Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News Podcast 18th December 2024

Transcript

UK Column News Podcast 18th December 2024 · UK Column Radio

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Good afternoon. It's Wednesday, the eighteenth and December twenty twenty four,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: just after one o'clock. Welcome to the UK call him News.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I'm your host Make Rubinson joining me in the studio today.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Good Charles Mallett. Welcome to the program, Charles, and by
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: videolink Vanessa Billy from the Middle East. So well, sorry,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: we will get on with the Arctic straight away, because
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: our illustrious leader, Kerr Starmer has been visiting various people
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: in the Nordic countries and well, first of all we
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: hear he is with the Prime Minister of Norway. This
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: was on Wednesday, and this was to sign a new
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: strategic partnership with between UK and Norway, underscoring they say,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: the importance of the Joint Expeditionary Force, which was vital
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: to supporting security in the North Atlantic and the Nordic
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: and Baltic regions. So he was there to sign this
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: new agreement. He then came back to London yesterday for
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: a big celebration of the Joint Expeditionary Force and he
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: met with the prime ministers of Finland and Sweden and
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: they had a trilateral meeting following the Joint Expeditionary Force summit,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: and this is all about shoring up European securely in
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: the face of an increasingly aggressive Russia. And of course
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: you know this is all about the Arctic and so on.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: So they pushed out this little piece of video over
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: social media. But how great it was that he was
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: there promoting warfare and so on in the country with
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: these various leaders from the Nordic countries and other Joint
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Expeditionary Force countries. And so the question is why all
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: the interest. Well, of course we have to go back
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: a few months to comments made by Jen Stottenberg to
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: get an idea, because he was talking about NATO not
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: moving into the South China Sea. But it's about taking
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: a kind of chat is coming closer to us and
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: in the Arctic, in Africa investing heavily in infrastructure, and
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: China and Russia investing heavily in infrastructure in the Arctic
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: because they see the Arctic roots as being another potential
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: silk road route. So earlier in the year we talked
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: about Exercise Steadfast Defender in the Arctic. This is a
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: major NATO exercise. The Arctic a major place of interest
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: at the moment, and if we go back to earlier
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: in the year, this report from the House of Lords,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: our friends in the North UK strategy towards the Arctic.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: This is from the International Relations and Defense Committee. And
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: if you remember what this says, let me just remind
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: you developments in the Arctic of critical importance. Of course,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: it's all related to climate change, because average temperatures are
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: changing and this opens up this new route for trade
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: and so on, and so although the region was once
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: an area of high cooperation and low tension, that is changing.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: They said, reduced sea ice coverage. As you can see there,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: the Arctic now less insulated from geopolitical developments. Russia China,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Russia China. This is really the narrative that is being
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: developed at the moment. The Arctic will remain central to
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Russia's military and strategic thinking. The military setbacks it's suffered
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: in Ukraine. We laugh about that statement, and Finland and
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Sweden's NATO accession will only increase the importance of the
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: region for Russia's leadership in the meantime. That's from politics.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: What about the media. We've just been bombarded over the
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: months with this type of headline from the Express, malign
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Putin eyes new co wars. He plots from Arctic to
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: attack the UK. The Guardian view on the Arctic threatened
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: by Putin's war, Russia and China opening new anti Western
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: front in the Arctic, says of Financial Times, and the
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Thing tanks out it as well. This is the European
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: leadership network countering Russia's hybrid threats in the Arctic. So
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: the Arctics as being presented as the next front or
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: a new front in this war between US and Russia
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: and China if we look at or go back to
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: March twenty twenty three or April twenty twenty three. Sorry,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: of course, we had Finland signing its accession to NATO
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: and entering NATO for the first time. And here we
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: are eighteen months later and Finland signing what they describe
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: as a defense cooperation agreement with the United States, and
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: this allows the US to occupy fifteen Finnish military bases,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: five in the high North right up against the Russian border,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: and permission to store and equipment and weapons on finished
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: store soil. Sorry. So what Finland has effectively done here
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: is they've joined NATO and they have permitted themselves to
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: be occupied by the United States, just as other European
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: countries are. It didn't end there, of course, because Sweden
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: decided to join as well. And this was in March
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: this year, David Cameron saying, seventy five years after his creation,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: we're celebrating in Needle that's never been stronger and more important,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: especially following Sweden's accession last month. So he said that
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: in April this year, and here we are a few
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: months later, and Sweden has also signed a defense cooperation
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: agreement with the United States, and in this case, this
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: allows the US to occupy seventeen Swedish military bases and
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: training grounds across Sweden. And in addition, the United States
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: will have the right to deploy units, store military equipment,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: and carry out defense exercises in Sweden. So another country
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: being occupied by the United States. We are militarizing at
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: a rate we've never seen, certainly in our lifetimes. And
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: this is all about pushing and keeping pressure on Russia
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: and China. But let's not forget, of course, Nettle denies
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: that this is about keeping pressure on Russia because they
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: have this page setting the record straight debunking Russian disinformation
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: on NATO, and you know, this is part of it.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: The claim that NATO is encircling Russia, they absolutely deny.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: They say, no one has backed Russia in a corner.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: It's hard to encircle the country with eleven time zones. Well,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: of course, the big point here, of course, is that
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: most of Russia is unoccupied. It's the western portion which
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: is occupied, and we absolutely in the West have encircled that,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: and we continue to encircle that, particularly with these new
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: agreements with Sweden and Finland. By new, I mean in
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: the last couple of months. So you know that this
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: is putting on precedented and really intolerable pressure on Russia.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: And what on earth do we expect the result of
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: that to be?
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: Absolutely I mean to talk about kicking the hornets nest
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: and totally disingenuous to talk about not encircling when we
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: think back to the nineteen ninety statement of not moving
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: one inch to the east as far as NATO was concerned.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: So this is this is definitely upping the anti And
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: I'm interested by the references to Africa in particular whether
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: it's form for America in effect piggybacking off loose or
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: perhaps not quite so loose alliances between the United Kingdom
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: and the Nordic States with engagement certainly at the sort
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: of defense diplomacy level in Africa, which has in effect
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: been to do away with the Russian or Chinese interests
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: in the region. So this is this is i would say,
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: magnifying that sort of play as it were, and transferring it,
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: transposing it onto the Arctic, which of course is of
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: gigantic strategic significant.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Vanessa, that's welcome you to the program. Before we move
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: on to Syria. Have you got any thoughts on that?
