Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 5th January 2026

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UK Column News — 5th January 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Good afternoon. It's Monday the 5th of January
0:10
2026, just after 1:00. And welcome to UK Column News
0:13
Happy New Year to everyone watching and listening.
0:15
I'm your host, Mike Robinson, joining me in the studio today,
0:18
Ben Rubin. Welcome to the program, Ben.
0:20
Thank you, Mike. And by video link we have Brian
0:23
Gerrish. Later in the programme, Brian's
0:25
going to be looking at Starmer's moves to bring Britain back into
0:28
the EU and I'm going to be looking at Cambridge
0:29
University's International Security and Intelligence
0:32
programme. But we're going to begin today
0:35
with Venezuela. And of course, for those that
0:39
watch UK column and have used the term Trump Derangement
0:43
Syndrome to describe how we've been covering his behaviour over
0:47
the last little while, maybe the events of the past few days,
0:51
I've encouraged some to reconsider at least.
0:53
But as everyone will know by now, the US invaded A sovereign
0:58
country and lifted its president and his wife and brought them to
1:02
New York for trial on drugs charges, apparently drugs
1:05
related charges. And Maduro was marched around
1:07
the place, as you've just seen on screen for the inevitable PR
1:11
video video. But let's just begin by
1:14
listening to the beginning of Trump's remarks from the press
1:19
conference a couple of days ago. Late last night and early today,
1:27
at my direction, the United States Armed Forces conducted an
1:33
extraordinary military operation in the capital of Venezuela,
1:41
overwhelming American military power.
1:43
Air, land and sea was used to launch a spectacular assault,
1:49
and it was a an assault like people have not seen since World
1:54
War 2. It was a force against a heavily
1:59
fortified military fortress in the heart of Caracas to bring
2:05
outlaw dictator Nicolas Maduro to justice.
2:09
This was one of the most stunning, effective, and
2:13
powerful displays of American military might and competence in
2:19
American history. So what are your thoughts on
2:25
that? My immediate thought is that he
2:28
sounds like he was slurring his words a little bit.
2:31
He didn't sound well at all. Absolutely, absolutely.
2:37
What was he on? What's the question?
2:38
What's coming on to my my lips, Brian?
2:42
What what are your thoughts? Because you know, the suggestion
2:45
that that this was the most impressive military operation
2:49
since World War 2 with words to that effect.
2:51
It's quite, quite a statement. Quite a statement, Mike.
2:56
First of all, happy New Year to all our viewers and listeners.
3:01
Yeah, it's quite incredible to see these events unfold and
3:05
deeply concerning I think it should be for most people
3:09
because is America really under control at the moment?
3:13
Is America really the land of freedom and a proper running
3:17
democracy, or have we got a sort of dictatorship?
3:20
Now in operation under Trump. And does it mean that he can
3:24
simply walk into any country in the world if he so chooses?
3:29
And he doesn't like the the existing incumbent politicians
3:33
and their policies. There's so many questions to ask
3:37
here, but really, really dangerous events in my opinion.
3:41
And indeed, well, during the press conference, Trump was very
3:45
clear that this was effectively about stealing Venezuela's oil.
3:49
But to set everybody's mind at rest, he said this.
3:57
I thought that would be so I settled 8 and one quarter war.
4:02
You know what the 1/4 was? Thailand and Cambodia, I did it
4:07
again. They were, they broke out and I
4:10
did it in about 5 hours and I settled it.
4:14
I'm giving myself 1/4. So I'm up to now 8 and 1/4.
4:17
In other words, I settled the war, but then they broke out.
4:19
They had a pretty bad breakout over the last four days.
4:23
I got them to go back to peace. So I only give one quarter.
4:29
So he solved it 8 and a quarter wars while he's busy creating
4:32
new ones in Africa and South America.
4:35
And many people are justifying the attack by setting the Monroe
4:39
Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine, for anybody
4:41
who doesn't know, was created in 1823 and established a what they
4:46
described as AUS sphere of influence in the Western
4:48
Hemisphere and this was an opposition to European
4:51
interference in the Americas. There've been lots of references
4:55
in the Trump administration rhetoric over the last number of
4:58
weeks to this idea of AUS sphere of influence in US Western or US
5:02
hemisphere and so on. If you listen to to the various
5:05
comments, the the justification suggests that Maduro's ties to
5:11
Russia, China and Iran represent the kind of foreign influence
5:16
that this doctrine was meant to counter.
5:18
But the problem, of course, is that Russia, China and Iran are
5:21
not European in the original sense.
5:24
The argument is also that the US has a legitimate interest in
5:28
what they describe as hemispheric stability and
5:31
democratic governance. It's quite incredible how they
5:35
can take this position while they behave in this way.
5:38
They say that humanitarian crisis in Venezuela and refugee
5:43
flows affect the entire region, and that justifies what they
5:47
were doing, and also the fact that the United States had an
5:51
existing indictment against Maduro for drug trafficking,
5:54
which they seem to be suggesting is giving some kind of legal
5:57
basis for the arrest. All of that, of course, is utter
6:01
nonsense because the Monroe Doctrine was a unilateral U.S.
6:05
policy statement, not international law.
6:07
It doesn't authorise military operations to capture foreign
6:11
leaders. And of course, he completely
6:13
ignored the requirement for Congress to authorise this type
6:17
of action. And that's a constitutional
6:19
requirement. So also modern international
6:23
law, whether that you consider that embodied by the UN Charter,
6:27
but also also other sovereignty principles, supersedes the 19th
6:32
century doctrine. And we've got to say that this
6:36
action violates Venezuelan sovereignty.
6:40
That was, as I said, supposed to be in response to European
6:44
colonialism. Which makes Trump's actions all
6:47
the more ironic because over the weekend he was claiming that the
6:51
US would be running Venezuela until such times as there was
6:54
some kind of new government there.
6:56
And so you got to ask, is that not United States colonialism?
7:00
The hypocrisy seems to be off the charts to me.
7:03
And of course, using force to remove the head of state, even
7:07
an unpopular 1, at least from America's point of view, sets an
7:12
extremely dangerous precedent. And it demonstrates yet more
7:15
hypocrisy because Trump and also all the supporting Western
7:19
leaders continue to criticize Russia and China.
7:22
And despite the fact China hasn't actually done anything
7:25
yet, you know, this suggestion that they're going to invade,
7:29
where does that leave the suggestion that they're going to
7:31
invade Taiwan? Does that give China in fact
7:33
free rein to go ahead with that operation, if that, if that's in
7:36
their mind, I don't know so. If you're following that logic,
7:40
then that would make sense, wouldn't it?
7:41
Absolutely does, no. He was asked at the press
7:44
conference whether there would be boots on the ground in
7:47
Venezuela. And Trump said, well, we're not
7:50
afraid of boots on the ground. We're not afraid of it.
7:52
We don't mind saying it. And we're going to make sure
7:55
that the country is run properly.
7:57
We're not doing this in vain. And then in yesterday's
8:00
interview with The Atlantic, they are reporting him.
8:04
Well, they say that Trump delivered a direct threat to
8:07
Venezuela's new leader, Rodriguez.
