Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News Podcast 23rd April 2025

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UK Column News Podcast 23rd April 2025 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon.
0:09
Speaker 2: It's Wednesday, the twenty third of April twenty twenty five,
0:11
Speaker 2: just after one o'clock. Welcome to UK Colin News. I'm
0:13
Speaker 2: your host Mike Robinson. Joining me in the studio today
0:16
Speaker 2: is Charles Mallett. Welcome to the program, Charles, and by
0:19
Speaker 2: video link we have Vanessa Billy and Sandy adamsni Letter
0:22
Speaker 2: in the program. We're going to be covering Israel and
0:24
Speaker 2: Syria digital Ida in Starling. But we're going to begin
0:27
Speaker 2: today with government borrowing because in March twenty twenty five,
0:32
Speaker 2: the figures were just out today, the Starmer regimes spent
0:35
Speaker 2: more than it received in taxes and other income and
0:39
Speaker 2: as a result, it borrowed sixteen point four billion pounds
0:43
Speaker 2: and that was two point eight billion pounds more in
0:45
Speaker 2: March twenty twenty four, Sorry Dan, in March twenty twenty four,
0:49
Speaker 2: and that is roughly five point three percent of GDP
0:54
Speaker 2: now March twenty twenty five, if we just put this
0:57
Speaker 2: on screen, March twenty twenty five was the third highest
1:01
Speaker 2: March borrowing on record, and the next two highest marches
1:07
Speaker 2: were March twenty twenty one and March twenty twenty three.
1:10
Speaker 2: So in the last financial year, then the public sector
1:16
Speaker 2: borrowed one hundred and fifty one point nine billion pounds,
1:19
Speaker 2: as I say, the third highest borrowing and any financial
1:24
Speaker 2: year on record. And the reason, well, they say it's
1:27
Speaker 2: on spending on public services, benefits and debt interest and
1:33
Speaker 2: all of those increased when compared with last year. But
1:36
Speaker 2: of course debt to GDP is still around the one
1:40
Speaker 2: hundred percent level. When we look at historically, we see
1:43
Speaker 2: that actually we're really staying levels of debt to GDP
1:48
Speaker 2: that we haven't seen since we were coming out of
1:50
Speaker 2: the Second World War and paying down the debt from
1:53
Speaker 2: the two World Wars and during the twentieth century. It
1:56
Speaker 2: is quite incredible, how particularly since the financial crisis crash
2:00
Speaker 2: two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight, it has
2:02
Speaker 2: just gone through the roof and it's got nothing to
2:05
Speaker 2: do with particularly with party politics. And in the meantime
2:09
Speaker 2: M two money supply and all the various quantitative easing
2:13
Speaker 2: funds are increasing massifully. Sorry, but before we get to that,
2:18
Speaker 2: we've got the projection from the OBR the Officer Budget
2:23
Speaker 2: Responsibility for the future, and as you can see, we're
2:25
Speaker 2: really only at the beginning of this massive debt cycle
2:28
Speaker 2: at the moment, so just getting started. The question then
2:32
Speaker 2: is why and what is this.
2:35
Speaker 1: Money being spent on?
2:36
Speaker 2: As I say, the British government claiming that it's on
2:39
Speaker 2: benefits and other things, But of course war spending is
2:42
Speaker 2: increasing and increasing, reason for the rises, and of course
2:47
Speaker 2: Putin is the excuse. The rhetoric just doesn't change. They
2:51
Speaker 2: repeat themselves ad nauseum. Here's part of John Heathy's comments
2:55
Speaker 2: to the House of Commons yesterday.
2:58
Speaker 3: And despite President Putin's promise of a thirty eight hour
3:01
Speaker 3: pause in fighting, I can confirm that Defense intelligence have
3:06
Speaker 3: found and I quote, no indication that a ceasefire on
3:10
Speaker 3: the front line was observed over the Easter period. And
3:14
Speaker 3: ten thousand missiles and drones have been fired into Ukraine
3:19
Speaker 3: during this year alone, including from the Black Sea. So
3:23
Speaker 3: while Putin has said he declared an East the truce,
3:26
Speaker 3: he broke it. While Putin says he wants peace, he's
3:31
Speaker 3: rejected a full cease file. And while Putin says he
3:35
Speaker 3: wants to put an end to the fighting, he continues
3:38
Speaker 3: to play for time in the negotiations.
3:42
Speaker 1: I mean, what can we say about that?
3:44
Speaker 2: Look, the Trump effect is also part of this and
3:46
Speaker 2: although the spending on war has been increasing for a
3:50
Speaker 2: couple of years, it's accelerating now and this of course
3:54
Speaker 2: is because of concerns of a re alliance on US support.
3:59
Speaker 1: Bas as announced that they are that they sorry.
4:03
Speaker 2: What they describe as a major breakthrough in UK munition's production.
4:08
Speaker 2: They're going to deliver a sixteen fold increase in the
4:10
Speaker 2: productive capacity of one hundred and fifty five millimeters artillery shells.
4:15
Speaker 2: And this is when it's new explosive filling factory, this
4:20
Speaker 2: is where they fill the missiles is going to open
4:24
Speaker 2: in South Wales in the summer. So well, that's all
4:27
Speaker 2: good stuff, and of course that's because we have basically
4:30
Speaker 2: used everything in Ukraine already. But in the meantime, HMS
4:34
Speaker 2: Prince of Wales, one of our illustrious aircraft carrier carriers,
4:38
Speaker 2: went to see yesterday. It was followed out of harbor
4:41
Speaker 2: a few hours later by the destroyer HMS Daudless. And
4:45
Speaker 2: also part of what they're describing here as a carrier
4:48
Speaker 2: strike group is the Plymouth based frigate HMS Richmond. And
4:53
Speaker 2: this is the start, they say, of an eight month
4:55
Speaker 2: mission to demonstrate UK and Allied collective resolve and determination
4:58
Speaker 2: that in ten security freedom in the Atlantic and the Pacific.
5:02
Speaker 2: Would you believe that?
5:04
Speaker 4: Not really?
5:04
Speaker 2: No, Between nine December they say the Carrier Strike Group
5:08
Speaker 2: will conduct a series of exercises and operations with air,
5:11
Speaker 2: sea and landforces of the dozen allies in the Mediterrane,
5:14
Speaker 2: in Middle East, Southeast Asia, Japan and Australia. And this
5:18
Speaker 2: is apparently going to demonstrate the UK's ability to operate
5:21
Speaker 2: fast jets at sea. So that's exciting.
5:23
Speaker 1: And this is the.
5:24
Speaker 2: Second deployment of the UK's Carrier Strike Group. I'm sure
5:28
Speaker 2: you've forgotten the first one because that happened in the
5:30
Speaker 2: middle of the pandemic so called pandemic. But this particular
5:34
Speaker 2: mission that starts yesterday, they're calling Operation high Mast, and
5:40
Speaker 2: they say that it's occurring with a changed world order
5:43
Speaker 2: and even more volatile geopolitical situation.
5:46
Speaker 1: So well, there we go.
5:49
Speaker 2: Look, I think we need to get a grip on
5:51
Speaker 2: regime spending in the UK. Stopping the war narrative would
5:54
Speaker 2: be a great start. Massively downsizing government would be another
5:58
Speaker 2: step in the right direction. And this segment, I want
6:01
Speaker 2: to get a brief comment from Vaness on this. I
6:03
Speaker 2: wanted to highlight this pretty obscene tweet from David Lami,
6:08
Speaker 2: the Foreign Secretary. He's saying that children should never be
6:12
Speaker 2: part of the should never be the pawns of war.
6:15
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty four, I spoke to Ukrainian children who've
6:17
Speaker 2: been forcibly deported by Russia but woul later returned to
6:20
Speaker 2: their families. For the British government to accuse any other
6:23
Speaker 2: country of stealing children is unbelievable hypocrisy. Lammy even acknowledges
6:28
Speaker 2: in that tweet that put In is giving the children back.
6:31
Speaker 2: But how many children does the British government give back
6:34
Speaker 2: once it grabs? Not very many, in fact none probably
6:37
Speaker 2: be more accurate answer. But Vanessa, what are your thoughts?
6:41
Speaker 2: Are your comments on that statement from Lamy Well?
