Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News - 1st October 2025

Transcript

UK Column News - 1st October 2025 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Good afternoon. It's just gone 1:00 on Wednesday
0:11
the 1st of October 2025. Welcome to UK Column News.
0:15
I'm your host, Charles Mannett, and I'm joined by Livelink by
0:20
Vanessa Bailey, who's in Lebanon and Diane Rasmussen from the
0:23
North of England. Now in today's programme we will
0:26
be focusing on the fact that all paths appear to be leading to
0:33
war and that will be the theme with an in depth look at the
0:36
United States, Gaza, Iran, Israel and of course the United
0:40
Kingdom, as well as the destruction of our environment
0:42
in the name of preserving it. But we're going to start the
0:46
programme with Home Affairs in that the Labour Party conference
0:50
is winding up today in Liverpool and has been characterised by
0:54
tit for tat insults traded with reform now viewed as the looming
0:59
threat to the Starmer regime. Now the BBC of course have had a
1:03
field day with this and we'll just look through some of the
1:07
bylines. We won't dignify them
1:10
necessarily with any in depth comment.
1:12
But Starmer talking about how he might change international law
1:16
due to the pressure surrounding migration.
1:19
Of course, the great football of the moment.
1:22
David Lammy having backtrack on, backtracked on remarks about
1:27
Nigel Farage singing Hitler Youth songs, of course, which he
1:30
cannot possibly substantiate. And then we go on to Tony Blair.
1:35
We will be dealing with him later in the programme, at least
1:39
obliquely I'm afraid, but remarkably, as Patrick
1:43
articulated on Friday, set to serve on Trump's board of peace
1:46
for Gaza. And indeed the question is
1:48
asked, Trump trust Blair but others don't.
1:51
Could he govern Gaza? Quite remarkable question to be
1:56
asked by any stretch of the imagination.
1:58
Now the wheels have absolutely appeared to come off.
2:02
As Ben was articulating on Monday's programme, the Labour
2:05
Starmer regime appears to be heading for the ditch.
2:09
And as part of this we've reported on the idea, the
2:13
recently floated of a mandatory yet free digital identity card
2:17
and indeed the petition which went with it.
2:20
Now it's interesting to note the top live petitions which are out
2:24
there on the government website at the moment and what it is
2:27
exactly that they pertain to. We've got, in reverse order, a
2:31
petition about introducing offshore detention or mass
2:35
deportation for illegal migrants with nearly half a million
2:38
signatures, over half a million, which we've broadcast a lot
2:41
about before repealing the Online Safety Act again 544,000
2:46
there. We've had yet another petition
2:48
for a general election on nearly 1,000,000 signatures and of
2:52
course do not introduce digital identity cards at over 2 and a
2:57
half million signatures. Now, there are of course other
3:01
metrics by which we may gauge the success or otherwise of the
3:05
Labour Party. And one must be careful of
3:08
course, when examining statistics or indeed any kind of
3:11
analysis dealing with numbers and data.
3:13
But this is how more in common are predicting voting behaviour
3:17
of the public at were a general election to be cast now with
3:21
what they call MRP, which is multi level regression with post
3:25
stratification. Essentially a modelling process
3:28
using data from a voting intention poll to work out how
3:32
people will vote based on demographics, previous voting
3:34
behaviour and information about their constituency.
3:38
But the central issue simmering for years and brought to the
3:42
ball this summer is, of course, the immigration crisis crisis,
3:45
my design and in both senses so far, the way that it's
3:49
practically been put in front of the people and indeed the way
3:51
it's been reported now on that Diane attended an event in
3:55
Newcastle weekend pertaining to exactly this issue.
3:58
So we're just going to bring Diane into the programme now.
4:00
Diane, welcome. What exactly happened in
4:02
Newcastle at the weekend? Yes.
4:05
Thanks, Charles, and hello, everyone.
4:07
It's great to be here today. I just went to an event on
4:09
Saturday which I think was partially precipitated by the
4:12
fact that Ben Habib was in Newcastle on Saturday to launch
4:16
his new Advanced UK party, which was originally cancelled and
4:20
then rescheduled to somewhere else.
4:23
We don't really know where it was because it was not made
4:25
public and I was not intending to go to that particular event,
4:28
but I did want to see what was going on in the city around that
4:31
time. So there was a UKIP March that
4:34
started down at the Quayside for those of you who are familiar
4:37
with Newcastle. And then there were other groups
4:39
of, I guess we could say potential agitators from the
4:42
other side. We could say Tony, Tony Robinson
4:45
types of oppositions. So those of us who are maybe on
4:49
the sort of we was called leftist, I guess you could say
4:52
it's really hard to say because they had so many things going
4:54
on. But we could see a lot of action
4:56
from both sides. But the so-called leftist side,
4:59
for lack of a better term, was definitely the largest and the
5:03
angriest and the most active. And obviously one of their main
5:07
topics of, of issue was refugees.
5:10
So both parties eventually ended up down towards the hotel, which
5:15
is the migrant hotel, the Newbridge Hotel in Newcastle.
5:17
And we got between the police lines of the two groups.
5:21
But I've got some video here of the angrier side of the two.
5:24
If we could play that please. So what was really interesting
6:01
about that is as you saw, we were able to get between the
6:04
police lines as by saying that we were part of the media, but
6:08
the police were so relaxed about the whole thing.
6:09
I didn't see a single police staff that looked at all worried
6:13
about what was going on. It just seemed like another day
6:15
on the job, Charles. Absolutely, Don, good for you
6:19
getting out there, but also, you know, being able to see it first
6:22
hand how the issue is is literally one of division with
6:26
people segregated and separated both physically but also
6:30
psychologically as well. And that is exactly what seems
6:34
to be driven by reform presenting themselves as an
6:37
alternative. But as we see from Richard
6:40
Tice's Twitter profile, he's recently visited Israel.
6:44
And of course he falls in line with almost every other
6:47
politician of every colour and persuasion.
6:49
And in this instance, rather remarkably, he has gone all the
6:53
way to Israel to, in his words, apologise for the appalling
6:56
betrayal by Labour. He refers, of course, to the
6:59
recognition of the Palestinian state by the Labour Party.
7:03
Recently. He follows up his tweet by
7:05
thanking Gideon SAR for the meeting they had and of course
7:09
saying that Reform UK will be relied upon by Israel to stand
7:13
by or stand with Israel. He tweets about his visit to
7:17
Jerusalem and of course he lays wreath saying in memory to the
7:21
victims of the Holocaust on behalf of Reform UK.
7:24
Now not necessarily to have a go specifically at that might there
7:28
might be a whole range of reasons that he would seek to do
7:30
it. However, the optics of course
7:32
are such when one considers exactly the target of the
7:36
migration rhetoric from Reform, and of course with the Holocaust
7:40
Memorial Bill in play at the moment, it is worth noting that
7:44
this is the line from Reform. Now one should always follow the
7:47
money and in doing so that leads us to Christopher Harbourne
7:51
shown here by Donation Watch as the major donor to Reform, with
7:56
the absolutely outstripping any other donors by quite some
7:59
considerable margin. And he is the major shareholder
8:03
in Kinetic, the arms manufacturer shown by the
8:06
Campaign against Arms Trade, of course as a provider of weapons
8:10
to Israel's. Just finally and quickly we just
8:13
look at the policies from Reform.
