forces. It has invested consistently in LAF
22:23
Speaker 5: capacity building since 2009. British programs have trained tens of
22:27
Speaker 5: thousands of Lebanese personnel and committed over 100 million in funding.
22:32
Speaker 5: Yet again, we have to ask why taxpayers' money is
22:35
Speaker 5: being sent to far-flung countries to support their defence industry
22:39
Speaker 5: while the UK defence industry is being cut back on
22:43
Speaker 5: a consistent basis. A significant portion of the support is
22:47
Speaker 5: focused on the land border regiments, which are tasked with
22:50
Speaker 5: securing Lebanon's eastern and northern borders. And the UK has
22:55
Speaker 5: also contributed to the construction and upgrading of border observation posts,
22:59
Speaker 5: command infrastructure and training facilities, which is something that we've
23:03
Speaker 5: been reporting on for a number of years now. And
23:05
Speaker 5: I would argue that has nothing to do with providing
23:09
Speaker 5: security for Lebanon. It has a lot to do with
23:12
Speaker 5: providing information and surveillance to the Takfiri armed groups put
23:16
Speaker 5: in power by Britain that are now threatening Lebanese borders
23:21
Speaker 5: to the east and the north.
23:24
Speaker 1: Thank you for that, Vanessa. I mean, where does this go? Obviously,
23:31
Speaker 1: is this mechanism of buying these types of systems from
23:36
Speaker 1: Israel simply a way of pushing taxpayer money into Israel?
23:43
Speaker 5: I think that's definitely one aspect. But I think the
23:45
Speaker 5: other aspect is the inability of the U.S. to achieve
23:49
Speaker 5: capacity in the production of air defense systems and projectiles,
23:53
Speaker 5: as is being shown in the genocide in Gaza and
23:58
Speaker 5: West Bank, but also the war against Iran. And so
24:00
Speaker 5: I think it's Europe basically finding an alternative supplier because
24:05
Speaker 5: Israel basically develops its own air defense systems in the
24:10
Speaker 5: event of an outbreak of, let's say, wider range war
24:16
Speaker 5: with Russia.
24:18
Speaker 1: Do you think Israel has demonstrated that it's air defense's work?
24:24
Speaker 5: That's a very good question. I mean, we know that
24:29
Speaker 5: Hezbollah drones and Gaza, very simplistic missiles developed in Syria,
24:34
Speaker 5: of course, many of them have made it through the
24:37
Speaker 5: multi-layer defense systems in Israel But then ultimately, I guess
24:43
Speaker 5: what choice is there on the market? Otherwise, they would
24:46
Speaker 5: have to be buying Russian or Chinese air defense systems.
24:50
Speaker 5: And I guess they're off the shopping list.
24:53
Speaker 1: Yes. Okay. Thank you very much for that, Vanessa. Okay,
24:56
Speaker 1: let's move on. If you like what the UK column does,
24:59
Speaker 1: we do need your ongoing financial support. Head over to
25:02
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25:06
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25:12
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25:19
Speaker 1: If you'd like to pick up a copy of the
25:23
Speaker 1: column magazine, it is for sale still, and issues one
25:27
Speaker 1: and two are on the shop at the moment. Issue
25:29
Speaker 1: three has headed off to the printer yesterday, and we
25:33
Speaker 1: will have it in the next week or two. We'll
25:36
Speaker 1: be making that available very shortly. And of course, Charles,
25:40
Speaker 1: we can't forget that it's only a couple of weeks
25:42
Speaker 1: now until the 20th anniversary UK column on location event
25:46
Speaker 1: in Plymouth. And we're very much looking forward to this.
25:51
Speaker 3: We absolutely are. Yeah, there feels like a quickening of
25:53
Speaker 3: the tempo now and we are absolutely nearly there. So
25:56
Speaker 3: we're getting our ducks in a row, but it's terrifically exciting.
26:00
Speaker 3: And of course, the live stream is on sale as well.
26:04
Speaker 3: Our range of speakers is absolutely terrific. So I'm very,
26:07
Speaker 3: very excited about seeing how it's all going to unfold
26:10
Speaker 3: as we're there. But I think mostly it's just, you know,
26:13
Speaker 3: it's been a while, hasn't it? We haven't convened since
26:16
Speaker 3: October last year in York. And I think just to
26:19
Speaker 3: look forward to that in-person experience to be with, you know,
26:23
Speaker 3: with people with whom you can have those sorts of
26:26
Speaker 3: conversations that might be difficult to have elsewhere, I think
26:28
Speaker 3: is a huge thing to look forward to. So it's
26:31
Speaker 3: going to be absolutely terrific.
26:33
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Thank you for that. Uh, now tonight at 7. P.M. Uh,
26:37
Speaker 1: Jerem is speaking to Right Said Fred, uh, and, uh,
26:40
Speaker 1: I'm sure they have said a few things. So that's 7. P.M. Uh,
26:44
Speaker 1: join them then. Uh, and at nine, uh, Carl is, uh,
26:49
Speaker 1: discussing Trump's Iran war backfiring once again. Uh, and on
26:54
Speaker 1: Sunday at seven, we'll just give a drill for this, uh,
26:58
Speaker 1: straight away. Mark Plain, uh, not the babe, uh, is, uh,
27:02
Speaker 1: with Jake for A Thousand Words podcast. So that will
27:06
Speaker 1: go out, part one of that, on Sunday at 7pm. Okay, Charles,
27:12
Speaker 1: let's move on to the United States then and this
27:16
Speaker 1: issue of child abuse, which apparently isn't getting very much
27:20
Speaker 1: media coverage at all.
