Latest / UK Column Radio / Uk Column News — 19th October 2026

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Uk Column News — 19th October 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:16
Speaker 1: Good afternoon. Today is Monday, the 19th of October, 2026,
0:20
Speaker 1: just after one o'clock. Welcome to UK Column News. I'm
0:23
Speaker 1: your host, Brian Gerrish. Delighted to have Mike Robinson with
0:26
Speaker 1: me in the studio. And we're joined by Charles Mallett
0:29
Speaker 1: by Live Link. Now, we have a very busy news. Unfortunately,
0:35
Speaker 1: most of the news in UK and indeed worldwide seems
0:39
Speaker 1: to be serious these days. And war is one of
0:42
Speaker 1: the key topics. We'll be having a look at recent
0:44
Speaker 1: comments by head of the British Army. Mike will be
0:48
Speaker 1: having a more in-depth look at war. I will be
0:51
Speaker 1: taking a look at some of the comments made by
0:54
Speaker 1: Rhys Mogg as he pontificates on history and warfare in
1:01
Speaker 1: the world. We'll be having a look at unrest in France.
1:05
Speaker 1: We'll be having a little look at EU controls coming
1:09
Speaker 1: up on Starlink. We'll be having a look at reform
1:13
Speaker 1: in a new newspaper, which I think will be fascinating.
1:17
Speaker 1: We've got the subject of drought. And on good news,
1:22
Speaker 1: we're also going to be talking about the state of
1:25
Speaker 1: the fundraiser for Dr. Sam Bailey. We've also got a
1:30
Speaker 1: report on the up and coming court case in the Netherlands,
1:34
Speaker 1: in Leeuwarden in Friesland on Thursday, which is where plaintiffs
1:39
Speaker 1: have taken civil action against Bill Gates and others. So
1:43
Speaker 1: I'll have a particular update on that. But let's kick
1:47
Speaker 1: off with you, Charles, and this amazing statement by Rowley Walker,
1:54
Speaker 1: really about prepare for war.
1:59
Speaker 2: Thank you, Brian. And good afternoon, all. Yes, it has
2:02
Speaker 2: become unusual in recent years to hear senior serving officers
2:07
Speaker 2: speaking out. So it makes it all the more unusual
2:10
Speaker 2: when it's the head of the British Army himself, the
2:13
Speaker 2: Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Roly Walker. Now,
2:16
Speaker 2: he's been in post since the summer of 2024. And
2:21
Speaker 2: over the last couple of years, he has absolutely been
2:24
Speaker 2: determined to push a narrative that the British Army remains
2:27
Speaker 2: a potent fighting force despite a severe reduction in numbers
2:32
Speaker 2: and other capabilities, but also that he is determined to
2:37
Speaker 2: create what he calls increased lethality. Now, he was speaking,
2:42
Speaker 2: as Brian says, at Catterick Garrison to 700 soldiers last week,
2:47
Speaker 2: and this is what he said.
2:52
Speaker 3: You didn't know this. but our nation is going to
2:56
Speaker 3: need you. There was a time that our nation didn't
3:02
Speaker 3: want to think of a time when it would need
3:05
Speaker 3: its soldiers to fight in a war. Indeed, very soon,
3:11
Speaker 3: the political leaders of this country will start to have
3:16
Speaker 3: a frank conversation with the citizens of this country about
3:23
Speaker 3: just what is going on and where the risk lies,
3:29
Speaker 3: they're going to try and explain to our citizens that
3:33
Speaker 3: our citizens have got to consent to sacrifices to prioritise
3:40
Speaker 3: defence and security. And then they're going to ask those
3:47
Speaker 3: citizens for whom we are not necessarily at the front
3:52
Speaker 3: of their mind, that they too need to play a
3:57
Speaker 3: part in the defence and security of this country. So
4:01
Speaker 3: they need to understand what we do for them, they
4:04
Speaker 3: need to consent to allow us to do that, which
4:07
Speaker 3: means sacrifices by them, and ultimately we're going to need
4:12
Speaker 3: them to back us, to back you, to do the
4:17
Speaker 3: one thing that you do that nobody else gets to do,
4:22
Speaker 3: And that is to take the fight to the enemy.
4:29
Speaker 2: A speech that seems neither particularly tightly scripted nor very
4:34
Speaker 2: well rehearsed, but quite a lot does come out of it.
4:37
Speaker 2: And of course, the main point there seems to be
4:40
Speaker 2: one of sacrifice. But he does allude very strongly to
4:45
Speaker 2: the fact that he knows something that nobody else there does.
4:49
Speaker 2: And he's talking about this frank conversation that politicians are
4:52
Speaker 2: going to be having and with the citizens and all
4:54
Speaker 2: the rest of it. What I'd like to do is
4:55
Speaker 2: go back to Brian and to Mike and just give
4:59
Speaker 2: the audience your responses to what he says. I mean,
5:02
Speaker 2: where's he going with this?
5:05
Speaker 1: Well, my response to that, Charles, is he doesn't actually
5:09
Speaker 1: know where he's going with this because, of course, he
5:13
Speaker 1: will be completely fed the information that gives him his
5:17
Speaker 1: beliefs system. So he will get the briefings coming through
5:22
Speaker 1: the government, coming through the security services. He'll get all
5:26
Speaker 1: of the threat assessments and warnings. And he will absolutely
5:31
Speaker 1: believe everything he's being told by the United Kingdom's intelligence services.
5:37
Speaker 1: But I agree, there is something happened which has triggered
5:40
Speaker 1: him into going this step further and saying, I'm in
5:44
Speaker 1: the know and you chaps don't know what's coming. Now,
5:49
Speaker 1: what I am seeing at the moment is a real
5:53
Speaker 1: intent to ramp up war against Russia and And I
5:57
Speaker 1: think anybody at the moment who thinks that our politicians
6:01
Speaker 1: haven't got the intent of war in their minds, I
6:05
Speaker 1: think you're missing the point. So I think this man
6:08
Speaker 1: has got a belief structure and he's now unleashing that
6:13
Speaker 1: onto his troops. And he knows that something's coming. That's
6:17
Speaker 1: what I think.
6:18
Speaker 4: I mean, the question is, what is that event that's
6:20
Speaker 4: triggered this? And would it be beyond the realm's possibility
6:23
Speaker 4: that the penny has finally dropped, that Ukraine has lost? Well,
6:28
Speaker 4: there's no, in practical sense, Mike, that is absolutely true.
6:32
Speaker 4: And so what are they going to do? They're going
6:34
Speaker 4: to double down. They're moving, albeit small numbers of troops.
6:38
Speaker 4: A couple of thousand troops are now going further east again.
6:41
Speaker 4: And there's talk about putting troops on the ground in
6:45
Speaker 4: Ukraine if there's some form of ceasefire. But I think
6:49
Speaker 4: that this is immensely dangerous.
6:55
Speaker 2: I think dangerous is exactly the right word, especially since
6:58
Speaker 2: he doesn't seem to have got the memo about peace
7:02
Speaker 2: through strength. Because, of course, what he's finishing up by
7:04
Speaker 2: saying is that you have the privilege of closing with
7:07
Speaker 2: and fighting against the enemy. Now, this has come in
7:11
Speaker 2: terms of his commitment and the speech about sacrifice. This
7:14
Speaker 2: is straight out of the pages of the Strategic Defence
7:17
Speaker 2: Review 2025, which will just pop on screen now, because
7:20
Speaker 2: within that there is a chapter entitled Home Defence and Resilience,
7:24
Speaker 2: a whole of society approach. and it's to this that
7:27
Speaker 2: he speaks. Whole-of-society approach, widening participation in national resilience and
7:34
Speaker 2: renewing the nation's contract with those who serve. And this
7:38
Speaker 2: is exactly what he's plucked from in order to effectively
7:42
Speaker 2: reinforce his narrative. Now, if you're watching Friday's news programme...
7:45
Speaker 2: You would have seen Patrick Henningsen play a clip of
7:48
Speaker 2: Mark Reuter. Now, just to prove that Reuter was not,
7:51
Speaker 2: in effect, caught on the hop, this is a separate
7:54
Speaker 2: moment of him talking about the threat as he perceives
7:57
Speaker 2: it that NATO faces from Russia. And this is published
8:00
Speaker 2: by NATO itself.
8:03
Speaker 5: Should we just take away from this conversation that regardless
8:06
Speaker 5: of the letters, the trip of a CIA top officer
8:10
Speaker 5: or not, Nothing has changed. And even if Russia was
8:13
Speaker 5: planning to do something, you are prepared for it. And
8:16
Speaker 5: this is NATO territory. We'll be protected.
