Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 13th February 2026

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UK Column News — 13th February 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Good afternoon. It's Friday the 13th of February
0:11
2020, sixth, just after 1:00. And welcome to UK Column News.
0:14
I'm your host, Mike Robinson, my host in studio today, Brian
0:17
Garish. Welcome to the programme, Brian.
0:18
Pleasure to be here. I will be joined today once
0:21
again by Basil Valentine and later in the programme Basil's
0:24
going to be reporting on the removal of access to court lists
0:26
and records by the Starmer Government, the the building
0:29
fight over contracts with Palantir.
0:32
Brian's going to be reporting on a convicted child abuser and
0:36
we'll have the latest on what common purpose has been up to.
0:39
And I'll be taking a first look at the Munich Security
0:42
Conference which begins today. And I'll have an update on
0:45
online safety. But we're going to begin today
0:47
with Palestine action because the question of whether or not
0:51
they should have been prescribed has been settled or hazard
0:54
Basil. Well, for the time being the ban
0:58
remains in place, Brian, although just this morning Dame
1:02
Victoria Sharp, sitting with Mr. Justice Swift and Mrs. Justice
1:06
Stain, said that the Palestine Action is an organization that
1:10
promotes its political cause through criminality and
1:13
encouragement of criminality. A very small number of its
1:17
actions have amounted to terrorist action within the
1:20
Terrorism Act of 2000. I'm not quite sure what they
1:23
are, but that proportion was still disproportionate.
1:28
So the ban, the prescription of Palestine action has been
1:32
declared unlawful but remains in place pending an appeal and
1:39
further legal arguments. Unsurprisingly, the home
1:42
secretary, Shabana Mahmoud, has rejected the court's findings
1:47
and intends to launch an appeal at the Court of Appeal in order
1:53
to to keep the ban in place. Obviously it's presented an
1:55
extraordinary head of circumstances with supporters of
1:59
Palestine Action declaring their support for the organization
2:03
once again outside the Old Bailey, lots of cheering, as you
2:07
can imagine, and police standing around rather nonplussed, not
2:13
quite knowing what to do. It's a sort of, you know, legal
2:18
grey area. Now, of course, Palestine Action
2:22
are jubilant. We were banned because Palestine
2:25
Actions disruption of Israel's largest weapons manufacturer,
2:29
Albert Systems, cost the corporation millions of pounds
2:33
in profits and lost out on multibillion pound contracts.
2:37
We've used the same tactics as direct organisations throughout
2:41
history, including anti war groups.
2:43
Keir Starmer himself defended in court and the government
2:46
acknowledged in these legal proceedings that this ban was
2:50
based on property damage, not violence against people.
2:55
This is Huda Amori speaking outside the High Court this
2:58
morning. Banning Palestine action was
3:00
always about appeasing pro Israel lobby groups and weapons
3:04
manufacturers and nothing to do with terrorism.
3:08
Metropolitan Police have released a statement warning
3:12
that prescription remains in place and so showing support
3:15
with Palestine action is still a criminal offence.
3:19
But they've said that they're going to focus on gathering
3:23
evidence rather than making more arrests at this time.
3:28
You know, it's a complete nonsense really.
3:31
The assistant commissioner, Lawrence Taylor, the national
3:34
head of counterterrorism policing, said officers will
3:37
enforce the ban pragmatically and proportionally.
3:40
Policing's role is to enforce the law and to do so without
3:43
fear or favour. As the public would expect,
3:47
prescription is and always has been a matter for government.
3:50
Following today's judgement, the Home Secretary of State intends
3:53
to lodge an appeal. The court has ordered that the
3:55
prescription order remains in force until further order of the
3:59
court. We recognise this is an unusual
4:02
set of circumstances and until further order by the court,
4:06
counterterrorism policing will approach the whole question
4:11
enforcement pragmatically and proportionally.
4:13
That seems to be the code word and we'll continue to work with
4:17
forces across the country. So, you know, a huge victory
4:23
really for civil liberties. Apart from anything else.
4:27
It was always nonsense to categorize Palestine action as a
4:31
terrorist organization and the court acknowledged that.
4:34
So but quite what the Home Secretary hopes to achieve at
4:38
the Court of Appeal or what new evidence or arguments are going
4:41
to be presented, particularly when 6 defendants at Woolish
4:45
Crown Court, yes last week were cleared of the key charge of
4:51
aggravated burglary which itself doesn't cross the threshold into
4:55
terrorism. I'm not quite sure it's a bloody
4:58
nose for the government. February the 13th proving
5:02
unlucky for the Home Secretary, Mike.
5:05
Absolutely, Basil, Just very, very briefly then the question I
5:09
suppose in my mind is what happens with the convictions of
5:13
the people that have, you know, were arrested at the various
5:15
protests in recent months, do you think?
5:19
Well, that's a very good question.
5:21
Amnesty International and the leader of the Green Party, Zach
5:24
Polanski, are amongst those saying that all charges should
5:28
immediately be dropped. People are due in court next
5:32
week. It's a grey area.
5:35
I don't think anybody knows what's going to happen because
5:37
it's the this is the first time any such ban on a prescribed,
5:41
prescribed organization has been overturned in court.
5:45
So we're in uncharted territory. OK, thank you for that.
5:50
Let's let's move on then to an ex Labour councillor.
5:53
Where it's more bad, More bad news for Labour, isn't it?
5:57
But first of all, I must say that I'm about to report on a
6:01
gentleman called Lehren Vellaman and I want to make it clear that
6:05
he he's been released on bail, so has not been convicted and
6:12
court proceed proceedings effectively still in process.
6:16
So we're, we're making a very measured report, some of the
6:19
information in the public domain at the moment.
6:22
So we'll kick off with the BB CS report.
6:24
So here we are. How do they headline it?
6:28
Labour ex councillor admits child sex offences And I
6:33
wouldn't bring this up on screen because a warning appears in
6:36
this story, which it says this story contains details that some
6:40
may find distressing. And I, I, I'm slightly flummoxed
6:44
because, OK, there is some pretty unpleasant things that
6:47
have taken place. But it seems to me extraordinary
6:50
that the BBC felt the need to put a specific warning for the
6:54
reader on this. But perhaps our audience will
6:56
make up their own mind if we just bring that one back on the
7:00
screen. Let's go through a little bit
7:01
more on what we need to cover. And so this is part of the BB CS
7:07
report. So this man sent a video of his
7:11
penis to basically a 13 year old girl, I believe that she was 13
7:15
and he was attempting clearly to to groomer.
7:18
What he didn't know was he was falling into a sting operation
7:22
by the police and he's eventually caught for this.
7:27
Now the, the, the BBC here talks quite a bit about what happened
7:32
and about the court case. It it does admit that he's a
7:36
member of the Jewish Labour movement.
7:39
He's frilled on bail, but he can't mix with somebody under
7:43
the age of 18 without supervision from another adult.
7:47
And he's going to be sentenced to Harrow Crown Court later.
7:51
But what the BBC doesn't tell their readers is that he was
7:56
formerly a director of the new North London Synagogue.