8:10
If she doesn't do what's right, she's going to pay a very big
8:12
price, is what they're quoting him as saying.
8:14
Probably bigger than Maduro. And he made clear that he would
8:18
not stand for any defiant rejection of the armed
8:22
intervention in the United by the United States that resulted
8:26
in Maduras capture. He was asked how regime change
8:29
in Venezuela is different from the regime change that he
8:33
himself had opposed in Iraq. And he sort of rushed that off.
8:37
He said, I didn't do Iraq. That was George W Bush.
8:40
That's. The difference I've.
8:42
Asked Bush that question. Because we should never have
8:45
gone into Iraq. That started the Middle East
8:48
disaster. So you know.
8:49
Is he just a neo con now then Trump?
8:51
Is that what's happened? Well, this, this is something
8:53
that quite a number of people are saying is, is MAGA going to
8:56
turn into a neo con, you know, movement at this point, right?
9:00
It's quite incredible. And then he was asked about
9:04
taking over Greenland and he continued, We do need Greenland,
9:08
absolutely. We need it for defence.
9:10
And he said that this was because it was surrounded by
9:14
Russian and Chinese ships. So the question then is what's
9:18
the international response between one of the UN Security
9:20
Council has scheduled an emergency session for today.
9:24
I believe that's taking place 10 Amus Eastern Time.
9:28
So here's the the report from that from the Security Council
9:32
report and they're talking about the United States's snatch and
9:36
grab operation. They're saying that, well,
9:41
basically this, this report here from Security Council report
9:44
saying that this session has been brought about by Colombia
9:47
with the support of Russia and China.
9:50
The Kelly, Kelly, sorry, Kya Callas, the foreign security
9:55
policy administrator for the European Commission, was
9:58
tweeting out on Saturday. I've spoken with Secretary of
10:02
State Marco Rubio and our ambassador in Caracas.
10:05
The EU is closely monitoring the situation in Venezuela.
10:08
The EU has repeatedly stated that Mister Maduro lacks
10:11
legitimacy and has defended a peaceful transition, defended a
10:16
peaceful transition under all circumstances.
10:18
The principles of international law and the UN Charter must be
10:21
respected. We call for restraint.
10:24
The safety of EU citizens in the country is our top priority.
10:28
So she's basically, basically saying, yeah, it's fine that
10:31
they went ahead and did this, but but I'm going to defend
10:34
international law. So break international law, but
10:38
we're going to defend. It to the UN.
10:40
Yeah, Ursula von der Leyen then called for a peaceful transition
10:45
and she said following very closely the situation in
10:48
Venezuela, we stand by the people of Venezuela and support
10:51
a peaceful and democratic transition.
10:52
Any solution must respect international law and the UN
10:55
Charter. So there you go.
10:57
That was pretty much that. And then Friedrich Merckx called
11:01
the situation complex. He said the legal assessment of
11:06
the US intervention is complex and requires careful
11:09
consideration. International law remains the
11:11
guiding framework. So you start to see the theme,
11:14
the common narrative between all these people here and well,
11:19
let's see, what did Farage say here in the UK?
11:21
Well, here he is. The American actions in
11:24
Venezuela overnight or unorthodox and contrary to
11:26
international law. But they make China.
11:29
But if they make China and Russia think twice, it may be a
11:32
good thing. So don't worry, international
11:34
law's there and it is in breach of that.
11:36
But don't worry about that. So long as it has the outcome of
11:39
making China and Russia, I think it's a good thing.
11:41
So let's finish this little segment with the wonderful Keir
11:45
Starmer and his comments, because this is what he had to
11:48
say. The UK has long supported the
11:50
transition of power in Venezuela.
11:52
We regarded Maduro, Maduro as an illegitimate president.
11:55
We shed no tears about the end of his regime.
11:59
But here we go. I reiterated my support for
12:01
international law this morning. The UK government will discuss
12:05
the evolving situation with the US counterparts in the days
12:08
ahead as we seek a safe, safe and peaceful transition to
12:12
legitimate government. So clearly all the Western
12:15
powers reacting in exactly the same way to what the United
12:19
States has done. Yeah, we don't.
12:21
We didn't like Maduro. We're glad to see the back of
12:23
him. But of course we got to support
12:25
international. Law got to wag our finger a
12:28
little bit and say how disapproving we are.
12:30
Precisely. Yeah, right.
12:31
But the whole thing just rumbles on.
12:33
Quite incredible. Isn't it just?
12:35
Isn't it just? But it doesn't end there, Ben.
12:37
It certainly doesn't end there. No, let's just let's just talk
12:40
about Trump very quickly, Rob, because this is we're right into
12:43
the, we're getting into the business end of the second term.
12:47
And the thing that always jumps out at me, you started your
12:51
segment by saying we're accused of TDs, right?
12:54
Well, I remember Trump 1.0. So 2016 to 20 is a completely
13:00
different proposition to what we're looking at now, right?
13:03
So he was very famously putting himself forward as being anti
13:07
foreign war. We're not sending blood and
13:10
treasure overseas to overthrow foreign dictators or whatever it
13:14
might be. Even though he was actually
13:16
running quite a lot of military operations in the background.
13:18
He didn't start any new conflicts.
13:21
Absolutely. But now it's sort of just though
13:23
not even a year into his second term, he was he's kicking off in
13:27
Nigeria over Christmas. We've got this operation special
13:32
operation that's kicked off now. When somebody else used the term
13:35
special military operation. Yes, they said.
13:37
Yeah. That that had a different.
13:39
Result he's on the different side, you see, so it's different
13:42
for them, but this is it's, it's amazing.
13:46
And actually that his base is kind of going along with it.
13:49
And it strikes me that this, the, the Biden term, that single
13:53
term was basically nearly four years of ritual humiliation to
13:56
enrage the MAGA base so that Trump can now be let off the
14:00
leash and go and stamp his mark across.
14:04
Well, wherever he's been in Nigeria, he's been in Venezuela.
14:07
They're talking about maybe taking Greenland at some point.
14:11
I mean, who knows, right? I mean, this is this is
14:14
intercontinental grand strategy of the The Kissinger Playbook.
14:20
And we'll come on to Henry Kissinger again in a moment.
14:24
I actually ended my last Monday news segment of 2025 with this
14:29
story of Rothschild and Co. We can just get that up on
14:34
screen where we had the the great and the good of NATO and
14:41
civil service establishment here in the UK, convening at the
14:44
Rothschild and Care offices in the City of London to talk about
14:47
the opportunity for investors throughout the capital stack of
14:52
investing in weapons and death, basically the military
14:56
industrial complex. So that's how we ended last
14:59
year. And then this year it all kicked
15:01
off with Lord Rothschild himself congratulating Donald J Trump on
15:08
the liberation of Venezuela, Venezuela Libre over on X.
15:13
But this couldn't really have been a celebration of making
15:16
lots of money out of kinetic warfare because, well, I was
15:19
going to say, it seems like not a single shot was fired.
