Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 12th January 2026

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UK Column News — 12th January 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Good afternoon. Today is Monday, the 12th of
0:11
January 2026, just after 1:00. Welcome to UK Column News.
0:16
I'm your host Brian Garish to Lloyds St Ben Rubin with me in
0:20
the studio and we'll also be joined by Mike Robinson who is
0:24
in Studio 2. Now.
0:27
A lot happening in the world, so much so that many people say, my
0:31
goodness, what is actually going on?
0:33
So we've we've got the wars, we've got America seeming to be
0:37
able to claim any country in the world it wants if it dislikes
0:41
the incumbent regime. We can stop oil tankers on the
0:45
high seas. It almost appears as though the
0:49
world's so called rules based international order is out of
0:52
control and a lot of truth in that.
0:56
But I wanted to just bring people's minds back on a case
1:00
which has just produced a result.
1:02
A lot of reporting UK repress press and this is about the
1:07
Guantanamo Bay torture prisoner who's just won a case and
1:13
substantial compensate, substantial sum from the UK
1:18
government. And the reason this case appears
1:21
to me at least to be so important is it really lifts the
1:24
stone on the conduct of the UK government at the time when UK
1:30
is strutting the world stage and telling other countries how they
1:33
should conduct their affairs. So let's just delve into this
1:38
article a little bit and this is the headline here.
1:42
UK pays substantial sum to tortured Guantanamo Bay detainee
1:48
and it's we've chosen the Guardian as this main headline.
1:53
But it says that lawyers for Abu Zabadea accuse British
1:57
intelligence services of providing questions to his CIA
2:01
interrogators. Well, that sub headline is a
2:03
very small part of the story. This is what I want to pick up
2:08
on, that the excellent legal team this man had has had have
2:13
highlighted I think, some really important points that everybody
2:18
in UK should be paying attention to.
2:20
They say that the claim the case has relevant lessons for the UK
2:26
today, highlighting the legal and moral risks involved in
2:29
cooperation with the US at a time it is violating
2:33
international law. And I think, Ben, that's really
2:37
on the button that we've got the US now more or less appearing to
2:41
be out of control on the world stage.
2:44
And this judgement is telling people they should be very, very
2:47
cautious about not only what America is doing, but also what
2:51
the UK government is doing alongside America, particularly
2:57
with regard to the so called War on Terror and the use of
3:01
intelligence services. Now just to give a bit of
3:04
substance to this report, I brought up here the press
3:08
summary from the 20th of December 2023, which was talking
3:13
about the case Zubaydah versus the Foreign Commonwealth and
3:19
Development Office and others. And the key thing to remember is
3:24
that this man tragically has been held in Guantanamo Bay
3:29
since March 2002, not only without charge, but we also need
3:34
to recognise that the US no longer claims he was even a
3:38
member of Al Qaeda, let alone a senior member of that so called
3:44
terrorist organisation. So if we delve into the document
3:49
a little bit, with a little bit more detail here, we can see
3:53
that we get a background to the appeal concerned with the law
3:57
applicable to tort civil wrongs alleged to have been committed
4:01
by the UK Security Service and the UK Secret Intelligence
4:04
Service. And it goes on to say the
4:07
claimants of Palestinian national who's been detained
4:11
without trial by the United States authorities since 2012.
4:17
And he was also moved around CIA so called black torture sites in
4:24
a number of cases. Now the key part of the of the
4:29
case hinged on whether he had the right to seek justice law in
4:38
the countries in which he was held or he could come back to
4:43
the UK or, or he could seek redress from the UK.
4:47
And the key bit to remember here is that six countries were
4:52
actually involved in his trail of torture and that was
4:56
Thailand, Poland, Morocco, Lithuania.
4:59
Let's highlight those Afghanistan and Cuba there with
5:03
Guantanamo Bay, the so called 6 countries and he bought his
5:08
claim naming the Foreign Common Commonwealth and Development
5:11
Office and the Home Office and the Attorney General in UK as
5:16
defendants. And so this is the meat of it.
5:20
And finally, the judgement by the Supreme Court dismissed an
5:25
appeal against banks, sorry against the man on the basis
5:33
that the law which should apply to his case is the law of
5:38
England and Wales. So that itself was very, a very
5:42
important decision. And that has then gone on to
5:46
mean that effectively the the government has settled out of
5:49
court with a substantial payment.
5:52
Now I think it's important for UK society as a whole to realise
5:58
that now the UK government is now making a substantial
6:01
payment. They're not declaring how much
6:03
money that is, Although his legal team says, well, of
6:07
course, on the basis of the length of time that he's been
6:11
held without trial and the appalling torture that he
6:15
suffered, this money is insufficient as well.
6:18
It may be, but sorry, but also we're not getting any formal
6:26
statement from the UK government as to the background of the
6:30
torture or the UK government's involvement in that torture.
6:35
So everything's now focused on the money.
6:37
And it's interesting, Ben, isn't it?
6:39
We often see this with the with people who are survivors of
6:43
abuse in UK, that once the compensation comes in, the fact
6:48
that crimes took place against them disappears into the long
6:51
grass. So so.
6:53
And, and, and if they actually admitted any culpability.
6:56
Or not that I'm seeing in the reports.
6:59
And I think this is a very many people would say, well, if
7:02
you're going to pay money, surely that admits your
7:06
culpability or liability. But at the moment, to my
7:10
knowledge today we haven't got any reports about more detail.
7:15
Now his his legal counsel, a lady called Helen Duffy I think
7:20
made some really important statements.
7:23
She said it's importance symbolically and practically
7:26
that UK pays for its role in our client's torture.
7:31
And I think she's talking in a financial sense here, although
7:35
that's slightly ambiguous. And she goes on to say the
7:38
settlement provides a measure of redress and implicit recognition
7:43
of our clients, intolerable suffering at the hands of the
7:46
CICIA enabled by the United Kingdom.
7:51
So there's lots to be asked about those words and also lots
7:56
to be asked about what the UK government has and has not
8:00
admitted. Now just to make sure that
8:03
people understand the severity of what's gone on here.
8:06
This is a not a very good picture, but at least a picture
8:09
of Abu Zabadaya and what actually took part, what took
8:15
place around this man, What was he subjected to?
8:18
Well, if we bring a bit of this on screen, he was waterboarded
8:23
at least 83 times. Now, waterboarding is just a
8:27
nice term for the fact that you're subjected effectively to
8:31
controlled drowning. He was locked for days in a
8:36
coffin sized box, he was left in his own urine and faeces, he was
8:41
stripped naked and beaten. He was suspended from hooks and
8:45
he was kept awake for days. And if he passed out at any
8:49
stage during this treatment, he was doused with cold water in
8:53
order to bring him back conscious so that he could be
8:57
subject to do further torture. All of this known by the UK
9:03
government and condoned by the UK government because they were
9:08
encouraging our special intelligence services to submit
9:12
questions for him via the CIA. So truly, truly shocking what
9:21
went on here. Now if we just investigate
9:25
Helen, the legal counsel, a little bit further, we can find
9:28
that previously she's done some very good talks about her
9:32
concerns about what's been going on with regard to the so called
9:36
Global War on Terror. So she, in a lecture hosted by
9:40
the University of Manitoba, talked about the dubious but
9:43
tenacious legal claim of by the US of the Global War on Terror
9:49
with extremely serious implications.