8:15
Fairly innocuous photograph of Nigel Farage, but it just seems
8:18
curious to look at the detail of him holding the very device
8:21
which of course enables digital ID in the 1st place.
8:24
So with that in mind, I would just conclude by saying it.
8:29
It's been interesting to note that he and Tice have visited
8:32
the Bank of England recently and met the Governor and are talking
8:36
about a cosy relationship with the Governor.
8:38
And indeed Farage, whilst saying that he's opposed to central
8:42
bank digital currency, acknowledging of course that the
8:45
suggestion that exists in the 1st place is to prevent fraud,
8:48
which of course he is not at all aiming to dismiss.
8:51
So there are a number of ways in which Reform are being presented
8:54
as an alternative to the Labour Party.
8:56
My contention, I think from the way in which UK column has
8:59
examined this over the past few years, is that this appears to
9:02
be nothing more than a false binary.
9:04
And the only difference really between a Reform government and
9:07
a Labour government would be the speed with which reform might
9:10
change anything. They could simply be operating
9:13
in a different gear. Now that takes us on to what's
9:17
been happening over on the other side of the Atlantic, and in
9:20
particular what Pete Hegseth has been doing.
9:24
We reported recently that he is now running what's called the
9:29
Department of War and he's been speaking to all ranks.
9:34
And he would certainly win an award for hyperbole.
9:37
He he spoke for 45 minutes. He quoted Donald Trump as saying
9:41
that the United States has the strongest, most powerful, most
9:45
lethal and most prepared military on the planet.
9:49
And he certainly started as he meant to carry on.
9:52
So what we'll do now is just go to a video of him at the during
9:57
the in the early stages of his speech.
9:58
And then I'm going to ask Vanessa for a bit of comment on
10:01
on what it is that he said. The Joint Chiefs, generals,
10:06
Admirals, commanders, officers, senior enlisted, NCO's enlisted
10:12
in every member of our American military.
10:16
Good morning, good morning, and welcome to the War Department
10:25
because the era of the Department of Defence is over.
10:31
You see, the motto of my first platoon was those who long for
10:35
peace must prepare for war. So this is about that he's, he's
10:42
very much trying to leverage his own experiences in the military,
10:46
imagining that he's he's one of them and that therefore they
10:48
should listen to him and, and trying to sort of get them on
10:52
side that way. He goes on to talk about a whole
10:54
load of other things, talking about more innovation, more AI,
10:56
more cyber effects. Interestingly, in contrast to
10:59
what's been going on in the United Kingdom, of course, he
11:01
talks about onshoring all of their critical components, which
11:06
of course is not the case in the United Kingdom with so many
11:09
things, particularly being manufactured by Israel.
11:12
But Vanessa, obviously you've been looking very much at what
11:14
what he said. I mean in in terms of his
11:16
approach to those that were present.
11:20
What are your thoughts on that? Well, I mean, the entire speech
11:25
for me was extremely sinister based on the context of looming
11:29
regional war here, both against Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and
11:35
so on. And, and the chatter here that
11:37
that war is imminent. But, but I find it extraordinary
11:42
this, this claim that the era of defence is over.
11:45
We're in the era of war. And that echoes, I can't
11:48
actually remember which of the many British leaders that said
11:53
exactly the same during, I think the Ukraine war.
11:56
So, you know, I mean, it's, it's to A, to a degree, American
12:03
spokespeople now and members of Trump's administration are very
12:08
brazen in outlying their agenda. Yes, absolutely.
12:16
And I think is it very interesting that one of the
12:18
points he was he was making, which seemed to contradict
12:20
itself, was he was talking about what needing military leaders
12:23
who are apolitical and, and acknowledging that there had
12:26
been a sort of, you know, state of political riding off the
12:30
rails of the armed forces and that they were going to correct
12:32
that, which of course would apparently be political.
12:36
So we'll just have a listen now to to what he went on to say
12:38
concerning that that sort of apparent discrepancy.
12:44
This administration has done a great deal from day one to
12:47
remove the social justice, politically correct and toxic
12:51
ideological garbage that had infected our department to RIP
12:55
out the politics. No more identity months, DEI
13:01
offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship.
13:08
No more division, distraction or gender delusions.
13:11
No more debris. As I've said before and will say
13:15
again, we are done with that shit.
13:20
I've made it my mission to uproot the obvious distractions
13:23
that made us less capable and less lethal.
13:27
That said, the War Department requires the next step.
13:33
Underneath the woke garbage is a deeper problem and a more
13:36
important problem that we are fixing and fixing fast.
13:40
Common sense is back at the White House, so making the
13:43
necessary changes is actually pretty straightforward.
13:48
President Trump expects it. And the litmus test for these
13:53
changes? It's pretty simple.
13:57
Would I want my eldest son, who is 15 years old, eventually
14:04
joining the types of formations that we are currently wielding?
14:08
If in any way the answer to that is no, or even yes?
14:11
But then we're doing something wrong.
14:15
Because my son is no more important than any other
14:17
American citizen who Dons the cloth of our nation.
14:21
He is no more important than your Son, all precious souls
14:25
made in the image and likeness of God.
14:30
There you go. I mean, he's doing grand job.
14:32
You know, for anyone who's receptive to to that sort of
14:35
thing, he really is pulling at all the sort of heartstrings
14:37
and, you know, invoking parenthood and all that kind of
14:40
thing. What struck me about that,
14:41
Vanessa, was that he talks about, you know, the armed
14:44
forces being exactly the right state in order that one's son
14:47
might consider joining. OK, fair enough.
14:50
Let's take that at face value. Of course, what that enables him
14:54
to completely gloss over is the sorts of things that the United
14:57
States military might actually be engaged in.
15:02
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I again, I just find
15:05
this deeply sinister when one considers that effectively what
15:10
he's saying is you need to be prepared to go and fight for
15:13
Israel. This has nothing to do with
15:18
American patriotism. This literally is to do with
15:22
being allied to and loyal to Israel, Right?
15:29
And when with the ramping up of the war machine against West
15:33
Asia and against Iran, that's exactly what he's saying.
15:37
So what he's actually saying is that you all need to be behind
15:40
Israel. There can be no political or
15:43
religious deviation from this. And when he's talking about
15:46
Christianity, of course he's talking about Christian Zionism.
15:50
He's not talking about true Christianity.
15:53
Yeah, that's exactly it. And one wonders how many of the
15:55
audience, well, I mean, there's two things really.
15:57
You know, this presumed is being broadcast first of all, to his
16:00
immediate audience, obviously, and then across all the various
16:04
units who are supposed to sort of be receiving this directly
16:07
from the, you know, from the the war secretary.
16:10
But. But I, I think, you know, one of
16:11
the questions is why, Why are we saying it?
16:13
Why is it on? Why is it on YouTube?
16:15
Why is it on Twitter? I mean, this is sort of internal
16:17
and yet exactly like you're articulating, there's a message
16:20
there that he doesn't need to explicitly say.
16:22
But those who know. No.
16:24
Yeah. I mean, the hype, the hype has
16:27
been ongoing for more than a week.
