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You Can Do It — with Professor Richard Ennos | UK Column Interviews · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, This is Diane Rasmissing with UK column. I'm
0:11
Speaker 1: really happy to be here today speaking with Professor Richard Us.
0:14
Speaker 1: He is in Meritith Professor of Evolution in Biology at
0:17
Speaker 1: University of Edinburgh and he is also the chair of
0:20
Speaker 1: Commonlae Edinburgh, which I have been involved with along with
0:23
Speaker 1: Richard for a little bit of time now. Really happy
0:26
Speaker 1: to be hearing from Richard today on what he's been
0:29
Speaker 1: doing over the years to raise awareness locally in Edinburgh,
0:33
Speaker 1: which I hope will inspire others around the country to
0:36
Speaker 1: get involved locally and regionally to see what we can
0:39
Speaker 1: do to fight the globalist agenda and all of the
0:42
Speaker 1: other things that they're using to kind of keep us
0:44
Speaker 1: in our places. Richard has done a lot of inspiring
0:49
Speaker 1: work over the past few years and we will get
0:51
Speaker 1: into that. And we're today and leading up to the
0:54
Speaker 1: conference that we had most recently just a few days
0:56
Speaker 1: ago up in Edinburgh. So Richard has been with us
1:00
Speaker 1: previously a New K column News, but today we'll be
1:02
Speaker 1: having a more extended discussion and I'm really looking forward
1:05
Speaker 1: to this. So Richard, again, thank you for coming with
1:07
Speaker 1: us today a New K column.
1:09
Speaker 2: Thank you're asking me.
1:11
Speaker 1: No it's great to be here with you. Maybe you
1:14
Speaker 1: want to tell us a little bit about yourself and
1:16
Speaker 1: your background, and maybe a little bit about carmenel Jedenburgh.
1:19
Speaker 1: I appreciate it.
1:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, as I as you said, I was. I'm retired
1:25
Speaker 2: professor of evolutionary biology at at Edinburgh University and I
1:31
Speaker 2: was retired in twenty twenty and very concerned when the
1:35
Speaker 2: lockdowns came. Wrote to everybody in my department as saying
1:40
Speaker 2: that we shouldn't do this, and nobody gave me. I
1:43
Speaker 2: think one person gave me some support about that. I
1:48
Speaker 2: joined a resistance group in Edinburgh at that time and
1:53
Speaker 2: we had clandestine meetings for about four or five months.
2:00
Speaker 2: I took part in protests and talking and speaking at rallies,
2:06
Speaker 2: and that didn't seem to get anywhere. I was at
2:11
Speaker 2: one point arrested but released very very shortly, or just
2:15
Speaker 2: anti social behavior order put placed on me. We sort
2:27
Speaker 2: of finished off. We came to the end of rallies
2:31
Speaker 2: that didn't seem to be getting anywhere. So the next
2:33
Speaker 2: thing that we did was we did the yellow boards,
2:36
Speaker 2: and so we stood outside and held up the yellow boards.
2:41
Speaker 2: It was mainly about vaccines and the imposition of vaccines
2:45
Speaker 2: on people without any informed consent, and that was a
2:51
Speaker 2: very cold winter. We stood outside, people went past, they
2:57
Speaker 2: hooted their horns, they agreed with us, but again we
3:01
Speaker 2: didn't seem to be getting anywhere. At one point somebody
3:05
Speaker 2: came past and said, don't you know there's a war
3:08
Speaker 2: on And that was the point when they flipped from
3:14
Speaker 2: the interest in COVID to the war in Ukraine. And
3:19
Speaker 2: we sat down and we thought, well, we're not getting
3:22
Speaker 2: anywhere with the yellow boards, now what should we do?
3:25
Speaker 2: And I sat down with Matthew Wilson, as it was
3:31
Speaker 2: just the two of us together and we were both
3:32
Speaker 2: in education, and what we felt was that people actually
3:36
Speaker 2: need to know more about what's going on. How can
3:38
Speaker 2: we inform them? And so we set up a little
3:42
Speaker 2: group and we held meetings every two weeks or so,
3:47
Speaker 2: trying to inform people about what was going on. And
3:51
Speaker 2: one of the things that we felt was really important
3:54
Speaker 2: was that we had face to face meetings. At that time,
3:59
Speaker 2: every one was trying to go get us to go online,
4:03
Speaker 2: and you can't interact properly online at all, but if
4:06
Speaker 2: you were with other people, it's really inspiring. You can
4:10
Speaker 2: swap ideas, you can be informed and inspired, and we
4:18
Speaker 2: kept that. We set up the group. At that time,
4:24
Speaker 2: the group was called Common Knowledge, So what we wanted
4:27
Speaker 2: was that what was going on should be common knowledge,
4:30
Speaker 2: and that was the reason for calling it Common Knowledge.
4:36
Speaker 2: And at that time we had maybe twenty thirty or
4:39
Speaker 2: forty people at meetings. We had a very wide range
4:42
Speaker 2: of meetings. So we were concerned with health, we were
4:48
Speaker 2: concerned with education, we were concerned with the transagender. We
4:54
Speaker 2: were during that period canceled twice. First of all with
4:59
Speaker 2: the Quakers, who we had some concerned parents came along
5:06
Speaker 2: and told us about their concerns about the transgender issues
5:11
Speaker 2: with the things that were being taught at schools. They
5:14
Speaker 2: were very level headed, but nonetheless the Quakers felt that
5:19
Speaker 2: this was not something that they could support. They could
5:21
Speaker 2: also not support us when we had two people who
5:24
Speaker 2: had been vaccine injured, and they felt that they could
5:29
Speaker 2: not have a meeting with people who a vaccine injured.