9:51
So dubious but tenacious. She's also talking about
9:58
confusion and conflation of conflict and counterterrorism,
10:05
which I think is something we are all seeing more and more.
10:08
We're not sure whether things are being done under the law or
10:13
whether they are being done by agencies running out of control.
10:17
And also she's talking about the global militarisation of
10:21
counterterrorism. So very, very important
10:24
questions. And I think this lady absolutely
10:26
on the button and here under the headline of the war, the war,
10:31
the enemy and the other, it's all become very grey.
10:36
She talks about a war on what what are we actually fighting?
10:40
This is not always well defined. And so she says this, that it's
10:45
got scope, which is questionable and an insidious spread.
10:49
And how are we going to look back or move forward?
10:53
Reparation and accountability. And maybe that was a little bit
10:57
of a look into the future for her when she with regard to the
11:02
case which we've just discussed. Now, if we set all of that, that
11:07
horrible case, those terrible tortures and the UK government's
11:11
complicity in it, we can say, well, it appears the UK
11:15
government has been out of control.
11:17
And if you're thinking that you'd be absolutely right,
11:20
except now in 2026, we can say with certainty that the
11:25
government in UK has given itself the ability under law to
11:31
break the law in order to carry out these sorts of crimes under
11:36
the label of keeping us safe. Let's have a look at a report
11:40
that Mike Robinson gave on the UK Column News a couple of years
11:46
ago. On Monday, we had the second
11:50
reading of the Covert Human Intelligence Sources Criminal
11:53
Conduct Bill 2019-2020 1 and Julian Lewis, who we've just
11:57
been talking about as chair of the ISC, was giving it all the
12:03
support that he could. So clearly the Intelligence and
12:06
Security Committee is not concerned in any way about this.
12:10
Now, let's just remind ourselves what this bill is about.
12:14
It is a bill to make provision for and connection with the
12:17
authorization of criminal conduct in, in the course of or
12:20
otherwise in connection with the conduct of covert human
12:24
intelligence sources. So this is all about the, the
12:28
criminality allowed by agents of the government of various
12:32
government departments. And we'll remind you what the
12:34
government departments are in the moment, in a moment.
12:37
But James Brokenshire was the the minister of state who was
12:42
giving the the, the information there, where they're from, I'm
12:46
not quite sure originally, but anyway, he's, he was the
12:50
relevant minister giving the statement in the House.
12:52
This legislation, he said, is being introduced to keep our
12:55
country safe, to ensure that our operational agencies and public
12:59
authorities have access to the tools and intelligence they need
13:02
to keep us safe. So Mike, let's just bring you on
13:09
screen because of course as a package, the evidence to me is
13:13
irrefutable. We've got Auk government that's
13:15
not only out of control, it is going to, it has been breaking
13:19
the law. These terrorists have of
13:21
torture, but it will continue to break the law because it's given
13:26
itself permission to do that. At every level, Brian.
13:30
So last week on Friday, we were talking about the killing of the
13:34
lady in in the United States by ICE officers.
13:37
We've got covert and covert Human Intelligence act there
13:42
because that was a bill when we were talking about it.
13:43
It's not an act. So that is the law and a dozen,
13:47
you know, a couple of dozen government departments allowed
13:50
to authorise criminality. You know, this completely
13:54
undermines the constitutional arrangements we have in the UK
13:57
and in the United States where which are based on the principle
14:01
that no one is above the law. But we are apparently as as
14:05
members of the public happy because we're not complaining
14:08
about it. But on a on a general basis, we
14:11
seem to be happy that the government in the United States
14:14
and in the United Kingdom are quite happy to set themselves up
14:17
above the law when it suits them, whether that's in the
14:20
domestic scene or internationally.
14:23
Indeed. And the the thing for us to be
14:26
saying to the audience is keep your eye on what's happening and
14:31
challenge this and particularly challenge it with your MP at
14:34
every opportunity now. And many people say MPs are not
14:38
doing anything well, they get away with it because not enough
14:41
of their constituents are actually challenging them face
14:44
to face. But we'll come on to that.
14:46
More in UK Column Extra after today's news and let's bring you
14:51
in. Because if that's the reality of
14:54
America on the world stage and torture at work, together with
14:58
the UK government, we've got the the remains, the remains of the
15:03
Epstein saga under the surface. Absolutely, yeah.
15:07
Apparently Mandelson is squeaky clean.
15:10
Nothing to see. Well, I'm not sure that I'd say
15:14
that. What did you just say?
15:17
The remains of the Epstein, the Epstein's Argo and the remains
15:20
of the War on Terror. That's a Blair era throwback,
15:23
isn't it? And of course, another Blair era
15:25
throwback appeared on the BBC. Unbelievably, over the weekend,
15:29
Mandelson was back. Let's have a little listen to
15:31
the opening section of his interview with Lisa Kunzberg.
15:35
Lord. Mandelson, thank you for
15:41
speaking to us today. You left your position in
15:45
Washington for reasons we'll come to in a few minutes.
15:47
But you have a unique perspective from having been
15:49
Britain's ambassador and dealing with Donald Trump in the White
15:52
House. How should governments,
15:54
including the UK, react to this incredibly turbulent beginning
15:58
to 2026, his strikes on Venezuela and his threat to grab
16:03
a NATO ally in Greenland? I know people will sometimes be
16:08
taken aback by his language and his approach to things, and I
16:15
had a ringside seat in a sense, and so I saw how the Truth
16:20
Social posts would come out and how some people used language
16:25
and took positions that were to. Our mind in Europe, quite
16:30
undiplomatic, but from his point of view, you need to understand
16:35
that he feels that we live in a world that's full of conflicts,
16:40
of hard power, of growing rivalry, and particularly
16:45
between the United States and China, and that sometimes
16:48
nettles have to be grasped and that that requires deterrence.
16:53
If you want peace, you will get peace through.
16:56
Strength, but also sometimes you'll have to use force as
16:59
well, and I think we've got to understand that and not simply
17:03
react the whole time to the language he uses.
17:09
So what do you think it will actually take for Peter
17:12
Mandelson to exit public life, Ryan?
17:15
Because the third time that he's been fired, this time for
17:19
something particularly egregious, and within three
17:22
months he's back on the BBC. Well, that's the nature of the
17:25
BBC because the BBC is going to keep promoting people whatever,
17:30
whatever they've done, whatever the implications are.
