Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 6th May 2026

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UK Column News — 6th May 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon. It's Wednesday's sixth and May twenty twenty six,
0:11
Speaker 1: just after one o'clock walk in the UK call him News,
0:13
Speaker 1: I mean your host Mac Robinson. Joining me in the
0:14
Speaker 1: studio today is Charles Mallett and by video link from Lebanon.
0:18
Speaker 1: As usual we have Vanessa, Billy and I Letter in
0:21
Speaker 1: the program. Charles will be reporting on how Britain streets
0:23
Speaker 1: are being made siffer and the new British interceptor missiles
0:26
Speaker 1: which are claimed to be a huge success from one
0:28
Speaker 1: small business here. Vanessa will be reporting on the embryotic
0:32
Speaker 1: British is really tech hub being built right beside GCXQ
0:36
Speaker 1: in Gloucestershire. And I'm going to bring some focus on
0:38
Speaker 1: how the COVID era psychological operations are being used to
0:42
Speaker 1: drive support for the war agenda. But we're going to
0:44
Speaker 1: begin today with anti Semitism. The Goldish Green stabbing of
0:49
Speaker 1: last week is the gift that keeps on giving for
0:51
Speaker 1: Keir Starmer and his government, apparently because the immediate response
0:56
Speaker 1: which I reported about on Friday has been followed up
0:59
Speaker 1: with even more than men into Shabanama Mood's famous punopticon.
1:03
Speaker 1: So on Wednesday, Starmer gave a speech at Dining Street
1:07
Speaker 1: in front of so called leaders from the business, civil society, health, culture,
1:11
Speaker 1: higher education, and policing sectors. And it could have go
1:15
Speaker 1: into a bit of detail about what he said. So
1:17
Speaker 1: this is the first little bit. These disgusting attacks, he said,
1:22
Speaker 1: are being made against British Jews. But make no mistake
1:25
Speaker 1: this crisis, it is a crisis for all of us.
1:28
Speaker 1: It's a test of our values. He said. It's not
1:31
Speaker 1: enough to simply say we stand with Jewish communities. Of
1:33
Speaker 1: course we do, but we have to show that with action,
1:37
Speaker 1: and that responsibility lies with each and every one of
1:41
Speaker 1: us because it's our fight too. It's about the kind
1:44
Speaker 1: of country that we all want to be, and that's
1:47
Speaker 1: what today is about, because only by working together can
1:50
Speaker 1: we eradicate anti Semitism from every corner of society. And
1:54
Speaker 1: of course he went on to then name Iran or
1:58
Speaker 1: any other countries that Mike might seek to ferment violence,
2:02
Speaker 1: hatred or division in society, and it's not going to
2:05
Speaker 1: be tolerated. And we can assume that he was referring
2:08
Speaker 1: to Russia there perhaps, and he said, and we're clear
2:12
Speaker 1: eyed about the fact that anti Semitism does not have
2:15
Speaker 1: one source alone. Islamist, far left and far right extremism
2:20
Speaker 1: all targets Jewish communities. So we're all in it, Charles,
2:23
Speaker 1: We're all in it together. Apparently, this is why government
2:27
Speaker 1: has put in place the first coordinated national plan to
2:30
Speaker 1: strength and cohesion and confront extremism in all its forms.
2:34
Speaker 1: Now we'll come back to this plan in a couple
2:36
Speaker 1: of minutes, in a minute or two, but he went
2:39
Speaker 1: on to say this is not about tinkering around the edges.
2:43
Speaker 1: Our plan is a complete step change in how we
2:45
Speaker 1: protect communities. In fact, he said actually saying there how
2:49
Speaker 1: we protect one community because this isn't about any other
2:53
Speaker 1: community as far as I can see. He went on
2:56
Speaker 1: to say, we're holding technology companies to account, requiring them
3:00
Speaker 1: to remove illegal extremist content or face serious penalties. And
3:05
Speaker 1: we've introduced stronger powers to deal with protests, ensuring intimidation
3:10
Speaker 1: is not tolerated on our streets and on our schools
3:13
Speaker 1: and colleges and universities. We're investing seven million points to
3:16
Speaker 1: tackle anti Semitism while making sure a Holocaust education is
3:21
Speaker 1: taught in all schools. And today we're going further. We
3:25
Speaker 1: already expect universities to set out clear disciplinary consequences for
3:28
Speaker 1: anti semitism and to enforce them. And so we will
3:33
Speaker 1: hold them to account on that. It seems like a
3:36
Speaker 1: long way to go just to shut David Miller up,
3:38
Speaker 1: but anyway, we'll talk more about that in a second.
3:41
Speaker 1: But today I can announce that we will lift he said,
3:44
Speaker 1: we will lift the bar higher when abuses take place.
3:47
Speaker 1: We're calling on universities to demonstrate action. We will now
3:50
Speaker 1: expect them to publish the skill of the problem on
3:53
Speaker 1: their campuses as well as the specific steps of taking
3:56
Speaker 1: this clamp down on it. There'll be zero toller urrants
4:00
Speaker 1: for inaction. And he didn't leave it there. Our cultural venues,
4:05
Speaker 1: he said, and spaces we will also expect more there
4:09
Speaker 1: Where public funding is being used to promote our platform
4:12
Speaker 1: anti semitism. The Arts Council must act, using its part
4:16
Speaker 1: to suspend, withdraw and clawback funding. And today we're mandating
4:21
Speaker 1: an independent audit of how allegations are handled. This will
4:25
Speaker 1: be a hard edged review of where systems are failing
4:28
Speaker 1: and where they need to be strengthened. So the question
4:33
Speaker 1: in my mind is what is this first coordinated national
4:37
Speaker 1: plan to strength and cohesion and confront extremism that he mentioned, Well,
4:41
Speaker 1: it's called protecting what matters towards a more confident, cohesive
4:46
Speaker 1: and resilient United Kingdom, and it's all about mind control.
4:50
Speaker 1: And so we'll just run through what they're talking about here.
4:54
Speaker 1: Up to five point eight billion pounds committed across almost
4:57
Speaker 1: three hundred places, including up eight hundred million over ten
5:02
Speaker 1: years for forty further areas under the Pride and Place program. Now,
5:06
Speaker 1: you talked about this a few weeks ago, Charles I did.
5:10
Speaker 2: I mean, I think with all of this, it's just
5:12
Speaker 2: interesting that you can sort of throw a certain amount
5:14
Speaker 2: of money at something like anti semitism or indeed community
5:18
Speaker 2: cohesion and expect that will solve the problem.
5:20
Speaker 1: But of course it isn't going to solve any problems.
5:22
Speaker 1: What they're doing is they're using this money to further
5:24
Speaker 1: their agenda, and they're using anti Semitism as the mechanism
5:28
Speaker 1: to justify that. And that's the point of this segment.
5:31
Speaker 1: So if we bring that back on screen, up to
5:33
Speaker 1: five million pounds in twenty twenty six twenty twenty seven
5:36
Speaker 1: for the Common Ground Resilience Fund for Cohesion and Integration
5:40
Speaker 1: interventions so this is all about intervening. A new Social
5:44
Speaker 1: Cohesion Task Force to coordinate policy areas across departments with
5:48
Speaker 1: annual progress updates. Strengthened Charity Commission pars to close down
5:54
Speaker 1: charities promoting extremism, new pars to stop hit preachers entering
5:58
Speaker 1: the UK and an annual State of Extremism report embedding
6:03
Speaker 1: the previous government's twenty twenty four extremism definition across Whitehall
6:07
Speaker 1: working with police and frontline partners. Adoption of a non
6:11
Speaker 1: statutory definition of anti Muslim hostility with a forthcoming Anti
6:15
Speaker 1: Muslim Hostiliti czar. We've got to divide and conquer here.