8:00
And we think this is important because effectively it starts to
8:04
build up a little bit of a, a more detailed about this
8:08
gentleman. Now just remember that no
8:11
sentencing has taken place, but we are dealing here with the
8:14
reporting of the case. So if we bring this on screen,
8:18
this is the Jewish Labour movement.
8:21
And what we can see instantly is that we've got another very
8:24
powerful Jewish lobbying group, this time in and alongside the
8:29
Labour, Labour Party itself. And this man was originally
8:34
involved with this, but the BBC failed to report on something
8:38
else and that was that Mister Velaman was a former hope not
8:43
hate political organiser. Now other news sources have
8:49
picked up on this gentleman and we've got MSN here saying X
8:53
London Labour councillor admits child abuse, child sex offences
8:59
after Met's sting. And we now know that he was an
9:03
organiser for Hope Not Hate. But the BBC clearly doesn't want
9:08
to talk about that. But why is his former connection
9:11
with Hope Not Hate so important and in the public interest?
9:16
Now remember, you're getting this this information from the
9:19
UK column, not from the BBC. And in turn, we want to thank UK
9:24
column members who picked up, had sharp eyes to pick up some
9:30
of the information I'm now going to bring on screen.
9:32
So remember what this gentleman has allegedly done.
9:37
Now let's go to the Online Safety Bill.
9:41
And this is the Hansard report here.
9:43
So it's talking about debated on Thursday the 26th of May 2022.
9:49
And initially under that banner headline is a list of the
9:53
committee members under the chairmanship of Sir Roger Gale.
9:57
But there were also a number of witnesses and we've brought
10:02
those up on screen. I know it's a bit small, but
10:04
let's bring in the big arrow because here we have no less.
10:08
But Leon Veleman himself as a political organiser for hope not
10:13
hate witnessing the online safety bill.
10:17
You can make this up, Mike. It's it's really quite
10:20
extraordinary. And I just want to highlight as
10:23
well. No suggestion of any wrongdoing
10:26
of course, but William Moy, the chief executive of Full Fact was
10:30
also present as a witness. And this is the organization
10:34
which puts it forward itself forward as being the know all
10:38
essentially as to what's happening.
10:40
So we wanted to bring this up that a man who's been accused of
10:44
some really serious things was actually a witness to.
10:49
It's giving evidence to the inquiry, it's to decide what the
10:53
how this, how this legislation which the government is framed
10:57
in this in, in the language of protecting children and they're
11:00
having these types of people involved as witnesses.
11:03
Yeah, Now we could say that this comes down to vetting again,
11:08
because the government is using people to give opinions and
11:11
influence and lobby on very serious law.
11:16
And it appears that they're they're failing.
11:19
So there's a lot to come out about this case.
11:22
But at the moment, of course, we can't report in too much detail
11:25
because of the the situation of the case itself.
11:29
Now we do also want to say that Jewish media has reported on
11:34
this man and I think it's important to to highlight this.
11:39
So this is the Jewish Chronicle ex Labour councillor who sent
11:43
explicit messages to police officer he believed was a 13
11:47
year old girl released on bail. So Jewish Press did pick up on
11:53
this but it's only the UK column and some sharp eyed members that
11:57
have picked up on this connection through To Hope Not
12:01
Hate and the Online Safety Bill. So then related, I suppose in
12:07
the sense is the Epstein investigation and well, Keir
12:11
Starmer has decided to fire the head of the civil service and
12:15
Cabinet secretary. Now, of course, I'm only
12:17
speaking about one person who held both of those roles and
12:21
that's Sir Chris Wormold, who can be seen on screen here
12:24
speaking to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee last November.
12:27
And Wormold was given the both these roles in December 2024,
12:33
and he is the victim that Starmer has chosen to try to
12:37
stave off. The latest victim, I should say
12:39
that Starmer has tried to stave off Peter Mandelson's criticism
12:42
of Peter Mandelson's appointment as ambassador to the United
12:45
States. Now, the fact that Wormald was
12:46
only appointed to the role a few days before Starmer announced
12:50
Mandelson's appointment. So he could have had very little
12:55
impact or played really almost no significant part in the
12:59
decision to appoint Mandelson. So his interim replacements then
13:05
are going to be Catherine Little, who's Permanent
13:07
Secretary of the Cabinet Office, Dame Antonio Romeo, who's
13:10
permanent Secretary of the Home Office, and James Bowler, who's
13:13
permanent secretary of the Treasury.
13:15
And they're going to be they're doing his job until the
13:18
replacement is appointment is appointed.
13:20
And that will be shortly. And we should remember, of
13:23
course, he's the third person to be kicked out in the last few
13:27
days following Morgan McSweeney, Starmer's chief of staff, and
13:31
also Tim Allen, who's director of communications.
13:34
It's not going so well for Starmer at the moment.
13:37
No, of course, because the party's rotten from the inside,
13:40
which also applies, in my opinion, to the Conservative
13:43
Party. But these dynamic events have
13:47
caused this rot to come to the surface and now they're just
13:51
going to try and cover up by by getting rid of people and
13:55
bringing in somebody else who will keep the lid on the state
13:58
of play inside the Labour Party. Absolutely.
14:01
Now we're delighted to see that Patrick Aniston has managed to
14:05
to join us live. Patrick, welcome to the program.
14:08
Now we you've sent us a report from Iran, from Tehran, and
14:13
we're going to show that in a second.
14:15
But before we do, I'd just be interested to get your brief
14:18
thoughts on the prescription of Palestine action.
14:28
Now we can have. Now, yeah, we can't,
14:30
unfortunately we can't hear you, Patrick.
14:33
Look, what what we'll do is we'll show the report.
14:35
We'll show the report the first part of it anyway.
14:37
And, and maybe you can try reconnecting and let's see,
14:40
let's see if we succeed and be able to hear you.
14:43
So let's let's show this to to start this off.
14:46
Yeah, this is a good introduction.
14:48
This week we're reporting from on the ground in the capital of
14:52
the Islamic Republic of Iran, Tehran, and it's been a quite
14:56
incredible journey to get here. A lot of obstacles were put in
15:00
our way. We managed to arrive here on
15:03
Wednesday and as luck would have it, this was the National
15:08
Independence Day or the National Rally Day for Iran.
15:12
And we, we managed to, after making it through customs an
15:17
hour, an hour and a half, somehow managed to get through
15:20
traffic into the city. The traffic was so incredible
15:24
'cause there were literally hundreds of thousands, if not
15:27
millions of people coming into the city center to join this
15:31
sort of national display of solidarity for the state, for
15:35
the government, for the leadership, and really also in
15:39
opposition of the threats being waged by the United States
15:43
currently under the Trump administration threatening to
15:46
start a war at any moment. It could, it could happen.
15:50
This is a very real and present concern here, no doubt.
15:54
But we, we managed to park the, the car and walk.
15:59
A lot of people parked, literally turned a major freeway
16:02
artery into the city into a giant, literally a giant parking
16:05
lot. And we walked in for the
16:08
duration, as did many other 10s of thousands of people on on the
16:11
road that we took. And we made it to the latter
16:16
part of this rally. It started at 8:00 AM and
16:19
finished around 12:31. And we got a chance to
16:23
experience something that's extraordinary.