17:32
But I've I've found that fantastic that he's brought on
17:36
screen to talk about his. Experiences and allowed to speak
17:39
for 18 minutes before she brings up the Epstein issue.
17:43
So he gets to set out his stall on a whole bunch of geopolitical
17:46
issues before she finally gets round to the question and
17:49
essentially allows him to to to say that he believed him and
17:58
then he didn't. Madison didn't really do
18:00
anything wrong. He didn't remember sending those
18:02
emails. He cringes every time that he
18:05
sees them. And actually fundamentally,
18:07
those young women were failed by the system.
18:10
It was the system that failed them.
18:11
It wasn't Epstein and it wasn't Manuelson.
18:14
It was it was everyone. It was all of us.
18:16
Nicely spun, it's very. Beautifully spun?
18:19
Absolutely. And a classic politician on the
18:21
British side, I'd say yeah. Quite.
18:23
Yeah. And and they're ultimately to
18:25
apologise for Trump, right? Because he was, you know, you
18:28
saw that opening clip there. He's basically saying, Oh, well,
18:30
you know, Trump, Trump's not to everyone's taste, but actually
18:34
you have to understand that he's doing these things for a reason.
18:37
We need peace through strength. We need American heft.
18:42
Used that terms a couple of times in the interview to sort
18:44
out problems around the world. He went on to say that we
18:47
mustn't ignore international law, of course, unless we decide
18:51
to ignore international law. He talks about the Arctic
18:56
needing securing against Russia and China and it's obviously in
18:58
reference to the the noises being made around Greenland at
19:02
the moment, the fact that we'll be dependent on the US to do
19:04
that. UK finances are in a parlour
19:07
state. Interestingly, he called out the
19:09
servicing of our national debt as a major problem, which I
19:12
thought was remarkably honest for someone, particularly coming
19:15
from the Labor Party. And then, of course, positioning
19:20
the inevitability of a conflict with Iran under the auspices of
19:26
freedom and democracy, which is what I think the War on Terror
19:29
was all about as well, wasn't it?
19:30
But. Supposedly.
19:31
Supposedly, yes. So Mandelson.
19:34
Maybe we'll be seeing more of him, Who knows?
19:37
OK. Thank you for that, Ben.
19:38
Well, Mike, let's let's bring you back on because the subjects
19:43
clearly on the world stage aside from Ukraine and Russia is Iran.
19:47
And everything seems to be being ramped up now to create that
19:52
internal division inside Iran. Because ultimately, what does
19:57
the West, what does the US and the West want?
19:59
Which is regime change over to you?
20:03
Absolutely. Now we'll be talking about Iran
20:05
more on Wednesday, but obviously over the weekend.
20:08
Then the Israeli backed civil unrest as has escalated Iran
20:14
with claims of deaths as a result of an Iranian government
20:17
crackdown. And that, of course, is giving
20:20
Donald Trump the excuse he needs to prepare for military
20:24
intervention. So let's just have a quick look
20:27
at what he said on Air Force One.
20:31
These are violent if you call them leaders.
20:34
I don't know if they're leaders are just they, they rule through
20:37
violence. But we're looking at it very
20:40
seriously. The military's looking at it,
20:43
and we're looking at some very strong options.
20:47
Iran called to negotiate. Yesterday.
20:49
Yesterday, the leaders of Iran called They want to negotiate.
20:53
I think they're. Tired of being beat up by the
20:55
United States, Iran wants to negotiate.
21:00
Yes, negotiate. We may meet with them.
21:03
I mean, it's a meeting is being set up, but we may have to act
21:10
because of what's happening before the meeting.
21:15
So they may have to act before the meeting.
21:17
Well, of course we just heard Mandelson trying to justify that
21:22
potential action. And well, if we have a look at
21:27
this particular item, this is from the European Union here.
21:31
And you know, as far as the West clearly is concerned, the main
21:34
concern should be for human rights defenders because of
21:38
course that's it's human rights defenders that are on at least
21:41
organising or on the streets, streets of Iran.
21:44
These are defined as people critical of government in the
21:47
case of the Iranian government. And so the EU pushed aside the
21:53
European Union expressed a serious concern over the
21:55
widespread use of arbitrary detention by Iranian authorities
21:58
to suppress critical voices within the country in violation
22:01
of Iran's obligations of the International Convention on
22:04
Civil and Political Rights. And then on Friday, the UK
22:08
published the Guiding Principles on Supporting Human Rights
22:11
Defenders and in their words, saying it reaffirms their the
22:15
government's commitment to promoting and protecting those
22:18
who work to uphold fundamental rights worldwide.
22:21
It says human rights defenders play an essential role in
22:24
promoting and protecting democracy, human rights and the
22:27
rule of law. They say that with a straight
22:29
face, apparently and without any irony at all.
22:32
They say that the UK has committed to supporting the
22:34
rights of HRDS to conduct their activities, continue with their
22:38
professions and voice their opinions effectively, peacefully
22:42
and safely. In other words, we want to
22:44
protect the right of people to continue to create some civil
22:49
unrest in other countries so that we can then use that as
22:52
justification for intervention. That's how it looks to me and
22:55
I'd be interested in your thoughts.
22:58
Well, Mike, I just sit here listening to to your report
23:02
against the backdrop of the UK complicit in torture.
23:07
And of course the torture which has come into the spotlight of
23:12
the press is all around Guantanamo Bay.
23:15
But if we go back in history, UKUK governments fully involved
23:19
in torture, including prior to the end of the Second World War
23:24
when supposingly we were supposed we were fighting a Nazi
23:27
regime which had indulged in torture.
23:30
So the hypocrisy is absolutely outrageous and really the
23:34
government showing why the public in this country should
23:38
not be trusting the UK government for its duplicity and
23:43
its willingness to get involved in unlawful military action
23:48
overseas and indeed in torture. It's it's quite incredible.
23:53
Let's let's move on. And as we always do, a huge
23:56
thank you to those of you that are supporting the UK column as
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24:29
Now we've got a germ warfare edition tonight.
24:32
Resisting mass surveillance by embracing Linux with Herkim
24:38
Anwar. Mike, I don't know whether you'd
24:41
like to say anything about this one.
24:43
Obviously Linux has been an interesting subject over a great
24:46
many years. No, other than just to recommend
24:51
everybody watches it, of course. It's going to be an interesting
24:53
conversation. I'll just run through the rest
24:56
of these, Brian, if, if, if, if you don't mind.
24:58
So tonight at 9:00 then is the US pushing the world to the
25:03
brink That Carl is speaking about that on Silk and Steel
25:07
podcast tonight. Tomorrow, Sandy is talking to
25:12
Doctor Anthony McCarthy about ethical sex.
25:14
This is a wide ranging conversation.
25:17
It's extremely interesting conversation.
25:19
And so please join us for that tomorrow at 1:00 PM.