6:19
Speaker 1: We'll talk about that a bit more later. An earned
6:22
Speaker 1: settlement framework requiring migrants typically to spend ten years in
6:25
Speaker 1: the UK before qualifying for permanent settlement. A first ever
6:29
Speaker 1: mandatory register of children not in school, with stronger oversight
6:33
Speaker 1: of home education because we've got to make sure that
6:35
Speaker 1: they get the same indoctrination as everybody else. A social
6:39
Speaker 1: Cohesian measurement framework and across government integration strategy and the
6:44
Speaker 1: Use of Online Safety Act twenty twenty three powers against platforms,
6:48
Speaker 1: including looking at user control over algorithms and On top
6:53
Speaker 1: of this, they've announced a further one million pounds for
6:56
Speaker 1: Jewish communities, not that one, just take that and again
7:00
Speaker 1: yet one million points for reduced communities to tackle anti
7:03
Speaker 1: Semitism and strengthen community cohesion in those places facing the
7:07
Speaker 1: greatest risk. And that's an immediate five hundred thousand pounds
7:11
Speaker 1: being allocated to Barnet Council, for example, to reflect serious
7:15
Speaker 1: anti Semitic incidents in the borough and and the large
7:18
Speaker 1: number of Jewish residents there. And this expands the Ministry
7:23
Speaker 1: of Housing, Communities and Local Government's Common Grind program, which
7:26
Speaker 1: is already providing more than four hundred, sorry more than
7:29
Speaker 1: four million pounds to communities across the country. The investment
7:34
Speaker 1: is in addition to the twenty five million points a
7:37
Speaker 1: nice last week that we mentioned on Friday to boost
7:40
Speaker 1: police patrols, specialist officers and protective security for Jewish communities,
7:45
Speaker 1: taking total funding to fifty eight million pounds, as well
7:48
Speaker 1: as seven million pounds to tackle anti semitism schools, colleges
7:52
Speaker 1: and universities we mentioned a couple of seconds ago, and
7:55
Speaker 1: finally for now you've got a preview of it. But
7:57
Speaker 1: here it is the crime prosecution of this announcement that
8:00
Speaker 1: hit crime prosecutions are to be fast tracked, and it
8:06
Speaker 1: says here that where that threshold for prosecution is satisfied
8:09
Speaker 1: and a prosecution decision should not be delayed, it says
8:14
Speaker 1: that it is important that the Jewish community has confidence
8:17
Speaker 1: that if these incidents are reported, action will be taken
8:21
Speaker 1: and swiftly. So it is quite incredible to me, Charles
8:25
Speaker 1: and Vanessa that whatever happened over with the burning of
8:29
Speaker 1: the ambulances and the stabbings last week, this is absolutely
8:33
Speaker 1: and very cynically being used to justify the increasing surveillance,
8:40
Speaker 1: restrictions on speech, restrictions on protest and so on, all
8:44
Speaker 1: the agenda items that this government, in fact the previous
8:47
Speaker 1: one as well, have been working towards, and they're cynically
8:50
Speaker 1: using the Jewish community to justify it.
8:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, creating division and calling occasion.
8:56
Speaker 1: Right, It's quite the trick, more an extra charge. Let's
9:01
Speaker 1: move on then to the capability that Britain has for
9:05
Speaker 1: creating new missiles.
9:07
Speaker 2: Indeed, the capability that Britain is describing itself as having,
9:10
Speaker 2: which is not quite the whole story. So we just
9:12
Speaker 2: look at the mod announcement that came out just a
9:15
Speaker 2: couple of days ago, the new interceptor missile successfully tested
9:18
Speaker 2: in the Middle East as Defense Minister visits region. Well,
9:21
Speaker 2: that's Luke Pollard and we'll just have a look at
9:23
Speaker 2: what he said from the hangar that he appeared to
9:26
Speaker 2: be in.
9:28
Speaker 4: I'm here in Jordan, where today I've witnessed a successful
9:31
Speaker 4: life firing test of the new Skyhammer missile. Skyhammer from
9:36
Speaker 4: Cambridge Aerospace is a brilliant example of how we're refusing
9:40
Speaker 4: brilliant British ingenuity, a veteran startup now Britain's next defense
9:45
Speaker 4: unicorn with cutting edge technology against a proven adversary threat.
9:50
Speaker 4: So this is al of a Skyhammer missile. It's been
9:53
Speaker 4: designed to take down the Shaheed style attack drones that
9:56
Speaker 4: we're seeing attacking our allies in the region. Is cutting
10:00
Speaker 4: edge technology and that's why the United Kingdom has brought
10:03
Speaker 4: dis missile for our own armed forces. It's proving that
10:07
Speaker 4: defense is an engine for growth and equipping the men
10:10
Speaker 4: and women of our armed forces with the very latest
10:13
Speaker 4: equipment that helps keep Britain and our allies safe in
10:16
Speaker 4: a more dangerous world.
10:21
Speaker 2: So if it does work as described, then it does.
10:24
Speaker 2: Indeed provide what would be described as an asymmetric capability
10:28
Speaker 2: in that for very little cost and indeed small bit
10:31
Speaker 2: of equipment, it can knock out something that's much bigger
10:33
Speaker 2: and more expensive, which is basically exactly what the Iranians
10:36
Speaker 2: have been doing for the last couple of months. And
10:38
Speaker 2: so this looks like the British are catching up. But
10:41
Speaker 2: of course, as you heard him say, they have bought
10:44
Speaker 2: it for the British Army, which means that it is
10:46
Speaker 2: in effect off it's been procured off the open market,
10:50
Speaker 2: and for him to describe this as a British startup,
10:53
Speaker 2: it sort of suggests that this was designed to order,
10:56
Speaker 2: which is actually not the case at all.
10:58
Speaker 3: Now.
10:58
Speaker 2: As for came Bridge Aerospace itself, it's only been in
11:02
Speaker 2: existence since twenty twenty four, and you heard Luke Pollard
11:06
Speaker 2: there describe it as being a veteran startup. The mod
11:11
Speaker 2: and their press releases about it described it as both
11:13
Speaker 2: being veteran led and veteran phoned it, but they didn't
11:16
Speaker 2: go on to qualify exactly what this means or who
11:19
Speaker 2: we are referring to when this is talked about now,
11:24
Speaker 2: just to give an indication of how communications with government
11:29
Speaker 2: departments work and some of the frustrations and indeed the
11:33
Speaker 2: inadequacies of government media departments. So I just thought i'd
11:36
Speaker 2: show you an exchange I've had with the Ministry of
11:38
Speaker 2: Defense Press Office because I thought it was significant to
11:41
Speaker 2: understand who the veteran that's being referred to was, and
11:45
Speaker 2: therefore I wrote last night MOD has variously referred to
11:48
Speaker 2: Cambridge Erry Space as being veteran funded and veteran led.
11:51
Speaker 2: May I ask that you qualify these statements piece as
11:53
Speaker 2: there is no further information on the company website or
11:56
Speaker 2: in the MOD press releases which of the company's founders
11:59
Speaker 2: is a veteran of which service is he or she
12:01
Speaker 2: a veteran?
12:02
Speaker 3: And the reply.
12:04
Speaker 2: Which came back, admittedly relatively quickly, was one of the
12:08
Speaker 2: founders of the company is a veteran. Now that is
12:12
Speaker 2: the level of communication that one has to deal with
12:16
Speaker 2: as a researcher, as a reporter for UK column, and
12:20
Speaker 2: I dare say were I working for the BBC, the
12:23
Speaker 2: outcome might be slightly different. Anyway, I've gone to point
12:27
Speaker 2: out that the founder, in so far as we are
12:30
Speaker 2: able to discern, is Stephen Barrett shown here on LinkedIn,
12:35
Speaker 2: and he is absolutely certainly not a veteran of certainly
12:39
Speaker 2: of any part of the enforces. He's effectively a career academic.
12:44
Speaker 2: Not there's any issue with that, of course, but if
12:45
Speaker 2: they are going to describe it as a veteran startup,
12:47
Speaker 2: then they should really be able to reinforce that.
12:50
Speaker 3: Now, again the.
12:52
Speaker 2: Suggestion that it is a plucky little startup is not
12:55
Speaker 2: quite the whole story, because of course, in utch fact,
12:58
Speaker 2: it's received huge funding from D three Venture Capital and
13:03
Speaker 2: they describe themselves as providing funding for those who dared
13:08
Speaker 2: to defend democracy, founders who dare or dare to defend democracy.
13:13
Speaker 2: So where I would say this points back to is
13:16
Speaker 2: the narrative around Ukraine in particular being so laden with emotion.
13:20
Speaker 2: And this is exactly where it's been going. It's enabling
13:23
Speaker 2: companies and corporations to dress up almost any activity, no
13:26
Speaker 2: matter how destructive, it actually turns out to be as
13:29
Speaker 2: consistent with their ESG goals, and that's environment, social and governance.
13:33
Speaker 2: And this is done by slapping a defensive label on it.
13:37
Speaker 2: So the point of this projectile is that it's described
13:40
Speaker 2: as carrying out defensive action. Therefore, it absolutely stands to
13:44
Speaker 2: reason that nobody would have any issue with putting their
13:46
Speaker 2: money behind it, and it also explains Starmer's choice of
13:50
Speaker 2: words since February of this year. Now, of the many
13:53
Speaker 2: fingers in the D three PI, a notable one belongs
13:55
Speaker 2: to Eric Schmidt, the founder of Google. And this is
13:59
Speaker 2: why the questions I asked of Skyhammer, sorry, of Cambridge Aerospace,
14:04
Speaker 2: I asked them specifically where they have any restrictions on
14:07
Speaker 2: sales to any other countries. And this is why it
14:11
Speaker 2: would be relevant because of course Eric Schmidt has many
14:13
Speaker 2: links to businesses in Israel, and he's actively engaged in
14:17
Speaker 2: the development of technology in China, which is of course
14:20
Speaker 2: becoming an increasingly interested party in the Iran conflicts. Now
14:24
Speaker 2: we'll just listen to what Schmidt. Sorry I've missed a slide.
