Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 22nd May 2026

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UK Column News — 22nd May 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon.
0:09
Speaker 2: It's Friday, the twenty second of May twenty twenty six,
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Speaker 2: just after one o'clock. Welcome to UK column News. I'm
0:13
Speaker 2: your host Mack Robinson joining me in the studio today
0:15
Speaker 2: it's Patrick Hennison. Welcome to the program. Patrick, great to
0:18
Speaker 2: be with you, Mike, and by video link, we're joined
0:20
Speaker 2: once again by Basil Valentine. Now later in the program,
0:23
Speaker 2: we're going to be taking a look at the fight
0:24
Speaker 2: between Citi Can and the Met Police over our contract
0:27
Speaker 2: with Palanteer. We'll have news from the Digital Money Summit
0:31
Speaker 2: held in London on Tuesday and Wednesday. This week we'll
0:33
Speaker 2: be covering the fallout of the treatment of people from
0:37
Speaker 2: the Gaza Flotela by Israel and also the shift towards
0:40
Speaker 2: strone warfare. We're going to begin today with Basil and
0:43
Speaker 2: the latest from the Makerfield by election. Basil, Welcome to
0:46
Speaker 2: the program.
0:48
Speaker 3: Hello Mike, and hello to our viewers all around the world. Yes,
0:52
Speaker 3: make a Field or breaker Field they're calling it because
0:57
Speaker 3: Andy Burnham's political career is very much on the line
1:01
Speaker 3: with this. He must win this seat to stand any credibility.
1:04
Speaker 3: But it's a really bizarre set of circumstances that are
1:08
Speaker 3: coming together. He is the odds on favorite with the
1:11
Speaker 3: book makers. They give him about a sixty seven percent
1:15
Speaker 3: chance of winning the seat, in spite of the fact
1:17
Speaker 3: that Reform got at least half.
1:20
Speaker 4: The votes there in the local elections and came.
1:23
Speaker 3: Second in the constituency in the twenty twenty four general election.
1:28
Speaker 3: Now Burnham has kicked off his campaign with an interview
1:31
Speaker 3: with BBC Radio Manchester and as we can see here,
1:36
Speaker 3: he's looking for a complete reset, almost to pole Potlight
1:40
Speaker 3: year zero. I think we need to bring what we've
1:43
Speaker 3: done in Greater Manchester to the national level. And what
1:46
Speaker 3: I mean is different type of politics is what he's
1:49
Speaker 3: pioneered here. And he's also talking about enabling less profit
1:56
Speaker 3: making and more problem solving. We go and yeah, we've
2:04
Speaker 3: been on the wrong path for forty years. Well, I
2:06
Speaker 3: wouldn't disagree with him there.
2:08
Speaker 4: He said all rot started in the.
2:11
Speaker 3: Nineteen eighties with the de industrialization of large parts of
2:15
Speaker 3: Greater Manchester. But then we got into the deregulation of buses,
2:19
Speaker 3: privatized and privatization of the basics of life, the austerities
2:24
Speaker 3: of the twenty tens. So what's Burnham got to say
2:32
Speaker 3: about this like some kind of ghoul. Really, the worst
2:38
Speaker 3: thing that could possibly happen to his campaign would be
2:41
Speaker 3: a visit from Secure Starmer, the Prime Minister. It's a
2:45
Speaker 3: bit like King George going to welcome Bonnie Prince Charlie.
2:50
Speaker 4: A really strange situation.
2:52
Speaker 3: Starmer is still in office but not really in power,
2:57
Speaker 3: and he's insisted he wants to go up to make
3:00
Speaker 3: Field to campaign. I think it's highly likely the Burnham
3:05
Speaker 3: campaign are going to say to him, don't bother, he's
3:08
Speaker 3: so toxic. But it is odd because Starmer hasn't announced
3:15
Speaker 3: his resignation, says he won't walk away and that he's
3:19
Speaker 3: going to fight on, so I don't think he'll be
3:23
Speaker 3: very welcome up in Manchester. He's about as popular, well
3:29
Speaker 3: marginally more popular than Prince Andrew. I think that's probably
3:33
Speaker 3: the person that the King of the North would least
3:37
Speaker 3: like to see, the former Duke of York, and Starmer
3:41
Speaker 3: runs him a pretty close second. So Reform, of course,
3:47
Speaker 3: are the major challengers to.
3:51
Speaker 4: Burnham.
3:52
Speaker 3: Faraches described the VI election as a David versus Goliath battle.
3:56
Speaker 3: He told ITV News that Reform would throw the kitchen
4:00
Speaker 3: in sync at it and the party's priority in the
4:03
Speaker 3: region will be to ease pressure on social housing. That's
4:07
Speaker 3: the first time I've ever heard Reform talk about social housing.
4:11
Speaker 3: I'm surprised, to be honest. Usually, of course, their mainstay
4:16
Speaker 3: is immigration. No doubt that'll be an issue up there
4:20
Speaker 3: as well. Now the Reform candidate, well, he's already in
4:25
Speaker 3: a bit of trouble because of his associations, which aren't
4:30
Speaker 3: too popular in some quarters.
4:34
Speaker 4: Kenyan.
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Speaker 3: His name is Robert Kenyan, and critics have said he
4:39
Speaker 3: was friends on Facebook with the former BNP in Britain
4:42
Speaker 3: first member Gary Rakes, who now leads the New British Union,
4:47
Speaker 3: the modern successor to Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists.
4:52
Speaker 3: Kenyan's account was suspended after reportedly making comments about Asian
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Speaker 3: men walking around Birmingham, assaulting white people on mass and
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Speaker 3: claiming that far right rioters don't really exist, but Reform
5:03
Speaker 3: are standing by him now for the first time in
5:07
Speaker 3: British history, there will also be a candidate from Restore Britain,
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Speaker 3: Rupert Lowe's party, which positions itself somewhere to the right
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Speaker 3: of Reform. They've chosen a local businesswoman as their candidate
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Speaker 3: Rebecca Shepherd, age fifty three, who was described by the
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Speaker 3: party as understanding first town the pressures facing local businesses
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Speaker 3: and working families across the area. Restore Britain leader Rupert
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Speaker 3: Lowe said Shepherd would fight for the interests of the
5:40
Speaker 3: community rather than political careers. They are, needless to say,
5:44
Speaker 3: a lot in Reform are absolutely apoplectic with rage that
5:49
Speaker 3: Rupert Lowe's crowd are going ahead with a full steam
5:54
Speaker 3: campaign to try and get her elected. They're not holding
5:58
Speaker 3: back at all. They're not fielding her as a token candidate.
6:02
Speaker 3: They want to win the seat and they are in
6:04
Speaker 3: fact third in the betting about twenty to one if
6:09
Speaker 3: you think that they might actually prevail. The United the
6:13
Speaker 3: Kingdom rally so called that Robinson held last Saturday, he
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Speaker 3: asked the baying crowd who they would vote for and
6:23
Speaker 3: whether he misheard them or was simply indicating his own preference.
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Speaker 3: It seemed to be Restore Britain. So a big fight
6:31
Speaker 3: there on the right, which obviously increases Burnham's chances, which
6:37
Speaker 3: will be enhanced by the fact that the Green Party
6:41
Speaker 3: aren't really getting involved, particularly since their initial candidate was
6:47
Speaker 3: forced to withdraw after a matter of only nine hours,
6:50
Speaker 3: surely the shortest candidacy for a by election in history.
6:56
Speaker 3: Now they insist that his withdrawal was due to personal
7:01
Speaker 3: and family reasons. Mister Kennedy is a registered nurse and
7:04
Speaker 3: children's safeguarding specialist, and he wanted to focus on the
7:08
Speaker 3: caring responsibilities of his family. People usually say that after
7:11
Speaker 3: they've been caught in compromising positions or something. But the
7:16
Speaker 3: Times newspaper, it seems, is intent on doing the work
7:21
Speaker 3: of the Israeli embassy and ferreted out a tweets by
7:26
Speaker 3: mister Kennedy saying that he thought the ambulance attack in
7:30
Speaker 3: North London was a false flag, believe it or not,
7:35
Speaker 3: So you're not allowed to say that. Of course, you know,
7:38
Speaker 3: whether he's right or wrong. That's simply outside the acceptable
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Speaker 3: opinion corridor. Likewise, the original Green candidate was this young lady,
7:48
Speaker 3: and she too doesn't appear to be getting the job.
7:52
Speaker 4: Hayley Pierce. She had the audacity to say that.
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Speaker 3: Israel is ruining the world. My goodness, where on earth
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Speaker 3: did she get that idea from. She's a portrait artist
8:02
Speaker 3: and she was the original preferred choice, but it seems
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Speaker 3: to fail. Pout of the vetting procedure. The Greens are
8:11
Speaker 3: regrouping and are going through another selection process to find
8:17
Speaker 3: a candidate, but the word on the street up there
8:20
Speaker 3: is they will not be running a full campaign. They're
8:23
Speaker 3: going to basically give way to Burnham because Burnham has
8:27
Speaker 3: made noises about wanting proportional representation. They don't want to
8:31
Speaker 3: give the seat to Reform and well that might be
8:35
Speaker 3: an indication of things to come.
