Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 30th September 2026

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UK Column News — 30th September 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:18
Speaker 1: September 2026, just after one o'clock. Welcome to UK Column News.
0:21
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Mike Robinson. Joining me by video link
0:23
Speaker 1: today are Charles Mallett and Vanessa Bailey. Later in the programme,
0:27
Speaker 1: we'll have the latest on the RAF Fairford debacle. We'll
0:30
Speaker 1: be looking into the lifestyles of those who would send
0:33
Speaker 1: us to war. And we now know the date that
0:36
Speaker 1: we'll have to identify ourselves in order to use social
0:39
Speaker 1: media in the UK. And we'll also be joined a
0:41
Speaker 1: little later by a very special guest, but we'll begin
0:44
Speaker 1: today with Andy Burnham. Let's bring him on screen. Burnham's
0:49
Speaker 1: first Labour Party conference speech delivered yesterday. I'm sure most
0:52
Speaker 1: people have seen clips. And what was he selling? Well,
0:55
Speaker 1: partly he was selling his own ego, but mostly hopium
0:59
Speaker 1: because the tagline for the conference is is hope again,
1:02
Speaker 1: we've all got to start hoping and so on. Now
1:05
Speaker 1: I'm not going to inflict too much of Burnham on
1:08
Speaker 1: you today, but I did want to play this short excerpt.
1:15
Speaker 2: Imagine living in a Britain where people feel the country
1:21
Speaker 2: has got their back again. A Britain for everyone, no
1:25
Speaker 2: matter who we are or where we're born. We would
1:29
Speaker 2: be unstoppable. And we will be. The politician in me
1:37
Speaker 2: wants to give the usual tub-thumping conference speech today. But
1:42
Speaker 2: the patriot in me tells me something very different is needed.
1:50
Speaker 2: This country isn't where any of us would want it
1:53
Speaker 2: to be. Politics as usual has taken it backwards. More
2:01
Speaker 2: of the same isn't good enough. That's why I feel
2:05
Speaker 2: I have to break the mould today. I'm going to
2:10
Speaker 2: give you a real speech. Everyone can see the position
2:16
Speaker 2: Britain is in. Everyone knows things are not working as
2:19
Speaker 2: they should. Everyone is talking about how life is too expensive.
2:24
Speaker 2: Everyone wants less drift and more direction. Today I answer
2:30
Speaker 2: that call. Hope.
2:33
Speaker 3: Hope.
2:35
Speaker 2: Comes from honesty. And we will have hope again. But first, honesty.
2:44
Speaker 2: It comes from saying the things politicians usually avoid.
2:52
Speaker 1: So for almost a microsecond, I did wonder if he
2:55
Speaker 1: meant that he was going to talk about Epstein and
2:57
Speaker 1: grooming gangs, but As I say, that was just a
2:59
Speaker 1: fleeting thought wiped out by me telling myself not to
3:02
Speaker 1: be so stupid. So what was he talking about? Well,
3:06
Speaker 1: if you're patient enough to sit through the crocodile tears,
3:09
Speaker 1: you would have heard him rhyme off a list of
3:11
Speaker 1: the main topics we've been highlighting on this news program
3:14
Speaker 1: for years. So let's just run through them here. First, energy. Now,
3:18
Speaker 1: he claimed that his goal is to reduce energy costs
3:21
Speaker 1: to bring them into parity with the rest of Europe,
3:24
Speaker 1: as if that's going to make a difference. Not immediately though,
3:28
Speaker 1: within a decade. In the meantime, we're going to see what, 16, 17,
3:32
Speaker 1: 18% price rises in the new year. He wants to
3:35
Speaker 1: reform the energy market, he said, expanding on renewables and
3:39
Speaker 1: nuclear and speeding up decoupling electricity prices from international gas.
3:47
Speaker 1: And he said that he wants to take a pragmatic
3:49
Speaker 1: approach to the North Sea as a bridge to clean energy.
3:53
Speaker 1: And there'll be a first national energy plan with a
3:55
Speaker 1: stronger role for mayors and local leaders. That was a
3:58
Speaker 1: theme right the way through the speech. And he announced
4:01
Speaker 1: the Great British Grid, a new publicly owned branch of
4:04
Speaker 1: Great British Energy. It will compete with private operators, he said,
4:08
Speaker 1: to cut costs and speed up grid connections for businesses.
4:10
Speaker 1: And well, the question then is which businesses? Well, as
4:13
Speaker 1: I say, this isn't about reducing prices for you or me.
4:16
Speaker 1: It's about data centers. And the connection to the grid
4:20
Speaker 1: problem is largely a data center problem. And we've reported
4:23
Speaker 1: on this before, but contracted demand offers have increased from
4:28
Speaker 1: 41 gigawatts to 125 gigawatts between November 2024 and June 2025.
4:32
Speaker 1: Those are the latest statistics. It has not improved since then.
4:36
Speaker 1: And this is driven largely by the demand from data
4:39
Speaker 1: center projects. And just as we said before, by comparison,
4:44
Speaker 1: peak electricity demand for the whole of the UK at
4:46
Speaker 1: the moment is only 45 gigawatts. So they're talking as
4:49
Speaker 1: a minimum, doubling what is required. And there's no prospect
4:53
Speaker 1: of that energy being made available anytime soon. Then if
4:58
Speaker 1: we come back to him for a second, the next
5:00
Speaker 1: item on the list was social care and his great
5:03
Speaker 1: unfunded plan to create a national care service to sit
5:06
Speaker 1: alongside the National Health Service. But it's all smoke and
5:09
Speaker 1: mirrors as he needed to find an excuse to dump
5:12
Speaker 1: the so-called triple lock on pensions, which guarantees the UK
5:16
Speaker 1: state pension increases every April by whichever of three economic
5:19
Speaker 1: measures is the highest. But it's unfair of me to
5:23
Speaker 1: say he's dumping it, isn't it? Because he's adjusting it.
5:26
Speaker 1: That was the word he used. He wants to adjust it.
5:28
Speaker 4: Silly me.
5:29
Speaker 1: Now, the next on the list is the war agenda.
5:33
Speaker 1: And that's a theme that runs through many of the announcements.
5:35
Speaker 1: But he absolutely doubled down on the Russia narrative in particular.
5:39
Speaker 1: He linked social security to national security and to meeting
5:43
Speaker 1: NATO obligations because everything's being reoriented to a wartime economy,
5:47
Speaker 1: even social security. And then was employment prospects for younger people.
5:53
Speaker 1: And between this speech and other announcements, it's clear that
5:57
Speaker 1: the aim is to get people, young people, either into
6:00
Speaker 1: the military or into war related employment. There are around
6:04
Speaker 1: a million so-called economically inactive young people in the UK
6:07
Speaker 1: at the moment. And so clearly the best thing to
6:10
Speaker 1: do is to have a war and then there won't
6:12
Speaker 1: be a million economically inactive young people. They'll still be
6:15
Speaker 1: inactive though, because they'll be dead. But anyway, devolution was
6:19
Speaker 1: next on the list. That was a major part of
6:22
Speaker 1: his speech with the usual rhetoric about bringing power to
6:24
Speaker 1: the people, getting power out of Whitehall. And as we've
6:28
Speaker 1: mentioned before, that's exactly what it's about, getting power out
6:32
Speaker 1: of Whitehall and applied at the most local level. It's
6:35
Speaker 1: not about giving power to people at a local level.
6:37
Speaker 1: It's about central control at the local level. And that
6:40
Speaker 1: means through mayors, city regions, smart cities, and so on,
6:44
Speaker 1: and the new wartime economy. And he's also changing government
6:48
Speaker 1: procurement rules so small and medium-sized businesses can suck on
6:52
Speaker 1: the taxpayer teat, just like big corporations. But who's going
6:56
Speaker 1: to rock the boat when their livelihood relies on government money?
7:00
Speaker 1: So it's all about control. And then next we have
7:03
Speaker 1: electoral reform. Now, this is all about dumping the first-past-the-post
7:08
Speaker 1: system in favor of some kind of proportional representation alongside
7:12
Speaker 1: citizens' assemblies. and a reduction of the voting age to 16.