27:24
Speaker 3: Yes, I think the contrast is absolutely amazing when you
27:26
Speaker 3: think back to the High North and how the public
27:29
Speaker 3: are supposed to be in fear of their lives or
27:32
Speaker 3: for their lives all the time. It may, in fact,
27:35
Speaker 3: be the case that you have not heard at all
27:37
Speaker 3: about this. But this is a news story from Florida,
27:40
Speaker 3: a statement from the Florida Department for Law Enforcement, who
27:44
Speaker 3: announced that, exactly like Mike says in his introduction, one
27:48
Speaker 3: of the largest child recovery operations in American history has
27:52
Speaker 3: taken place. And this comes from the Commissioner Mark Glass,
27:56
Speaker 3: who said that Operation Statewide Shield is was a five-day
28:00
Speaker 3: statewide operation focused on identifying, locating and recovering missing children
28:06
Speaker 3: under the age of 18 across the state of Florida.
28:09
Speaker 3: It was developed with a specific goal to provide immediate
28:11
Speaker 3: access to child-focused services. The investigation utilized real-time intelligence and
28:17
Speaker 3: field operations for location and recovery. I understand that some
28:20
Speaker 3: of the children recovered were as young as two months old.
28:24
Speaker 3: So I think there should be no doubt about the
28:26
Speaker 3: significance of this. I mean, the number alone, 163 children
28:29
Speaker 3: arrested over the course of a few days and mostly
28:32
Speaker 3: just within the state of Florida. So this absolutely is
28:36
Speaker 3: a big story. And the question, of course, is, well,
28:39
Speaker 3: if you haven't heard of it, why not? Now, I
28:42
Speaker 3: am absolutely first in the queue to highlight the evidence.
28:46
Speaker 3: massive problems with artificial intelligence, but as a search engine,
28:50
Speaker 3: it does have its uses or it can. So I
28:52
Speaker 3: went to chat GPT and said, which commercial news publications
28:56
Speaker 3: in the UK or the USA reported on Operation Statewide
29:00
Speaker 3: Shield during the past 10 days. And the answer that
29:03
Speaker 3: it provided was that it could not verify. In other words,
29:07
Speaker 3: it could not find a report from Reuters, the BBC, CNN,
29:10
Speaker 3: The Guardian, The Daily Mail, Sky News, The Washington Post
29:14
Speaker 3: or The Wall Street Journal. Now, of course, I was
29:16
Speaker 3: not going to leave it there because, as it says
29:19
Speaker 3: at the bottom, ChatGPT can make mistakes. check important info.
29:24
Speaker 3: So I did by going to our state broadcast of
29:26
Speaker 3: the BBC and I searched for Florida. The most recent
29:30
Speaker 3: item that came up was something called Alison Hammond's Florida Unpacked,
29:34
Speaker 3: which is very much not to do with Operation Statewide Shield.
29:39
Speaker 3: In other words, the BBC has not touched this with
29:41
Speaker 3: a barge pole, which I consider in its own right
29:44
Speaker 3: to be very, very significant. We'll come back to that
29:46
Speaker 3: a little bit later. Now, running concurrently with this in
29:49
Speaker 3: terms of time, we look to the House of Representatives,
29:53
Speaker 3: where Thomas Massey has said on Twitter that on the
29:58
Speaker 3: House floor, he's read the name of several Epstein co-conspirators
30:02
Speaker 3: who should be investigated and prosecuted. So we're just going
30:05
Speaker 3: to have a listen to how this unfolded on a
30:08
Speaker 3: little video clip.
30:10
Speaker 2: Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Speaker.
30:15
Speaker 6: It's been a year since the president signed the Epstein
30:18
Speaker 6: Files Transparency Act, and the government continues to withhold over
30:21
Speaker 6: 3 million files. That's why we've introduced the Epstein Files
30:25
Speaker 6: Transparency Act, too, to bring the fight to the state courts,
30:28
Speaker 6: accountability to the Department of Justice, and closure for survivors.
30:33
Speaker 6: We want perpetrators of these crimes to be investigated and prosecuted.
30:38
Speaker 6: Men like Jess Staley, Leon Black, Les Wexner, David Copperfield,
30:42
Speaker 6: Lapo Elcom, Tom Pritzker, Glenn Dubin, Frederick Fekai, Eduardo Teodorani,
30:50
Speaker 6: John Luke Brunel, conveniently dead by suicide in prison, Daniel Siad,
30:55
Speaker 6: recently discovered dead in Paris, Ramsey Elkholy, and Prince Andrew,
30:59
Speaker 6: who committed sex crimes in the United States, too. And
31:03
Speaker 6: women like Leslie Groff, not a victim, who conspired with
31:06
Speaker 6: Epstein to traffic other women. Perhaps hearing these names will
31:10
Speaker 6: shame the Department of Justice into delivering justice.
31:14
Speaker 3: I yield back. He's packed a lot into a one-minute
31:21
Speaker 3: speech there and of great significance, of course, is that
31:24
Speaker 3: he is naming names. Now, the tweets that he followed
31:28
Speaker 3: up with in relation to the act he talks about
31:32
Speaker 3: highlights the battle that he faces in effect keeping Epstein
31:36
Speaker 3: in the public eye because he needs 218 signatures in
31:39
Speaker 3: order to push this on. And he's got to 49. Admittedly,
31:44
Speaker 3: it is early days. But I think one has to wonder, given,
31:49
Speaker 3: admittedly not directly related, but given the absolute media silence
31:53
Speaker 3: on what's happened in Florida, how far is Massey going
31:56
Speaker 3: to be able to push this? And what do we
31:59
Speaker 3: think is going to happen next? I mean, Mike, we
32:01
Speaker 3: heard Burnham describing his predecessor as somebody who had, I
32:06
Speaker 3: forget the exact words, but in effect done a huge
32:09
Speaker 3: amount for those seeking justice. I think the UK column
32:12
Speaker 3: audience might take a slightly different view on this. But
32:14
Speaker 3: just from a law enforcement point of view, but also
32:18
Speaker 3: from a sort of publicity point of view, where do
32:21
Speaker 3: you see this going in the United States and indeed
32:27
Speaker 3: in the UK over the next years and months?
32:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it is clear that the momentum has
32:33
Speaker 1: completely fallen out of the whole Epstein issue. And that,
32:39
Speaker 1: I believe, is intentional. We see this type of thing
32:42
Speaker 1: all the time. They open the door just a little bit,
32:46
Speaker 1: let a little bit of air in, and then the
32:50
Speaker 1: door gets slammed shut again. So that seems to be
32:52
Speaker 1: where we're at with it. Massey, at least, is standing
32:57
Speaker 1: up and trying to keep the thing at the forefront
33:01
Speaker 1: of people's minds. In the UK, I'm not seeing anybody
33:04
Speaker 1: in political circles doing the same thing. And that should
33:09
Speaker 1: be of regret to everybody. And it's up to us,
33:12
Speaker 1: the public, to keep that pressure on.
33:17
Speaker 3: It absolutely should, yes. And I think Thomas Massey should
33:21
Speaker 3: absolutely be used as an example, really, on both sides
33:25
Speaker 3: of the Atlantic. And this can be something the public
33:27
Speaker 3: grasps hold of. But I think, you know, it would
33:29
Speaker 3: be interesting to get feedback as to whether anybody had
33:31
Speaker 3: heard about the situation in Florida and indeed to see
33:34
Speaker 3: whether now, because there are some news organizations in the
33:38
Speaker 3: United States starting to pick it up. NBC has put
33:41
Speaker 3: a piece on, but you've still got to ask the question, well,
33:43
Speaker 3: why has it taken more than a week to get
33:45
Speaker 3: an operation of this size and significance onto the, well,
33:50
Speaker 3: maybe not even the front pages, but into the news
33:52
Speaker 3: cycle at all? It is, it is completely a shocking indictment.
33:56
Speaker 3: And we hope that Massey will progress his case further.
34:00
Speaker 1: Just to make the point, Charles, very briefly, that, of course,
34:03
Speaker 1: none of the names that Massey mentioned were Muslims.
34:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
34:10
Speaker 2: Indeed.
34:11
Speaker 1: Yes, this is a much bigger problem, is the point
34:13
Speaker 1: I'm making. And anyway, we'll come back to that in extra,
34:17
Speaker 1: I've no doubt. Now, it should come as no surprise
34:21
Speaker 1: to anyone that the British people want the British regime
34:24
Speaker 1: to just blot out of their lives and, and would
34:26
Speaker 1: very much prefer to be able to communicate privately. Thank
34:29
Speaker 1: you very much. And now this is based on, uh,
34:31
Speaker 1: nationally representative polling data from the center for democracy and technology,
34:35
Speaker 1: which they say reveals a significant majority of the British
34:38
Speaker 1: public oppose or want meaningful constraints on what government surveillance, uh,
34:44
Speaker 1: is capable of. Uh, they are saying that, uh, There
34:47
Speaker 1: is a broad concern about the security, privacy and free
34:50
Speaker 1: speech consequences of allowing law enforcement to access encrypted communications.
34:55
Speaker 1: The timing of this is interesting because the EU has
34:58
Speaker 1: just announced Protect EU, a European internal security strategy to
35:03
Speaker 1: support member states and bolster the EU's ability to guarantee
35:07
Speaker 1: security for its citizens. Their words, because never forget my words,
35:11
Speaker 1: that the first role of government is to protect its citizens.
35:14
Speaker 1: And I say that with my tongue. fairly and firmly
35:18
Speaker 1: in my cheek. But anyway, their press release, the EU's
35:21
Speaker 1: press release, or the Commission's press release, rather, claims that
35:24
Speaker 1: the current geopolitical environment is one of growing threats from
35:27
Speaker 1: hostile states. They mention powerful criminal groups and terrorists who
35:31
Speaker 1: are operating increasingly online, as well as surging cybercrime and
35:35
Speaker 1: attacks against our critical infrastructure. And part and parcel of this,
35:40
Speaker 1: they say, is a technology roadmap on encryption and an
35:44
Speaker 1: impact assessment with a view to updating the EU's data
35:47
Speaker 1: retention rules. So, you know, this is another example of
35:51
Speaker 1: Western regimes' determination to create backdoors and encryption. But in
35:56
Speaker 1: the meantime, the rollout of live facial recognition continues with
36:01
Speaker 1: Bournemouth being the latest victim. And in Scotland, the police
36:05
Speaker 1: regulator there is calling for live facial recognition to be
36:09
Speaker 1: rolled out in football stadiums. There's a clear need, they say,
36:13
Speaker 1: for a more joined up and intelligence-led approach to the
36:17
Speaker 1: management of high-risk football fixtures. Policing alone cannot be expected
36:21
Speaker 1: to shoulder the burden of controlling behavior that originates from
36:24
Speaker 1: a small but persistent minority of supporters, they say in
36:27
Speaker 1: the report. But as the expansion of live facial recognition
36:32
Speaker 1: carries on with apparently no limitations, it seems the Information
36:36
Speaker 1: Commissioner has published its findings from a review of police
36:40
Speaker 1: facial recognition in England and Wales. And the message is
36:43
Speaker 1: that forces need stronger data protection governance if they want
36:47
Speaker 1: public trust. It was published in the same fortnight, of course,
36:52
Speaker 1: having just been published, that facial recognition deployments were widened
36:57
Speaker 1: across the country. So there's no irony there, but people
37:01
Speaker 1: are talking about it to some degree, but nothing, Charles,
37:05
Speaker 1: being done to in any way limit the use of
37:08
Speaker 1: this technology. And the campaigns still don't seem to be
37:12
Speaker 1: getting much traction.