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: Sorry, right, okay, it looks like we've got to have
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: another day of problems from it. We're on Avenue.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Let's just move on, Vanessa to HTS in Syria and
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: let's see if we can hear what you're saying. So
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: this is the BBC saying that Iran is canceling Sorry
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: at CNN Council's interview with a Radian president over headscarf demand.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so this was back in twenty twenty. This is
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: just to demonstrate the hypocrisy. I apologize for the internet
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: connection in Lobanon. It's notoriously bad. So this was in
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: twenty twenty, during the implementing of anti government urvor in
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: Iran by Western media agencies, and this was CNN cancel's
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: interview with the Iranian president over a headscraff demand.
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: In fact, what happened was the.
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: Presidentec put in a polite request that if Christian armandor
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: could cover a head in the interview, and this was
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: used and weaponized against the Aferrment. However, hhd as formally
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: al Qaeda and Jorlani formally ISIS and al Qaeda. When
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: he asks for CNN journalist Dromana Karashe to wear a headscarf,
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: she beautifully abates about this interview, which was I think
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: broadcast about fifteen days ago. No less than that, sorry,
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: ten days ago, he is seen wearing a headscraft, indifferent
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: to formally al Qaeda and ISIS. So let's have a
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: look at what Jolani, he says in the interview, A
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: great bill.
• 9:41
  Speaker 5: Now in Syria.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: The past, you have talked about strict Islamic rule.
• 9:50
  Speaker 6: Is that still the plan?
• 9:52
  Speaker 7: Than let people who fear Islamic governance either have seen
• 9:56
  Speaker 7: incorrect implementations of it or do not understand it proper.
• 10:00
  Speaker 7: We are talking about something that aligns with the traditions
• 10:03
  Speaker 7: and nature of the region's.
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: It really because if we look at the history of
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: HDS rule in Edla, going way back, we see articles
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: from Syrian human rights groups another wave of summary executions
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: by HTS and EDULOP which took place between December twenty
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: nineteen and late April twenty twenty on charges of adultery
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: and pressing God. However, those executions included women, and they
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: included people that were considered to have relations with the
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: then Syrian government and then more recently so this was
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: in October of this year, between reformist discourse and actual repression.
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: How HDS handled the IDLIB pros and if we look
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: at just one section of this report, there is a
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: whole downloadable pd So this is from one activist against
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: HBS rule inside IDLIB, saying that they began to exert
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: significant pressure on the city's residents who opposed their control,
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: such as arresting revolutionary figures to challenge their presence and authority,
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: depriving bakeries of flowers supplies, controlling the city's drinking water
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: by cutting allocations to neighborhoods and homes inhabited by opponents,
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: and shutting down revolutionary institutions ie established after the city
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: was liberated from Syrian government forces, whose goal was providing
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: services to the residents. Additionally, they closed the University of
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: Human Medicine, which had around six.
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: Hundred students, due to its.
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: Alleged affiliation with the Syrian interim government and many others.
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: Now, of course, this is completely.
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: Being white washed by the Western media agencies, while of
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: course the US Department of State description of the Islamic
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: public of Iran is a dangerous regime and one where
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: the Iranian people, according to the US State Department, are
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: largely pro Western, but are brutally subjugated by an anti
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: Western religious theocracy. So I'm just trying to demonstrate here
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: the absolute apocracy of Western reporting, both by government agencies
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: and by media agencies. And then let's move on to
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: what HTS are actually bringing into pertail any opposition inside
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: Syria itself.
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: So this was a few days ago.
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: The Information Ministry of Syria's transitional government announced that wal
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: correspondents who worked under the former regime under President A
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: Third's government would face trial. The announcement follows a pledge
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: by Hyataria or Sham, a dominant faction in the region,
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: that it would not prosecute for journalists operating inside Syria.
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: It's kind of cracked down.
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: Is obviously still going to be an element of HTS's governance,
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: despite all of the media's attempts to present it as otherwise.
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: And this was reported in Lamont on the executions that
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: we showed last week on UK column video show summary
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: execution of a sad regime henchman. It's quite extraordinary how
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: this is being framed, almost as if it's absolutely acceptable
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: that anyone that is summarily an arbitrarily decided is a
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: henchman of the Assad government is to be legitimately executed
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: or tortured. And again we're back to the description of Iran.
• 13:42
  Speaker 5: The shadow of the.
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: Gallows looms over Iran, but no mention of the gallows
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: that are being established in cities like Homs and Homer
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: in Syria to execute back again to be a sad henchman.
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: And I want to play this report or as section
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: of the report by Jeremy Bowen when he's covering the
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: potential summary execution of and a sad henchman in Damascus,
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: so much.
• 14:10
  Speaker 5: Just play this.
• 14:13
  Speaker 8: The man they wanted hanged had been the local boss,
• 14:15
  Speaker 8: a thief, as well as a killer. Somehow they decided
• 14:19
  Speaker 8: the execution was happening down the street and stampeded. If
• 14:23
  Speaker 8: serious new rulers do not want change to be measured
• 14:26
  Speaker 8: in blood, they will need to control the desire for revenge.
• 14:30
  Speaker 9: There's a real strong sense of excitement, expectation, anger as well.
• 14:39
  Speaker 8: They want to see this man dead.
• 14:42
  Speaker 9: They don't just want justice to be done, they want
• 14:46
  Speaker 9: to see it being done not just because of his crimes,
• 14:51
  Speaker 9: but because of the boundless cruels.
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: And this is simply not journalism.
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: This is jingoism on Varro for HTS and the overthrower
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: of the Syrian government, which of course the BBC was
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: heavily involved with through BBC media action from two thousand
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: and four onwards. There is absolutely no evidence that the
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: individual that Bowen is talking about is a killer. He
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: hasn't gone through any kind of trial or prosecution process.