16:25
By anyone's estimation, probably 2 million people attended this
16:30
rally. So the scenes were incredible.
16:32
We took a few shortcuts from this and we'll I'll show a few
16:37
of those in a moment here. So there's the hundreds of
16:41
thousands of people, I don't know, maybe a million or out
16:46
here we're coming up to the main square.
16:48
But just the sheer mass of Iranians out today is
16:54
unbelievable. Major event.
16:57
So what was incredible about this is that we've been told in
17:01
the Western media and by our politicians in the West that
17:06
there were, you know, all of these anti quote regime protests
17:10
going on and the country is completely divided.
17:13
People are afraid to come out in the streets for fear of being,
17:16
you know, attacked by the regime and whatnot.
17:18
So that's what we've been told. We've been fed a steady diet of
17:22
this, what can only be described as Western propaganda and how
17:27
they characterize what's going on in Iran.
17:30
And what you saw was this incredible unity, national
17:35
unity. There weren't just, you know, I
17:37
would say socially conservative Iranians out religious, more
17:42
religious people in this country, certainly that that
17:45
that would have been the majority of the people out.
17:47
But there were what you might term moderates, secular people
17:51
all united under this umbrella, if you will, of the the Islamic
17:57
Republic of Iran and celebrating the anniversary of the the
17:59
revolution. So, you know, the, the
18:01
revolutionary government is alive and well in this country
18:06
and it has a massive, massive constituency.
18:10
And you can really see that for, for your own eyes here.
18:13
Certainly this was one of the reasons why I came on this trip.
18:18
And there's a lot of reasons why I shouldn't have come in terms
18:21
of the threat of war. It's certainly not a pleasant
18:24
situation if, if that was to kick off.
18:27
But I I needed to see for myself what was happening here and I
18:32
needed to be able to convey that to our audience at the UK
18:37
column, of course, but also a 21st century wire and really
18:40
brought more broadly to our Western audience and our
18:45
readership and our viewers. Well, Mike, I've got to say,
18:50
really fantastic report from Patrick.
18:53
It's, it's brilliant that he managed to get to Tehran.
18:57
And of course, Patrick taking huge risk because there's a
19:00
Westerner, he's in a very big city and although he's clearly
19:05
describing everything is stable testing. 123 test.
19:10
He's been walking out on the street.
19:12
So well done to Patrick Henningson and also we'd like to
19:16
say it's absolutely fantastic that we've UK column with
19:19
Patrick's help have been able to get another in country reports
19:23
out. So this is this is excellent.
19:26
So we're we're going to show another excerpt from that in a
19:29
second. But Patrick, just just give us
19:32
the latest that you're seeing over there at the moment.
19:37
Can you hear me OK? Yes.
19:38
We can't hear you. We can hear you now.
19:40
Yes. That that's brilliant.
19:42
The Internet here is very patchy because of the security
19:46
situation. Everything is very much on high
19:49
alert right now. Obviously, people here are
19:52
concerned about an imminent attack from the United States.
19:56
But despite all that, life goes on in Tehran.
20:00
This is a megatropolis in terms of major cities.
20:04
So it's people are getting about with their daily life there.
20:09
You know, there's no, the rioters are gone and normal life
20:14
is happening. It's very safe, Tehran.
20:18
At night, during the day, etcetera.
20:21
But you know the, the internet's always going to be an issue here
20:24
with the current security situation.
20:26
So I've managed to get a window of Internet here at the moment.
20:31
Now the in terms of like what we just saw, the clip that you
20:34
showed, it's, it was really a display of solidarity
20:39
nationally. This was all around the
20:41
countries, all the major cities, millions of people came out,
20:44
probably collectively about 20, 20 to 24 million people in total
20:49
in the different cities and and municipalities around the
20:52
country. So that's a very different
20:54
picture than what we've been fed over the last couple of, you
21:00
know, weeks and months about the division in supposed division
21:05
country. Actually, there's quite a lot of
21:08
resilience. Now we we're also able to see a
21:13
lot of the military hardware on on the parade.
21:16
Some of those clips are in my report in terms of the drones
21:20
and the missiles. So, you know, that's that that
21:23
is a big sort of source of national pride.
21:26
Here is their home grown defense industry.
21:29
Everything is basically native. We we got a chance to see their
21:33
missile defense systems earlier today, as well as a hypersonic
21:37
missiles, as well as the the drone technology and US drones
21:44
that they've downed. We've got a chance to go and
21:48
listen to their experts tell us about how they capture the US
21:52
drone and and downed it by capturing its signal
21:56
communication and landing it in Iran, The most advanced U.S.
22:00
drone. That was a couple of years ago,
22:02
obviously, and then the Downing of the Global Hawk, the MQ 4
22:06
Global Hawk drone. We got a chance to see that and
22:09
hear the stories of, you know, how all that took place.
22:11
So you know, from a, from that point of view, this has been
22:14
absolutely fascinating. And I as an American, I was able
22:17
to see the the old U.S. embassy with the famous hostage crisis,
22:21
which is now a museum. So it's called the the den of
22:25
espionage. I'm translating into English.
22:29
So it's pretty incredible, you know, having seen that story
22:33
growing up as a as a, as a child, that was a big part of
22:37
the, you know, news event growing up in America.
22:39
And then to actually go there, everything is perfectly
22:42
preserved, the skiff, the secure communications, the encryption
22:47
rooms, everything. So I got an opportunity to
22:50
actually see all that from a historic point of view.
22:53
And obviously what I've witnessed on the streets and and
22:56
meeting people, a lot of the women are unveiled.
23:00
So this that stereotype that women have to cover their hair
23:03
here is completely false. So there's just so many
23:06
different things that you could only know really by seeing it
23:10
for yourself if you're from a Western country, because all of
23:13
this is more or less blocked off to our media.
23:16
These reports exist, but you won't see them on our mainstream
23:20
media. And so people are getting a
23:22
distorted view of Iran. And I think that's also to
23:26
manufacture consent to make it OK to, you know, trigger a war
23:30
against them. So, and I hope that, you know,
23:33
what I'm reporting can help, you know, deep deconstruct some of
23:37
these and debunk some of these stereotypes and a lot of the
23:40
propaganda that we get fed in the West.
23:42
That's the reason I came. I needed to see for myself.
23:45
That's that's why I'm here. It was not easy to get here.
23:49
It was definitely not easy to The schedule has been grueling.
23:53
We've been doing a lot of media coverage with the various local
23:57
medias. Once talked to the international
23:59
journalists that are here, of which I am one of many.
24:03
But these aren't necessarily mainstream journalists.
24:06
A few of the mainstream reports I saw there is absolutely
24:10
unbelievable. I did, I did want to ask you
24:12
about that, Patrick, because the BBC, because you were obviously
24:15
that first segment of that of that of your report was talking
24:20
about what was happening on Wednesday this week.
24:22
The BBC's answer to that was that there were massive chants,
24:27
chants of kill how many? And so I just wanted to to ask
24:32
you to address that. Yeah, absolutely.
24:35
What from this week? Yes.
24:39
Absolutely older Dash, No way, no way.