37:17
Speaker 3: No, they don't. And I think a large part of
37:19
Speaker 3: the problem is that still people don't really understand the
37:21
Speaker 3: implications of this and the points that I think I've
37:25
Speaker 3: made before. I mean, first of all, it's absolutely reversing
37:29
Speaker 3: the situation as it should be, which is that you
37:33
Speaker 3: have no need to identify yourself to law enforcement unless
37:37
Speaker 3: there is a suggestion that there is a crime that's
37:40
Speaker 3: being commissioned, in which case, in order to either avoid
37:44
Speaker 3: detention or to assist it, you might be required to
37:47
Speaker 3: give your name and address. This flips that completely. But
37:51
Speaker 3: the other thing it does is to treat or potentially
37:55
Speaker 3: treat everybody like a terrorist. So at the moment in legislation,
37:59
Speaker 3: the only category of person that may be arrested in
38:01
Speaker 3: effect on site for what they are expected to be
38:06
Speaker 3: is a terrorist, unlike somebody who, let's say, has a
38:09
Speaker 3: history of burglary. They may not be arrested just because
38:11
Speaker 3: they have been a burglar. And so with, for example,
38:16
Speaker 3: a football ground, you're suggesting an element of Pre-crime, thought crime,
38:22
Speaker 3: the fact that somebody has been known to have done
38:25
Speaker 3: something in the past. Unless there's a strong case with
38:27
Speaker 3: an offence like something like going equipped, where you can
38:30
Speaker 3: make that connection between the activity they're conducting and what
38:34
Speaker 3: is likely to happen. But simply saying that a system
38:37
Speaker 3: has detected a face of somebody that's been involved in
38:39
Speaker 3: something before is absolutely not sufficient for making that kind
38:42
Speaker 3: of an intervention. So it is just expanding the parameters.
38:46
Speaker 3: by which people may be judged as, in effect, terrorists.
38:49
Speaker 3: And we've seen this with so many different things now.
38:51
Speaker 3: Of course, something that we've been concentrating on, I think
38:53
Speaker 3: absolutely rightly and necessarily.
38:56
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Thank you for that. Now, Charles, in the first segment,
39:00
Speaker 1: we talked about Andy Burnham's announcement that he was going
39:02
Speaker 1: to go to COP31 in a private jet, I'm quite sure.
39:06
Speaker 1: But anyway, of course, we've had the announcement in the
39:09
Speaker 1: last week or so that we're now allowed to plug
39:12
Speaker 1: our solar panels directly into the mains.
39:17
Speaker 3: We are, but only some of them. And herein lies
39:21
Speaker 3: one of the many problems associated with this. But, of course,
39:24
Speaker 3: the BBC are the first to cheerlead about it. Anything
39:26
Speaker 3: that's vaguely related to being traced back to... climate change
39:30
Speaker 3: being the responsibility of human beings. But here we've got
39:33
Speaker 3: the BBC plug-in, solar panels are coming. Here's what you
39:36
Speaker 3: need to know. Now, of course, if you do already
39:39
Speaker 3: have solar panels, this is of no consequence to you
39:41
Speaker 3: because this is to do with changing regulations in order that,
39:45
Speaker 3: according to the BBC graphic, you can then plug in
39:50
Speaker 3: a couple of solar panels up to a certain value
39:54
Speaker 3: in terms of generation capability into an inverter and into
39:58
Speaker 3: the mains, where it's able, at least as far as
40:01
Speaker 3: the government is explaining, to deliver power back into your home. So,
40:05
Speaker 3: of course, the insistence is that this can save you money.
40:08
Speaker 3: And language is very important here. Now, as to the
40:11
Speaker 3: government announcements, this is set alongside another press release by
40:16
Speaker 3: the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, who, of course,
40:19
Speaker 3: are championing the fact that we're experiencing a period of
40:22
Speaker 3: time where there are record highs of solar installations for
40:28
Speaker 3: this period, the early period this year. And the way
40:31
Speaker 3: they sort of paraphrase that is families and businesses across
40:34
Speaker 3: the UK are embracing solar power. They may be embracing it,
40:38
Speaker 3: but are they necessarily going to benefit from it? And
40:40
Speaker 3: that's what we need to get into. So we look
40:42
Speaker 3: at the specific press release about plug-in solar, which is
40:45
Speaker 3: that households can save as plug-in solar comes to market. Now,
40:50
Speaker 3: they are quite right to say can save, but it's
40:53
Speaker 3: not entirely clear how. And there are critical bits that
40:58
Speaker 3: are omitted. Now, the main point to make with this
41:01
Speaker 3: is that there's no battery as part of this setup.
41:03
Speaker 3: And therefore, with peak solar being at solar noon, the
41:07
Speaker 3: likelihood is that this is absolutely going to be mismatched
41:10
Speaker 3: with household consumption. So typically, people are either using less
41:14
Speaker 3: electricity during the daytime, or they're not even in their home,
41:16
Speaker 3: and therefore there is less electricity being consumed. So therefore,
41:20
Speaker 3: what happens to that surplus? That's something we're going to
41:22
Speaker 3: come back to. Now, the point that falls out of
41:25
Speaker 3: this is that even at a micro level, it creates
41:27
Speaker 3: yet another headache for the grid, which has to balance
41:31
Speaker 3: all of the different supplies of energy. How does it
41:33
Speaker 3: do that? With what's called the balancing mechanism. So this
41:36
Speaker 3: is what the National Energy System operator says of the
41:39
Speaker 3: balancing mechanism. It's the primary tool to balance supply and
41:42
Speaker 3: demand on the network. In the Electricity National Control Centre,
41:46
Speaker 3: we use the balancing mechanism to buy and procure the
41:49
Speaker 3: right amount of electricity required to balance the system. We
41:51
Speaker 3: do this minute by minute, second by second, to balance
41:54
Speaker 3: supply and demand in real time. Now, they're talking about
41:57
Speaker 3: a market involving buying and selling electricity, but of course
42:01
Speaker 3: there is absolutely an operational fallout from this. And this
42:07
Speaker 3: is the important part to deal with. So in effect,
42:10
Speaker 3: if there is a dip or a significant increase in
42:15
Speaker 3: one form of electricity or another, or a surge in
42:19
Speaker 3: electricity being produced in one region, then this is a problem.
42:23
Speaker 3: And this is dealt with by the constraint collaboration project.