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: And Bowen is literally, in my opinion, in that video,
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: advocating for the execution of former government officials. Then we
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: come on to the appointees in the various government positions
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: throughout Syria under the control of HTS. So we have
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: the Al Sham, one of the splinter groups terrorist splinter
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: groups never prescribed as a terrorist group, nevertheless carried out
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: terrorist activities in Syria since twenty eleven. So the leader
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: of Varal sham Amir al shteakted as the governor of
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: the countryside of Damascus and former arl Shan leader Hassan
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: Suffan appointed as governor of Latakia. And of course Latakia
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: is the area where many of the Alawhites and Shia
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: Muslims and even employees of government agencies have fled for safety.
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: So let's have a look at erl Shant's record of
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: terrorist activity. Us UK and France refused to designate them
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: even though they were partners of al Qaeda or Jabahat
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: al Mushra.
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: They were not designated terrorist groups.
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: But on the tenth and the eleventh of May twenty sixteen,
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: they invaded the Shia villages of Nobel and Zara to
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: the northwest of a Leper and carried out one of
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: the most henous massacres of the fourteen years, murdering children, women,
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: civilians en mass and actually they were never really condemned
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: for that, but they are now basically back in areas
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: where those same minority sects are taking shelter and I
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: just wanted to finally show this video which demonstrates the
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: number of Shia Muslim in particular who are now being
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: Syria because they fear persecution and the ethnic cleansing programs
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: that we've seen already going on. So this is at
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: the border are the main border between Syria and Leven.
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: Just a very quick video to show how many people
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: have gathered there for enter Lebanon and then potentially continue
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: to Iraq.
• 17:35
  Speaker 5: So let's just have a look at that.
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: Nania and Mustna Hi Shia Suria.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: That's Leary and Moon. For sure, my part of the
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: money sell.
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: We're nice there in a large I do.
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: So.
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: I mean, you know, what is going on in reality
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: on the ground is not being We're not being told
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: about by the media agencies that are there on the
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: ground alongside HTS.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: We heard everything, which is absolutely fantastic. So that was brilliant.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: What wasn't so brilliant, however, was Jeremy Bowne's report. And
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: I have to say that's the second time I've watched
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: that and it doesn't get any better. Why why where
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: do we even start with us? Because because the BBC
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: has been very much promoting the activities of his ts
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: as being something almost like statecraft, when in fact it
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: is just terrorism. Yeah.
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, they've continued their role, as we've talked about many
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: times on uk Conum, from two thousand and four until
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: twenty eleven, when of course they were again presenting the
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: terrorist groups as legitimate political opposition to the Syrian government.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: Yes, okay, well look I want to just take one
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: example of this and get your thoughts on it afterwards.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: So here's the BBC saying this morning, life in Idlib
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: hints at what Syria can expect from rebel rule. Now
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: in part of your in your main report there you
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: were absolutely showing what life in Idlib was like under
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: the so called rebel rule in fact, and it involved
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: summary executions and other things. So this is hugo bechega.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: If we just put that back on screen for a
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: second and you could see in the subhead under the
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: or the the caption under the image, it says Hyat
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: trell Sham brought some semblance of stability to EdLib in
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: twenty seventeen after years of civil war. Now we could
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: laugh at that, but actually this is extremely serious because
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: my question is when we saw the likes of Richard
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Medhurst and several others being arrested recently because of comments
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: that they made which were allegedly supportive of Hamas. We
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: now have mainstream mainstream media journalists and politicians absolutely offering
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: support for a prescribed terrorist group and that is HTS.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: It's still prescribed and whether or not the British government
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: goes on to de prescribe it, which is what they're
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: talking about doing, the statements were made while it was
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: prescribed and this is against the law. So let's just
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: remind ourselves of what the law is. Section twelve of
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: TAK two thousand makes it an offense to support for
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: a prescribed organization, express an opinion or belief that is
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: supportive of a prescribed organization, or to arrange, manage, or
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: assist in arranging or managing a meeting in support of
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: a prescribed organization, and mainstream media and politicians are doing
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: all of those things. Now, do we live under the
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: rule of law or not? Because kir Starmer will be
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: the first to say that we do. Sorry, I'll rephrase that,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Kir Starmer will be the first to lie that we do.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: And this is a clear demonstration that he is lying
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: when he says it, because clearly politicians and the mainstream
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: media with respect to the terrorism MAC two thousand are
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: above the law. They can say what they like when
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: it is expedient with respect to whichever terrorists they want
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: to be in charge of a country at the time.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: So I'm going to bring this BBC article back on
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: screen again and ask why has Hugo Pajega not had
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: a visit from counter terrorism police in this country? Why
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: has kir Starmer not had a visit from counter terrorism police?
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Why has our illustrious foreign secretary not had a visit
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: from counter terrorism police. These are the questions that we
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: need to ask. And I'll just say that I have
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: asked Kundter terrorism Police for a statement on this. They
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: haven't got back to me yet, and if they do
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: get back to me before Friday's program, I will be
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: mentioning it on Friday's program, of course, But these questions,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Vanessa have to be asked. I don't know if you've
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: got any thoughts on.
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: That, well, yeah, I mean, it's absolutely appalling that people
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: who are protesting genocide are being arrested because that's being
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: framed as them supporting a prescribed terrorist organization that is
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: no bread to UK security, as we've discussed many times,
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: but an actual terrorist group that has prescribed universally, it's
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: okay for the BBC to fraternize with them, to promote them,
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: to give them a platform, and to present them, as
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: I said, as legitimate opposition. And the BBC has done
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: this for some time, if you remember we covered it
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: regarding the Captagon report they put out years ago in
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: collaboration various other golf major outlets.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: Have you any thoughts on this?