16:29
I mean, I mean, you know, everyone's been chattering
16:31
about, oh, God, this upcoming meeting with all the generals,
16:34
it's unprecedented and so on and so forth.
16:37
And it's deliberately there to to, let's say, swing popular
16:43
opinion behind what America is going to do next.
16:47
Yeah, that's exactly right. I've just got one more short
16:49
clip and then we can play the the rest in extra.
16:51
Let's just listen to how he how he sort of wrapped up.
16:57
These same reforms happened before World War 2 as well.
17:00
General George Marshall and Secretary of War Henry Stimson
17:04
did the same thing and we won a World War because of it.
17:10
As it happens, when he started the job, Chairman Kane gave me a
17:14
frame and a photo to hang in my office.
17:17
A matching frame and photo hangs in his.
17:22
It's a photo of Marshall and Stimson preparing for World War
17:25
2. Those two leaders famously kept
17:28
the door open between their offices for the entirety of the
17:32
war. They worked together, civilian
17:35
and uniform, every single day. Chairman Kane and I do the same.
17:41
There is no daylight between us. Our doors are always open.
17:45
Our job together is to ensure our military is led by the very
17:49
best, ready to answer the nation's call.
17:55
He's got some pretty grand ideas.
17:56
And I should also point out that in his in his speech, he also
17:59
said that he needs a force that is going to send people to
18:04
dangerous places to find those who would do our nation harm and
18:09
deliver justice on behalf of the American people in close and
18:13
brutal combat, if necessary. So this is just, you know, sort
18:18
of Expeditionary talk, trying to invoke kind of warrior spirit
18:22
and all the rest of it. And as you say, a lot of a lot
18:24
of judeo-christian rhetoric Now, Vanessa, that's sort of going to
18:31
lead us into the next part because of course he is.
18:35
He's apparently preparing for a war.
18:39
But I suspect he must know that if there is to be, you know,
18:43
specifically the war, I said earlier we're going to be
18:47
talking about the the Gaza plan. We've referred to Tony Blair.
18:49
So, so what's your analysis of the, you know, the so-called
18:52
Gaza peace plan? Well, I mean the Gaza peace plan
18:57
is really a reiteration of what we've seen many times since
19:02
October the 7th in various guises and forms.
19:05
And of course the Tony Blair Institute was exposed as having
19:09
played a part in some of the planning sessions previously.
19:12
The fact that Tony Blair is now front and centre should be no
19:17
surprise. He was the Middle East so-called
19:19
peace envoy previously. He's hated in the Middle East
19:22
for his infanticidal role in Iraq and and in the entire
19:27
region. So to put this into context, I'm
19:30
just going to basically show a couple of excerpts from
19:34
Netanyahu's speech at the UNGA. Glad to say that the majority of
19:39
nations walked out when he started speaking, except for, of
19:43
course, those that are fully aligned with Israel and the
19:47
genocide in Palestine. So as part of his speech, he
19:51
basically rejected the idea entirely of a Palestinian state.
19:55
He said giving the Palestinians a state one mile from Jerusalem
19:59
after October the 7th is like giving Al Qaeda a state one mile
20:03
from New York City after 911. This is Shia madness.
20:06
Israel will not allow you to shove a terrorist state down our
20:09
throats. Well, that is super interesting
20:12
for me because of course we'll come on to that at the.
20:18
Recent UNGA was attended by former members of al Qaeda, in
20:22
fact former founder members of al Qaeda.
20:25
But let's have a listen to another section of this speech
20:30
in which he points out that it is the majority view in Israel
20:34
that no state of Palestine will ever exist.
20:36
So let's just play this. We will not commit national
20:41
suicide because you don't have the guts to face down a hostile
20:45
media and anti-Semitic mobs demanding Israel's blood.
20:51
And I want you to grasp something else which is also
20:56
distorted in the media. I say this not only in my name
21:03
or the name of my government, but on behalf of all the people
21:08
of Israel. Last year there was a vote in
21:11
the Knesset, our parliament, whether or not to oppose the
21:15
imposition of a Palestinian state.
21:16
You want to guess what the results were?
21:19
Out of 120 members of our parliament, 99 voted against and
21:27
only 9 supported. That's over 90%.
21:34
Which of course is what we've been saying since October the
21:37
7th and even before then, that virtually the majority of the
21:41
population of Israel are in favour of the ethnic cleansing
21:46
project to rid what they consider the state of Israel
21:50
from any Palestinian presence. But as I mentioned, of course,
21:54
interesting that he mentions al Qaeda and New York when Al Qaeda
21:59
were given red carpet treatment in New York at the UNGA.
22:03
And this is Jelani meeting with Roland Ronald, sorry, Lauda, who
22:09
is head of the Jewish Congress and of course an Uber Zionist
22:15
and a great friend of Netanyahu. And they were discussing the
22:18
Syria Israel peace agreement and so on.
22:22
So, you know, it, it, it, it's is his entire speech is, is a
22:26
litany of hypocrisy. But I'm going to come on to the
22:31
actual peace plan, the points of which have been revealed in
22:35
multiple media outlets. This is in the Times of Israel,
22:40
the 21 points plan for ending the Gaza war and creating a
22:44
pathway to a Palestinian state, which of course it doesn't.
22:47
So I've basically summarised the points that were laid out in
22:52
this article and we'll run through them very quickly.
22:55
Of course, first of all, Gaza to be de radicalised and there to
23:00
be education or re education programs to change mindsets of
23:05
Palestinians. In other words, to force them to
23:07
abandon any idea of Palestinian statehood or even justice for
23:13
the 100 years plus of ethnic cleansing and genocide that has
23:16
been ongoing since 1917. It will be redeveloped for the
23:22
benefit of the people of Palestine.
23:24
Of course we know that's not true.
23:25
We've covered multiple times on UK column the potential for a
23:30
multinational free trade zone. Sorry, can I just go back to, to
23:34
that slide quickly the first one?
23:41
Yes, thank you. So then IOF will halt
23:46
operations, gradual withdrawal. So they're not committing to
23:50
withdrawing to full withdrawal immediately.
23:52
Within 48 hours after Israel publicly accepts the deal, all
23:56
hostages, living or dead Israeli hostages will be returned.
24:00
And after this, Israel will free several 100 security prisoners
24:04
and 1000 Gazans arrested during the war.
24:06
Now, of course, this doesn't take into account the 9010
24:10
thousand Palestinian prisoners that are still being held as
24:13
hostages effectively in Israel, Israeli jails, and who are being
24:18
effectively tortured, raped, abused on a daily if not hourly
24:22
basis. Then we get on to a few more
24:25
points from the peace plan. So allegedly Hamas members can
24:30
safely leave Gaza or accept amnesty to remain if of course,
24:34
they promise to disarm and give up all ideas of Palestinian
24:38
statehood. Hamas has actually come forward
24:41
requesting amendments and they've pointed out, well, does
24:44
that mean that we're not going to get assassinated in Qatar or
24:47
in the country that we decide to go to, as has been happening?
24:51
Of course, aid and rehabilitation will take place,
24:56
distribution of the aid by UN agencies, although they've
24:59
banned UNRWA and Red Crescent and the very high chance that
25:04
Gaza Humanitarian Foundation will be allowed back in, who of
25:07
course of themselves been committing crimes against
25:10
Palestinians, trying to to reach aid centres, A transitional
25:16
governance by Palestinian technocrats under the
25:19
supervision of the US, Arab and EU partners.