7:16
Speaker 1: The specifics weren't discussed in the speech. He's going to
7:19
Speaker 1: launch a national commission to come up with an architecture,
7:22
Speaker 1: and all political parties in the UK are going to
7:26
Speaker 1: be invited to take part. Now, this is going to
7:28
Speaker 1: make life particularly interesting for Nigel Farage, and we'll talk
7:31
Speaker 1: a little bit about why that is in UK column
7:34
Speaker 1: news extra. And then finally in this list, he made
7:37
Speaker 1: it clear that Britain will rejoin the EU. Brexit hasn't worked,
7:41
Speaker 1: he said. He claimed he would be honest at the
7:44
Speaker 1: beginning of the speech and then he lied through his
7:45
Speaker 1: teeth about why Brexit hasn't worked because he said nothing
7:49
Speaker 1: about the fact that no British politician wanted it to work.
7:53
Speaker 1: And so therefore Brexit was sabotaged by the political class
7:56
Speaker 1: because the electorate were naive enough to think that either
7:59
Speaker 1: Theresa May or Boris Johnson or any of the rest
8:01
Speaker 1: of them would do what they were actually mandated to do.
8:05
Speaker 1: And so he mentioned the upcoming summit with the EU
8:08
Speaker 1: around which he'll set out options for the UK's long-term relationship,
8:12
Speaker 1: future relationship with the EU and seek consensus on which
8:16
Speaker 1: one of those options he's going to select. Charles, let
8:20
Speaker 1: me welcome you to the program and say, you know,
8:23
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts on Burnham's performance yesterday and the
8:28
Speaker 1: key items, his key agenda items that he was talking about?
8:33
Speaker 5: Thanks, Mike.
8:34
Speaker 6: And good afternoon all. The deck chairs on the Titanic,
8:38
Speaker 6: I think, are the first thing that spring to mind.
8:40
Speaker 6: But this has been his sort of campaign from behind
8:44
Speaker 6: the curtain, in effect, when it was widely acknowledged that
8:47
Speaker 6: he was going to assume the office of prime minister,
8:49
Speaker 6: despite the fact there was not going to be really
8:51
Speaker 6: any sort of mandate for him to be able to
8:53
Speaker 6: do so. And so it seems to be in some
8:55
Speaker 6: senses entirely consistent with but for him to, in a way,
8:59
Speaker 6: have the nerve or temerity to talk about hope and trust,
9:02
Speaker 6: whilst at the same time speaking in language that's so generic,
9:06
Speaker 6: people can agree with him that things are wrong. But
9:10
Speaker 6: of course, he's not declaring why or indeed to what end,
9:15
Speaker 6: to what purpose. So I think it looks very much
9:18
Speaker 6: like every single solution he's put forward and indeed the
9:21
Speaker 6: issues that you articulate, are all to continue to sort
9:27
Speaker 6: of steer further off course. I think rejoining the EU
9:30
Speaker 6: being the most obviously cynical, effectively presenting an electorate that
9:35
Speaker 6: had one go at something and admittedly seen it be
9:38
Speaker 6: completely bungled thereafter to vote again for a better outcome.
9:44
Speaker 6: I mean, honestly, what What can his purpose be if
9:48
Speaker 6: one's to take it at face value in suggesting such
9:50
Speaker 6: a thing? But I think the things that he is
9:53
Speaker 6: very obviously pushing would be devolution and war. And I
9:57
Speaker 6: think at UK Column, we've taken such a... sort of
10:00
Speaker 6: deep look at those things that I would hope by
10:04
Speaker 6: now that the audience, UK Column audience, have a very
10:06
Speaker 6: clear idea of exactly what he means when he does
10:09
Speaker 6: say those sorts of things. And I think we've dug
10:12
Speaker 6: into that. And I dare say we can talk about
10:13
Speaker 6: more of that in Extra.
10:16
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you for that. Now, Charles, let's move on then,
10:19
Speaker 1: because the obvious big story from Wednesday was, or from Monday, sorry,
10:24
Speaker 1: was RAF Fairford and what on earth was going on there. Clearly,
10:31
Speaker 1: whatever narrative was being built around that has collapsed. So
10:35
Speaker 1: where are we at with it?
10:38
Speaker 6: Well, it's a very good question. And I would have
10:40
Speaker 6: said as stories go, this one has holes large enough
10:44
Speaker 6: to steer a spare aircraft carrier through had we had one.
10:49
Speaker 6: But I think even since Monday's news, this has further collapsed.
10:53
Speaker 6: And I should also say that when I was quoting
10:57
Speaker 6: what the Welford farmer had said, the lady farmer that
11:01
Speaker 6: is reported to have called police, I suggested that we
11:04
Speaker 6: were hearing her voice on the BBC Today programme. I
11:07
Speaker 6: appreciate that was incorrect. So I'm sorry to have given
11:10
Speaker 6: that impression because her voice was being read by a producer.
11:13
Speaker 6: But nonetheless, she has actually now spoken out publicly. Admittedly,
11:16
Speaker 6: we can't see her face. But I think if we
11:19
Speaker 6: just take at face value the idea that she did
11:22
Speaker 6: see what she says she saw, and this is how
11:26
Speaker 6: she's interacting with the press. But I think her comments
11:29
Speaker 6: about The actions of the police and indeed what that
11:33
Speaker 6: says about any intervention, any direction or manipulation of this
11:38
Speaker 6: whole enterprise is very telling. So let's just have a
11:41
Speaker 6: listen to what she said.
11:44
Speaker 7: We had our lights on main beam because there wasn't
11:46
Speaker 7: another car. So I think we sort of dazzled them
11:49
Speaker 7: and they started to run. and some of them ran
11:52
Speaker 7: straight ahead across the road into the field, and some
11:55
Speaker 7: turned and started going down towards Kempsford, which is our
11:59
Speaker 7: next village, and also a slightly more obvious part of
12:03
Speaker 7: the fence that runs along the airbase. So then I...
12:08
Speaker 7: It's really hard. It's such a flash moment of seeing them,
12:13
Speaker 7: but there were definitely more than five. We think maybe
12:16
Speaker 7: between eight and ten of them were there at that point.
12:21
Speaker 7: And a lot of them had their faces covered. They
12:24
Speaker 7: were all wearing like, it looked like similar, almost you'd
12:27
Speaker 7: have thought perhaps it was like what they'd been told
12:29
Speaker 7: to wear, quite similar, like slim fitting clothes. So then
12:35
Speaker 7: I realized this was probably something a bit more unusual
12:41
Speaker 7: than undercover policemen parked in some vans.
12:44
Speaker 8: How do you feel that West Reading, the defense secretary
12:47
Speaker 8: said you didn't have the full picture?
12:50
Speaker 7: I just don't know how he knows what picture I've got.
12:52
Speaker 7: I've never met him. Nobody's, literally nobody in any sort
12:58
Speaker 7: of official capacity has been in touch with me or
13:02
Speaker 7: anyone else in the village. No follow up at all
13:06
Speaker 7: even now from the police who had my number when
13:10
Speaker 7: I reported it to 999. So it's just very odd
13:16
Speaker 7: and I think It was clear they were very worried
13:19
Speaker 7: about something.
13:24
Speaker 6: Of the very many things that we could dig into,
13:26
Speaker 6: I think there are two things that are of note there.
13:29
Speaker 6: First of all, her throwaway remark about the similarity with
13:34
Speaker 6: which all these men were dressed, as though that's what
13:38
Speaker 6: they were told to wear. And I just put that
13:40
Speaker 6: out there. Obviously, I can't substantiate at all that that
13:42
Speaker 6: is what happened, but just an interesting comment. And the
13:45
Speaker 6: other one is to imagine that as she says, that
13:49
Speaker 6: she has not had any further interaction with police, which
13:52
Speaker 6: suggests that as part of an investigation into this, she,
13:56
Speaker 6: as the primary witness that instigated the investigation, has not
14:00
Speaker 6: yet given a statement to police. And I think we
14:04
Speaker 6: should take away from that a lot in terms of
14:08
Speaker 6: what this suggests about what's actually been going on. Now,
14:10
Speaker 6: we're going to look at the timeline from counter-terrorism police
14:13
Speaker 6: because it is so absurd as to require a little
14:17
Speaker 6: bit further scrutiny. Now, we go back to 10 to
14:20
Speaker 6: 2 on Sunday when we were told five men were
14:22
Speaker 6: arrested in the Welford area on suspicion of committing offences
14:25
Speaker 6: under the Explosives Act. Now, that goes back to 1875.
14:28
Speaker 6: We talked about that on the news on Monday. And
14:32
Speaker 6: then they were further arrested on suspicion of a terrorist act.