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think just on the legislation side of it,
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: there's an argument suggests that not just the government but
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: also the entire BBC would be liable under Section one
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: as well, because we talked about it a bit last week.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: But sub section five of Section one of the Terrorism
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: as in the definition of terrorism, includes activities for the
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: benefit of a prescribed organization. And bearing in mind that
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: the action itself in Section one is to influence either
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: the population or a section of the population, one can
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: see how the BBC's activity is absolutely designed to influence
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: the population for the benefit of a prescribed organization. So
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: I would say on two counts, it just suggests that
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: you know what one rule for THEE and everybody else
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: just gets off scot free.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: Indeed, okay, well let's come on to violent disorder.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean in a sense related to this, in
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: the way that the law is well the criminal justice
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: system flexes its muscles and turns out to be exercise.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: But this goes back to the Home Secretary commissioning a
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: report or at least an analysis of what happened earlier
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: in the summer with the multiple incidents of violent disorder
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: up and down the country. And today the Inspectorate of
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: Constabulary Foreign Rescue Services has published a report written by
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: the Inspector himself, Andy Cook.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Now this is part one of.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: Two and this deals with the capacity, capability, coordination, mobilization
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: and wellbeing of the police. It's very much focused on
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: the police and not necessarily those that were conducting what
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: was being described as the violent disorder. And that's a
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: significant point to make in terms of the themes of
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: the report, because what it does fail to do is
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: to look at why the violent disorder took place and
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: specifically who was concerned with it. Of course UK Column
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: reported thoroughly at the time and subsequently those who in
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: effect were made an example of in the words of
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: the various judges that sent people down for sentences that
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: could be regarded as well over the top, especially people
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: who were not actually even engaged in violent disorder itself.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: They're keen to point out that this concerns people's right
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: to protest, but of course a reminder that due to
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: the restrictions on human rights in terms of infringing upon
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: those of others, that should not be regarded in any
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: way as absolute. They give a timeline and the build
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: up to the violent disorder itself, making a specific reference
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: to Tommy Robinson and one of the marches that he
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: held beforehand, effectively suggesting not only that he was instrumental
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: in stirring up what was characterized as effectively sort of
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: racial hatred or racially motivated incidents, but of course an
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: interesting one for the government in that specifically much of
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: the narrative coming from his direction is of course pro Israeli,
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: so in a way suiting the government's agenda on two counts.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: It describes our disorders as spreading and indeed specifically targeting
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: the police. So it's not so much suggesting that there
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: was any organic development of this, but as though police
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: in responding to this fueled the fire of the disorder itself,
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: and that the police, by failing to deploy some of
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: their specialists public order and public safety units, were hampering
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: their ability to be able to deal with it. But
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: of course, in remedying or apparently remedying the series of
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: events of violent disorder, it wasn't made entirely clear whether
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: this was in spite of or as a result or
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: sorry or because of police interventions. But they essentially the
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: purpose of the report is to try to suggest how
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: police can get better at dealing with the problem, rather
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: than understanding it and indeed making sure that it's not
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: going to happen in the first place. They go back
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: to the National Risk Register of twenty twenty three, in
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: which violent disorder, of course is described as being highly unpredictable,
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: which course is entirely fair enough. The reason that I
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: say that this follows well the segment we've just heard
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: on terrorism and indeed the effectively two tier system, is
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: that there is a very much woven through this the
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: suggestion that due to a lot of or an increase
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: of misinformation and disinformation from the far right, that it
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: was really a threat from a specific sector of society
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: and that's really where blame should be apportioned. And just
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: to quote that, they say that nationalist sentiment seem to
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: have fueled some incident. Of course, the suggestion there being
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: that to be nationalist or to express nationalist sentiment is
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: the wrong thing to do. Talk about gaps in intelligence,
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: but this is something that's due to come out in
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: the second report next year, and indeed the mobilization being
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: too late, but the Home Sectuary appears to want to
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: enhance the police capacity to be able to deal with this,
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: and specifically they're resilience to events like this, which is
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: why the well being outcome was of course referred to. Now,
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: just to set the context in terms of response and
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: police abilities to respond, it should be made clear that
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: police forces do not have a sort of standing interoperable
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: capability and that all their communications platforms are separate, so
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: in times like this to be able to communicate with
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: each other on ad hoc basis is always challenging. Same
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: goes for equipment where they get to buy and choose
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: their own kit, and therefore it's very difficult to have
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: any sort of national response. Despite what the government might say,
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: and it'd have said they made three recommendations and one
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: might say, well, same old thing. Are they actually going
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: to be acted on? But they're suggesting that the National
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: Police Chiefs Council, the College of Policing and the Home
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: Office should plan for further capacity and capability, specifically with
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: regard to develop disorder and for mobilizing public order support
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: and of course well being support. Now whether or not
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: they're actually going to do this and whether it will
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: make any difference remains to be seen. I think what
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: should be considered is that this has come out at
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: a time that the Home Office put out a series
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: of tweets, first of all saying that there's going to
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: be one billion pounds extra in police funding, that they're
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: going to be tackling youth radicalization, and indeed that there's
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: another six hundred and thirty nine million phones out for
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: national security. But the critical question that comes out of
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: this really is what bearing is it going to have
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: on what should exist at the core of all policing,
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: which is operational independence from the Home Office. And of
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: course it was only recent that Evat Cooper announced that
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: there would be police reform involving a much closer working
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: relationship between police chiefs and the Home Office. So we'll
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: wait to see what comes out in the second report
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: next year. But in effect this deals not one jot
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: with the causes of the violent disorder and specifically whether
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: there was any orchestration or whether there was an organic
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: development of such disorder in the first place.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Charles Okay. If you like what the UK
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Colm does you would like to support us, head over
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: to support dot UK colun dot org. You can help
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: us out in a number of ways. You could make
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: a donation, you join as a member, which of course
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: gives you access to extra content and members on the content.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: You can pick something up with the UK column Shop,
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: or if you pick something up with Clivedacar dot com
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: using the link on this page. Then we do receive
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: a small percentage of every sale, although it doesn't cost
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: you any more to do that. And maybe for Christmas
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: you'd like to get somebody a membership give Fight show.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: That would be a nice present perhaps for your life
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: in their hands. We want to continue to promote that,
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: particularly if you're abroad and weren't able to buy it
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: the first time Ruand in the meantime, if you can't
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: do any of that stuff, that is fine, but if
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: you could share our material that helps us massively as well.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: So the videos, articles, blogs will have share links, please
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: use them if you possibly can. Tomorrow an interview going
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: out with Jims Lindsey at one pm.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: Charles absolutely yes, his second with UK column first interviewed
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: in March twenty twenty three, so I would encourage you
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: to listen to that before this to set the context.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: But effectively, he gives an update on his worldview. In particular,
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: he deals with what he describes as the west susceptibility
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: to the woke mind virus and how that could have
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: come out, And specifically he talks about his perception that
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: Marxism is being weaponized now not just by the left
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: but also by the right, a hypothesis that he has
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: tested and said indeed that he has found to be true.