25:23
And the Abby Roberts Part 1 of the 1000 Words podcast that went
25:29
out at 7:00 PM last night is now available on the UK column
25:33
website. So if you haven't seen that yet,
25:36
that's quite entertaining. So do go and watch it.
25:40
Yes, brilliant, lot of fun and I think some more of the UK column
25:44
team are going to get caught up in the in the artist den in due
25:49
course this year. So we'll see what transpires
25:51
from that. Now, Mike, I'm going to give it
25:55
back to you because you've been having a look at what's
25:57
unfolding now with regard to digital ID.
26:01
This is clearly one of the main drivers of the government to get
26:05
this sort of scheme in power and they're going in all sorts of
26:09
directions. What have you got?
26:12
Yes. Well, first of all, just a quick
26:14
reminder. This was the graphic the
26:15
government was pushing out in September last year.
26:18
And if you remember at that time, Keir Starmer had this to
26:21
say. I'm working with people worried
26:23
about the level of illegal immigration in the country,
26:26
secure border, blahdy blah. And he went on to say digital
26:29
ideas, an enormous opportunity for the UK, not sure who it's an
26:33
enormous opportunity for. He said it would make tougher to
26:36
work illegally in this country and so on, make the borders more
26:39
secure and offer ordinary citizens countless benefits.
26:43
So let's just have a look at this then.
26:46
This is the Cybersecurity and Resilience Bill.
26:49
This was introduced to Parliament on the 12th of
26:50
November last year and it's supposed to modernise the UK's
26:54
Network and Information systems regulations from 2018.
26:58
So they say that it aims to strengthen protections for
27:01
critical national infrastructure in response to escalating cyber
27:05
threats. And they're they are expanding
27:09
this to cover data centres, managed service providers, large
27:12
load controllers, critical suppliers that weren't
27:15
previously regulated. They're saying that it's
27:17
enhanced and decent, sorry, enhanced incident reporting,
27:21
requiring organisations to notify regulators within 24
27:25
hours of becoming aware of a Cyber Institute incident, sorry,
27:28
with full reports due within 72 hours.
27:32
They're talking about strengthening regulators
27:34
enforcement powers, including the ability to impose £100,000
27:38
per day for non compliance. And it says that they will grant
27:43
the Secretary of State powers to direct organisations to take
27:45
specific actions when national security is threatened.
27:49
But here's the thing. The bill excludes both central
27:54
and local government from its requirements.
27:57
So they are imposing regulations on 3rd party service providers
28:03
to notify whenever there's been some kind of breach in security,
28:07
but they're not required to notify if there's been some kind
28:10
of breach in security, except that they published this
28:13
document, the Cyber Action Plan, in an attempt to sort of divert
28:19
criticism here. So this promises to hold
28:22
government departments to equivalent security standards,
28:25
but without legal obligations. So where does that leave us?
28:30
Well, if we have a look at this, just to highlight the point,
28:35
this is the standard saying UK digital ID card, everything we
28:39
know as whistleblowers, sound alarm over data security.
28:42
And of course this this was released late last year.
28:47
But the point here is that the whistleblowers were reporting
28:49
500,000 system vulnerabilities in one login, with thousands
28:53
rated as critical or highly or high severity and a whole host
28:57
of other issues with respect to the government's capability to
29:01
manage our own data and protect our own data.
29:07
And of course, this feeds absolutely into the whole
29:09
digital ID question of whether government should be imposing
29:12
this on people, whether they're even qualified to run such a
29:15
system. And if we if we just have a look
29:18
at this one, then this is gov.uk one login loses certification
29:25
for Digital Identity Trust framework.
29:27
So this is also from last year. But just to remind everybody
29:30
that that had happened. And all the while the Starmer
29:34
regime is working as at hand as hard as it can to remove any
29:38
kind of technical protections that might be available to us.
29:43
So of course this is being driven by the recent, the news
29:46
in the last couple of days of the deepfakes being created by
29:49
Grok, which is XS AI platform. Of course the the fact that
29:55
people were able to produce pornographic images of
29:58
celebrities or children is getting a huge amount of
30:01
coverage, but then what do we have here?
30:04
The computer generated child child sexual abuse material
30:10
debate was happening in the House of Lords last week.
30:13
And Lord Hanson of Flint has confirmed that Ofcom is going to
30:18
be using Pars to require service providers of any kind of
30:24
encrypted system to chat and so on to scan material before it
30:30
gets uploaded either to the chat or to other platforms.
30:34
And so of course, if, if, if service providers are required
30:39
to scan material before it gets uploaded, then it completes,
30:42
makes a complete mockery of any kind of encryption that people
30:45
may be using. So, you know, at the same time
30:48
that government is pursuing this digital idea agenda, it's
30:51
clearly unqualified to do that. It's producing legislation which
30:54
is going to regulate third party companies, but doesn't regulate
30:58
itself, or at least doesn't provide any kind of legal
31:01
backstop for that for for whatever breaches of of data
31:05
that they may cause in the coming years.
31:08
And in the meantime, they continue this effort to
31:11
completely destroy any people, anybody's ability to protect
31:15
their own data online. So again, interested in your
31:20
thoughts, Ben on this. But but this is quite a again,
31:25
they they say this or they, they make these statements without
31:28
any sense of irony and their position.
31:31
Quite, yes. I mean, my overriding sense is
31:33
that they're utterly, utterly shameless and they will use any
31:36
pretext to manufacture the policy outcomes that they're
31:41
looking for, you know, including this child sexual exploitation,
31:46
preventing violence against women and girls.
31:48
When you look at what we know that they're doing, even just in
31:51
the last 20 minutes, half an hour of this show, I was talking
31:55
about the the use of torture, extraordinary torture against
32:01
against, yes, against a good way other human beings ultimately
32:07
right in, in in the pursuit of what?
32:09
It's not entirely clear. And yet they can turn around and
32:11
say to us, Oh, well, we're here to protect you and to insert
32:15
ourselves into every part of your life for your benefit.
32:19
And in order to do that, they need to manufacture democratic
32:22
consent and mandate. And in order to achieve that,
32:25
they need to get their hands around the hearts and minds of
32:28
the nation's young people, which is what Keir Starmer has been
32:31
very much focused on over the past few months.
32:33
And got a little clip now about the National Youth Strategy and
32:39
how that was developed. I think there's a real sense
32:43
that young people have been left out of the conversation.
32:45
Yeah, which is why this Advisory Board is so important.
32:49
The last thing you want is me and Lisa coming up with a youth
32:51
strategy. There's listening to young
32:53
people and having youth boys, but then there's actually
32:55
impacting and making sure they can feel like there's a tangible
32:58
change. Mental health services, child
32:59
poverty, getting the yeah right. And then there's what Lisa was
33:02
just talking about, which is like, what do people need on a
33:05
local level? So is it transport?