8:18
Speaker 6: There is no imminent threat to NATO territory. If there
8:22
Speaker 6: is a buildup, we will see it and we will
8:24
Speaker 6: deal with it. If anything happens otherwise, we will also
8:28
Speaker 6: deal with it because we have prepared and trained for this.
8:30
Speaker 6: We have a single command structure. We have 32 allies
8:33
Speaker 6: working together. We have a fantastic supreme elite commander in
8:37
Speaker 6: Alexis Krinkovich, the American general. So we are in perfect shape,
8:42
Speaker 6: both when it comes to the hybrid and when it
8:44
Speaker 6: comes to whatever might happen more.
8:49
Speaker 2: I'm not suggesting that necessarily Ruta either knows what he's
8:52
Speaker 2: talking about or is playing with a straight bat. But
8:54
Speaker 2: the point is, there's clearly an enormous gulf between what
8:57
Speaker 2: Walker is seeing on the horizon and what Ruta says
9:01
Speaker 2: is confronting NATO in the immediate term. Now, one thing
9:05
Speaker 2: I think that is absolutely worth pointing to is that
9:07
Speaker 2: the so-called defence dividend that was promised by the Strategic
9:10
Speaker 2: Defence Review has not really paid off. And I'm just
9:13
Speaker 2: going to take you through some of the stocks that
9:15
Speaker 2: of the major defence industry companies, just to see this
9:19
Speaker 2: is the last year's worth of performance. And you'll see
9:21
Speaker 2: that this is BAE Systems, effectively with a downward trajectory
9:24
Speaker 2: over the last three to four months. Rheinmetall, exactly the
9:29
Speaker 2: same sort of trend downwards in the last few months. Babcock,
9:33
Speaker 2: exactly the same from a high back in January earlier
9:36
Speaker 2: this year. Raphael with a spike back in the summer,
9:40
Speaker 2: but otherwise falling away of their Share price, Thales, again,
9:44
Speaker 2: a spike earlier in the summer, but otherwise falling away.
9:47
Speaker 2: And sorry, my apologies. So I think that's, again, something
9:53
Speaker 2: that absolutely has to be considered because, of course, as
9:57
Speaker 2: a whole index, this has been on the increase fast.
10:00
Speaker 2: very steadily since 2022 when the Russia-Ukraine conflict started and
10:05
Speaker 2: the promise that there would be some kind of activity
10:08
Speaker 2: concerning Russia, whether it actually meant boots on the ground
10:12
Speaker 2: or not. But that investment does not seem to come.
10:15
Speaker 2: And I think the question to be asked is, are
10:16
Speaker 2: Walker's remarks in any way related to that incredible corporate
10:22
Speaker 2: pressure that must be building up?
10:25
Speaker 1: Thank you for that, Charles. The other thing I'll add
10:27
Speaker 1: in that very quickly, of course, is there's a big
10:29
Speaker 1: difference between information circulating inside NATO and information exchanges between
10:36
Speaker 1: the UK and the US. And that subject is probably
10:39
Speaker 1: a good segue into coming back to our old friend,
10:43
Speaker 1: Rhys Mogg. Now, a little while ago, he was also
10:46
Speaker 1: preaching that people should be dying on the battlefield for
10:50
Speaker 1: our present selection of politicians. And he's also been given
10:56
Speaker 1: a sort of a talk about politics and history over
11:00
Speaker 1: the last couple of days. I've just got to short section,
11:03
Speaker 1: but let's listen to what this learned man had to say.
11:06
Speaker 7: Donald Trump is wrong about Ukraine, wrong about Putin, and
11:15
Speaker 7: wrong about the threat from Russia. I say this as
11:18
Speaker 7: somebody who would have supported him in all of the
11:21
Speaker 7: elections of 2016, 2020, and 2024. I think he has
11:25
Speaker 7: gotten many things right. He's been a very important figure
11:29
Speaker 7: in restoring American economic strength. I support what he's done
11:35
Speaker 7: to move away from the green mania, to allow the
11:38
Speaker 7: American economy to flourish on cheaper fuel until he went
11:43
Speaker 7: to war in Iran, to cut taxes, to boost the
11:47
Speaker 7: incentives to work in the United States, and to deal with,
11:51
Speaker 7: as he promised to do, the illegal immigration problem. All
11:55
Speaker 7: of that he has done well, and he usually projects
11:59
Speaker 7: strength on the world stage. which is in the interests
12:03
Speaker 7: of the many shared values that there are between the
12:06
Speaker 7: United Kingdom and the United States. As it happens, I
12:10
Speaker 7: was not in favour of the war in Iran, but
12:13
Speaker 7: once it had started, I thought it was in Britain's
12:16
Speaker 7: interest to support the United States. I think Keir Starmer
12:19
Speaker 7: made a mistake in holding back because America needs allies,
12:24
Speaker 7: and even when America makes a mistake, it is usually
12:28
Speaker 7: in the British national interest to support America rather than
12:32
Speaker 7: to go cold and to be indirectly sympathetic to America's enemies.
12:38
Speaker 7: But when it comes to Russia and to Putin and Ukraine,
12:42
Speaker 7: I think the president is making a mistake that fails
12:45
Speaker 7: to learn the lessons of history and makes this country
12:49
Speaker 7: and the West less safe. In 1939, Hitler made the
12:55
Speaker 7: same mistake. He assumed that the allies who had been
12:59
Speaker 7: happy for him to carve up Czechoslovakia wouldn't really mind
13:03
Speaker 7: about Poland. He thought he could keep on taking little bites,
13:07
Speaker 7: and if he took little bites, the other powers would
13:10
Speaker 7: not care. Of course, during the Iran-Iraq war, the West
13:14
Speaker 7: had been quite happy for both sides to fight each other.
13:17
Speaker 7: It hadn't been our concern. We hadn't really objected to
13:21
Speaker 7: what they were doing, and indeed, one way or another,
13:24
Speaker 7: we'd managed to supply arms, at least to the Iraqis.
13:28
Speaker 7: War often happens because the aggressor It underestimates the determination
13:35
Speaker 7: of the UK, the US, other countries to do something
13:39
Speaker 7: about it.
13:42
Speaker 1: So, Charles, I'm going to come back to you on
13:45
Speaker 1: this one, if I may. So Trump's done a great job.
13:48
Speaker 1: America's economy is flourishing. Everything's OK on there. The Americans
13:55
Speaker 1: have been making mistakes, but if they do, it's not
13:58
Speaker 1: a problem. We should continue to back them. And unfortunately,
14:02
Speaker 1: these wars keep popping up in the world, but it's
14:05
Speaker 1: always a result of the bad guys. This man, immensely
14:09
Speaker 1: dangerous in his power and his views, I believe. But
14:14
Speaker 1: what's your thoughts from that clip?
14:19
Speaker 2: Well, as ever, fascinating to listen to him, not so
14:22
Speaker 2: much because of what he says, but it's the position
14:26
Speaker 2: from which he says it, which is as though these
14:30
Speaker 2: are immutable facts and that we should all be paying
14:34
Speaker 2: absolutely the most attention that we can possibly pay to it.
14:37
Speaker 2: But I think it also betrays a complete misunderstanding of
14:41
Speaker 2: certainly the way in which the Americans approach anything, which
14:44
Speaker 2: is that it is America first and that any military
14:47
Speaker 2: action or engagement is absolutely only ever taken in the
14:51
Speaker 2: interests of America. So sort of hanging off Trump's coattails is,
14:55
Speaker 2: I would say, naive at best. But again, it's this
15:00
Speaker 2: complete detachment from reality as though this is just stuff
15:04
Speaker 2: that happens to other people. And I think that's the
15:06
Speaker 2: bit that will grate and that will jar with people
15:08
Speaker 2: who listen into it, because he is in effect, and
15:12
Speaker 2: we've seen this in the Tucker Carlson interview, we've seen
15:13
Speaker 2: it multiple instances now, he is offering up the youth
15:18
Speaker 2: of his own country into the jaws of these wars
15:21
Speaker 2: that he thinks are actually not such a bad idea
15:24
Speaker 2: after all. And that's going to be very difficult for
15:26
Speaker 2: people to swallow.
15:29
Speaker 1: Thank you for that, Charles. Well, I'm going to follow
15:31
Speaker 1: that clip, the brief clip of Deepti, one of the
15:35
Speaker 1: analysts from UNIT. And in this clip, Deepti is talking
15:39
Speaker 1: about the use of of Ukrainian nationals to unleash trouble,
15:45
Speaker 1: particularly against India. But she then goes on to talk
15:49
Speaker 1: about the breakup of Russia. Let's have a listen.
15:54
Speaker 8: So the presentation is called the United States and British-backed
15:58
Speaker 8: terrorism in India, an emboldening national security threat to India.