14:29
Speaker 2: We'll just have a look at this from the D
14:32
Speaker 2: three website. Critically, as I say, with the emotive language
14:36
Speaker 2: around Ukraine, they wanted to launch an initiative that would
14:39
Speaker 2: support innovators from around the world who help Ukraine protect
14:43
Speaker 2: and advance its democracy through technology. So this is the
14:49
Speaker 2: sort of train of thought, and with that in mind,
14:52
Speaker 2: we'll just listen to what Eric Schmidt said about his
14:56
Speaker 2: perception of China and the development of technology versus that
15:00
Speaker 2: done in America.
15:02
Speaker 5: The American competitor, not enemy, but competitor is China. How
15:07
Speaker 5: to understand them as a competitor. They have lots of money,
15:11
Speaker 5: They're very, very smart, their work ethic is equal or
15:14
Speaker 5: stronger than ours, and they dominate key industries right with
15:20
Speaker 5: respectro robotics. We somehow decided it was okay for them
15:25
Speaker 5: to dominate the electric vehicle industry. This was an error,
15:29
Speaker 5: to be very clear, it's an error. Why do you
15:31
Speaker 5: not understand it's an error because we don't allow their
15:34
Speaker 5: cars in spend some time outside of this country in
15:37
Speaker 5: Chinese cars. Trust me, they are real competitors. They've done
15:41
Speaker 5: a great job as I understand it. China is capable
15:45
Speaker 5: of vertical integration and build these gigafactories at a scale
15:49
Speaker 5: that we can't for all sorts of reasons. That's got
15:52
Speaker 5: to get addressed. So if you want to compete, and
15:54
Speaker 5: I want to compete and win with China, and I compete,
15:58
Speaker 5: not enemy. I want us to have the same kind
16:00
Speaker 5: of system.
16:04
Speaker 2: I think this is showing us a new dimension to
16:06
Speaker 2: the idea that there's a whole of society approach to warfare,
16:09
Speaker 2: and I think it be something we'll absolutely have to
16:11
Speaker 2: talk about in extra absolutely.
16:13
Speaker 1: Okay, let's welcome Vanessa to the program, and Vanessa back
16:19
Speaker 1: to Israel's part of everything these days, it seems back
16:23
Speaker 1: to the UK and the UK Roadmap for UK Israel Relations.
16:30
Speaker 3: Yeah.
16:30
Speaker 6: I started actually looking more deeply into the twenty thirty
16:35
Speaker 6: Roadmap for UK Israeli Bilateral Relations, which was published under
16:40
Speaker 6: the twenty twenty two to twenty four Sunak Conservative government,
16:44
Speaker 6: but however has not been either rescinded or reevaluated since
16:50
Speaker 6: October the seventh, and the escalation of genocide against Palestinians
16:54
Speaker 6: and Gaza and of course now in West Banks for
16:56
Speaker 6: Kiostama has done nothing to alter the strength of this
17:01
Speaker 6: document as regards forging relations to facilitate the expansion of
17:07
Speaker 6: Israeli interests into the UK. So I just wanted today
17:12
Speaker 6: to look at the section on cyber strategy. So this
17:17
Speaker 6: is number five in the document. Here they talk about
17:22
Speaker 6: increasing threats in cyberspace. Cooperation between Israel and the UK
17:26
Speaker 6: is vital in order to counter efforts by malign forces.
17:30
Speaker 6: I will remind everyone that it was Pegasus spyware back
17:35
Speaker 6: in twenty twenty twenty twenty one that actually infiltrated four
17:39
Speaker 6: hundred British citizen phones, including politicians. Israel and the UK
17:45
Speaker 6: recognize and appreciate the importance of mutual cooperation on cybersecurity
17:50
Speaker 6: and resilience, with the UK recently elevating Israel to a
17:55
Speaker 6: Tier one cyber partner and unlocking the potential for further
18:00
Speaker 6: co operation. Well, let's have a look at this further
18:03
Speaker 6: cooperation cyber startups and prosperity, prioritizing increased links between Israeli startups,
18:10
Speaker 6: which of course predominantly include members of Unit eight two hundred,
18:14
Speaker 6: as we've been demonstrating at UK column and the UK
18:19
Speaker 6: ecosystem promoting the Golden Valley development in Gloucestershire. A diit.
18:24
Speaker 1: I didn't look that up, so.
18:26
Speaker 6: I don't know what it means. High Potential opportunity HPO
18:30
Speaker 6: program with Israeli investment and direct collaboration working towards the
18:34
Speaker 6: creation of a cybercentral hub in Beersheva. Continuing they her
18:40
Speaker 6: competition linking female Israeli cyber entrepreneurs with UK investors and
18:47
Speaker 6: partners as an annual event. So actually here basically enabling
18:53
Speaker 6: the infiltration of cyber strategy, cyber warfare, cyber defense in
18:58
Speaker 6: the UK, bar members of Unit eight two hundred and
19:03
Speaker 6: other tech elements within Israel itself, while of course they're
19:08
Speaker 6: still committing genocide. So this is Golden Valley set course
19:13
Speaker 6: for the next phase with the Advisory Board unveiled at
19:16
Speaker 6: Cyber UK. They're in the first stage of development. Charles,
19:21
Speaker 6: I know that you said that you had visited the
19:23
Speaker 6: actual terrain where they're supposed to be sort of developing
19:27
Speaker 6: this entire project, and so for it just seems to
19:30
Speaker 6: be a bit of a building site. But anyway, let's
19:33
Speaker 6: have a look at the plan's approval first phase and
19:38
Speaker 6: the advisory board itself. And the advisory board itself includes Sorry, Yes,
19:44
Speaker 6: thank you, is formed of key projects stakeholders, extended to
19:48
Speaker 6: add valuable independent expert advisors, which include Dame Claire Marchant, DBE,
19:53
Speaker 6: Vice Chancellor and CEO of the University of Gloucestershire, Professor
19:57
Speaker 6: Philbada and former British PLMAT member of the MIT Management
20:02
Speaker 6: School Faculty and visiting professor at Lufborough University, London, and
20:08
Speaker 6: Marcus Willetts, cbobe's senior advisor at the International Institute for
20:13
Speaker 6: Strategic Studies and former deputy head of GHQ. It's worth
20:19
Speaker 6: noting that they also met during the event with Ankeis Butler,
20:23
Speaker 6: the current director of GCHQ. And then if we can
20:29
Speaker 6: look at what it's actually going to culminate into being.
20:33
Speaker 6: With its unique combination of location, partners and ambition, Golden
20:38
Speaker 6: Valley is set to become a globally significant cluster for innovation,
20:43
Speaker 6: driving collaboration investment from across the world, predominantly from Israel
20:47
Speaker 6: of course. Future Proof for an evolving world, Golden Valley
20:50
Speaker 6: is a pioneering mix of flexible and secure space creating
20:54
Speaker 6: innovation at scale. It brings together advanced infrastructure and specialized
20:58
Speaker 6: hubs co create with industry and academia, all purpose built
21:03
Speaker 6: for market leading and globally ambitious companies. It all sounds
21:08
Speaker 6: very good so far, but then I think we have
21:12
Speaker 6: to look. So they're on track apparently for their twenty
21:15
Speaker 6: twenty seven which is the first step of their development
21:19
Speaker 6: and expansion. And this is the ideas sector, the creating
21:23
Speaker 6: of a hub for companies pech companies including those from Israel,
21:28
Speaker 6: of course, which is heavily invested in this project, to
21:31
Speaker 6: come and discuss the future of cyber strategy in the
21:35
Speaker 6: UK and then the router element which is basically a
21:40
Speaker 6: central hub for transport and so on. And these plans
21:44
Speaker 6: go through on their website to twenty thirty five and
21:48
Speaker 6: then just a quick look to show how effectively they
21:52
Speaker 6: are linked to GCHQ, very very close. They're adjacent to GCHQ.
21:57
Speaker 6: We've just spoken about the fact that gch you directors
22:01
Speaker 6: and staff are heavily involved in the planning. And if
22:04
Speaker 6: we have a quick look at the partners you have
22:07
Speaker 6: there also Cheltenham Borough Council, GCHQ and a company called Plexa. Well,
22:15
Speaker 6: who are Plexer and how are they also connected into Israel?
22:20
Speaker 6: So let's have a look at this announcement a few
22:24
Speaker 6: days ago in April, Home Office appoints BA Consulting and
22:29
Speaker 6: Plexil as ACE Delivery partners. ACE is accelerated Capability environment
22:37
Speaker 6: solves public safety and security challenges arising from rapidly changing
22:42
Speaker 6: digital and data technologies. Brings together expertise from industry and academia.