33:06
Is it a youth service? It's the biggest ever
33:08
conversation that government has had with you.
33:10
Is that right? That's fantastic.
33:12
That's really, that's really cool there.
33:15
That's. That's really cool, isn't it
33:19
Brian? Well, I I said it was actually
33:22
quite scary to see the manipulation of the of the young
33:25
people brought round that table. They have no idea of the
33:29
techniques being used against them.
33:30
Absolutely no idea at all. And also some extraordinary kind
33:34
of expectations of the guy at the beginning of the clip.
33:36
They're saying, well, we've been left out of the conversation
33:39
thus far. The idea that young people
33:42
should be intimately involved in all areas of policy.
33:46
I mean, this is a new thing, right?
33:48
And, and, and also Starmer there saying, well, you don't want me
33:51
and Lisa coming up with the strategy, even though he's the
33:54
Prime Minister of the country. I mean, that's kind of what
33:56
people are employed to do, right?
33:58
So anyway, and obviously it's all presented in this really
34:01
extraordinary and infantilising and selfie taking manner and
34:08
it's all culminated over the past 12 months.
34:11
Now, now into this document, Youth Matters, your National
34:16
Youth Strategy. So this is obviously for you
34:19
young people and you can see that they've got you matter as
34:22
well as youth matters. So this is just pandering upon
34:25
pandering is what I'm seeing going on here.
34:27
A lot of manipulation, a lot of thought gone into this.
34:31
What does it say? So they have a vision, it's very
34:34
simple. Every young person, no matter
34:36
where they're from, should have a safe place to go, someone who
34:40
cares for them, and a community that they feel part of.
34:44
Right. So you start from a position of
34:46
anxiety and fear. Any young person is so
34:50
destabilised, they're fearful. They need to protect themselves.
34:55
Their first plan in life is to find somewhere safe.
34:59
They're not, they're not going to go out in the world and
35:01
establish themselves and and challenge themselves.
35:05
They've become a child or a puppy that needs security in a
35:10
warm, the warm corner of the room, right?
35:13
Absolutely, and that's going to and it's the job of the
35:15
government to do. That.
35:17
Yes, exactly. It's all implicit here, right?
35:19
The government is going to get involved in absolutely every
35:22
area of your life. And what's the first thing in
35:24
the opening section that it says about this new world of safety?
35:28
It's about feeling safe online, right?
35:30
So Mike's just talked about digital IDs and censorship.
35:34
This is absolutely front and centre of the youth agenda.
35:37
This is what they're building a case for.
35:40
They're also talking here about building connections with people
35:44
of your own age, being part of a wider community, building
35:46
skills, having opportunities and having support for your health,
35:50
both physical and mental health. And all of this is going to
35:53
necessitate a total transformation of the way the
35:56
government works, right? So we're going to move from
35:59
national to local. This is familiar, isn't it?
36:02
This is the devolution agenda, regional assemblies, metro mares
36:05
and what have you. We're going to move from
36:07
fragmented to collaborative, which ultimately means tighter
36:10
integration between the different component parts of the
36:13
state, removal of the separation of powers the and then from
36:18
excluded to empowered, which is about lowering the voting age,
36:22
introducing these deliberative processes essentially to force
36:25
through a preconceived policy agenda under the pretext of
36:29
supposedly democracy, right? So this is how they've teed it
36:32
up and then they've got these 10 recommendations based on I think
36:38
it was 14,000 survey respondents and various interviews.
36:42
And obviously the kids are in control.
36:45
So you said it, now we're doing it right.
36:47
And I'll just show you a few examples here.
36:50
So this one is remarkable, actually.
36:53
Everyone deserves someone that they can trust.
36:56
One in five of you say you don't have a trusted adult outside of
36:59
home. We want a half a million more of
37:02
you to have access to an adult that you trust outside of your
37:06
home. A government appointed adult.
37:07
Well, absolutely. Named person that we came across
37:11
with the with the intended policy north of the border in
37:14
Scotland, right. And obviously these people will
37:16
be vetted and ideologically aligned and not part of your
37:20
family. Crucially, right, this is a the
37:24
government going right to the heart of the family unit, these
37:30
trusted adults that will potentially be based in what
37:33
they call young Futures Hubs. So they're going to be 50
37:36
inclusive centres around the country, which are going to be
37:40
led by adults coming out of this programme.
37:43
The government is going to get involved in friendships and and
37:46
relationships. They want to create a safer
37:48
Internet, again, using digital ID systems that we talked about.
37:51
Provide support when you feel lonely.
37:53
Is that what the government's for?
37:55
How do we get how do we get by at the UK column?
37:58
No. I know when we get lonely and
38:00
sad and hurt, we seem somehow to get through things.
38:03
But maybe we come from a a different mould.
38:06
Yeah, right. Good work.
38:08
So curated, highly curated employment opportunities.
38:12
All of this is feeding into the 4th industrial revolution,
38:14
sustainable development, gold agenda.
38:16
It's all coming from that place. I'll come onto that a bit more
38:18
in a moment. They want to keep young people
38:21
safe, more help outside of school.
38:23
They're going to keep people safe by more RSHE relationship,
38:27
sex and health education lessons.
38:29
So apparently that's about improving safety for young
38:32
people. And then the big one votes at 16
38:34
and Co creating programmes. So these deliberative processes
38:37
where the government will do just like Starmer did in that
38:40
video we're watching, come in, come and sit around the table
38:43
and we'll talk through a lot of things.
38:44
We'll pretend that we're listening to you and that you're
38:47
shaping things. But actually we've got a pre
38:49
packaged set of policy outcomes that we know we're going to do
38:51
anyway. And actually, this whole thing
38:54
is just window dressing to make it look like there's some kind
38:56
of democratic process that's going on.
39:00
And this is across the whole country.
39:02
I mean, obviously we've seen Starmer as well, but who else is
39:05
behind it? So we can just see here.
39:09
Sorry, I've just skipped ahead of myself slightly.
39:11
The chap taking the selfie, I showed that a minute ago, That's
39:14
Dan Laws. We talked about him a lot
39:16
previously because he's the current Co CEO of My Life My
39:20
Say, which is this UK youth organisation which is partnered
39:24
with, amongst many other organisations, the Tony Blair
39:28
Institute for Global Change, the National Citizen Service, which
39:30
is chaired by David Cameron, the Mayor of London's office, so
39:34
Sadiq Khan and everything that goes with that UK youth whose
39:37
patron is Princess Anne. They also partnered with the US
39:41
Embassy in London. It's based at Plexel, which is
39:45
Auk Government Innovation Lab, which is just about 18 months
39:48
ago announced strategic strategic partnership with UK
39:51
Secret Intelligence Services AKA MI 6 and is also directly linked
39:57
to R and Co 4 Generations, which is a Rothschild family
40:01
philanthropic fund based in Paris and is also partnered with
40:04
Tortoise Media. We talk about all the time.