16:03
Speaker 8: And the presentation brings to light an incident that happened
16:09
Speaker 8: in March of 2026, which is earlier this year, where
16:14
Speaker 8: six Ukrainian nationals and one American national were intercepted and
16:18
Speaker 8: arrested in India at various airports, not just one, but
16:26
Speaker 8: two or three airports, and they were arrested on terrorism charges.
16:31
Speaker 8: This slide is very important because it actually shows you
16:34
Speaker 8: the different unions that would be present in Russian Federation
16:39
Speaker 8: upon its breakup. So it's a very well thought of
16:43
Speaker 8: organisation and it has the backing of Britain entirely through
16:48
Speaker 8: the FCDO, Chatham House and other organisations within US and
16:52
Speaker 8: United Kingdom.
16:55
Speaker 1: So a lot more to it than Rees-Mogg would have.
16:58
Speaker 1: The UK working with the US and others for the
17:01
Speaker 1: breakup of Russia. No wonder that there is pushback from
17:04
Speaker 1: the Russians, but more on that in extra time. Now
17:07
Speaker 1: let's come back to Rees-Mogg and his organization, 878, which
17:12
Speaker 1: was mentioned on the UK column news a few days ago.
17:15
Speaker 1: This is from the website itself. It says its mission
17:19
Speaker 1: is a leading British and American think tank dedicated to
17:24
Speaker 1: strengthening the civilizational partnership between the United Kingdom and the
17:29
Speaker 1: United States. Well, this is all very interesting. The focus
17:33
Speaker 1: area though, it says we're going to focus on existential
17:36
Speaker 1: threats to Britain, to America, and to our shared Judeo-Christian civilization.
17:42
Speaker 1: This is a very, very important subject. And in the
17:46
Speaker 1: major sections on the website, we've got culture, restoring our
17:50
Speaker 1: Judeo-Christian culture and constitution. We've got borders and ending mass migration.
17:57
Speaker 1: We've got war fighting, rebuilding our armed forces and national
18:02
Speaker 1: capability and energy rejuvenating, energy abundance for urban, sorry, for
18:10
Speaker 1: urgent re-industrialization. Now, the key point here is this use
18:16
Speaker 1: of the shared Judeo-Christian civilization. Now, it doesn't take much
18:21
Speaker 1: work to actually be able to read a number of
18:24
Speaker 1: quotes from the Jewish community. If we put this one
18:27
Speaker 1: on the screen, we've got, we consider the two religions
18:31
Speaker 1: so different that one excludes the other. There is no
18:34
Speaker 1: such thing as a Judeo-Christian religion. And that's from Rabbi
18:38
Speaker 1: Moshe M. Magal, president of the National Jewish Information Service.
18:44
Speaker 1: Judaism is Judaism because it rejects Christianity and Christianity itself.
18:50
Speaker 1: is Christianity because it rejects Judaism. That's from another rabbi,
18:54
Speaker 1: but there are many other quotes where, particularly from the
19:00
Speaker 1: position of Judaism, Christianity is absolutely rejected. And the overall
19:07
Speaker 1: statement from many of the outspoken rabbis is that there's
19:10
Speaker 1: no such thing as a Judeo-Christian religion. This makes the
19:15
Speaker 1: emphasis of Rees-Mogg's organization very interesting. But this other quote,
19:20
Speaker 1: if we just pop this on screen, and this is
19:24
Speaker 1: from the New York magazine back in 1971 or 1972.
19:30
Speaker 1: It's not quite clear when the quote came out, but
19:33
Speaker 1: the quote does exist. And this is from Rabbi Martin Segal.
19:37
Speaker 1: And he said this, he's devoting his lecture in this
19:40
Speaker 1: seminar to a discussion of the possibility we're entering a
19:44
Speaker 1: Jewish century. a time when the spirit of the community,
19:48
Speaker 1: the non-ideological blend of the emotional and rational and the
19:52
Speaker 1: resistance categories and forms will emerge through the forces of
19:56
Speaker 1: anti-nationalism to provide us with a new kind of society.
20:02
Speaker 1: I'll just say that that's an example. That's not the
20:04
Speaker 1: actual front cover of the magazine in which he spoke.
20:08
Speaker 1: But he went on to say, I call this process
20:11
Speaker 1: the Judaization of Christianity because Christianity will be the vehicle
20:17
Speaker 1: through which this society becomes Jewish. Now, I'm not sure
20:21
Speaker 1: whether he was giving a warning or he was advocating
20:24
Speaker 1: that this was a good thing, Christianity to be swept
20:28
Speaker 1: aside for Judaization of the society. And he's talking about
20:35
Speaker 1: the U.S., But I'm just going to add on to
20:38
Speaker 1: that that recently the Israeli minister for diaspora affairs had
20:43
Speaker 1: this to say about what was happening in France. He
20:47
Speaker 1: was convinced that the right coming to power in France
20:50
Speaker 1: would trigger a civil war. It turns out I was
20:53
Speaker 1: being optimistic. It's already begun. I wish France victory over
20:58
Speaker 1: barbarism despite its betrayal of Israel. Belgium and Britain, you
21:02
Speaker 1: are probably next. Get ready. And I'm just going to
21:06
Speaker 1: add in here, it was this man that invited Tommy
21:08
Speaker 1: Robinson to Israel. I'm going to ask the question, what
21:12
Speaker 1: was that visit for? A briefing as to what Tommy
21:16
Speaker 1: Robinson should be doing as a right-wing activist in the UK.
21:22
Speaker 1: And I'm also going to pop this one on screen
21:24
Speaker 1: because many, many people sent it to me over the weekend.
21:28
Speaker 1: But it's a talk by Alex Watts. Now, I have
21:31
Speaker 1: not heard the full talk, so I'm just going to
21:34
Speaker 1: say I was encouraged to hear this man saying that
21:39
Speaker 1: as it's clear that tensions are ramped up in UK,
21:43
Speaker 1: we have to be very, very careful as who is
21:46
Speaker 1: behind any outspoken behaviour. And it's ultimately up to communities
21:52
Speaker 1: of whatever kind to stay calm and look through the manipulation.
21:58
Speaker 1: And I thought that was an encouraging note. But as
22:01
Speaker 1: I say, I haven't heard the full report yet. a
22:04
Speaker 1: lot happening behind the scenes, Mike.
22:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, so let's move on to France then, because the
22:09
Speaker 4: French president, Macron, has promised that those behind Saturday's rioting
22:13
Speaker 4: and looting will be held to account. This was in
22:16
Speaker 4: the televised address that he gave yesterday evening. He said
22:19
Speaker 4: he's going to hold them to account. He'll have to
22:21
Speaker 4: begin with, sorry, well, if he's going to hold them
22:23
Speaker 4: to account, he's going to have to begin with the police,
22:25
Speaker 4: as we'll see in a minute. But he was speaking
22:27
Speaker 4: after chairing the French equivalent of Cobra meeting at the
22:30
Speaker 4: Elysee Palace. Macron expressed anger and shame at the scenes.
22:34
Speaker 4: He said that nothing could justify the unbridled violence. Those
22:39
Speaker 4: who destroy must pay, he said, adding that those who
22:43
Speaker 4: had sought to bring down the Republic would face justice.
22:46
Speaker 4: And again, he said these things with no implication of irony,
22:48
Speaker 4: because bearing in mind the sheer brutality of the French
22:52
Speaker 4: police during the course of the demonstration so far, he
22:55
Speaker 4: drew a line between the hundreds of thousands who had
22:57
Speaker 4: marched peacefully with legitimate demands and those who smashed windows
23:02
Speaker 4: and looted buildings. and he played stronger security response and,
23:07
Speaker 4: get this, full transparency over police conduct. But he stopped
23:12
Speaker 4: short of declaring a state of emergency or imposing any
23:16
Speaker 4: kind of curfews. Now, the demonstrations on Saturday were, of course,
23:22
Speaker 4: as everybody knows, against the rising cost of living, but
23:24
Speaker 4: also the poor conditions in schools. And up until now,
23:28
Speaker 4: this has been bringing together students, teachers, trade unionists, farmers
23:33
Speaker 4: and former yellow vests. And this is following weeks of
23:37
Speaker 4: this kind of protest, although the violence is something new
23:41
Speaker 4: on Saturday. So on Saturday, the official number was 550,000
23:45
Speaker 4: people out on the streets. The organizers claimed 800,000. And, well,
23:51
Speaker 4: people will have seen the coverage of, for example, the
23:54
Speaker 4: destruction of Limoges' 19th century town hall, which was gutted
23:58
Speaker 4: by fire. Lyon's tourist office set on fire, shops looted,
24:03
Speaker 4: as we said. The Interior Ministry said 2,400 people just
24:07
Speaker 4: about had been arrested and almost 1,000 police officers and
24:12
Speaker 4: gendarmes injured, seven seriously. Well, Macron may have paid lip
24:16
Speaker 4: service to full transparency over police conduct, but the Interior
24:21
Speaker 4: Ministry didn't express any regret. For example, a student who'd
24:25
Speaker 4: had his hand blown off by a plastic bullet a
24:27
Speaker 4: few days ago or the student who had his jaw
24:30
Speaker 4: broken and lost all his teeth when the police fired
24:32
Speaker 4: a stun grenade at his face. None of that is said,
24:38
Speaker 4: I don't say any of that, sorry to say, to
24:39
Speaker 4: justify the violence at all. But the question is, who
24:42
Speaker 4: was behind it? And the first question is, could it
24:45
Speaker 4: have been the masked paramilitaries that we see on here,
24:48
Speaker 4: clearly working in collaboration with the police? And there's just
24:51
Speaker 4: one example of these types of videos circulating. And we
24:55
Speaker 4: saw some of this during the yellow vests situation as well.