25:23
So in other words, total sort of disenfranchisement of
25:27
Palestinians effectively in Gaza.
25:30
Then it goes on. There will be a free trade zone
25:33
in Gaza, which is exactly what we've been talking about.
25:35
This creation of a free trade zone under the control of the US
25:39
and the Zionist bloc. Opportunities for Gazans if they
25:44
decide to remain, which I presume will mean to act as
25:47
slave labour for the free trade zone and industry that will be
25:51
under the control of the Zionist total demilitarization.
25:55
Regional partners of Israel will provide security guarantees.
26:00
US and Arab security will effectively occupy Gaza after PA
26:06
reform because of course, the Palestinian Authority, Netanyahu
26:09
also attacks them in his UNGA speech.
26:13
So after they've been reformed and all the former measures have
26:17
been taken, then there will be discussion of Palestinian
26:21
statehood. So, so this is not offering
26:24
anything. This is effectively saying you
26:26
will all come into line. You will do everything that
26:28
Israel requires of you. And what's going to happen, it
26:32
will push Hamas into a corner. They've already come forward
26:34
with a request for amendments and a request for further time
26:39
to consider the peace plan and to come back with their answer.
26:42
But of course, what Israel is doing is pushing Hamas in a
26:45
corner where they'll be deemed the belligerent because they
26:48
don't agree with all the conditions that effectively
26:50
completely disenfranchise Palestinians.
26:54
In Gaza, President Donald Trump is declaring it a historic day
26:59
for peace. Hala Jaba, a Lebanese
27:03
journalist, has a different concept of that.
27:06
She says behind the fanfare of one of the greatest days in
27:09
civilization lies humiliation, exile and a trusteeship that
27:14
Palestinians have never asked for and in fact, they've fought
27:17
against. And finally, if we look at this
27:21
is a recent tripartite trilateral phone call with
27:27
Donald Trump in Netanyahu, where in fact they've also said to
27:30
Qatar who was recently bombed by Israel, we promise not to bomb
27:35
you again. And so Qatar as effectively as
27:37
David Meno said, come into line with the so-called peace plan.
27:44
You can read his his disgust at that, of course.
27:47
And he mentions again that Tony Blair is heavily involved.
27:50
And finally, if we do, we have a last video.
27:54
Sorry, I'm getting. We don't, but no.
27:59
OK, that's fine. That's it.
28:01
Sorry. OK, now thanks very much.
28:03
And of course, the other thing to point out, which you
28:06
mentioned before we started recording, oh sorry, started the
28:09
program was that, you know, in a way it's an indication of the
28:14
sort of incredibly short nature of the new cycle that this in
28:18
effect is being sold as something that's completely
28:21
novel and hasn't happened before.
28:22
But of course, extremely 1 sided and exactly just a rehash of of
28:26
what's gone past so many times. So we'll, we'll absolutely be
28:30
talking about that more in extra.
28:32
Now that moves on to talk about what the UK column does.
28:35
And if you are not yet a member, then please do consider joining.
28:40
We have a wealth of resources on the website itself in terms of
28:45
all sorts of materials on any topic you might consider looking
28:49
and looking up or looking into. If you are able to support us
28:52
then please click here on the front page as shown on the image
28:57
on screen. As the evenings draw in a bit
29:00
and it cools down you might consider something from the UK
29:02
column shop. And yesterday Sandy Adams's
29:06
interview with Locke in Texas about communitarianism, little
29:08
little known but something that really should be well
29:11
understood, has gone very well. So please do look at the website
29:14
to catch up with that. And going out tomorrow is the
29:17
next instalment of Military Matters, Brian Garish and I
29:20
dealing with matters of conscription and recruitment and
29:24
indeed particularly pertinent given the subject matter of
29:27
today's news programme that goes out at Thursday, sorry, 1:00
29:31
tomorrow, Thursday. And then a reminder of our event
29:35
in York, which of course is sold out as far as in person tickets,
29:40
but there are still tickets available for the live stream.
29:44
So please do consider joining us.
29:45
And I should remind you that if you do buy a ticket for the live
29:48
stream, you do not have to sit down and watch it at the time it
29:51
will be available to you thereafter.
29:53
That will also apply to people who are coming in person and you
29:56
will have access to and Andy Wakefield's amazing film,
29:59
Protocol 7. Andy Wakefield will be there
30:01
speaking about the way in which his career was derailed by his
30:05
challenging of the Pharmaceutical industry,
30:07
particularly on the issue of vaccines, and how he's gone on
30:10
to make a successful career as a film producer.
30:13
And of course, we'll be talking about the making of Protocol 7.
30:16
Liz Evans will be talking about medical ethics, in which she has
30:19
a considerable wealth of knowledge.
30:21
Ben Rubin, We'll be talking about the impact that the
30:26
National Health Service has made since its establishment and
30:30
indeed the questioning, the very process by which it was set up.
30:33
Tess Laurie, of course, talking about her, what drove her to set
30:37
up and run the World Council for Health.
30:39
And Julian Rose will be speaking about the inextricable link
30:42
between human health and soil health and how important life on
30:47
the land really is in pertaining to are very existent.
30:53
So please do if you can join us for that live stream, go to the
30:57
UK column website and get your ticket.
31:00
Now I said that the theme running throughout today's
31:03
programme was going to be war and on the propaganda side of
31:06
it, which might be a little bit harsh in the mind of the editor
31:09
of Soldier magazine. I'm going to have a look at the
31:13
publication that serves the British Army soldier the
31:15
September issue entitled leading by example on the front page.
31:19
Interesting to note, First off on the inside cover is an advert
31:22
from Help for Heroes talking about readying people for Sibley
31:26
St. just to show how mission creep works.
31:29
Because, of course, Help for Heroes were set up to deal with
31:31
people who were returning from Afghanistan in particular with
31:36
injuries and wounds. And of course, this is very
31:39
relevant to what we're talking about because in a sense, Pete
31:42
Hegseth was referring to the sort of skill fate of a
31:45
generation who've not been involved in kinetic action and
31:48
wanting to be able to maintain contact, as it were, with the
31:52
enemy. Also advertising in the magazine
31:57
are arms manufacturers and the defence trade fair, DSE, Sorry
32:04
DSEI, which happened in London, the Defence and Security
32:07
Equipment International and we'll come back to that a little
32:09
bit later. Also Viking, again advertising
32:13
their weapon systems, but notably Elbit.
32:17
Of course, we've talked about Elbit a lot on the news, the
32:19
Israeli weapons manufacturer who have a plant near Bristol which
32:23
has been the subject of a lot of activity with the now prescribed
32:27
group Palestine Action. But what I want to draw your
32:29
attention to is their mortar, 120 millimetre mortar system
32:35
called Sling, which they're saying delivers enhanced
32:38
lethality, deployability and survivability for light forces.