5:32
Speaker 2: So we were canceled there, but we kept going. We
5:38
Speaker 2: found places where we could hold meetings and we've had
5:43
Speaker 2: really quite quite successful meetings, and we've also formed a
5:48
Speaker 2: group of people who have common interests from a very
5:54
Speaker 2: very wide range of backgrounds. And I think the great
5:57
Speaker 2: thing about common knowledge is lost a lot of friends
6:01
Speaker 2: as a consequence of speaking out about things, but I
6:04
Speaker 2: also gained an awful lot of friends and still have
6:08
Speaker 2: those friends and common knowledge. So to me, this is
6:11
Speaker 2: something which is really really important keeping this going and
6:19
Speaker 2: more recently what we've been trying to inform people about
6:23
Speaker 2: what's going on. But one of the problems with that
6:25
Speaker 2: is that you're always fighting rearguard action, you're always responding
6:30
Speaker 2: to what's going on around you. And what we felt
6:34
Speaker 2: needed to be the case is we want to be
6:37
Speaker 2: a group which is positive and doing things which are positive.
6:42
Speaker 2: How can we help other people make the world a
6:44
Speaker 2: little bit of a better place, And so that's the
6:49
Speaker 2: way in which we're trying to take the group in
6:54
Speaker 2: the last year or so so away from just telling
6:58
Speaker 2: people about how awful the situation is. It is very
7:00
Speaker 2: important to do that, of course, but people also need
7:04
Speaker 2: to be given hope. They also need to be given
7:06
Speaker 2: to be inspired, and they also need to realize their
7:10
Speaker 2: own power and what they can do individually. And to me,
7:17
Speaker 2: the most rewarding thing about the group is that there
7:21
Speaker 2: are people there who've never spoken before in public, and
7:27
Speaker 2: they've got their act together and they've told us about things,
7:31
Speaker 2: and they've spoken in public and it's empowered them and
7:34
Speaker 2: they feel very much more settled as a consequence of that.
7:41
Speaker 2: They've shown that they can do something. And so people
7:44
Speaker 2: have spoken, and we've also set up what's called a
7:50
Speaker 2: recovering So this is an organization where we are going
7:58
Speaker 2: out to farmers and buying directly from farmers and other
8:02
Speaker 2: producers and selling directly to our members. And this is
8:08
Speaker 2: to get around the problems that people have about finding
8:14
Speaker 2: food that is ethically and ecologically well produced, finding that
8:19
Speaker 2: at supermarkets. We're bypassing the supermarkets and we're setting up
8:23
Speaker 2: a system whereby people can buy directly from farmers and
8:27
Speaker 2: consumers who they know and have had personal contact with.
8:31
Speaker 2: So those are the kind of things that we've been doing.
8:34
Speaker 2: And I'm also really happy that one of our members,
8:40
Speaker 2: having seen the education system and the demise of the
8:43
Speaker 2: Scottish education system in particular, one of our members has
8:48
Speaker 2: now the head master of a newly founded school where
8:53
Speaker 2: they're not using any IT during the lessons and they're
8:56
Speaker 2: going back to the old ways and they're giving their
9:01
Speaker 2: pupils a sound start in life. So to me, forming
9:08
Speaker 2: a group is really important because people who are starting
9:12
Speaker 2: out on something new get support, and people are inspired
9:15
Speaker 2: to do something and to show that their individual efforts
9:19
Speaker 2: can actually make a difference.
9:23
Speaker 1: No, that's great, it's great to hear that introduction. Thank
9:26
Speaker 1: you for that. And you know, I will have to
9:27
Speaker 1: say that I've noticed over the past two years. I
9:32
Speaker 1: guess it sounds like you started in twenty twenty two.
9:34
Speaker 1: Then if you are mentioning Ukraine War, that especially in
9:39
Speaker 1: twenty twenty and twenty twenty one, that was when they
9:43
Speaker 1: really put all this into action, where a lot of
9:45
Speaker 1: people that maybe we're paying attention to what was happening
9:51
Speaker 1: in sort of the we can say the globalist arena
9:53
Speaker 1: or the you know, even the UK government itself what
9:57
Speaker 1: they were planning for us. Really a lot of people
10:00
Speaker 1: became aware in twenty twenty because it was such an
10:03
Speaker 1: impact on all of our lives. Where As you said,
10:07
Speaker 1: you know, I was still as well working in the
10:09
Speaker 1: university in twenty twenty and I was not personally able
10:12
Speaker 1: to say much because I was not retired, and as
10:17
Speaker 1: you know, there was a lot of clamping down on Well,
10:21
Speaker 1: we don't know if it was clamping down or if
10:23
Speaker 1: it was just that people were just accepting what they
10:26
Speaker 1: were told, which, you know, i'd like to hear you
10:29
Speaker 1: speak about that, because you and I've spoken about this before.
10:32
Speaker 1: The academic environment at the time, which is where else
10:35
Speaker 1: supposed to be highly trained, highly educated people were just
10:39
Speaker 1: kind of accepting what they were told. So I'd like
10:42
Speaker 1: to hear a little bit more about your experience as
10:45
Speaker 1: someone who was going into retirement luckily in twenty twenty.
10:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was very fortunate to be retired at that time,
10:54
Speaker 2: but I still I had a room still in the university,
10:59
Speaker 2: which I shared with other people, and I went in
11:01
Speaker 2: there most days, and I was finishing off work that
11:05
Speaker 2: I had been doing at the university, and I still
11:08
Speaker 2: had ties with PhD students and so on, and so
11:12
Speaker 2: at that time what I did was I saw what
11:16
Speaker 2: they were trying to do with the lockdowns, and I
11:18
Speaker 2: wrote a letter to everyone in the department saying that
11:22
Speaker 2: as scientists, we should say this was completely wrong. We
11:27
Speaker 2: already had the data at that time about how serious
11:31
Speaker 2: so called COVID was, and it wasn't serious, and there
11:34
Speaker 2: was no problem and people should not have been locked
11:37
Speaker 2: down in any way. And I wrote a long email,
11:40
Speaker 2: well a link the email about that, pointing out that
11:44
Speaker 2: as scientists it was our duty to stand up and
11:47
Speaker 2: say that this was wrong. I got one reply which
11:50
Speaker 2: was supportive, and the other people told me that, oh, no, no,
11:55
Speaker 2: this disease, it is terribly serious in a fifteen percent
11:59
Speaker 2: death rate. That was from one of the professors. They're
12:04
Speaker 2: completely unable to stand up to any of this, And
12:11
Speaker 2: to me that was absolutely shocking that they're supposed to
12:14
Speaker 2: be trained scientists and yet and the evidence was there,
12:19
Speaker 2: the data was there, and all he had to do
12:21
Speaker 2: was say call it out and say no, this is wrong.