6:45
Speaker 5: I think this refers to the Ukrainian children that were
6:49
Speaker 5: taken from that areas now under the control of Russia
6:53
Speaker 5: in Doniette's and the fans children that I saw at
6:58
Speaker 5: the end of twenty twenty two when I visited Eastern Russia,
7:01
Speaker 5: where many of them were living in really good refugee centers,
7:07
Speaker 5: holiday camps with their parents or without them, with families,
7:11
Speaker 5: with psychological care, food, schooling, education until they could be
7:15
Speaker 5: returned safely as Lammy has actually admitted to their parents
7:21
Speaker 5: wants the Ukrainian forces that Lammie was supporting stock bombing them.
7:26
Speaker 5: So yes, total hypocrisy.
7:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, but let's stick with Lammy.
7:32
Speaker 6: Then, I'm fraid so, but not directly fortunately, But the
7:37
Speaker 6: protracted wrangling over the apparent pursuit of peace in Ukraine continues,
7:42
Speaker 6: despite the latest efforts in London being apparently snubbed by
7:45
Speaker 6: Marco Rubia the American sector of State. Both he and
7:48
Speaker 6: David Lammi have taken to Twitter to put a positive
7:51
Speaker 6: spin on it, as though to suggest that there may
7:53
Speaker 6: really be a desire for peace and not an intentional
7:56
Speaker 6: prolonging of the conflict in order to extract the maximum
7:59
Speaker 6: benefit for the bankers and those with a hand in
8:02
Speaker 6: the reconstruction game. Now, Ukraine and the United States have
8:08
Speaker 6: signed in principle an agreement which will tie together the
8:11
Speaker 6: plundering of the country via the depletion of its minerals
8:13
Speaker 6: and its opening up to globalist corporations. Somewhat Discordantly, the
8:17
Speaker 6: Ministry of Defense has just announced a new capability which,
8:21
Speaker 6: at just ten per pop, will be able to deal,
8:24
Speaker 6: so they say, with the future drone threat or specifically
8:27
Speaker 6: a drone swarm. This is how they're describing the latest
8:30
Speaker 6: directed energy weapon.
8:34
Speaker 7: Now, radio frequency directed energy weapon really comes into its
8:36
Speaker 7: own in being able to reach out and shut down
8:39
Speaker 7: electronics at range, and RF weapon is using radio frequency
8:43
Speaker 7: energy to get into that target and disrupt or damage
8:46
Speaker 7: its components directly. It is able to interact with the
8:49
Speaker 7: targets instantaneously and then leave a lasting effect. The kind
8:53
Speaker 7: of weapon system that this project enables us to work towards.
8:57
Speaker 7: It's about equipping us for tomorrow's threats and.
9:03
Speaker 6: Just how effective it will actually be and how it
9:06
Speaker 6: compares with the similar systems elsewhere. It remains to be seen,
9:09
Speaker 6: but this should certainly be seen in the context of
9:13
Speaker 6: the Carrier Strike Group departure from Portsmouth, which Mike has
9:16
Speaker 6: just been talking about, and last year we reported on
9:19
Speaker 6: the progress of the consortium led Dragon Fire system, also
9:24
Speaker 6: a directed energy weapon, which was talked up as being
9:26
Speaker 6: a potent piece in the armory. What appears to set
9:29
Speaker 6: this latest drone swarm counter Manager apart is that it's
9:32
Speaker 6: being described as bolstering the government's approach to national security
9:37
Speaker 6: under the Plan for Change. There's no articulation of where
9:41
Speaker 6: the threat by drone comes from. But as the war
9:44
Speaker 6: rhetoric abates where Russia is concerned, the government has switched
9:47
Speaker 6: fire to Iran, consistently reported as being a supplier of
9:51
Speaker 6: drones to the Russians. My apologies are gone on too far.
9:56
Speaker 6: There is no shortage of material online to suggest that
10:01
Speaker 6: Iran really does present a credible threat in this regard,
10:05
Speaker 6: and this is fuel to the fire concerning the narrative
10:07
Speaker 6: surrounding the imminent danger that the UK faces from that country.
10:11
Speaker 6: And not only is Iran reported to have a substantial
10:15
Speaker 6: drone warfare capability, but it's believed to have countermeasures, in
10:19
Speaker 6: this case built and supplied by a Chinese company. Now,
10:22
Speaker 6: whether or not this latest bit of kit will be
10:25
Speaker 6: or is already a part of the carrier strike group
10:28
Speaker 6: deployment not clear. The government's announcement about the Director of
10:32
Speaker 6: Energy Weapon states that it is in response to the
10:35
Speaker 6: changing nature of war. However, as this graphic from the
10:40
Speaker 6: Kiv Independent shows, the nature of war never changes. Spoils
10:44
Speaker 6: to the victor, and the only thing not quite clear
10:47
Speaker 6: at the moment is exactly who the victor will be.
10:50
Speaker 6: It just seems unlikely to be the Ukrainian people.
10:55
Speaker 2: Indeed, Vanessa, let's come to you then and well, removing
10:59
Speaker 2: to Israel that perhaps not a topic that an aspect
11:03
Speaker 2: of the Israeli conflict that people will be expecting.
11:07
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's very much an aspect of Israeli society. This
11:11
Speaker 5: was a report that was published only a few days ago,
11:14
Speaker 5: actually in Hebrew media in Israel. Jyam, I've effectively paraphrased
11:20
Speaker 5: it and reviewed it at my substacks so people can
11:24
Speaker 5: read further details. Their girls raped in ritual ceremonies revealed
11:29
Speaker 5: the Horrors investigative report by Israel Hiam. I'll just take
11:33
Speaker 5: one of the testimonies that was contained within the report.
11:37
Speaker 5: This is from someone. All of the testimonials were given
11:43
Speaker 5: a pseudonym to obviously protect their identity. They're mostly talking
11:48
Speaker 5: about religious ritual ceremonial mass rate of children, and she
11:56
Speaker 5: says it's always a dark place. There are between six
11:58
Speaker 5: and nine men there. They tie me to a bed,
12:02
Speaker 5: stand in a circle, mumble prayers or blessings, and there
12:05
Speaker 5: is a rabbi who always leads the ceremony. There's a
12:09
Speaker 5: ceremony and every one of them rapes me. So this
12:13
Speaker 5: is considered to be very prevalent in the ultra Orthodox
12:18
Speaker 5: Jewish circles. Back in twenty thirteen, New York Rabbi Rosenberg
12:23
Speaker 5: also talked about a child rape assembly line, so it's
12:28
Speaker 5: not something new. And also recently in the last few days,
12:32
Speaker 5: there has been a video put out by Shoshana Struck.
12:38
Speaker 5: If I can just have the tweet up, thank you,
12:41
Speaker 5: who's the daughter of the Israeli Settlements Minister or it
12:45
Speaker 5: Struck who you can see in the photograph there, who
12:48
Speaker 5: in the video is talking about taking out legal proceedings
12:51
Speaker 5: against her family, including her brother, who when she was
12:55
Speaker 5: a child, raped her, repeatedly filmed it and then circulated
13:00
Speaker 5: the video. So, as I said, this is not something
13:06
Speaker 5: new in Israel, and all of the reports that I'm
13:09
Speaker 5: basing my accounts point are Israeli reports. And so this
13:15
Speaker 5: is taken from twenty twelve. This was also relating to
13:19
Speaker 5: the Haredi community, the ultra Orthodox community in Israel itself,
13:25
Speaker 5: talking about a pedophile ring within that community. He masterminded
13:29
Speaker 5: systematic rape of over one hundred kids. The Nalawat community
13:35
Speaker 5: of reels from the largest pedophile abuse case in the
13:37
Speaker 5: nation's history. At least three of the ten suspects remain free.
13:42
Speaker 5: And it's also worth mentioning that eighty percent of the
13:46
Speaker 5: cases that are brought to the attention of the police
13:49
Speaker 5: and the legal system and Israel are not finally prosecuted.
13:54
Speaker 5: Sixty percent of those that are consist of abuse by
13:59
Speaker 5: female and male against children under the age of thirteen.
14:04
Speaker 5: This was a report more recently, I think it's twenty
14:06
Speaker 5: twenty two in Jerusalem Post. Tens of thousands of pedophiles
14:10
Speaker 5: operate in Israel every year. There are multiple reports. If
14:15
Speaker 5: you put in a global search you will find many more.