24:44
Just the opposite. So record number of people came
24:47
out for the National Rally Day more than previous years.
24:51
So people are absolutely rallying around the government
24:54
by the millions. I think they estimated 2 million
24:56
people came out for the the National Day March in Tehran.
25:01
Very, very pro. I mean it, it's all about
25:04
supporting the leader. It's all about supporting the
25:07
military because the country, people here on mass know they're
25:12
under attack. Even the secularists are
25:15
basically in solidarity with conservative and and religious
25:21
conservative Iranians. Everybody is on on on point with
25:25
with basically opposing US war and Israeli war, which is being
25:30
what you know, waged against this country.
25:31
So if the BBC actually reported that about the National Rally,
25:37
that's pretty much insane. That's the only way I can say
25:41
it's just like, Orwellian. Yeah, Patrick, I just want to
25:46
stress for our audience that you were there live in Tehran at the
25:49
moment, which is really excellent.
25:52
You in your reports, we're going to be showing the full report
25:55
that you've given, recorded report that you've given the
25:58
columns. So people watching the news
26:00
today and UK column extra which will make public or be able to
26:04
see Patrick's full report. One of the things you've
26:06
stressed is how calm things are at the moment, but you've also
26:11
been speaking to people about the terrible turbulence and
26:16
trouble and violence there was. So we're recognising with
26:21
compassion that the clearly people were hurt in Iran, but
26:27
that is now clearly stabilized. And you've stressed here is this
26:31
very big city and country and and it's reverted very quickly
26:36
to to a peaceful state. I don't know whether you'd like
26:39
to say anything more on that. Well, to to add to that, Brian,
26:44
and I'm glad you you mentioned this because just in the last 24
26:48
hours, I have met two families who have lost in one case two of
26:54
their sons and in another case a family member that were attacked
26:59
by and shot by the so-called peaceful protesters, of which
27:04
there is ample evidence. And we even met with the the
27:08
chief of the main district police here yesterday to show us
27:14
pretty gruesome evidence of what happened to police officer.
27:19
So hundreds of law enforcement officers and security officers
27:23
were killed. And these were people largely
27:26
that were unarmed. That's it's not the same as in
27:29
America where the police all carry firearms.
27:31
Not the case here. So because it's a different type
27:35
of civil defense, the rioters and agent provocateurs are able
27:39
to take advantage of that by using the crowd as a human
27:43
shield and firing from behind people in the streets.
27:46
But weapons caches were recovered.
27:49
I mean, it's a huge scandal here.
27:51
And so it's, you know, having actually met the families of the
27:56
victims who were killed by the so-called, you know, peaceful
28:02
protesters. And they, there was, there were
28:04
peaceful protests, there were legitimate economic protest from
28:09
the merchant class. This was in December, late
28:12
December and the beginning of January.
28:13
And that the, the, the violence drafted off the back of that.
28:17
And we have plenty of admissions from Israeli and U.S.
28:22
intelligence that they were involved, admissions official,
28:25
you know, from Ed officials. So there's no question that that
28:28
was the case. So, but it's it, it's to to
28:32
really see there's going to be no tear jerking BBC videos about
28:37
the families who lost their children to violence perpetrated
28:41
by people backed by the West or backed by Israel.
28:44
You're not going to get those reports.
28:47
And you know, so you get it on the media here.
28:50
It's not that these reports don't exist.
28:51
They exist here, but they're they're not filtering back
28:54
through to to the Western media. They don't care because that
28:59
destroys the narrative basically.
29:01
And this is a narrative that the West are trying to spend about
29:04
something that happened that they say happened here, that you
29:08
know, 10,020 thousand 30,014. Someone told me 70,000 as I was
29:13
getting attacked online a couple of days ago.
29:16
So I replied back to them, why not round it up to 100,000.
29:20
You know, protesters were quote massacred by the so-called, you
29:24
know, the quote regime. It's ridiculous.
29:26
This this is I've never seen we have never seen a propaganda
29:30
wave designed to demonize a country that's so outrageous as
29:36
we're seeing out in October 7th post October 7th.
29:40
The the type of propaganda atrocity propaganda.
29:42
Israel was pushing about 40 beheaded babies.
29:45
That was bad. But the scale of the operation
29:48
against Iran is unprecedented. And I believe the amount of
29:52
money spent on influencers in the West pushing this script,
29:57
scripted lies is unprecedented. We're talking in the millions,
30:01
10s of millions, maybe more was spent to create this campaign to
30:05
soften up Iran for a military strike.
30:08
That's exactly and it. There's no question in my mind
30:11
that that's what that's what this is.
30:14
Yeah, Patrick, thank you very much for that.
30:16
And the tragedy of this is, of course, people have been killed
30:20
and severely injured, lives destroyed, both sides of.
30:25
Yeah, both sides of it, within, within the wider public
30:29
community and within the state system itself.
30:32
Yeah, it's terrible. OK.
30:33
Well, look, Patrick, we need to move on, but I'm going to say
30:37
thank you very much for joining us today.
30:39
That has been absolutely fantastic.
30:41
We are going to show the rest of Patrick's report in extra and we
30:44
are going to make today's extra available to everybody, not just
30:47
the members. So everybody will get to see the
30:49
full report. So thank you very much, Patrick,
30:51
for joining us, and we'll see you next week.
30:55
OK, see you then. Thank you.
30:58
OK, let's let's come back to the UK then and to the situation
31:02
with the courts in the UK and access to court records and
31:07
court lists. Basil the the media.
31:13
Sorry, let me just say here, sorry Brian, you start this off
31:16
because you. Got back in base in the flow.
31:19
Obviously that was a live report, so that's taken a little
31:23
bit of time out out of the news, but we're we're delighted to do
31:27
that. But great effort by Patrick.
31:29
I just wanted to give credit to UK column members because
31:32
there's a lot of sharp bite members sending us information.
31:35
And this was a little report that I received a couple of days
31:38
ago. Now it is from the Times
31:41
newspaper, but somebody picked it up on their phone and said,
31:44
Brian, I think this is really important.
31:47
So I want to say thanks to that person.
31:49
It was UK column member Paul J, but he was very, very upset to
31:55
read about this deletion of EU KS largest court reporting
32:00
archive. So I just wanted to give that
32:02
credit as an introduction, Mike. Absolutely so.
32:04
So, Basil, take us through this story.
32:08
Yeah, the court desk, it's called, and it's a relatively
32:12
recent introduction. It's an archive of magistrates
32:16
and county court cases that enabled accredited journalists
32:21
to find out what's going on in the court system more easily
32:25
than sifting through hundreds of pieces of paperwork, which often
32:30
only give the name of the defendant and very scarce
32:34
details. Which means basically that
32:37
without court desk, it's extremely difficult for
32:39
journalists to find out what's going on and very easy for cases
32:45
to sort of disappear without any meaningful reporting.
32:49
Now, I'm indebted to Nat Goodlad, A reporter up in the
32:54
northwest of England, for a local newspaper, because local
32:58
newspapers are one of the few outlets in the sort of
33:02
mainstream corporate media where people do still have some
33:06
independence. And he's writing in the
33:09
Lancashire Telegraph pointing out that the decision to delete
33:14
the entire archive, as well as of course, therefore not
33:18
maintain or updated, is being presented as an administrative
33:24
tidying up exercise purely for data protection reasons.