15:22
He's described it as the biggest or best military operation since
15:25
World War 2. But we've not actually seen
15:27
anything. You know, in this day and age
15:29
where you see almost live streamed military activities, it
15:33
happens. Like in this instance, we've not
15:35
seen anything at all, have we? But that is, that in itself is
15:38
quite remarkable. Well, he was suggesting that
15:41
there were quite a number of deaths on the Venezuelan side,
15:44
No deaths on the United States side.
15:46
That's what he was saying more or less during his press
15:49
conference. Yeah, but it was quick.
15:51
Whatever we can say about it, it happened pretty quickly.
15:53
So they're not going to be making loads of money in the
15:56
military industrial complex on this particular conflict.
16:00
So what was it about then for for Lord Rothschild?
16:03
Was it about oil potentially? They're sitting on a lot of oil.
16:06
David Miller doesn't think so. So actually David was over on X
16:12
opining about the fact that this is actually a message from what
16:15
he calls Pax Judaica to the rest of the world.
16:18
We own Trump and so we own you. It was a dry run for a new type
16:22
of regime change mission, low cost, lower risk, lighter
16:25
footprint, which Netanyahu was imposed on the US as a
16:28
replacement for his and Pax Judaica's previous model, which
16:32
used American troops and treasure to impose ground
16:34
invasions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and elsewhere.
16:39
So actually, this is a move by Hax Judaica, the, the, the, the
16:45
Jewish empire ultimately, which is what Miller's referring to
16:49
and that we've seen in operation across Latin America, the South
16:55
American continent over the past 12 months and of course, before
16:58
that. But it's really coming to a head
16:59
now. We had this announcement back in
17:03
November. This is the Isaac Chords, which
17:07
was signed by Javier Miley, the Uber Zionist president of
17:13
Argentina, often seen crying his eyes out at the Wailing Wall in
17:18
Jerusalem. He signed the Isaac Accords.
17:20
This is basically a version of the Abraham Accords for Latin
17:26
America, whereas the Abraham Accords focused on the Middle
17:28
East and includes Saudi Arabia, the UAE, as well as Israel.
17:33
And this is based on establishing free trade
17:36
agreements between Israel and countries that sign up to it.
17:40
Those countries will agree to move their embassy to Jerusalem
17:45
in the same way that the US did during Trump's first term.
17:49
Actually, these participants will sign the an official
17:53
declaration that Hamas and Hezbollah are terrorist groups,
17:56
of course, and they will adopt the IHRA definition of
18:00
anti-Semitism in order to be part of this club essentially.
18:03
All right. And this is from November.
18:07
And now we see this happening in Venezuela.
18:12
It seems to me that this is part of part of the deal, ultimately.
18:15
It's also a massive, massive, massive, just another
18:18
distraction from the Epstein files.
18:21
So these have been dripping out over the past few weeks and
18:24
months. Trump seems to figure pretty
18:26
heavily in them, as well as most of the rest of the US political
18:29
establishment the past 30 or 40 years.
18:32
So what are we going to do? We'll start a war so we don't
18:35
have to talk about this. And a lot of this is being
18:38
promoted and aided by the the right wing commentariat, the the
18:43
MAGA patriot Instagram types, not least this guy.
18:48
This is BC Drano Rogan O Handley who popped up during COVID as a
18:53
freedom protester. But actually it's turned out to
18:55
be a Slavist Zionist regime propagandist.
19:00
Basically he's got 3,000,000 followers on Instagram.
19:03
And it really caught my attention how he was talking
19:05
about this, this Venezuelan situation over the weekend.
19:10
Just have a look at this, right? Look at the language and look at
19:12
how it's been presented. So they're saying that Trump has
19:16
just captured Venezuela's communist president and sees
19:20
17.3 trillion in oil reserves. This is going to deliver an
19:24
economic boom, the biggest economic boom in American
19:27
history. Win, win for Trump here.
19:29
It's what it looks like. They've got 303 billion barrels
19:34
of crude oil, which the US now controls.
19:37
And according to this analysis, if they just sold all of that,
19:40
then we'd wipe out a third of the national debt in just 12
19:44
hours. Trump, what a deal, what a guy.
19:46
Trump's managed to to to execute this.
19:49
And it wasn't just about oil. It was about protecting the US
19:53
dollar. You see over there on the right
19:55
hand side, which is the world's reserve currency.
19:57
And that was down to an agreement made between Kissinger
20:02
and Saudi Arabia in 1974. All oil sold globally must be
20:06
priced in U.S. dollars. So they're validating Kissinger.
20:09
They're saying Kissinger was a good guy, it was good for
20:12
America. And Trump is protecting this
20:15
legacy ultimately. And apparently, according to
20:18
this guy, China was hours away from ending dollar supremacy.
20:22
And then we're going to do that in a number of ways.
20:25
And make the kuan the the, the new world currency through these
20:30
new payment systems, relationships between the BRICS
20:35
countries. And Trump stops it just in time.
20:40
Thank goodness me for Trump. Isn't he incredible?
20:44
And if you mess with the dollar, you disappear every single time.
20:48
It's amazing language. This isn't it.
20:51
And this is this. And this is the the, the mindset
20:55
that is being pushed into the American patriot right at the
20:59
moment. This is America first,
21:02
essentially. Yeah.
21:03
And that means American basically means America can do
21:06
whatever it wants and the rest of the world can go swing.
21:10
And that was American foreign policy, well, for decades.
21:15
And and we thought that was coming to an end, but it isn't.
21:18
And Trump is fully embracing it. And actually you can.
21:21
We can get that back on screen quickly.
21:23
We can see that one of the big bonuses apparently is that
21:26
America has just secured fuel for the $10 trillion AI and EV
21:31
boom. So apparently this oil windfall
21:35
is going to help with the AI and electric vehicles.
21:40
Again, It's all about. The other thing we've got to
21:42
remember is that Venezuela has quite a bit of quite a lot of
21:46
rare earths as. Well, does it?
21:47
Absolutely. Well, that's a happy accident,
21:49
isn't it? Goodness, fantastic.
21:53
And and this is all presented in the language of the kind of
21:58
start up Silicon Valley, 10X your investment type worldview.
22:07
And they talk about this idea of smart money.
22:10
He's paying attention to what Trump's done.
22:12
But now you can do this too, right?
22:15
So nations do it on a global scale, but you can do this at a
22:18
local scale. And this is all about building
22:20
Internet businesses and owning deal flow across digital
22:25
platforms. You can make loads of money, 50
22:28
grand a month, mostly passive. This is all from the same
22:31
statement, by the way. This is just one thing.
22:33
I think This is why I think it's particularly interesting to put
22:35
this stuff together. And this is all being positioned
22:38
towards these people. Blonde haired, blue eyed white
22:42
American patriots who are supposedly Trump's people and
22:46
that they should be buying into this whole, this whole agenda
22:51
for. It's just amazing.
22:52
It's all presented like this. So it's the strong man, the
22:55
strong, rugged individual leader taking control.
22:59
Faffo. You know what faffo means.
23:01
Tell me. Faff around and find out.
23:04
Really. Yes, yeah, yeah.
23:07
So no games faffo and Tommy Robinson loves it.