14:17
Speaker 5: I've just taken some of the most high profile to
14:22
Speaker 5: demonstrate what I'm talking about. And if we look at
14:26
Speaker 5: the legal failures. This is from an NGO Humanium. We
14:31
Speaker 5: put out an article October twenty twenty four failures in
14:35
Speaker 5: Israel's legal system, particularly around pedophilia. Offenders exploit Israel's Law
14:41
Speaker 5: of Return to evade consequences in other countries. And this
14:45
Speaker 5: is where the abuse of Israel's Law of Return, which
14:51
Speaker 5: basically affords citizenship to anyone who either converts to Judaism
14:57
Speaker 5: or is already Jewish. They can immediately be given refuge
15:03
Speaker 5: in Israel, regardless of whether they have pedophile or child
15:08
Speaker 5: abuse or rape allegations facing them where they are, including
15:14
Speaker 5: high profile Hollywood filmmakers. And then of course we have
15:18
Speaker 5: to relate this to what's going on by the Zionis
15:23
Speaker 5: forces against Palestinians in custody. This is a report again
15:28
Speaker 5: another recent one by the OCHR. Israel's escalating use of
15:33
Speaker 5: torture against Palestinians and custody are preventable crime against humanity
15:38
Speaker 5: un experts, and let's have a look at one section
15:41
Speaker 5: of that report. Countless testimonies by men and women speak
15:44
Speaker 5: of detainees in cage like enclosures type beds, blindfolded and
15:49
Speaker 5: in diaper stripped, naked, deprived of adequate healthcare, food, water
15:54
Speaker 5: and sleep, electrocutions including on their genitals, blackmail and cigarette burns.
16:00
Speaker 5: In addition, victims spoke of loud music played until their
16:03
Speaker 5: ears blurred, attacks by dogs, water boarding, suspension from ceilings,
16:09
Speaker 5: and severe sexual and gender based violence, and that includes
16:13
Speaker 5: mass rape of children. There is again extensive witness testimony
16:17
Speaker 5: of that, also by female guards in the ZIONUS prisons.
16:23
Speaker 5: And of course we have the very recent case of
16:26
Speaker 5: the sodomization of Palestinian prisoners at State Amen, one of
16:30
Speaker 5: the most notorious prisons in Israel. But coming again to
16:35
Speaker 5: a more recent case, this is an Israeli CEO of
16:38
Speaker 5: a cybersecurity company, Eti Levy, who has been arrested for
16:45
Speaker 5: sexually assaulting at least five children under the age of four.
16:51
Speaker 5: Now again, this hasn't been reported, of course in mainstream media.
16:56
Speaker 5: It's been picked up by Middle Eastern, some Turkish media
17:02
Speaker 5: and also on social media. So this is by suppressed news.
17:06
Speaker 5: Israeli cyber ceo arrested for sexual abuse of five children
17:10
Speaker 5: under the age of four. Eti Levy. He's the CEO
17:15
Speaker 5: of the cyber firm Cornelius. This is actually spelt wrong
17:18
Speaker 5: in the tweet, and he's an Israeli resident. The investigation
17:23
Speaker 5: began after a child under the age of four signal
17:25
Speaker 5: to his parents that he had been harmed, and following
17:29
Speaker 5: a forensic interview please search Levy's electronic devices and uncovered
17:34
Speaker 5: hundreds of disturbing files, including child pornography and images of abuse.
17:39
Speaker 5: Authority suspect at least five victims, all under the age
17:43
Speaker 5: of four. The investigation is ongoing, and I just want
17:48
Speaker 5: to have a look because we've been talking about the
17:50
Speaker 5: Zionist infiltration into all sectors of society in the West,
17:55
Speaker 5: but particularly in the UK and the US and the EU.
18:00
Speaker 5: What is Crenelios the company that at Eai Levy founded
18:06
Speaker 5: and he was formerly the CEO. His name has now
18:09
Speaker 5: been removed from the website. It is a cyber security
18:14
Speaker 5: outfit that was founded back in twenty fourteen. It doesn't yet,
18:18
Speaker 5: to my knowledge, have operations in the UK, but it
18:21
Speaker 5: does have operations in the US, in California and in
18:25
Speaker 5: New York, in Moldova and Poland. I then went to
18:30
Speaker 5: Eti Levi's LinkedIn profile and there it quite clearly says
18:35
Speaker 5: he was the co founder and he is the CEO
18:39
Speaker 5: of Carnelios. And if we have a look at his
18:44
Speaker 5: actual resume on LinkedIn, this is where it becomes quite extraordinary.
18:49
Speaker 5: So he's not some low profile cyber security founder. He
18:56
Speaker 5: worked extensively with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs providing against
19:01
Speaker 5: cyber and information security, and he was network engineers. He
19:08
Speaker 5: worked as a representative in Toronto, Canada, and of course
19:14
Speaker 5: he served with the Israeli Offense Forces. So again, you
19:19
Speaker 5: know what is happening here is what we're seeing is
19:23
Speaker 5: something that is now coming to the surface, but in
19:27
Speaker 5: my opinion, has been prevalent in Israeli society for decades,
19:31
Speaker 5: if not longer, and not only in Israeli society, it
19:35
Speaker 5: has been picked up in America and even in the UK.
19:39
Speaker 5: Back in twenty twenty three, Yuvale Karen, who was a
19:43
Speaker 5: high profile rabbi with one of the Progressive synagogue Southgate Progressive,
19:50
Speaker 5: was picked up and received a suspended sentence for having
19:55
Speaker 5: one thousand, six hundred and ninety four in decent images
19:58
Speaker 5: of children on his electron devices. One hundred and eighty
20:01
Speaker 5: nine were Category A which means extreme child abuse. Again,
20:08
Speaker 5: very influential person in the Zionist movement in the UK
20:12
Speaker 5: and also we shouldn't been We shouldn't forget labor Peer
20:17
Speaker 5: and MP Greville Jenna, who faced allegations of thirty three
20:22
Speaker 5: cases of child abuse was investigated under the Independent Child
20:28
Speaker 5: Abuse Investigation and those were children of course under his
20:33
Speaker 5: care and the care homes in Leicestershire. He was again
20:37
Speaker 5: a very high profile figure in the Zionist movement in
20:41
Speaker 5: the UK who died before he could be successfully prosecuted.
20:45
Speaker 5: He also apparently developed dementia which prevented him being fully
20:50
Speaker 5: prosecuted for the crimes he was accused of. So I
20:54
Speaker 5: think what I'm trying to say here is, when we're
20:56
Speaker 5: looking at the infiltration of all sectors across UK society,
21:02
Speaker 5: whether it's health, surveillance, cyber education, are we also not
21:08
Speaker 5: only absorbing members of for example, Unit eight two hundred,
21:12
Speaker 5: but are we also absorbing very questionable individuals who potentially
21:18
Speaker 5: have crimes in their background of child abuse, great sexual harassment,
21:25
Speaker 5: which is something that largely goes unpunished in Israel, which
21:30
Speaker 5: is known and is recognized as a haven for pedofars.
21:37
Speaker 4: Any thoughts, well, I mean shock mostly.
21:41
Speaker 6: I mean it's very well articulated Vanessa, but extremely disturbing.
21:46
Speaker 6: And you know, as we see there, we see here
21:50
Speaker 6: exactly the same. I mean, like you describe with the
21:54
Speaker 6: judiciary just turning as much of a blind eye as
21:57
Speaker 6: they possibly can.
21:58
Speaker 4: And particularly with the sentencing.
21:59
Speaker 6: I mean, you know you describe most obvious recent example,
22:02
Speaker 6: I suppose its Hugh Edwards, but absolutely not dealing with it,
22:06
Speaker 6: I mean perpetuating it.
22:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, one hundred percent.
22:09
Speaker 2: And it is something which is right at the core
22:12
Speaker 2: of many societies, not just in Israel, but in the
22:16
Speaker 2: UK as well.
22:17
Speaker 1: Vanessa.
22:17
Speaker 2: So this is something that we have to face and
22:21
Speaker 2: recognize and deal with. We'll talk about that much more
22:25
Speaker 2: an extra I'm quite sure. So Sandy, let's come to
22:30
Speaker 2: you now and back to the UK and we've been
22:34
Speaker 2: hearing about leveling up for a very long time. The government,
22:38
Speaker 2: of course, would like to convince us that this is
22:40
Speaker 2: about lifting the standards of the purist in the country.
22:44
Speaker 2: My personal view is quite the contrary. It's about lowering
22:48
Speaker 2: the standards and destroying the middle class in a sense
22:51
Speaker 2: in many ways. But what are your thoughts on what's
22:54
Speaker 2: actually behind the leveling up agenda?