42:28
Speaker 3: And the very important point made by the energy system
42:31
Speaker 3: operator recently is with regard specifically to this kind of
42:35
Speaker 3: technology is that transmission thermal constraint costs are increasing year
42:39
Speaker 3: on year as more renewable projects come online. And yes,
42:43
Speaker 3: you really do read that correctly. So that's the energy
42:45
Speaker 3: system operator talking about increased costs from exactly these sorts
42:50
Speaker 3: of operations. Now, in actual fact, they go on to
42:52
Speaker 3: say the majority of constraint management actions taken by the
42:55
Speaker 3: NISO involve the redispatch or the curtailment of generators, leading
42:59
Speaker 3: to increasing costs and carbon impact. So in other words,
43:03
Speaker 3: if there is a shortfall or there's too much, somebody
43:06
Speaker 3: has to be told to either turn on or turn
43:08
Speaker 3: off the electricity that they're providing. Now, we're going to
43:12
Speaker 3: go back to the plug-in solar. So in the situation
43:15
Speaker 3: that there is a surplus, the question is, well, what
43:17
Speaker 3: happens to that? Now, I put that question to the
43:19
Speaker 3: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. And in addition
43:22
Speaker 3: to asking where the surplus goes, I also asked how
43:26
Speaker 3: is it accounted for? Because if it goes back into
43:28
Speaker 3: the grid, does the provider, the owner of the plug-in solar,
43:31
Speaker 3: get paid for that? And how is it accounted for
43:34
Speaker 3: in terms of cost and also energy generation? Now, the
43:38
Speaker 3: response is, which I'm entitling How Public Money Works, was this.
43:43
Speaker 3: This is what the press office sent back to me.
43:46
Speaker 3: Four emails and two telephone calls later, absolutely nothing. However,
43:51
Speaker 3: it is the case that the energy generated as a
43:55
Speaker 3: surplus does go back into the grid. And at the moment,
43:59
Speaker 3: there is absolutely no evidence this is accounted for, certainly
44:02
Speaker 3: because people are not signed up for the correct scheme.
44:04
Speaker 3: They cannot be paid for that surplus. So in effect,
44:07
Speaker 3: this does look very much like a scam. And the
44:10
Speaker 3: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero have done nothing
44:14
Speaker 3: to allay those concerns.
44:17
Speaker 1: OK, thank you for that. Now, as everyone will remember,
44:20
Speaker 1: at the beginning of last month, a drone carrying an
44:23
Speaker 1: explosive device was discovered at Leipzig Airport in eastern Germany,
44:28
Speaker 1: close to Ukrainian cargo planes. It failed to explode as
44:32
Speaker 1: the detonator was apparently faulty. and investigators suspect a second
44:36
Speaker 1: drone collided with the cargo aircraft nearby, and a third
44:40
Speaker 1: drone was reportedly found near the airport 10 days later.
44:43
Speaker 1: And as the BBC reminds us here, at the same time, sorry,
44:49
Speaker 1: while at the same time, gleefully telling us that the
44:52
Speaker 1: German government has determined that it was Russia that placed
44:56
Speaker 1: these drones there somehow. Andy Burnham has commented on the news. saying,
45:02
Speaker 1: and try not to laugh, the United Kingdom stands in
45:04
Speaker 1: full solidarity with Germany following Russia's egregious and reckless attack
45:09
Speaker 1: in Leipzig. Russia's Russian attempts to undermine our united resolve
45:13
Speaker 1: and our willingness to support Ukraine are futile and doomed
45:17
Speaker 1: to fail. We will not waver in our resolve to
45:20
Speaker 1: deter attacks on our freedom and security. So the question is,
45:25
Speaker 1: how will they not waver? Well, since there are no
45:27
Speaker 1: kinetic weapons available to fight the war, as we've discussed already,
45:30
Speaker 1: They're going to use influence operations, of course. And Chancellor
45:34
Speaker 1: John Healey here has called on allies, if we put
45:38
Speaker 1: it on screen, to step up their pressure on Russia
45:41
Speaker 1: and sets out new action to stop Putin evading sanctions
45:46
Speaker 1: to fund his legal war. Now, this press release is
45:49
Speaker 1: apparently all about Russia's, what they describe as notorious A7 network,
45:54
Speaker 1: which according to the Center for Information Resilience here, is
45:58
Speaker 1: sanctions evasion as a service. They say A7 is a
46:02
Speaker 1: political and commercial enterprise aimed at enabling large-scale evasion of
46:06
Speaker 1: sanctions leveled against Russia, in particular sanctions related to Russia's
46:11
Speaker 1: invasion and war against Ukraine. It claims to have moved
46:14
Speaker 1: over $ 86 billion in transactions in less than a year
46:21
Speaker 1: of operation. In order to help us decide if there's
46:24
Speaker 1: any legitimacy to this claim, we have to look at
46:29
Speaker 1: who the center is. information resilience of R because they
46:32
Speaker 1: claim to be a global leader in open source investigations,
46:35
Speaker 1: exposing and disrupting malign actors wherever they operate. Our teams,
46:40
Speaker 1: they say, investigate foreign influence operations, document harm in conflict
46:44
Speaker 1: environments and expose networks responsible for online manipulation and other
46:49
Speaker 1: harmful activity. At the heart of our approach is is
46:51
Speaker 1: a distinctive combination of deep local expertise and cutting-edge investigative methods.