12:25
Speaker 2: But that didn't happen. And I got some emails saying
12:28
Speaker 2: that I must have been looking at some very dodgy
12:31
Speaker 2: websites and you know, and my ideas were all wrong.
12:36
Speaker 2: So that was that was difficult. My other experiences with
12:43
Speaker 2: the university, well, I remember when people were supposed to
12:50
Speaker 2: wear masks and going into meetings, and people went into
12:57
Speaker 2: a meeting with a PhD students, academics wore masks, sat down,
13:03
Speaker 2: took them off, spoke, normally, stood up, put their masks
13:07
Speaker 2: back on and went out, and I just couldn't understand
13:12
Speaker 2: this kind of behavior. It's totally totally irrational, and I
13:19
Speaker 2: was just wondering, you know, what's happened to people's thought processes,
13:23
Speaker 2: what's happened to their critical thinking? And I just had
13:28
Speaker 2: to conclude that actually, people in our group who were
13:33
Speaker 2: window cleaners, they had more common sense than the academics,
13:38
Speaker 2: and they stood up for what they they knew to
13:41
Speaker 2: be correct coming from their common sense. Yeah, so I'm
13:48
Speaker 2: afraid I've never really regained that respect that I once
13:52
Speaker 2: had for at a lot of the colleagues I had.
13:57
Speaker 2: I wasn't personally hounded by anyone at the university, though
14:02
Speaker 2: I think I was spoken of and disparaging terms by
14:06
Speaker 2: certain PhD students, But that's not serious to me. But
14:13
Speaker 2: those are the kind of experience I had at that time.
14:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, I still remember the reaction that I had in
14:20
Speaker 1: March twenty twenty when they told us, you know, I'm
14:24
Speaker 1: sure it was the similar thing at universities everywhere at
14:27
Speaker 1: the time, where they sort of said, well, pack up
14:30
Speaker 1: your books and whatever you need and go home and
14:33
Speaker 1: it would be two weeks to flatten the curves or
14:35
Speaker 1: whatever that they were saying at the time, which of
14:37
Speaker 1: course didn't happen. And I remember having a very emotional,
14:43
Speaker 1: visceral reaction to it because my whole life was my students,
14:49
Speaker 1: my office, my lab group, my classes, and that was everything,
14:54
Speaker 1: and I was on campus every single day and then
14:57
Speaker 1: suddenly to be told to take all of that and
14:59
Speaker 1: just move it to your house didn't make any sense
15:02
Speaker 1: to me. And I remember being very seriously worried about
15:06
Speaker 1: the impact on the education of the students as well,
15:10
Speaker 1: because how are they going to get the same quality
15:12
Speaker 1: education watching the recording of a lecture then they would
15:16
Speaker 1: have been able to get in the classroom. And I
15:18
Speaker 1: remember lectures being told, well, if you don't have a
15:24
Speaker 1: webcam where you can record a lecture recorded on your phone,
15:27
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking, students are paying fees and giving up
15:31
Speaker 1: years of their life and putting their education in the
15:32
Speaker 1: hands of someone who's going to record a lecture on
15:35
Speaker 1: their phone in their kitchen, and this is meant to
15:38
Speaker 1: be the university experience. And I was, you know, being
15:42
Speaker 1: a program director at the time, I had a lot
15:44
Speaker 1: of pastoral responsibility for the library students at that time,
15:48
Speaker 1: and I remember seeing a lot of mental health issues
15:51
Speaker 1: and a lot of academic issues as well. You know,
15:55
Speaker 1: we could go on about this for a while, but
15:57
Speaker 1: I think it's just an important thing to note because
16:00
Speaker 1: I think that maybe people don't understand entirely. And I've
16:04
Speaker 1: actually been working on a series of articles that's on
16:06
Speaker 1: the UK column website, mostly led by Hugh McCarthy, who
16:10
Speaker 1: I know that you know as well. We've been dog
16:12
Speaker 1: a whole series of articles on the impact of lockdown
16:16
Speaker 1: and what happened after that on education. And I think
16:21
Speaker 1: it's a very important point because there are so few
16:23
Speaker 1: of us from education who have realized at the time
16:28
Speaker 1: and still maybe not even realized now despite the fact
16:31
Speaker 1: that scores are down, the impact that this has had
16:34
Speaker 1: on education of people of all ages. So thank you
16:39
Speaker 1: for being one of the few of us that spoke
16:41
Speaker 1: up at the time.
16:44
Speaker 2: It's easy when you're retired, but.
16:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, the rest of us had to do what we could,
16:50
Speaker 1: which was for me not easy. I will say that
16:55
Speaker 1: it's Yeah.
16:57
Speaker 2: When I came back, I came back to a lab
16:59
Speaker 2: meat and when I came to the lab meeting, all
17:03
Speaker 2: of the students had masks on. Yeah, And I got
17:06
Speaker 2: across with them and I told them, why are you
17:10
Speaker 2: wearing masks. We're being kind to other people. I said,
17:13
Speaker 2: you're not being kind to other people who were just
17:16
Speaker 2: inducing fear in other people. Have some spine. Went back
17:20
Speaker 2: the next week and there was only one mask. The
17:22
Speaker 2: second week they'd shamed them to take them off, so
17:26
Speaker 2: it was good.
17:27
Speaker 1: My first time back on campus wasn't until I think
17:30
Speaker 1: autom of twenty twenty one, and I didn't realize that
17:35
Speaker 1: they had put this sort of track and trace system
17:37
Speaker 1: in place. Like I knew that I didn't have my
17:40
Speaker 1: university idea with me because I hadn't been on campus.