14:37
Speaker 6: So that's where we were on Sunday. That did not
14:41
Speaker 6: prevent Wes Streeting from taking to the floor at the
14:44
Speaker 6: Labour Party conference and opening his address with this.
14:54
Speaker 9: Given events you will understand that before getting into my
14:57
Speaker 9: speech today I want to say something about yesterday's events
15:01
Speaker 9: around RAF Fairford. You'll understand that there is a live
15:05
Speaker 9: police investigation and I can't provide much further detail than
15:09
Speaker 9: that which is reported. But I do want to say
15:14
Speaker 9: that our friendship with America is the closest alliance of
15:18
Speaker 9: any two nations on earth and we will always stand
15:22
Speaker 9: together against those who hate our freedom and those who
15:26
Speaker 9: wish us harm. What we saw yesterday from our security services,
15:37
Speaker 9: our armed forces and our police was just a small
15:41
Speaker 9: glimpse of the extraordinary work they do every day, around
15:46
Speaker 9: the clock and around the world, behind the scenes and
15:51
Speaker 9: without recognition to keep our country safe. To all of them,
15:57
Speaker 9: from all of us, thank you.
16:03
Speaker 6: Now, I'm just going to put the last part of
16:04
Speaker 6: the first bit of the counterterrorism policing statement, because, of course,
16:08
Speaker 6: they said we would ask the public not to speculate,
16:10
Speaker 6: but to follow official channels for updates, something the defence
16:13
Speaker 6: secretary himself seems to have found it hard to adhere
16:17
Speaker 6: to as guidance goes. The other thing that's been missing
16:20
Speaker 6: from this story is what was going on in Fairford
16:22
Speaker 6: prior to these events. And it's been reported to UK
16:25
Speaker 6: Column from several residents of Fairford that there was an
16:29
Speaker 6: armed police presence in Fairford from at least... mid to
16:32
Speaker 6: late afternoon on the Saturday and also accounts of armed
16:36
Speaker 6: police telling residents that in effect something was going on,
16:40
Speaker 6: they should remain vigilant and they should stay at home.
16:42
Speaker 6: And yet somehow that seems to have dropped out of
16:45
Speaker 6: the story, at least as far as the government and
16:47
Speaker 6: the mainstream media is concerned. We're going to go back
16:50
Speaker 6: to the farmer herself and just hear a little bit
16:52
Speaker 6: more comment on what exactly she had to say to
16:56
Speaker 6: the media.
16:58
Speaker 2: You say that there are at least eight from what
17:00
Speaker 2: you yeah that would.
17:01
Speaker 5: Mean that there are potentially other men who have not been.
17:04
Speaker 7: Arrested yeah well that's the possibility isn't it how do
17:07
Speaker 7: you feel about that astonished again i suppose um but
17:13
Speaker 7: yeah i i just can't process how that base was
17:19
Speaker 7: on such high alert and that the men were even
17:21
Speaker 7: there never mind how many and how many they caught
17:25
Speaker 7: and They reacted very quickly to the 999 call. But
17:29
Speaker 7: before that.
17:30
Speaker 1: Where were they? Quite.
17:36
Speaker 6: And I think this is absolutely at the heart of it.
17:38
Speaker 6: So whilst we have Streeting talking about the importance of
17:40
Speaker 6: the relationship with the United States and the ability of
17:43
Speaker 6: both countries, in effect, to go to war together, he
17:46
Speaker 6: seems to have been completely ignoring what has actually happened
17:50
Speaker 6: and the fact that there doesn't seem to be any
17:51
Speaker 6: follow-up investigation into the number of other people that this
17:55
Speaker 6: lady says that she saw. Now, to go back to
17:58
Speaker 6: counter-terror police and what it is they've been reporting, we
18:01
Speaker 6: see the update from the same day as Streeting's conference
18:05
Speaker 6: speech and incredibly the bold text is theirs. This may
18:09
Speaker 6: be activity committed by proxies or individuals either knowingly or
18:14
Speaker 6: unknowingly working on behalf of a foreign state. Now that
18:18
Speaker 6: does appear to have come from absolutely nowhere. There is
18:23
Speaker 6: no point at which that is substantiated by counter-terrorism police,
18:27
Speaker 6: which does, of course, beg the question, is there undue
18:30
Speaker 6: influence here? And if so, from where and why? Now,
18:34
Speaker 6: almost contradictorily, they then, in the very same statement, said,
18:38
Speaker 6: talking about the threat in general, often this threat becomes
18:41
Speaker 6: visible to us as criminal activity, often at a small
18:45
Speaker 6: scale and committed by individuals whose primary aim is not terrorism.
18:53
Speaker 4: Duh.
18:54
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, Charles has dropped off. So I'll just continue
18:58
Speaker 1: with that. His primary aim is not terrorism, but a
19:01
Speaker 1: quick financial gain. So William, thanks. And so then Daily
19:09
Speaker 1: Mail here, RAF Fairford bomb plot was foiled when one
19:12
Speaker 1: of the suspects rang the police on himself. So the
19:15
Speaker 1: story gets even more ridiculous. One light of inquiry is
19:19
Speaker 1: understood to be whether the Iran-linked drama was not actually foiled.
19:23
Speaker 1: a foiled attack, but a stunt or calling card to
19:27
Speaker 1: send a message to British and US authorities. And Charles,
19:31
Speaker 1: you're saying here, you're making the point that they're not
19:36
Speaker 1: actually accepting comments on that article?
19:38
Speaker 6: This is it, yes. I'm sorry, I lost the connection there.
19:41
Speaker 6: But this is exactly the point, is that there are
19:43
Speaker 6: so many holes in this that mainstream media have, in effect,
19:47
Speaker 6: shut down comments because it's so risky to put them out.
19:51
Speaker 6: But that hasn't stopped Marco Rubio from the United States
19:54
Speaker 6: giving the impression that this was absolutely, certainly an attack
19:59
Speaker 6: directed at the United States visiting forces. So let's just
20:02
Speaker 6: hear what he had to say about this.
20:06
Speaker 3: Well, let me preface by saying that I have to
20:07
Speaker 3: be careful. There's some things I cannot say on the
20:10
Speaker 3: air for a lot of different reasons. Suffice it to
20:12
Speaker 3: say that what happened, what almost happened, what could have
20:14
Speaker 3: happened in the UK over the weekend is a very
20:17
Speaker 3: serious situation. It's one that clearly involves the hands of
20:21
Speaker 3: a foreign actor. I won't get into great detail about
20:24
Speaker 3: that yet. I do want to thank the authorities in
20:26
Speaker 3: the United Kingdom who have been very cooperative and on
20:28
Speaker 3: top of it, I know a lot of people are disturbed.
20:31
Speaker 3: by the news that some of these people have been
20:33
Speaker 3: released on bail as it was some of the people
20:35
Speaker 3: are being investigated. And obviously, we're engaging with them on
20:38
Speaker 3: all of that. But suffice it to say that beyond that,
20:40
Speaker 3: I would argue that they've been very cooperative and very
20:43
Speaker 3: helpful on something that's very serious incident.
20:47
Speaker 6: You did hear him correctly. He did actually say what happened,
20:51
Speaker 6: what almost happened and what could have happened. And he
20:54
Speaker 6: went on to then say that that clearly, or rather
20:56
Speaker 6: indicates that it clearly involves the hands of a foreign actor. Now,
21:01
Speaker 6: if we go back 25 years to what the BBC
21:04
Speaker 6: was putting out on September 11th, of course, we think
21:08
Speaker 6: of the words of Ehud Barak, who said that the
21:10
Speaker 6: world will not be the same from today on within
21:13
Speaker 6: minutes of the apparent attacks in New York. I don't
21:16
Speaker 6: know who is responsible. And then he went on to say,
21:19
Speaker 6: if it is a kind of bin Laden organisation, it's
21:22
Speaker 6: as though lessons have been learned from what Barak said
21:26
Speaker 6: all those years ago. And we've now got to the
21:28
Speaker 6: point with the statement from counter-terrorism police. This is updated
21:33
Speaker 6: just yesterday, saying the vehicles have been subjected to extensive
21:37
Speaker 6: examination and no improvised explosive devices were found. However, a
21:43
Speaker 6: quantity of petrol was recovered. Of course, we have no
21:46
Speaker 6: idea what quantity, how big or how small. And indeed,
21:51
Speaker 6: almost putting his tail between his legs, I understand why
21:53
Speaker 6: this development will have come as a surprise to many.