25:00
Speaker 4: The majority of demonstrators, the real demonstrators, that is, were
25:04
Speaker 4: there to protest peacefully, perhaps with a sense of French humor,
25:09
Speaker 4: dark French humor, here, for example. I mean, it's for
25:14
Speaker 4: those that are listening. It's a clear message. Well, it is, yeah. But,
25:18
Speaker 4: you know, anyway, aside from that, there were people there
25:24
Speaker 4: attempting to bring a bit of culture to the event.
25:28
Speaker 4: including an ensemble orchestra. So let's just have a quick
25:32
Speaker 4: listen to part of their rehearsal.. Now, the ensemble was
25:54
Speaker 4: led by Etienne Gerrier, and it was set up at
25:57
Speaker 4: the foot of the statue in a particular square. I
26:01
Speaker 4: can't remember which one. Officer told me I had to
26:03
Speaker 4: do apologize. But anyway, they had to leave quickly after
26:06
Speaker 4: being targeted by the police. There were more than 400
26:08
Speaker 4: musicians had come to play peacefully. And well, Etienne Connier,
26:14
Speaker 4: the orchestra's press officer, said in an interview that in
26:17
Speaker 4: five years, this is the first time we've been gassed
26:20
Speaker 4: at a demonstration. So he said that they arrived at 11.30
26:23
Speaker 4: for the rehearsal. Everything was calm. The police had been
26:25
Speaker 4: informed and the concert declared. And the first tear gas
26:30
Speaker 4: came at around midday. Le Monde reported that it was
26:32
Speaker 4: about 12.20 that the CRS fired tear gas and stun
26:36
Speaker 4: grenades at the orchestra, which kept playing for around 20
26:40
Speaker 4: minutes before they eventually had to disperse. Lou Manatee adds
26:45
Speaker 4: that one of Le Mans' own journalists was playing with
26:48
Speaker 4: the orchestra and gave a first-hand account of the musicians
26:51
Speaker 4: being gassed while rehearsing. And then we have this. Sorry, William,
27:00
Speaker 4: it's this. If you bring that on screen, yeah. So
27:02
Speaker 4: the Save Europe Act, this was launched on the 31st
27:05
Speaker 4: of May this year by a Dutch woman and an
27:08
Speaker 4: Austrian man, and it calls for a temporary moratorium on
27:13
Speaker 4: new non-Western immigration channels, including study and family reunification visas
27:19
Speaker 4: and so on. This is attaching itself now to the
27:23
Speaker 4: protests as well. So more and more organizations attaching themselves
27:27
Speaker 4: to the demonstrations. But of course, we've had this clearly
27:32
Speaker 4: deliberate incitement by the police over an extended period of time.
27:38
Speaker 4: And I don't believe for one second that Macron is
27:41
Speaker 4: going to do anything to provide any transparency on police behavior,
27:44
Speaker 4: particularly not those mass paramilitary types that were clearly working
27:48
Speaker 4: with the police.
27:49
Speaker 1: Well, Mike, if the French police have traditionally been bad,
27:53
Speaker 1: you've also got the situation of Israel training police forces
27:57
Speaker 1: in Western Europe at the same time as their ministers
28:01
Speaker 1: can report of standby for more trouble. It's very interesting.
28:06
Speaker 4: Okay, now, if you like what the UK column does,
28:08
Speaker 4: we do need your ongoing support. If you could have
28:11
Speaker 4: a look at the website, you'll find out how you
28:13
Speaker 4: can support us. You can make a donation, join us
28:16
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28:20
Speaker 4: lifetime basis. But if you can't contribute financially, we do
28:24
Speaker 4: absolutely appreciate it if you could share our material, this program,
28:28
Speaker 4: anything else you see on the UK column website. Don't
28:31
Speaker 4: forget The Column, our quarterly magazine, and annual subscriptions are
28:35
Speaker 4: available for that now. And that's £ 65 a year, covers
28:38
Speaker 4: four issues plus including the postage. So if you pick
28:42
Speaker 4: one of those up, that would be fantastic as well. Charles,
28:46
Speaker 4: very quickly, Military Matters going out tomorrow at 1 p.m.
28:51
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely. We're marching on apace. And this was to
28:54
Speaker 2: deal with the question Brian asked at the end of
28:56
Speaker 2: episode 10, which was, what is this war designed to do,
28:59
Speaker 2: specifically Russia-Ukraine? And we've got a clip from it, citing
29:03
Speaker 2: an article by General Zeluzhny, the former commander of Ukrainian forces.
29:09
Speaker 1: So he's going to be writing highly politically correct articles,
29:16
Speaker 1: even though, you know, within them, there's going to be
29:19
Speaker 1: statements of interest.
29:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean, one of which I will just
29:22
Speaker 2: read this little bit because it follows on from the
29:26
Speaker 2: nuclear war bit. He talks about, again, it's an interesting sentence,
29:32
Speaker 2: a war that ultimately became a theatre of sympathy for
29:34
Speaker 2: the daily killing of an entire nation choking on its
29:38
Speaker 2: own corruption. i mean it's quite strong stuff uh but
29:42
Speaker 2: then then it goes on um and above all this
29:45
Speaker 2: is a war that has surrendered itself to marketers and
29:48
Speaker 2: wheeler dealers people who driven by a lack of understanding
29:52
Speaker 2: and strategy strategy merely stoke the flames of this in
29:56
Speaker 2: pursuit of quick profits, all while increasingly flaunting the rapid
30:01
Speaker 2: pace of technological progress. Right, sorry, we got that cut
30:10
Speaker 2: short a little bit. But anyway, that goes out tomorrow.
30:11
Speaker 2: And there's obviously lots more concerning exactly what it is
30:14
Speaker 2: that the comments of Rowley Walker actually pertain to.
30:19
Speaker 1: Okay, Charles, thank you very much. Now, I'm going to
30:22
Speaker 1: move on to the fact that Thursday this week in Leeuwarden, Friesland,
30:27
Speaker 1: the Netherlands, we have an extremely important civil litigation court case.
30:32
Speaker 1: This is when a number of individuals are taking Bill Gates,
30:37
Speaker 1: the Netherlands state former Prime Minister Rutte, and at least
30:43
Speaker 1: 14 others, taking them to court for damage and that
30:51
Speaker 1: was meted out under the COVID-19 vaccination and lockdown programme. Now,
30:56
Speaker 1: this is an extremely important court case, even though it
31:00
Speaker 1: is civil litigation. Nobody's going to go to prison at
31:04
Speaker 1: this stage, at least. But nevertheless, people have stood up
31:08
Speaker 1: to challenge those who they believe have done wrong during
31:12
Speaker 1: the COVID-19 period. And they've been backed by an extremely
31:16
Speaker 1: important lawyer, Peter Stassen. who stayed with this case and
31:23
Speaker 1: literally helped push it through the courts. Now, I'm delighted
31:27
Speaker 1: to say that I've been invited to attend this hearing.