23:10
So this is obviously lit up the UK the the the supposed patriot
23:16
right in the UK literally calling for him to go to Downing
23:20
St. and to kidnap Keir Starmer, Lawrence Fox doing more or less
23:25
the same thing and saying there we go.
23:28
Could you send over some rugged individualists to free us from
23:31
the warm embrace of collectivism?
23:33
And that's a a direct reference to the inaugural address just
23:38
three or four days ago by Zara Mandami in New York, the new
23:42
mayor of New York saying that we will replace the fragility of
23:46
rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.
23:49
So the rugged individualism is Trump and his faffo meme and
23:55
kidnapping communist leaders as, as Mandami would put it, he
23:59
probably wouldn't call him a dictator, call him a communist
24:02
leader. And, and, and that is he's
24:07
basically Trump's become a bogeyman.
24:09
And it's deliberate, right? They're doing this deliberately
24:12
in order to provoke a reaction and to drive parts of the
24:16
population into collectivism and and and ultimately into
24:20
communism because actually, if you go far enough up chain,
24:23
these things begin to coalesce, come back together, not least
24:26
through people. ISO ran Mandami and this is one
24:29
of the the images that we shared when he was voted in just a few
24:32
months ago. That's him with Alex Soros, son
24:35
of George Soros, who is now the the chair of Open Societies
24:39
Foundation, which is supposedly a liberal progressive NGO
24:42
promoting better future for the whole humanity.
24:45
But she's also a strategic partner of the World Economic
24:48
Forum. So now you can see that
24:50
socialism and capitalism, collectivism and collectivism
24:54
and individualism all kind of coalesce together into this
24:57
totalitarian system. It's been built around us.
25:00
And that situation in Venezuela is just one great example of how
25:06
it's all playing out. We'll keep you posted on this as
25:09
it goes. Vanessa is going to have more on
25:11
this on Wednesday. And I've no doubt.
25:14
But Brian, let's, let's welcome you back to the program and
25:17
well, Starmer and the European Union because of course, part
25:21
and parcel of everything that's going on, going on at the moment
25:24
is the threat to the nation itself.
25:29
Thank you, Mike. Well, of course, that's
25:31
absolutely right. I just felt that while we had
25:34
these momentous world events happening, it was a good thing
25:37
to keep an eye on what was happening with Keir Starmer and
25:41
as you say, the European Union. And fascinating for me that my
25:47
interpretation of what he's up to at the moment Reawoke work
25:52
that UK. Column did back in 2006.
25:58
When we were warning about certain things happening with
26:01
young people in the UK. But let's open up with the way
26:05
the papers have been reporting. So I've just chosen a couple
26:08
here. We've got the OA paper.
26:11
It's talking about a softer course for Brexit.
26:14
It's interesting that title because it's almost as though.
26:18
We haven't come out and we're doing a softer course to get out
26:22
of the EU. You came up with a wonderful UK
26:26
column expression of Brexit without the exit and that's
26:31
stayed out of position. So we've never fully left the
26:35
EU. But here's the Daily Express
26:38
going much stronger and saying full blown Brexit betrayal.
26:42
And if that was the two of the newspaper headlines, then for me
26:48
it was also important to keep my eye on what the BBC was saying.
26:52
So let's bring in this one. So this headline is what's
26:56
behind the PMS notable shift on closer ties to Europe.
27:00
And in the article, really the message is very strongly.
27:04
Well, it's just a little bit of manipulation around the single
27:09
market helping get trade flow. It's about food in particular
27:14
and farm exports. They need some help.
27:17
Electricity comes into it. But of course, of course, as a
27:20
nation state we can't even power the country.
27:23
We need to draw on the European grid.
27:26
So it wasn't only electricity, but it's also trading in power.
27:31
I thought that was interesting. Let's have a look at another
27:33
headline here because here we should release.
27:36
They want to pay attention because in this BBC report on a
27:40
notable shift to closer ties with Europe, we see that in the
27:46
text Stormer is acknowledging that what he's doing is a
27:51
sovereign decision. And I thought this was a very,
27:54
very important line. OK, he's saying we've got the
27:58
best relationship with the EU for 10 years, but I think in
28:02
this article he's having to recognise that what he is doing
28:07
is absolutely touching on and abusing constitutional issues
28:12
and he absolutely needs to be called out for it.
28:15
Let's go on to another headline and see what we get from that.
28:18
And this time we've got Rachel Reeves.
28:21
And in this BBC headline, it's talking about her having pushed
28:25
for an ambitious youth migration deal and saying that the UK
28:30
agreed to work towards a. Youth experience visa Now many
28:35
people would just think this is sort of fluff and nonsense it's
28:38
just to do with. Is to do with youth and students
28:42
and it's it's a few thousand students coming into the UK for
28:47
Europe but is that really what's happening let's have a look at
28:50
the background to this and this is the meat of it which has come
28:55
out in another article here by the Independent.
29:00
I think it is where it it actually says that the UK is
29:04
going to rejoin the EU. Erasmus student exchange scheme.
29:09
Now people have never heard of this before.
29:12
You need to really know about it and understand it.
29:15
Erasmus, if I remember correctly, a Dutch Renaissance
29:21
thinker, also a priest and a humanist, but he has been taken
29:26
up by the European Union as the. Model.
29:29
For young people. So where does this leave us?
29:32
Well, let's actually have a look at the scheme itself.
29:36
And I've just got a headline here to to bring up on screen.
29:39
So this is the Erasmus literature from the EU itself.
29:43
It's talking 2021 through to 2027.
29:48
And this is all about engaging youth.
29:52
So if we have a look at the actual costs involved here, this
29:55
is no small program because we're talking about €26.2
30:01
billion in order to gauge engage youth.
30:06
And why do they want to do this? Well, the blue arrow there is
30:10
highlighting that this is all about reframing the minds of
30:14
thousands and thousands of young people in order to get them to
30:19
believe that they're not German or British or French or Dutch.
30:23
They're actually part of the European project and they're
30:27
going to think in terms of no borders, never mind Brexit, no
30:31
borders. They're going to move between
30:33
countries and they're going to be an internationalist in their
30:37
whole spirit. Here's a little video clip which
30:40
probably spells it out better than me.
30:43
This isn't about your Erasmus in the first instance, it's about
30:46
the EU's youth project, but nevertheless this is about.
30:50
As young people, we have the power to shape the European
30:53
Union's future. The EU Youth Dialogue is all
30:57
about bridging the gap between young people and policy makers.
31:01
It offers us a unique opportunity to make political
31:03
decision makers aware of what truly matters to us.
31:07
Every EU Youth Dialogue takes place under a trio presidency,
31:11
with three countries chairing the Council of the European
31:14
Union. Over an 18 month cycle, these
31:17
countries take it in turns to organize our EU Youth
31:20
Conference, where we meet and debate on the chosen topics from
31:24
the EU Youth Dialogue. During each cycle, we young
31:28
Europeans are first consulted, making sure there is a wide
31:32
range of perspectives. Next, we discuss the results and
31:35
make recommendations for European Union and Member State
31:38
policies. So let's take the opportunity to
31:41
voice our views and help shape European societies, because the
31:46
best future for Europe is 1 in which we can engage, connect and
31:50
empower youth. So that's it in a nutshell.