33:28
But those data protection reasons have not actually been
33:32
meaningfully explained in any way.
33:34
But it is in fact a decision that makes the criminal courts
33:37
much less visible, much less accountable and harder to
33:41
scrutinise and should worry anyone who cares about open
33:46
justice. For those of us who report from
33:49
court regularly, he said, court desk became part of the daily
33:52
machinery of doing the job properly.
33:54
Court desk was never a replacement for court lists,
33:56
phone calls or sitting through hearings.
33:58
But it was a way of making sense of a system that increasingly
34:01
withholds detail until the last possible moment.
34:05
So court desk filled gaps, allowing reporters to prepare,
34:09
prioritize and ensure that hearings of genuine public
34:13
interest were not missed simply because the information wasn't
34:17
there in time. And that this matters because
34:20
open justice does not mean very much if cases can be heard
34:24
without meaningful notice to the press.
34:27
Courts may be open in theory, but in practice, the public
34:30
relies on journalists to be present.
34:33
If reporters do not know what's happening, or cannot reasonably
34:36
prepare for it, then scrutiny falls away.
34:40
The data court desk gathered, was uncomfortable reading for
34:43
the justice system. Millions of hearings being
34:47
advanced without notice, listings that were accurate on
34:51
only a tiny fraction of sitting days, courts routinely hearing
34:55
cases the media had no way of knowing about.
34:58
And that that information obviously did not damage open
35:02
justice, but it demonstrated where it was already failing.
35:06
Now, unsurprisingly, there's been push back against this
35:09
from, amongst others, the libertarian conservative former
35:13
cabinet minister David Davis. And there are perhaps even
35:18
deeper, darker reasons of why this is happening.
35:21
I've seen speculation online that it's in order to cover up
35:26
Prime Minister Keir Starmer's own failings when Director of
35:31
Public Prosecutions, or indeed multiple other cases that are
35:37
now going to disappear into the annals of history unless
35:40
journalists are prepared to spend hundreds of hours going
35:43
through court filings. Basil, thank you for that.
35:53
Now we just do have a little bit of what David Davis had to say
35:57
here. So let's just have a listen to
35:58
that and then we'll talk about it in one second.
36:04
Open Justice is an absolute foundation stone of the British
36:09
justice system. Knowing when somebody's going to
36:13
be tried and what they're going to be tried for is fundamental.
36:17
And yet the government, the Department of Justice, Ministry
36:20
of Justice is now ordering a company that does just that,
36:24
tell the newspapers what's going on in the courts to shut down
36:28
and delete their database. A huge database massively
36:33
important to to the the newspapers. 1500 inquiries in
36:39
recent times, depending on this database, don't save much money,
36:44
and it'll undermine transparency of justice in Great Britain.
36:51
Open just. Come on, right, Sorry, but we're
36:56
having a few technical. But look, look what I want to
36:59
what I want to because you already mentioned this Basel,
37:01
the fact that court desk was only launched in April 2024 and
37:09
so it's only been going for less than two years now.
37:12
There's a number of points about this.
37:14
First of all, as far as I'm concerned, it could be argued
37:17
that as some people have been on social media that that this is
37:22
an attempt to cover something up by Keir Starmer.
37:26
What this does is it brings us back to the battle days of pre
37:29
two years ago where people had to go to individual courts to
37:33
see the court lists and the court lists were often not
37:35
correct and they weren't published on time and this kind
37:37
of thing. But the point is that this
37:40
platform, although it was much more convenient for journalists,
37:43
it was only convenient for journalists and members of the
37:46
public couldn't get access to this.
37:48
So, so we couldn't see what court cases were coming up if we
37:52
wanted to attend them in person, for example.
37:54
And so my question really just to finish this off is what
37:59
actual, you know, justice is supposed to be seen to be done?
38:02
What actual transparency is there with respect to the court
38:06
system when in fact, for us as the public, it becomes very,
38:10
very difficult to follow what's going on?
38:12
Never. And we rely therefore on the
38:14
editorial policies of the newspapers to decide what they
38:18
think are the important cases. Well, yeah, absolutely, Mike.
38:22
And really rather than deleting the archive in its entirety and
38:26
doing away with this, it should be made available to the general
38:29
public or at least made available to anybody, any
38:34
journalist that seeks accreditation to access to it.
38:38
So this is 100% going in the wrong direction.
38:41
I mean, it's extraordinary that so-called Labour government are
38:46
pressing ahead with this where you know, as David Davis says,
38:49
it's going to save a few pennies.
38:51
The data protection reasons that the government's claiming that
38:54
it's doing it for. Because you see, obviously if
38:57
information about all these cases that are available to a
38:59
wide number of journalists, then some information which may come
39:03
into the public domain, which you know should not, but that
39:08
should be dealt with on an individual case by case basis,
39:11
not with, you know, doing away with the whole thing as a
39:13
blanket ban. Yes, thank you.
39:16
Yeah, Basil, I'd agree with that.
39:18
I I just challenged David Davis talking about open justice.
39:22
When in this country, closed courts with no press and no jury
39:29
can take people's children away. And when the parents attempt to
39:33
defend themselves against perjury and false reports, the
39:38
papers will not deal without information because it's
39:43
protected under family court secrecy rules.
39:45
And I can tell our audience that the Telegraph itself backs out
39:51
of a high profile case around 2 twins that were taken from a
39:56
mother because they said, well, we can't touch the evidence that
40:00
the mother has to protect herself because it's held under
40:03
under secrecy rules. So to to stand up and say sorry.
40:11
Not just in the family courts. I believe I'm right in saying
40:14
that during the judicial review into Palestine action, the
40:18
barrister representing the government was presenting
40:23
evidence which neither the defendant Huda Hamori or her
40:29
legal team were allowed to be in present in courts to listen to
40:34
that. Instead, a special counsel was
40:36
appointed to represent their interests, but that special
40:39
counsel was not allowed to tell them what had been said.
40:42
So, you know, it's not just in the family courts, the, you
40:47
know, this creeping secrecy together with of course, the
40:50
move to do away with juries for vast number of cases.
40:54
That means that decisions like the one made today by the High
40:58
Court to overturn the ban on Palestine action are absolutely
41:03
crucial, judicial reviews, absolutely crucial to
41:07
maintaining the checks and balances in our Constitution.
41:10
Yeah, thank you for that, for that battle.
41:12
Lot more to be discussed on this.
41:14
Absolutely. We'll do that an extra.
41:15
But just to finish this off, just to let you know, there is a
41:18
petition entitled make all court and tribunal transcripts
41:22
available free of charge. I would say that that needs to
41:24
be expanded to the court lists as well.
41:26
But anyway, that that's there if anybody wants to to, to get
41:30
involved with that. Now, let's just say if you like
41:33
what we do here at the UK column, we do need your ongoing
41:36
financial support. Please do help us if you
41:38
possibly can by becoming a member or making a, a financial
41:42
donation. You can find out how to do that
41:45
by clicking on the button on the front page of the UK Column
41:48
website. But if you can't support us
41:49
financially, then please do share our material because that
41:52
helps us defeat the censorship regime, which we might get a
41:56
chance to talk to later on in the program.