31:30
Speaker 1: I'm going to be traveling over to the Netherlands in
31:33
Speaker 1: the next couple of days. I'll be meeting up with
31:36
Speaker 1: the core team around Peter Stassen. We'll be able to
31:42
Speaker 1: report on what actually takes place on the day. And
31:45
Speaker 1: I'm very, very privileged to have been asked to conduct
31:50
Speaker 1: a short interview with Peter Stassen himself. So we're going
31:54
Speaker 1: to be able to give our audience a really in-depth
31:57
Speaker 1: look at what takes place at this hearing. And I
32:00
Speaker 1: just want to stress to the audience that even though
32:03
Speaker 1: it's a civil litigation, this is the thin end of
32:06
Speaker 1: the wedge where if enough people and enough pressure comes
32:10
Speaker 1: behind it, this can lead to the stones being lifted
32:16
Speaker 1: over the real damage that was unleashed on the population
32:20
Speaker 1: of the world during COVID-19. And just to stress how
32:25
Speaker 1: serious it's being taken by Peter Stassen and his legal team,
32:31
Speaker 1: they are saying that expert witness statements indicate clearly that
32:37
Speaker 1: the COVID-19 operation as a reset itself meant that what
32:44
Speaker 1: took place was indistinguishable from the use of bioweapons. And
32:49
Speaker 1: that basically the defendants have all stuck to a false
32:54
Speaker 1: narrative that they were there helping society when all the
32:58
Speaker 1: evidence pointed to the fact that actually a huge number
33:03
Speaker 1: of people were being damaged as a result of the vaccinations.
33:07
Speaker 1: So the trial on the 22nd, it's from 1230 to 1730.
33:13
Speaker 1: Witnesses have not been allowed to speak in court, but
33:17
Speaker 1: a couple of days ago it was announced that their
33:19
Speaker 1: video testimony would be accepted. So very important court case.
33:25
Speaker 1: And strangely, at the same time that this becomes of
33:29
Speaker 1: higher priority and higher visibility in the media, Reiner Formick
33:36
Speaker 1: was suddenly upped and moved to another prison. He was
33:39
Speaker 1: taken out of Bremerforda Prison. and has gone to JVA
33:44
Speaker 1: Lingen in the Netherlands. He's gone into a very poor
33:49
Speaker 1: cell with just one window in the ceiling. It's moldy,
33:54
Speaker 1: and he seems to be back under immense pressure. Previously,
33:58
Speaker 1: he was being given quite a lot of contact with
34:02
Speaker 1: supporters in his legal team, and many people are saying,
34:05
Speaker 1: is the clamp down on rhiniformic? at this key time
34:10
Speaker 1: of the hearing coming to fruition, is this a coincidence
34:15
Speaker 1: or is this the state determined to make sure that
34:18
Speaker 1: the expert testimony of his work is kept under wraps?
34:25
Speaker 1: So I'm just going to remind people the hearing on
34:27
Speaker 1: the 22nd, that's the lawyer himself, There are a number
34:32
Speaker 1: of websites you can go to for information, and we'll
34:34
Speaker 1: make sure those are all in the show notes. COVID
34:38
Speaker 1: leaks is one of the key ones, but as I say,
34:41
Speaker 1: there are others. And lastly, just to give you a
34:43
Speaker 1: reminder that during the COVID-19 period, UK column, well, my
34:49
Speaker 1: cure at the heart of this, produced an absolutely unique
34:52
Speaker 1: database on the damage that the vaccines unleashed on the public. So,
34:59
Speaker 1: more reports on that shortly.
35:02
Speaker 4: Charles uh bring us up to date with sam bailey i.
35:07
Speaker 2: Will absolutely and it follows very closely of course uh
35:10
Speaker 2: i hope you will have seen the interview that i
35:12
Speaker 2: recorded with her which went out on thursday last week
35:15
Speaker 2: fighting the tyrants we just look at that on screen
35:17
Speaker 2: now now that's an update on her situation which was
35:20
Speaker 2: that she was attempting to raise the sum of 250,000
35:25
Speaker 2: New Zealand dollars, which is what she'd been fined by
35:28
Speaker 2: the Medical Council of New Zealand. I'm very pleased to
35:30
Speaker 2: say that following the broadcast this time, no, sorry, on
35:34
Speaker 2: Wednesday last week, that target has been hit, in fact,
35:37
Speaker 2: in under a week, which I think sends a very
35:40
Speaker 2: strong message. And now, of course, what she would like
35:42
Speaker 2: to do is to take the fight to the Medical
35:45
Speaker 2: Council of New Zealand. So if you have supported her financially,
35:48
Speaker 2: please go a step further and make sure that you
35:52
Speaker 2: are able to communicate to the Medical Council and give
35:54
Speaker 2: your thoughts on the matter, because, of course, this is
35:56
Speaker 2: going to be the next step for her. If you
35:57
Speaker 2: need further background on this, then do look at the
35:59
Speaker 2: interview I recorded with her last year facing the tyrants.
36:03
Speaker 2: And that is where we are with that case. But
36:05
Speaker 2: I think very encouraging and a lot more effort to
36:07
Speaker 2: be put into it.
36:10
Speaker 1: Super.
36:10
Speaker 4: Thank you, Charles. Let's sadly come back onto the topic
36:14
Speaker 4: of war, because following on from our reporting of the
36:18
Speaker 4: UK-German military integration situation, new treaty that we were talking
36:22
Speaker 4: about last week. War industrialized, industrial collaboration and new technology
36:27
Speaker 4: was the order of the day at the end of
36:29
Speaker 4: last week. As the Minister of Defense, Readiness and Industry,
36:33
Speaker 4: Luke Pollard, hosted his German counterpart at Lancaster House in London.
36:38
Speaker 4: For those that don't remember, Lancaster House is where the
36:40
Speaker 4: 50-year war pact between Britain and France was done in 2010,
36:44
Speaker 4: of course, which began the process of creating the E3,
36:48
Speaker 4: which will form the core of European Defense Union. Discussions
36:51
Speaker 4: at this meeting, they say, built on the Trinity House
36:54
Speaker 4: Agreement that we were talking about last week. Among the
36:57
Speaker 4: flagship programs on the agenda was Deep Precision Strike, a
37:00
Speaker 4: joint UK-German initiative to develop long-range strike capability, reflecting the
37:06
Speaker 4: shared ambition of both nations to address critical capability gaps
37:10
Speaker 4: and strengthen NATO's deterrence. I'll try to say that without...
37:14
Speaker 4: bursting out laughing, but anyway, they said this all forms
37:18
Speaker 4: part of a wider programme of UK-German engagement in the
37:21
Speaker 4: lead up to the EU-UK summit. The UK-Germany defence relationship
37:26
Speaker 4: continues to grow as both nations work towards a more
37:29
Speaker 4: resilient Euro-Atlantic security architecture underpinned by a modern, innovative and
37:33
Speaker 4: competitive defence industrial base at the heart of NATO's deterrence
37:37
Speaker 4: and readiness. Does that make you.
37:40
Speaker 1: No, it doesn't, Mike. It doesn't give me any sense
37:43
Speaker 1: of security at all. Okay.
37:45
Speaker 4: Well, anyway, NATO's Supreme Commander, US General Alexis Grinkovich, mentioned
37:52
Speaker 4: earlier on in the program, said in an interview with
37:54
Speaker 4: Der Spiegel, we must call things by their name. Sabotage, arson,
37:58
Speaker 4: or terror attacks are precise terms with clear answers. Now,
38:01
Speaker 4: he was complaining at the use of the term hybrid war.
38:05
Speaker 4: And again... It's amazing how these people are able to
38:07
Speaker 4: say this stuff with no sense of irony or hypocrisy.
38:11
Speaker 4: And I say that because the BBC has a feature
38:13
Speaker 4: article today entitled Inside the Shadowy World of Anti-Putin Sabotage
38:18
Speaker 4: from Within Russia, which highlights exactly these types of operations
38:22
Speaker 4: being run inside Russia. And to quote the BBC article,
38:25
Speaker 4: it says, two Russian men secretly working for Ukraine's intelligence
38:28
Speaker 4: services have given rare accounts of operations they claim to
38:31
Speaker 4: have been involved with. But as the Grey Zone has
38:33
Speaker 4: been highlighting for over a year now, Project Alchemy, for example,
38:38
Speaker 4: is a British-led operation which includes creating Gladio-style operations inside Russia.
38:43
Speaker 4: So these kinds of operations are not simply run by
38:46
Speaker 4: Ukrainian intelligence, as the BBC would like us to believe,
38:49
Speaker 4: and the hypocrisy of Grinkovich is off the charts. Any
38:53
Speaker 4: comment about that before we move on?
38:55
Speaker 1: Well, all I'd say is that BBC article was so
38:59
Speaker 1: disgusting and disgraceful, Mike, because It's all supposition. There was
39:04
Speaker 1: no real substance. It's like a sort of drama documentary.
39:08
Speaker 1: You don't know what's true and what the BBC's made up.
39:11
Speaker 8: Yes.
39:12
Speaker 4: Well, anyway, one of the targets of the so-called sabotage
39:15
Speaker 4: by Russians is Starlink. On screen is an attack on
39:19
Speaker 4: Starlink's infrastructure in Bulgaria. Starlink infrastructure is being systematically targeted, apparently,
39:24
Speaker 4: across Europe, just as U.S.-Ukraine relations supposedly deteriorate. and Ukraine
39:31
Speaker 4: faces restrictions on its satellite communications. So aside from the
39:36
Speaker 4: Bulgarian attack, reports say that there have been similar attacks
39:40
Speaker 4: in Poland in September, where a Starlink ground station was
39:44
Speaker 4: set on fire, also in Lithuania a week or two ago.