17:43
Speaker 1: I just wasn't carrying it with me and forgot that
17:45
Speaker 1: I needed it. So I was allowed to come back in,
17:48
Speaker 1: didn't have my ID to swipe to get into the building,
17:52
Speaker 1: and there was a colleague walking in in front of
17:54
Speaker 1: me and he said, where's your idea? You need it
17:56
Speaker 1: for track and trace. I said, I don't have it.
17:57
Speaker 1: Can you please just let me in if you've got
17:59
Speaker 1: your well, it's not see we need track and trace.
18:02
Speaker 1: This was another another lecturer who was about to not
18:05
Speaker 1: let me into my office. And then I remember getting
18:08
Speaker 1: into my office and seeing a wall calendar that was
18:11
Speaker 1: still on March twenty twenty despite it being September twenty
18:14
Speaker 1: twenty one, and a pack of biscuits that was very
18:17
Speaker 1: highly out of date, I thinks. So those are the
18:22
Speaker 1: things I will I will remember forever. So at this
18:26
Speaker 1: time when you and Matthew were talking about forming common
18:31
Speaker 1: knowledge and of course the importance of people in connection,
18:34
Speaker 1: because I think that was one of the things that
18:36
Speaker 1: they really wanted to take away from us, was the
18:38
Speaker 1: ability to connect with others. And did you start organizing
18:43
Speaker 1: events and talks immediately or was it just a small
18:47
Speaker 1: group of view at that point.
18:49
Speaker 2: There was about twenty of us at that time. Yeah,
18:52
Speaker 2: and we had a you know, we had a constitution,
18:55
Speaker 2: set up, a comproper constitution, We had the first meeting,
18:59
Speaker 2: we set up a well, we set up a bank
19:03
Speaker 2: account and everything like that. So it was a properly
19:06
Speaker 2: formed organization. And that was quite tricky because what you
19:12
Speaker 2: find when you get a group of people together is
19:16
Speaker 2: that they're on the same general page, but there's often
19:18
Speaker 2: lots of little niggling things that can prevent it. But
19:23
Speaker 2: the great thing was that there were people there who
19:26
Speaker 2: and I asked them, could you give us a talk?
19:29
Speaker 2: There's somebody who was homeschooling at that time, could you
19:32
Speaker 2: give us a talk about homeschooling, And they said yes,
19:36
Speaker 2: and they were really positive. And I'll always remember that
19:40
Speaker 2: because those are the people that you want, and that's
19:44
Speaker 2: what you want. What you want to encourage people who
19:47
Speaker 2: say yes, I can do it. And that's really inspiring
19:52
Speaker 2: to everybody else. And it kicked started everything, and people
19:58
Speaker 2: who hadn't spoken before, or people who hadn't spoken for
20:03
Speaker 2: a very long time, they stepped up to the mark
20:07
Speaker 2: and they came and they told us about things. And
20:10
Speaker 2: to me, it was a real education because you realize
20:15
Speaker 2: that in your working life you only see a really
20:19
Speaker 2: quite small proportion of society. And here I was hearing
20:23
Speaker 2: from a huge range of people, and they all had
20:28
Speaker 2: things to tell me and to educate me. And I
20:30
Speaker 2: just realized how ignorant I was and how much I
20:33
Speaker 2: didn't know. And you know, I'd only just woken up
20:37
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty and I had an awful lot to learn,
20:40
Speaker 2: and they taught me. It was like my new university.
20:43
Speaker 2: And to me, that's great. I've always liked learning new things,
20:52
Speaker 2: and when you learn for the first time about how
20:54
Speaker 2: the world works, it's really eye opening. It's disconcerted in
21:00
Speaker 2: some ways, but I never want to turn back. That
21:04
Speaker 2: was great.
21:06
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think it's as bran gersh always said, and
21:08
Speaker 1: he said at the time on the UK column back
21:11
Speaker 1: in that time period, once you wake up, you can't
21:14
Speaker 1: go back to sleep again, and I think that's where
21:17
Speaker 1: well we both are there obviously, as well as a
21:20
Speaker 1: lot of our viewers. But what we hope to do
21:22
Speaker 1: with UK column, and as I'm sure you hope to
21:25
Speaker 1: do with Common Al Gedinburgh, is to continue to wake
21:28
Speaker 1: up more people as well as support those of us
21:31
Speaker 1: who are already there with us. Could you maybe tell
21:34
Speaker 1: us about those cancelation stories that you had when you
21:37
Speaker 1: were trying to book venues and events. I know you've
21:39
Speaker 1: got a few of those. Yeah.
21:42
Speaker 2: As I say, we had the the we hired at
21:49
Speaker 2: Quaker Hale and they were worried about what we were saying.
21:52
Speaker 2: So one of them came and sat in on a
21:55
Speaker 2: talk that we had, which is about water, and that
21:58
Speaker 2: went down fine. But it was a doctor. He was
22:01
Speaker 2: concerned that there were some people that didn't believe in
22:03
Speaker 2: viruses and couldn't understand how that could be the case. Anyway,
22:09
Speaker 2: when we said that we were going to invite some
22:11
Speaker 2: people for who had been vaccine injured. Then they said, no,
22:15
Speaker 2: we wouldn't allow you to have that because that would
22:17
Speaker 2: be spreading misinformation. And then these women who came for
22:24
Speaker 2: the transagender they also to talk about what was going
22:28
Speaker 2: on in schools. They came along to that meeting and
22:35
Speaker 2: they were horrified by what was people just telling it
22:41
Speaker 2: as it was and the concerns that they had about
22:44
Speaker 2: the education that their children were being given. And they
22:48
Speaker 2: said that, you know, we would be discriminating against trans
22:54
Speaker 2: trans people. We weren't doing that at all. We were
22:57
Speaker 2: talking about the education that was being given to children
23:00
Speaker 2: and the taking away of the innocence of children, which
23:05
Speaker 2: I think is one of the most despicable things that
23:06
Speaker 2: you can do, funded by funded ultimately by us, you know,
23:14
Speaker 2: we've been paying for the education system. And so we
23:18
Speaker 2: were canceled there. At a later time we were going
23:24
Speaker 2: to hold a conference which was the Scottish People's COVID
23:27
Speaker 2: Inquiry Conference, and that was with the Methodist Hall, and
23:34
Speaker 2: when they found out what the subject was, they declined
23:40
Speaker 2: to hold our conference there. So there have been a
23:45
Speaker 2: number of people who've when they see that you're talking
23:51
Speaker 2: freely about difficult subjects. They don't want to be involved
23:55
Speaker 2: and they feel that, you know, they cannot sanction there.