22:57
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean I got into this really because I
23:00
Speaker 8: was looking last week at the freeport and that is
23:04
Speaker 8: all part of the leveling up agenda, so they say,
23:07
Speaker 8: and I see it is something very different, and it's
23:11
Speaker 8: interesting how they they the narrative of leveling up is
23:15
Speaker 8: really about equalizing certain areas of the UK from the
23:22
Speaker 8: poorest areas to the richest areas and sometimes somehow making
23:27
Speaker 8: that equitable. But actually, you know, this isn't really you know,
23:32
Speaker 8: I was looking at the Leveling Up and Regeneration Bill
23:35
Speaker 8: and in that bill they have I think it's twelve
23:41
Speaker 8: twelve different. I suppose they call them their missions mission
23:50
Speaker 8: statements of how they're going to level it all up.
23:52
Speaker 8: And there's productivity, is increased research and development, public transport,
23:57
Speaker 8: broad band AI education, gap skills training, all these things
24:02
Speaker 8: that sound very, very worthy, and actually, you know, they
24:06
Speaker 8: use it really as as a way of making it
24:10
Speaker 8: sound like an inclusive and non partisan, you know, wonderful thing,
24:16
Speaker 8: but actually it's really a strategy that reframes decades of
24:21
Speaker 8: de industrialization and austerity and regional neglect and use it
24:26
Speaker 8: really as a way of calling it benevolent intervention, and
24:32
Speaker 8: we know it's not so. I was looking at these
24:36
Speaker 8: missions and how the Office.
24:38
Speaker 5: Of Government have.
24:42
Speaker 8: Criticized it really because they've actually said that, I mean,
24:45
Speaker 8: it was brought in really by Boris Johnson in twenty
24:48
Speaker 8: twenty two, the whole thing, and he obviously this current
24:54
Speaker 8: government is still promoting it, and there are five there's
24:58
Speaker 8: various ways that the government of the Institute of Government
25:02
Speaker 8: have said that this isn't working, you know, this is
25:06
Speaker 8: this is rubbish, and they've said, you know, the missions
25:08
Speaker 8: are not ambitious enough. They uh, you know, they're they're
25:11
Speaker 8: too ambitious to be realistic. And they've managed somehow to
25:16
Speaker 8: put into this whole thing, almost like a get out clause.
25:19
Speaker 5: If it's too difficult for.
25:21
Speaker 8: Them, then they can they can actually reframe it and
25:25
Speaker 8: even get rid of it. So I'm wondering, is it
25:28
Speaker 8: all just something that they've presented to bring in the
25:32
Speaker 8: corporatization of these free ports, these free zones so that
25:36
Speaker 8: they can have these big corporate entities controlling these free
25:42
Speaker 8: zones without any any worry about taxation or or they've
25:48
Speaker 8: got free imports and exports from these zones. And it
25:53
Speaker 8: really is It does look as though it's some kind
25:56
Speaker 8: of cover up really that they're presenting it as something
25:59
Speaker 8: that's really wonder for the people. But actually, you know,
26:02
Speaker 8: these the criticisms of the Institute of Government. They've got
26:09
Speaker 8: about five criticisms of them, so you just wonder what
26:13
Speaker 8: is really going on here. And even some of the MPs,
26:17
Speaker 8: and I think it was Lisa Nandy said this gives
26:20
Speaker 8: the government permission to tear up their missions on a whim.
26:25
Speaker 8: The bill is more aimed at dealing with housing and
26:28
Speaker 8: planning than it does on leveling up and democracy. And
26:32
Speaker 8: then we've also got Pritricia Gibson, she's an SMP politician,
26:38
Speaker 8: and she said, the government have given themselves the power
26:42
Speaker 8: to move the goalposts and to change targets that look
26:46
Speaker 8: as though they can't be met, and that's absolutely true.
26:49
Speaker 8: And then you've got a lady from the House of Lords,
26:51
Speaker 8: Baroness Sue Hayman, and she said, it's a strange mish
26:56
Speaker 8: mash a Christmas tree bill that one can hang anyone
26:59
Speaker 8: any thing on it, you know, and you can actually
27:02
Speaker 8: hang anything on this bill. So you realize then that
27:07
Speaker 8: actually it's all about corporate governance and replacing government with
27:12
Speaker 8: private corporations, and that's really the be all and end all.
27:16
Speaker 8: And I looked quite deeply into into these Obviously, we've
27:21
Speaker 8: we've got the free ports and the free zones here,
27:25
Speaker 8: I think we've got we've got a map of the
27:27
Speaker 8: free ports, which and the free the free zones and
27:33
Speaker 8: the free ports, and I was just looking at all
27:35
Speaker 8: the companies that are going into these these areas, and
27:39
Speaker 8: of course it's all green technology. It's all green tech.
27:43
Speaker 8: You know, these free ports have been taken over to
27:47
Speaker 8: have literally every all power to do whatever they like
27:53
Speaker 8: in these areas. And you know, we've got MARI, which
27:56
Speaker 8: is Murray UK, which is the one in Plymouth which
27:59
Speaker 8: is all about underwater AI systems and marine systems and
28:04
Speaker 8: it's all in it's in partnership with with Plimster University.
28:10
Speaker 8: And then we've got Pensana on Humber Side, which is
28:15
Speaker 8: mining rare earth. It's a rare earth processing plant for
28:20
Speaker 8: EV batteries and AI technology. And we've also got s
28:26
Speaker 8: C A H. I don't know how you pronounce all that,
28:30
Speaker 8: but it's it's making wind turbines and that's owned by
28:34
Speaker 8: the Chinese along with British Steel, which I believe is
28:38
Speaker 8: co owned by the Chinese anyway. And then we've got
28:41
Speaker 8: T Side T Side Works and they're they're building uh
28:46
Speaker 8: net zero power and Northern I think it's Endurance partnership.
28:50
Speaker 8: So all of this is really about bringing in technocratic governance.
28:56
Speaker 8: It's and and and build and and building up that,
28:59
Speaker 8: you know, hollowing out Britain and using all this using
29:05
Speaker 8: all this green tech which is going which is failing anyway.
29:08
Speaker 8: Nobody's buying EV batteries, So where is this What is
29:12
Speaker 8: the whole thing with this? Is it just control of
29:14
Speaker 8: the ports. But they seem to be using these big,
29:18
Speaker 8: big corporations and I really feel that Britain, it's bargain
29:22
Speaker 8: Bates and Britain. It's up for the highest bidder. Whatever
29:25
Speaker 8: millionaire wants to come in and buy up and use
29:29
Speaker 8: these free zones can come in and literally anything can
29:33
Speaker 8: go through those ports. And that's what I'm particularly worried about.
29:37
Speaker 8: These leveling up white papers are closely tied to free
29:40
Speaker 8: ports and investment zones, which are effectively special economic zones
29:44
Speaker 8: with reduced regulation, tax breaks, and often outsourced governance. You know,
29:50
Speaker 8: they can become private enclaves of corporate control and they
29:53
Speaker 8: undermine national sovereignty, labor rights, and environmental protections under the
29:57
Speaker 8: guise of growth. So we've got all of this going on,
30:02
Speaker 8: and you know, the leveling up it's a velvet glove. Really,
30:07
Speaker 8: it's an iron fist of centralized technocratic transformation. It cloaks
30:11
Speaker 8: economic zoning, data driven governance, and it really you know,
30:16
Speaker 8: it's using the language of furnace and an opportunity, which
30:20
Speaker 8: it's not. It's not what it says it is. And
30:24
Speaker 8: at the end of the day, we've really got to
30:26
Speaker 8: think about what this really means. It's not about lifting
30:30
Speaker 8: people out of poverty. It's more about lifting control out
30:35
Speaker 8: of Parliament and local democracy and placing it in the
30:37
Speaker 8: hands of central planners and global finance and technocrats. So
30:42
Speaker 8: there's an awful lot about housing with all of this,
30:45
Speaker 8: you know, and particularly in areas are deprived, and they're saying, oh, yes,
30:51
Speaker 8: this is gentrifications is making it all good. But this
30:54
Speaker 8: is all tied up also with other programs that are
30:57
Speaker 8: going on. I mean, the housing is out of control
31:00
Speaker 8: and they are allowed to have free access to planning
31:04
Speaker 8: and free access to police and crime commissioning, so all
31:09
Speaker 8: of that is being taken away from Westminster. And again
31:12
Speaker 8: it's all part of devolution. To take this all out
31:15
Speaker 8: of Westminster and put it in the hands of private
31:17
Speaker 8: corporations deeply disturbing. So I think that's probably about it.