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Speaker 4: Other Green activists, of course, are.
8:39
Speaker 3: Dismayed by what they see as an opportunity missed, if
8:42
Speaker 3: not to run a serious candidate of their own, although
8:45
Speaker 3: they had come fifth there in the recent local elections,
8:49
Speaker 3: then at least to extract some solid concessions from Burnham
8:53
Speaker 3: on his way to his coronation the King of the
8:56
Speaker 3: North Bondy, Prince Charlie of the twenty first century.
9:01
Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely, But some israel the influencer.
9:05
Speaker 5: Well that's the accusation that this vetting process Basil's talking about.
9:09
Speaker 1: Who's doing the vetting?
9:10
Speaker 5: Is it the Board of Deputies is at the Israeli
9:13
Speaker 5: special interest pressure groups. That's a big question in the
9:16
Speaker 5: UK now, especially after the ousting of Jeremy Corbyn and
9:19
Speaker 5: the purging of the Labor Party of any pro Palestinian sentiments.
9:23
Speaker 5: But in the United States, this problem takes on a
9:26
Speaker 5: whole different scale, as we will show you here. This
9:30
Speaker 5: is the big news in America this week. Trump backed
9:33
Speaker 5: Ed Gowering defeats Representative Thomas Massey in the GOP primary.
9:39
Speaker 5: And this isn't just any primary there he is. That
9:41
Speaker 5: is Ed Gowering, former Navy seal. Nobody ever heard of
9:45
Speaker 5: him before this election. He didn't campaign, he didn't do
9:48
Speaker 5: any debates, no television interviews, basically ran a Joe Biden's
9:52
Speaker 5: style campaign from the basement, and somehow had this late
9:56
Speaker 5: surge of well, we'll show you in a minute, but
9:58
Speaker 5: to votes that came out of quite frankly nowhere, raising
10:01
Speaker 5: a whole lot of questions. Here and let's take a
10:04
Speaker 5: look at this. So this is Massy lost as the
10:07
Speaker 5: turnout doubled. The math on this is just extraordinary. And
10:11
Speaker 5: you compare this to twenty twenty four, that was the
10:13
Speaker 5: last congressional election in this primary here in twenty twenty
10:18
Speaker 5: six here, and you can see the just massive spike
10:21
Speaker 5: in the opponent there. His opponent only got twelve thousand
10:24
Speaker 5: votes in twenty twenty four fifty seven thousand votes in
10:28
Speaker 5: that constituency now in twenty twenty six, unbelievable, more than
10:32
Speaker 5: double the amount of votes, which is really strange because
10:36
Speaker 5: the polling suggested it was a dead heat at the
10:39
Speaker 5: beginning of the campaign here, But we're no stranger to
10:42
Speaker 5: these sort of anomalies having covered elections in the past.
10:45
Speaker 5: Let's look at the maths again. Here massive votes plus
10:48
Speaker 5: nineteen point one percent their opponent, plus three hundred and
10:53
Speaker 5: fifty six percent three hundred and fifty six percent for
10:58
Speaker 5: the opponent. I mean mathematically, this is beyond an anomaly here,
11:02
Speaker 5: So that's sort of the voter turnout effectively doubled in
11:06
Speaker 5: this election here, and then the takeaway Massey gained votes,
11:10
Speaker 5: but turnout surge and the anti Massey vote exploded. The
11:14
Speaker 5: question is why this is from red lines. By the way,
11:16
Speaker 5: we'll put a link in these show notes to these
11:19
Speaker 5: numbers here on X. But let's take a look at
11:22
Speaker 5: the maths a little bit closely here. Where did these
11:24
Speaker 5: votes come from? Well, there was an unprecedented surge of
11:28
Speaker 5: eight hundred and fifty four mail in votes for Ed
11:30
Speaker 5: gowering Thomas Massey lost by two hundred and eighty votes
11:35
Speaker 5: raises quite a few questions, doesn't it here, So we've
11:38
Speaker 5: got to break down here the odds of this happening
11:41
Speaker 5: in terms of actuaries, we're talking about one in two hundred.
11:44
Speaker 5: I mean, it's very improbable. But hey, we live in
11:48
Speaker 5: the age of miracles. Follow the money question. Everything says
11:51
Speaker 5: Thomas Massey here and let's go right now, let's take
11:55
Speaker 5: a look at So this isn't Ed Gowery's sort of
12:00
Speaker 5: acceptance speech or victory speech.
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Speaker 1: This is a watch party.
12:03
Speaker 5: But take a look at the types of people at
12:06
Speaker 5: the watch party. So what did you notice there from
12:42
Speaker 5: the types of people there? Tell me, did you see
12:47
Speaker 5: anybody under the age of sixty? Well, no, so the
12:51
Speaker 5: average age. You know these are boomers. So boomers all
12:54
Speaker 5: pro Israel to the hilt, no doubt. But that's a
12:57
Speaker 5: watch party. Now where did all the voters come from? Again,
13:01
Speaker 5: hard to explain here. Now, in contrast, we'll take a
13:04
Speaker 5: look at this is Thomas Massey's concession speech in Kentucky constituency,
13:10
Speaker 5: and just look at the difference and just the widespread enthusiasm,
13:15
Speaker 5: the energy, and this was indicative throughout the campaign. So
13:26
Speaker 5: massive difference there. What what was driving these changes here? Well,
13:33
Speaker 5: here's one place where we can start. If these were
13:36
Speaker 5: legitimate numbers, it's debatable at this point. Massi's primary is
13:40
Speaker 5: the most expensive in history. Pro israel groups have played
13:43
Speaker 5: a huge part of this political Before the election here,
13:47
Speaker 5: billionaire voters led by the Israeli lobbies spent or record
13:50
Speaker 5: breaking thirty five million to oust a GOP stalwart Congressman
13:55
Speaker 5: Thomas Masse in Kentucky. That's a congressional district. The budgets
13:59
Speaker 5: and what they spend normally, it doesn't get this high.
14:02
Speaker 5: It doesn't even get over five or six million normally,
14:06
Speaker 5: So this is totally unprecedented. If we bring that back
14:09
Speaker 5: up on screen, that would be great. There we go, Yeah, thanks,
14:12
Speaker 5: So it's thirty five million. Just to put that into perspective,
14:16
Speaker 5: that is proportionally more than if you look at the
14:20
Speaker 5: increase from previous elections, more than the last three presidential
14:23
Speaker 5: elections combined. Proportionally, that is a lot of capital here.
14:28
Speaker 5: So the question is what's behind that that sort of trend.
14:33
Speaker 1: That's the big question.
14:35
Speaker 5: So in terms of the Israeli money, well, a lot
14:39
Speaker 5: of Israeli supporters are doing victory laps after this, here's one.
14:43
Speaker 1: We'll listen.
14:45
Speaker 6: I think it is a good thing if Massey and
14:48
Speaker 6: the people like him and others believe that if you cross,
14:54
Speaker 6: if you cross the line into anti Semitism, Jews are
14:58
Speaker 6: going to use the power that we we have openly
15:02
Speaker 6: to go for you, because what other recourse is there?
15:07
Speaker 6: Are we just going to sit here and take it
15:09
Speaker 6: beg for scraps hope that nice people in you know
15:14
Speaker 6: are are nice to us. The Democratic Party is going
15:17
Speaker 6: explicitly anti Semitic. We can see it happening. People are
15:21
Speaker 6: getting benefits, as Seth says, for being anti Semites. That
15:25
Speaker 6: seems to be part of an appeal in primaries to
15:29
Speaker 6: the left and the party. We have to use what
15:32
Speaker 6: means there are at our disposal, and in my view,
15:36
Speaker 6: and I'm going to put it back, that is Jewish money.
15:38
Speaker 6: There is an enormous amount of Jewish money in politics,
15:41
Speaker 6: by which I mean Jewish donors wildly disproportionate, not only
15:48
Speaker 6: charitably but politically. And when I say charitably, I mean
15:52
Speaker 6: nobody really knows the numbers. Jews make up two percent
15:56
Speaker 6: of the population. According to some studies, Jews makeup twenty
16:00
Speaker 6: percent of the charitable contributions made in the United States annually,
16:06
Speaker 6: that is a tenfold Think about that, think about the
16:10
Speaker 6: disproportion of that. And in politics it's pretty close also.
16:13
Speaker 6: And if that money isn't used, why do people give
16:16
Speaker 6: money because they want to influence elections to get people elected.
16:21
Speaker 5: Well, that is a major Jewish advocate there, Jewish American
16:27
Speaker 5: advocate saying that not any far right conspiracy theorist or podcaster.