32:41
But the key bit here is that they're saying it's
32:43
operationally proven. Now how are they qualifying
32:46
that? Well, we go to Jane's defence,
32:48
who ran an article on this back in January of this year, talking
32:51
about upgrades and developments, this particular item of
32:56
equipment and saying I quote Jane's learnt that the Iron
32:59
Sting munition is undergoing development in response to
33:02
feedback from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
33:06
So there we have it. Jane's is confirming that
33:10
Soldier Magazine, not exactly an internal publication but
33:14
certainly one that does get put out to serving army in
33:18
particular is advertising the very weapons systems which are
33:21
being proven in Gaza. And the suggestion there
33:25
obviously is that the British Army should be preparing to
33:29
purchase such equipment and indeed to get people trained up
33:31
on that because they know it works in Gaza.
33:34
So that is quite a thought in considering exactly where it is
33:38
that that soldier has has gone in terms of advertising.
33:42
Now, the other thing I wanted to bring out in terms of propaganda
33:46
was there's a there's a whole piece on sort of young people
33:48
and university students joining the university officer training
33:51
corps. This again comes out in the
33:54
interview tomorrow that Brian and I sorry, the the discussion
33:57
that Brian and I had military matters, but but what it bears
34:01
relation to is the pledge to recruit more and more people
34:05
into the armed forces without having to use conscriptions.
34:07
So they say. And I've got on screen now the
34:10
conscription and national Service document from the 28th
34:13
of March this year. And just to enlarge the picture
34:15
on screen, it's no coincidence that the front rank shown there
34:19
are women. And of course there is a push to
34:22
make 30% of the armed forces women where the current
34:25
percentage currently is at 12% with no real idea of how they
34:29
will actually do that. Now the other thing I wanted to
34:32
to bring in, which was mentioned by Ben on Monday, was Estonia.
34:36
Now he was talking particularly in regard to their digital
34:39
transformation. And I think it mustn't be
34:41
forgotten that alongside this, they have been absolutely
34:44
instrumental in the NATO plans and indeed sort of European
34:48
defence plans in order to provide what they're describing
34:52
as being an opposition to Russia and the United Kingdom armed
34:56
forces been involved very much with Estonia and Estonians.
35:00
So it's interesting to note that at the same event, the DSEI,
35:04
they unveiled a 10 billion defence spending plan.
35:07
And of course, they echo Pete Hegseth's words on Twitter
35:11
talking about standing for peace through strength.
35:15
However, they do actually trace this a little bit further back
35:18
than Hegseth because their National Defence Development
35:21
Plan, which runs up until 2031, goes back to 2021.
35:26
And they talk about the human resources side of it, which of
35:31
course they by which they mean that they need to conscript
35:37
people for their armed forces and they're planning on an
35:40
uplift of that. I mean, OK, the point very well
35:42
made by Ben is that Estonia obviously is a very small and
35:46
not very populous country. But nonetheless, this is the
35:50
direction of travel. And I think with that in mind,
35:53
with what Hegseth has said about about sort of being absolutely
35:56
prepared for war and all this strength through peace, we're
35:59
now going to go back to Vanessa. Because of course, as discussed
36:03
many times in UK column, Iran is so often the focus of all of
36:06
this sort of rhetoric. And quite probably more than
36:09
that, Vanessa. Yeah, absolutely.
36:13
So we're just going to have a very quick look at what
36:16
particularly Israeli media has been saying.
36:19
This is in Israel high on Israel and Iran on a collision course.
36:23
This is all in the last few days.
36:25
Israel and Iran on a collision course for another war.
36:28
And then Jerusalem Post has put out a very detailed article also
36:34
saying we may need to act again. A senior IOF official warns of a
36:39
renewed Iranian threat, and in within that article they
36:43
actually mention a statement recently made by a former IRGC
36:49
commander, Mohsen Rezaei, who warned that Iran would enter a
36:55
war with the United States if Israel carried out another
36:58
attack against it and said Tehran would not accept
37:01
negotiations with Western countries.
37:03
That would give Israel time to prepare or to strengthen its
37:06
position. He struck A darker tone in his
37:09
remarks, saying that if the war lasts 2 months today, there
37:12
would be nothing left of Israel. The Israelis want to try their
37:16
military luck against Iran again.
37:18
If this happens, we will use all our forces.
37:21
We will change our red lines and things will happen that are not
37:24
right for me to say now. So Iran is very clearly
37:27
responding to what is happening. And of course, part of what is
37:31
happening is again, just as they're doing with Hezbollah in
37:34
Lebanon, Hamas in Palestine and the Iraqi resistance non state
37:40
actors trying also to disarm them.
37:43
They're using the snapback mechanism that has been imposed
37:47
now or reinstated by the United Nations at the behest of the UK,
37:52
Germany and France. If we can just move the slide on
37:57
again within. No, sorry, back to the Wynette
38:00
one. Well, thank you.
38:03
So Wynette reported that Israel remained on heightened alert
38:10
after the UN reinstated sanctions.
38:14
And so clearly the sanctions which restore an arms embargo,
38:18
restriction on uranium enrichment and ballistic missile
38:21
activity, asset freezes and travel bans.
38:24
This again is, is totally unjustified.
38:27
And yet what it's doing, of course, in in public perception,
38:31
those that are not well informed on what has actually been going
38:35
on with the nuclear negotiations for some time, of course Trump
38:39
pulled out of them in 2018. It, it, it portrays Iran as the
38:45
belligerent, as I said, in preparation for an escalation
38:49
and aggression against them. And if we look at again, back to
38:54
Hagseth, who did an interview again in the Jerusalem first
38:59
post, we're fighting the same War on Terror.
39:02
This is a conversation with Pete Hagseth.
39:04
And within that interview he basically reiterates that he
39:08
sees A1 state solution, which of course will be the one state of
39:13
Israel, not of Palestine. He even rejects the two state
39:16
solution, which of course we know is is not viable anyway.
39:21
And he talks about war with Iran and and he brings in the
39:24
biblical context for war with Iran.
39:27
As I said, Christian Zionism on full display.
39:30
And then this is a very good account on Telegram that I
39:33
recommend everybody following Enemy Watch who does an
39:36
excellent job of of keeping up with events in West Asia.
39:40
In particular, they've been putting out information about
39:43
planned attacks on Iran, Iraq and Yemen.
39:46
Aerial refuelling tankers are on route to the Middle East.
39:50
An estimated 12 US Air Force KC135 Strata tankers transferred
39:55
from US to EU bases and then also also the RA FRC135 W sorry
40:07
joint electronic intelligence aircraft that are flying to the
40:14
Qatari air base. From within Britain and there
40:18
are multiple reports really of other movements of particularly
40:23
aircraft to the Middle East area.
40:27
Iran itself also has been running tests on missiles.
40:31
Drones have been spotted over the western border of Iran
40:35
patrolling and surveilling. And they've also put out another
40:39
statement which said that they're not going to any longer
40:42
stick to the restrictions on their missile range.
40:47
In other words, this is a direct threat to the European Union
40:51
that they will no longer only consider Israel as their target.
40:55
And then finally, the US has been supplying further for
40:59
further third air defence systems to reinforce the six
41:05
existing systems in Israel. Of course, one of the problems
41:09
in the last Iran, Israel war was that Israel was effectively
41:15
starting to run out of interceptor munitions.
41:19
And so therefore the US is clearly trying to reinforce
41:22
their ability to intercept missiles coming in from Iran.