31:23
Speaker 8: But I'm just deeply concerned about all of this. It
31:27
Speaker 8: is a recipe for disaster and it takes away national
31:31
Speaker 8: sovereignty and puts it in the hands of private corporate billionaires.
31:36
Speaker 1: Thank you, Sandy. Okay.
31:38
Speaker 2: If you like what the UK Column does, you'd like
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Speaker 2: the moment.
32:38
Speaker 5: Now.
32:39
Speaker 2: Tomorrow at one pm, Dan rasmuson Maccadia will be speaking
32:43
Speaker 2: to Professor Dennis Hayes and Professor Hayes is Director of
32:49
Speaker 2: Academics for Academic Freedom. He's visiting professor at the University
32:53
Speaker 2: of Buckingham and emertis Professor of Education at the University
32:56
Speaker 2: of Derby.
32:57
Speaker 1: And they are looking.
32:58
Speaker 2: Deeply into the situation in Britain's universities and freedom of
33:02
Speaker 2: speech issues and these types of things. So join us
33:05
Speaker 2: at one pm tomorrow for that. A reminder that a
33:11
Speaker 2: couple of previous interviews here that are now on the
33:14
Speaker 2: UK Column website Nigel Faraj and the destructive toryization of
33:18
Speaker 2: Reform UK. This is Job West, who I believe South
33:23
Speaker 2: Derbyshire was working for reform but resigned sometime a couple
33:28
Speaker 2: few weeks ago to quite a bit of controversial comment
33:32
Speaker 2: about Nigel Farag and what he's doing with reform. And
33:35
Speaker 2: I think if you watch this video, this interview that
33:38
Speaker 2: Brian hosted, you'll find that actually it's a bit of
33:41
Speaker 2: a modus operandi for Nigel Faraji. He's been doing this
33:47
Speaker 2: going back to the very beginning of his leadership of
33:49
Speaker 2: UKP for example, exactly the same types of tactics keep
33:53
Speaker 2: people diverted, stolen by the state. We were talking about
33:57
Speaker 2: the UK government stealing children from family. We have yet
34:01
Speaker 2: another interview covering this.
34:04
Speaker 1: Have a look at.
34:05
Speaker 2: That on the UK column website now Standing the Light
34:10
Speaker 2: is taking place in May in Cumbria. Details on screen,
34:15
Speaker 2: details of be in the show notes if you can
34:16
Speaker 2: possibly get along to that, if you're nor North of
34:18
Speaker 2: England or want to travel further afield. There's lots going
34:22
Speaker 2: on there.
34:23
Speaker 1: Are we attending We are, We absolutely are, so we'll
34:25
Speaker 1: see you there.
34:26
Speaker 2: Okay, fantastic Sandy, briefly meet up in the southwest.
34:35
Speaker 8: Yes, we've got the dissident meeting. This is really about
34:39
Speaker 8: questioning about whether whether to pay your taxes or not
34:43
Speaker 8: because we're living in such an undemocratic society and where
34:47
Speaker 8: is our money going and bearing in mind we are
34:53
Speaker 8: living at the moment with we don't know is our
34:56
Speaker 8: money going to fund wars? You know, these wars abroad
35:01
Speaker 8: and so we're having this tact rebellion. I'm going to
35:03
Speaker 8: be speaking about devolution because we've had no say in
35:07
Speaker 8: devolution at all. I mean, it hasn't really been to
35:12
Speaker 8: put all of our hands into these mayors for climate
35:17
Speaker 8: change and to have them in our regional assemblies. Now
35:22
Speaker 8: I think it's just appalling because their main thing will
35:26
Speaker 8: be net zero and we don't have any choice. We
35:30
Speaker 8: don't want this.
35:32
Speaker 5: That's it.
35:33
Speaker 8: So we're going to be there.
35:34
Speaker 2: I'm going to be there, Thank you, brilliant, And that's
35:36
Speaker 2: on Sunday, the twenty seventh of April, and acid details
35:40
Speaker 2: will be in the show notes. Vanessa, let's come back
35:42
Speaker 2: to you then, and what's the LIDST in Syria?
35:48
Speaker 5: Well, one of the latest stories in Syria. Of course,
35:51
Speaker 5: the whole situations are incredibly complex, and I think you
35:55
Speaker 5: and I will be talking about that very soon on
35:58
Speaker 5: another podcast. But this is about the fact that, of
36:02
Speaker 5: course we've always reported at UK column and I have
36:05
Speaker 5: consistently reported that Israel since twenty eleven has been supportive
36:10
Speaker 5: of the various armed groups including al Qaeda and ISIS
36:14
Speaker 5: in Syria to overthrow the former Syrian government and leadership,
36:20
Speaker 5: and here we have further proof of that. Just prior
36:24
Speaker 5: to the attack on Aleppo, the Jolani forces, we're talking
36:29
Speaker 5: about normalization with Israel as one of the conditions that
36:34
Speaker 5: they be allowed to advance as quickly as they did.
36:38
Speaker 5: Very recently, Jolani meets with Israeli poppet Mahmoud Dabas, who
36:43
Speaker 5: is the leader of the Palestinian state and they occupied territories,
36:49
Speaker 5: but is also responsible for many of the reprisals against
36:53
Speaker 5: the actual Palestinian resistance in the occupied territories. But Interestingly,
36:59
Speaker 5: very recently, I think in the last two days, there
37:02
Speaker 5: were two US Congress members who paid what is being
37:06
Speaker 5: termed as an unofficial visit to Syria as the US
37:11
Speaker 5: mulls sanctions relief sanctions of course that were imposed as
37:15
Speaker 5: a collective punishment on all the Syrian people while being
37:18
Speaker 5: described as targeting only the Syrian leadership. So two US lawmakers,
37:26
Speaker 5: Marlin Stutsman, Republican congressmen from Indiana, and Corey Mills from Florida,
37:33
Speaker 5: also Republican, came to Syria and met with Jolani. You,
37:38
Speaker 5: of course may well know him better as ahmadav Chada.
37:41
Speaker 5: That's his rebranding to try and avoid the labeling of
37:45
Speaker 5: him as leader and founder of al Qaeda in Syria,
37:49
Speaker 5: and of course for the terrorist crimes that he committed
37:52
Speaker 5: and is continuing to commit against the Syrian people. So
37:55
Speaker 5: let's have a listen to what Corey Mills said in
37:58
Speaker 5: an interview with Arabic media. I think it was actually
38:02
Speaker 5: during his visit to Damascus. Let's have a listen.
38:07
Speaker 9: Well, having share a border with one another, it's important
38:09
Speaker 9: for Syria and Israel to have strong relationships. I think
38:12
Speaker 9: that the president and the leadership has demonstrated their willingness
38:15
Speaker 9: to work with Israel as they looked at preventing Hashtar
38:18
Speaker 9: Shabi from transitioning weapons out of it through Syria and
38:21
Speaker 9: into Lebanon. I think that, you know, the President of
38:24
Speaker 9: the President has been very clear that he looks to
38:27
Speaker 9: establish and maintain a strong relationship, that he wants to
38:29
Speaker 9: be a good neighbor. And so I think that this
38:32
Speaker 9: is very re encouraging for the American people and for
38:35
Speaker 9: the American president who put in place the historic and
38:38
Speaker 9: monumental Abram Accords. And so I think that looking forward
38:41
Speaker 9: at a strong Israel and Syrian relationship, looking forward with
38:44
Speaker 9: a strong Iraq Syrian relationship as well as for that
38:47
Speaker 9: in the West, is really key. But the message that
38:50
Speaker 9: I heard from the Foreign Affairs Minister as well as
38:52
Speaker 9: for the President is that they look forward to developing
38:54
Speaker 9: and building strong allies, they look forward to try and
38:57
Speaker 9: partner with the West, and that they're not allow this
39:00
Speaker 9: to be a safe haven of terrorism for the Iranian
39:03
Speaker 9: regime or a proxy state.