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: And also he talks about his new film Beneath Sheep's Clothing.
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: So a great interview with James Lindsay going out tomorrow.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: Okay, and anybody that missed the discussion with Dan Cleman
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: on children and libraries and sexual grooming that went out
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: yesterday at one pm. It's on the website and I
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: do have a look at that if possibly can now
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: we've just been talking about the BBC, Charles and what's
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: happening with money.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: Well, indeed be said that UK Colin devotes a considerable
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: amount of time to the BBC, but necessarily so. And today, sorry,
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: today we'll talk about a report published a couple of
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: weeks ago by Offcom, their annual report on the BBC
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: for the last year. Now, this is notable because there
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: are two significant changes, the new Operating License which came
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: into effect in March last year, and the Media Act
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: of twenty twenty four which came into effect in August
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: of this year. I would say what drops out of
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: that in terms of key points is that Ofcom's amongst
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: Ofcom's new responsibilities is one too secure prominence for public
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: service broadcaster content. Now, obviously BBC is not exclusive in
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: that respect to Channel four. Of course it would be
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: applicable to as well. But the direction of travel is
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: absolutely about the BBC. And indeed it should be noted
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: that Offcom is of course funded by the networks that
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: it reports on, so similar to very many sort of
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: extra governmental bodies insofar as the circle turns inwardly. Now
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: the context of the report, they put forward a very
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: familiar narrative, which is that we've had a year of
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: escalating conflict and multiple national elections. I think it would
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: be reasonable to assume they're talking about the elections concerning
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: Keir Starmer and Donald Trump in particular. They talk about
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: audience habits changing rapidly, but specifically with regard to the
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: young and the use of social media for news content,
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: and specifically with that in mind, the rapid rise of
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: again what we're talking about as misinformation and disinformation, as
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: the audience struggle to identify what to trust. Is the
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: way that offcom put it now. Of course, their solution
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: is to say that they were not so much solution,
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: But what they say is that the challenges are highlighting
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: the importance that the BBC role plays and the need
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: to find new ways to deliver to audiences and retain
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: that element of trust. So they talk about investing heavily
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: in BBC Verify for the TikTok audience. Therefore the youth audience,
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: and indeed critical wording here against their mission to inform
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: and educate, And when we consider that we have the
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: young in mind, those words take on great significance and
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: indeed are worthy of much scrutiny, I would say. Now,
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: on the same day as this was released, the government
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: put out a press release in effect confirming what it
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: might be said that the UK column viewer might hope for,
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: which is that the BBC's financial sustainability is in some jeopardy,
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: the critical sentence here being the broadcaster now faces increased
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: global competition from streaming giants, changing viewing habits, and a
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: decline in license fee income of more than thirty percent. Now,
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: they don't, in fact suggest exactly when this is from
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: and to. I don't think it can be reasonable that
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: it's dropped that much in the last year, as much
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: as one might consider that to be a good outcome
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: for all concerned. But they in response to this talking
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: about the pumping thirty million pounds into the World Service.
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: Of course, Michael Brown has spoken much about BBC mediation
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: in the last couple of weeks and specifically therefore the
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: shaping of narratives around the world. I think that that's
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: worth noting. But the thing I really want to come
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: into is what they're calling the Simple Payment Plan and
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: the way in which they are suggesting that there is
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: increased help and support for those on lower incomes and
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: those being described as vulnerable in order to ensure that
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: they can still have access to BBC content. And they're
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: estimating that there might be as many as half a
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: million more people going on to such schemes. And of
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: course this is where the TV licensing body comes into it,
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: because they are tasked with, or at least we're told
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: they are tasked with, enforcing the payment system. But it
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: should be remembered that they are a trademark of the
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: BBC and they're used underlicense by companies contracted by the
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: BBC to collect the license fee and enforcement of the
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: television licensing system. Now, I might suggest that it's not
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: so much enforcing the television licensing system. They are in
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: forcing viewing of BBC content. And the way in which
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: this is done is I would say, effectively somewhat nefarious,
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: but of course the end result being viewing of or
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: consumption of more state propaganda. And just to finish on
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: a quote from Lisa Nandy which was in the statement
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: from the government or the press release, she says something
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: that I think she didn't mean this way, but I
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: would interpret it entirely differently. She said the BBC provides
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: much needed programming for households across the country, including children's education.
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: So it seems fairly clear that despite the diminishing returns
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: from the BBC, the government are absolutely determined that their
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: mouthpiece must not be compromised and they're prepared to throw
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: sufficient money at it to ensure that people are educated
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: and informed in the way that they see fit.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: Indeed, Vanessa, let's welcome you back and talk about asylum
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: since the Syrian conflict emerged.
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, you know, we're seeing hypocrisy across the board,
• 38:06
  Speaker 4: not only as we mentioned the media outlets, but also
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: from European Regmeme.
• 38:12
  Speaker 5: And so on.
• 38:13
  Speaker 4: So now having open to their borders who what were
• 38:19
  Speaker 4: probably majority members of the various extremist groups that were
• 38:23
  Speaker 4: being funded by the West to destabilize.
• 38:25
  Speaker 5: Syria from twenty eleven onwards.
• 38:27
  Speaker 4: I'm not saying all of the refugees were from these groups,
• 38:30
  Speaker 4: but I would say a large majority were. They opened
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: those borders in order to also weaponize the refugee crisis
• 38:37
  Speaker 4: against President Asad and the Syrian government. Now now are
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: genuine minorities in Syria, including Christian Alohite and that are
• 38:46
  Speaker 4: in danger of ethnic cleansing.
• 38:49
  Speaker 5: Displacement and execution euro.