46:57
Speaker 1: By working with regional analysts, civil society partners, and technical specialists,
47:01
Speaker 1: we are able to rapidly collect, verify, and analyze digital
47:05
Speaker 1: evidence from some of the world's most challenging environments. That's
47:08
Speaker 1: their claim. But their co-founder, Ross Burnley, he, from 2017
47:14
Speaker 1: to 2020, designed, implemented, and led several of the UK
47:18
Speaker 1: government's counter-disinformation programs, including the Open Information Partnership. Now, this
47:23
Speaker 1: was a direct successor to the Integrity Initiative, which, as
47:27
Speaker 1: many will remember, was the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office-sponsored
47:31
Speaker 1: anti-Russia propaganda campaign that the UK column played a part
47:34
Speaker 1: in exposing and collapsing. So the propaganda for war is
47:40
Speaker 1: in full swing, and the Center for Information Resilience is
47:43
Speaker 1: just one outlet for it. But don't worry, if we
47:47
Speaker 1: do end up in a war with Russia, We may
47:49
Speaker 1: have no kinetic weapons, but we will have paragliders. Yes,
47:52
Speaker 1: someone at the Ministry of Defence has been watching too
47:55
Speaker 1: much Piers Brosnan near a James Bond and has decided
47:57
Speaker 1: that the best use of taxpayer money is a powered
48:00
Speaker 1: paraglider which can fit in a backpack. Charles, very quickly,
48:05
Speaker 1: this is just completely ridiculous.
48:09
Speaker 3: I think that's correct. No one will see them coming.
48:12
Speaker 3: Is it going to be operated by batteries? Because if
48:14
Speaker 3: it is, then at least it could be used as
48:16
Speaker 3: a weapon because it may explode.
48:18
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed. Now, Vanessa, let's come back to you then.
48:22
Speaker 1: And assuming you've stopped laughing by this point, tell us
48:26
Speaker 1: about Israel's influence operations in Europe.
48:33
Speaker 5: Well, let's hope they're not solar powered paragliders.
48:36
Speaker 4: Anyway.
48:39
Speaker 5: We've been talking fairly regularly at UK Column about Mossad
48:45
Speaker 5: interference in elections in Europe, particularly Eastern Europe, in Hungary, Slovenia, Albania,
48:53
Speaker 5: pretty much everywhere through companies like Black Cube or Black Core.
48:57
Speaker 5: And in fact, David Miller and I are working on
48:59
Speaker 5: an investigative piece into both Israeli influence in Europe, expanding
49:05
Speaker 5: and on the BlackCube, BlackCore style operations. But I'm gonna
49:10
Speaker 5: focus on Serbia today. There was a snap election coming
49:13
Speaker 5: up in October, 2026, both presidential and parliamentary. And I
49:18
Speaker 5: just had a quick look at the history of influence
49:23
Speaker 5: put upon the electorates in Serbia by Israeli PR and
49:28
Speaker 5: spin doctors. And in fact, this was an article from
49:32
Speaker 5: 2025 published Israeli PR guru Shurlik Einhorn worked to burnish
49:39
Speaker 5: the image of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Bernhardt's investigation can
49:45
Speaker 5: reveal and to facilitate the flow of Serbian arms to
49:48
Speaker 5: Israel's war in Gaza. I would correct that to being genocide,
49:51
Speaker 5: of course. Now wanted for questioning in Israel, he's set
49:56
Speaker 5: up shop in Belgrade. Now that would have been the
49:59
Speaker 5: 2020 election. But if we pull up the following slide,
50:07
Speaker 5: besides Vucic, he also provided PR services for Romanian opposition
50:13
Speaker 5: presidential contender. There should be animated slides on that. Okay.
50:19
Speaker 1: Yes.
50:20
Speaker 5: Thank you. And he also had strong relationships with the
50:26
Speaker 5: Montenegrin Prime Minister Miliko Spargec, And it was Einhorn's relationship
50:32
Speaker 5: with budget that proved useful when Israel's arms and ammunition
50:35
Speaker 5: purchases from Serbia took off with the war in Gaza.
50:38
Speaker 5: So if I can just have that back on screen with. Yes,
50:43
Speaker 5: thank you. Between 2023 and 2024, the value of Serbian
50:48
Speaker 5: arms exports to Israel shot up from 1.4 million euros
50:50
Speaker 5: to 42.3 million euros. as Belgrade shrugged off widespread accusations
50:57
Speaker 5: of Israeli war crimes in Gaza and calls from the
51:00
Speaker 5: UN human rights experts for a halt to the delivery
51:04
Speaker 5: of deadly weapons. So very clearly, Israel involved in election interference.
51:09
Speaker 5: But let's have a look at the history also. So
51:11
Speaker 5: these are the Vucic Israeli PR men. 2004, Asif Aizen
51:17
Speaker 5: assisted on Vucic's 2004 campaign to become a mayor of Belgrade,
51:23
Speaker 5: which he narrowly lost. In 2012, Vucic said about Eisen,
51:28
Speaker 5: he helped me then, he helps us now, and he
51:30
Speaker 5: will always help us. And then moving on to 2017,
51:34
Speaker 5: Aaron Shaviv provided shady PR for Vucic's presidential campaign and win.
51:41
Speaker 5: And of course, not forgetting that Vucic is extremely close
51:45
Speaker 5: to Tony Blair. Tony Blair acted as an advisor to
51:48
Speaker 5: Serbia after the destruction of former Yugoslavia. Now, I wanted
51:54
Speaker 5: to bring up this map and just to demonstrate the
51:58
Speaker 5: expanding influence of Israel through soft power, hard power, the
52:03
Speaker 5: defense industry, as we've been speaking about, NGOs, education, AI
52:10
Speaker 5: and tech development, particularly digital ID and so on, and
52:16
Speaker 5: the building of AI data centers across Europe. So expanding influence,
52:22
Speaker 5: very strong influence, and clearly we've been showing through organizations
52:27
Speaker 5: like Black Cube, Black Core, they are effectively ensuring the
52:31
Speaker 5: election of fascist and far-right governments that will support the
52:37
Speaker 5: Zionist agenda in the region. And then quickly, just to
52:41
Speaker 5: look at an article in the Italian Times, which you
52:44
Speaker 5: can find up on Substack, Even in Italy itself, there
52:49
Speaker 5: is the establishment of what appear to be Israeli colonies,
52:53
Speaker 5: both in the south and the heel of Italy, up
52:55
Speaker 5: the coastal area. So basically in.