39:08
Speaker 5: But of course it is a haven for al Qaeda
39:10
Speaker 5: that is continuing to commit genocide against Syrian minorities. Not
39:15
Speaker 5: only the minorities, even the Sunni Muslim communities, that is,
39:20
Speaker 5: the majority in Syria is coming under attack now, particularly
39:23
Speaker 5: if they protect the Syrian minorities. But what is interesting
39:28
Speaker 5: is that what it became very obvious these are the
39:31
Speaker 5: conditions for lifting the sanctions on Syrias, so that the
39:34
Speaker 5: conditions that Jolani has to meet, which is effectively normalization
39:38
Speaker 5: with Israel under the Abraham Accords, which of course were
39:41
Speaker 5: put in place by Jared Kushner, Trump's son in law,
39:45
Speaker 5: back during Trump's first administration. And what happened immediately after
39:50
Speaker 5: the visit of Corey Mels and Marlin Stutsman, Syrian security
39:55
Speaker 5: forces meaning al Qaeda rebrands detained Palestinian resistance leaders. They
40:02
Speaker 5: actually arrested leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the
40:06
Speaker 5: Kods Brigades. Now previously, Giulani had also disarmed and dissolved
40:12
Speaker 5: all of the Palestinian armed forces in Syria, including the
40:17
Speaker 5: Lewa Old Goods which were actually part of the Syrian
40:19
Speaker 5: Arab army itself, and closed all the office offices of
40:25
Speaker 5: the Palestinian resistance factions. He basically rescinded Palestinian citizenship and
40:33
Speaker 5: basically conferred to them back into being refugees, something that
40:37
Speaker 5: Syria was always against. He disclosed the positions of Palestinian
40:41
Speaker 5: leaders for targeting by Israel since December twenty twenty four
40:46
Speaker 5: imprisoned resistance fighters. And of course this is while Israel
40:51
Speaker 5: is conducting ongoing assassinations of resistance leaders in Lebanine, Lebanon, sorry,
40:57
Speaker 5: and Palestine, so effectively coming very clear that Jiulani, if
41:02
Speaker 5: he wasn't before, is rapidly becoming a stooge for Israel
41:07
Speaker 5: in Syria.
41:09
Speaker 2: Thank you Foranessa and Charles sticking with international affairs. What
41:13
Speaker 2: Zelon must have been up to in South Africa.
41:16
Speaker 4: That's quat well.
41:17
Speaker 6: As reported on back in January, the controversy surrounding Elon
41:21
Speaker 6: Musk's Starlink and a place at the Table in South
41:24
Speaker 6: Africa rumbles on. Shown here on the map South Africa
41:28
Speaker 6: in a darker shade, suggesting that it doesn't yet have starlink.
41:32
Speaker 6: But the question I concluded the report by asking was
41:36
Speaker 6: whether a country does actually want to grant starlink effective
41:39
Speaker 6: control of almost all communications and of course access to
41:43
Speaker 6: all of the data passing back and forth. South Africa
41:46
Speaker 6: for now does not, though this seems to be an
41:49
Speaker 6: inadvertent consequence of its black economic empowerment laws upheld by
41:53
Speaker 6: the Independent Communications Authority, which prohibit a business from operating
41:58
Speaker 6: in the country unless it is owned to at least
42:00
Speaker 6: thirty percent by black South Africans. Now, Musk is South
42:05
Speaker 6: African by birth, but as he points out on his
42:08
Speaker 6: own messaging service Twitter, he is the wrong color.
42:12
Speaker 4: Now.
42:13
Speaker 6: The lever Musk has attempted to use is the introduction
42:17
Speaker 6: of a Tesla manufacturing plant, apparently bringing prosperity to the country,
42:21
Speaker 6: which for a start is a highly questionable form of incentive,
42:25
Speaker 6: but as an aside, though the Tesla price is widely
42:29
Speaker 6: reported to have dropped fairly sharply in recent months, it's
42:33
Speaker 6: worth pointing out that Musk has not lost his flare
42:35
Speaker 6: for opportunism and that hitching his wagon to the Trump
42:38
Speaker 6: pony has overall been very much to his gain. That
42:41
Speaker 6: the mainstream narrative posits that the exclusion of South Africa,
42:44
Speaker 6: or indeed any part of Africa is widening what's referred
42:47
Speaker 6: to as the digital divide, and this is what Musk
42:51
Speaker 6: himself says about the importance of foisting the Internet on
42:54
Speaker 6: the entire continent.
42:57
Speaker 10: I do think Africa has a lot of potential and
43:02
Speaker 10: you know, and I think one of the things holding
43:05
Speaker 10: Africa BacT has been lack of Internet connectivity, which is
43:08
Speaker 10: what starlink is helping to solve.
43:12
Speaker 4: You know. With that people can learn anything.
43:14
Speaker 11: And and be sort of part of the global culture,
43:20
Speaker 11: whereas if you're not connected then you're I mean, or
43:25
Speaker 11: you can just like write letters or something. So so
43:29
Speaker 11: connectivity is essential for Africa and other places to be
43:35
Speaker 11: part of the global culture and participate in AI and
43:39
Speaker 11: other activities.
43:43
Speaker 6: There we have it a man in charge of far
43:45
Speaker 6: too much, dismissing all previous life on Earth, which apparently
43:48
Speaker 6: couldn't learn anything and couldn't sorry, could only write letters
43:52
Speaker 6: because they weren't.
43:53
Speaker 4: Connected to the Internet.
43:54
Speaker 6: The reason this is relevant is not so much because
43:57
Speaker 6: of the specific outcome for South Africa, but rather because
43:59
Speaker 6: it's how these projects are designed and funded and pushed
44:03
Speaker 6: out for the benefit of everyone except the end user specifically.
44:07
Speaker 6: This goes back many years, and this particular initiative for
44:09
Speaker 6: Africa was well documented in twenty seventeen at the World
44:13
Speaker 6: Economic Forum meeting in Kigali, a place that their global
44:19
Speaker 6: shape has got to work on controlling Africa and we
44:23
Speaker 6: now listened to Janet Longmore of the Digital Opportunity Trust
44:28
Speaker 6: and what she said about connecting Africa to the Internet.
44:32
Speaker 12: Dodd has a fourteen year track record of mobilizing the
44:35
Speaker 12: talent of tech savy young women and men and deploying
44:39
Speaker 12: them to their home communities to build digital literacy skills
44:44
Speaker 12: amongst their peers. And under the Northern Corridor Pilot initiative,
44:48
Speaker 12: we've partnered with the Government of Rwanda for a very innovative,
44:52
Speaker 12: ambitious program that we are bringing to this initiative as well.
44:56
Speaker 12: It is called the Digital Ambassador's Program and imagine your
45:00
Speaker 12: mind thousands of very tech savvy, talented young women and
45:04
Speaker 12: men who will be deployed to their home communities to
45:07
Speaker 12: build digital literacy skills amongst the people. The core essence
45:13
Speaker 12: of this is a broad collaboration private sector, international private sector,
45:18
Speaker 12: the government and civil society as strong implementers. The government
45:24
Speaker 12: has vested it in their Digital Talent Policy, so it
45:27
Speaker 12: is approved and moving forward. And the other core essence
45:31
Speaker 12: is reaching and understanding the needs of the user. So
45:36
Speaker 12: women in marginalized communities, people in villages, why are they
45:40
Speaker 12: not connected? And what we have learned and what young
45:43
Speaker 12: people know is unless digital skills are relevant in a
45:47
Speaker 12: local context, people are not going to pick up because
45:50
Speaker 12: it's a high value proposition for them.
45:56
Speaker 6: The very definition of a public private partnership. The DOT
46:01
Speaker 6: the Digital Opportunity Trust is but one of many organizations
46:05
Speaker 6: channeling funding from corporations and philanthropists into these sorts of initiatives.
46:10
Speaker 6: And I think it should be noted that she makes
46:13
Speaker 6: no mention of anything else that remote communities in Africa
46:15
Speaker 6: might need rather more than the Internet, like water or
46:18
Speaker 6: food or even electricity. And it's this tone deafness that
46:21
Speaker 6: exposes the motivation for such a thing in the first place.
46:24
Speaker 6: The only reason for wanting to connect all the people
46:26
Speaker 6: of Africa to the Internet or indeed anywhere else is
46:30
Speaker 6: to attempt to take control of their lives and to
46:32
Speaker 6: extract as much capital from them as possible. And this
46:35
Speaker 6: modus operandi is exactly the same as that employed by
46:38
Speaker 6: the pharma souscral industry, which has been training up and
46:41
Speaker 6: deploying locals into the communities in order to convince people
46:44
Speaker 6: that they need something which in fact they do not.