21:56
Speaker 1: Yes, quite.
21:57
Speaker 6: Now, with regard to bail, which I think is a
22:00
Speaker 6: little understood, but a custody sergeant, when considering whether bail
22:03
Speaker 6: is necessary and proportionate, will have to make a judgment
22:07
Speaker 6: on whether the suspects will secure their surrender to custody. indeed,
22:12
Speaker 6: whether they will be prevented from offending by the bail conditions,
22:16
Speaker 6: whether the victims and witnesses are safeguarded, indeed, whether the
22:21
Speaker 6: suspect is safeguarded, and finally, whether the risk to the
22:24
Speaker 6: public is managed. So just to recap, there's nothing to
22:29
Speaker 6: suggest that there was a direct threat to RAF Fairford itself,
22:33
Speaker 6: nor to the United States Visiting Forces, nor indeed to
22:36
Speaker 6: the civilian population. There's no evidence of explosives. nor acts
22:41
Speaker 6: concerning the preparation of terrorism. There are no links to
22:44
Speaker 6: foreign powers. In fact, there's no confirmation at all that
22:47
Speaker 6: any criminal activity at all was commissioned. But I think
22:51
Speaker 6: we do have a host of questions about the possible
22:54
Speaker 6: manipulation of police and other agencies with regard to the narrative.
22:58
Speaker 6: I think we've got a lot more to talk about
23:00
Speaker 6: in Extra. Mike, I don't know if you've got any
23:02
Speaker 6: quick comment now.
23:04
Speaker 1: No, no, we'll keep it for extra. But thank you
23:06
Speaker 1: very much for that, Charles. It just gets more silly
23:09
Speaker 1: by the second. But Vanessa, last week on Friday's program,
23:13
Speaker 1: I think it was Friday's program, we put out the
23:16
Speaker 1: little video clip of Jacob Rees-Mogg telling us basically we've
23:20
Speaker 1: got to prepare to send our children off to war.
23:22
Speaker 1: Quite sure he wasn't intending to send his. But let's
23:25
Speaker 1: have a look at who the Lords of War are.
23:30
Speaker 4: Yeah.
23:30
Speaker 10: So this is an interesting new, as they call it,
23:34
Speaker 10: mockumentary put out by the Quincy Institute and the Intercept
23:39
Speaker 10: in a joint project reported on in Responsible Statecraft yesterday.
23:44
Speaker 10: A new mockumentary rips the scab of festering reality that
23:48
Speaker 10: billions in U.S. taxpayer dollars are go to destroying countries
23:53
Speaker 10: while keeping a handful of CEOs, obviously within the military
23:57
Speaker 10: industrial complex, very wealthy. And of course, this isn't going
24:01
Speaker 10: to be news at all to the UK column audience,
24:04
Speaker 10: but I still think it's worth having another look, and
24:07
Speaker 10: particularly with this documentary or mockumentary coming to light. So
24:12
Speaker 10: first of all, they talk about Marilyn Hewson, 2013 to 2020,
24:18
Speaker 10: she was the CEO of Lockheed Martin and currently serves
24:21
Speaker 10: on the advisory boards of Air and Space Forces Association.
24:26
Speaker 10: So the weaponization of space, which we know is incoming.
24:29
Speaker 10: So let's just have a look. Remember, this is a mockumentary.
24:32
Speaker 10: So this is satire, but let's just play this.
24:37
Speaker 11: When you consider Hewson's humble beginnings, her father died when
24:41
Speaker 11: she was only a girl. And young Marilyn and her
24:43
Speaker 11: siblings were raised alone by her mother.
24:46
Speaker 12: She taught us the value of a dollar.
24:48
Speaker 10: You know, we had to learn how to economize at
24:50
Speaker 10: a very young age.
24:51
Speaker 11: When she was a teenager, she worked the night shift
24:54
Speaker 11: at a local dairy queen.
24:55
Speaker 9: It's really the sort of story that could only happen
24:58
Speaker 9: in America.
24:59
Speaker 8: From serving ice cream to serving hellfire to America's enemies.
25:04
Speaker 2: It's really quite poetic, isn't it?
25:14
Speaker 10: Obviously, Lockheed Martin has been supplying much of the weaponry
25:17
Speaker 10: that has been used to conduct the genocide against Palestinians
25:20
Speaker 10: in Gaza and now in the West Bank. But then
25:24
Speaker 10: they move on to, where did they move on to?
25:28
Speaker 10: So this is, they actually talk now about the profit
25:32
Speaker 10: margin that Lockheed Martin has procured out of the endless
25:36
Speaker 10: war's If you're the queen of Kaboom, you also need
25:41
Speaker 10: to flaunt it from time to time.
25:43
Speaker 9: That's why Marilyn also went and got herself this Florida
25:45
Speaker 9: penthouse for a cool $ 5.
25:46
Speaker 4: 2 million.
25:49
Speaker 11: Lockheed Martin is America's biggest defense contractor, making more than
25:53
Speaker 11: $ 75 billion in 2025. Roughly three quarters of that came
25:58
Speaker 11: in the form of U.S. government contracts.
26:04
Speaker 10: And then Raytheon is also brought up. So let's play that.
26:10
Speaker 11: Is RTX, formerly known as Raytheon. The US's second biggest
26:15
Speaker 11: defense contractor raked in more than $ 88 billion in sales
26:19
Speaker 11: in 2025, up more than 10% from the previous year.
26:24
Speaker 11: Government contracts make up about half of RTX's business. And
26:28
Speaker 11: they've managed to do that with the help of Donald
26:30
Speaker 11: Trump's former Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, who worked as
26:35
Speaker 11: a lobbyist for the company from 2010 to 2017. Since then,
26:40
Speaker 11: Esper often appears on TV news shows. What's rarely mentioned, however,
26:44
Speaker 11: is that he's also a managing partner at Red Cell Partners,
26:48
Speaker 11: which invests in technology companies that contract with the Department
26:52
Speaker 11: of Defense.
26:53
Speaker 12: Do you agree with the decision to go to work?
26:58
Speaker 4: Well, good morning, and the answer is yes.
27:00
Speaker 6: I think it was the right decision.
27:04
Speaker 10: It's a very clear point, Mike, that for these organizations,
27:08
Speaker 10: CEOs and billionaires within the military-industrial complex and also within
27:13
Speaker 10: the political system, the benefit from them, the drive will
27:18
Speaker 10: always be to go to war. And finally, this is
27:21
Speaker 10: the kind of Top Gun finale of the mockumentary. The
27:27
Speaker 10: link to the full mockumentary, of course, will be in
27:29
Speaker 10: the show notes, but let's just play this.
27:32
Speaker 7: Because the system works.
27:34
Speaker 11: And so... As the sun sets over a Chicago penthouse,
27:38
Speaker 11: a Miami mansion, and a tasteful yet generously apportioned Virginia
27:43
Speaker 11: ranch house, remember that the best and the brightest are
27:47
Speaker 11: getting the rest and relaxation they need to keep you safe.
27:51
Speaker 11: It's thanks to your generosity in the form of tax
27:54
Speaker 11: dollars that these illustrious executives are on the case. And
27:58
Speaker 11: they're fighting Russia. And also Islamic extremism. Besides, of course,
28:03
Speaker 11: when that conflicts with our strategic interests.
28:09
Speaker 10: A very nice dig there at the welcome of a
28:13
Speaker 10: former al-Qaeda terrorist, of course, to the White House. But
28:18
Speaker 10: now on to the more serious aspect of this entire discussion,
28:22
Speaker 10: of course, is while these people are making money from war,
28:26
Speaker 10: the reality is that the soldiers on the ground are
28:30
Speaker 10: dying in these wars.
28:33
Speaker 4: But also even.
28:35
Speaker 10: Not in war itself. They are suffering. So this is
28:39
Speaker 10: an investigation that was carried out by Senator Ossoff, which
28:46
Speaker 10: uncovered dangerous conditions in privatized military housing at Fort Benning
28:52
Speaker 10: and Fort Stewart. And let's just have a look at
28:55
Speaker 10: a couple. This is Fort Benning, and these are just
28:57
Speaker 10: a couple of the testimonies of the living conditions. premature
29:02
Speaker 10: newborn was reported to have elevated lead levels after two
29:05
Speaker 10: weeks of residence in their home prompting the family to
29:08
Speaker 10: terminate their lease and pay over a thousand to be
29:11
Speaker 10: moved to a different house on base during the initial
29:15
Speaker 10: lease signing the family reported the housing company told them
29:17
Speaker 10: that the home could have lead but the reality is
29:21
Speaker 10: that their baby could not crawl on floors or play
29:24
Speaker 10: outside because lead was literally dripping off the house and
29:27
Speaker 10: contaminating the surrounding soil In the report, they also mentioned
29:31
Speaker 10: that many of these families are forced to sign NDAs
29:34
Speaker 10: so that they're not going to talk about the conditions
29:37
Speaker 10: they're forced.