16:32
Speaker 5: So that's kind of a victory. Laports. Who are we're
16:35
Speaker 5: looking at there? Who is that gentleman. We'll bring us
16:37
Speaker 5: up on screen here. That is John Potterretz and he
16:40
Speaker 5: is a major Israeli American advocate. He is a staunch
16:45
Speaker 5: Zionist and he's really laying it out there for everybody
16:49
Speaker 5: to hear, not shy at all. Basically, they're going to
16:52
Speaker 5: go after what they're deeming to be anti Semitic candidates.
16:56
Speaker 5: Thomas Massey's his being anti Semitic means Thomas Massey opposed
17:01
Speaker 5: the war in Iran, and Thomas Massey opposes Israel dictating
17:06
Speaker 5: US foreign policy. And Thomas Massey opposes I packs plowing
17:11
Speaker 5: hundreds of millions of dollars into congressional incentate campaigns. So
17:17
Speaker 5: that's deemed to be anti Semitic according to all of
17:20
Speaker 5: these leading Jewish and Israeli American pundits. So do you
17:25
Speaker 5: think there's a debate? Do you think this is a
17:27
Speaker 5: conversation that we can have so and how high does
17:31
Speaker 5: this go? Well, here's the President of the United States,
17:33
Speaker 5: who again is also doing a victory lap this week,
17:36
Speaker 5: Donald J.
17:37
Speaker 1: Trump. From his own.
17:39
Speaker 7: Mouth, I'm right now at ninety nine percent in Israel,
17:44
Speaker 7: I could run for prime minister. So maybe after I
17:47
Speaker 7: do this, I'll go to Israel run for prime minister.
17:51
Speaker 7: At a pall this morning, I'm ninety nine percent, so
17:54
Speaker 7: that's good.
17:54
Speaker 5: But I mean to see, all he needs is a
17:59
Speaker 5: yamaca on and it'll be perfect. But that's the President
18:02
Speaker 5: of the United States, so I think, and that's what
18:04
Speaker 5: Masse was basically running against. So listen, we're in for
18:10
Speaker 5: a hell of a battle coming up. Massi's still in office,
18:13
Speaker 5: by the way, seven more months in office, so there'll
18:15
Speaker 5: be a lot of conversations that are going to happen
18:18
Speaker 5: while he's still in office, and the gloves will be off,
18:20
Speaker 5: so it's going to be very very interesting. And one
18:23
Speaker 5: last interesting story on the issue of Israel will bring
18:26
Speaker 5: this up. This is absolutely incredible. I did not know
18:29
Speaker 5: anything about this before this was published. Freddie Ponton's done
18:34
Speaker 5: a tremendous article here about how Germany paid for Israel's
18:37
Speaker 5: nucletar bombs. So this lays out the entire structure of
18:42
Speaker 5: how the West German at the time, the West German
18:45
Speaker 5: government during the Cold War basically arranged and funded through
18:49
Speaker 5: a series of financial instruments and funds to basically bankroll
18:55
Speaker 5: Israel's secret nuclear program. This is all public domain now,
19:00
Speaker 5: so a lot of recent documents have been released on this.
19:04
Speaker 1: So oh and I.
19:05
Speaker 5: Just just one last thing I forgot. This piece should
19:10
Speaker 5: have been after Trump. But Trump says he has got
19:13
Speaker 5: a ninety nine percent popularity rating in Israel. Well this
19:17
Speaker 5: is his popularity rating in the United States drops below
19:21
Speaker 5: thirty five percent of Republican support. So no, just overall support.
19:27
Speaker 5: So thirty five percent of Americans back Trump, but he's
19:30
Speaker 5: got a ninety nine percent approved rating in Israel. We think, why,
19:35
Speaker 5: what does that tell you that we have a serious
19:38
Speaker 5: problem with the democracy in the United States or the
19:42
Speaker 5: constitutional republic.
19:43
Speaker 2: Absolutely, now, let's come back to the UK then and
19:47
Speaker 2: talk about Volunteer for a moment. Well, LA Guardian is
19:49
Speaker 2: claiming this as an exclusive. This is the news that
19:53
Speaker 2: the London Mayor's Office has blocked a fifty million pound
19:56
Speaker 2: contract between the Metropolitan Police and Polunteer for the use
20:00
Speaker 2: AI to automate intelligence analysis in criminal investigations. The size
20:05
Speaker 2: of the contract would have that third behind the three
20:08
Speaker 2: hundred and thirty million pound and two hundred and forty
20:11
Speaker 2: million pounds with the NHS England and the Ministry Defense respectively,
20:16
Speaker 2: and would have been the largest contract with the police. Now,
20:19
Speaker 2: before we get all excited, but they can deciding that
20:23
Speaker 2: Pollunteer is no good. The reason for the dispute is
20:27
Speaker 2: purely technical because MOPAK, which is the Mayor's Office for
20:31
Speaker 2: Policing and Crime, vetoed the deal because the Metropolitan Police
20:35
Speaker 2: hadn't asked for it has asked it for approval first, sorry.
20:39
Speaker 2: Neither Guardian reports a letter to the met Commissioner Mark Rowley,
20:43
Speaker 2: in which Ken's Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime has
20:46
Speaker 2: put her on screen. Kaya Comer Schwartz said, I've not
20:51
Speaker 2: been provided with any acceptable explanation for this failure, which
20:55
Speaker 2: I regard as a clear and serious breach of applicable
20:57
Speaker 2: procedural requirements. And then the Met Police, for their part,
21:02
Speaker 2: said the MOPAQ. The DESI by Mopak is disappointing. We
21:07
Speaker 2: need to modernize and use the very best technology available.
21:10
Speaker 2: We must be able to innovate at a faster rate
21:12
Speaker 2: than hostile states and organized criminals. For now, this decision
21:16
Speaker 2: prevents is using technology already available to the MD, the
21:19
Speaker 2: NHS and other police forces. Now, the Met Police has
21:24
Speaker 2: another contract with Palanteer valued at four hundred and eighty
21:28
Speaker 2: nine nine hundred ninety nine pounds, and the size of
21:31
Speaker 2: that contract is designed to fall just under the five
21:35
Speaker 2: hundred thousand pounds threshold above which MOPAK is required to
21:39
Speaker 2: scrutinize and sign off any Metropolitan Police procurement. But this
21:44
Speaker 2: contract is all about polunteer monitoring the behavior of police
21:48
Speaker 2: officers themselves. The vast majority of Met officers and staff,
21:52
Speaker 2: they say, serve London with dedication and integrity, and they
21:55
Speaker 2: rightly expect robust action against a small minority who abuse
21:58
Speaker 2: their position or undermine public trust, particularly in leadership roles.
22:03
Speaker 2: Strengthening standards is therefore not only about public confidence, but
22:07
Speaker 2: about backing those officers and staff who do the right
22:09
Speaker 2: thing every day. Over recent months, the met has developed
22:13
Speaker 2: a new capability, they said, through a pilot with technology
22:17
Speaker 2: firm Volunteer. Following the broadcast of BBC Panorama Undercover in
22:22
Speaker 2: the Police, the METS said, by a series of commitments
22:25
Speaker 2: to accelerate our approach the culture, integrity and professional standards.
22:29
Speaker 2: That was their position on it. Unsurprisingly, the Metropolitan Police
22:34
Speaker 2: Federation is less than excited about this contract. The met
22:38
Speaker 2: Police Federation is taking this unprecedented step, they said, of
22:42
Speaker 2: warning colleagues about the risks of taking work phones and
22:44
Speaker 2: other digital devices home after the Metropolitan Police use intrusive
22:49
Speaker 2: AI software to accuse officers of misconduct. The Staff Association,
22:53
Speaker 2: they said, which represents more than thirty thousand frontline police
22:56
Speaker 2: officers in London, was not informed that the police force
23:00
Speaker 2: would be using volunteers artificial intelligence to analyze the movements
23:04
Speaker 2: of cops in the capital. And so I'm going to
23:07
Speaker 2: say that Panopticon is not just about it's not just
23:10
Speaker 2: for the public. So it's pretty ironic that the Metropolitan
23:13
Speaker 2: Police Federation is whining about this because this is the
23:16
Speaker 2: same technology that the police is deploying against us all
23:19
Speaker 2: but in the meantime, The Metropolitan Police then has confirmed
23:23
Speaker 2: live facial recognition deployments in crime hotspots of Bexley and
23:28
Speaker 2: Lambeth Burghs in London yesterday. But for more background on
23:32
Speaker 2: the rollout of AI driven live facial recognition, have a
23:36
Speaker 2: look at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technologies most
23:39
Speaker 2: recent Facial Recognition Technology and Policing note which they published
23:44
Speaker 2: last month. But so have a look at that for
23:47
Speaker 2: a bit more background. The link to that will be
23:50
Speaker 2: in the show notes.