39:48
Speaker 4: another attempted arson attack on a Starlink facility, which they
39:53
Speaker 4: claim was thwarted. But the ongoing war of words between
39:57
Speaker 4: Ukraine and the U.S. now includes Starlink because Zelensky claims
40:00
Speaker 4: that the U.S. caused internet speeds via Starlink to be
40:04
Speaker 4: reduced in recent weeks. The U.S. says this was a
40:07
Speaker 4: technical issue. So let's just listen to what Marco Rubio
40:11
Speaker 4: had to say on the topic. On StarShield, what's going on?
40:15
Speaker 6: Because Elon Musk said it's up to the president Well.
40:18
Speaker 9: Star Shield or Star Link?
40:20
Speaker 4: Well, just both.
40:21
Speaker 9: Well, yeah, I know. It's confusing. So Star Link is
40:23
Speaker 9: a commercial product, okay? And so it's regulated and handled
40:29
Speaker 9: as a commercial product. Star Shield is a defense product,
40:32
Speaker 9: a military product. And as I said, I mean, that
40:35
Speaker 9: is something that we have a military, United States military uses.
40:40
Speaker 9: It's not at this moment available to Ukraine, and that's
40:43
Speaker 9: under conversation. It's under discussion right now about how they
40:45
Speaker 9: would want to use it.
40:46
Speaker 3: No, but did the U.S.
40:48
Speaker 9: Have anything to do with it not working in Ukraine
40:49
Speaker 9: at the moment? Zelensky said it was deliberate. Well, I
40:52
Speaker 9: don't know what Zelensky said. I'm not sure Zelensky knows
40:54
Speaker 9: what he's talking about, but it wasn't deliberate. We had
40:56
Speaker 9: nothing to do with it. The United States, nobody ordered
40:59
Speaker 9: that Starlink speed to be slowed down. It sort of happened.
41:03
Speaker 9: But my understanding is it's been restored. It's back to
41:05
Speaker 9: where it was before. That's Starlink, though. They were using
41:08
Speaker 9: Starlink for their drones.
41:09
Speaker 10: Has Starshield been restored?
41:12
Speaker 9: Starshield is a totally different product. Starshield is a contract
41:16
Speaker 9: with the U.S. military. It has nothing to do with Ukraine.
41:19
Speaker 9: I know Ukraine wants access to Starshield. They do not
41:22
Speaker 9: have Starshield now. They've asked for access to it in
41:25
Speaker 9: order to conduct deep strikes inside of Russia. They do
41:27
Speaker 9: not have access to it.
41:29
Speaker 4: And Charles, correct me if I'm wrong, but StarShield is
41:32
Speaker 4: basically using the same infrastructure as Starlink, but it has
41:35
Speaker 4: some extra functionality available, including targeting and so on. But
41:41
Speaker 4: we should make the point that this demonstrates that Starlink
41:45
Speaker 4: is effectively a defense product.
41:49
Speaker 2: It's exactly right.
41:50
Speaker 8: Yeah.
41:50
Speaker 2: I mean, it is to all intents and purposes exactly
41:52
Speaker 2: the same thing. And so he's splitting the hair there
41:55
Speaker 2: really as opposed to sort of who gets sent the
41:57
Speaker 2: bill at the end of the month. And really that's it.
41:59
Speaker 2: So the technology behind it, it's exactly the same. The
42:02
Speaker 2: launch capabilities, this constant push for the investigation of space,
42:07
Speaker 2: and it's all about science and benevolence, is absolutely there,
42:11
Speaker 2: undermined by everything that Rubio says.
42:13
Speaker 1: Yes.
42:14
Speaker 4: Thank you for that. Now, yesterday, of course, everybody will
42:17
Speaker 4: know by now, Ukraine launched drone strikes on Russia heading St. Petersburg.
42:22
Speaker 4: This is the BBC's coverage of it with the oil
42:24
Speaker 4: refinery in flames there in the photograph. But being widely reported,
42:30
Speaker 4: but not by the BBC, is that some drones flew
42:33
Speaker 4: via Poland and Lithuania. In fact, the fact that one
42:37
Speaker 4: crashed in northern Lithuania is probably the only reason this
42:40
Speaker 4: is known at all. In fact, Lithuanian Defense Minister Robertas
42:43
Speaker 4: Kanas said that the drone that came down preliminarily entered
42:50
Speaker 4: Lithuanian airspace from Poland. He said that Lithuanian radar tracked
42:56
Speaker 4: it flying north from Polish territory. Some are reporting this
43:01
Speaker 4: as NATO entering the war, but Brian, I think that
43:03
Speaker 4: horse is bolted.
43:04
Speaker 1: I think so. They're bigging up these attacks by Ukraine
43:10
Speaker 1: because overwhelmingly at the moment, Ukraine is starting to collapse
43:15
Speaker 1: economically and in a military sense. There's no question of this.
43:19
Speaker 1: And the Americans have just stopped giving them level intelligence data.
43:24
Speaker 1: So the BBC crowing about this attack because it doesn't
43:28
Speaker 1: represent very much.
43:30
Speaker 4: And finally, in this segment, a week or so ago,
43:33
Speaker 4: I was reporting on the incremental removal of neutrality in Switzerland,
43:37
Speaker 4: and I drew parallels with the same in Ireland. Well,
43:39
Speaker 4: Claire Daly has posted this on her ex yesterday talking
43:42
Speaker 4: about Ireland's triple lock. Now, this has nothing to do
43:44
Speaker 4: with pensions. The Irish triple lock is the legal rule
43:48
Speaker 4: governing when Ireland can send its defense forces abroad and
43:52
Speaker 4: any overseas mission involving more than 12 Irish defense forces
43:56
Speaker 4: personnel needs three approvals, a United Nations mandate, a government decision,
44:02
Speaker 4: and a vote in the parliament. So in practice, the
44:06
Speaker 4: UN mandate means authorization from the United Nations Security Council,
44:10
Speaker 4: and it was brought in after Irish voters rejected the
44:14
Speaker 4: first Nice Treaty in 2001. It was meant to reinforce
44:19
Speaker 4: Ireland's neutrality while the EU was expanding its defense capability,
44:25
Speaker 4: and it's been in place since 2002. But the Irish
44:27
Speaker 4: government is trying to abolish it through the Defense Amendment
44:29
Speaker 4: Bill 2026, which has now been approved by the Irish cabinet.
44:34
Speaker 4: It would remove the requirement for Security Council approval, so
44:37
Speaker 4: permanent members like Russia, China, and the US would no
44:40
Speaker 4: longer have an effective veto over Irish deployments. Under the bill,
44:44
Speaker 4: only government and the Dáil approval would be needed. And
44:48
Speaker 4: no Dáil vote would be required for missions of 50
44:52
Speaker 4: personnel or fewer. In those smaller cases, an annual report
44:56
Speaker 4: would go to the Dáil and to the upper chamber
44:59
Speaker 4: as well.
45:00
Speaker 1: They would be notified.
45:01
Speaker 4: So critics are calling this a double lock instead of
45:04
Speaker 4: a triple lock. But we're just seeing this gradual removal
45:08
Speaker 4: of neutrality in the traditionally neutral countries.
45:11
Speaker 1: Well, and this is the cementing of an EU military system,
45:15
Speaker 1: which of course is what the UK column has warned
45:18
Speaker 1: about for a great many years.
45:19
Speaker 6: Yes.
45:21
Speaker 1: Okay, well, let's move on to the subject of the King.
45:24
Speaker 1: And I'd just like to point out to the audience
45:26
Speaker 1: that although the King was very pleased to be there
45:29
Speaker 1: at the ceremonial opening of the Welsh Parliament, it didn't
45:33
Speaker 1: go quite as well as perhaps he'd anticipated, or indeed
45:38
Speaker 1: the Ministry of Defence that was... Of course, crowing this
45:41
Speaker 1: was a fantastic event. Let's have a look at a
45:44
Speaker 1: little piece of film footage which showed a rather different
45:49
Speaker 1: angle to the prestigious visit.
45:53
Speaker 9: Not my king!
45:54
Speaker 6: Not my king!
45:55
Speaker 9: Not my king!