24:01
Speaker 2: That's a that's a shame, yeah, and especially especially coming
24:06
Speaker 2: from religious groups as well, because that was somewhere where
24:14
Speaker 2: I was hoping that there would be some pushback about
24:18
Speaker 2: what was going on, some thoughts about the ethics of
24:23
Speaker 2: what was going what was happening, but we didn't seem
24:26
Speaker 2: to get that from any of the religious groups at all.
24:30
Speaker 1: No. I remember observing at the time in Scotland, and
24:33
Speaker 1: I'm sure this is true around the country, was that
24:36
Speaker 1: they were using religious places like churches and masques and
24:41
Speaker 1: other places as places for testing and jabbing people, and
24:46
Speaker 1: they were not having church services, but you could go
24:48
Speaker 1: in there and get your jobs. Yeah, which raises a
24:55
Speaker 1: lot of questions. I would say, yeah, yeah, and that
25:01
Speaker 1: I went into a church in It was the Church
25:04
Speaker 1: of Scotland in Edinburgh that I attended in twenty twenty two.
25:10
Speaker 1: I was just trying to sort of get out and
25:12
Speaker 1: meet people, so I thought, well, it's a Sunday morning,
25:14
Speaker 1: maybe I'll go just attend this church, see what it's like.
25:17
Speaker 1: And it was kind of an interesting thing where I
25:20
Speaker 1: remember the minister said, well, the restrictions have changed and
25:24
Speaker 1: now we can maybe start singing at him, because apparently
25:28
Speaker 1: singing would have killed you back in twenty twenty. You
25:30
Speaker 1: couldn't sing at him, you couldn't have your cair And
25:33
Speaker 1: then they were singing maybe in the future will be
25:34
Speaker 1: able to sing to hymn. You know. It was sort
25:37
Speaker 1: of again that was that, you know, because I know
25:41
Speaker 1: that common knowledge is all about being pro human and
25:43
Speaker 1: pro connection, but that was a very to me, a
25:46
Speaker 1: very anti connection, anti human act, because the singing of
25:50
Speaker 1: hymns and the shrink of music and a church service
25:53
Speaker 1: can be powerful for people and they were taking that
25:55
Speaker 1: away as well.
25:57
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yeah, yes, very anti human and well, I
26:02
Speaker 2: mean I was really shocked when at the school they
26:05
Speaker 2: wouldn't let children seeing Happy Birthday to people whose birthday
26:08
Speaker 2: it was. I think, that's to me, that's really shocking.
26:12
Speaker 2: And in a church then there are people who are
26:16
Speaker 2: you know, they're grown up and they can understand what's
26:21
Speaker 2: going on. Doing that to a child to me was horrendous,
26:27
Speaker 2: you know, taking away all the trust that you place
26:31
Speaker 2: in a children place in adults and not living up
26:35
Speaker 2: to that trust. I thought that was actually terrible.
26:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, I think some of the talks
26:41
Speaker 1: that you've had as well on education, on the so
26:45
Speaker 1: called curriculum for excellence or lack thereof, as we've said
26:50
Speaker 1: in Scotland, have been really helpful for people. I think
26:53
Speaker 1: that was the very first common knowledge event that I attended,
26:57
Speaker 1: was when they were speaking about the the curriculum for
27:01
Speaker 1: Excellence not being excellent, and that was by actually a
27:05
Speaker 1: member of Scottish Union for Education which of course we
27:08
Speaker 1: have some cross connections with at the same time, you know,
27:12
Speaker 1: and I think it's the political climate can be different
27:17
Speaker 1: in different ways, just even around the UK. I personally
27:21
Speaker 1: found Scotland to be more restrictive than even in other
27:26
Speaker 1: parts of England and even other parts of the country.
27:29
Speaker 1: So it was I think I can understand how it
27:31
Speaker 1: would be difficult to find the venues that would support
27:34
Speaker 1: you because in Edinburgh in particular, we have to look
27:37
Speaker 1: at local context always that that is not going to
27:40
Speaker 1: be the most permissive environment, I would say, locally to
27:45
Speaker 1: be able to speak freely about the things despite this,
27:49
Speaker 1: you know, being you know what happened to Scotland the
27:51
Speaker 1: brave and you know, freedom and William Wallace. We see
27:56
Speaker 1: how people have been behaving in Scotland the last few
27:58
Speaker 1: years and it seems to me that that's something that
28:01
Speaker 1: has unfortunately been last in the culture. So I think
28:04
Speaker 1: you guys have been doing great work and doing what
28:07
Speaker 1: you can to try to push this forward a little bit.
28:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just wish people had more courage,
28:16
Speaker 2: because that's all. It takes a little bit of courage,
28:19
Speaker 2: and just to have the courage to say what you
28:22
Speaker 2: really think and not to worry about the social pressure
28:29
Speaker 2: on you, but to be yourself and to tell people
28:33
Speaker 2: what you really think. Because I'm just thinking back to
28:39
Speaker 2: the times when we did the yellow boards. We would
28:42
Speaker 2: have ten minutes where no one would pooper horn and
28:48
Speaker 2: agree with us, and then one person would hoot their
28:52
Speaker 2: horn in agreement with what we were putting up on
28:54
Speaker 2: the yellow board, and immediately there'd be two or three
28:56
Speaker 2: other people hooting their horns. They've been given permission and
29:00
Speaker 2: by the person who'd who did their horn the first
29:03
Speaker 2: time around, to be able to express their opinion. They
29:06
Speaker 2: shouldn't be They shouldn't need to be given permission to
29:11
Speaker 2: express their opinion. They should express their opinion no matter
29:15
Speaker 2: what the you know what happens around them, and I
29:20
Speaker 2: find I find that very I find that very sad.