31:56
This is about grooming, reframing, training young people
32:00
to believe in the European mind, to believe in the European
32:04
project. And of course, once they've been
32:06
trained and reframed, they're put in positions of making
32:11
policy. So if they can come into
32:13
politics, all the better. But also NGOs and other agencies
32:17
and these are the people that help drive European policy
32:22
within their own country of origin or the host country in
32:27
which they now reside. So this is very, very dangerous
32:30
stuff. Let's just put up a little bit
32:32
of a label over the top of this because the key point here for
32:35
people, if we pop this one on the screen, screen Mike, and
32:39
this is about reframing you. So if we so if we bring in the
32:44
ad on there and to that slide, this is all about reframing
32:48
youth to believe in Europe and the European project over and
32:52
above their own nation state. So this is a Trojan horse to
32:57
bring in European policy into the UK.
33:00
Starmer absolutely knows what it's about.
33:03
And I just want to remind viewers that way back in 2006,
33:08
the UK column was alone in warning about the highly pro EU
33:12
charity Common Purpose and what it was doing in order to adopt
33:17
the same European reframing of children, not of teenagers
33:22
university age, but children from about the age of 12 onwards
33:27
in UK schools. So I think this is very
33:30
dangerous and it says to me that Starmer is absolutely wanting to
33:34
continue the EU. He's no intention of making any
33:39
form of Brexit hard or soft. As as we have been suggesting
33:45
for a long time, this of course this is a unit party policy, not
33:48
just not just Starmer. He's just the latest step along
33:53
the way. Now let's just remind everybody
33:57
that we can't do what we do without your help.
34:00
And I want to say thank you very much to everybody that helped us
34:02
in 20252026 is a new year and we're going to have lots going
34:06
on this year. If you can't support us
34:08
financially, please click on the Click here button on the front
34:13
page of the website. It'll take you to a page that
34:14
shows how you can support us. If you can't support us
34:18
financially, do share all the stuff you find on the UK column
34:22
website. There is a host material there
34:24
to share that helps us defeat the the censorship regime.
34:29
The more of you that take part in that the better and is
34:33
equally appreciated. Now tonight at 7:00 PM, Jeremy's
34:37
back building a social contract to dismantle the base system.
34:40
This is discussion with James Roguski about the failure of
34:43
governments and public health systems.
34:46
So join us at 7:00 PM for that. And at 1:00 PM tomorrow, Diane
34:51
is talking to Chris Allen and Brent Holloway of the Cumbria of
34:54
Cumbria Action about their outreach work towards the
34:58
raising towards raising public awareness of globalist agendas.
35:02
So join us for that as well. And then on Sunday at 7:00 PM,
35:08
we will have the latest 1000 Words podcast.
35:13
Let's have a look at a short trailer.
35:17
We're going to be chastised by the by the truther slash freedom
35:21
slash cult, I said. Terry's dead.
35:28
And then I laughed. But you know, rabbit holes are
35:31
underground. You know, they're, they're,
35:33
they're, they're the opposite way to.
35:35
And that woman behind me was crying.
35:38
So I just without sounding like I'm, I'm not Mother Teresa,
35:41
thank God, because he's. Right TuneIn this Sunday at 7:00
35:43
PM for 1000 Words with comedian Abby Roberts.
35:49
So I'll be I'll be Roberts. This is the next portrait to be
35:53
pitted by Jake Ferns to join us at 7:00 PM for the first of the
35:58
podcasts on the on that. And that should be a bit of fun.
36:04
OK, now let's move back to the UK and the 2026 International
36:10
Security and Intelligence Program.
36:13
So let's bring it on screen. This is Cambridge University.
36:16
It's going to be hosted once again at Emmanuel College at
36:20
Cambridge University. This is a residential program.
36:23
It's going to run from the Sunday the 5th of July to
36:26
Saturday the 1st of August. So basically a whole month is
36:29
going to be chaired by Richard Dearlove, the former chief of MI
36:33
6. And well, the Cambridge Security
36:37
Initiative was launched the International Security and
36:40
Intelligence Program in 2016. And they said that the aim of
36:44
what they describe as a unique program is to provide an
36:47
opportunity for participants to engage with leading academics
36:50
and practitioners from the intelligence and security
36:53
communities in the historic setting of one of the world's
36:56
foremost universities. I believe it's also probably one
36:59
of the most common sources of traitorous behaviour in in this
37:04
in the country as well, but maybe that may may be a
37:07
misunderstanding of history. I don't.
37:08
Well, they did. They say that Cambridge produces
37:11
the heretics and Oxford burns them.
37:14
Really. Yes.
37:16
Anyway, the teaching program, because this is a teaching
37:18
program, closely follows that of Cambridge University with
37:21
lecture, seminars and supervisions, which, well, we
37:26
can decide what those are later. All the instruction is is
37:30
conducted under Chatham House rules.
37:32
And So what they say is that that means that when a meeting
37:34
is held under Chatham House rules, participants are free to
37:37
use the information received, but neither the identity nor the
37:40
affiliation of the speaker nor that of any other participant
37:44
may be revealed. So applicants applications are
37:47
invited from undergraduates have completed at least a year of
37:50
university UH and sometimes more.
37:54
UH, also graduates and early career professionals with an
37:56
intellectual or professional interest in statecraft and the
38:00
interlocking themes of intelligence, security,
38:02
strategy, defence and in foreign policy.
38:05
And so, Ben, my question is, is this about education or is this
38:10
in fact a recruitment programme? Brian, I don't know if you've
38:14
got any thoughts on that. Is this about recruitment?
38:17
I've I've I've asked one or two other people about this and and
38:21
their view is that it could very well be more about recruitment
38:25
than anything else, but I'd be interested in your thoughts.
38:29
Well, my, my immediate response, Mike, is it's so difficult to
38:33
tell now what's going on. Are we dealing with the state?
38:36
Are we dealing with the government?
38:37
We're dealing with agents of the state.
38:40
It's become increasingly difficult to tell whether thing
38:44
whether people are running the country in line with the
38:48
Constitution. Or they are a cabal that's
38:52
running to their, you know, to their own agenda.
38:55
What are you reporting on Venezuela?
38:57
Just to jump back to that subject, I thought to myself,
39:00
well, here we are with. America totally out of control,
39:04
ignoring the rules based international order just to
39:08
throw the rock in the pond. But of course we've got Auk
39:11
government that's voted. In a whole load of legislation
39:14
to allow it to break the law, we shouldn't be surprised.
39:18
To allow it to break the law itself or its agents to break
39:21
the law, we shouldn't be surprised.
39:23
Now whether we see increasingly murky groups set up, we've no
39:28
idea what they're really there or doing.
39:30
And we need to ask that question.
39:32
Certainly we need to lift the stones to find out.
39:36
Indeed. Well, the program directors.