29:37
Speaker 4: To live in.
29:38
Speaker 10: And then, sorry, there is just one more where they
29:42
Speaker 10: talk about excessive mold in the house leading to reduced
29:46
Speaker 10: lung function, allergies, chronic sore throats, fatigue, hives, rashes and
29:50
Speaker 10: sleep apnea, among other things. And of course, we had
29:54
Speaker 10: the recent incident on the USS Lincoln, where personnel have
29:59
Speaker 10: attempted suicide, eight personnel. And then even coming on to
30:04
Speaker 10: the UK, the story is not really any different. This
30:07
Speaker 10: is from a report in 2020, but it's ongoing. The
30:11
Speaker 10: UK has given one billion in aid to Yemen, but
30:14
Speaker 10: has licensed 6.5 billion worth of arms through BAE to
30:19
Speaker 10: countries bombing it. And of course, remembering that that Theresa
30:23
Speaker 10: May's husband, Philip May, had direct contacts to, was working
30:27
Speaker 10: for the PR company that had as its clients BAE.
30:33
Speaker 10: And then basically, if we move on, this is Roger Carr,
30:37
Speaker 10: who was CEO of, or chairman of BAE until 2023.
30:43
Speaker 10: What he also pointed out, he used to sit on
30:47
Speaker 10: the BBC's governing body, stressed to fucks, that Saudi Arabia
30:51
Speaker 10: is a significant value generator for BAE Systems and the
30:54
Speaker 10: wider defence enterprise in the UK. He also went on
30:58
Speaker 10: to say that Sarah Waldron from CA Campaign Against Arms
31:06
Speaker 10: told Declassified, these revelations shine more lights on the long
31:09
Speaker 10: and toxic relationship between BAE Systems and the UK and
31:12
Speaker 10: Saudi government. And then, of course, just looking at the
31:16
Speaker 10: level of homelessness among armed forces veterans in England, which
31:21
Speaker 10: rose by 14 percent. This was a report from 2023,
31:24
Speaker 10: but the situation remains the same from more recent reports
31:30
Speaker 10: in 2026. Perhaps, Charles, you could quickly comment on that.
31:37
Speaker 6: I think just a quick comment, Vanessa. I mean, I
31:39
Speaker 6: think the level of cynicism is just phenomenal because, of course,
31:41
Speaker 6: the way it works, certainly in the United Kingdom, is
31:43
Speaker 6: that the government at the behest of the defence or
31:46
Speaker 6: sort of military industrial complex will put soldiers in harm's way,
31:50
Speaker 6: fail to look after them either when they're in service
31:52
Speaker 6: or when they're coming out. which means that the bill
31:55
Speaker 6: inevitably gets picked up by charities who've got the public
31:57
Speaker 6: dipping into their own pockets again. But also the defence industry,
32:02
Speaker 6: such as it is, does actually sponsor a lot of
32:04
Speaker 6: these charities, thereby enabling themselves to look good and reduce
32:08
Speaker 6: the tax that they may incur on profits. I mean,
32:12
Speaker 6: there's a lot more to talk about, but those are
32:14
Speaker 6: some of the most obvious things. Homelessness in particular, a
32:17
Speaker 6: massive concern.
32:20
Speaker 1: Vanessa Charles, thank you very much for that. Now let's
32:22
Speaker 1: move on quickly. If you like what we do here
32:24
Speaker 1: at the UK Column, we do need your ongoing support.
32:27
Speaker 1: Details on the website, you can make a donation, join
32:31
Speaker 1: as a member that of course gets you access to
32:33
Speaker 1: members only content like UK Column News Extra, which is
32:36
Speaker 1: following this program. Do pick up a copy of the
32:40
Speaker 1: new issue of the Column, our quarterly magazine that is
32:43
Speaker 1: available on the shop at the moment. Now, tonight, 7 p.m.,
32:47
Speaker 1: Germ is discussing the rise of digital technocracy. And at
32:51
Speaker 1: 9 p.m., Carl is having a look with Warwick Paul
32:57
Speaker 1: more on the Trump-Xi meeting. Tomorrow at 1 p.m., Stateside,
33:02
Speaker 1: Episode 2, with Mark Anderson. Join Mark at 1 for that.
33:06
Speaker 1: And a reminder that Episode 3 of.
33:10
Speaker 1: A Thousand Words is going out on Sunday at 7pm.
33:13
Speaker 1: Mark Lane from Not In The Beeb is the guest
33:17
Speaker 1: on that particular programme. Join them at 7. Now, Charles,
33:22
Speaker 1: just very quickly, photographs from the recent event.
33:27
Speaker 6: Yeah, we have an absolutely terrific range of photographs which
33:31
Speaker 6: show exactly what did happen over the 20th anniversary event
33:36
Speaker 6: taken by Kerry Murray. And the reason for showing you
33:38
Speaker 6: now is that they are now up on his website.
33:40
Speaker 6: There is a link to this in the show notes.
33:42
Speaker 6: So whether or not you were there, please do go
33:45
Speaker 6: and have a look. And there are options to pay
33:49
Speaker 6: to download or indeed have printed out any of the
33:52
Speaker 6: photographs that take your fancy. But they're an incredible work
33:55
Speaker 6: of art. Please do go and have a look at them.
33:58
Speaker 1: Yes, please do go and have a look at them. Okay, now,
34:02
Speaker 1: at the UK column 20th anniversary event a week and
34:05
Speaker 1: a half ago, Professor Sushar Bhatti, former chair of the
34:08
Speaker 1: Institute of Medical Microbiology at the University of Mainz, presented
34:12
Speaker 1: a hypothesis he had not shared publicly before. And, well,
34:17
Speaker 1: I'm delighted to say that Sushar is joining us now.
34:20
Speaker 1: Welcome to the program, Sushar. Now, you wanted to add
34:23
Speaker 1: something to the uh, presentation that you gave at the event,
34:28
Speaker 1: but maybe just very quickly, you could start off just
34:31
Speaker 1: summarizing what that was.
34:34
Speaker 12: Yes.
34:35
Speaker 4: Hello everyone. Um, I would start by saying, uh, because
34:40
Speaker 4: this fits into your program. Um, I think that, uh,
34:46
Speaker 4: we are, uh, in a many sided war where, uh, the, uh,
34:54
Speaker 4: the planners have installed different military complexes with which the
35:02
Speaker 4: wars are being fought. And one very, very important new
35:10
Speaker 4: complex is the military medicinal complex. And this is a
35:16
Speaker 4: war against their own population, against us, okay? And for that,
35:24
Speaker 4: they have the most formidable weapon in the whole arsenal.
35:28
Speaker 4: And this weapon are the genetic vaccines, mRNA vaccine. And
35:37
Speaker 4: in the course of my research into these vaccines, I
35:42
Speaker 4: hit upon an explanation of why these vaccines are doing
35:47
Speaker 4: so much harm and how they're doing it. And the
35:52
Speaker 4: The solution was all these vaccines are causing demyelinating disease. Now,
36:02
Speaker 4: I went on to say demyelinating diseases are Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's,
36:09
Speaker 4: you name it, you have it, all degenerating diseases. And
36:15
Speaker 4: let me just give you the very basic of what
36:19
Speaker 4: I was saying. This is a nerve. This is an axon.
36:23
Speaker 4: And the signals are sent along these axons. They are electrical.
36:32
Speaker 4: So in order for the nervous system to function, they
36:36
Speaker 4: have to be encased and sheathed in water-repelling sheaths, which
36:43
Speaker 4: are the myelin sheaths. Now, these sheaths are made by oligodendrocytes.
36:50
Speaker 4: So if in this case, I'm an oligodendrocyte and I
36:54
Speaker 4: have made this sheath, as long as I am alive
36:59
Speaker 4: and well, the sheath is intact. But if something happens
37:03
Speaker 4: to me, then the sheath falls off. And these are
37:08
Speaker 4: demyelinating diseases. Now, when the sheath falls off, it gets
37:15
Speaker 4: chopped up because it's rubbish. All right. And this happens often.