23:51
Speaker 5: Quick comment, Mike, what's to say the government will not
23:55
Speaker 5: deploy the exact same system with the police are doing
23:58
Speaker 5: here with NHS staff two million NHS employees and the
24:02
Speaker 5: list goes on every government department and the receiving and
24:07
Speaker 5: every corporation as well. This is this is Amazon is
24:10
Speaker 5: deploying these exact systems. Retailers are doing it as well,
24:14
Speaker 5: not to spy on shoplifters, but to monitor employee performance.
24:18
Speaker 5: This is a big growth area in this technology. I
24:20
Speaker 5: know people working in this field in sales. They will
24:23
Speaker 5: not go on record to talk about this, unfortunately, but
24:26
Speaker 5: we are talking to them.
24:28
Speaker 2: Right okay, absolutely we are, and well of more on
24:31
Speaker 2: this in the coming days.
24:32
Speaker 1: And weeks.
24:33
Speaker 2: Let's move on to quick god break here.
24:38
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25:37
Speaker 2: And a quick reminder here of the twentieth anniversary UK
25:41
Speaker 2: Column one location event taking place eighteens the twentieth of
25:44
Speaker 2: September in Plymouth. If you haven't got a ticket yet,
25:47
Speaker 2: they're going fast, please grab one. No Tonight at seven
25:51
Speaker 2: pm Itthium is a gateway to degeneracy. That's with Jerm
25:56
Speaker 2: that's at seven pm. And at nine pm Silken Steel
25:59
Speaker 2: is looking at Iran, China.
26:00
Speaker 1: Taiwan and the New World Order.
26:02
Speaker 2: So joined car for that at nine pm. Okay, let's
26:07
Speaker 2: move back then to Basil and Basil, what's the letterst
26:11
Speaker 2: on the Gaza Fattila, Well.
26:15
Speaker 3: The ladies on the glass of fertility is that it
26:16
Speaker 3: has turned into the biggest pr disaster for Israel of
26:21
Speaker 3: the last few years. Really it's Ima Ben Gavier, the
26:25
Speaker 3: Security and Prisons minister, proudly displayed footage of himself abusing
26:32
Speaker 3: detainees on X and said, you know, with the captain,
26:37
Speaker 3: excuse me, welcome to Israel. Now, these has brought widespread condemnation,
26:43
Speaker 3: including from and usually European diplomats, some of whom have
26:48
Speaker 3: started imposing sanctions on him. But first let's have a
26:51
Speaker 3: look at some of the original footage.
26:54
Speaker 9: Here, thank you for him a baby saying I know,
27:09
Speaker 9: I'll tell you.
27:26
Speaker 10: Lords.
27:33
Speaker 3: Of course, doctor Frank Romano, who was on this very
27:36
Speaker 3: channel a couple of weeks ago, is amongst those detained.
27:40
Speaker 3: We hope he's safe and well. It's worth remembering, of two,
27:44
Speaker 3: of course, that the boats were intercepted in international waters,
27:48
Speaker 3: which makes it an act of piracy. Here's some more
27:52
Speaker 3: footage of what happened.
27:56
Speaker 11: In my bedyard.
27:58
Speaker 4: I can get me just.
28:06
Speaker 9: Than man become.
28:17
Speaker 4: Ben Givia.
28:17
Speaker 3: They're saying, give them to me for a long time.
28:20
Speaker 3: These people are terrorists. They deserve long prison sentences as well. Lettigna,
28:24
Speaker 3: who is a bit more canny than him, and the
28:28
Speaker 3: vast majority of them have been deported, but not before
28:33
Speaker 3: they had suffered some truly horrific abuse. This is Tiago Abyla,
28:39
Speaker 3: one of the leaders of the flotilla, speaking after his deportation.
28:46
Speaker 11: There is no easy way to see.
28:47
Speaker 12: It's what I have to say, the Master of Soldiers, they.
28:57
Speaker 11: Was one.
29:00
Speaker 12: In many cases of sexual violence against our participants.
29:04
Speaker 11: In the prison boat.
29:06
Speaker 12: On their way to the part of our software, they
29:08
Speaker 12: got once again beaten up. Many people have broken rips,
29:12
Speaker 12: many people with broken bones in the arms, the color
29:15
Speaker 12: bone ribs.
29:17
Speaker 11: We're talking about monsters.
29:19
Speaker 12: We're talking about genocideal state that takes pleasure in the violence,
29:23
Speaker 12: that takes pleasure in torture, in people, that use rapid,
29:28
Speaker 12: systematic sexual violence against Palestinians but.
29:31
Speaker 11: Also against our topular members. This needs to stop. We
29:34
Speaker 11: cannot accept the country that we leave that international humanitary.
29:37
Speaker 11: The love does not apply to them.
29:39
Speaker 12: We cannot accept a country that humanize people at such
29:42
Speaker 12: a level that they do this and still have to
29:46
Speaker 12: say it so.
29:46
Speaker 11: Painful to see and to say, but still.
29:49
Speaker 12: Have to say, although they did to our participants three
29:54
Speaker 12: weeks ago with us.
29:55
Speaker 11: And now with all the four hundred and twenty eight
29:58
Speaker 11: that just arrived, there's.
30:00
Speaker 12: More fraction of what they do to polictines at the
30:02
Speaker 12: same prison of they teach dogs cultural palestines. They remove
30:09
Speaker 12: my balls of people, they kill them and throw them
30:11
Speaker 12: in a space. We need to stop the storists company.
30:15
Speaker 12: They need to stop. Not only come I being veered
30:17
Speaker 12: just a symptom of a sick, sick hate for ideology causionism.
30:23
Speaker 13: We need to stop. We need to stop the multas.
30:26
Speaker 13: We need to stop all those sterists. Really not a
30:31
Speaker 13: py colonial state. They need to be stopped. They're taking
30:35
Speaker 13: this to whatever is necessary.
30:38
Speaker 11: All the.
30:41
Speaker 3: Some very powerful accusations from Tiago I mean a lot
30:45
Speaker 3: of rape of some of the flotilla activists. More and
30:51
Speaker 3: more is coming out by the hour. Here are some
30:54
Speaker 3: more testamonies posted on x earlier.
30:58
Speaker 12: Broken ribsure took my glasses.
31:01
Speaker 14: I can't see. I took my hearing gage.
31:03
Speaker 11: You can't hear.
31:06
Speaker 10: I can close my eyes and I can picture myself
31:08
Speaker 10: sitting in these containers that they hold us in, and
31:12
Speaker 10: with each boat that they intercept. As more people come in,
31:15
Speaker 10: you hear them throwing these people across the containers.
31:18
Speaker 11: We have been and every single one of us has.
31:21
Speaker 15: Been bitten with electric souls.
31:23
Speaker 12: We have all that money, We have.
31:27
Speaker 15: Bruises, many people have broken lives, many people cannot there
31:33
Speaker 15: and then after that they went us to prison and
31:38
Speaker 15: it was the most ramatic experience.
31:40
Speaker 7: As you've ever been.
31:41
Speaker 12: There were at least fifteen phases of sexual assaults I
31:44
Speaker 12: have been reported so far.
31:46
Speaker 6: There are over thirty broken boats, broken classoles, broken.
31:49
Speaker 3: Ribs, fifteen cases of sexual assault. We'll be interesting to
31:55
Speaker 3: see what the British government have to say about that,
31:58
Speaker 3: and we'll hear from EFT Cooper in a moment. But first,
32:01
Speaker 3: Juliet Lemonte is a human rights activist and she was
32:04
Speaker 3: also aboard the Flootella.
32:08
Speaker 14: I was on one of the prison boats where one
32:10
Speaker 14: hundred and eighty people were systematically bashed and beaten. We
32:13
Speaker 14: had forty people who have broken ribs. We have twelve
32:18
Speaker 14: sexual assaults. We have people who had tasted in the face,
32:22
Speaker 14: people were syringed with unknown sedatives. We were yeah, we
32:28
Speaker 14: we were tortured. I was put down, cable tired, they
32:32
Speaker 14: put so much water under me for an hour that
32:34
Speaker 14: I thought I was.
32:35
Speaker 11: Going to drown.
32:37
Speaker 14: I was sexually assaulted in this kind of torture chamber,
32:40
Speaker 14: and five men were bashing me and smashing my face,
32:43
Speaker 14: and then it just continued for the whole time. Whether
32:46
Speaker 14: that was the prison boat or whether that was where
32:48
Speaker 14: we were taken to Ashdod, it was a relentless and
32:51
Speaker 14: very targeted and very planned campaign of violence so that
32:56
Speaker 14: we wouldn't come back. But you know, they've broken our bones,
32:59
Speaker 14: but they haven't broken our soul. And now that I've
33:01
Speaker 14: met them, I know that they don't have a soul.
33:03
Speaker 14: So we are much stronger than they are than pread Palistin.
33:09
Speaker 3: All over Europe, Israeli ambassadors have been summoned by foreign
33:14
Speaker 3: ministers and given dressing downs. Gideon Tsar, the Israeli Foreign Minister,
33:20
Speaker 3: has disowned Ben Gevere, but whether or not he disowns
33:25
Speaker 3: the treatment of the detainees is another matter.