39:38
Here's the first one. Professor Michael Goodman, and
39:41
he formerly head of War Studies and now Professor of
39:45
Intelligence and International Affairs at King's College
39:47
London. He's the official historian of
39:50
the historian of the British Joint Intelligence Committee and
39:53
a visiting professor at the Norwegian Defence Intelligence
39:56
School. He's a British Army reservist.
39:59
They're not clear as to who he's a reservist for.
40:01
Is it 77 Brigade perhaps? And has spent many years
40:05
seconded to the Cabinet Office in the Ministry of Defence.
40:07
And then Professor David Glow, who's visiting Professor of the
40:12
Department of War Studies, King's College London.
40:15
Recently British Academy Global Professor at the Department of
40:18
War Studies and formerly Associate Professor of History
40:21
at U.S. Military Academy in West Point.
40:24
And well, the little synopsis says that he brings 25 years of
40:29
combined active and reserve service working in the US
40:32
intelligence community, including analytical and
40:34
operational roles in the FBI, CIA, DIA and Office of Naval
40:39
Intelligence. So as I say, the teaching format
40:45
closely follows that of Cambridge University and so on.
40:48
But look, the connections here into the whole Russia Gate thing
40:53
in the United States. We've, we look at Russia Gate to
40:56
start off with Christopher Steele, he's involved with this
40:59
organization. Stefan Halper absolutely.
41:01
Richard Dearlove is chairing this event.
41:04
Christopher Andrew, the official historian of MI Five.
41:07
Well, he's not directly connected to this particular
41:11
event, but his his, his work, his academic work, his
41:15
historical work on MI 5 is absolutely part and parcel of
41:18
the curriculum for this. So that's the Cambridge four
41:22
that we talked about with respect to Russia Gate.
41:24
But then also we've got the same types of people involved with
41:28
the Skripal case as well, which is all about building narratives
41:32
against Russia. In fact, Russia Gate, the attack
41:35
on Trump was also really about a narrative against Russia
41:38
interfering and so on. And then if we just focus on
41:42
Christopher Steele for a second, of course, he produced to Trump
41:47
dossier also produced or contributed to the Russia report
41:51
for the British government and also the Huawei dossier for the
41:55
British government. So you know, this, this is these
41:57
are the types of people that we have operational here and so on.
42:02
But just to to move on to another Cambridge person, of
42:07
course, the lovely Blaze Metro Welle, who was giving her
42:11
inaugural speech as the new head of MI 6 just before Christmas
42:16
was she of course, was outed as the granddaughter of the
42:22
infamous, shall we say, Ukrainian Nazi collaborator
42:24
Konstantin Dobrovolski, known to the Abver as the butcher.
42:30
And that was from 1941 to 1943. And he was accused of rounding
42:35
up Ukrainian Jews for slaughter and bragging about the
42:39
extermination his his part in the extermination of the Jews,
42:43
now Blaise Metro. Eli's response was to deny any
42:47
knowledge or contact with him. And then the Foreign Office and
42:51
MI 6 issued statements that the BBC was happy to to promote,
42:57
saying that Blaise's ancestry is characterized by conflict and
43:01
division, and as is the case for many with Eastern European
43:05
heritage, only partially understood.
43:07
It's precisely this complex heritage which has contributed
43:10
to our commitment to prevent conflict and protect the British
43:13
public from modern threats from today's hostile states.
43:16
As the next chief of MI 6:00 Well, it turns out that
43:20
Metrovelli's father, Constantine Dobrovolski Junior was was
43:25
raised by another Nazi collaborator.
43:27
Collaborator. That was his stepfather, David
43:29
Metrovelli, who worked at an Abfair run special preliminary
43:36
camp at Auschwitz. The camp was in the town of
43:40
Auschwitz, but it wasn't the same as the concentration camp
43:43
that's known by that name now. He was apparently teaching radio
43:49
technology to radio operatives for the Abfair, and it's also
43:55
noted that he's obviously Georgian.
43:57
As we've mentioned from the name, he was also providing
44:01
instruction to members of the Georgian Legion, which was also
44:05
collaborating with the Nazis. Brian, MI 6 must have understood
44:11
enough about her family history before they recruited her.
44:18
And now she's following her career in MI 6.
44:22
MI 6 is now under her command. And so I wonder, you know,
44:26
obviously, having a grandfather who was known as the butcher and
44:31
a Nazi collaborator, and also therefore her father being
44:34
brought up by another Nazi collaborator, that doesn't make
44:38
her a Nazi necessarily. But, you know, what were MI 6
44:43
thinking in the recruitment process, do you think?
44:47
I mean, why would they choose someone with this kind of family
44:49
background? Because, as I understand it,
44:52
intelligence operatives are fairly well vetted.
44:57
Well, very good question, Mike. And my immediate response is
45:01
that if you're involved in murky dirty business, you want to
45:06
recruit somebody for who come from comes from a murky dirty
45:10
background. So in some ways I could look at
45:13
her and say, yeah, OK, this is exactly the lady they want
45:16
because The Dirty work that's going on in Ukraine in
45:20
particular. Is clearly going to continue
45:23
throughout this year and many forecast into into next year.
45:27
UK is heavily involved in a war, although it's denying that it
45:31
is. So whether we've got troops on
45:34
the ground or we've got special intelligence services active in
45:38
the background, do you want somebody who's capable of of
45:42
operating in that murky way. So my my initial impression is
45:46
this woman would have been specially chosen.
45:50
Because of her connections and murky pass, she's acceptable to
45:55
both sides of the Presumably she's acceptable to both sides
45:59
of the Ukrainian political divide, those that are on the
46:03
extreme right wing in Ukraine, which of course nobody,
46:07
including the BBC wants to talk about anymore, or whether she's
46:11
connected into the cleaner, more modern Ukrainian political
46:17
circles. But they absolutely.
46:20
Absolutely would have known what this woman's background is.
46:23
My opinion is she's been chosen because of that murky
46:27
background. Thanks, Brian.
46:29
Now let's let's come on back on to other UK topics and something
46:35
that we've been, well, it's been a topic of conversation for
46:38
many, many years. And that is the question of the
46:41
House of Commons and, and the the Palace of Westminster and
46:44
whether it's actually capable of hosting the House of Commons and
46:48
the House of Lords anymore. I mean, obviously we've just
46:50
seen Big Ben refurbished and it's looking spectacularly good
46:55
at the moment, it has to be said.
46:56
But that's the outside. What about the inside?
47:01
Well, this is a good question. Perhaps we're going into another
47:04
dirty, murky subject, but I wanted to flag this up because
47:08
again, the UK column was. Talking about the the whole
47:12
concept of a major refurbishment to the Parliament in UK, this
47:17
was being discussed 50, least 15 years ago and we said that at a
47:22
time when we've got the sort of iron fist of the EU around our
47:29
throats as a nation state. It was very worrying if we were
47:33
going to see Parliament broken up for refurbishment, recited
47:38
possibly in another city, a time of great turbulence when there
47:44
was another political power clearly attempting to take full
47:48
control of the country. We're in a time of turbulence
47:51
again and what is now cropped up is that we are to have a major
47:57
refurbishment of Parliament. So I'm very wary as to what's
48:01
going on here in a political sense.