37:21
Speaker 4: wherever a sheath falls off, in the brain or in
37:27
Speaker 4: the spinal cord. And what happens is that this sheath
37:38
Speaker 4: generates fragments, okay? These are fragments. Now, these fragments have
37:42
Speaker 4: a very, very singular property. They activate complement. And this
37:49
Speaker 4: is what I explained in the talk. Complement is one
37:53
Speaker 4: arm of the immune system that is very little known.
37:57
Speaker 4: But complement is everywhere, not only in the blood, but
38:01
Speaker 4: also in the fluids that surround the brain tissues, the
38:05
Speaker 4: brain cells, outside the bloodstream, but in the brain. So
38:12
Speaker 4: what happens when complement is activated? You get fireworks going off.
38:18
Speaker 4: And these fireworks... a scent of sparks and little balls
38:22
Speaker 4: of lightning. And if they hit a cell, that cell
38:27
Speaker 4: can be injured. All right. Now, virtually all cells in
38:32
Speaker 4: the body have fire extinguishers placed on their head so
38:36
Speaker 4: that when the sparks come down, these sparks are extinguished.
38:40
Speaker 4: But there is one type of cell in the body
38:44
Speaker 4: that has very few extinguishers on the head. And these
38:47
Speaker 4: are the oligodendrocytes themselves. So what then happens is a
38:53
Speaker 4: vicious circle that is started because if I'm the next
38:58
Speaker 4: oligodendrocyte and I have these sparks coming on my head,
39:01
Speaker 4: I will also die. And this is what I think
39:05
Speaker 4: is happening. This is my hypothesis. And this is what's
39:08
Speaker 4: happening in Alzheimer, in Parkinson, in whatever you want. And
39:14
Speaker 4: that's why all these demyelinating diseases don't stop by themselves.
39:18
Speaker 4: They go on and on and on. And that was
39:21
Speaker 4: actually the essence of my talk. And I ended by saying,
39:26
Speaker 4: thank God there are substances. that could stop the ignition
39:33
Speaker 4: of the complement system, so-called complement inhibitors. And a natural
39:39
Speaker 4: substance is curcumin. Then I said, there are curcumin products
39:47
Speaker 4: all over the world that you can buy. They're not medicines,
39:50
Speaker 4: all right? And by the way, if you're interested, UKC
39:55
Speaker 4: has the information that you want to get hold of
40:00
Speaker 4: the right product. And then I want to close this
40:05
Speaker 4: now by saying that one week ago, I heard of
40:09
Speaker 4: a fantastic case of Parkinson, who was treated with curcumin infusions,
40:20
Speaker 4: which puts the level right up so that they will
40:25
Speaker 4: be working in the brain to prevent this ignition of
40:31
Speaker 4: the complement system. And you may want to know whether
40:38
Speaker 4: these curcumin infusions can be given. And I can tell you, yes,
40:42
Speaker 4: if you want more information on that, where that can
40:45
Speaker 4: be done in England, contact UK column.
40:50
Speaker 2: All right.
40:51
Speaker 4: That's I end now with a word of hope that
40:54
Speaker 4: there might be a new way to treat degenerative nerve disease, including,
41:02
Speaker 4: of course, the vaccine injured in the future. I think
41:08
Speaker 4: that's what I wanted to say.
41:10
Speaker 1: Sushrit, thank you so much for joining us today and
41:14
Speaker 1: passing that along. And we will have the information in
41:17
Speaker 1: the show notes that people need for this. And as
41:23
Speaker 1: you say, this is a hypothesis. And just very briefly, Sushrit,
41:27
Speaker 1: at the event itself, you said you're challenging the medical
41:33
Speaker 1: profession to prove you wrong on this.
41:37
Speaker 4: Yes. That's what true science is. True science is you
41:41
Speaker 4: put up a hypothesis and ask people to disprove it.
41:48
Speaker 4: And if it's not disproven, let it stand. And as
41:51
Speaker 4: I said, as a beacon of hope for everyone who
41:55
Speaker 4: is suffering from demyelinating, degenerating nervous disease. And I hope
42:06
Speaker 4: that people will try using this on people suffering from
42:16
Speaker 4: COVID vaccine injuries because they really need it.
42:21
Speaker 5: Yes.
42:21
Speaker 4: I've tried it on three and it seems to be working.
42:24
Speaker 12: Brilliant.
42:25
Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you so much for that, Sushant. And
42:28
Speaker 1: thanks for joining us today. Okay, now let's move on
42:32
Speaker 1: because another announcement from the Labour Party conference came from
42:36
Speaker 1: Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy. She told the conference we're going
42:39
Speaker 1: to do a proper comprehensive legislation so that it doesn't
42:43
Speaker 1: just incorporate the specific apps. She's talking about online safety.
42:47
Speaker 1: Of course, it incorporates features that we believe are not safe.
42:50
Speaker 1: She said, this is a staging post to what must
42:54
Speaker 1: be a very active interventionist state, policing and regulating the
42:59
Speaker 1: online space so that people are safe. Well, if that
43:02
Speaker 1: kind of attitude is not chilling to everyone hearing it,
43:06
Speaker 1: it should be. She announced that under-16s will be blocked
43:09
Speaker 1: from holding social media accounts from March 2027, and that's
43:12
Speaker 1: the first time the date has been revealed. No exact
43:16
Speaker 1: day in March has been set, but ministers are expected
43:19
Speaker 1: to lay the regulations before Parliament before the end of
43:22
Speaker 1: the year. She suggests platforms could earn the right to
43:26
Speaker 1: let children use them if they ensure their safety, and
43:29
Speaker 1: that the government would assess each platform on a safety
43:32
Speaker 1: by design basis and safety by feature-led approach. So the
43:37
Speaker 1: bottom line here is in order to find out if
43:39
Speaker 1: a user is under 16, they also have to find
43:41
Speaker 1: out if a user is over 16. And that means
43:43
Speaker 1: everyone will have to identify themselves as social media companies
43:47
Speaker 1: or not use social media at all. And in other
43:50
Speaker 1: Nandi news, I'll just mention that a Mirror Fringe event,
43:55
Speaker 1: she warned that far-right influencers have spiraled over the last
43:59
Speaker 1: 15 years and are drawing in otherwise decent people. So, well,
44:05
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what we say about that. Charles, we'll
44:08
Speaker 1: talk more in extra, but let's move on to Ukraine.
44:14
Speaker 6: Yes, and we find a little bit of a point
44:17
Speaker 6: of conflict here for Wes Streeting, who of course prefixed
44:20
Speaker 6: his speech, as we saw a little while ago, with
44:23
Speaker 6: the idea that as the Daily Mail would have it,
44:26
Speaker 6: we are looking at an Iran-linked plot, despite the fact
44:30
Speaker 6: it may have had absolutely nothing to do with RAF Fairford. However,
44:34
Speaker 6: he also was very keen to stress that in actual fact,
44:37
Speaker 6: Russia is the threat. So we'll just listen to what
44:39
Speaker 6: he said about Russia and Ukraine at the conference on Monday.
44:44
Speaker 9: Ukrainians did not ask for this war. Putin invaded their country.
44:51
Speaker 9: And I saw the consequences of his imperialism firsthand when
44:56
Speaker 9: I visited Kyiv this summer. The bombed-out shopping centres, the
45:02
Speaker 9: make-do shelters in underground car parks, children's toys lying in
45:08
Speaker 9: the rubble of the homes that Putin destroyed. Ukraine's frontline
45:14
Speaker 9: is the frontline for freedom and democracy everywhere. So when
45:18
Speaker 9: a Ukrainian trade unionist leaves their workplace, puts on a uniform,
45:24
Speaker 9: and goes to defend their family from invasion, I know
45:27
Speaker 9: whose side the Labour movement should be on.
45:30
Speaker 4: Theirs.
45:33
Speaker 9: When a Ukrainian nurse treats casualties under drone attack, I
45:38
Speaker 9: know whose side we should be on, hers. When Ukrainian
45:41
Speaker 9: children spend their nights in underground shelters because Russian missiles
45:46
Speaker 9: are overhead, I know where our solidarity belongs, with them.
45:50
Speaker 9: So to President Zelensky and our friends in Ukraine, yesterday, today, tomorrow,
45:56
Speaker 9: we are with you for as long as it takes.
45:58
Speaker 2: Slava Ukraini!