33:30
Speaker 4: For the Israelis.
33:31
Speaker 3: This is a pr disaster more than it is a
33:35
Speaker 3: human rights failure, and of course, were it not for
33:38
Speaker 3: the fact that the flotilla embarquees are Australian, British, European, American, etc.
33:48
Speaker 3: Were they ordinary Palestinians, then of course we wouldn't be
33:52
Speaker 3: hearing about their systematic abuse, and indeed we don't because
33:56
Speaker 3: there are thousands Palestinians suffering the same fate every day. Well,
34:01
Speaker 3: we did get a statement from Labor Friends of Israel's
34:05
Speaker 3: Cooper and this is what she had to say.
34:10
Speaker 16: I mean, we see these totally disgraceful scenes and this
34:13
Speaker 16: video shared by Israeli Cabinet minister Ben Gavier which shows
34:18
Speaker 16: a total disrespect and violation of basic standards of human
34:24
Speaker 16: dignity in the way that people were being treated. Completely appalled,
34:29
Speaker 16: and we have Center summons to the Israeli embassy because
34:33
Speaker 16: we need the urgent explanation as to how this could happen. Obviously,
34:37
Speaker 16: Ben Givier is a cabinet minister who has been sanctioned
34:40
Speaker 16: by the UK government as a result of previous behavior
34:45
Speaker 16: and serious issues around the West Bank. But I think
34:48
Speaker 16: this is extremely serious, the totally disgraceful scenes that we saw.
34:52
Speaker 16: We have Center summons to the Israeli embassy and because
34:57
Speaker 16: we need these urgent explanation.
35:03
Speaker 3: All an urgent summons. I'm sure they're quaking in their
35:06
Speaker 3: boots in Tel Aviv, my goodness. Of course, we never
35:10
Speaker 3: see any meaningful sanctions other than those placed on individuals
35:14
Speaker 3: like Ben Gavier if Cooper. They're wondering how on earth
35:17
Speaker 3: this could happen when it is in fact systemic to
35:20
Speaker 3: what Zionism is and the way the Israeli regime operates. Indeed,
35:29
Speaker 3: it's lauded within Israel. In fact, a lot of other people,
35:34
Speaker 3: including cabinet ministers, have wondered why there is all this outrage.
35:41
Speaker 4: At Ben Gavier. Miry Regev.
35:45
Speaker 3: Boasts of the mistreatment of the Gaza flotilla activists. There
35:50
Speaker 3: she is, she sees no problem with it at all,
35:52
Speaker 3: and in that respect, she's been backed up by numerous
35:56
Speaker 3: Israeli propagandists in the United States and Israel online on
36:01
Speaker 3: social media. They don't see what's wrong with this, because
36:04
Speaker 3: of course, these people are trying to bring aid, baby formula, food, water,
36:10
Speaker 3: and medicine to the starved, beleaguered population of Gaza. Are terrorists.
36:17
Speaker 3: That's what terrorists do. They try and stop people starving
36:20
Speaker 3: to death. And as if it couldn't get any worse,
36:28
Speaker 3: we've also found out that Israel has been boasting of
36:33
Speaker 3: its achievements in Southern Lebanon, and one of the units
36:38
Speaker 3: returned with a home video of what's going on in
36:42
Speaker 3: southern Lebanon, showing the detonation of whole villages and parts
36:48
Speaker 3: of the south of that country, displayed on monitors as
36:54
Speaker 3: ordinary people would show their holiday pictures. What do you
37:01
Speaker 3: make of the flotilla and the way people were treated.
37:05
Speaker 5: Well, what we can say is not very convinced by
37:09
Speaker 5: yvat Cooper's of outrage there. It does seem a bit performative,
37:15
Speaker 5: and I think you laid that out quite nicely, but
37:18
Speaker 5: there is real concern coming on the continent here Georgia
37:20
Speaker 5: and Maloney Italian Prime Minister. As you can see, she
37:24
Speaker 5: had some choice words. Not happy at all with the
37:28
Speaker 5: treatment of the people on the flotilla. Maloney described the
37:31
Speaker 5: footage showing is really National Security Minister Ittmar ben Gevier
37:35
Speaker 5: taunting the detainees as quote unacceptable here and she's quoted
37:40
Speaker 5: as saying it is in admissible that these demonstrators, including
37:45
Speaker 5: many Italian citizens, are subjected to this treatment that violates
37:49
Speaker 5: human dignity. And this has prompted calls from not just
37:54
Speaker 5: Italy here but also Ireland and Spain pushing for the
37:58
Speaker 5: EU now to say Ben Gavie after the flotilla incident,
38:02
Speaker 5: and this is more likely going to also end up
38:05
Speaker 5: with an ICC criminal indictment to add to the list.
38:10
Speaker 5: And I think bez Allows small Trich, the Finance Minister,
38:13
Speaker 5: had recently been there's an indictment in the pipeline now
38:18
Speaker 5: against him. So little by little they're circling the wagons
38:22
Speaker 5: around Israel. Europe's a bit slow to the punch. I mean, hell,
38:26
Speaker 5: thiswa wasn't in October twenty twenty three when this latest
38:31
Speaker 5: raft of violence and genocide kicked off, and here we
38:33
Speaker 5: are in twenty twenty six. They're just catching up in Brussels.
38:37
Speaker 5: So we'll see.
38:38
Speaker 2: Okay, we will see. Let's come back to the UK then,
38:41
Speaker 2: and central bankers, regulators, tech executives. They gathered in London
38:46
Speaker 2: on Tuesday and Wednesday this week for the omfif Digital
38:50
Speaker 2: Money Summit twenty twenty six. That is the Official Monetary
38:54
Speaker 2: and Financial Institutions Forum. By the way, they describe themselves
38:59
Speaker 2: as an in pendent research group for central banking, economic
39:02
Speaker 2: policy and public investment, providing a neutral platform for public
39:06
Speaker 2: and private sector engagement worldwide their words. It is chaired
39:10
Speaker 2: by Lord Norman Lamont, who most people remember is a
39:14
Speaker 2: member of the House of Lords and former Chancellor of
39:16
Speaker 2: the Exchequer. Now, at the summit there were around two
39:20
Speaker 2: hundred senior figures from around across the financial world, and
39:24
Speaker 2: the theme was the great convergence of public purpose and
39:28
Speaker 2: private innovation in digital money. In other words, that means
39:32
Speaker 2: working out who should build the next generation money, governments
39:35
Speaker 2: or private companies or maybe both, and how those two
39:38
Speaker 2: would fit together. Let's just have a very brief look
39:41
Speaker 2: at the main types of digital money that are available
39:45
Speaker 2: to US. CDBC CBDC sorry is probably the best known.
39:50
Speaker 2: A central bank digital currency would be digital cash issued
39:54
Speaker 2: directly by the central bank of any particular country, digital
39:58
Speaker 2: equivalent of a bank O. That's what they say about it.
40:02
Speaker 1: Anyway.
40:03
Speaker 2: Then, of course we have the idea of stable coins.
40:06
Speaker 2: These are digital tokens issued by private companies and they're
40:10
Speaker 2: supposed to hold a steady value, usually by being pegged
40:14
Speaker 2: to a national currency like the pond or the dollar.
40:17
Speaker 2: And then we have tokenized deposits, which are similar to
40:20
Speaker 2: stable coins but issued by regular banks. So the money
40:24
Speaker 2: in your account, they say, we'll move around on newer,
40:28
Speaker 2: faster computer systems while still being backed by the bank itself,
40:31
Speaker 2: So what can go wrong? The general consensus seems to
40:34
Speaker 2: be that private stable coins, at least as far as
40:37
Speaker 2: this particular event was concerned, are now treated as a
40:41
Speaker 2: serious part of the financial system rather than a curiosity
40:44
Speaker 2: from the cryptocurrency world. Donald Trump, of course, has had
40:48
Speaker 2: something to do with that, because he has basically said
40:51
Speaker 2: that the FED should not be pursuing CBDC and should
40:54
Speaker 2: be looking at stable coins instead. But the hard question
40:59
Speaker 2: is whether anybody really understands the risks, And in fact,
41:04
Speaker 2: the OMFI have their own commentary which was published just
41:08
Speaker 2: before the event and is looking at what the International
41:11
Speaker 2: Monetary Fund is saying about it. They're basically saying that
41:16
Speaker 2: stable coin issues may not be able to prove that
41:18
Speaker 2: they have enough so called real money to back the tokens,
41:22
Speaker 2: and that the price is feeding into these systems could
41:24
Speaker 2: be manipulated anyway, and that it's unclear which countries courts
41:28
Speaker 2: would step in if something goes wrong across borders.
41:31
Speaker 1: So lots and lots of questions they're patrick, but huge
41:36
Speaker 1: bubble potential, Absolutely huge bubble potential. That's the risk.