41:26
In my opinion, speaking to particularly Iranians who are
41:30
currently here in Lebanon that I've had the opportunity to to
41:34
speak to, they're effectively saying that Iran in the last war
41:38
didn't even use its most advanced missiles.
41:41
And therefore, in their opinion, the third interceptors are not
41:45
really going to be still capable of intercepting the more
41:49
advanced missiles from Iran. But you know, the chatter here
41:53
in Lebanon, the chatter in Syria is that the region is about to
41:57
go boom, as someone said to me this morning from inside Syria.
42:02
And, and certainly that's where we seem to be heading.
42:05
And we can't also forget when we talk about the biblical context,
42:09
the the Christian Zionist end time ideology, which of course
42:13
requires effectively apocalyptic war in order to bring about the
42:19
second coming of Christ. Now, many of us may consider
42:22
that to be an extreme narrative, but nevertheless, that is how
42:26
these people think. It's how Pete Hagseth thinks.
42:29
Many articles have been written about his Christian Zionist
42:33
extremism, so we should expect the worst to be honest.
42:38
Indeed, Vanessa, thank you very much.
42:39
And and just on that to to consider what Hexis said, where
42:44
the UK appears to be now and you know the comment about the
42:47
region going boom. Do you think there will be or
42:50
there is intent for in the first instance, the Americans and the
42:54
British to get involved in in an on the ground context?
43:01
No, I don't think so. Israel potentially will get
43:04
involved on the ground in Lebanon, not in Yemen or Iran at
43:10
the moment. They'll probably try to trigger
43:14
internal reactions within Iran against the government and in
43:19
Syria. They'll weaponize the Takfiri
43:21
elements against Iraq and Lebanon potentially.
43:24
OK, OK, Vanessa, thank you very much indeed.
43:26
And we'll don't just return to that in extra.
43:29
Now working on the premise that there's no such thing as
43:33
coincidence, we'll review the communications from the embassy,
43:36
British Embassy in Mogadishu who've recently put out a
43:39
statement saying that the United Kingdom is contributing over £30
43:42
million to support Somalia's security transition.
43:45
Now, of course, this is not a a new thing.
43:47
The United Kingdom, in all sorts of guises, has been very much
43:50
involved with affairs Somali. But it is interesting to note,
43:55
as reported by TRT Africa, that Somalia is just about to begin
43:59
drilling for its own oil in the coming months.
44:02
We see the Somali president just coming up off ship, presumably
44:05
investigating where this offshore is.
44:08
It's reckoned to be an enormous resource.
44:10
And the point to note on this is how it pertains to Turkey,
44:15
because the interested party, the company that's going to be
44:17
doing the drilling, is Turkish. And there's an article here that
44:20
I've got a note for, sorry, a link to in the show notes on the
44:24
Geopolitics Unplugged Substack talking about how Turkey has
44:28
turned Russian sanctions to its advantage largely due to its
44:34
strategic geostrategic position in relation to its geography.
44:39
But of course, what mustn't be forgotten in all of this is the
44:42
United Kingdom's murky dealings with regard to particular
44:46
Somaliland and the recognition of sovereignty by Ethiopia,
44:52
which granted access to the port of Berbra by the Berbra
44:56
corridor. Now, this might sound completely
44:58
unrelated to anything that you're necessarily concerned
45:01
with, but in actual fact, the Port of Berbra is run by the UAE
45:06
company DP World, which of course was partly funded by the
45:10
British taxpayer through British International Investment.
45:14
And we see here that they are of course involved in London.
45:19
This was reported on by Ben Rubin a number of weeks ago.
45:24
The Thames Freeport of course, described as being something
45:26
that might seem like it's being run by government, but actually
45:31
it's not. It's owned by DP World out of
45:33
UAE and and indeed it's something that we will keep a
45:38
very close eye on. But this this would appear to
45:40
relate directly back to the UK stirring up tensions in Somalia
45:46
in order to ensure that its grip control and indeed the outcomes
45:52
in the Horn of Africa are to its advantage.
45:55
So again, we'll keep our eyes on that and how it pertains to
45:58
things that happened back in this country with the example of
46:00
the the terms Freeport. Now that takes us back to
46:03
Vanessa, who has an update on what TikTok have been up to.
46:10
Yeah, well, actually it's it's a lot to do with the Israeli
46:14
dominance of the media and information sphere.
46:17
So this was a meeting that Netanyahu had in while he was in
46:21
New York with pro Israeli influencers.
46:25
So let's just have a listen to what he said.
46:30
Christian influencers, OK, you said you talked about the walk
46:35
right? And he said, I call it the walk
46:37
right. That's a brilliant the walk
46:42
right? Because these people, you know,
46:44
they're not any different from the walk left.
46:47
I mean, they're, they're insane, they're noisy, but they're
46:51
actually meeting on some of the things.
46:53
And what we have to do is we have to secure that part of our
46:57
the base of our support in the United States that is being
47:00
challenged systematically. A lot of this is done with
47:04
money, money of NGOs, vast money of governments faster.
47:10
OK, we have to fight back. How do we fight back our
47:14
influencers? I think you should also talk to
47:17
them if you have a chance to that, that community, they're
47:20
very important. And secondly, we're going to
47:23
have to use the tools of battle. You know, the the weapons change
47:28
over time. You can't fight today with the
47:30
swords. That doesn't work very well.
47:36
So quite extraordinary here and and then in the last 48 hours,
47:40
articles have been all over the media talking about Israel is
47:46
paying these influences 7000 per post, $7000 per post.
47:52
Just let that sink in. Netanyahu referred this week to
47:56
a community pushing out preferred messaging in the US
47:59
media and boy, are they making a princely sum.
48:03
So let's look at a little more little more detail on on this
48:06
whole complex. Bridge Partners, a firm working
48:09
for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sent a series
48:12
of invoices for its influencer campaign to have U.S.
48:16
Media Group in Germany, an international Media Group
48:19
working for Israel. The invoices detailed a sum of
48:22
900,000 starting in June and slated to end in November for a
48:27
cohort of 14 to 18 influencers to create content.
48:31
So They are Told, goes on to break down the costs and to work
48:35
out that each content creator is receiving 7000 per post.
48:40
Then if we look in towards the end of September, there was an
48:44
article in Politico talking about a democratic mega firm.
48:49
SKDK drops Israel as its client. Now bear in mind, that's
48:55
democratic. That's that's the Democrat
48:57
aligned organization. So it's it's bipartisan, this
49:02
support of Israel. Again, I want to make this very
49:04
clear, because people tend to become very partisan over these
49:08
issues and it's bipartisan, the support of Israel.
49:12
So again, in Politico, they basically say SKDK has worked
49:17
for several pro Israel efforts over the years, but this was the
49:20
first time it represented the Israeli government itself.
49:23
It collaborated with Havas, a European advertising and PR
49:28
firm, on behalf of Lapan, the Israeli government advertising
49:32
agency, with the ultimate client being the Israeli Ministry of
49:36
Foreign Affairs. Now another article appeared at
49:39
the same time in an in an independent media outlet called
49:43
rather interesting, the Sludge. And they talk about SDK
49:48
Knickerbocker. That was its former name.