46:03
Speaker 6: Now, whilst I don't think anyone should take any issue
46:06
Speaker 6: with him drawing attention to people who are, in effect,
46:09
Speaker 6: casualties of war, Vanessa, I wonder if I might just
46:12
Speaker 6: have a quick comment on some of the people that
46:14
Speaker 6: he managed to not talk about.
46:16
Speaker 10: Well, as in Ukraine or the people in Syria that,
46:22
Speaker 10: of course, have been, or Yemen or Iraq or Libya or.
46:27
Speaker 10: Pretty much anywhere else in the world where the UK
46:30
Speaker 10: has been responsible for their deaths and the destabilization and
46:34
Speaker 10: destruction and deterioration of their living conditions, etc.
46:41
Speaker 6: Exactly so. Thank you very much, Vanessa, for filling the
46:44
Speaker 6: obvious gap that Streeting left in his speech. But of course,
46:48
Speaker 6: the purpose of it was to steer us all in
46:51
Speaker 6: a particular direction. And so we now look at what
46:53
Speaker 6: the Ministry of Defence has been tweeting out. And that
46:56
Speaker 6: concerns the appointment of Nick Perry, General Nick Perry, who's
46:59
Speaker 6: now assumed command of Joint Force Command Norfolk. And they're
47:02
Speaker 6: making a big thing about him being the first British
47:04
Speaker 6: officer to lead this. Perry himself said the North Atlantic
47:08
Speaker 6: is once again a theatre of strategic competition. Our task
47:12
Speaker 6: is simple to describe, but demanding to deliver, to ensure
47:15
Speaker 6: NATO can deter aggression, defend the alliance and, this is
47:21
Speaker 6: the critical part, if deterrence fails, prevail in conflict alongside
47:27
Speaker 6: our allies and partners. Now, what does he mean by
47:32
Speaker 6: this and how are we to have the message reinforced? Well,
47:35
Speaker 6: we look no further than the Royal Navy's announcement about
47:39
Speaker 6: Exercise Strike Warrior. I've set this alongside the way in
47:42
Speaker 6: which The Sputnik news site has characterized it because they're
47:47
Speaker 6: very specific to point out that this is, of course,
47:51
Speaker 6: to make an absolute point of blocking the Russian ability
47:55
Speaker 6: to cross through the areas surrounding Iceland up in the
47:59
Speaker 6: North Atlantic. And slightly further south in the North Sea,
48:02
Speaker 6: of course, one thing that's omitted from this is that
48:05
Speaker 6: many of these exercises happen on an annual basis. But
48:08
Speaker 6: it's only now that the rhetoric is being ramped up
48:11
Speaker 6: to give us the impression that this is very specifically
48:14
Speaker 6: concerning the Russian threat in front of us. And as
48:18
Speaker 6: if that's not enough for everybody, we're now going to
48:21
Speaker 6: look at the Daily Telegraph, who have gone into a
48:24
Speaker 6: propaganda overdrive with regard to Strike Warrior.
48:29
Speaker 5: NATO is under attack, air attack. We understand that there
48:36
Speaker 5: are multiple Russian submarines that are now pressing further into
48:39
Speaker 5: the UK waters. That's something that NATO is concerned about
48:42
Speaker 5: and that is something that NATO commanders say they have
48:45
Speaker 5: a real worry about contending with.
48:47
Speaker 12: I would like to refer to a message in the
48:48
Speaker 12: media two or three days ago where directors of the
48:51
Speaker 12: international intelligence branches warned the governments that Russia is aiming
48:57
Speaker 12: to challenge our preparedness to remain loyal at Article 5.
49:00
Speaker 12: And if I connect that to what I witness at
49:03
Speaker 12: sea on a daily basis, I am very worried. For instance,
49:06
Speaker 12: I am in the Royal Netherlands Navy, and we have
49:08
Speaker 12: a Russian frigate in the Dutch waters every day, which
49:12
Speaker 12: showed their willingness and preparedness to defend their interests.
49:16
Speaker 5: We've had jets flying overhead, imitating an air attack. This
49:20
Speaker 5: is part of Exercise Strike Warrior 2026. It's involving 1,300
49:24
Speaker 5: NATO personnel and it's led by the UK. One of
49:27
Speaker 5: the key elements that NATO is trying to drill here
49:30
Speaker 5: is how they can be prepared at sea for a
49:32
Speaker 5: threat like Russia. Is there concern about Russia considering what's
49:35
Speaker 5: happening at the moment?
49:36
Speaker 8: So I think concern is a fair word, obviously tempered
49:40
Speaker 8: by the fact that we are a professional organisation. We
49:42
Speaker 8: keep things calm, we keep things measured and we react appropriately.
49:47
Speaker 8: Especially for us in the UK, we need to be
49:49
Speaker 8: reminded that we are a maritime nation. We are entirely
49:52
Speaker 8: reliant on the sea, on the lines of communication and
49:55
Speaker 8: literally the undersea cables that form such a foundation to
49:59
Speaker 8: our economy and our everyday way of life.
50:05
Speaker 6: It seemed that the reporter was somewhat let down by
50:08
Speaker 6: what the two naval officers had to say. Of course,
50:11
Speaker 6: one could only bring to mention one frigate, which is
50:14
Speaker 6: hardly likely to change any particular outcome. with regard to
50:19
Speaker 6: the overall apparent might of NATO and the other one
50:22
Speaker 6: talking about being calm and going only so far as
50:26
Speaker 6: to reference concern. The other exercise happening at the moment
50:29
Speaker 6: is Atlantic Thunder, where much has been made about the
50:32
Speaker 6: destruction of a decommissioned and completely static target with no countermeasures,
50:38
Speaker 6: an American ship which was sunk and, of course, no
50:43
Speaker 6: concern for the environment at all. Apparently, that's absolutely okay.
50:48
Speaker 6: The critical part to come out of this, of course,
50:51
Speaker 6: is at the top left-hand corner of the Royal Navy page,
50:53
Speaker 6: Recruiting Now, Explore Navy Careers. Now, how many people will
50:57
Speaker 6: have been inspired to come forward and go and do
51:00
Speaker 6: battle with that particular frigate remains unclear, but I dare
51:03
Speaker 6: say we'll talk about it more in Extra.
51:07
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Charles. Thank you for that. Vanessa, let's come on
51:10
Speaker 1: to you then. And of course, Netanyahu is facing an
51:14
Speaker 1: election in Israel.
51:17
Speaker 10: Yep, elections coming up at the end of October and
51:20
Speaker 10: of course, midterm elections in the US in November. And
51:24
Speaker 10: so Netanyahu has gone out there saying, There are signs
51:28
Speaker 10: that ahead of the elections, our enemies will try to
51:31
Speaker 10: attack us. Now, his intelligence organizations have had a slightly
51:37
Speaker 10: more conservative response to the Jerusalem Post, Israel on high alert,
51:44
Speaker 10: but no concrete intel warning.
51:47
Speaker 4: For attack before elections.
51:48
Speaker 10: Now, we are in false flag season, and I do
51:52
Speaker 10: have to quickly add here that there has been a
51:54
Speaker 10: breaking story just before the news that a flight that
51:58
Speaker 10: was on its way from Dubai to Tel Aviv, there
52:02
Speaker 10: was an altercation between the co-pilot and the pilot. The
52:04
Speaker 10: co-pilot apparently is said to be Omani, stabbed the pilot,
52:09
Speaker 10: and the Zionist telegram accounts are now putting out the
52:12
Speaker 10: fact that oh, well, he did this just before the
52:15
Speaker 10: plane reached Tel Aviv, and this would have been a
52:18
Speaker 10: new 9-11 event with the plane being taken over and
52:21
Speaker 10: flown into a strategic building in Tel Aviv. This is
52:25
Speaker 10: the Zionist interpretation, but it very clearly shows us that
52:29
Speaker 10: false flags are upcoming. And then we have Yair Lapid,
52:34
Speaker 10: the head of the opposition. He's basically saying after meeting
52:38
Speaker 10: with Netanyahu, there's no need for public panic. despite Netanyahu's
52:43
Speaker 10: claims of possible pre-election attack. And, of course, they blame
52:48
Speaker 10: Netanyahu for this alarmism, saying that he's trying to basically
52:52
Speaker 10: bring in yet another state of emergency, keep himself in
52:58
Speaker 10: power and prevent any prosecution, which, of course, has been
53:02
Speaker 10: pending since he has managed to maintain power. He also said,
53:07
Speaker 10: Yair Lapid, that he's raised 10 red flags regarding the shortage.