41:40
Speaker 2: But in the meantime, you know, enthusiasm for a digital
41:44
Speaker 2: point digit Europe or a digital dollar is apparently coolling.
41:49
Speaker 2: So one session, it's a bit unclear because there we're
41:52
Speaker 2: a couple of different lists of the titles of the
41:56
Speaker 2: various sessions and this, and in one of the lists
42:00
Speaker 2: they had a session entitled do central Bankers no longer
42:03
Speaker 2: trust retail CBDCs?
42:05
Speaker 4: Now?
42:05
Speaker 2: Whether that was what actually happened at the end of
42:08
Speaker 2: the day, I'm not entirely certain, but anyway, the point is,
42:11
Speaker 2: the sentiment seemed to be that there was some skepticism
42:13
Speaker 2: about whether CBDCs perhaps have become so unpopular that maybe
42:19
Speaker 2: they need to be looking at another way to pursue
42:21
Speaker 2: the same kind of goal, and that seems to be
42:24
Speaker 2: why the interest in stable coins is there.
42:28
Speaker 5: The Bank of International Sentiments was backing CBDs now for
42:30
Speaker 5: the last five years, I mean, that was the horse
42:33
Speaker 5: they've been backing this whole time. So absolutely there's a
42:36
Speaker 5: vault face on that. And what are we back to
42:38
Speaker 5: square one again?
42:39
Speaker 2: Who knows well, But if there has been a reversal
42:43
Speaker 2: on it, that is absolutely a result of the pushback
42:46
Speaker 2: by ordinary people. And so anyway, some people should perhaps
42:50
Speaker 2: take some feeling of success over.
42:52
Speaker 1: That programmable money. In other words, yes.
42:55
Speaker 2: Now let's move on then to defense, and well, everybody
42:58
Speaker 2: will be glad to know that the Ministry Defense has
43:00
Speaker 2: tweeted this out that thirteen British businesses have been awarded
43:04
Speaker 2: contracts of up to four million pounds to work with
43:07
Speaker 2: the Ministry of Defense to boost what they describe as
43:09
Speaker 2: rapid procurement and deliver cutting edge technology for the UK
43:13
Speaker 2: armed forces. And what are we talking about? Quantum sensing,
43:17
Speaker 2: autonomous systems, drones, these types of things, to secure communications, space, manufacturing,
43:23
Speaker 2: synthetic training, all these kinds of topics. Now they are
43:27
Speaker 2: saying that together these represent the breadth and depth of
43:30
Speaker 2: British defense innovation. But basically, what are they talking about.
43:34
Speaker 2: This is something that we've been commenting on for the
43:36
Speaker 2: last couple of weeks, Patrick. They are talking about more
43:40
Speaker 2: reliance on government funding. So they're encouraging more and more
43:44
Speaker 2: small and medium sized businesses to engage directly with government
43:48
Speaker 2: procurement schemes, which of course brings these companies into reliance
43:54
Speaker 2: on money from the state rather than looking to build
43:58
Speaker 2: their capital elsewhere. Makes the control of the state a
44:02
Speaker 2: much more powerful thing.
44:04
Speaker 5: This is very depressing just listening to this mic, because
44:06
Speaker 5: everybody with a brain, how half a brain anyway, knows
44:10
Speaker 5: exactly where this is heading. This is the total mobilization
44:13
Speaker 5: of the economy and society and building it around not
44:18
Speaker 5: a green solution as we were afraid of years ago,
44:20
Speaker 5: but around a war solution or constant warfare, the total
44:25
Speaker 5: of the whole of society approach that includes the entire economy.
44:29
Speaker 5: Then it becomes the political economy. We can discuss more
44:33
Speaker 5: about that, Mike, But that brings us to the big
44:37
Speaker 5: question here, World War III. Where is it going to
44:41
Speaker 5: kick off? And most likely one of the hot points
44:45
Speaker 5: right now is, of course Europe and Russia. And here
44:48
Speaker 5: is it very disturbing Among many disturbing developments we'll look
44:51
Speaker 5: at here. And this is coming out of RT. Obviously,
44:55
Speaker 5: this has been largely banned by the UK, this news outlet,
44:58
Speaker 5: because the government doesn't want you to to know what's
45:01
Speaker 5: happening that might affect your life. So we're going to
45:03
Speaker 5: help you by telling you basically here. NATO country shoots
45:06
Speaker 5: down alleged Ukrainian drone. It was a Ukrainian drone. It
45:10
Speaker 5: was shot down by Estonia by a NATO jet this
45:15
Speaker 5: is the first So we're looking at a potential change here,
45:19
Speaker 5: a little bit of a shift. Over the past few weeks,
45:21
Speaker 5: there have been a number of incidents related to Ukrainian
45:23
Speaker 5: UAV drones targeting northwestern Russia, mainly energy facilities there, particularly
45:30
Speaker 5: energy facilities in Leningrad region. Some of the aircraft eventually
45:33
Speaker 5: crashed in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Finland. So let's just
45:39
Speaker 5: take a look at the geography of this here, and
45:42
Speaker 5: so these are the Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
45:46
Speaker 5: This is the area that we're most concerned. Is this
45:48
Speaker 5: triborder area here. Now the implication is if they're not
45:52
Speaker 5: able to fly over Belarus that's the large green patch
45:56
Speaker 5: just on the bottom there, that they are coming up
45:58
Speaker 5: via Poland, Lithuania, over Vilnius, through Latvia and then into Russia. Now,
46:05
Speaker 5: this particular one went into Estonian airspace here, So the
46:09
Speaker 5: question is why was this done. Russia looks like it
46:12
Speaker 5: intervened and the relations the dialogue has opened up between
46:17
Speaker 5: Estonia and Russia on this issue, and Russia is really
46:20
Speaker 5: kind of beginning to draw a red line here. We'll
46:23
Speaker 5: show you how serious that red line is in a
46:26
Speaker 5: moment here, but they are really playing with fire on
46:29
Speaker 5: the NATO side by allowing this type these types of attacks.
46:33
Speaker 5: We'll show you how bad these attacks have gotten this week.
46:35
Speaker 5: But here's the Swedish Prime Minister Ulf kristians Son with
46:40
Speaker 5: Mark Krute, the NATO Secretary General here waxing lyrical about
46:46
Speaker 5: the wonders of drone attacks against Russia and how wonderful
46:51
Speaker 5: this is going to be for Europe.
46:55
Speaker 17: It's my firm belief that the Ukrainians are very I mean,
46:59
Speaker 17: they certainly don't want their drones to end up on
47:05
Speaker 17: friendly territory for obvious reasons. Sometimes it's a matter of jamming,
47:10
Speaker 17: sometimes it's a matter of other disturbances, and obviously they
47:15
Speaker 17: do not want them to happen because it could create damage,
47:19
Speaker 17: it could create a.
47:20
Speaker 1: Fear, of course.
47:22
Speaker 17: But I think you should also realize that there is
47:24
Speaker 17: a Russian willingness to give the impression that other countries
47:29
Speaker 17: are kind of doing things that are not legitimate, and
47:32
Speaker 17: that's why we're not We should really not be open
47:36
Speaker 17: for the Russian narrative on this. But instead, of course,
47:38
Speaker 17: help the Ukrainians as much as we can to direct
47:42
Speaker 17: to help them direct their attacks in the right directions,
47:45
Speaker 17: of course.
47:49
Speaker 5: I mean the advocating that NATO needs to facilitate Ukrainian
47:53
Speaker 5: drone attacks against Russia. We're asking for trouble here. But
47:58
Speaker 5: they're very open and casual about You can see them
48:00
Speaker 5: in their sort of khaki trousers and it's all very corporate.
48:04
Speaker 5: So here is what Ukraine just did yesterday. We'll bring
48:07
Speaker 5: this up on screen. Here, take a look at this.
48:10
Speaker 5: This is a student dormitory in star Elsk College in Luhansk,
48:17
Speaker 5: in Dumbas, so I believe some students have been killed.
48:21
Speaker 5: This is a Ukrainian drone attack. So they're targeting schools
48:24
Speaker 5: and universities, and this is a US policy. Basically, it's
48:27
Speaker 5: what the US did in Iran, targeting schools, targeting universities,
48:32
Speaker 5: and so now Ukraine has basically adopted this US policy
48:36
Speaker 5: in the Israeli policy of targeting educational institutions and so forth.
48:42
Speaker 5: So it's getting pretty nasty, to say the least. And
48:46
Speaker 5: we don't know the exact toll and the casualties on this.
48:50
Speaker 5: It's disturbing that things are heading in this direction. And
48:53
Speaker 5: this is fully endorsed by every European country, by the UK.