22:47
Speaker 6: Note the academia is being pulled in again to innovate,
22:50
Speaker 6: collaboratively and deliver frontline mission impact at PACE. Also interesting
22:55
Speaker 6: to know that they are part of the Home Office
22:59
Speaker 6: kp ability as part of the Homeland Security Group and
23:03
Speaker 6: ACE solutions in fields such as online child sexual abuse
23:07
Speaker 6: and exploitation, terrorism, insider threat in critical national infrastructure, and
23:14
Speaker 6: border security. So I think we can see pretty clearly
23:17
Speaker 6: where this is all heading. And then this has taken
23:20
Speaker 6: again from the plexil website. I think this was yes
23:24
Speaker 6: twenty twenty one. We're offering eighteen free memberships to support
23:29
Speaker 6: early stage cyber startups and what does that include? So
23:33
Speaker 6: here they lay out all of the benefits to their
23:36
Speaker 6: partners and if you look at I think it's the
23:38
Speaker 6: second to last access to international cyber network that includes
23:43
Speaker 6: cyber hubs in the US, Israel, Singapore and Australia and
23:48
Speaker 6: Dell Technologies discounts. So I think what is frightening and
23:53
Speaker 6: I'd really like to discuss this an extra But it
23:56
Speaker 6: appears that this entire hub is being developed to protectors
24:01
Speaker 6: from cyber attacks, but my controls. I'd like to get
24:05
Speaker 6: your opinion, maybe an extra or now if we have
24:07
Speaker 6: time as to whether it's actually going to be turned
24:11
Speaker 6: against us and weaponized against us through the field of
24:14
Speaker 6: education and surveillance.
24:19
Speaker 1: Well, as you say, we can talk about this much
24:21
Speaker 1: more an extra but you know the prevalence of UNITITY
24:26
Speaker 1: two hundred, another Israeli intelligence agency alumni right across the
24:32
Speaker 1: tech sector. These are the people that are building the
24:35
Speaker 1: surveillance infrastructure that we are increasingly submissive to, or at
24:42
Speaker 1: least populations seem to be at the moment. But certainly
24:44
Speaker 1: it's becoming mandatory for us to be involved with it.
24:47
Speaker 1: So you know, this should be a cause for concern
24:54
Speaker 1: for most people, I would have said, And certainly we're
24:58
Speaker 1: not getting the questions or the public a bit around
25:00
Speaker 1: this that we should be. But we'll talk much more
25:02
Speaker 1: about this in extras, So thank you very much.
25:05
Speaker 2: Just the only other thing to point out, as well
25:07
Speaker 2: as being slapped back next door to GCHQ, the other
25:10
Speaker 2: side of it is the new Glocester Police development of Furlong.
25:13
Speaker 2: So interesting, interesting location, let's say, but a lovely view
25:16
Speaker 2: of those sewage works.
25:18
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, okay, let's move on. If you like what
25:21
Speaker 1: we do here at the UK column, we do need
25:23
Speaker 1: your ongoing support. If you'd like to have a look
25:25
Speaker 1: at the front page of the website there is you
25:28
Speaker 1: could be taken there to find out how to support us.
25:31
Speaker 1: If we join us as a member if you possibly can,
25:34
Speaker 1: but if you can't support us financially, do share this
25:37
Speaker 1: program anything else online that you like, so that we
25:40
Speaker 1: can beat the censorship regime. Of course, another way to
25:44
Speaker 1: beat the censorship regime is to buy a copy of
25:46
Speaker 1: the column our magazine and to leave it somewhere suitable
25:50
Speaker 1: for other people to read.
25:53
Speaker 2: So it is, yeah, I have to do this because
25:55
Speaker 2: I forgot to do this last week and I really
25:58
Speaker 2: regretted it.
25:59
Speaker 3: I've been regretting it for a whole week.
26:01
Speaker 2: So it is one hundred and twenty eight pages of
26:05
Speaker 2: I must say, absolutely beautifully put together creations and a
26:11
Speaker 2: top top read. So if you haven't got yours yet
26:14
Speaker 2: and you haven't brought them for your mates, please do Yeah.
26:17
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And of course let's not forget the twentieth anniversary
26:21
Speaker 1: event happening eighteenth to twentieth and September. There's only about
26:25
Speaker 1: one hundred tickets left for this, so if you haven't
26:27
Speaker 1: got one yet, you need to get one soon, I
26:29
Speaker 1: would say, and as and adds to that.
26:32
Speaker 2: No, I mean I totally concur it's going to be
26:34
Speaker 2: absolutely terrific and we will be itching to release further
26:38
Speaker 2: details about who's going to be speaking and what we're
26:40
Speaker 2: going to be speaking on, so all that's coming.
26:43
Speaker 1: Absolutely Tonight seven pm Jerrem is talking to doctor fernand
26:48
Speaker 1: Santos on the Artemis hoax. Well, that should be interesting.
26:52
Speaker 1: China justified US sanctions is the discussion, and so I
26:55
Speaker 1: can steal at nine with Carl Za and tomorrow at
26:59
Speaker 1: one pm Brian and Ben are discussing the Epstein Epstein situation.
27:05
Speaker 1: So architect of global control is how they're describing it.
27:07
Speaker 1: So join us at one pm tomorrow for that. Now
27:11
Speaker 1: let's move on to the information war then and will.
27:15
Speaker 1: This press release was released by the British Government by
27:19
Speaker 1: the British Embassy in Kiev. It is raising a tender
27:24
Speaker 1: inviting proposals worth up to one point five million pounds
27:27
Speaker 1: for nonprofit organizations to deliver what are described as strategic
27:32
Speaker 1: communications capacity to the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers and this
27:37
Speaker 1: contract is to run from July twenty twenty six to
27:40
Speaker 1: March twenty twenty seven. Although it's framed as governance support,
27:45
Speaker 1: the structure and terminology used it absolutely fits within the
27:51
Speaker 1: idea doctrine of behaviorally informed state communications. In other words,
27:55
Speaker 1: it's information on you and me to make sure that
27:58
Speaker 1: we're supporting the Ongore proxy war against Russia, which is
28:02
Speaker 1: costing us all huge amounts of tax money. This is
28:05
Speaker 1: being funded through the Integrated Security Fund, which is the
28:08
Speaker 1: successor to the Global Security and sorry to the Conflict
28:14
Speaker 1: Security and Stability Fund. And the text refers to the
28:17
Speaker 1: battle in the information environment and the goal of helping
28:21
Speaker 1: Ukraine win the information war, and its language is drawn
28:26
Speaker 1: from NATO Strategic Communications Doctrine, which incorporates information operations and
28:32
Speaker 1: psychological operations as constituent parts. Now, the three objectives map
28:38
Speaker 1: onto the operational architecture of the UK's government Communications service.
28:43
Speaker 1: So these are the two key documents that you see
28:45
Speaker 1: on screen here at the moment, the Allied Joint Doctrine
28:49
Speaker 1: for Strategic Communications and the Government the UK Government's Government
28:53
Speaker 1: Functional Standard on Communication. And there's three objectives mentioned. Objective
28:59
Speaker 1: one and dates audience research and Insights collection objective to
29:04
Speaker 1: establishes centralized what they call one Voice Coordination Team which
29:10
Speaker 1: is modeled on Government Communication Service best practice. And Objective
29:15
Speaker 1: three specifies data delivery, data driven delivery through paid and
29:20
Speaker 1: earned media and I'm not clearly paying media for getting
29:26
Speaker 1: messages out is something that maybe we haven't seen acknowledged before,
29:31
Speaker 1: but they are talking about in these documents. The OASIS framework,
29:34
Speaker 1: which is objectives, audience Insight, strategy, implementation and scoring, and
29:40
Speaker 1: it's used across the UK government communication since twenty eighteen
29:43
Speaker 1: and it embeds behavioral science methodology at each stage of
29:47
Speaker 1: any campaign. They call it audience centric research and audience insight,
29:54
Speaker 1: and it uses what they describe as psychographic segmentation rather
29:58
Speaker 1: than demographic targeting. They're not basing this on what age
30:02
Speaker 1: you are or whether your male or female. They're basing
30:04
Speaker 1: it on your psychological profile. The approach was refined by
30:09
Speaker 1: the Behavioral Insights Team, which we've talked about many many times,
30:12
Speaker 1: established within the Cabinet Office in twenty ten. It now privatized.
30:17
Speaker 1: It identifies population subgroups by attitudes, values and behavioral drivers
30:22
Speaker 1: and then designs differentiated message variants which are then ab
30:27
Speaker 1: tested for measurable impact. The theory of change formulation is
30:34
Speaker 1: implicit in the tender itself, and it's a standard behavioral
30:38
Speaker 1: change tactic of the kind expressed in the mind Space
30:42
Speaker 1: document which Brian initially talked about way back in twenty
30:46
Speaker 1: eleven or twenty twelve, and we've talked about many many
30:49
Speaker 1: times since.
30:51
Speaker 3: Now.