48:03
But also many years ago I had experience of working in a
48:07
company undertaking major conditions surveys for very,
48:12
very big properties and so including some of the EU's own
48:16
buildings in Brussels. And so I've got a little bit of
48:19
professional knowledge about how this system works.
48:23
And when I look at what we're being told in the media about
48:26
what's to happen with Westminster, some of it does not
48:31
stack up. So let's have a look at how this
48:34
is being reported. No apologies for picking the BBC
48:38
because the BB CS, the biggest propaganda outlet in the
48:42
country, so many people being affected.
48:45
But the picture I'll just describe first of all, because I
48:48
suspect some people have trouble seeing what it is.
48:51
It's the BB CS picture of part of the problem with Westminster.
48:55
So you're down in the bowels of the the building and what you're
48:59
looking at isn't a rat's nest, which you might expect to find
49:03
in Parliament. No, what you're looking at is a
49:06
massive mess of data cables. And my immediate response is if
49:12
that is indeed the condition of those cables, somebody needs to
49:16
be on a health and safety charge because it's outrageous.
49:20
No other company would be allowed that.
49:22
But underneath we've got some of the the meat of what this
49:26
report's talking about. So it's talking about these
49:29
works taking 19 to 28 years to complete with Parliament vacated
49:37
or partly vacated or partly relocated for some 12 to 20
49:42
years. And I've added a question mark
49:44
after that because this time scale is not set.
49:49
Now. There's more pictures here from
49:50
the BBC now. They tried to make out as though
49:54
this is an absolute disaster, but many people in the
49:58
professional world of building can of, of buildings and their
50:02
condition will say, well, this looks pretty neat and tidy
50:06
compared to many. But I can accept that the
50:09
system's rolled. So we've got all sorts of
50:12
heating, pipe work, ventilation, which is down under the building
50:17
if we just bring you over the overlay.
50:19
This is what the BBC says, a hot and fusty corridor in the
50:24
basement, the Houses of Parliament which carries
50:26
hundreds of tangled gas pipes, water mains and electrical
50:30
wires, some of which are redundant, dangerous and need
50:33
replacing. Well, this would be what you
50:36
would see in most older commercial properties,
50:39
particularly up in London. But for some reason, now we're
50:43
onto the subject of Westminster. My goodness, this is a nightmare
50:47
that nobody's capable of sorting out.
50:49
So if we go to the next one, we got another picture.
50:52
This is a 1945 pipe that was leaking at the flange at one
50:57
point. So there's a little bit of a
50:59
rust stain on it. But what does the BBC say?
51:02
Well, it says that this pipe has been decommissioned and needs to
51:06
be removed. However, getting it out requires
51:09
removing the otherwise entwined around it.
51:13
They can't. They can't be isolated, meaning
51:15
the whole system would have to be shut off.
51:18
This is completely normal. No commercial operation would be
51:23
batting an eyelid at this is what happens in big and small
51:27
commercial properties right the way across UK and indeed
51:31
worldwide. But suddenly for Parliament it's
51:34
a huge problem. We've had to create a specialist
51:37
company. Let's have a look at it.
51:38
It's it's the restoration and renewal company that's already
51:45
spending about 79 million a year in order to think about and plan
51:51
what this refurbishment is, is, is going to be and how it's
51:55
going to work and what is the cost.
51:57
Well, this is where my eyes really started to to bulge
52:01
because apparently to refurbish this building is going to cost
52:06
between 7:00 and £13 billion and this is Conservative estimate.
52:11
And I'm thinking to myself, my goodness, what commercial
52:14
operation would be looking at the possibility of non inability
52:20
to use a building over 20 years and possibly spending £13
52:24
billion to refurbishment, refurbish it.
52:28
It sounds incredible. So if we get into a little bit
52:32
more of the detail, this is from that company's own reports.
52:36
This is just a very simplistic list of what's going to take
52:40
place. So the top one which I've
52:43
highlighted is it says save the building and renew failing
52:48
building services. And the top subject is building
52:52
services such as heating, ventilation and cooling.
52:56
And apparently that is going to swallow out 51% of those
53:01
billions, which we've already identified.
53:04
This to me seems completely unbelievable, but you can see
53:08
some of the other problems underneath because they're
53:11
talking about the need to to conserve the building fabric.
53:16
That makes sense, but that's a mere 16% to the cost.
53:20
We've also got asbestos removal at 8%.
53:24
Asbestos still a big problem in many older buildings, but the
53:28
procedures for getting it out are very well established and 8%
53:32
of the overall cost sounds to me probably about right for for a
53:37
building of that age. If we go on and have a look at
53:39
the next table here, we suddenly start to see something different
53:43
because now we're looking at a working, creating a working home
53:48
for members and Parliament itself.
53:51
And that is only going to take 3% of the budget.
53:55
So we've got 51% to those billions simply on the
53:59
engineering systems and a mere 3% on achieving the reason.
54:05
I would have thought you're trying to refurbish the
54:07
building. And if we go on to the last one,
54:10
there's a lot more to this, but to give people an overview, what
54:14
are we looking at in this last one?
54:16
Well, it's a building that's got to be accessible.
54:20
And what do they mean? It means that anybody who can't
54:23
walk, they're in a wheelchair, they can have full access to the
54:29
building. And that alone is going to take
54:32
6% of those billion pounds in budget.
54:36
So some quite extraordinary things taking place here.
54:39
But if we get to the meat of my concerns in the next slide, here
54:44
is what's actually happening, because is this a simple
54:49
restoration and renewal or is it a project which is to be dragged
54:54
out over so many years? You have the opportunity to
54:57
completely disrupt and reset the UK's constitutional government.
55:03
And if you're wondering what the 48 years is that's appeared on
55:07
screen, yes, in the report by that renewal company, at one
55:13
stage they casually suggest in one of the sentences that maybe
55:19
this whole project could disrupt Parliament for 48 years.
55:25
I'm going to say as part of my prediction for 2026, what we're
55:29
looking at is now a deliberate attempt to completely undermine
55:34
and destroy stability within our political process.
55:39
And the idea that we're going to spend 13 billion on, on renewing
55:44
parliament is a complete, it's not only a nonsense, but it's so
55:48
outrageous. We we've got to ask questions as
55:51
to what's happening here. So we've got Starmer re
55:55
educating youth to believe in the European Union, and at the
55:59
same time we've got a perfect opportunity to destroy the
56:03
workings of Parliament as we know it.
56:06
So perhaps I can throw that back to you, Mike, and say there's
56:10
something at work here and I think we really need to pay
56:13
attention to it. But we've got nothing to worry
56:16
about, Ben, the Citizens Assembly.
56:17
So we're going to save the day. I don't.
56:20
Do you know what I was just going to say?
56:22
Sadiq Khan has just built a new City Hall up in East London.
56:26
Maybe they could move in there instead, if that'd be OK,
56:29
wouldn't it? Yeah.
56:30
Well, well, if the question then to to finish then is are they
56:35
intending to sell Britain? I mean, they've been flogging it
56:39
off for years, haven't they? Yes.