48:57
Speaker 5: John Heally's probably very excited to see this on the
49:01
Speaker 5: college in Luhansk, as is Mark Route, as is Frederick
49:05
Speaker 5: Mertz and the rest of them. And this is where
49:08
Speaker 5: it's going to lead. However, will bring this up on
49:11
Speaker 5: screen back to the forbidden website RT because we don't
49:14
Speaker 5: want to know what the Russian government's saying or thinking
49:17
Speaker 5: in terms of defense doctrines. But russia nuclear moves will
49:21
Speaker 5: not go unanswered. Here. What are we talking about. We're
49:24
Speaker 5: talking about a new doctrine, a new defense strategy by
49:28
Speaker 5: Russia which is going to now include strikes on European soil.
49:34
Speaker 5: If the source of the attacks are from European manufacturers
49:38
Speaker 5: that are supplying components to Ukraine, which the Europe and
49:42
Speaker 5: NATO are then facilitating and helping guide into Russia, Russia
49:47
Speaker 5: is going to basically under international law, they have a
49:49
Speaker 5: right to respond under the UN Charter. Okay, So this
49:53
Speaker 5: is an act of war by Europe by all these
49:55
Speaker 5: NATO members against Russia, hitting their infra structure, hitting civilian
50:01
Speaker 5: targets also inside Russia. So this is a serious business.
50:06
Speaker 5: This is a serious business. This is going to lead.
50:08
Speaker 5: So you and Mike, you know they're saying Oh, Russia
50:11
Speaker 5: is going to attack by twenty twenty seven. It's an inevitability.
50:15
Speaker 5: You keep hearing this, We're preparing for this, right we go.
50:18
Speaker 2: How are you also preparing the narrative for us?
50:20
Speaker 5: How do they know? Because they're because they're doing everything
50:24
Speaker 5: possible to bait Russia into retaliating, which Russia has a
50:28
Speaker 5: right to do under international law, just as Britain would
50:31
Speaker 5: have a right to do. If let's say France was
50:35
Speaker 5: using Belgium to launch drone attacks against Britain, well, Britain
50:39
Speaker 5: has a right to hit France and hit the source
50:42
Speaker 5: of the threat. In other words, those drones are being
50:45
Speaker 5: made in France. It's the exact same thing here. To
50:48
Speaker 5: forget about the moral argument about Russia invading Ukraine in
50:52
Speaker 5: twenty twenty two. That's a separate discussion, okay, But right
50:56
Speaker 5: now we have absolute European countries doing absolutely everything to
51:01
Speaker 5: push the situation to a major nuclear conflagration and a standoff.
51:08
Speaker 2: Just in the last couple of seconds of the segment,
51:09
Speaker 2: do you think because obviously if Russia does actually do that,
51:15
Speaker 2: they're making the threat. If they actually do it, that's
51:17
Speaker 2: going to be presented, this Russia attacking NATO Article five
51:22
Speaker 2: will be invoked.
51:24
Speaker 1: Does Russia.
51:24
Speaker 2: Is Russia making this threat at this point because they
51:26
Speaker 2: feel that the West is with the Iron Wharf example,
51:29
Speaker 2: demonstrated that actually it does not have the capability to
51:33
Speaker 2: pose a significant threat to Russia.
51:35
Speaker 5: Well, you could look at it that way, but I
51:37
Speaker 5: think Russia's not that. They're not that tricky. They're very straightforward,
51:42
Speaker 5: they're very pragmatic. So they're now basically putting a red
51:45
Speaker 5: line down and saying, look, we're warning you now, don't
51:48
Speaker 5: don't continue doing this. If you do, this is what's
51:51
Speaker 5: going to happen. And you know, everybody is so giddy
51:54
Speaker 5: in the defense industry because they're all making money hand
51:57
Speaker 5: over fist by this bluff. And it's a bluff against Russia,
52:01
Speaker 5: because if you go to war with Russia, okay, it's
52:05
Speaker 5: only going to end two ways. If it's a conventional exchange,
52:08
Speaker 5: Russia could wipe out pretty much everything in Europe within
52:11
Speaker 5: probably seventy two hours. All the manufacturing base, probably a
52:15
Speaker 5: few military bases Romstein, Stuttgart and all the rest of
52:18
Speaker 5: it in Germany gone. Okay, half the Bundesvir and the
52:22
Speaker 5: Finnish military wiped out. Okay, it's not functional anymore, and
52:27
Speaker 5: all the manufacturing base if it goes nuclear, well everyone's
52:31
Speaker 5: a loser. Let's just put it that way. So why
52:33
Speaker 5: are our leaders pushing towards this and not towards a
52:36
Speaker 5: negotiated settlement? To me, a negotiate settlement it be much
52:40
Speaker 5: better economically, be cheaper for us in terms of what
52:44
Speaker 5: we're expected to foot in terms of the defense bill
52:47
Speaker 5: and all the debt that's going to come with it
52:49
Speaker 5: to finance that, and the extraordinary price of energy in Europe. Okay,
52:54
Speaker 5: we're paying for all that we don't have to. Our
52:57
Speaker 5: leaders have made that decision for us. That's the problem.
53:01
Speaker 5: He time to start pushing back exactly.
53:03
Speaker 2: Okay, let's change topics and now. One health is a
53:07
Speaker 2: term that we haven't heard in a while. It's the
53:09
Speaker 2: idea if you remember that human, animal, and environmental health
53:12
Speaker 2: are all interdependent and so it brings together quite a
53:16
Speaker 2: number of policy areas. Different policy areas the UK Health
53:20
Speaker 2: Security Agency, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs,
53:25
Speaker 2: and the Animal and Plant Health Agency have today published
53:29
Speaker 2: the first annual one Health Vector born Disease Surveillance Report.
53:34
Speaker 2: That sounds good, doesn't it?
53:35
Speaker 4: Now.
53:36
Speaker 2: The report emphasizes the importance of a one health approach,
53:39
Speaker 2: bringing together human, animal and vector data from twenty twenty
53:43
Speaker 2: five to give a comprehensive picture of of the changing
53:46
Speaker 2: risk of vector born diseases in England. Alongside this, the
53:51
Speaker 2: agency has also updated its national contingency plans for invasive
53:56
Speaker 2: mosquitoes in England and for West Nile varas so. Figures
54:01
Speaker 2: published in the annual portraow that Lyme disease remains the
54:04
Speaker 2: most common locally acquired vector born infection in England, with
54:08
Speaker 2: one hundred and sixty eight laboratory confirmed acute cases reported
54:12
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty five. But they say that while no
54:15
Speaker 2: locally acquired mosquito born infections were reported in England, the
54:19
Speaker 2: report highlights a growing risk from mosquito born viruses, particularly
54:23
Speaker 2: West Nile virus as I mentioned and issued in virus.
54:27
Speaker 2: This is apparently because temperatures in Southeast England are already
54:31
Speaker 2: high enough for these mosquitoes to survive, and so they
54:34
Speaker 2: say they aim to help local authorities and partners to
54:37
Speaker 2: identify and carry out their role in vector management to
54:40
Speaker 2: suppress invisive mosquito activity as far as possible. Despite their
54:44
Speaker 2: known mosquitoes to suppress maybe they're suppressing the rest of
54:48
Speaker 2: us at the time. They say that they've updated the
54:50
Speaker 2: West Nile Virus plan and that they aim to minimize
54:54
Speaker 2: the risk of West Nile virus and both animals and
54:57
Speaker 2: humans in England, while setting out proposed actions if it's
55:01
Speaker 2: detected in either and then just by coincidence. Yesterday, the MHRA,
55:06
Speaker 2: the Medicine Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, launched a landmark public consultation.
55:12
Speaker 2: They describe it as landmark on a proposed new regulatory
55:16
Speaker 2: framework which is going to spearhead the development of rare
55:18
Speaker 2: disease treatment in the UK, and they say that this
55:22
Speaker 2: sets a new model for how rare disease therapies for
55:25
Speaker 2: individuals could be tested, licensed and monitored, and it intends
55:29
Speaker 2: to make it quicker and less costly to safely develop
55:33
Speaker 2: therapies for rare diseases which, despite there being no mosquitoes,
55:38
Speaker 2: apparently affect infect three point five million people in the UK.
55:41
Speaker 4: That's it.
55:42
Speaker 5: We need to put all our resources into rare diseases
55:45
Speaker 5: because there's so many people getting rare diseases right, but
55:48
Speaker 5: a global warming and climate change could raise the prospects
55:53
Speaker 5: of the risk of mosquito born viruses from West Nile.
55:57
Speaker 5: What do you think if we can just get people
55:59
Speaker 5: to get more into the global warming, then they'll believe
56:02
Speaker 5: that we're going to get invaded by Africans killer African mosquitos.
56:06
Speaker 5: Then we will need one health to come to the rescue. Absolutely,
56:09
Speaker 5: I've already figured it all out.
56:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you for that, Patrick. That sounds it up
56:13
Speaker 2: quite nicely, Basil. Let's come back to you then to
56:15
Speaker 2: finish off with some another in case you missed it.
56:20
Speaker 4: Thanks Mike.