49:51
I did check that. That's that's not parody, it's
49:55
now just simply called SKDKA. Top Democrat Party aligned
49:59
public relations firm had agreed to run a bot paste programme to
50:03
amplify pro Israel narratives on Instagram, Tiktok, LinkedIn,
50:07
YouTube and other platforms, according to a filing under the
50:10
Foreign Agents Registration Act submitted on August the 29th.
50:15
The contract, which was signed on April the 28th 2025,
50:19
describes a strategy to flood the zone with contact promoting
50:23
the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs pro Israel messages
50:26
using automated tools to increase the reach and
50:29
visibility of specific pro. So this is an entire industrial
50:33
complex working to whitewash the genocide in Palestine and to
50:38
push forward pro Israeli narratives across all social
50:43
media platforms. And then if we also look, they
50:47
go on to say that who else receives these messages?
50:51
So the contract for SDSKDK was worth 600,000 and it's coaching
50:59
Israeli civil society spokespeople for on camera
51:02
appearances, testing the effectiveness of social media
51:05
influences and arranging tailored outreach to journalists
51:09
at outlets including BBCCNN, Fox, Associated Press to secure
51:15
favourable coverage. Exactly.
51:16
Of course what we saw in Syria with the media complex that was
51:21
created to provide witnesses and testimonials to the likes of the
51:25
BBC and CNN to run anti government narratives inside
51:29
Syria. Now this com, this following
51:33
article came from back in March and this is where it gets
51:37
interesting. So Facebook paid a GOP firm to
51:40
malign Tiktok. So why has Israel been able to
51:45
take over Tiktok? Because of course, Tiktok has
51:47
been much maligned generally as being a Chinese influencer,
51:52
which in my opinion has effectively enabled Israel to
51:56
step into the bridge and take control of TikTok itself.
52:01
And then, but this is also interesting.
52:03
So according to Sludge, according to the filing, SK D's
52:08
work for Israel, overseen by its parent company Stagwell Global,
52:12
is being done as a subcontractor for the French public relations
52:16
firm Havas. Stagwell, founded by long time
52:19
Likud Ali Mach pen, also has a Republican Party aligned
52:24
affiliate called Targeted Victory that is working as a
52:27
subcontractor for Havas on Pro Israel communications.
52:31
And it's targeted Victory that was basically demonizing TikTok
52:36
on behalf of Israel to enable the buy out of TikTok.
52:42
So as I said this, this is a bipartisan Republican, Democrat
52:46
policy to support Israel and enable Israel to infiltrate all
52:52
social media platforms, particularly, of course, in the
52:54
US. But I would guess there's also
52:56
similar operations ongoing in the UK.
53:00
And if we move on to something else that Netanyahu makes very
53:04
clear in his conversation with his pet influencers, he's not
53:10
only going to buy out TikTok, he's also targeting X and Elon
53:16
Musk. So let's just play this.
53:18
Most important purchase that is going on right now is class
53:26
TikTok, TikTok number one, number one, and I hope it goes
53:31
through because it's it can be consequential.
53:34
And the other one, what's the other one that's most important?
53:37
X? Thanks.
53:44
We should be extremely concerned about this because Israel is
53:47
effectively taking over every single social media platform and
53:52
will eventually also be taking over all the platforms that are
53:55
used to to give a voice to independent media.
54:03
Yeah, very good point, well made, Vanessa.
54:05
And of course, again, the vast majority of the public who do
54:08
have access to this information and it gets pushed out have
54:10
absolutely no idea how it's coming to them or why.
54:13
So a real danger, which again, I hope we'll have time to talk
54:17
about in extra. Now, I'm pleased to say that
54:20
we're going to bring Diane back into the program because she has
54:23
got an update on some of the very high quality written
54:26
material that's gone out on the UK column website recently.
54:28
Diane. Yes, thanks Charles.
54:31
I, I just wanted to give today an update on some of the written
54:35
content that we've been publishing the last couple of
54:37
months here at UK column. As the commissioning editor for
54:40
written content, I want to point out especially to viewers that
54:44
these articles are very in depth, very well researched
54:47
pieces of journalism. And we don't have time to go
54:50
into the depth that we on the news that we do in these
54:53
articles. And so we spend a great deal of
54:55
time working with authors and I'm working on editing and, and
54:59
presenting detailed information to people as much as possible.
55:03
So if you feel like you're not getting enough depth from our
55:06
new segments, which are still quite deep, please check out
55:08
some of these reading articles. And I'm just going to highlight
55:10
a few things that have been going out the past few months.
55:13
The first one that I want to show here is from Mark Anderson,
55:16
who's one of our presenters on Friday.
55:19
This came out a little over a month ago, but I think it's
55:22
important to look at again, the UN at 80 and other key topics
55:25
highlighted at Tulsa's Red Pill Expo.
55:27
So this is something that happens in the States and he
55:29
covers this every year. So going back to look at the
55:32
history of the UN and, and, and how this has sort of impacted us
55:36
over time was of course of extreme importance to all of us.
55:40
The next thing that I want to highlight here is another one of
55:42
our frequent authors, Hugh McCarthy, who is a retired head
55:46
teacher in Northern Ireland. He's doing a multiple part
55:49
series on the effects of the COVID lockdowns on children and
55:54
Part 1 has been published. Lest lest we forget they knew
55:58
they did it anyway and there will be more to come from Hugh
56:01
as we go forward. The next part is a two-part
56:04
series from Professor David Miller, who also is a frequent
56:08
author for you could call him. This is a very interesting and
56:14
and rather alarming couple of articles.
56:18
This first one is called How the British intelligence network of
56:20
astroturf Muslim civil society groups is kept Secret and
56:23
Deniable. And this is again part of the
56:26
two-part series which basically looks at in both parts how the
56:29
government has been the business of developing as he calls it, a
56:33
vast network of deniable front groups in the Muslim community,
56:37
including leaked documents that have been linked to MIT press.
56:40
And they show exactly how the network was set up and the
56:43
agreements between British intelligence agencies and the
56:47
basically the relationships between these organizations and
56:51
what the government has been doing behind the scenes using
56:54
these propaganda techniques. And Part 2 of that was just
56:57
published a few days ago. And we also have a multiple part
57:01
series from Professor Gloria Moss.
57:04
Part 1 on post Truth was published a few weeks ago.
57:08
Actually, this was earlier in the summer on ubiquity of post
57:11
truth and how this has infiltrated society in general.
57:14
And this is part of a three-part series.
57:16
So again, going into that that theme again of the the very deep
57:19
journalism reporting that our authors do.
57:21
Part 2 was just published a few days ago about post Truth in
57:25
education. And we will have Part 3 of Post
57:29
Truth from from Professor Moss coming out shortly.
57:32
Another one that I want to highlight here is from Professor
57:35
David Miller and a new author to UK column Jill Thompson, who was
57:39
with N position called Scottish Sport Palestine.
57:42
This is a two-part series of Part 1 was published just
57:48
recently, this week actually, and it's called the day that
57:51
Celtic Football club played to raise money for land theft in
57:54
Palestine. And so there are some some very
57:57
undeniable links here between Celtic and, and, and kind of
58:00
what's going on with all of the things around Zionism and song
58:03
that we have been discussing throughout the news and continue
58:06
to cover on UK column. And this is very well timed for
58:09
some things that are about to come out shortly.