46:47
Speaker 6: And though this has been in the pipeline for a
46:49
Speaker 6: long time, Africa does still have a limited opportunity to
46:53
Speaker 6: attempt to resist this particular invasion, and in this case,
46:57
Speaker 6: the South African situation may be considered as a bell
47:01
Speaker 6: weather I think one to watch in any case, and
47:04
Speaker 6: I think that probably leads us on into IDA.
47:07
Speaker 2: And so you know, we're going to start off. I'm
47:11
Speaker 2: going to apologize and advance for this. We're going to
47:13
Speaker 2: start off with remarks that were made at the Times
47:17
Speaker 2: Crime and Justice Commission launch event which took place last
47:20
Speaker 2: week because war criminal alleged Tony Blair presented his case
47:25
Speaker 2: for digital ID system that he claims is going to
47:27
Speaker 2: save the UK two billion pounds per year.
47:30
Speaker 1: Let's have a listen to some of what he said.
47:34
Speaker 13: We cannot continue with business as usual and change is inevitable.
47:38
Speaker 13: This is where technology like digital ID becomes critical. My
47:43
Speaker 13: institute's own analysis shows that introducing this in the UK
47:47
Speaker 13: would save at least two billion a year and likely
47:51
Speaker 13: more by reducing losses to fraud, improving tax collection and
47:55
Speaker 13: better targeting of states aboard.
48:02
Speaker 2: If you were watching closely there, he's not looking well.
48:04
Speaker 2: He seems to be slurring his words somewhat. He doesn't
48:08
Speaker 2: seem to be in the best of health. And well
48:11
Speaker 2: sorry about that, Tony, but anyway, Edge Verification Providers Association
48:16
Speaker 2: sticking with digital ID. This organization in the UK has
48:20
Speaker 2: written alongside the Association for Digital Verification Professionals and the
48:24
Speaker 2: Online Safety Tech Industry Association. They've written to the Secretary
48:27
Speaker 2: has Stayed for Science, Innovation Technology to share the concerns
48:31
Speaker 2: that they have about the move by the STARMA regime
48:35
Speaker 2: to compete directly with the private sector digital ID market
48:39
Speaker 2: by extending the scope of the one login program. Now
48:42
Speaker 2: we've been talking about one login for many, many years now.
48:45
Speaker 2: This is the digital ID system that the government was
48:48
Speaker 2: originally rolling out purely for access to government services, but
48:52
Speaker 2: they're now going to roll this out much more broadly.
48:56
Speaker 2: So in their open letter they say, we strongly support
49:00
Speaker 2: your Department's ambition to make the UK a world leader
49:03
Speaker 2: in digital identity. However, the latest announcements sent shockwaves through
49:07
Speaker 2: the sector. We're concerned about the inadvertent creation of a
49:10
Speaker 2: government monopoly in digital identity, one that could stifle innovation,
49:14
Speaker 2: limit consumer choice and impost billions of new costs on
49:18
Speaker 2: the taxpayer for functions the private sector currently provides. But
49:21
Speaker 2: Tony says is going to save US two billion a year,
49:23
Speaker 2: So who's true, who's right there? But anyway, they go
49:26
Speaker 2: on to say that are they going to suggest that
49:29
Speaker 2: a joint technical working group be established to ensure ongoing
49:33
Speaker 2: collaboration between one log and the golf dot UK wallet
49:36
Speaker 2: and certified identity and private sector wallet providers.
49:40
Speaker 1: So all they're really.
49:41
Speaker 2: Concerned about is they get their cut now. In the meantime,
49:45
Speaker 2: a whistleblower has alleged that flaws in the government's one
49:49
Speaker 2: Login system have come to light three years after it
49:52
Speaker 2: became operational. The issues have reportedly been confirmed through an
49:57
Speaker 2: internal investigation by the government Digital set versus Chief Information
50:01
Speaker 2: Security Officer, and the whistleblower claims that the potential problems
50:05
Speaker 2: around the information security of one Login, which were originally
50:09
Speaker 2: reported to the government digital services executives in July twenty
50:13
Speaker 2: twenty two, still have not been resolved. Allegedly, some of
50:19
Speaker 2: the work on the three hundred million pounds system was
50:22
Speaker 2: outsourced to Romania, and this country has been identified as
50:26
Speaker 2: one of theo's greatest cyber criminal threats in the world
50:30
Speaker 2: by various researchers. Meanwhile, in the United States, there's a
50:35
Speaker 2: massive scramble to get hold of it's digital ID, well
50:38
Speaker 2: not wholly digital, but certainly its new real ID system
50:42
Speaker 2: because from the seventh of May onwards, everyone will need
50:47
Speaker 2: some kind of real ID enabled driving license or passport
50:50
Speaker 2: or digital ID in order to take domestic flights within
50:54
Speaker 2: the United States. Now real ID is, as I say,
50:58
Speaker 2: not totally digital, but it's heading in that direction, with
51:02
Speaker 2: a host of private digital ID providers queuing up to
51:05
Speaker 2: get involved, and you know, very similar business model being created,
51:10
Speaker 2: it seems, in the United States to the United Kingdom.
51:13
Speaker 2: I'm sure that's just a coincidence.
51:16
Speaker 6: Yes, well, we shall see, but no, I mean, it
51:19
Speaker 6: seems to be the way it goes with all these things.
51:20
Speaker 6: Provide the if necessarily, provide a physical object first and
51:24
Speaker 6: then convert it into something digital which you can never
51:27
Speaker 6: get back out of.
51:28
Speaker 1: Indeed, nice.
51:29
Speaker 2: Sadly, let's come back to you and freedom of speech
51:32
Speaker 2: in Glastonbury.
51:34
Speaker 8: Yes, well, as I spoke last last week, Clive de
51:40
Speaker 8: Carl and myself have been banned from speaking at the
51:44
Speaker 8: town Hall in Glastonbury because they've deemed us conspiracy theorists.
51:49
Speaker 8: And of course there's been a groundswell of support for us,
51:54
Speaker 8: which I think is really heartfelt. And I'm really appreciative
51:58
Speaker 8: to anyone that has written to the clerk of the
52:02
Speaker 8: town hall and voice their their dismay at this, because
52:08
Speaker 8: actually we have to keep freedom of speech alive. And
52:10
Speaker 8: it's almost like a it's like a mirror of everything
52:13
Speaker 8: else that's going on in our world. And you know,
52:16
Speaker 8: if you if you let it happen in your own town,
52:19
Speaker 8: then it can happen anywhere. And so but what's what's
52:24
Speaker 8: been quite interesting is that the ex mayor who is she,
52:30
Speaker 8: She was the one that really got very very angry
52:34
Speaker 8: with my efforts to try and get them to debate
52:37
Speaker 8: NET zero in twenty twenty three. She has been very
52:41
Speaker 8: rattled by this and has very hastily come up with
52:45
Speaker 8: some sort of rally for community solidarity and it's on Saturday,
52:53
Speaker 8: April twenty six at eleven am. I'm giving them a
52:55
Speaker 8: plug actually because I think there'll be a few dissenters there,
52:58
Speaker 8: which which might be quite anyway. It's at the Market Crossings,
53:02
Speaker 8: Glastonbury between eleven am and one and it's a rally
53:06
Speaker 8: for community solidarity and they're standing up against racism, homophobia,
53:12
Speaker 8: misogyny and rejecting everything that divides us and you know,
53:19
Speaker 8: whilst I agree with you know, I agree there is
53:23
Speaker 8: a lot dividing us, but actually they're falling into that trap.
53:27
Speaker 8: And it's ironic that they're saying we've got to get
53:30
Speaker 8: we don't sleep walk into fascism when they've banned us
53:34
Speaker 8: from speaking at the town hall. I mean it's an
53:36
Speaker 8: absolute parody. I mean it's quite laughable in lots of
53:41
Speaker 8: ways there. So join us next Saturday in glast Roof
53:43
Speaker 8: for an afternoon of powerful talks and live music as
53:46
Speaker 8: we gather in solidarity and resistance. At a time when
53:49
Speaker 8: the world seems to be sleepwalking into fascism, where division
53:53
Speaker 8: is normalized and cruelty is mistaken for strength, it's more
53:57
Speaker 8: urgent than ever to stand together. We're rallying because people
54:00
Speaker 8: need to hear the truth. Unity is not weakness, Compassion
54:03
Speaker 8: is not naive. Even the Conservative Party is no longer extreme,
54:07
Speaker 8: She says, enough for reformers who believe oppression is a virtue,
54:12
Speaker 8: we must respond not with fear, but with solidarity, courage,
54:16
Speaker 8: and a refusal to be silent. Everyone is welcome, So
54:19
Speaker 8: I'm going to be there and a few other people
54:23
Speaker 8: will be there, And I don't disagree with an awful
54:25
Speaker 8: lot of what she's saying, but she's got completely the
54:29
Speaker 8: wrong end of the stick, and it really is I mean,
54:33
Speaker 8: how one goes into dialogue with these people, I just
54:36
Speaker 8: don't know, but will try.