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: Trea's whole Syrian asylum applications after as aids fall. So
• 38:57
  Speaker 4: let's have a look at the countries that are actually
• 38:59
  Speaker 4: involved in that. Austria, Belgium, the UK, Croatia, Czech Republic, Thenmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland,
• 39:11
  Speaker 4: Sweden and Switzerland. And at the same time Austria is
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: putting forward a proposal that basically Syrian's wanting to return
• 39:22
  Speaker 4: to Syria. In other words, I would suggest the terrorist
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: factions that left Syria during the war for Liberation are
• 39:31
  Speaker 4: now being given one thousand euros to return to Syria
• 39:35
  Speaker 4: to reinforce the HGS groups back inside Syria. While there
• 39:41
  Speaker 4: will be many of the minority factions that dus the
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: war between twenty eleven and let's say twenty twenty who
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: are really not going to speA keen on returning, and
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: of course the potential is.
• 39:54
  Speaker 5: That they will be to return.
• 39:57
  Speaker 4: So again just extraordinary hypocrisy from the particular and from
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: the UK.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, thank you for that. No will be both
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: another devolution a second which is largely being driven apparently
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: by NED cereal and climate change policy. But what about
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: the trees.
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: Trees again obviously very much instrumental in the crafting of
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: the net zero agenda, sort of a seasonal one here
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: to do with Christmas trees. Ecochain have come out with
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: the staggering announcement that fake trees are less environmentally friendly
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: than real trees, because real trees, of course, can only
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: emit the common dix side that they stored whilst they
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: were alive. No enormous surprise there, but it does take
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: us on to considering the Forestry Commission, who of course
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: hold the remit for managing so many of the woodlands
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: across the United Kingdom, most particularly in England, and this
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: is their recruitment advertisement now sharing a diverse population of
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: employees and how much fun people can have planting trees
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: and being amongst them. But of course there is a
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: serious side to this, which is that they are bound
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: in a statutory sense, as has come out in their
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: recently published report and accounts to go along with, of
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: course all the various pieces of legislation concerning climate change
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: and net zero. So their remit, which goes back to
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: nineteen nineteen when of course they were tasked with restocking
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: the forests and woodlands in order to prepare timber for
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: practical uses. But now, of course they're in pursuit of
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: the thirty by thirty target for biodiversity to adhere to
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and many such other things.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: Significant to note course that they have a target of
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: increasing woodland areas in England by seven five hundred hectares
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: every year. Now in current statistics that would be replacing
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: approximately ninety farms on an average figure of eighty two
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: hectares each and with the recent rage over the agricultural
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: property relief inheritance tax situation, it is a huge consideration.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: Again at a time where the population is expanding. Food
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: security is course massive concern, as is economic inactivity. But
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: the Forestry Commission talk about having greater freedoms to generate
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: greater income streams. Now this looks very much like what
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: they're going to be examining, or at least looking at,
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: is opportunities for enhancing what's called natural capitals. Is essentially
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: creating a financial instrument on environmental or natural assets which
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: is then used as a mechanism for trading, mostly to
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: do with offsetting against various schemes climate related schemes, but
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: of course for whose benefit is always the question, And
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: we look at Gresham House, a special investment specialist talking
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: about strong institutional demand for natural capital investments according to
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: new research now effective. This means that it provides enormous
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: corporate opportunities to invest in the development of woodland. But
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: of course the fallout for the average person is that
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: this will see the likelihood of having to pay to
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: access these sorts of areas of what have described as
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: natural capital. The any other things to pull out of
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: the report just to effectively make such a nonsense of
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: the net zero strategy is that the only fifty percent
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: of woodland is actually actively managed, and indeed that the
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: carbon emissions of the Forestry Commission have gone up this
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: year as opposed to down, which seems quite incredible. It's
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: also worth noting they made a point of saying that
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: they hadn't managed to expand their electronic vehicle fleet because
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: of the operational restrictions, effectively saying that it's simply not
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: practical to use electric vehicles for the types of activity
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: that they have to conduct. And if the Forestry Commission,
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: of all people are unable to do it, then why
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: should the rest of the popuation be subject to the
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: sorts of edicts that, of course we are. And again
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: the other point to make, as I say, with food
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: security and an expanding population in mind, is the fact
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: that they have a target of increasing England's woodlands to
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: sixteen and a half percent of land area from fourteen
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: and a half percent. So with all the development of
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: the countryside in other areas, it'll be very interesting to
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: see if there is pushback against this. But of course,
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: with the incentives on the green finance side and the
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: fact that Forestry Commission is stating that it has greater
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: freedom to increase revenue, albeit virtual revenue, it does open
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: up a number of questions for people who want to
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: access woodland and indeed use land in other ways.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: So related in some ways. The English Devolution Wide paper
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: was published a couple of days ago by the government
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: and it has caused quite a stir around the place.
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: So let's just have a look at what they're saying
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: in this. They want to amalgamate county and other local
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: councils in the so called strategic authorities. They want to
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: deepen the power of mayors. They say that areas that
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: will take on a mayor. So they're not forcing this
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: on anyone, but they're bringing in major benefits for anybody
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: that wants to follow this devolution line, so they'll be
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: major benefits for those. But this will cause a postponement
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: of some local elections. So why would that be Well,
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: let's see the comment from Jim McMahon, the Local Government Minister.
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: This was in Parliament the other day. In all things,
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: I try to be direct and I've been directed saying
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: that if those councils had come to the government with
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: a request for reorganization, meet the test and I have
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: a credible program in place, the elections will likely not
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: place take place until early until the year after because
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: they will be postponed to elect the shadow authority that
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: would replace the county and the districts. We're clear on
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: that to give the Honorable Lady assurance there will not
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: be a mass canceling of elections for the sake of it.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: That's what he said. Of course, a number of people,
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: including Nigel faraji've come out and said that this is
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: effectively dictatorship because local elections being canceled. Any interference with
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: elections in this way is quite beyond the pale as
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: far as he concerned. Now, I just want to make
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: the point briefly. Of course, this will only be a
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: surprise to anybody if you haven't been paying attention to
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: what UK columns been doing for so many years. So
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: let's just remind ourselves of some of the articles that
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: we've published on this topic and this topic of devolution.