56:41
I mean, basically I've been doing the route.
56:43
I mean, it's, it's quite nicely LinkedIn from what Brian's just
56:46
been talking about, Right. Like I've been doing a bit of it
56:49
for the first time in a few years.
56:51
I've been going around the country on various different
56:53
trips. Went up to York for the UK
56:55
column conference. Was in Stroud with Sandy just
56:58
before Christmas. I've been exploring Devon over
57:03
the past few weeks, has been fantastic.
57:05
And I was up in my mum's over Christmas just outside of
57:07
Nottingham, small town called Bingham.
57:10
And the thing that you can't help but notice is, well the
57:13
first thing, that half the country is now covered in solar
57:15
panels, which is awful and it makes me sick to my stomach when
57:19
I see that. Then the other one that's really
57:21
getting me, and it was particularly related to seeing
57:23
my mum over Christmas, is that Bingham is this beautiful, not
57:27
quite a village. It's a little bit bigger than
57:29
that, right? But it's, it's been there for
57:31
hundreds of years. It's got a very particular feel
57:34
to it, a very particular architectural style, these
57:36
lovely red brick buildings. And it was in the middle of
57:41
fields and farmland. And you know, there's huge
57:44
swathes of the country that are like that, like these little
57:49
small villages, small Hamlets, and they're surrounded by by the
57:53
countryside by nature. And that, and that essentially
57:55
that is what the country is. And Bing urban.
58:00
And this is a good example that can be seen across the whole of
58:03
the country is now surrounded by these things.
58:05
We can get this up on screen. Are these these building sites
58:09
and these new housing estates that are going in.
58:13
And this is destroying the the soul of the nation.
58:18
Yeah, like the fabric of the country, like what it was, how
58:21
it feels, how it looks. And this is just the perfect
58:26
example for me of, of what's going on in wrong in the
58:29
country. Like where you can essentially
58:31
look at a, a field, a Meadow, you know, the surrounding of
58:38
something that is ancient and beautiful that's been there for
58:41
centuries and say, do you know what that really needs and need?
58:45
Some, you know, toy houses made by Taylor Wimpey or some other
58:51
FTSE listed house builder to come in and bulldoze over it,
58:57
overload the local infrastructure, basically fob
59:02
people off with, you know, like this is not a particular comment
59:05
about Taylor Wimpey. It's just a comment about
59:07
modern, modern construction. So we say these things are not
59:11
built to last. So there's no sympathy with the
59:13
local area. It's not an asset that you're
59:16
going to hand down through generations over potentially
59:19
centuries. It's something that you're going
59:22
to have to tear down and rebuild in 30 years or 40 years
59:26
potentially maybe even before you get to the end of the
59:28
mortgage. It's going to run out of it's
59:30
going to run out of usefulness. And this is the front line of
59:35
the the struggle that we're in at the moment.
59:37
You know, if you think about those building sites, the solar
59:41
panels going up, you know, we talk a lot about what's
59:43
happening in terms of global agenda and global policy here on
59:47
the UK column. But it manifests at a local
59:50
level, right? And so when you see these things
59:53
popping up, understand that that's being driven from these
59:57
great macroeconomic and political forces in places like
1:00:00
the City of London or Davros or wherever it might be.
1:00:03
Yeah. So that's the country
1:00:05
transforming as a consequence of these policies.
1:00:08
And the other thing that it really flagged up to me is the
1:00:11
enormous importance of independent local media, because
1:00:14
if the newspapers in those towns were doing their job properly
1:00:18
then. Some of this would be happening.
1:00:20
Yeah, indeed. Well, look, Brian, we're out of
1:00:23
time, but let's just finish with something slightly lighter
1:00:29
hearted, shall we say? Because of course we're all
1:00:33
going to die because of the snow.
1:00:36
Well, this is true. Snow's the problem, and we're
1:00:39
all to become snowflakes, to not be able to deal with those snow
1:00:43
snowflakes as they come down. But I've got to say thank you to
1:00:46
Mrs. Garish for this one because I found a laughing one morning
1:00:50
while she was looking at some reports online.
1:00:54
What? What's the whole thing about?
1:00:56
Well, of course it's the government ramping up fear of a
1:00:58
snow hitting the Uki remember the winter of 1963 as a very
1:01:04
small child when we really did have a problem with snow, but we
1:01:08
still managed to to survive as a nation.
1:01:11
The trains were able to start running again, roads were
1:01:14
cleared and people just dealt with it.
1:01:17
But now of. Course, the government says.
1:01:19
That snow, as we can see in this one, is, is a risk to life.
1:01:24
And this is the thing. It's all about fear.
1:01:27
Now who's driving the fear? Well, in these articles they
1:01:30
start talking about the extreme events and.
1:01:36
Health Protection, Health UK. Health Security Agency and
1:01:42
there's a. Particular individual who's
1:01:45
who's actually Portuguese Agostino D'souza and he's
1:01:52
interesting man. He's got a very European career,
1:01:56
but he. Said as the cold weather sets
1:01:58
in, it's vital to check in on friends, family and neighbors
1:02:02
that are the most vulnerable. And if we press the magic button
1:02:06
again, he added this, the forecasted temperatures can have
1:02:10
a serious. Impact on the health of some
1:02:12
people. Leading to increased risk of
1:02:14
heart attacks, strokes and chest infections, particularly for
1:02:17
individuals over the age of 65 and those with pre-existing
1:02:21
health conditions. So I I think we should thank
1:02:25
Agostino. For thinking for us and keeping
1:02:29
us safe from those snowflakes. Because before he got involved,
1:02:33
no adult in the company in the country was capable of doing
1:02:36
this. But the the thing that really
1:02:39
brought a smile to our faces as a family was the fact that these
1:02:43
agencies were having yellow snow warnings.
1:02:47
And this brought into my head a Frank Zappa track from some
1:02:52
years ago because he was also warning about yellow snow
1:02:56
because that's where the doggies might go.
1:03:00
So yellow snow warnings in UK, does that mean watch out where
1:03:05
you're treading or does it mean something else?
1:03:08
I don't know. But for goodness sake, snow is
1:03:11
snow. We can survive.
1:03:13
Let's not let these people make us anxious and fearful of
1:03:17
something which is quite normal for any country, certainly in in
1:03:22
Europe or America, wherever we go, where there's cold weather.
1:03:27
Absolutely. Well, thank you very much for
1:03:29
that. Yes, we all recommend Frank's
1:03:31
office satire from time to time. It's it's good stuff.
1:03:36
OK, well, look, we got to leave it there for now.
1:03:38
Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Ben.
1:03:39
Thanks to everybody that's watching.
1:03:41
We'll be back in a couple of minutes.
1:03:43
If you UK call UK column member for some news extra.
1:03:46
Otherwise, don't forget Germ tonight.
1:03:49
Interview at 1:00 PM. Tomorrow, we'll be back from
1:03:51
another news program, 1:00 PM as usual on Wednesday.
1:03:54
We'll see you then. Thanks for joining us.
1:03:55
Bye. Bye.