54:38
Speaker 2: I would like to echo your encouragement of everybody to
54:42
Speaker 2: attend that event. I think that would be very interesting
54:45
Speaker 2: to attend. So if you're in the area, head to
54:49
Speaker 2: Mark Across in Glassonbury on Saturday and.
54:54
Speaker 1: Let's see what happens. Absolutely, okay, let's come on to
54:59
Speaker 1: I Believe Women.
55:01
Speaker 4: Women and the Supreme Court. Yes.
55:02
Speaker 6: Back in November last year, I reported on the case
55:05
Speaker 6: which was brought to the Supreme Court in London by
55:08
Speaker 6: for Women Scotland. Can we just yes at all concerning
55:13
Speaker 6: the interpretation of the definitions and the protected characteristics as
55:17
Speaker 6: set out by both the Gender Recognition Act two thousand
55:19
Speaker 6: and four and the Equality Act twenty ten. In essence,
55:23
Speaker 6: what constitute sex and or gender and what a man
55:27
Speaker 6: or a woman actually is? Now, before going any further,
55:30
Speaker 6: I think it's worth reflecting on the fact that in
55:32
Speaker 6: a society that's described as both civilized and progressive, we
55:37
Speaker 6: are first of all confused by such definitions, and secondly,
55:40
Speaker 6: we require a Supreme Court to try to make sense
55:43
Speaker 6: of it. Nonetheless, the judgment arrived at is not brief.
55:46
Speaker 6: It is very wordy, and to an extent it obfuscates
55:50
Speaker 6: its own significance. But the result heralded is that common
55:54
Speaker 6: sense has prevailed. Because the two pieces of legislation to
55:56
Speaker 6: which I've just referred are to be read in such
55:58
Speaker 6: a way as to suggests that biological sex at birth
56:02
Speaker 6: which will determine whether or not a person may be
56:04
Speaker 6: considered a woman or a man in law. But there's
56:08
Speaker 6: rather more to it than that. The Supreme Court has
56:12
Speaker 6: adjudicated that the language used in these two acts does
56:15
Speaker 6: not contradict that of the Sexual Discrimination Act nineteen seventy five,
56:19
Speaker 6: which made it clear that sex was inextricably linked to biology,
56:22
Speaker 6: and furthermore that it was binary. So you are either
56:25
Speaker 6: a man or a woman. So, with regard to the
56:28
Speaker 6: misuse of the definitions, the Supreme Court has now stated
56:31
Speaker 6: that quote, we can identify no good reason why the
56:34
Speaker 6: legislature should have intended that sex based rights and protections
56:38
Speaker 6: under the Equality Act twenty ten should apply to these complex,
56:42
Speaker 6: heterogeneous groupings rather than to the distinct group of biological women.
56:47
Speaker 6: And girls or men and boys, with their shared biology
56:50
Speaker 6: leading to shared disadvantage and discrimination faced by them as
56:55
Speaker 6: a distinct group. Slightly confusing language, but in effect saying
57:00
Speaker 6: that the legislation is much more simple than it's been
57:04
Speaker 6: taken as being. Now the fact this is being reported
57:08
Speaker 6: in a news at all shows just how far of
57:10
Speaker 6: course the judiciary in particular has been blown and the
57:13
Speaker 6: relentless pressure from the outside and the continued insistence that
57:16
Speaker 6: anyone can be any gender and that this overrides the
57:20
Speaker 6: significance of biological sex has undoubtedly been succumbed to. If
57:24
Speaker 6: it were not the case, there could not have been
57:26
Speaker 6: the need to bring this to court in the first place.
57:29
Speaker 6: And as I say, the judgment is very detailed. There
57:33
Speaker 6: will be a link to it in the show notes,
57:34
Speaker 6: but to get a better understanding of how well funded
57:38
Speaker 6: activism and political pressure may pervert the course of justice,
57:41
Speaker 6: I would recommend reading it. The other significant detail in
57:44
Speaker 6: the judgment is the impact upon people with what's called
57:47
Speaker 6: a gender recognition certificate who had been led to believe
57:50
Speaker 6: that holding such a thing made you belong to the
57:52
Speaker 6: sex of your choice.
57:53
Speaker 4: This is not the case, and it never was.
57:56
Speaker 6: However, since there are protections for those undergoing what's called
57:59
Speaker 6: gener and a reassignment, this should be considered a red herring.
58:03
Speaker 6: But of course, given the intensely emotional and vitriolic nature
58:06
Speaker 6: of the debate, it's the gray areas like this which
58:09
Speaker 6: looks set to keep the level of tension high and
58:12
Speaker 6: indeed perpetuated. Fortunately for the labor government, the voting public
58:15
Speaker 6: have terribly short memories, for otherwise they would remember some
58:18
Speaker 6: of the remarks from their upper echelons. Kirs Armer said
58:22
Speaker 6: not too long ago that saying that only women have
58:24
Speaker 6: a cervix is something that shouldn't be said, and David
58:28
Speaker 6: Lammy said that women who value women only spaces where
58:32
Speaker 6: they feel safe from male violence are dinosaurs who want
58:35
Speaker 6: to hoard rights.
58:36
Speaker 4: So that is where we are.
58:37
Speaker 6: It's twenty twenty five, and we need the highest court
58:40
Speaker 6: in the land to tell us what is a man
58:42
Speaker 6: and what is a woman. Turns out it was written
58:44
Speaker 6: down perfectly correctly in the first instance, So there we are.
58:48
Speaker 1: That leads us.
58:51
Speaker 2: David Lammy has featured quite a bit on this pile,
58:54
Speaker 2: and we're going to have to end with David Lammy
58:56
Speaker 2: as well.
58:56
Speaker 6: I'm afraid we are, and in the spirit of not discriminating,
59:02
Speaker 6: it should be made clear that abject ignorance is no
59:05
Speaker 6: barrier to holding high office. And we look back to
59:09
Speaker 6: twenty thirteen, obviously considering the news that the Pope has
59:15
Speaker 6: died recently. Back in twenty thirteen, the BBC put out
59:19
Speaker 6: a tweet that said, live video chimney of Sistine Chapel
59:25
Speaker 6: as conclave votes for Pope, will smoke be black or white?
59:29
Speaker 6: And David Lammy responded on Twitter, not ironically, saying this
59:35
Speaker 6: tweet from the BBC is crass and unnecessary. Do we
59:39
Speaker 6: really need silly innuendo about the race of the next Pope?
59:44
Speaker 6: So there we are in the incredibly unlikely situation that
59:48
Speaker 6: you're not sure what that refers to the color of
59:51
Speaker 6: the smoke coming out of the chimney, of course, has
59:53
Speaker 6: absolutely nothing to do with the.
59:54
Speaker 4: Color of the Pope.
59:55
Speaker 6: Nonetheless, it has prompted somebody to ask an artificial intelligence
1:00:01
Speaker 6: or whatever it's called, to create a fictional image of
1:00:05
Speaker 6: Lammy himself were he to hold that particular office, and
1:00:10
Speaker 6: indeed a bucket of what looks like Kentucky fried chicken. Yes,
1:00:14
Speaker 6: So there we go, with apologies to anybody that's shocked
1:00:18
Speaker 6: by this image and the many references to David Lammy
1:00:21
Speaker 6: in this program.
1:00:22
Speaker 2: Yes, indeed, Well, look we've got to leave it there
1:00:24
Speaker 2: for today. I've got to say thank you very much
1:00:26
Speaker 2: to Vanessa and to Sandy for joining us today. Thank
1:00:29
Speaker 2: you all for watching. We'll be back in a couple
1:00:32
Speaker 2: of minutes time. If you're a UK column member for
1:00:36
Speaker 2: some UK cold News extra, don't forget the interview at
1:00:39
Speaker 2: one pm tomorrow, and we'll be back at one pm
1:00:42
Speaker 2: on Friday as usual for another UK column News.
1:00:45
Speaker 1: We'll see you then. Thanks for joining us, Bye bye,
1:00:48
Speaker 1: by bye,