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: What they're doing here and putting par into the hands
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: of mayors, so global parliament mayors and the abolition of
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: the electorate. I think that's quite president Bearing in mind
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: we've just discussed Mayor's user big nation states in quest
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: to fight climate change, meet the Urban seven, the bridge
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: from Global cities to world governance policy circles, the Resilient
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: Cities program. The article after article Brexit is Britain democracy
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: all but dead. And so you know, Nigel Farash must
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: have been asleep frankly if he's only getting motivated about
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: this now, because this was published in twenty nineteen and
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: we were talking about exactly what's going on at the
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: moment at that time. Distraction politics in the long March
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: towards global government. Also from Martin Edwards, an entire separate
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: series on this development of one world governance. Now, so
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: what are they talking about? Strategic authorities? The government will
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: create in law the concept of a strategic authority. All
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: strategic authorities will belong to one of the They're setting
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: up various levels. These notes that I'm just reading out
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: here came from lawyers from Light of Light, and so
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: thank you very much to them. Anybody that's not following
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: Lawyers of Light on telegram, please do so. The government
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: will explore enabling mayors to promote economic, social and environmental aims.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: So SDG will be absolutely part of that public private
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: partnership stakeholder capitalism. This is exactly what we're looking at
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: at the moment, and you know, ultimately we are going
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: to end up with the likes of this being in
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: control of our lives. Do we want City can?
• 48:15
  Speaker 4: Do?
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: We like Citi Can? Is he the kind of leader
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: that we want to see running our lives? Or Andy
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: Burnham for that matter. Do we want to see them
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: running our lives? I'm not sure that we do. This
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: is pushing extremely hard at removing the electorate from making
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: from the decision making process, as far as the electorate
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: is even engaged at this point, in time and moving towards.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: As we've been warning for a long time, this Sortissian
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: model of governance and putting the power in the hands
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: of individuals like City Can and Andy Burnham, it's not
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: good for us. And well any.
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: Thoughts, Well, I think in these societies that purport to
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: be modern liberal democracy is shining examples to the rest
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: of the world. It seems uncanny how many times elections
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: are jeopardized by other events. That's I think all I
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: would say on it.
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: Yes, okay, well let's move on to Ivian influenza.
• 49:13
  Speaker 4: Then.
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: Yes, the bird flu narrative is well underway, and the
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: reporting from DEPHRA has been that there are an increase
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: in cases and that poultry flocks, particularly in the East
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: of England, have been humanly culled. Of course, there is
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: absolutely nothing humane about it, and indeed the fact that
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: it follows further testing, which of course is a closed
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: loop system, does not confirm the existence of bird flu
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: in the first place, and certainly does not confirm that
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: it's a contagious illness, but it does confirm the bias
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: of the PCR test. Anyway, double speak, this is really
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: reference to the destruction of flocks of poultry. I don't
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: have specific numbers, but I have engaged Ephyra and I
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: will have an answer on that. But really a reminder
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: that their statistics suggests that only eleven confirmed cases of
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: poultry have been infected. Now we've spoken in the last
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: couple of weeks about the types of toxins introduced into
• 50:22
  Speaker 2: the food chain, and bearing in mind that the APHA,
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: who are responsible for testing and the destruction of poultry,
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: only consider bird food and only consider the PCR test,
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: it's worth looking at the country file BBC country File
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: Farming Calendar, in which they remind us that during December,
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: cereal crops such as wheat and maize may be sprayed
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: throughout December. Now I'm absolutely not suggesting that it is
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: quite as simple as this, but there is an extraordinary
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: correlation between the density of the wheat crop in the
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: country and indeed the areas that supposedly have what is
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: being described as bird flu shown on the right thereby
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, and of course worth
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: pointing out the human population is perhaps susceptible in this
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: way too. This is the latest data from the UK
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: Health and oh Sorry Health Security Agency showing that INFLUENTA
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: and RSV spike at this time of year, and of
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: course the contagion model does suggest that there is a
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: good reason for that. I'm just suggesting that there are
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: other factors often at play, but of course, such as
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: the grip of the agrichemical complex, that none of this
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: is really ever put out there by the bodies that
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: it should be. For example, the NFU here claiming that
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: pesticide use is certainly not contributing to butterfly decline, but
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: not able to suggest any other reason for it. So
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: just a very very brief update to say that the
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: bird flu slaughter has begun and is liable to continue
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: throughout the into months. But of course the suggestion that
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: avian influenza, or at least the modern government describe is
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: the reason for this is very very tenuous, to say
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: the least.
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: Vanessa, let's bring you back onto the program, back to
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: international affairs, and the question is with what's happened in Syria.
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: What has Russia's response been.
• 52:20
  Speaker 4: Well, people in Syria have seen Russian convoys heading back
• 52:25
  Speaker 4: to their base at Heimomeme on the Syrian coast, back
• 52:30
  Speaker 4: to the EU and their hypocrisy. They are debating pushing
• 52:34
  Speaker 4: Syrian rulers HTS, which is in fact a transitional government,
• 52:38
  Speaker 4: it's not a recognized government yet to ours the Russian army.
• 52:42
  Speaker 4: The Dutch minister says the lifting of sanctions should be conditional.
• 52:46
  Speaker 4: Syria are now controlled by a former affiliate of Al Kay.