40:06
Haven't done for a few months now, but they're also partnered
40:09
with the Rothschild Foundation. So these are the people who are
40:14
shaping the National Youth Strategy.
40:16
And, and the slogan there my life, my say, except when it
40:19
comes to torture and the government's going to torture
40:21
you anyway, it'll just break, break the break any existing law
40:26
in order to do that. You know, it's actually already
40:29
said that's possible. It's, it's quite incredible Ben,
40:32
how obvious these policies are becoming now they're, they're
40:36
coming into the light. We've lifted enough stones.
40:40
It's getting very easy to see the traditional democracy that
40:44
people have lived over the past, whatever it is 100 years in UK.
40:49
This is going out the door very quickly and it is a very
40:52
insidious government based control which is actually
40:57
moulded in with the community. Communitarian communitarianism
41:03
or participatory democracy? Maybe another name for it.
41:07
That's certainly a term that they use a lot actually, and
41:10
without wanting to labour the point too much, is there any
41:12
younger people watching this or actually anyone watching this?
41:15
The Rothschild family and the Rothschild Foundation in
41:19
particular, it has a counterpart in Israel called Yad Hanadiv and
41:24
Yad Hanadiv was the institution which was used to fund the
41:27
design and build of the Israeli Supreme Court and the Knesset,
41:32
the two primary administrative buildings of the Israeli state.
41:36
These are the people that are writing the National Youth
41:38
Strategy for the UK right now, as well as organisations like
41:42
this the I Will movement which was founded back in 2013 by this
41:48
lovely bunch, Clegg, Cameron, Ed Miliband over there on the right
41:52
hand side currently destroying the the energy industry in the
41:55
UK. And of course Charles as he was
41:57
Prince Charles back in the day. Surrounding by youngsters, very
42:02
vulnerable youngsters. Very vulnerable youngsters and
42:05
the current politician of choice for these people.
42:11
Interestingly, there's nothing to do with Labour, nothing to do
42:13
with the Tories. It's this guy, Zach Polanski.
42:17
So he was the keynote speaker at the most recent My Life, My Say
42:21
Next Generation conference back in November or as you know,
42:23
October, it was last year. This is the guy that they're
42:26
pushing, right? So when you see young people
42:29
getting excited about Polanski and his policy positions,
42:33
understand that this is where he and those policies are coming
42:37
from. OK, Ben, thank you very much for
42:40
that. This leads nicely into an
42:43
article that I saw a couple of days ago, and I thought there
42:47
was a lot more significance to it than maybe the Guardian
42:50
reader would pick up on. So what was the headline here?
42:54
It was this government lacks emotional link with voters and
42:59
the cabinet. Now the important thing to pick
43:01
up on here is the fact that it's going for emotions, not
43:06
cognizant, rational thought in order to make very clear
43:10
assessments as to what's happening in the world, what's
43:13
happening around you and what you are going to do to correct
43:17
the situation or drive good policies for the benefit of
43:21
mankind. No, this is about bringing
43:24
emotion in. And what is the key part of
43:27
that? Well, of course, emotion and the
43:29
capturing of emotions is very, very important to the
43:34
Behavioural Insight team because if you can capture people's
43:37
emotions, you can control the way they think and the way they
43:41
behave. Now, of course, all of this was
43:44
sold that it was going to just come into the Labor Party.
43:49
Who actually is talking about that?
43:51
I've had Keir Starmer on screen because of course he's the boss,
43:56
as it were. But the deputy leader, Lucy
43:58
Powell has also been making comments about this, as has Keir
44:03
Starmer's policy adviser Morgan McSweeney.
44:06
But the main statement here is that the government needs to
44:10
gain back voters trust with three ES emotion, empathy and
44:16
evidence. So they've lost voters because
44:19
voters are seeing into the criminality of the main parties
44:24
and the way they do politics on the international stage.
44:28
And what is Starmer talking about in this very gentle
44:32
language? He's talking about using applied
44:35
political psychology in order to grab voters and lock them into
44:40
his policy agenda. The Labor Party went on to say
44:45
MPs will be offered workshops by organisers in Labour HQ on how
44:50
to take credit for improvements in the local area or for
44:54
policies directly helping constituencies constituents that
44:59
have been implemented by the Labour government, including
45:01
frozen rail fares, local community High Street funding
45:05
and the Warm Home Discount extension.
45:08
Now think this through. What he's actually saying is
45:10
that even though somebody's been chosen and elected as an MP,
45:16
that person is not mature enough or doesn't have the mental
45:19
acumen to make appropriate decisions as to what their
45:24
actions should be so that their own constituents engage with
45:28
them. This is almost like the Labor
45:30
Party becoming the parents of the MPs and holding their hand
45:35
so that they know how to deal with their own constituents is
45:39
very, very devious. This and a lot more sinister
45:43
than it may appear at first glance.
45:45
Now an admission by the deputy leader of Labor Party, Lucy
45:49
Powell, was that it's a big switch organisationally and
45:53
politically. So there's truth here in this
45:56
short sentence. They go on to say there's tools
45:59
and training the party is providing, but Lucy and Anne
46:03
Anna Turley, the Labor Party chair, are leading some
46:06
political work about what else is needed and how MPs can
46:10
support and share back best practise.
46:13
Now we're going to say to our audience today, be under no
46:16
illusions, the reality of this is that it is more targeted
46:21
applied behavioural psychology. And what the Labor Party is
46:25
absolutely doing here is reframing not only it's own MPs
46:30
but also society. Because if you can get them to
46:33
emotionally engage with the Labor Party, well, he doesn't
46:38
really need to worry about policy because the emotions will
46:42
take people anywhere, including to to war with Russia or perhaps
46:48
Iran. And having mentioned war, Mike,
46:52
let's bring you back in again because of course, the horrors
46:56
in Ukraine go on. Yes.
47:00
And on Friday then Russia used the Arushnik missiles for the
47:05
second time, as we can see on screen at the moment, hitting
47:09
Leviev this time. And of course, this is in
47:12
amongst broader activity with respect to energy infrastructure
47:17
and drone manufacturing and so on.
47:20
This, Russia said, was a direct retaliation for the drone attack
47:25
on Houdin's residence in Novgorods in December.
47:29
So this is his action. Now, of course, if we just
47:34
remind ourselves what this missile is, we just put this on
47:40
screen here and we'll see. This Russia Post article here
47:46
was asking will Russia's new Arashnik missile change the
47:49
course of the war? Well, this was published at the
47:51
time of the first use of Arashnik.
47:54
It hasn't been used since. It hasn't really changed the
47:57
course of the war, but it's clearly something that Russia
48:01
has and is willing to use when it suits them nowadays, nuclear
48:05
capable, medium range ballistic missile.
48:08
So although they have not, I mean, as far as I am aware,
48:12
Brian, the original use and I'm not sure about this one, but
48:15
certainly the original use use dummy warheads.