53:10
Speaker 10: of combat troops and the erosion of readiness within the IOF.
53:14
Speaker 10: He also said in any event the elections would take
53:17
Speaker 10: place at the proper time and there was no excuse
53:20
Speaker 10: to delay or to move them. At the same time,
53:24
Speaker 10: Netanyahu has been seen in the UAE and meeting with
53:29
Speaker 10: the president of the UAE, Mbizat, Now, the visit has
53:33
Speaker 10: now been confirmed. It was denied, or certainly Israel kept
53:36
Speaker 10: slightly quiet about it, and the UAE tried to deny it. Apparently,
53:41
Speaker 10: it was a meeting of various heads of state, as
53:44
Speaker 10: Marwa Osman, Lebanese journalist, put out on her Telegram channel.
53:50
Speaker 10: The meeting held in the UAE brought together delegations from
53:55
Speaker 10: 11 sides. If we can have the Telegram account... Thank you.
54:04
Speaker 10: The UAE, Jordan, Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Haftar's regime
54:10
Speaker 10: in Libya, Morocco, Bahrain, the United States, and Oman. So
54:14
Speaker 10: this was, as she said, no ordinary diplomatic gathering. It
54:18
Speaker 10: was a summit specifically requested by Netanyahu at a moment
54:22
Speaker 10: when his political survival is increasingly tied to the continuation
54:26
Speaker 10: of regional crisis. With the elections approaching, the stakes could
54:30
Speaker 10: not be higher. A prolonged state of emergency could provide
54:33
Speaker 10: the political cover to delay the reckoning awaiting him in
54:36
Speaker 10: court and keep his grip on power intact. Netanyahu appears
54:41
Speaker 10: willing to gamble with an entire region to protect his throne. Well,
54:45
Speaker 10: we shouldn't be really too surprised over that. And what
54:48
Speaker 10: else has been going on? So basically, this is a
54:52
Speaker 10: report from Mossad's commentary, which allegedly relates intelligence information from
54:58
Speaker 10: within Israel. Reports claim, now this isn't really a secret report,
55:03
Speaker 10: I've actually reported this on the UK column I think
55:05
Speaker 10: a couple of weeks ago, Saudi Arabia has proposed relocating
55:09
Speaker 10: thousands of foreign jihadist fighters currently in Syria to the
55:13
Speaker 10: Yemen front. According to the reports, the Saudi intelligence delegation
55:18
Speaker 10: led by Major General Nawaf al-Mutari recently spent roughly 10
55:23
Speaker 10: hours in Damascus and met Syrian Interior Minister Anas Khattab.
55:28
Speaker 10: The alleged proposal would mobilize 10,000 fighters in two phases
55:31
Speaker 10: with salaries reportedly exceeding 1,500 per month. Riyadh specifically sought
55:37
Speaker 10: foreign fighters, particularly the Uyghurs and Uzbeks. Such an arrangement,
55:41
Speaker 10: as I also said, could potentially help Jolani, formerly now
55:47
Speaker 10: known as Ahmed al-Shadar, address international pressure over the presence
55:51
Speaker 10: of foreign Takfiri inside Syria. So again, I think to
55:55
Speaker 10: some degree, Our reports at UK Column have been confirmed.
56:00
Speaker 10: But then also what is interesting is Netanyahu, in collaboration
56:05
Speaker 10: with Jolani's regime, is carrying out arrests and assassinations of
56:10
Speaker 10: former Syrian Arab Army air defence experts, scientists and weapons
56:16
Speaker 10: development technologists inside Syria itself.
56:19
Speaker 6: This is a report.
56:20
Speaker 10: It's translated from Arabic in Al-Akhbar. And this comes after,
56:26
Speaker 10: if people remember, again, we reported this on UK Column.
56:30
Speaker 10: This is one of the Syrian security forces arrested former,
56:36
Speaker 10: he was a former Air Force intelligence officer over the
56:40
Speaker 10: torture of Hamza al-Khatib. Now, that was one of the
56:43
Speaker 10: stories that basically established the criminalization of the Syrian government
56:49
Speaker 10: and Syrian forces back in 2011. It was disproven. multiple
56:53
Speaker 10: times by both Hamza al-Khatib's family and by the Syrian media.
56:59
Speaker 10: But of course, it's now being regurgitated as there's no
57:03
Speaker 10: pushback against the MI6 CIA narratives that underpinned the regime
57:07
Speaker 10: change war. But this comes, this arrest of these former
57:13
Speaker 10: Syrian-Arab army air defense experts and pilots, comes, first of all,
57:19
Speaker 10: after September 2024, there was this Israeli commando raid carried
57:24
Speaker 10: out at the secret weapons site in Syria in an
57:27
Speaker 10: area known as Masyaf, where apparently they did obtain the
57:32
Speaker 10: names of many of these officers, and it's now those
57:35
Speaker 10: officers that are being arrested and imprisoned by Jolani. So
57:39
Speaker 10: clearly working hand in glove here with Israel to further
57:45
Speaker 10: weaken Syria not only now, but also in the future.
57:49
Speaker 10: And then we've also talked about the bombing of former
57:53
Speaker 10: air defense weapons depots in Syria fairly recently. And it
57:58
Speaker 10: also comes after the meeting between the Mossad chief and
58:02
Speaker 10: the Syrian foreign minister. So Mossad director, Roman Goffman, and
58:06
Speaker 10: Syrian foreign minister, Asad al-Shaybani, met in Amman in Jordan
58:11
Speaker 10: back in August 2026. And again, this has generated a
58:15
Speaker 10: new raft of arrests of these former Syrian army experts,
58:20
Speaker 10: both in air defence and weapons development technology. So clearly
58:25
Speaker 10: paving the way towards an escalation in the region.
58:31
Speaker 1: Thank you, Vanessa, for that. Lots to talk about in
58:34
Speaker 1: UK Cold News Extra just after this programme night. Several
58:38
Speaker 1: people have been in contact to say they've received this
58:41
Speaker 1: email from the Labour Party this morning, having never signed
58:45
Speaker 1: up to the Labour Party's mailing list. So we began
58:47
Speaker 1: with Burnham, we're kind of ending with Burnham here. But anyway,
58:50
Speaker 1: they wonder how this could have happened. Where is the
58:53
Speaker 1: Labour Party getting email addresses from? The question is, have
58:58
Speaker 1: they bought a list of email addresses from someone? I
59:01
Speaker 1: have asked the press team for comment, but so far
59:05
Speaker 1: all I've had is crickets. if Labour bought a list
59:08
Speaker 1: of email addresses, of course, that would certainly be a
59:11
Speaker 1: breach of GDPR, which GDPR, as everybody will know, requires
59:15
Speaker 1: explicit active consent to send marketing emails to individuals. So
59:20
Speaker 1: I think I just wanted to highlight that. And maybe
59:24
Speaker 1: if other people have received emails unsolicited from the Labour Party,
59:28
Speaker 1: they might like.
59:29
Speaker 4: To get in touch.
59:29
Speaker 1: But Charles, just very briefly to finish off, do you
59:32
Speaker 1: have any thoughts on that?
59:37
Speaker 6: Well, it doesn't really fit with what Burnham's saying about
59:40
Speaker 6: trust and hope, I don't think, does it? Sorry to
59:44
Speaker 6: pull you up on it, Mike, but when you say
59:45
Speaker 6: all you've had is crickets, I think you might need
59:47
Speaker 6: to think about that expression for future use, given the
59:52
Speaker 6: no meat direction that Burnham will be pushing in just
59:55
Speaker 6: a minute.
59:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for that. Well, look, we are
59:59
Speaker 1: out of time. Thank you very much, everybody, for joining us.
1:00:02
Speaker 1: Huge thanks to Sushant Bhatti for joining us today and
1:00:05
Speaker 1: Charles and Vanessa, of course, as usual. If you're a
1:00:07
Speaker 1: UK column member, stay on the live stream. We'll be
1:00:10
Speaker 1: back for some news extra in a few minutes' time. Otherwise,
1:00:13
Speaker 1: don't forget interviews tonight at 1 p.m. tomorrow, and we'll
1:00:16
Speaker 1: be back for another news program at 1 p.m. as
1:00:19
Speaker 1: usual on Friday. We'll see you then. Thanks for joining us. Bye-bye.