30:51
Speaker 1: Two phrases in the tender warn't particular intention attention. One
30:57
Speaker 1: is tailored interventions targeting key audiences, and it uses intervention
31:02
Speaker 1: in its behavioral science sense, which means that they're denoting
31:07
Speaker 1: a design stimulus intended to alter a belief or action
31:11
Speaker 1: at population scale, so that's not an individual that's across
31:14
Speaker 1: the population. And the other phrase is counter hybrid information
31:19
Speaker 1: environment based threats, and that places to work within the
31:22
Speaker 1: hybrid warfare sphere where civilian information consumption is treated as
31:27
Speaker 1: a contested military operational domain. And this comes back, Charles
31:32
Speaker 1: to the sort of integrated operating concept of this idea
31:35
Speaker 1: that foreign lands might be a military operational zone, but
31:41
Speaker 1: so is domestic audiences. Now, the one Voice team that
31:46
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier is particularly consequential. So this is centralized
31:51
Speaker 1: coordination of ministerial communications. It's modeled on the government, the
32:00
Speaker 1: GCS institutional architecture that provided the same messaging for us,
32:06
Speaker 1: the same type of messaging for us during the COVID
32:08
Speaker 1: nineteen response. I'm thinking here particularly of the spy B
32:12
Speaker 1: twenty second in March twenty twenty paper that we basically
32:15
Speaker 1: broke that story that recommended that the perceived less level
32:19
Speaker 1: of personal threat had to be increased amongst all of
32:22
Speaker 1: us using hard hitding emotional messaging, and that was in
32:27
Speaker 1: order to get us to comply with the lockdown at
32:30
Speaker 1: the time. So this is quite a spectacular piece of
32:37
Speaker 1: a tender that's been released, Charles, and it gives us
32:41
Speaker 1: a great deal of insight into how the UK government
32:44
Speaker 1: is using applied psychology and at population scale to change
32:48
Speaker 1: opinions and drive people to support an otherwise unsupportable policy.
32:54
Speaker 2: Well, I think, I think the fact that it's coming
32:57
Speaker 2: from or releases directly related to Ukraine, you know, it
33:00
Speaker 2: just couldn't be more significant, and exactly where we went
33:02
Speaker 2: with the Skyhammer piece, with the you know, the fact
33:06
Speaker 2: that people's emotions are being drawn upon and the psychological
33:10
Speaker 2: nudging and all the rest of it.
33:11
Speaker 3: I think it's fascinating.
33:12
Speaker 1: But if it's being used in Ukrain, in Ukraine, it's
33:15
Speaker 1: also being used with respect Israel, Gaza and Iran and
33:18
Speaker 1: all these kinds of things.
33:19
Speaker 3: So was it one and a half billion?
33:22
Speaker 1: So we'll check that and discuss. Well, indeed, anyway, let's
33:29
Speaker 1: let's talk about two masters.
33:31
Speaker 2: Yes, there's sort of where we get to this. I
33:34
Speaker 2: think we will start with the Times of Israel because
33:37
Speaker 2: they've been reporting that and admissively I can't substantiate this,
33:41
Speaker 2: but that the Board of Peace might be planning to
33:45
Speaker 2: shut down the Ceasefire Coordination Headquarters in Israel South.
33:49
Speaker 3: At least that's the headline. Now, what they mean by that.
33:52
Speaker 2: Is that the Board of Pieces had to deny report
33:55
Speaker 2: that the US will be shutting down the Civil Military
33:57
Speaker 2: Coordination Center, the CMCC, which was tasked with facilitating the
34:02
Speaker 2: entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and I've put it
34:06
Speaker 2: involved monitoring the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Now there's
34:10
Speaker 2: been a lot of confusion about its role and remit
34:13
Speaker 2: and with a special regard to cease fire. And that's
34:17
Speaker 2: the bit that I want to hammer here, because we're
34:19
Speaker 2: just going to go through a few more bits to
34:21
Speaker 2: join up in order to see where we get you
34:23
Speaker 2: with it.
34:23
Speaker 7: Now.
34:23
Speaker 2: As for a Central Command itself, sent Com back in
34:26
Speaker 2: October last year put out a statement about the CMCC
34:31
Speaker 2: as to what it was going to do, and they
34:34
Speaker 2: said the CMCC will also monitor implementation of the ceasefire
34:39
Speaker 2: agreement featuring an operations floor that allows staff to assess
34:42
Speaker 2: real time developments in Gaza.
34:43
Speaker 3: So that's fairly clear.
34:44
Speaker 2: They were absolutely setting themselves up to monitor the ceasefire agreement.
34:49
Speaker 3: However, at the time, Ian.
34:51
Speaker 2: Overton was writing in the Byeline Times and he wrote
34:56
Speaker 2: that leaked US military papers seen by the Byline Time
34:59
Speaker 2: suggests that Gaza's you created civil the CMCC, now endorsed
35:03
Speaker 2: by the Security Council as part of Trump's twenty point
35:06
Speaker 2: peace Plan, will function more as a US Army command
35:10
Speaker 2: post than a humanitarian hub. Now that might not seem
35:14
Speaker 2: like such a surprise, and after all, this is in
35:17
Speaker 2: effect old news, or at least we are going back
35:20
Speaker 2: in order that we can trace the line forward. Well,
35:22
Speaker 2: now look at what the National said just after that
35:26
Speaker 2: article put out by Ian Overton in the Byeline Times,
35:29
Speaker 2: and they refer to to the center being established on
35:32
Speaker 2: October the seventeenth to observe the ceasefire for any violation.
35:35
Speaker 2: So again, monitoring of the ceasefire and to handle logistics
35:38
Speaker 2: including aid delivery into Gaza. Now here's the significant part.
35:41
Speaker 2: A British officer, Major General Tom Bateman, is deputy to
35:45
Speaker 2: the US commander of the operation. Now that might not
35:48
Speaker 2: mean much to just yet, but it will in a minute.
35:52
Speaker 2: We'll go back to the House of Commons in October
35:55
Speaker 2: where James Cartilage, the Conservative MP, asks how many British
35:59
Speaker 2: service personnel deployed to Israel to monitor the ceasefire in
36:03
Speaker 2: Gaza by rank and Al Khnes replying said, a small
36:08
Speaker 2: team of UK planning officers led by a two star
36:11
Speaker 2: deputy commander. Two star is equivalent to rank of major general,
36:15
Speaker 2: have embedded in the US led Civil Military Coordination Center CMCC.
36:20
Speaker 2: Now that bears out what the National was reporting. Can't, however,
36:23
Speaker 2: goes on to say, to ensure that the UK remains
36:28
Speaker 2: integrated into the US led planning efforts for Gaza post
36:34
Speaker 2: conflict stability, this team is not monitoring the ceasefire in Gaza. Now,
36:40
Speaker 2: that is a very interesting discrepancy, and as I said,
36:43
Speaker 2: I'm not trying to suggest that this is new news,
36:45
Speaker 2: but of course it's brought into focus by the Times
36:49
Speaker 2: of Israel pointing out that the Board of Peace might
36:51
Speaker 2: be doing for the CMCC in the first place. Now
36:53
Speaker 2: we go back to Tom Bateman, because not only is
36:57
Speaker 2: he deputy commander and therefore under the United States chain
37:01
Speaker 2: of command, sentcom, but he is also the commander of
37:06
Speaker 2: the standing Joint force within the Joint Expeditionary Force, so
37:11
Speaker 2: he is being asked to wear two hats. And the
37:14
Speaker 2: question has to be is it possible for him to
37:17
Speaker 2: be serving two masters at the same time, and therefore
37:21
Speaker 2: what inference should we be drawing from this, particularly at
37:25
Speaker 2: a time where NATO of the future of NATO's absolutely jeopardized,
37:29
Speaker 2: and of course significant past about the Joint Expeditionary Forces.
37:32
Speaker 2: The United States is not part of it. And yet
37:34
Speaker 2: here he is absolutely within the chain of command in
37:38
Speaker 2: US Central Command. So I think there's a lot of
37:39
Speaker 2: questions that are going to come out of that. And
37:42
Speaker 2: of all the people that could have been chosen to
37:44
Speaker 2: double hat, he seems, well, you could say, an extraordinary choice,
37:48
Speaker 2: or indeed a perfectly logical one.
37:51
Speaker 1: Thank you, Charles Vanessa. Let's welcome back and bring us
37:55
Speaker 1: up todate with what's happening with respect Iran. Is Trump
38:00
Speaker 1: really standing done for no?
38:04
Speaker 6: Well, I mean sorry, I have to laugh because the
38:07
Speaker 6: messaging has been extremely schizophrenic leading up to Trump standing down.
38:13
Speaker 6: As you said, you spoiled my punchline, Mike on the report.
38:18
Speaker 6: But never mind, So, first of all, this came out
38:22
Speaker 6: I think it was yesterday. So bear in mind the
38:26
Speaker 6: US administration. Trump's administration is really scrabbling at the moment
38:32
Speaker 6: to find a narrative to pin on their behavior in
38:35
Speaker 6: the aggression against your own. So let's start with this.
38:38
Speaker 6: This was on CNN.
38:42
Speaker 7: This is a physical blockade. They're not able to send
38:45
Speaker 7: their oil and the resources to China, and vast majority
38:50
Speaker 7: of their oil experts were going VC. To give you
38:53
Speaker 7: a sign of the desperate measures they're contemplating, The Wall
38:57
Speaker 7: Street Journal reported today that their contemplating measures like suicide dolphins,
39:02
Speaker 7: you know, dolphins equipped with minds to try to go
39:06
Speaker 7: after US ships. So that's not that's not a measure
39:09
Speaker 7: which projects real strength.