41:58
Tonight on the Weekly Banter, Charles and I are speaking to
42:02
Germ about our recent trip to China, why we went, who we saw
42:06
we were there. So join us for that if you can.
42:09
And lots of people want to know. So hopefully there'll be a good
42:12
viewership for that. Just very briefly, my discussion
42:17
with Matt Eret that went out yesterday at 1:00 PM is up on
42:21
the website. If you haven't seen it, the the
42:23
comments in the in the forums have been very positive.
42:26
So please do have a look at that.
42:29
And an article on Edgar Allan Poe, fascinating historical
42:33
figure, wrote lots as everybody will appreciate, but also
42:38
involved, heavily involved in US politics and so on.
42:41
So have a look at that if you can.
42:44
And Brian, a couple of stories from members then.
42:47
Yes, I, I just want to continue this theme of, of our members
42:51
doing some really good work in the background.
42:54
We get a huge number of emails. We can't respond to them all,
42:57
but we do pay attention to as much of the information that
43:00
comes in as possible. This was an article which a
43:05
concerned member of the UK column said, are you aware this
43:08
is happening? So the headline here from The
43:11
Gazette and Harold said the public asked if up to 96
43:16
firefighters should now be made redundant.
43:18
This is further collapse of local authority provision for
43:22
the public. So it's Dorset and Wiltshire
43:24
Fire and Rescue Authority starts the discussion on the possible
43:28
closure of eight fire stations, which would ultimately lead to
43:32
96 firefighters becoming redundant.
43:36
I also popped this one up on screen and we were hearing a
43:40
little bit about this some time ago in relation to Windsor.
43:45
But basically the local councillors got fed up with the
43:48
fact that every time the royalty decide to eat in large numbers,
43:53
fine food and and wine, etcetera, they end up with a
43:56
bill. And it appears that at the
43:58
moment, the local council is saying it will not support any
44:03
more state visits because basically, the costs of the
44:07
royalty hosting Donald Trump at Windsor Castle last year were
44:12
not reimbursed. And I think that's fair enough.
44:16
If we put a picture up of what fine dining looks like, I think
44:20
they've got most of the Amazon rainforest on the table.
44:23
That's a wonder they can actually see each other.
44:25
But I'm going to bring this up because apparently among the
44:29
important guests at the French president's state visit were
44:33
Dame Christine Scott Thomas, who's an actress, so Mick Jagger
44:38
and Sir Elton John. And my goodness, we've got to
44:41
put all of that cost on to the public.
44:43
I think it's outrageous. Meanwhile, another heads up from
44:47
our audience was that we've now got the royal family on
44:51
altruistic work. This was Camilla visiting.
44:55
I think it's Somerset Police, Avon and Somerset Police.
44:59
And I think this is absolutely about reputation management.
45:02
Yeah, absolutely. OK, Let's move on then to
45:06
Munich. And the 6060 second Munich
45:09
Security Conference begins today and it's going to run until
45:14
Sunday at the Hotel Bayer, Bayer Isherhof in Munich.
45:20
Now Marco Rubio is going to attend and for the first time in
45:22
a while Afd is going to be there because they were considered
45:27
persona non grata. Keir Starmer will be there,
45:30
maybe assuming he's still Prime Minister by the end of today.
45:34
Also, Yvette Cooper and Pretty Patel will be there representing
45:37
the UK regime and its opposition.
45:40
And Nazanin Boniadi from Amnesty International UK will also be
45:45
there now. She is also, by the way, a board
45:48
member of the Borrimand Centre for Human Rights in Iran.
45:53
So Ukraine, Iran, the military industrial complex, Russia, AI,
45:57
populism, they're all on the agenda.
46:00
Ben's got to have more about what's happening at MSC on
46:03
Monday's programme, if anything newsworthy comes out of it.
46:07
The question which is often asked about this event is, is it
46:11
just the poor relations of the World Economic Forum?
46:14
And the answer is, I suppose that it depends, because at
46:17
times of geopolitical strife, like we're going through it at
46:19
the moment, it definitely comes to the fore.
46:22
It's less corporate than the World Economic Forum and more
46:26
direct, directly tied to the sort of the crises that might be
46:29
happening at a particular moment.
46:31
So we're going to watch closely over the weekend and we'll keep
46:34
you posted if anything interesting happens.
46:36
Now, all this is happening at the same time that there's
46:39
significant shifts in the leadership of NATO.
46:42
And on Tuesday, they announced an agreement on a redress, what
46:46
they described as a redistribution of senior command
46:48
positions. So that's going to see a British
46:51
officer takeover Joint Forces Command, Norfolk, which is
46:54
responsible for the Atlantic and the Arctic, an Italian officer
46:57
taking charge of Joint Force Command Naples.
47:01
And these both these positions were previously occupied by US
47:05
officers. Poland and Germany are now going
47:07
to share the Joint Force Command, Brunson, responsible
47:12
for NATO's eastern flank, on a rotational basis, and that was
47:16
previously held by a German officer alone.
47:20
And they say that as a result, all three force commands which
47:24
lead at the operational level in crisis and conflict will be
47:28
held, certainly will be led by Europeans.
47:31
And at the same time, the United States is going to lead all
47:34
three theatre component commands.
47:38
And that's for the first time taking up responsibility for
47:43
Allied Marine Command, and they maintain leadership of Allied
47:48
Land Command and Allied Air Command.
47:50
And the The report says the agreement is part of a shift to
47:53
more fairly shared responsibility within NATO, with
47:56
European allies taking greater the leadership roles in NATO's
47:59
command structure, while also making clear the US commitment
48:02
to NATO command and control, including maintaining the role
48:06
of supreme allied commander of Europe.
48:09
What are your thoughts on that? Well, more European control will
48:13
mean more confusion and disaster really, because the Europeans
48:17
have never ever. And that is while NATO was doing
48:20
its Cold War job, being capable of operating together in a fully
48:25
coherent way. And one one of it is is
48:28
language. You may speak English, but but
48:31
colloquial terms and military terms vary across the nation
48:36
States and a few a few words spoken at the wrong time or the
48:40
wrong words used can cause trouble.
48:43
So Europeans under the European Union banner, this is not going
48:51
to be good because everybody's going to want to be the top dog.
48:55
And, and my, my prediction is you're just going to see more
48:58
and more infighting. The thing about the Americans is
49:01
their overwhelming military might meant that somebody was
49:06
there to make the ultimate decision and the rest had to
49:08
fall in line. Now you're going to see, sorry,
49:11
this is a bit crude. It's going to be a dog's
49:13
breakfast of, of a military operation.
49:17
So I, I think it's going to be fascinating.
49:20
OK, well in the meantime you got a bit of a preview of it there,
49:22
so we'll just bring it on screen.
49:23
In the meantime, the Ministry of Defence here in the UK has
49:27
signed a contract with a defence company called Blacktree for the
49:30
supply of AI capable equipment including radios, headsets,
49:33
display tablets, cables, batteries, pouches and antennas.