29:27
Speaker 2: If people have more courage and they're able to say
29:31
Speaker 2: what they really think, they'll find out that there are
29:34
Speaker 2: far more people than they realize who actually agree with them.
29:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's true, and you know, it's interesting
29:41
Speaker 1: to see as well. I think starting in twenty twenty,
29:46
Speaker 1: I think it became even more difficult for people to
29:48
Speaker 1: want to say what they thought because there was so
29:52
Speaker 1: much pressure from the media, from the government, from all
29:56
Speaker 1: the sort of larger powers that kind of control what happened.
30:00
Speaker 1: That there was just this the fear was everywhere. In
30:05
Speaker 1: the u K Column at the time, Mike Robinson rayan
30:09
Speaker 1: garishly they were one of the few places, I have
30:12
Speaker 1: to say, and of course I wasn't working for u
30:15
Speaker 1: K column at the time, but I was certainly watching
30:17
Speaker 1: them as a lot of us where it was one
30:18
Speaker 1: of the places where I think people could go to
30:22
Speaker 1: get information about what was actually going on. And for
30:25
Speaker 1: those of us who felt we needed a place to
30:28
Speaker 1: go where people would understand, where we could actually understand
30:32
Speaker 1: what was happening, I thought that was an incredibly important
30:34
Speaker 1: resource for people to really strip back the narrative and see, no,
30:40
Speaker 1: this is not this is not at all what's happening
30:43
Speaker 1: when you look at it from underneath. And you know,
30:48
Speaker 1: I think back a lot too. If one hundred percent
30:50
Speaker 1: of us had complied with everything, we would still probably
30:54
Speaker 1: be in an even more restrictive environment today in terms
30:58
Speaker 1: of free speech and sharing it pinions. And of course
31:00
Speaker 1: we know, you know they tried to put the hate
31:03
Speaker 1: speech laws on up in Scotland with Humza Yusuf and
31:06
Speaker 1: the hate monster ads that were saying, oh, you know
31:09
Speaker 1: the hate speech. You know you're going to come to
31:10
Speaker 1: your door if you use some herdy words, and that
31:14
Speaker 1: certainly didn't help anything up in Scotland at the time. No,
31:19
Speaker 1: but again it just shows the Kurds that your group
31:22
Speaker 1: that has had over the past few years has been
31:25
Speaker 1: incredibly remarkable.
31:28
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I just think it's normal, normally it should be.
31:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, so let's let's let's speak a little bit about
31:38
Speaker 1: the COVID inquiry, Scottish People's COVID Inquiry Conference and how
31:43
Speaker 1: that all came about, How how did you get the
31:45
Speaker 1: idea for it? And then you know what it turned into,
31:49
Speaker 1: which I thought it was a great event, But I'd
31:52
Speaker 1: like to hear from your perspective how this all developed.
31:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think I've been alerted to what was
31:58
Speaker 2: going on at the Scottish COVID inquiry, the official one
32:02
Speaker 2: by somebody who goes on the name Biolphenom, and he
32:08
Speaker 2: had meticulously put together recordings of people giving evidence at
32:13
Speaker 2: the Scottish COVID Inquiry, which are actually absolutely damning, and
32:18
Speaker 2: they were also very emotional talking about what happened to
32:24
Speaker 2: their parents, for instance, who were in a care home.
32:27
Speaker 2: They were locked up for like fourteen days at a time.
32:31
Speaker 2: Some of them died alone. Some of them obviously were
32:35
Speaker 2: given inappropriate medical treatment and as a result of that, died.
32:39
Speaker 2: And these are absolutely heartrending and all evidence and document well,
32:47
Speaker 2: very well documented evidence. And what I did was I
32:50
Speaker 2: spent about three months looking through all of that evidence
32:55
Speaker 2: that a being given in writing, and it's still all there.
32:58
Speaker 2: I think about people's experiences, and that drove me on.
33:03
Speaker 2: I thought to myself that we really must have a
33:07
Speaker 2: conference which tells this story, because it's not getting out.
33:12
Speaker 2: And so I got together groups of people, groups of
33:18
Speaker 2: speakers who could talk about all of the different aspects
33:22
Speaker 2: of the COVID event, and so we had yourself talking
33:29
Speaker 2: about what the role of the media was. We had
33:32
Speaker 2: somebody who was a public health expert speaking. We had
33:37
Speaker 2: people coming from the medical profession who were concerned with
33:40
Speaker 2: medical ethics. We had people concerned with vaccines and the
33:48
Speaker 2: appropriate use of vaccines. And we also had people who
33:53
Speaker 2: came and gave personal testimonies of what had happened to them.
33:57
Speaker 2: And they gave very personally, very powerful talks. They weren't necessarily,
34:04
Speaker 2: you know, public speakers themselves, but they were motivated. They
34:09
Speaker 2: wanted other people to hear about what had just happened
34:12
Speaker 2: to them. One person who'd lost their father, another person
34:15
Speaker 2: who'd lost their brother as a result of the medical negligence,
34:21
Speaker 2: and various other things that had happened to these people.