39:11
Speaker 8: Wait, I'm sorry you have to how would that even work?
39:14
Speaker 7: So this has been discussed in the past by the
39:18
Speaker 7: Iranian regime that you know, they.
39:19
Speaker 9: Want to strap bombs to dolphins.
39:21
Speaker 7: Dolphins with mines to go after US ships. Now that's
39:26
Speaker 7: that's a pretty crazy asymmetric tool. But this is some
39:30
Speaker 7: of the measures that are being reported right now.
39:33
Speaker 4: I mean, do you think that they could actually try
39:35
Speaker 4: If they actually tried that, what would that say about
39:38
Speaker 4: their desperation.
39:39
Speaker 7: Well, this is something that they've thrown out in the
39:42
Speaker 7: past to show the various options they have at their disposal.
39:46
Speaker 7: But again, this is not a show of a country
39:49
Speaker 7: which which is strong. You don't contemplate those kinds of
39:52
Speaker 7: measures when you're strong.
39:57
Speaker 6: I would suggest you don't contemplate these kind of stories
40:00
Speaker 6: if you're in a strong position as the aggressor. Actually,
40:04
Speaker 6: if you go back to sixty four, nineteen sixty four,
40:06
Speaker 6: nineteen sixty five, there was the CIA Project Oxigas, which
40:11
Speaker 6: intended to use dolphins to do exactly that. But anyway,
40:16
Speaker 6: then let's hear about Trump's statement yesterday when he threatened
40:21
Speaker 6: basically to blow everyone up as usual. But let's have
40:24
Speaker 6: a listen to Fox News.
40:29
Speaker 9: Foxer's alert Central Command has just initiated Operation Project Freedom,
40:34
Speaker 9: the mission unblock the strait. The president says, if Iran interferes,
40:39
Speaker 9: it's a death sentence.
40:40
Speaker 8: I spoke with President Trump for twenty minutes about the
40:43
Speaker 8: situation with Iran. He talked about Project Freedom and the
40:47
Speaker 8: US efforts to guide vessels through the Strait of Hormuz,
40:50
Speaker 8: issuing a new warning to the Iranian regime, saying, if
40:53
Speaker 8: the Iranians try to target US ships in this area,
40:57
Speaker 8: they will be quote blown off the face.
40:59
Speaker 5: Of the earth.
41:03
Speaker 6: Okay, are you following me so far, so you're understanding
41:07
Speaker 6: the rhetoric that's coming out of the United States. Then
41:10
Speaker 6: sent Coom put out this statement on social media and elsewhere.
41:16
Speaker 6: Vessels currently in the Arabian Golf. Notice how they've changed
41:20
Speaker 6: the name there. At least it's not Trump's Golf, but
41:23
Speaker 6: the Arabian Golf. It's not the Persian Gulf. Represent eighty
41:27
Speaker 6: seven countries from around the world, and as the President mentioned,
41:30
Speaker 6: they are merely neutral and innocent bystanders. Over the last
41:34
Speaker 6: twelve hours, we've reached out to dozens of ships and
41:38
Speaker 6: shipping companies to encourage traffic flow through the Straight of Foremus,
41:42
Speaker 6: consistent with the President's intent to help guide ships safely
41:47
Speaker 6: through the narrow trade corridor. If you pay attention to
41:50
Speaker 6: the language there, what does this actually mean. It means
41:54
Speaker 6: that sent Com is not going to be accompanying the vessels.
41:57
Speaker 6: It's just going to give them directions as to which
42:00
Speaker 6: part of the strait they should pass through to achieve
42:04
Speaker 6: safe transit point. And then if we actually look this
42:08
Speaker 6: was published by an Iranian telegram Channel pretty much at
42:12
Speaker 6: the same time, basically saying no vessel is even attempting
42:18
Speaker 6: to basically pass through the alleged safe passage set by
42:22
Speaker 6: the US for vessels where they have to effectively contact OMARN.
42:27
Speaker 6: I have to also say Marco Rubio went on social
42:31
Speaker 6: media to basically tell the UN that it should interfere
42:36
Speaker 6: to open up the Straight of Hormones. I also have
42:38
Speaker 6: to remind people the Straight of hae Moves was open
42:41
Speaker 6: until the United States imposed it's illegal blockade on the
42:46
Speaker 6: Iranian blockade. When the Strait of hor Moves was actually open,
42:51
Speaker 6: It's just that ships had to ask permission to pass
42:54
Speaker 6: through the Strait of Foremus. And then basically yesterday there
43:00
Speaker 6: were a number of drone attacks on the UA and
43:05
Speaker 6: there was a fair amount of rumor mongering saying that
43:09
Speaker 6: Iran was going to be targeting the oil pipeline that
43:13
Speaker 6: you can see there in green, which is supposed to
43:16
Speaker 6: be helping bypass the wallmut Straight blockade. But I think
43:20
Speaker 6: it can only transport around one point nine million barrels
43:26
Speaker 6: per day, so it's not going to achieve a huge amount.
43:30
Speaker 6: And then ultimately the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the
43:34
Speaker 6: IRGC both put out statements denying any attack on the UAE,
43:41
Speaker 6: and if we can just pull up the statement from
43:44
Speaker 6: the Foreign Ministry, they also condemn Abadhabi for cooperating with
43:49
Speaker 6: US and Israel against Iran, especially by hosting military bases
43:53
Speaker 6: and equipment. The MFA now officially rejects UAE claims that
43:58
Speaker 6: Uron launched missiles or drone at the Emirates, saying Iran's
44:02
Speaker 6: actions are only aimed at rappelling US aggression.
44:05
Speaker 1: So very clear that.
44:06
Speaker 6: This was or let's say, at least there's potential that
44:09
Speaker 6: this was a false flag to restart the aggression. And
44:15
Speaker 6: then I wanted to also have a look at this.
44:19
Speaker 6: This is what the White House put on X. This
44:22
Speaker 6: was a statement from Hegsath and again very belligerent language.
44:27
Speaker 6: Here to what remains of Iran's forces. If you attack
44:32
Speaker 6: American troops or innocent commercial shipping, you will face overwhelming
44:36
Speaker 6: and devastating American firepower. We prefer a peaceful operation, but
44:42
Speaker 6: are locked and loaded to defend our people, our ships,
44:45
Speaker 6: our aircraft and mission without hesitation.
44:48
Speaker 1: Amazing how everything becomes American at that point.
44:52
Speaker 6: And then I just want to play a little section
44:54
Speaker 6: of Rubio's exchange with the press yesterday where he makes
45:00
Speaker 6: it very clear what the har moves of Straight is.
45:03
Speaker 6: Let's just play this straight.
45:05
Speaker 1: What do you think they would do if they had
45:06
Speaker 1: a nuclear weapon.
45:07
Speaker 5: They would hold the world hostage with that nuclear weapon.
45:09
Speaker 6: That's what they would do. They would do exactly to
45:11
Speaker 6: the world or a nuclear weapon what they're doing now
45:13
Speaker 6: with the straits. So I think there he made it
45:18
Speaker 6: clear that in fact, the Hall moves straight is probably
45:21
Speaker 6: more of a nuclear weapon for Iran in the sense
45:24
Speaker 6: that it can sanction the entire global economy than an
45:27
Speaker 6: actual nuclear weapon. So thank you Marco Rubio for confirming that.
45:33
Speaker 6: And then this was a rather wonderful exchange between Iran's
45:38
Speaker 6: Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman who responded to a question
45:42
Speaker 6: from a foreign journalist and if we can just have
45:45
Speaker 6: the slide up, and the journalist asked why Iran doesn't
45:49
Speaker 6: back down when America is a superpower. He responded, we
45:53
Speaker 6: are a superpower too, which I think I couldn't be
45:57
Speaker 6: any clearer. And I think what seing the flailing around
46:02
Speaker 6: and floundering of the Trump administration and dealing with Iran
46:06
Speaker 6: at the moment, I think I would agree. And then
46:08
Speaker 6: all of a sudden guess what freedom, Project Freedom is
46:13
Speaker 6: stalled and backpedaled. Trump puts out this statement on true
46:18
Speaker 6: social based on the request of Pakistan. Funny how it's
46:21
Speaker 6: always a request of someone else when he does have
46:24
Speaker 6: to back down and other countries not named. The tremendous
46:28
Speaker 6: military success that we have had during the campaign against
46:31
Speaker 6: the country of Iran, some would disagree. And additionally, the
46:36
Speaker 6: fact that great progress has been made toward a complete
46:38
Speaker 6: and final agreement with representatives of Iran. Not sure where
46:41
Speaker 6: there's so many capitals everywhere. Of course, there's no agreement
46:46
Speaker 6: because Trump back down on that. Also, we have mutually
46:51
Speaker 6: agreed that while the blockade will remain in full force
46:53
Speaker 6: and effect Project Freedom, the movement of ships through the
46:56
Speaker 6: straight of wall moves will be paused for a short
46:59
Speaker 6: period of time to see whether or not the agreement
47:01
Speaker 6: can be finalized and signed. President Donald J. Trump, So
47:06
Speaker 6: I think you can safely say that's another one chalked
47:09
Speaker 6: up to Iran.
47:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's capitals all the way through that,
47:14
Speaker 1: because he's attempting to brand these frizzers as being some
47:19
Speaker 1: kind of trademark. But anyway, Yeah, we will absolutely be
47:23
Speaker 1: talking more about that an extra as well. But let's
47:26
Speaker 1: come back to the UK Charles and R R streets.
47:29
Speaker 2: If well, this is the question that the Laby government
47:33
Speaker 2: has to deal with. Certainly they are going to pretend
47:37
Speaker 2: that what their actions, or are the actions they're taking,
47:40
Speaker 2: are going to make them safer. And they of course
47:43
Speaker 2: just last week passed the controversial and much reported upon
47:48
Speaker 2: Crime and Policing Bill, which has received Role assent and
47:51
Speaker 2: now becomes the Crime and Policing Act. According to the
47:54
Speaker 2: press release, this will represent new powers for police and
47:58
Speaker 2: the wider criminal justice system, and it will help realize
48:01
Speaker 2: this government's mission to restore confidence in policing and tackle
48:05
Speaker 2: the epidemic of serious violence and violence against women and girls. Now,
48:11
Speaker 2: first of all, I'm going to concentrate on this use
48:13
Speaker 2: this word epidemic because this is suggestive of very very
48:17
Speaker 2: high numbers, numbers that are changing. So therefore we look
48:20
Speaker 2: at these statistics, or at least those that are available.
48:23
Speaker 3: Now.
48:23
Speaker 2: The NPCC had simply said, in order to sort of
48:27
Speaker 2: reinforce this, that violence against women and girls makes up
48:30
Speaker 2: just under twenty percent of all recorded crime in England
48:33
Speaker 2: and Wales. Now, first of all, that is a very
48:36
Speaker 2: mischievous way to put it, because the Home Office counting
48:39
Speaker 2: records enable the fasically the misscoring, and this does not
48:46
Speaker 2: at all suggest that that many twenty percent of those
48:50
Speaker 2: incidents as reported were anything like the initial report, So
48:55
Speaker 2: it doesn't give any indication of what actually happened or
48:57
Speaker 2: what happened next, simply that course to police was made
49:00
Speaker 2: or allegation was made. So the Office for National Statistics
49:04
Speaker 2: give us a little bit of context in that the
49:06
Speaker 2: police made thirty three arrests per one hundred domestic abuse
49:10
Speaker 2: related crimes in the year ending March twenty twenty one.
49:13
Speaker 2: Going back to the census data. But now to look
49:17
Speaker 2: at the data that they have on homicide, which I
49:21
Speaker 2: think is really the pertinent point here, a different picture
49:24
Speaker 2: is painted. First of all, far more men are, of
49:27
Speaker 2: course killed by men, So the number of male victims
49:30
Speaker 2: three hundred and sixty six for the year that's just ended,
49:33
Speaker 2: decreased by ten percent from four hundred and eight, while
49:35
Speaker 2: the number of female victims in actual fact remained similar
49:38
Speaker 2: to the previous year at one hundred and fifty eight.
49:40
Speaker 2: Now not at all trying to dismiss or marginalize the
49:43
Speaker 2: instances in which there have been female victims of homicide,
49:47
Speaker 2: but it just needs to be set against the overall figures,
49:50
Speaker 2: and indeed to remember that the majority of people killed
49:54
Speaker 2: by men are in fact men. Now, the second point
49:57
Speaker 2: to draw out of this statistic is that there are
49:59
Speaker 2: one hundred eleven domestic homicides in the year ending March
50:02
Speaker 2: of this year, slightly lower than the previous year, and
50:04
Speaker 2: of the victims, seventy five were women and thirty six
50:07
Speaker 2: were men. Now, again the proportion there, I mean, it's
50:13
Speaker 2: obviously significantly weighted towards women, but again the point must
50:18
Speaker 2: be made that men do die in domestic violence incidents.
50:22
Speaker 2: And thirdly, because of course there is never any mention
50:25
Speaker 2: of it, because it's far too politically sensitive. The homicide
50:28
Speaker 2: rate for those in the black ethnic group was thirty
50:30
Speaker 2: six point eight victims per million, which works out at
50:34
Speaker 2: being four times higher than for the white ethnic group.
50:37
Speaker 2: But statistics like this are never brought out, and indeed
50:42
Speaker 2: why would they when you can create much more division
50:44
Speaker 2: with things like the femicide census from twenty twenty two,
50:47
Speaker 2: which specifically says one hundred and twenty two women were
50:50
Speaker 2: killed by men in the UK in twenty twenty two. Now,
50:53
Speaker 2: of course I've just qualified that statistic by showing those
50:57
Speaker 2: from the ons. But the point is that this is
51:00
Speaker 2: absolutely creating the idea. This is a campaign of hate
51:02
Speaker 2: and violence being waged by men against women in order
51:06
Speaker 2: to provoke exactly the sorts of responses of division and suspicion. Now,
51:11
Speaker 2: another key part of the legislation that that's just come
51:14
Speaker 2: out is the Respect Order, And as with all orders,
51:17
Speaker 2: it's an absolute affront to liberty and the perversion really
51:20
Speaker 2: of the course of justice. Because, of course, like all
51:22
Speaker 2: of these orders, and I've talked about many of them
51:24
Speaker 2: in the past, that sorry Serious Violence Reduction Order being
51:28
Speaker 2: an obvious one, they may be laid by local authorities
51:31
Speaker 2: upon anyone and they can prohibit or mandate any sort
51:36
Speaker 2: of behavior that the local authority feels as appropriate, even
51:39
Speaker 2: if no criminal activity has taken place. And the way
51:42
Speaker 2: this is done is that it is a totally arbitrary
51:45
Speaker 2: process under the heading of anti social behavior, which of
51:49
Speaker 2: course in and of itself is not a crime, but
51:52
Speaker 2: a failure to adhere to a respect order or indeed
51:55
Speaker 2: the provisions of a respect order will result in a
51:58
Speaker 2: criminal sanction. It's also I think absolutely reasonable to regard
52:03
Speaker 2: this as another sort of backdoor entrance or a push
52:06
Speaker 2: for digital identity, because it introduces the two step verification
52:10
Speaker 2: for online knife purchases, as though this is really the
52:14
Speaker 2: only way that a criminal might actually get hold of
52:16
Speaker 2: a weapon. But of course once that premise is set,
52:20
Speaker 2: then there's no reason that couldn't be rolled out to
52:23
Speaker 2: deal with absolutely many many other things. Of course, therefore
52:27
Speaker 2: the gateway to digital identity. There are apparently thirteen thousand
52:32
Speaker 2: new community police coming from, not at all clear where
52:35
Speaker 2: they're going to come from, and I think the question
52:37
Speaker 2: has to be asked that if police are unable to
52:39
Speaker 2: deal with their current workload and they'll be given more
52:41
Speaker 2: powers and more offenses, how is this actually going to
52:44
Speaker 2: improve anything. However, the government press release obviously also highlighted
52:50
Speaker 2: the fact that there were lots of agencies queuing up
52:55
Speaker 2: to applaud the new legislation, and notable I think the
52:58
Speaker 2: top slot was given to Ryan Wayne, who's senior director
53:01
Speaker 2: of the Tony Blair Institute, and presumably inadvertently hit the
53:05
Speaker 2: nail on the head by saying, we know there's often
53:08
Speaker 2: a difference between the statistics and what people feel and
53:11
Speaker 2: what people feel is scared. So he's basically articulated the
53:15
Speaker 2: way in which government and media amplify and exaggerate, as
53:17
Speaker 2: well as outright manipulates statistics in stories in order to
53:21
Speaker 2: use them to drive through policy and legislation exactly like this.
53:26
Speaker 2: And also one has to point out that, sadly, the
53:30
Speaker 2: man who's the chief executive of the nighttime industry's association
53:35
Speaker 2: concerned about public safety has the unfortunate name of Michael Kill.