58:12
So we will be continuing to visit this and Part 2 will be
58:15
released in due course when it is appropriate.
58:17
But I also want to highlight a couple of different series of of
58:22
of things that we have been covering over time at UK column.
58:26
And these have sort of smaller sites within our websites.
58:30
You can look at all of the coverage that we have on these
58:33
topics in certain places. The first one that I want to
58:35
mention is for not the residential school, which
58:37
happens to be something that I've been working on as well as
58:40
Brian Garrish and others for almost a number of years now
58:44
actually. So this is all within a sort of
58:46
the mini site on the website and this is a particular interest
58:49
currently because there is a child going on right now in the
58:53
High Court in Glasgow. The 77 year old Patricia
58:56
Robertson is currently facing a total of 25 charges of abuse
59:00
which is said to have occurred at Fernethi Residential School
59:02
in Angus between 1967 and 1983. Keeping in mind of course that
59:07
Fernethi Residential School was open between 1960 and 1991.
59:12
And these allegations are part of a series of testimonies that
59:17
are going on right now, as I said in the High Court in
59:19
Glasgow. And this includes all, all types
59:23
of violence that we can possibly imagine, unfortunately to these
59:26
these women who were little girls at the time.
59:28
And we will continue to have ongoing coverage, deep coverage
59:32
of this case and the petition around their their fight for
59:35
justice and all of the things that the Finetti ladies have
59:38
been facing for, for many years. And finally, I'd like to end
59:43
with us the highlight of a series page that we have now
59:47
called Serious Centric Regional Analysis.
59:50
And I'm happy to say that actually today's the first day
59:52
I've ever been on the news with Vanessa Beeley.
59:54
And a lot of this has to do of course with her reporting in
59:57
Syria. So Vanessa, I don't know if you
59:58
wanted to say anything about these really amazing and in
1:00:01
depth articles that you and your colleagues have been working on.
1:00:05
No, I just think if people do want, as you said, a far more
1:00:09
contextual in depth analysis of what is happening not only in
1:00:13
Syria but in the region and all the complexities explained, then
1:00:17
please do go to Syria centric because we'll be trying to bring
1:00:21
out something on a weekly basis there.
1:00:25
Super Vanessa, thank you and indeed Diane, thank you very
1:00:27
much. It is a really good point to
1:00:29
make that whilst we do go into as much depth as we can in the
1:00:32
news programme, we are of course limited on time and therefore
1:00:35
the website is the place to go for a really detailed look at
1:00:39
many of the big issues out there.
1:00:41
Now just to round up the programme, I'm just going to
1:00:44
take us back to a theme that Sandy Adams was developing on
1:00:46
Monday, which is the sort of constant assault that farmers
1:00:49
and land owners are under. And the most least most recent
1:00:54
ash comes from Natural England who have just put out their
1:00:56
Nature returns summary report. And in essence they're talking
1:01:01
about tackling the twin challenges of climate change and
1:01:03
biodiversity loss. But of course what they fail to
1:01:06
mention is that much of the so-called biodiversity loss is
1:01:09
because of the very farming practices that the government
1:01:12
has sponsored via subsidy. A lot of the answer has been put
1:01:17
forward in a report by somebody called Dan Corry in April 2025,
1:01:21
which is essentially A regulatory reform paper and it
1:01:25
was described as being an independent report.
1:01:27
And I think this is the point I want to make.
1:01:28
He has just been appointed as a non executive board member at
1:01:31
Defra and there is really nothing independent about him at
1:01:34
all. Between the years of 2007 and
1:01:38
2010, he was the he was the head of economic policy at #10
1:01:45
Downing St. and therefore is not an outsider even remotely.
1:01:51
The other point to make is that he is also the chief economist
1:01:55
at the Future Governance Forum, and that is a think tank that
1:02:00
was set up in 2023 with the very idea of completely overturning
1:02:06
the system. So it's not at all coincident
1:02:08
that his regulatory reform would have net zero.
1:02:11
Of course, at its core, and by omission, it's very important to
1:02:16
point out that there are absolutely no references to
1:02:19
farming being part of the way to regenerate landscape and indeed
1:02:24
improve the environment. With the situation.
1:02:26
Soil gets improved, human health gets improved, and indeed it
1:02:29
makes goodness good business sense for all.
1:02:32
But I'm happy to say that I attended an event in Edinburgh
1:02:34
on and Diane was there also. If you don't believe me, there's
1:02:39
a picture on screen that more or less proves it.
1:02:41
But I'm just going to ask Diane now to just give a couple of
1:02:44
remarks about the success of that event and how it flies in
1:02:47
the face of what we're told by by Natural England.
1:02:52
Yeah, thanks, Charles. It was really a.
1:02:54
Great event, very well. Attended, very good comments,
1:02:58
really good vibe. I felt like a very good energy
1:03:00
there and it was called the Food and Health Festival we've been
1:03:03
mentioning on the news for the past few weeks.
1:03:05
And thank you to all of the UK column members who came out to
1:03:08
see Charles and I away up in Edinburgh, up in the north.
1:03:12
It was really, really useful to hear from some of the local
1:03:15
farmers and natural health practitioners and other types of
1:03:19
vendors to hear them say, you know, what they are doing
1:03:23
actually truly protecting the land.
1:03:25
Some in some cases working off grid, as I know you do, Charles,
1:03:29
really supporting the, the true nature of what we should be
1:03:33
doing when we're talking about actually supporting the
1:03:35
environment, providing good food and and supporting the health of
1:03:39
the people of this country, which sometimes it seems like
1:03:41
the government is not necessarily on side with us on
1:03:44
that, on that issue. But it was really good to hear
1:03:46
from all of them. I and your your talk,
1:03:48
particularly Charles, was, I thought very interesting because
1:03:51
it did help people position the individual things that these
1:03:55
farmers are doing that they were telling us about all day in
1:03:57
their talks. And then for you to be able to
1:03:59
put that in that larger context as well as someone who does it
1:04:02
as a smallholder, Charles, I thought was really particularly
1:04:05
useful. Lovely.
1:04:07
Thank you very much, Diane. Yeah, it was a very positive day
1:04:09
and I. Think the main thing to come.
1:04:10
Out of it is that what was being discussed was not conceptual.
1:04:12
This was for these were voices of experience, people who are
1:04:15
actually doing something and can demonstrate by scientific rigour
1:04:18
that they are improving the quality of soil, the quality of
1:04:22
their livestock and all the rest of it.
1:04:24
So it's very positive and I hope would serve as an inspiration to
1:04:27
you to get involved in, you know, taking control of your, of
1:04:31
your own food supply. And I'm sorry we've run a little
1:04:33
bit over, but that does bring us to the end of the programme.
1:04:35
So Vanessa and Diane, thank you very much indeed for joining me.
1:04:38
Please remember my words about joining us for the live stream
1:04:42
in York and indeed all the benefits that are associated
1:04:45
with that. Go to the shop on the website to
1:04:49
look at further details. And indeed, Please remember the
1:04:52
discussion that I'll be having with Brian Gerrish at 1:00
1:04:55
tomorrow afternoon on the subject of conscription and
1:04:58
recruitment into the armed forces.
1:05:00
And that's it from us today, but please join us again at 1:00 on
1:05:04
Friday. Goodbye.