53:01
Speaker 5: Sorry, that was, yes. So you can see that the
53:05
Speaker 5: area in the north, which has now effectively become what
53:09
Speaker 5: is described as by activists an Israeli colony on the
53:13
Speaker 5: border with France, but also extending down the coast of
53:17
Speaker 5: Italy to the east and therefore connecting with the influence
53:22
Speaker 5: in Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. Now, I
53:28
Speaker 5: want to actually draw people's attention to the former Ottoman Empire.
53:34
Speaker 5: And of course, we know that President Erdogan in Turkey
53:37
Speaker 5: is looking to reestablish some kind of Ottoman Empire. But
53:42
Speaker 5: if you look at the area in Eastern Europe, you
53:45
Speaker 5: will see how Israel is effectively cutting the potential for
53:52
Speaker 5: a neo-Ottoman empire off at the roots. and establishing basically
53:57
Speaker 5: influence in the Aegean, in the eastern Aegean, and therefore
54:01
Speaker 5: also interfering with Turkey's Mavi Vatan doctrine, which is to
54:05
Speaker 5: take control of the eastern Mediterranean corridors. Now, I often
54:11
Speaker 5: talk about the fact that what we are seeing is
54:14
Speaker 5: an extension of the Crusades. Many people say it's a
54:18
Speaker 5: new crusade. I would say it hasn't ever really stopped.
54:22
Speaker 5: The Crusade route from 1096 to 1270 showed very clearly
54:28
Speaker 5: how they extended from what is now Israel taking all
54:33
Speaker 5: of the economic maritime and land corridors from that area,
54:39
Speaker 5: so from Israel into Europe. And of course, that is
54:42
Speaker 5: exactly what we're seeing now, is that Britain, now established
54:46
Speaker 5: in Syria, MI6 is established in Damascus, working alongside the
54:51
Speaker 5: current Takfiri Al-Qaeda regime. And their role is, in my opinion,
54:57
Speaker 5: to establish those land corridors, creating an energy hub within
55:03
Speaker 5: the occupied territories of Palestine, and then being able to
55:07
Speaker 5: transit through particularly Cyprus, Greece, and into Europe, but also
55:12
Speaker 5: using Syria as a central energy hub.
55:18
Speaker 1: Brilliant. Thank you, Vanessa, for that. Lots to talk about
55:22
Speaker 1: in News Extra today. Charles, let's come back to you then. And, well,
55:27
Speaker 1: let's talk about sardines.
55:31
Speaker 3: Let's talk about sardines, because on Monday, Brian Garish did,
55:34
Speaker 3: having had an email in from a UK column member
55:37
Speaker 3: about the outrage at the increase in price of sardines
55:41
Speaker 3: in Waitrose and the rather bizarre reply they got about
55:44
Speaker 3: business sensitivity. In other words, they weren't going to explain
55:47
Speaker 3: or couldn't explain why this had happened. Now, there are
55:49
Speaker 3: actually a number of factors involved. Just to show what
55:52
Speaker 3: sardines look like in their natural environment, this is a
55:54
Speaker 3: sardine run, which is fairly usual. This is happening in
55:57
Speaker 3: the Philippines, so they really do occur in absolutely vast
56:00
Speaker 3: numbers and at certain times can be harvested very, very easily. Now,
56:04
Speaker 3: one reason for the increase in price is that there
56:08
Speaker 3: has been a social media craze for sardines, which has
56:12
Speaker 3: been quite widely reported on over the last few months.
56:15
Speaker 3: And I'm just going to show you an example video
56:18
Speaker 3: of how people are appealed to by the sort of
56:21
Speaker 3: the influencers that are out there and specifically with regard
56:23
Speaker 3: to health.
56:26
Speaker 4: What superfood can change your brain, your heart, increase bone density,
56:30
Speaker 4: control metabolism, and actually help with weight loss? There's one,
56:33
Speaker 4: it's a superfood, it's one of my favorite foods, sardines. Okay,
56:37
Speaker 4: I'm gonna tell you which one to buy in a minute.
56:39
Speaker 4: The fact is, is that these things change the brain
56:42
Speaker 4: because the B12 levels, the selenium levels, but bone density, calcium, phosphorus,
56:47
Speaker 4: and vitamin D, it's super levels. There's not many foods
56:50
Speaker 4: that are that good for the bones. Okay, not to
56:53
Speaker 4: mention the fact that it controls blood sugar, which has
56:55
Speaker 4: an effect on weight loss. And new studies are showing
56:58
Speaker 4: the omega-3 fatty acids, the perfect fats for the heart,
57:02
Speaker 4: and it also helps the brain. But here's the story
57:04
Speaker 4: I wanted to show you. So my adopted son, he
57:06
Speaker 4: was on the autism spectrum. And this food right here
57:10
Speaker 4: was when I read about it and I was studying
57:12
Speaker 4: how to fix the brain, it literally led me to
57:15
Speaker 4: researching sardines. And by the way, cleanest fish. So you
57:18
Speaker 4: don't have to worry about these. Wild caught, never farm raised,
57:22
Speaker 4: very little heavy metals. So clean, loaded with nutrients. Which
57:26
Speaker 4: one do you buy? I promise you always get the
57:28
Speaker 4: one in water.
57:32
Speaker 3: So there are multiple instances of those sorts of videos
57:35
Speaker 3: really having an effect. And we look at the Cornish
57:37
Speaker 3: Sardine Management Association for an explanation as the consequences of
57:42
Speaker 3: that sort of thing. Up in London at places like
57:44
Speaker 3: Borough Market, shoppers are now happily shelling out up to
57:47
Speaker 3: £ 14 for a single beautifully branded tin of imported sardines.