34:27
Speaker 2: And really I wanted to kind of make a statement,
34:34
Speaker 2: this is what actually happened. And we also had Martin
34:38
Speaker 2: Neil looking at the actual data about when people died,
34:44
Speaker 2: what they died of, and coming to the conclusion there
34:47
Speaker 2: was no pandemic and the deaths that we saw were
34:52
Speaker 2: due to the measures that have been taken which had
34:56
Speaker 2: taken away people's freedoms, imposed improper medical treatment, and taken
35:05
Speaker 2: away those people's dignity as well, and so that to
35:10
Speaker 2: me was really important to have a statement about all
35:14
Speaker 2: of this that came not from the government but came
35:17
Speaker 2: directly from the people and the people who had been
35:19
Speaker 2: affected especially, And I kind of see that as drawing
35:25
Speaker 2: a line under this in a way. I know it
35:30
Speaker 2: doesn't mean to me. It doesn't mean I want to
35:32
Speaker 2: forget about those things, but I just wanted to have
35:34
Speaker 2: a statement there which people can go back to and
35:39
Speaker 2: they can see what people really thought at the time.
35:43
Speaker 2: Often when once going through a period of time and
35:46
Speaker 2: then people talk about it later on as if it
35:49
Speaker 2: was history. You know, that wasn't how it happened at all.
35:53
Speaker 2: The history is a complete rewriting of what actually happened.
35:56
Speaker 2: I wanted to have a record which was close enough
35:59
Speaker 2: to the time which gave people a real impression of
36:02
Speaker 2: what had gone on, and that's on the UK column,
36:07
Speaker 2: and I hope that that stands as a record of
36:11
Speaker 2: what actually went on. So there's a reason for holding
36:13
Speaker 2: that particular conference, And the motivation was reading through all
36:18
Speaker 2: of these transcripts of what had happened to people, and
36:21
Speaker 2: I sometimes sat at my desk and I was crying
36:24
Speaker 2: because hearing what had happened to people and how terrible
36:27
Speaker 2: it had been, and that yet there were other people
36:30
Speaker 2: who are completely unaware of this, as they said, Oh
36:32
Speaker 2: well I had a good lockdown, you know. But there
36:35
Speaker 2: were people there who were suffering dreadfully, and the whole
36:38
Speaker 2: families that were suffering dreadfully, and I wanted them to
36:42
Speaker 2: have a voice, and so that was a reason for
36:44
Speaker 2: holding that inquiry.
36:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, those personal testimonies were incredibly moving, you know, the
36:51
Speaker 1: people that lost people in care homes, and also things
36:55
Speaker 1: that I've heard over the years when people talk about
37:02
Speaker 1: the breakups that they've had with relationships breaking down, losing
37:06
Speaker 1: family members, losing friends. As you mentioned at the beginning,
37:10
Speaker 1: this has all been kind of a readjustment of those
37:14
Speaker 1: of us who have lost relationships and those of us
37:17
Speaker 1: who are now creating new ones of all types. Unfortunately,
37:22
Speaker 1: for some people who've lost relationships with family members, that
37:28
Speaker 1: hasn't returned for everyone, even still where they're still saying well, no,
37:31
Speaker 1: you can't come over for the birthday or the Christmas
37:34
Speaker 1: because you were never vaccinated and we don't feel safe
37:38
Speaker 1: being around you. That I still was hearing that even
37:40
Speaker 1: last year, as recently as Christmas twenty twenty five, still
37:45
Speaker 1: not being allowed back into their family settings. And so
37:50
Speaker 1: those of us who just speaking generally around the world
37:54
Speaker 1: who lost people to vaccines, to some of the protocols
37:58
Speaker 1: that have been out there, the one protocols, the ventilators,
38:01
Speaker 1: there's still a lot of controversy going on around that
38:04
Speaker 1: people who are vaccine injured who may or may not
38:07
Speaker 1: still be with us, and those who are still with
38:09
Speaker 1: us are still have very poor quality of life in
38:13
Speaker 1: some cases. There's a range of things that I think
38:17
Speaker 1: was really important to get out there, and I hope
38:19
Speaker 1: that those who were there feel as though they had
38:22
Speaker 1: a chance to either make your voice heard or hear
38:25
Speaker 1: that they were not alone in the whole thing, despite
38:29
Speaker 1: the severity of what a lot of people went through
38:32
Speaker 1: at the time. So thank you so much for getting
38:35
Speaker 1: all of that together. I know it was a lot
38:37
Speaker 1: of work, but I think it made a big difference
38:40
Speaker 1: for the people who were there.
38:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was at that time that you were giving
38:48
Speaker 2: do you were doing something on UK column at that time,
38:50
Speaker 2: and I was able to get in touch with you
38:53
Speaker 2: and you came and joined us, and that was really great.
38:56
Speaker 2: And we've really appreciated all your expertise, everything that you've
39:02
Speaker 2: helped with in terms of media and helping us to
39:07
Speaker 2: look at how you might have a media which is
39:13
Speaker 2: properly informed and ethical.
39:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's not much of that going on around unfortunately
39:22
Speaker 1: when we look especially the mainstream sources. But I think
39:26
Speaker 1: that was what was what was really good. I think
39:30
Speaker 1: about the ability to be able to share that at
39:33
Speaker 1: the conference when I talked about the media that we
39:36
Speaker 1: were seeing largely the mainstream sources that most people were
39:39
Speaker 1: seeing in twenty twenty and twenty twenty one. First it
39:43
Speaker 1: was the people falling flat on their backs in Wuhan
39:46
Speaker 1: saying well, you know that ridiculousness, but people believed it right,
39:51
Speaker 1: and then going into the things that we're getting people
39:56
Speaker 1: to get to line up to get jabbed, all of
39:58
Speaker 1: the queueing and the you know, all around. And I
40:01
Speaker 1: remember we had a Christmas party and it was that
40:06
Speaker 1: when we had Sonya Poulton. That was twenty twenty four,
40:09
Speaker 1: I believe, and people, some of the I think it
40:13
Speaker 1: was another member of common Knowledge at the Christmas party
40:17
Speaker 1: gave me an old newspaper from I think it was
40:21
Speaker 1: from Manchester of that the get Boosted Now campaign, Get
40:24
Speaker 1: boosted now, it's safe and effective, get your boosters. And
40:29
Speaker 1: so this wasn't just the light paper where obviously they
40:32
Speaker 1: were talking about this at the time, but these are
40:34
Speaker 1: the mainstream papers and people have given me a few
40:37
Speaker 1: of those over the years, and you go back and
40:39
Speaker 1: look at how ridiculous it actually was. It's just amazing
40:43
Speaker 1: thinking back that. I mean, people didn't know there was
40:47
Speaker 1: the fear campaign. People were terrified, but it was just
40:50
Speaker 1: when you look back and put it back into perspective,
40:55
Speaker 1: it looks ridiculous looking back at it now. Yes, at
41:00
Speaker 1: that time, on a daily basis, people were being terrified
41:03
Speaker 1: by the media by Nicholas Sturgeon, by Boris Johnson, by
41:07
Speaker 1: Matt Hancock, all those people at the top that need
41:10
Speaker 1: to be held responsible for what they were telling us.