46:06
Speaker 1: So there was no doubt that that was loud and
46:09
Speaker 1: actually heard by the man himself. But I also want
46:14
Speaker 1: to point out to the audience that the King is
46:16
Speaker 1: also on the bandwagon of trying to get as many
46:20
Speaker 1: young people as possible into the military-industrial complex. So presumably
46:26
Speaker 1: they can be groomed to be put on the battlefield
46:29
Speaker 1: to fight the wars that Rubio and the UK politicians,
46:35
Speaker 1: Andy Burnham, also want to make happen. So this is
46:41
Speaker 1: a Ministry of Defence X, but it's got a note
46:44
Speaker 1: here from Charles. Essentially, to every cadet, volunteer, family member,
46:50
Speaker 1: employer and supporter, I can only thank you for your
46:53
Speaker 1: example of duty and service. Your commitment is helping young
46:57
Speaker 1: people develop the skills, character and confidence they need to flourish.
47:02
Speaker 1: while making a valuable contribution to the future well-being of
47:09
Speaker 1: the United Kingdom.
47:10
Speaker 4: Of our United Kingdom.
47:11
Speaker 1: Well, of our. I own it all. And you're going
47:15
Speaker 1: to die for me whilst I am busy entertaining Zelensky
47:20
Speaker 1: as a frequent visitor to one of the palaces. And,
47:25
Speaker 1: of course, the King's discussions with Zelensky who even Rubio
47:29
Speaker 1: is now saying doesn't know what he's talking about, but
47:32
Speaker 1: no minutes of any of those meetings. So we pay
47:36
Speaker 1: for the royal family. They meet Zelensky, who many people
47:40
Speaker 1: believe is as corrupt as the rest of his team
47:44
Speaker 1: in this horrific war in Ukraine. And what is King
47:47
Speaker 1: Charles doing? I don't know. So when they're saying not
47:50
Speaker 1: my king, I think they're making a pretty good point.
47:53
Speaker 1: Just reinforce this fact that Andy Burnham is also on
47:57
Speaker 1: the case of young people. He says that youth employment
48:01
Speaker 1: and training crisis is a moral failure. Of course, what
48:05
Speaker 1: he's not going to say is we've had years and
48:07
Speaker 1: years and years of Labour government. So presumably they helped
48:11
Speaker 1: to foment that moral failure. But he is also ramping
48:16
Speaker 1: up the war in Ukraine and ultimately must be part
48:19
Speaker 1: of the politicians calling for our young people to die.
48:23
Speaker 1: on the battlefield in Ukraine. It's pretty obscene stuff. But
48:28
Speaker 1: I do want to just say to people, be very,
48:30
Speaker 1: very careful when you see protests. If we put this
48:33
Speaker 1: one back on screen, please, we need to be thinking,
48:37
Speaker 1: is this real or a constructed protest? Where has it
48:41
Speaker 1: actually come from? Great need at the moment to be
48:44
Speaker 1: very discerning about what's happening on the streets and what
48:48
Speaker 1: has actually caused it. So, um, Charles, if we mentioned
48:54
Speaker 1: the King, of course, the King is the predominant landowner
49:00
Speaker 1: in the country. But has he got the weather under control?
49:04
Speaker 1: Not quite yet, I don't think.
49:09
Speaker 2: I think that's still on the to-do list. And we're
49:12
Speaker 2: going to start with drought. I mean, there's been so
49:15
Speaker 2: much about global boiling and, of course, the climate emergency.
49:18
Speaker 2: It's hard to tell whether or not anyone is at
49:20
Speaker 2: crying wolf. But in actual fact, just today, DEFRA has
49:23
Speaker 2: published last week's response to the severe drought declared across
49:28
Speaker 2: much of the south of England. And we see here
49:30
Speaker 2: on screen a directive from the Secretary of State under
49:32
Speaker 2: Section 40, of the Environment Act. So they're stating that
49:36
Speaker 2: the purpose of the direction is to prioritize the protection
49:39
Speaker 2: of public water supply in the specified areas to mitigate
49:42
Speaker 2: the risk of disruption to essential public water supplies. What
49:46
Speaker 2: they mean by that is that they're going to try, apparently,
49:51
Speaker 2: to keep supplying water to people. Of course, what this
49:55
Speaker 2: does is it suggests, first of all, that businesses may
49:58
Speaker 2: lose out if it comes to it. But also, it
50:00
Speaker 2: does present the hypothetical, probably not, in fact, hypothetical question
50:04
Speaker 2: about the enlarged and increasing consumption that data centres are
50:09
Speaker 2: going to have. They're reckoned to consume about 1% of
50:11
Speaker 2: the water in the country at the minute. And of course,
50:15
Speaker 2: as this develops, how will that be prioritised against the
50:20
Speaker 2: requirement for humans? But of course, the point that there
50:23
Speaker 2: is absolutely no escaping made here by a new civil
50:26
Speaker 2: engineer is that a new potable water reservoir hasn't opened
50:29
Speaker 2: in the United Kingdom since 1992. I asked Debra about
50:34
Speaker 2: this back in August and I was told in incredibly
50:38
Speaker 2: euphemistic language, this government is securing water supplies for the
50:41
Speaker 2: future by investing record levels into our infrastructure, including into
50:46
Speaker 2: nine new reservoirs. Unfortunately, it turns out you can't drink investment.
50:51
Speaker 2: Work is already underway and we are also radically streamlining
50:54
Speaker 2: the planning process by automatically designating nationally significant status to
50:59
Speaker 2: projects essential for our national water resilience. So I think
51:04
Speaker 2: the thread I want to run through this report is
51:07
Speaker 2: about the government claiming one thing whilst actually doing another.
51:11
Speaker 2: And on that very theme, we're going to go to
51:14
Speaker 2: what Alastair Carmichael had to say in the House of
51:16
Speaker 2: Commons last year about the fishing arrangements between the UK
51:19
Speaker 2: and Norway.
51:20
Speaker 6: Alastair Carmichael. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.
51:25
Speaker 10: Might we have a debate in government time? on the
51:27
Speaker 10: various growing crises facing the UK fishing industries. I've learned today,
51:32
Speaker 10: Madam Deputy Speaker, that recently one Norwegian trawler, the Halfstrand,
51:38
Speaker 10: landed from one trip 787 tonnes of safe caught in
51:44
Speaker 10: the waters around Shetland. So that's one 70-metre freezer trawler
51:50
Speaker 10: landed from one trip an amount roughly equivalent to half
51:55
Speaker 10: of the quota that is available for all Shetland boats
51:59
Speaker 10: in one year. This is not a new problem. I've
52:02
Speaker 10: complained about the imbalance between UK and Norwegian boats for
52:06
Speaker 10: a long time now, but it demonstrates surely that if
52:10
Speaker 10: these problems are not going to be addressed, then they
52:13
Speaker 10: will be, and this has become urgent.
52:19
Speaker 2: So that might amount to half of what the Northern
52:23
Speaker 2: Isles were due, but that's 12% of overall fishing stocks
52:26
Speaker 2: that the UK was apparently... had access to over the
52:30
Speaker 2: course of the year. DEFRA again, in answer to my question,
52:33
Speaker 2: said consultations with Norway on the arrangements for 2027 are
52:36
Speaker 2: due to take place later this autumn, and we will
52:39
Speaker 2: continue to seek the best possible deal for UK fishers,
52:43
Speaker 2: as though that was the way in which the best
52:47
Speaker 2: possible deal pans out. Now, of course, the government is
52:50
Speaker 2: forever reminding the public that we are all so lucky
52:53
Speaker 2: that they're in charge of If we can just put
52:55
Speaker 2: that back on screen, please. Because energy security, jobs and
52:59
Speaker 2: investment boost through climate action. And we're going to continue
53:04
Speaker 2: to reap the benefits. Of course, what we're talking about
53:06
Speaker 2: here is the seventh carbon budget, which was announced back
53:10
Speaker 2: in June. And there's going to be a science-led target
53:15
Speaker 2: of a reduction of 87% emissions over the period 2038
53:19
Speaker 2: to 2042. And that's been endorsed by the Environmental Audit
53:23
Speaker 2: Committee and the Climate Change Committee. Climate Change Committee, of course,
53:26
Speaker 2: always noteworthy because it's talked about as though it's an
53:29
Speaker 2: arm's length body. And yet it is funded by government,
53:32
Speaker 2: reports back to government and keeps that particular cycle turning. Now,
53:38
Speaker 2: back to the fishermen, sorry, in a second, but it
53:40
Speaker 2: maximises the benefits of the clean energy, but also nature, apparently.