57:52
Speaker 3: It gets treated like fine wine, etc. Yet out on
57:54
Speaker 3: the water, the reality is starkly different. Now, what's being
57:57
Speaker 3: alluded to there is that those who are actually catching
58:00
Speaker 3: sardines are really not making the money. This is being
58:02
Speaker 3: made by processors and middlemen. And what is also very
58:07
Speaker 3: significant in this, and this is why I'm reporting on it,
58:10
Speaker 3: is that the vast majority of sardines that are consumed
58:13
Speaker 3: in the United Kingdom in fact, come from Morocco. And
58:16
Speaker 3: of course, this is at a time where the United
58:18
Speaker 3: Kingdom is making, or at least the government is making
58:21
Speaker 3: a big noise about food security. So we'll just have
58:25
Speaker 3: a look on at the sardine itself by the Cornwall
58:29
Speaker 3: Good Seafood Guide, because the important detail is that sardine
58:34
Speaker 3: in the Southern Celtic Seas and the English Channel is abundant,
58:37
Speaker 3: and there is no concern for fishing pressure. And yet
58:41
Speaker 3: there is a voluntary, in effect, a voluntary limit placed
58:45
Speaker 3: certainly on Cornish fishermen of a particular value in order
58:49
Speaker 3: that they don't swamp the market and therefore devalue the fish.
58:52
Speaker 3: But of course, that doesn't deal with imported sardines over
58:56
Speaker 3: which they have absolutely no control. And of course, the
58:58
Speaker 3: quality is completely different. But just to go on to
59:00
Speaker 3: make the point that they regard from a fish stock
59:05
Speaker 3: point of view, a very healthy stock and high biomass
59:08
Speaker 3: of over 500,000 tonnes So the amount taken is well
59:11
Speaker 3: within the sustainable limits. Now the amount taken by Cornish
59:14
Speaker 3: fishermen is actually under 10,000 tons. So there's absolutely no
59:18
Speaker 3: issue with being able to get these fish and indeed
59:22
Speaker 3: present them to a British market. Now we'll just look
59:25
Speaker 3: at the way in which sardine demand has gone up,
59:28
Speaker 3: or sorry, the landings have gone up. So that graph
59:30
Speaker 3: shows a steep upward trajectory. But of course, still, those
59:34
Speaker 3: provided by British fishermen are absolutely the minority. Now, We
59:40
Speaker 3: look at the UK sea fisheries statistics 2024, which of
59:44
Speaker 3: course points out the UK is a net importer of fish. Now,
59:48
Speaker 3: this is frankly an absurd situation. And as I say,
59:51
Speaker 3: points the finger very much back at the government, which
59:55
Speaker 3: is only too happy to say food security is national security,
1:00:00
Speaker 3: whilst saying absolutely nothing about it. From those statistics, UK
1:00:03
Speaker 3: vessels landed 745,000 tons of fish back in 2024, but
1:00:09
Speaker 3: 269 tons of that went into foreign markets and we
1:00:12
Speaker 3: imported 633 tons of fish. So whilst the sardine is
1:00:16
Speaker 3: only a part of that, the point of it is
1:00:18
Speaker 3: that in actual fact, if there was a focus on
1:00:22
Speaker 3: fishing sardines in British waters by British fishermen, first of all,
1:00:25
Speaker 3: the economic of the situation could be changed dramatically. And
1:00:28
Speaker 3: then actually food security could be begun to be delivered.
1:00:33
Speaker 3: So I think it is an interesting point, whether that
1:00:35
Speaker 3: answers the question of the particular customer at Waitrose, I
1:00:38
Speaker 3: don't know.
1:00:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you for that, Charles. And then we just
1:00:43
Speaker 1: are going to end, Charles, with a question of whether
1:00:46
Speaker 1: how good Zelensky is at making videos, or maybe that's
1:00:49
Speaker 1: just Russian propaganda.
1:00:53
Speaker 3: Well, I think it's just amusing to see that whilst
1:00:55
Speaker 3: there are horrific and very real casualties on the battlefield.
1:01:00
Speaker 3: There is sort of behind the scenes, or at least
1:01:02
Speaker 3: in the social media, Twittersphere and whatnot, a back and
1:01:05
Speaker 3: forth between Russia and Ukraine that is frankly ridiculous. But
1:01:08
Speaker 3: this is the latest to have come from Russia, accusing
1:01:11
Speaker 3: Zelensky of having manufactured a video clip, apparently from Zaporozhye.
1:01:16
Speaker 5: We do everything to bring peace closer. I thank everyone
1:01:19
Speaker 5: who helps everyone.
1:01:21
Speaker 1: Who helps.
1:01:32
Speaker 3: If you missed it, there was a glitch there, which
1:01:34
Speaker 3: suggests that he was in front of a green screen.
1:01:36
Speaker 3: We debated this hotly before broadcasting it. So I think
1:01:38
Speaker 3: the main point to make is that Russia has put
1:01:41
Speaker 3: this out. Will Ukraine counter it?
1:01:43
Speaker 1: No, actually, if William just puts that back on screen
1:01:48
Speaker 1: very briefly, if you can, just flash it up and
1:01:51
Speaker 1: bring it down again.
1:01:55
Speaker 5: Okay so the.
1:02:00
Speaker 1: Point there is he's supposed to be in front of
1:02:02
Speaker 1: a green screen but he's wearing a green t-shirt so
1:02:04
Speaker 1: you know people can decide for themselves whether that is
1:02:07
Speaker 1: is likely or not extra thank you charles and versa
1:02:12
Speaker 1: for joining me today and thanks for everybody that's watched
1:02:14
Speaker 1: uh we'll be back if you're a uk column member
1:02:16
Speaker 1: and just stay on the live stream we'll be back
1:02:18
Speaker 1: in a couple of minutes for extra If you're not
1:02:20
Speaker 1: a member, maybe you'd consider joining us and joining us
1:02:24
Speaker 1: for extra each time we do a news program. And
1:02:27
Speaker 1: don't forget, there are still a few tickets left for
1:02:29
Speaker 1: the event on the 18th of September. If you're able
1:02:32
Speaker 1: to join us, you'd be absolutely very welcome. We've got
1:02:35
Speaker 1: to leave it there for today. Thanks for joining us.
1:02:38
Speaker 1: We'll see you again on Friday at 1 p.m. as usual. Bye-bye.