48:18
They were really showing demonstrating the the capability
48:23
rather than wanting to do massive damage.
48:26
What are your thoughts on that? I think that was certainly true
48:30
the first time it was used. And the key point about this
48:34
missile is, is there is no defence in the West against it.
48:37
So the Russians have been careful to make sure that
48:40
particularly the US has been in the form when there's going to
48:43
be a launch. This is where the drive towards
48:47
conflict in Ukraine gets so dangerous because both sides can
48:53
take actions that may appear innocent to the person taking
48:58
the action, but to the person monitoring, that can be an
49:01
absolute red flag that an attack has been launched.
49:06
So the use of these sort of weapons is inherently dangerous.
49:10
It's particularly dangerous for the West because they have no
49:14
real means to detect and track launches and there's certainly
49:19
no defence against this missile system.
49:22
So the Russians didn't need to put full warheads on, obviously,
49:25
and would be a nuclear warhead because they were making such a
49:29
statement by the existence of the missile itself.
49:34
Well, in response, then, Zelensky made a statement.
49:38
Let's bring him on screen. And what he said was the
49:42
Russians are exploiting the cold, the cold snap, trying to
49:45
hit as many of our energy facilities as possible.
49:47
So much for the respect for America and all diplomacy.
49:51
The main Russian tactic is to try to completely shut cities
49:54
down. Resnick was used once again,
49:57
this time against the Leviv region.
49:59
Once again it was pointedly close to borders of the European
50:02
Union in terms of using medium range ballistic missiles.
50:05
This poses the same challenge for us all, Warsaw, Bucharest,
50:08
Budapest and for many other capitals as well.
50:11
So he was busy trying to put forward the suggestion that, you
50:16
know, this was effectively an attack on on us all.
50:19
And this is something that, of course, the Ukraine is very,
50:23
very keen to push forward. And so they've done that by, in
50:27
fact, moving apparently some production of drones to Poland.
50:32
So here's Ratuswav Sikorsky, the Polish foreign minister.
50:36
We've contributed to the purchase of American weapons for
50:39
Ukraine. We're now I'm losing count on
50:41
what seems like the 40th transfer of equipment to
50:43
Ukraine. He went on to say, but Ukraine
50:46
is reciprocating by moving part of its drone and missile
50:48
production to Poland. And Brian, just very briefly, I
50:52
mean this, this is clearly yet another attempt to put Russia in
50:58
the situation where they may want to target assets in the
51:01
West, which of course the West would be delighted because that
51:05
would allow them to pursue Article 5.
51:10
Indeed. And when we spoke about this
51:13
briefly earlier this this this morning, I didn't pick up on
51:17
your statement on Poland. But the big problem for the West
51:21
is that Russia is now capable of targeting any drone factory or
51:27
other munitions factory, wherever it is in Ukraine.
51:31
And so you can see what's happening here.
51:33
What, what's the West trying to do?
51:35
Well, we're going to move into Poland to get as close as
51:38
possible to the conflict. We got to stay within the NATO
51:43
area so that we still have the protection of that Article 5.
51:48
But the reality is that nowhere is safe in Ukraine when we've
51:52
seen recently indications that German munitions companies were
51:59
going to be opening joint factories in Ukraine with
52:02
Ukrainians. This is complete nonsense
52:04
because at any stage of the development and build, Russia is
52:08
capable of taking these out. So in one way, it makes sense
52:12
that the drone production is brought into Poland.
52:15
But of course, what this really means is that you are bringing
52:22
the possibility of actual conflict between NATO and Russia
52:25
ever closer, because those drain drones are ultimately going to
52:29
be used to attack Russia. Yes, indeed.
52:34
But the the narrative gets more ridiculous.
52:37
So here we have John Haley announcing that the UK is going
52:42
to develop new tactical ballistic missiles that boost
52:45
Ukraine's fire point firepower to deploy, sorry, to defend
52:49
itself from Putin's war machine. This is their language.
52:51
This is under Project Nightfall. They say UK has launched a
52:54
competition to rapidly develop ground launched ballistic
52:57
missiles with a range of more than 500 kilometres.
53:00
And it's going to be able to carry or needs to carry a
53:04
payload of 200 kilogrammes. So there you go with a maximum
53:07
cost of £800,000 per missile. That's that's that bit.
53:12
And then of course, as we know, the Coalition of the willing
53:17
took place last weekend. We reported the big the at that
53:21
meeting that was announced that a multinational force for
53:24
Ukraine would be set up. Well, the Starmer Government has
53:27
now announced that it's allocated 200,000,000 lbs of
53:29
funding to prepare the UK Armed Forces to deploy as part of the
53:33
Multinational Force for Ukraine. And well, that's £200 million at
53:38
a time when apparently senior military are suggesting a £28
53:43
billion shortfall in the budget. So this is the Times and Air
53:47
Chief Marshall, Sir Richard Knight and the Chiefs of Defence
53:49
Staff warning that the Ministry of Defence is £28 billion short
53:55
over the next four years, despite the fact that Starmer is
53:58
claiming that he's going to up the defence spending.
54:00
So again, they keep pushing the the war buttons, but they've
54:04
really Brian got nothing to support it with.
54:09
Nothing to support it with in in the West, certainly not in UK,
54:13
but they're going to continue to use those Ukrainian troops to
54:17
fight and die on the front for their own objectives.
54:20
So to the last Ukrainian becomes ever more obvious as as the war
54:26
now moves into 2026. Lots, lots more to be discussed
54:30
on that. But if, if we're worried about a
54:34
shortfall in money for UK's armed forces, then perhaps we
54:38
should be looking to the NHS because the BBC reporting here
54:42
that the NHS is wasting billions on patients who don't need to be
54:46
in hospital. So maybe those two departments,
54:49
the running the NHS and and the Ministry of Defence should get
54:54
together and see whether they can iron things out.
54:57
This is just a very quick report from me.
55:00
I'm always of course suspicious and cynical of what the BBC
55:04
reports, but sometimes there's a message comes through their
55:07
reporting. So if we get into this article
55:10
here, so it's saying that every day there are more than 13,000
55:17
people whose treatment has been completed and they're still in
55:20
hospitals. And so they're talking about the
55:24
cost. The average hospital bed takes
55:26
562 lbs a day to staff and maintain and the health service
55:32
in England is losing 225 million a month supporting patients who
55:37
could be elsewhere. And the the line throughout this
55:41
report is that many are older. So if I come on to this one
55:45
here, it says and because of the population is getting older and
55:48
frailer, there are more complex cases ending up in hospital.
55:52
The system is having to run faster just to stand still.
55:57
Old people come up in the spotlight and then we get
56:01
towards where I think the BBC is trying to lead the minds of Uks
56:07
population. Time to rethink end of end of
56:11
life care. So they're talking about Price,
56:14
one of the professionals and reports about 1/3 of people who
56:20
are admitted for medical reasons are in their last years of life.