53:45
Speaker 2: And that's the bit that I want to come back to, because,
53:47
Speaker 2: of course, we've got the Scottish Fishermen's Federation saying they
53:51
Speaker 2: deserve full compensation for offshore wind impacts. So apparently, in
53:56
Speaker 2: our attempt to benefit the environment through the so-called energy transition,
54:02
Speaker 2: or indeed a just transition, the Scottish Fishermen's Federation have
54:06
Speaker 2: said that they should receive long-term compensation when offshore wind
54:10
Speaker 2: development restricts fishing grounds, damages fishing businesses and threatens our
54:15
Speaker 2: ability to make a living. Now, of course, this is
54:17
Speaker 2: a dangerous area because, as Julian Rose always points out,
54:21
Speaker 2: subsidy creates slaves. So it's very possible that if subsidy
54:24
Speaker 2: is actually provided to fishermen, then in effect, the problem
54:28
Speaker 2: is solved and it goes away and offshore projects are
54:32
Speaker 2: still built, still destroy the marine environment. And yet the
54:36
Speaker 2: UK's food production scenario is not improved because people simply
54:41
Speaker 2: stop fishing. But of course, you will not be surprised
54:43
Speaker 2: to learn that those building offshore wind projects do get compensated.
54:48
Speaker 2: So we're just going to have a and indeed how
54:52
Speaker 2: it is that they can persist. In order to avoid
54:56
Speaker 2: or to reduce environmental impacts, first step is to take
55:01
Speaker 2: action to prevent that from occurring or to reduce, to
55:05
Speaker 2: minimise or, believe it or not, mitigate. And this is
55:09
Speaker 2: to lessen the consequences of an impact that cannot be
55:12
Speaker 2: avoided or reduced. So simply not putting that wind turbine
55:15
Speaker 2: there is apparently something that is not to be considered,
55:19
Speaker 2: which does seem remarkably inconsistent. with what it is that
55:24
Speaker 2: the government has put out. But I should point out
55:27
Speaker 2: that this actually does go as far as what are
55:29
Speaker 2: described as marine irreplaceable habitats. So these are habitats that
55:34
Speaker 2: are described by the government as being particularly difficult to
55:38
Speaker 2: replace or replicate. But you can build a wind project there,
55:45
Speaker 2: even if it's going to destroy part of the UK's
55:47
Speaker 2: fishing economy. That is where we are with government policy
55:51
Speaker 2: that is supposed to in the words of the seventh
55:55
Speaker 2: carbon budget, is supposed to be providing this benefit to nature.
55:59
Speaker 2: And I should just finish off by saying this has
56:01
Speaker 2: been based on what they describe as evidence-based assumptions.
56:08
Speaker 6: Yeah, right.
56:08
Speaker 9: Yeah.
56:09
Speaker 1: Okay.
56:11
Speaker 4: Look, I've got to come back on to Starlink, Brian.
56:13
Speaker 1: Yes, I was going to say.
56:14
Speaker 8: Yes.
56:15
Speaker 4: Not in a military sense in this case, but if
56:18
Speaker 4: we just talk about Starlink, for example, Second, because the
56:21
Speaker 4: United States is threatening European companies with retaliation over a
56:26
Speaker 4: European commission plan that is going to limit how much
56:29
Speaker 4: of a key satellite frequency band that SpaceX can use
56:34
Speaker 4: for Starlink. Andrew Poser, the US ambassador to the EU,
56:39
Speaker 4: said that European firms should be very wary of a
56:42
Speaker 4: response that could be very devastating. It's almost like he's
56:45
Speaker 4: getting the language from Trump, given the size of the
56:48
Speaker 4: American market. And he argued that Europe could not make
56:52
Speaker 4: its own companies more competitive by weakening American ones. I'm
56:55
Speaker 4: pretty sure that's what America does in the other direction.
56:58
Speaker 4: But anyway, the issue here is the two gigahertz mobile
57:02
Speaker 4: satellite services band, which allows ordinary smartphones to connect directly
57:05
Speaker 4: to satellites. The current EU-wide licenses, which are held by
57:10
Speaker 4: US firms EchoStar and Viasat since 2009, expire in May
57:15
Speaker 4: next year. And under a proposal adopted on the 27th
57:20
Speaker 4: of May this year, the commission would divide the band
57:22
Speaker 4: into three equal blocks for 20 years. One block would
57:25
Speaker 4: go to a single EU operator for the government for
57:30
Speaker 4: security and military use. And that would be integrated with ARIS,
57:34
Speaker 4: the EU's land sovereign low earth orbit satellite constellation. So
57:39
Speaker 4: they're going to get their own boxes in the sky
57:42
Speaker 4: as well. A second block would be reserved for a
57:45
Speaker 4: new European entrance, and only the third would be then
57:50
Speaker 4: open to bidders from outside the EU. And that would
57:53
Speaker 4: effectively cap Starlink to a third of that band. And
57:58
Speaker 4: the bidders, by the way, for the reserve blocks would
58:00
Speaker 4: need to be majority European controlled. Now, SpaceX, as you
58:05
Speaker 4: can imagine, opposes the plan. They argue that fragmenting the
58:08
Speaker 4: band reduces efficiency and could weaken connectivity in Ukraine. where
58:13
Speaker 4: Starlink carries civilian and military traffic. And bearing in mind
58:17
Speaker 4: what we were talking about earlier on in the program,
58:19
Speaker 4: that's even more ironic. But anyway, the tech commissioner suggests
58:26
Speaker 4: that the proposals targets American companies. Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Vodafone
58:33
Speaker 4: and Telefonica are reported to be in early talks on
58:35
Speaker 4: the joint bid for the European reserved spectrum. And this plan,
58:40
Speaker 4: of course, exists alongside us. These things usually do a
58:43
Speaker 4: various act. And this case is the Digital Networks Act,
58:46
Speaker 4: which would move all satellite spectrum licensing to EU level
58:50
Speaker 4: and require operators to be established in the EU to
58:53
Speaker 4: enable lawful interception. That is the key thing. That's why
58:57
Speaker 4: they're doing this, because they want to be able to
59:00
Speaker 4: intercept traffic and to hoover up the bulk data.
59:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, without question.
59:06
Speaker 8: Yes.
59:07
Speaker 1: Military and spying capabilities. are priority. Charles, you're going to
59:12
Speaker 1: take us out with a little bit on reform, I think. Yes, indeed.
59:19
Speaker 2: And I don't know whether this was released with a
59:22
Speaker 2: sense of irony or not, but Reform has put out
59:26
Speaker 2: on X just today a tweet, which we'll just show
59:29
Speaker 2: you now, saying, do you trust the mainstream media to
59:31
Speaker 2: tell it like it is? We certainly don't. That's why
59:34
Speaker 2: our very own paper, our paper, The Reformer, will be
59:37
Speaker 2: hitting your doorstep soon. And if you can't see, there's
59:40
Speaker 2: a presumably AI-generated impression of a printing press producing a newspaper. Now,
59:46
Speaker 2: of course, Reform in their efforts to apparently distinguish themselves
59:51
Speaker 2: as a party that is not like the others. They
59:53
Speaker 2: seem to have fallen in the trap of behaving exactly
59:56
Speaker 2: like the others, but even in a more overt sense
59:58
Speaker 2: by actually controlling the very media organisation that it is
1:00:02
Speaker 2: that they're now going to be publishing. And I think
1:00:05
Speaker 2: a quote that's often attributed to various people, news is
1:00:08
Speaker 2: something somebody doesn't want printed, all else is advertising. I
1:00:12
Speaker 2: think we know which bit of that quote this falls into.
1:00:16
Speaker 2: So I don't know if there's any closing comment on that,
1:00:18
Speaker 2: but otherwise we can perhaps discuss it a little more
1:00:20
Speaker 2: in extra.
1:00:22
Speaker 1: Well, my instant response is keep watching the UK column
1:00:25
Speaker 1: and reading our quarterly magazine and the reports that we
1:00:30
Speaker 1: push out. And for the audience, if nobody has read
1:00:34
Speaker 1: Ben Rubin's report on Crown and Corporation, thank you, Mike,
1:00:40
Speaker 1: on the state and its agents, you need to do
1:00:43
Speaker 1: it because it's a fantastic baseline. to then understand the
1:00:48
Speaker 1: events that we're talking about on the UK column news.
1:00:52
Speaker 4: That's it.
1:00:52
Speaker 1: We must end there. Mike, Charles, thank you very much
1:00:55
Speaker 1: for joining me. Thank you very much to our audience,
1:00:58
Speaker 1: wherever you are in the world. Please do pay attention
1:01:02
Speaker 1: to the COVID case in the Netherlands. Look on the
1:01:06
Speaker 1: UK column website for the details on that. Really, really
1:01:10
Speaker 1: important event in the challenge as to what took place
1:01:14
Speaker 1: during that. terrible period we must end there thank you
1:01:17
Speaker 1: all for joining us and we'll be back at the
1:01:20
Speaker 1: same time on wednesday if you remember we will be
1:01:24
Speaker 1: having uk column extra in a few minutes see you
1:01:26
Speaker 1: then bye