56:21
Speaker 3: Yes, a few stories over the last week that may
56:24
Speaker 3: have escaped your attention. This first one originates, of course
56:30
Speaker 3: from the Sunday Times the twenty richest people in the UK,
56:34
Speaker 3: and it's got the Hinduja brothers at the top, followed
56:36
Speaker 3: by the followed by the Reuben brothers who own Newcastle
56:40
Speaker 3: and Linfield racecourses, amongst others. Jim Ratcliffe up there. Billions
56:44
Speaker 3: and billions of pounds you can find this online, and
56:48
Speaker 3: a combined wealth of hundreds and hundreds of millions of pounds,
56:52
Speaker 3: and one could very easily tax tax them to the
56:55
Speaker 3: extent of one hundred billion between.
56:57
Speaker 4: Them or more and.
56:59
Speaker 3: It would not alter their lifestyles one jot. I mean
57:03
Speaker 3: you can only sleep in one bed, but would make
57:05
Speaker 3: a huge difference to the to the exchequer. But no,
57:10
Speaker 3: it seems wealth taxes are completely verboten. I wonder whether
57:14
Speaker 3: Andy Burden will be a little bit keener on them.
57:17
Speaker 3: We do, of course have the biggest disparity of wealth
57:20
Speaker 3: in this country well since records began. It's worse than
57:24
Speaker 3: it was in Victorian or Georgian times. And of course
57:27
Speaker 3: also you never find the Rothschild on that list or
57:31
Speaker 3: some the other people whose wealth.
57:33
Speaker 4: Simply cannot be calculated. Next up.
57:36
Speaker 3: This is heartening, I suppose in the in the short term.
57:40
Speaker 3: Chris Williamson, former Labor MP for Darby, is this petition
57:46
Speaker 3: was initially rejected, but now it seems that MPs will
57:49
Speaker 3: debate calls for a public inquiry into pro Israel influence
57:53
Speaker 3: on politics and democracy. The MPs owned by Israel. Chris
57:58
Speaker 3: points out, we'll oppose it about how many will be
58:01
Speaker 3: brave enough to back a public inquiry And I personally
58:06
Speaker 3: think that one.
58:07
Speaker 4: Is very much needed.
58:09
Speaker 3: But whether we get it or not, or whether the
58:11
Speaker 3: very idea of it is anti Semitic and will of
58:14
Speaker 3: course provoke a backlash from the usual suspects. Well, that
58:17
Speaker 3: remains to be seen fascinating story. Nevertheless. Next up, Yes,
58:25
Speaker 3: the ruling now must be implemented that single sex toilets
58:30
Speaker 3: excludegender people.
58:32
Speaker 4: Can you remember a.
58:33
Speaker 3: Few years ago when this was the single most important
58:36
Speaker 3: story on the whole planet, wasn't it invasion of bathrooms? Well,
58:43
Speaker 3: I'm pleased to say that single sex toilets will come back,
58:48
Speaker 3: but with the proviso that businesses and service providers now have.
58:52
Speaker 4: To offer practical alternatives.
58:55
Speaker 3: So are we going to have three toilets anywhere you go,
58:57
Speaker 3: whether or not that includes every Dervis station and restaurant
59:01
Speaker 3: now has to have not just men and women, but
59:04
Speaker 3: the third unit for people who don't regard themselves as
59:09
Speaker 3: either or whatever. Seems like a tremendous expense if they're
59:15
Speaker 3: required to have a third unit, So we'll see how
59:20
Speaker 3: that plays out in practice. Next up, Thomas Tuchel, the
59:26
Speaker 3: German manager of the England football team, who announces his squad, says,
59:30
Speaker 3: my job is not necessarily to select the twenty six
59:33
Speaker 3: most talented players. Well, England have a terrible record in
59:37
Speaker 3: the World Cup, and one of of course, since nineteen
59:40
Speaker 3: sixty six, which is now fully sixty years ago, isn't it.
59:46
Speaker 4: And well he's German and he would say that, wouldn't he.
59:52
Speaker 3: The Football Association have an uncanny habit of always picking
59:57
Speaker 3: the wrong person for that job. Harry Redknapp should have
1:00:01
Speaker 3: got it, Brian Cluff should have got it, but no,
1:00:05
Speaker 3: they always go for the duds like Gareth Southgate and
1:00:09
Speaker 3: Roy Hodgson and now Thomas Tutchel. If you want to
1:00:12
Speaker 3: have a bet on England winning the World Cup, then get.
1:00:16
Speaker 4: In touch with me because I'll give you twenty to one.
1:00:19
Speaker 4: Off we go, next slide and here we go.
1:00:25
Speaker 3: This is a interesting development.
1:00:29
Speaker 4: UK lawyers for Israel.
1:00:33
Speaker 3: Have had a complaint against them registered with the relevant
1:00:39
Speaker 3: legal authorities because they are appending the names of Stephen
1:00:44
Speaker 3: Hockman case, Lord Anthony Graviner k C and Lord David
1:00:50
Speaker 3: Panic Case two correspondents sent out to organizations institutions could
1:00:59
Speaker 3: be anybody really that dares to show any meaningful solidarity
1:01:04
Speaker 3: with the people of Palestine. So people get letters signed
1:01:10
Speaker 3: by very very important sounding people as you heard there,
1:01:14
Speaker 3: to peers and a third person all cases, and inevitably,
1:01:20
Speaker 3: in many cases they panic and decide to go along
1:01:24
Speaker 3: with whatever it is UK Lawyers for Israel want, which
1:01:27
Speaker 3: inevitably means cancelation of the event, withdrawing the invitation to
1:01:33
Speaker 3: the speaker, and this, as is pointed out in the complaint,
1:01:40
Speaker 3: has a chilling effect on perfectly lawful freedom of speech
1:01:45
Speaker 3: and representations of solidarity. One notable case of a few
1:01:48
Speaker 3: years ago concerned a hospital. This is Jewish Voice for
1:01:53
Speaker 3: Liberation formerly Jewish Voice for Labor, but all these Jewish
1:01:58
Speaker 3: people were kicked out of the Labor Party for anti Semitism.
1:02:01
Speaker 4: Makes sense of that if you will.
1:02:03
Speaker 3: And this relates to the hospital that censored the artwork
1:02:10
Speaker 3: of Guards and Children after Jonathan Turner, the chief executive
1:02:15
Speaker 3: of UK Lawyers for Israel, said that there had been
1:02:19
Speaker 3: a flood of complaints, apparently from Jewish patients distressed at
1:02:22
Speaker 3: having to face a wall of anti Israel propaganda when
1:02:26
Speaker 3: they go to hospital. Well, one or two of the
1:02:28
Speaker 3: plates featured Palestinian flags, but there was no propaganda on them.
1:02:32
Speaker 3: A freedom of information quest discovered that there had in
1:02:36
Speaker 3: fact been no complaints at.
1:02:39
Speaker 4: All, not one.
1:02:41
Speaker 3: Interesting Nevertheless, the exhibition was taking down because a uk
1:02:48
Speaker 3: LFI demanded it so and Finally, this week, surprise surprise,
1:02:56
Speaker 3: Israel has become the world's most disliked country, according to
1:03:00
Speaker 3: a global survey, behind even North Korea and Afghanistan. It's
1:03:05
Speaker 3: a long way underwater by several points. Italy amongst the
1:03:11
Speaker 3: countries that are most favored, along with Poland and Iceland.
1:03:17
Speaker 3: But Israel bottom of the pole in likability.
1:03:21
Speaker 4: I wonder why, gentlemen.
1:03:23
Speaker 3: It must be because the whole world is anti Submitty.
1:03:26
Speaker 4: What else could it possibly be?
1:03:29
Speaker 5: Bottom of the pole in terms of likability, but probably
1:03:32
Speaker 5: top of the league tables of the new Axis of evil.
1:03:35
Speaker 5: They have to go right to the top, don't they.
1:03:37
Speaker 5: That's we're They're going to be leading North Korea unseating
1:03:40
Speaker 5: Kim Jong un and all of the quote regimes. That's
1:03:45
Speaker 5: Israel's new home and dates according to this pole. Hey,
1:03:48
Speaker 5: that's not me saying that. I'm an objective commentator.
1:03:53
Speaker 4: That note.
1:03:54
Speaker 2: We got to leave it there for today. Thank you Basil,
1:03:57
Speaker 2: thank you Patrick, Thanks to everybody who's been watching. If
1:04:00
Speaker 2: you like what we've been doing, maybe you join us
1:04:03
Speaker 2: a member and then you can join us in a
1:04:04
Speaker 2: couple of minutes for UK called News Extra. If you
1:04:07
Speaker 2: are a member, stay on the live stream. We'll see
1:04:09
Speaker 2: you there. Don't forget German Carl tonight. Have a great
1:04:12
Speaker 2: weekend and join us again Monday, one pm as usual.
1:04:15
Speaker 2: See then, Bye bye,