56:24
We admit them and end up over treating them with
56:28
interventions, scans and pills argue price.
56:32
So very interesting that those elderly people, they're such a
56:37
nuisance and they come into the system.
56:39
We have have to overtreat them, we have to give them those
56:43
pills. But it's all costing us money.
56:45
And really the unsaid words in my mind are we could really do
56:49
without the elderly people. But I find this interesting
56:53
because in the article it also said this.
56:56
The problem when you start trying to treat everything is
57:00
that you prescribe more pills. Those pills have side effects
57:04
and you can actually end up making a person's health worse.
57:08
So maybe a little bit of truth coming into the BBC report.
57:13
But of course, if we think it through, if the NHS started to
57:16
look at the damage actually done to individuals by over
57:20
prescribing of pharmaceutical products and the damaging side
57:24
effects, perhaps we could make millions of people more healthy,
57:28
save money and that money could be given for defence.
57:32
And it looks like a win win situation to me, unless you're
57:37
old. And I think the answer to that
57:40
is they're coming for you because you, perhaps I should
57:44
say, we are becoming a little bit of a nuisance to the state.
57:49
So, Ben, where does that take us?
57:53
Well, it takes us to the fact that the NHS is in an absolute
57:55
mess. You know, it's one of the top
57:57
killers. I think it might even be top
57:59
five killers in the NHS is over medication.
58:02
That is certainly true. In the States, the biggest cause
58:05
of death is pharmaceutical products.
58:07
Amazing. It's incredible.
58:09
Natural death. But if they're looking for some
58:11
money and they want to plug some gaps in the budget, maybe they
58:14
should go to Birmingham because I came across this article in
58:18
the BMJ over the weekend. You can see here the trust is
58:23
the University Hospital Birmingham Trust's £40 million
58:27
overseas doctors training scheme is axed after audit raises red
58:31
flags. So the article says a £40
58:34
million programme to train doctors from overseas at
58:36
Midlands NHS Trust has been discontinued after an
58:39
independent review raised a host of red flags.
58:41
These included failures to ensure the doctors were paid
58:44
fairly, undeclared hospitality linked to overseas recruitment
58:48
trips that included the two week jolly that a bunch of people
58:51
went on, and evidence that most participants recruited mainly
58:55
from Pakistan did not return to their home countries as
58:58
intended. Amazing.
59:00
It goes on to say. One of the most serious issues
59:02
to emerge was the unusual arrangement under which UHBU at
59:07
University Hospital, Birmingham paid a monthly stipend for ITFS
59:11
through a small UK company operating from a residential
59:15
address in Birmingham. In 2025, the last year the
59:18
scheme operated, the stipend paid for each ITF was nearly 4
59:22
grand a month, equivalent to just under 50 grand a year.
59:25
And over the scheme's lifetime. From 2017 to 2014, 40 million
59:30
was paid through this scheme to Scholar and Trainee Services
59:34
Limited, which managed the contributions on behalf of
59:36
colleges in Pakistan and one College in India.
59:39
However, the trust had no contract or agreement with the
59:43
company, did not receive invoices and had no oversight of
59:47
what money was passed on to individual doctors.
59:50
And if you're involved in fraud and corruption, that's usually
59:53
how it works, Ben. But surely it can't be the case
59:55
here? You're not in the NHS?
59:56
Oh goodness, no. Anyway, so KPMG, these are the
1:00:00
auditors who actually looked at this and uncovered what is what
1:00:03
amounts to fraud. I would say.
1:00:05
They also surveyed a group of 80 graduate doctors who had
1:00:07
completed this scheme over the past two years. 68% of them were
1:00:11
now registered with the GMC and working in the UK.
1:00:15
So then it won't. Supposed to stay in the country
1:00:17
but they've been brought in through this scheme which has
1:00:20
been syphoning off NHS money and they've now decided to stay
1:00:23
here. And that's despite Pakistan
1:00:25
being on the World Health Organisation Health Recruitment
1:00:27
Red List, meaning that they don't have enough doctors in
1:00:30
Pakistan so we aren't really allowed to go to recruit there.
1:00:33
So there there's about 5 things wrong with this whole situation.
1:00:38
The main one being that this money I I can't believe that
1:00:41
they got that amount of money going out the door with no no
1:00:43
paper trail whatsoever. Ben, I'll just come in there and
1:00:47
say over many years I I have watched fraud and corruption
1:00:51
through city authorities and particularly through
1:00:54
regeneration. And you've seen some of the
1:00:57
documentation with me. Fraud on the scale of millions,
1:01:01
hundreds of millions of pounds. This is just routine now in UK.
1:01:06
This is how bad it's got. OK.
1:01:08
And this is 1 hospital, one hospital, right?
1:01:10
So this is this is it's extraordinary.
1:01:12
There was, as we've said, there's there's been a review
1:01:14
into this. KPMG had a look at it.
1:01:16
This guy initiated that. This is Kira Patel, Chief
1:01:19
medical Officer, UHP. And he said there was no
1:01:23
suggestion or findings of impropriety or fraud by any
1:01:26
trust employee, which seems completely implausible to me.
1:01:31
What do I know? Well, maybe the Serious Fraud
1:01:34
Office or the police have simply not got involved.
1:01:37
And what he says is correct. There is no suggestion because
1:01:40
there's been no full investigation.
1:01:43
Mike, do you want the final few seconds comment on that?
1:01:46
It's all getting pretty obvious that this country is not
1:01:50
breaking down, it's not broken Britain, it is being broken and
1:01:55
it's getting ever more easy to see the policies and the people
1:01:59
who are ripping this country apart.
1:02:03
Yeah, I mean, I've got nothing to add.
1:02:05
It doesn't surprise me. You know, this is our 20th
1:02:09
anniversary. When, when did we do the in
1:02:12
Cornwall unconcerned presentation?
1:02:14
Brian 2010 or something. Nothing, Nothing really has
1:02:19
changed. No, but we could say on a
1:02:21
positive note, it's clear that many people have woken up since
1:02:25
then and are seeing this. So if you're part of that team
1:02:29
as the UK column audience, keep spreading the word because
1:02:33
exposure is one of the key weapons we've got against these
1:02:36
people and their malicious policies.
1:02:39
I think we need to end there with a with a smile.
1:02:41
Pretty remarkable news today. And it's clear that 2026 is
1:02:46
going to be special for all sorts of reasons.
1:02:49
So hang on to your hats. But huge thank you to you, Ben,
1:02:52
and to you, Mike, for joining me today.
1:02:55
And a very big thank you to our audience, wherever you are in
1:02:58
the world, UK and overseas. And a huge, huge thanks to
1:03:03
people making financial support to UK column to keep us going
1:03:08
and to help us expand. We'll leave it there.
1:03:11
Thanks for joining us. Bye bye.