53:39
Speaker 2: I'm afraid I couldn't resist including that, but as a
53:43
Speaker 2: very timely example of the disgraceful manner in which the
53:46
Speaker 2: government does shape public opinion. And we need look no
53:50
Speaker 2: further than the official statements on the gold screen stabbings,
53:53
Speaker 2: because from the original statement it was absolutely omitted that
53:57
Speaker 2: there was a third victim, and with the name Ishmael Hossein,
54:03
Speaker 2: it seems that the public are being asked to believe
54:05
Speaker 2: simultaneously that the suspect or the assailant was so rampantly
54:09
Speaker 2: anti Semitic that he just happened to have time to
54:12
Speaker 2: stab a Muslim on his way to finding two Jewish people. Now,
54:18
Speaker 2: this is absolutely part and parcel of the way that
54:20
Speaker 2: this is done and counter Terrorism Policing only introduced that
54:24
Speaker 2: detail into their statement much later on. But of course
54:27
Speaker 2: the other detail really just to close out with is
54:29
Speaker 2: that it should be no surprise that all of this
54:31
Speaker 2: is wrapped up in the same thing, because it's absolutely
54:34
Speaker 2: joined at the hit with policy that's coming straight out
54:37
Speaker 2: of organizations like the Tony Blair Institute. And here's an
54:39
Speaker 2: article that Ryan Wayne himself wrote back in January of
54:43
Speaker 2: this year entitled policing makes Britain safer, not just better
54:47
Speaker 2: at counting crime. So the full effect of this act
54:51
Speaker 2: is obviously yet to be felt, but I think there's
54:53
Speaker 2: much more to be said on protests. I've run slightly
54:56
Speaker 2: over time, but essentially the idea that protests may now
54:59
Speaker 2: be described as cumulative. So if a protest on one
55:03
Speaker 2: issue has taken place in a particular area, even if
55:07
Speaker 2: another protest planned there is going to be on a
55:09
Speaker 2: totally different subject involving totally different people, it may be
55:12
Speaker 2: prohibited on the grounds of the cumulative nature of the
55:15
Speaker 2: distress for the local population. And that is very very
55:18
Speaker 2: easy to manipulate.
55:20
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And don't worry about running over time, because you've
55:22
Speaker 1: got another segment coming up that you can take the
55:24
Speaker 1: time back off again.
55:25
Speaker 3: Thanks Mike.
55:26
Speaker 1: Right anyway, let's move on then to drones and well,
55:30
Speaker 1: the UK government is announced forty six million pounds in
55:34
Speaker 1: funding to expand drone and their taxi services. These are
55:39
Speaker 1: going to be delivered through the Civil Aviation Authority, but
55:42
Speaker 1: also to restrict drone use by ordinary people. So around
55:48
Speaker 1: twenty point five million points is going to be made
55:50
Speaker 1: available to develop a hybrid remote ID system described as
55:55
Speaker 1: a number plate four drones as or we could talk
55:58
Speaker 1: about it as being digital ID for drones because the
56:01
Speaker 1: drones will have to broadcast ID and location data so
56:04
Speaker 1: police can identify usage and therefore if it's illegal usage
56:08
Speaker 1: they can undoubtedly capture people. I'm sure they'll be very
56:12
Speaker 1: successful of that. There remaining twenty five twenty six point
56:16
Speaker 1: five million pounds targets regulatory streamlining, which is faster approvals
56:21
Speaker 1: for emergency, medical and inspection flights and rules to enable
56:26
Speaker 1: flying taxis from twenty twenty eight. So there we go.
56:29
Speaker 1: We're going to see the likes of this flying around apparently.
56:33
Speaker 1: So the government has framed this package as supporting growth
56:37
Speaker 1: in a sector projected to contribute up to one hundred
56:40
Speaker 1: and three billion points to the UK economy by twenty fifty,
56:44
Speaker 1: so that must be all good.
56:45
Speaker 3: Then, no, but yes, I think probably no.
56:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, indeed, well let's end then with sustainability, Charles, because
56:55
Speaker 1: apparently we don't have enough enough cod for our fish
56:59
Speaker 1: and chip.
57:00
Speaker 2: It's not just can't no, it's not just god no,
57:03
Speaker 2: I think this is just the question to be asked.
57:05
Speaker 2: Really with what I'm about to report on is is
57:09
Speaker 2: there actually a possibility that there might be some organizations
57:12
Speaker 2: out there who are pursuing what might be described as
57:15
Speaker 2: sustainability in the genuine sense of the word. And so
57:18
Speaker 2: we look first to Waitrose, who has announced that not
57:22
Speaker 2: going to be selling macrol anymore because they believe that
57:24
Speaker 2: macrol stocks are well below where they should be, and
57:28
Speaker 2: that in September twenty twenty five, the International Council for
57:31
Speaker 2: the Exploration of the Sea recommended that Northeast Atlantic macrol
57:34
Speaker 2: catches should be cut by seventy percent. And it won't
57:37
Speaker 2: surprise you to learn that in December, four of the
57:40
Speaker 2: coastal states agreed to cut macrol catches by forty eight percent. Now,
57:44
Speaker 2: I don't want to oversimplify this in saying that you
57:46
Speaker 2: can just sort of turn off the tap for that
57:47
Speaker 2: particular industry. But nonetheless John Low's partnership do appear to
57:53
Speaker 2: be adhering to their principles. But of course, with food
57:58
Speaker 2: shortages very much in ether in terms of what's being
58:01
Speaker 2: suggested with the idea of whole of society approach to
58:04
Speaker 2: the war that the government is desperately trying to create
58:09
Speaker 2: sort of anywhere and everywhere, I think it has to
58:11
Speaker 2: be regarded that this could easily be manipulated. So that's
58:16
Speaker 2: one thing that the other is again I think more
58:19
Speaker 2: significant really with regard to the pushback against the climate
58:22
Speaker 2: change narrative. And this is the Soil Association which has
58:25
Speaker 2: released cent out of press release this morning about the
58:28
Speaker 2: dangers of agricultural chemicals but glypher sate in particular, and
58:32
Speaker 2: they've launched their cut to the chemicals campaign about pre
58:36
Speaker 2: harvest spraying in particular. So they say use of glyph
58:38
Speaker 2: states as a pre harvest drying agent was banned in
58:40
Speaker 2: the EU in twenty twenty three, and the UK government
58:43
Speaker 2: now has the chance to do the same as it
58:46
Speaker 2: negotiates with the EU. Now you will guess which way
58:49
Speaker 2: the lobbying pressure is going to push that particular thing.
58:54
Speaker 2: But if you're not sure what exactly this is about
58:57
Speaker 2: what the dangers of glyph state are, then first of all,
59:00
Speaker 2: I would urge that you do go to their petition
59:01
Speaker 2: site to have a look that there will be a
59:03
Speaker 2: link in the show notes. But also they are basing
59:06
Speaker 2: this on a body of evidence produced by the University
59:09
Speaker 2: of Washington, and there are just a couple of quotes
59:11
Speaker 2: to draw out, first being about how glyphasate actually gets
59:15
Speaker 2: into the body, which is that food is the main
59:17
Speaker 2: route of exposure, unless of course you're coming into direct
59:20
Speaker 2: contact with it fire gardening or farming practices directly associated
59:25
Speaker 2: with glyphasate. The other thing critical detail really is that
59:28
Speaker 2: surveys detect glypha sate in samples collected from seventy to
59:31
Speaker 2: eighty percent of all people examined, including children, and with
59:35
Speaker 2: regard to the types of effect they create, human and
59:39
Speaker 2: animal studies indicate the risk of multiple adverse health effects
59:43
Speaker 2: in addition to cancer, including disease of kidney, liver, impacts
59:47
Speaker 2: to reproductive, endocrine, neurological, and other metabolic systems. And then unfortunately, children, infants,
59:53
Speaker 2: and fetuses are the most susceptible. So this it is
59:57
Speaker 2: absolutely no joke and yet it's dismissed absolutely across the
1:00:02
Speaker 2: board by governments and all the rest of it.
1:00:05
Speaker 3: And of course what this does is to obscure.
1:00:09
Speaker 2: The real effects for the degradation of the landscape, and
1:00:12
Speaker 2: it enables people to point at so called climate change
1:00:16
Speaker 2: to describe why it is that there is sort of
1:00:18
Speaker 2: catastrophic decline of species. But also just to run the
1:00:23
Speaker 2: point home, I'm just going to remind you about something
1:00:26
Speaker 2: that Vanessa reported on recently, which was the use of
1:00:29
Speaker 2: for say it as a weapon of war by Israel,
1:00:31
Speaker 2: described here in a question not asked in the European
1:00:34
Speaker 2: Parliament about Israel's use of chemical weapons in Lebanon and Syria.
1:00:38
Speaker 2: So I would say a campaign started by the SOD Association,
1:00:42
Speaker 2: regardless of what you might think of them, that absolutely
1:00:44
Speaker 2: should have legs and does carry a very very important message.
1:00:49
Speaker 1: Thank you, Charles, Thank you. Thisxious to the end of
1:00:52
Speaker 1: the program. We got to leave it there for today. Stiff,
1:00:55
Speaker 1: you're a UK cole members, stick around on the livestream.
1:00:57
Speaker 1: We'll be back at a couple of minutes for some
1:01:00
Speaker 1: called news extra. If you're not a member, maybe you'd
1:01:02
Speaker 1: like to consider joining, and then you can join this
1:01:04
Speaker 1: structure as well, but do watch the interviews squad tonight
1:01:10
Speaker 1: with Jem and Carl, and also the discussion tomorrow with
1:01:13
Speaker 1: between Ben and Brian on Epstein. We'll be back for
1:01:16
Speaker 1: another news program one pm as usual on Friday. We'll
1:01:19
Speaker 1: see you then. Thanks for joining us.
1:01:21
Speaker 3: Bye bye bye bye