• 52:50
  Speaker 4: Don't notice how they're trying to distance them from the
• 52:53
  Speaker 4: terrorist groups that they still are. Now this is a
• 52:57
  Speaker 4: report in the Genus talking about the fact that Russia
• 53:02
  Speaker 4: is potentially going to be pivoting towards Libya, having effectively,
• 53:08
  Speaker 4: let's say, the control very much in Syria because now
• 53:11
  Speaker 4: it's dependent upon Turkey to provide protection for it, while
• 53:17
  Speaker 4: Syria is under the control of the various terrorists and
• 53:20
  Speaker 4: foreign groups because there are Chechen terrorists among the HTS groups,
• 53:25
  Speaker 4: and of course Vegas Chinese extremists that have actually already
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: attacked the Chinese embassy and Damascus. And so there is
• 53:35
  Speaker 4: an idea that Russia is going to pivot towards Libya
• 53:39
  Speaker 4: and slowly reduce its presence in Syria. And if we
• 53:44
  Speaker 4: just have a look at the market will demonstrate where
• 53:47
  Speaker 4: many of the planes, for example from Himomme will finish up,
• 53:52
  Speaker 4: which is in the Al Jaffra air Base, pretty much
• 53:55
  Speaker 4: in the center of Libya, but not far from the coast,
• 53:58
  Speaker 4: a coast of course, which is to a large degree
• 54:01
  Speaker 4: under the control of Turkey. So again we see Turkey
• 54:06
  Speaker 4: featuring very much in Russia's plans, both in Syria and
• 54:10
  Speaker 4: external to Syrian.
• 54:11
  Speaker 5: Of course, for Russia, if we look at this report.
• 54:15
  Speaker 6: By the Institute for the Study of War so the
• 54:19
  Speaker 6: Africa File December the twelfth, Kremlin pivot to Libya or
• 54:22
  Speaker 6: Sudan post Syria tur Et Somalia deal and why is
• 54:27
  Speaker 6: it so important for Russia to maintain a presence either
• 54:32
  Speaker 6: in Western Asia or in Africa. It will turn to
• 54:36
  Speaker 6: Libya to mitigate its reliance on or to replace as
• 54:39
  Speaker 6: Syrian basis. Libya is crucially the only country with a
• 54:42
  Speaker 6: Russian military presence in Africa that Russian cargo planes can
• 54:46
  Speaker 6: diach from Russia without refueling. Heavier cargo planes can reach
• 54:50
  Speaker 6: Libya only by flying over Turkish airspace. This range issue
• 54:55
  Speaker 6: will increase the political leverage that Turkey will hold over
• 54:58
  Speaker 6: Russia or the practical costs supporting Russian operations in Africa.
• 55:03
  Speaker 6: If more cargo planes stop to refuel the other airfields.
• 55:06
  Speaker 4: So Russia facing also a fairly uncertain future in the
• 55:11
  Speaker 4: region as a result of what happened in Syria.
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: Yes, and I mean, if you got any sort of
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: thoughts on Turkey's role in this whole thing, and h
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: Turkey is likely to play this because Turkey seems to
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: have been trying to play both sides of the coin
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: for quite a long time.
• 55:30
  Speaker 4: Now, Yeah, I mean Turkey always, Turkey at the moment
• 55:34
  Speaker 4: is in a very strong position because it has control,
• 55:38
  Speaker 4: particularly of the Muslim brotherhood factions that now have control
• 55:41
  Speaker 4: over Syria. It has some influence over HTS and the
• 55:45
  Speaker 4: group's affiliated to HTS, and of course it is a
• 55:51
  Speaker 4: NATO member state. And now what we're saying, as I said,
• 55:54
  Speaker 4: is that Russia is now far more dependent on Turkey
• 55:57
  Speaker 4: than it ever was prior to the fall of the
• 56:00
  Speaker 4: sorry and government, and so Turkey now is in a
• 56:04
  Speaker 4: much stronger position was during I said presidency.
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, thank you, thank you for that. Vanessa. Okay,
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: we're gonna finish then with this, because we were talking
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: about the backlog in court cases that exists in the
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: UK at the moment, seventy three thousand cases still to
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: be heard, well, the UK government has decided to announce
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: yesterday that there will be a further two thousand sitting
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: days made available, so judges will will sit for two
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: thousand more days. That will bring the total of one
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: hundred eight thousand, five hundred days this year for hearing
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: court cases. That's judge days, of course, and this is
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: the highest figure almost in a decade. They say, and
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: this is helping to tackle the court backlog. And this
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: is the latest, excuse me, the littest step in the
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: government's efforts to cut the backlog, deliver for victims and
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: drive down the record remand population. So what they seem
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: to be saying is that by bringing these cases forward
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: where there are people in remand, that they will find
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: them guilty of their crimes and then put them back
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: in prison, and that's going to help the prison population.
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: You buy that for a dollar deal?
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: Not yet, No, I mean I might have to heard
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: a few more times before I believe it, but maybe okay.
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: Well, of course, as we were saying on the last
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: time I was on this program, and this is a
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: really important point. I believe this is only part of
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: or is the excuse for bringing Lord Brian Levison back
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: to investigate reforming the court system. So government planning once
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: in the generation reforms of the court system, and as
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: to say, Brian Levison being brought back for that, and
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: of course what for and this is the the im
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: is to have empty chairs in jury boxes in the courts.
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: So in their press release for this extra two thousand
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: sitting days that they released yesterday, these reforms they said
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: could include intermediate courts for cases too serious for magistrates
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: courts but not serious enough for crime court could be
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: heard by a judge flanked by magistrates and this is
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: going to reduce the court backlog, speed up trials for victims,
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: and rebuild public confidence in the criminal justice system. Apparently.
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: But the point that we were making last week and
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: we will make again today because it is a vital
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: point for people to understand, and that is that juries
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: are sort of the last bastion of limitations on and
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: out of control government. So juries have the right to
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: consider that legislation is bad legislation and to nullify that legislation.
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: This is an absolute aspect of our freedom which we
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: should not be giving up lightly.
• 58:57
  Speaker 2: And yeah, absolutely, I think, and you know it must
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: be remembered that it works. It absolutely worked both ways,
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: in that there are situations in which juries perhaps certainly
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: have over certain things that might not necessarily be agreed
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: with by the UK column audience. But you know, you
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: take it both ways, and certainly that is not reason
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: for considering that getting rid of Juris in any circumstances
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: would be the right thing to do.
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: Absolutely well. That brings us to the end of today's program.
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: I'm going to say thank you very much Charles, and
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: thank you very much to Vanessa, and we'll be back
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: in a few minutes for some extra if you're a
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: UK column member. Otherwise, don't forget the interview at one
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: pm tomorrow, and we're back on Friday for the last
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: UK column news of the year and our usual annual
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: Christmas special. We'll see then one pm as usual.
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: Bye bye, by Byee.