49:37
The the contract is worth £86 million.
49:40
It's known as dismounted Data system and it's going to provide
49:44
what they claim, precise information on surroundings and
49:47
intelligence, meaning increased clarity and who are enemies and
49:51
who are comrades. With all soldiers linked to the
49:54
same network through this equipment, DDS will be also be
49:57
tailored to different scenarios, allowing troops to receive
50:00
either or a combination of voice or visual data, maximizing
50:04
effectiveness across all battlefield situations.
50:07
And they said that the new systems have already been tested
50:10
by soldiers on deployment in Estonia.
50:13
The testing on NATO's eastern flank, they said, saw the visual
50:16
information element, allowing soldiers to be less distracted
50:19
by loud noises on the battlefield.
50:21
I asked Charles about this because obviously he's as as
50:24
qualified as it comes on this. And he said talking it up as a
50:28
British based SME is misleading. It looks as though black tree is
50:32
just not left for trellis. Where in the United States?
50:36
This exposes some very obvious vulnerabilities.
50:38
As with all things tech, especially digital, they're all
50:41
well and good until they break and then you're left with
50:44
nothing. All of this is predicated on the
50:47
idea that they are not susceptible to jamming and
50:50
electronic warfare attack, which is all well and good until they
50:53
are. It further reduces the need for
50:56
situational awareness from commander commanders and anyone
50:59
on the ground, as they will become reliant on what they're
51:02
fed by systems like this. There should be questions about
51:05
how it harmonized with other existing equipment, as well as
51:08
what the fall back is should it feel.
51:10
Also, while this might work in Estonia, would it work in Iran
51:14
for example? There are many examples of comms
51:16
kit in particular performing very differently according to
51:19
terrain and topography. I think the central danger is
51:23
you wouldn't know if it'd been compromised and such a situation
51:27
would lead to disaster. This sort of stuff is pushed as
51:30
is, surely just a matter of time before the bodies find a way to
51:34
defeat it. I think those are very astute
51:36
comments. Very astute comments.
51:38
There's one other thing I will add to it is that is the more
51:41
that battlefield control is wrapped up in this sort of ITAI
51:46
blanket, the more people who are distant from the battlefield
51:51
think they can micromanage fighting on the battlefield
51:55
itself. So people back thousands of
51:59
miles away in warm offices will start to think they can make the
52:03
actual decisions that are going to affect the real fighting at
52:07
ground level. And that comes down to toughness
52:10
and gut instinct about how to conduct that warfare in a local
52:15
area. So I think Charles absolutely
52:17
right to be concerned. OK.
52:19
So Brian, let's bring us up to date without common purposes
52:22
been up to. Yes, it's very interesting isn't
52:24
it, that after a lot of work of the UK column many years ago to
52:29
expose what this, this pernicious political charity,
52:33
that's what I've always called it, what it was up to, Common
52:36
Purpose started to do less in UK and to do more outside the
52:42
country, in particular in India. But we have been paying
52:46
attention to what it's been doing and we thought the time
52:48
was right to talk about it again, particularly thanks to UK
52:52
column member Kate's. Now Kate sent me an e-mail
52:56
saying that Common Purpose and the British Council have
52:59
partnered to run leadership programs for the Pakistani
53:04
dysphora community in the UK. The aim is to build the capacity
53:09
of Pakistani dysphora leaders from different backgrounds,
53:12
sectors and generations to have a greater impact both in
53:16
Pakistan and in the diaspora community in the UK.
53:21
Now let's qualify this because UK column has been saying for
53:25
many many years that immigration and migrants have been used as a
53:30
malicious political policy to help breakdown nation States and
53:36
common purpose in choosing its future leaders is now going to
53:39
select people who are living outside their own country.
53:43
They probably hold 2 sets of values, one for UK, one for
53:47
Pakistan and Common Purpose and Unelected Body, a charity,
53:53
albeit highly politically based, is now going to train these
53:56
people. So if we just bring this up on
53:59
the screen and I'm going to say to our audience, please go to
54:01
Common Purposes website and have a look.
54:04
It says here we are bringing together leaders from across the
54:08
many different diaspora of the world.
54:10
Now they're not just ultimately going to go for Pakistanis, this
54:15
is going to be to people who've migrated worldwide across the
54:19
world. And Common Purpose is one of the
54:22
many non government organisations which is clearly
54:26
going trying to capture these people, reframe them in common
54:32
purposes, own political agenda and then use these people to
54:36
take control of the political systems in the nation state.
54:40
Now, how can I reinforce this for our audience?
54:43
Well, thanks again to Kate. She sent me two other links.
54:48
She said that this smacks of the EU Soros neighborhood project of
54:53
the EU and NATO expansion migration.
54:57
So this lady's spot on. And if we have a look at what
55:00
she was referring to, here's the British Council, a scoping study
55:06
for a leadership programme for Pakistan.
55:09
Our sporal leaders in the UK and the British councillors
55:13
commissioned Common Purpose to conduct a scoping study to
55:17
establish the potential for leadership programmes for these
55:20
people in the UK and to produce a report for the British Council
55:25
based on the findings of this study.
55:27
So if you're local and you're thinking, well if I get elected
55:32
as a local councillor, I'm going to be able to make a difference
55:35
in my community, No, no, no, in the future, Common Purpose is
55:39
going to make sure that it is defining who's going to come in
55:42
as a leader. This is another one of the links
55:47
that Kate pointed out for us. And this is the Balkan Forum
55:52
into Diaspora Round table discussion on the Balkan region.
55:57
It's back from February 2020 in Berlin.
56:01
And I think our viewers will be interested that this is all
56:03
being done with the financial support from the Rockefeller
56:07
Brothers Fund, of course, with absolutely no accountability.
56:12
And I'll add this bit here. We've got the European
56:15
Commission and if if the image seems a little bit strange, this
56:22
is what you see on screen. So if you're saying, my
56:25
goodness, I can't read this, please blame the European
56:30
Commission and not the UK column.
56:32
But this is talking about Union, Global Diaspora Facility.
56:38
So this is going worldwide. There's no question of it.
56:41
Like I say, once again, the corruption is what you see on
56:44
the website. That's not a fault to the UK
56:46
golem. But if we bring in some of the
56:49
people driving this, we don't really know who these people
56:52
are, what their backgrounds are, what their loyalty is.
56:56
Have they been vetted at all? No.
56:58
Have they been elected? No.
57:01
But these people are going to bring in the future leaders.
57:05
If, if I may, Basil, just give you opportunity to comment on
57:09
this. It is utterly blatant that the
57:13
agenda now is to break down nation states across Western
57:17
Europe, including the US itself, in order to get this globalist
57:21
in. The UK.
57:23
Well US and UK might because this is, This is being done in
57:27
the US, albeit with different organisations and names, but
57:32
they've the the tactics are the same.
57:34
This is to destroy the nation state and they are now going to
57:38
use people who've been displaced from their own country in order
57:42
to take up a role where they can be steered away from pro
57:47
national policies. I don't know how you'd reply to
57:51
that, Basil. Well, this has been an agenda
57:55
for arguably 50 years, Brian, and it touches on a very
58:00
sensitive subject, which is the relationship between the people
58:04
that live in the country, the history and the land and whether
58:10
or not any connection between people on land is valid in terms
58:15
of authenticating connection, ultimately nationality, sense of
58:20
belonging. And that's what is being not
58:23
just eroded but completely smashed to pieces.
58:26
So in other words, there was arguments about this recently,
58:29
of course, with Jim Ratcliff's comments and indeed Matt Goodwin
58:33
as well. Reform candidate up in
58:35
Manchester. Look what I'm going to say now.
58:39
It's arguably rather controversial, but if, if, if,
58:43
if a dog has puppies in a stable, it doesn't mean that
58:46
they've become ponies and horses.
58:49
It's as simple as that. You know, is there any
58:52
qualification to being English or British or French for that
58:57
matter, or any other nationality more than simply being born or
59:02
naturalized in that country? Because certainly any attempt to
59:08
define Englishness, Britishness, or any other nationality as
59:12
requiring more than simply being born in that country or becoming
59:17
a naturalized citizen thereof is automatically decried as some
59:21
form of ultra nationalism, ethno nationalism, or racism.
59:24
So that's a conversation that hasn't been had.
59:27
It's one of the ones that's been swept under the carpet for the
59:30
last 30 years. I don't want to pronounce on it
59:32
from any sort of ethical or moral judgement myself, simply
59:36
that there needs to be an honest conversation around that subject
59:39
and we haven't had it yet. Yeah, OK.
59:42
Thank you for that Basil. Now look, we're we're well over
59:44
time, but I do just want to to finish off today with with the
59:47
Palantir story because I think this is very important.
59:50
So, So Basil, first of all, I'm just going to bring this on
59:53
screen because this is Transparency International and
59:58
the Corruption Perceptions Index 2025.
1:00:01
UK corruption concerns risk becoming new normal.
1:00:04
Business as usual not enough to turn corner as UK receives
1:00:07
lowest ever score and Transparency International's
1:00:09
influential annual corruption. Perceptions Index.
1:00:12
And they go on to say results published today shows the UK
1:00:16
scores fallen to 70, down from 71 last year.
1:00:18
This marks EU KS lowest point since the index underwent a
1:00:22
major revamp in 2012. The UK remains 20th in the
1:00:25
global ranking for the third consecutive year, a significant
1:00:28
decline from its top ten position back in 2017.
1:00:31
I believe it was 7th at that point.
1:00:33
And then they they quote here, their chief executive, Daniel
1:00:37
Bruce, is saying for three years running, the UK has been stuck
1:00:41
back in 20th place in the Corruption Perceptions Index
1:00:44
with a score that continues to deteriorate.
1:00:46
This persistent decline is not a temporary blip.
1:00:49
It risks becoming a defining feature of our political
1:00:52
culture. I'm going to say Basil to start
1:00:54
this off, I think that horse is well and truly bolted.
1:00:59
Yes, it is worth pointing out that this was produced before
1:01:03
the Mandelson scandal broke to the extent that it now has,
1:01:07
resulting in the resignation of three senior members of the
1:01:12
government and possibly the Prime Minister himself.
1:01:16
But the the Palantir business rolls on and on.
1:01:19
There were pointed questions in the House of Commons this week
1:01:23
from both sides about Palantir's involvement, particularly in the
1:01:28
NHS. On Wednesday night, Palantir
1:01:31
celebrated its winning of the £240 million Ministry of Defence
1:01:36
contract with a huge, lavish party at the Bafta building in
1:01:41
the West End of London. Now that was picketed and Bafta
1:01:45
employees, certainly some of them were horrified that
1:01:48
companies so intimately entwined with the Trump administration
1:01:52
and indeed with surveillance operations in Gaza should be
1:01:57
holding a party in their building.
1:02:00
But there's more to it than that with Palantir, because not only
1:02:05
were these contracts handed out after Peter Mandelson took Keir
1:02:10
Starmer to an off the record meeting with Peter Thiel at
1:02:14
Palantir's headquarters in Washington, but also Jeffrey
1:02:18
Epstein himself. It was apparently an early key
1:02:23
funder of Palantir when it was in the start up stage.
1:02:26
Now we don't know where Epstein got his money from.
1:02:29
That remains opaque. Certainly some of it came from
1:02:33
Les Wexner. Did it also come from child
1:02:37
trafficking? In which case, if Palantir is
1:02:40
built on the proceeds of child trafficking, then what possible
1:02:45
role could it have in any contract, in any aspect of
1:02:51
British public life, let alone the Ministry of Defence and the
1:02:54
Department of Health? And this is, this is crucially
1:02:58
important Basel, because at the end of the day, the tentacles of
1:03:04
the Epstein scandal go right through politics, but also
1:03:08
through corporate life as well. And as you say, if contracts are
1:03:12
being given to companies that that are somehow benefiting from
1:03:16
his activity, this needs to be fully investigated and the
1:03:20
necessary steps taken. And some politicians are calling
1:03:24
for a full investigation into where these contracts were
1:03:27
awarded, or indeed that they should just be cancelled
1:03:30
immediately. The government are claiming that
1:03:33
no British company could do what Palantir is going to do for the
1:03:38
Ministry of Defence and they're clinging to the to the life raft
1:03:42
at the moment. But I think there's a lot more
1:03:45
to come on this story. The pressure has to be kept up.
1:03:48
The government want the whole thing to just go away.
1:03:50
You know, week or two time, everybody moves on, new cycle
1:03:54
moves on. But no, we have to keep the
1:03:56
pressure up on this one. Palantir was awarded the MOD
1:04:00
contract was more without any competition, without any tender.
1:04:04
There were no other bidders. Indeed, but but also they have
1:04:08
access to call up contracts as well, which you know this.
1:04:12
So it's it's not just the MOD contract we're talking about
1:04:15
here. Now there's the Department of
1:04:18
Health one as well and very slow take up among GPS to cooperate
1:04:23
with that and indeed with health trusts.
1:04:26
It may become completely unworkable the more so now that
1:04:30
we know more and more about Palantir and its relationship
1:04:33
with Mandelson and Epstein. So if the government can't force
1:04:38
GPS and local health trusts to work with the Palantir system,
1:04:44
then they'll simply have to abandon it.
1:04:45
It doesn't do anything that other aspects of NHS data
1:04:50
collection and sharing don't already do as well, apparently.
1:04:52
Yes, OK. Well, look, thank you very much
1:04:55
for that, Basil, and thank you for your contribution today and
1:04:57
Brian as well. We've got to leave it there for
1:04:59
now. And a massive thanks to Patrick
1:05:01
for joining us from Tehran. So we will be back in a few
1:05:05
minutes on this on the live stream.
1:05:07
If you're UK column members, stick around for UK column News
1:05:10
Extra. If you're not a member, then
1:05:12
please consider joining and then you can join us for Extra as
1:05:15
well. But don't forget Germ tonight
1:05:19
and we'll be back at 1:00 PM on Monday as usual for another news
1:05:23
program. Have a great weekend.
1:05:24
We'll see you then. Bye bye.
1:05:25
Bye bye.