41:13
Speaker 1: But it does goes all the way down, all the
41:16
Speaker 1: way down into any local officials, anybody who was the
41:20
Speaker 1: GPS who were irresponsibly potentially not even looking at what
41:26
Speaker 1: was going into people's arms at the time, which we
41:28
Speaker 1: now know had serious, serious problems. There was just a
41:33
Speaker 1: lot of lack of accountability and responsibility of people in
41:36
Speaker 1: positions of power and everyone unfortunately not everyone, but if
41:42
Speaker 1: you believe official statistics, around eighty percent of people in
41:46
Speaker 1: the UK lined up and took whenever they were told
41:49
Speaker 1: to put into their bodies. So now we are where
41:52
Speaker 1: we are now, unfortunately, which makes me think about the
41:56
Speaker 1: next major event that Common Knowledge had, which was the
42:00
Speaker 1: Food and Health Festival, which again I think was a
42:03
Speaker 1: great success. Charles Mallett came up and did a talk
42:07
Speaker 1: for us last year, so if you want to talk
42:10
Speaker 1: about what led into that event also.
42:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that was something that came out of the
42:16
Speaker 2: establishment of the Reco Ring where we're buying food directly
42:21
Speaker 2: from producers, and I think one of the concerns that
42:27
Speaker 2: people have is that health is related to very much
42:33
Speaker 2: related to the food that we eat, and the quality
42:38
Speaker 2: of the food that we have has been degraded over
42:43
Speaker 2: the years, and they feel that people need to gain
42:47
Speaker 2: access to the very best in food and that will
42:51
Speaker 2: be something that will have a huge positive impact on
42:55
Speaker 2: their health if they can get in touch with and
43:00
Speaker 2: supplied with healthy food. So the idea there was to
43:06
Speaker 2: bring together those producers and give people to a chance
43:09
Speaker 2: to see all these people who were contributing to the
43:15
Speaker 2: recurring We also had talks at the same time about
43:19
Speaker 2: the practices that those particular farmers were employing, and so
43:24
Speaker 2: the idea a lot of them had, many of them
43:30
Speaker 2: had come from situations where the farming practices were actually
43:36
Speaker 2: causing not only in ill health to the people who
43:39
Speaker 2: were eating the food, but also to the farmers. So
43:44
Speaker 2: incredible high use of fertilizers and herbicides, which are incredibly
43:52
Speaker 2: damaging and also ecologically incredibly damaging. And what they wanted
43:56
Speaker 2: to do was turn that around and to produce food
44:00
Speaker 2: in a way which was in keeping with the ecology,
44:06
Speaker 2: in tune with ecology, and to restore those farming systems.
44:10
Speaker 2: So part of their Health and Food conference was to
44:14
Speaker 2: give them a chance to tell us about what they
44:16
Speaker 2: were doing, their regenerative farming and how they were conducting
44:26
Speaker 2: their agricultural businesses. Very difficult for them because they wouldn't
44:30
Speaker 2: be getting any subsidies to do things like that, but
44:33
Speaker 2: they were. They knew what they wanted to do, they
44:37
Speaker 2: knew it would be difficult, but they still were doing it.
44:40
Speaker 2: And I really take my hat off to people who
44:43
Speaker 2: are like that, who knew what the right thing to
44:45
Speaker 2: do is and despite all of the obstacles, that are
44:50
Speaker 2: put in their way, and despite the fact that they're
44:53
Speaker 2: not going to be rich people in the end, if
44:55
Speaker 2: they're doing things the right way, then they're getting satisfaction
44:59
Speaker 2: out of it. And also then they can teach, they
45:02
Speaker 2: can go and they can be beacons for other people
45:04
Speaker 2: and take that knowledge and help other people go down
45:07
Speaker 2: the same kind of path. So that was I guess
45:10
Speaker 2: one of the things I enjoyed much most about the
45:14
Speaker 2: Food and Health conference that we held.
45:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it was. It was great and to really
45:21
Speaker 1: be thinking carefully about what we put into our bodies
45:23
Speaker 1: and what we do to repair our bodies, you know,
45:26
Speaker 1: because there were also some alternative health practitioners there as well. Yeah,
45:31
Speaker 1: and yeah, so I remember there was Annie Barr was
45:35
Speaker 1: there who's also given a talk for common Knowledge. She
45:38
Speaker 1: seems to be incredibly knowledgeable in a range of alternative
45:42
Speaker 1: treatments for health issues. There was I believe there was
45:47
Speaker 1: massage there, some sort of shots.
45:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, there a few people doing massages as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
45:54
Speaker 2: So I think in terms of medicine, in terms of health,
45:59
Speaker 2: if you were in the medical fession, it's very difficult
46:01
Speaker 2: to work outside or to get out to get outside
46:05
Speaker 2: the mainstream. There are so many mirror restrictions on that,
46:09
Speaker 2: but people are doing that and it's really good to
46:11
Speaker 2: see those people who have decided that following protocols is
46:16
Speaker 2: not medicine and there are alternative ways of going about medicine,
46:21
Speaker 2: which may be not practiced in the NHS, but there
46:25
Speaker 2: are alternative ways, and it's good to hear from those people.
46:31
Speaker 2: Many of them have had a very traditional medical upbringing,
46:35
Speaker 2: but they've been re educating themselves about what's the right
46:38
Speaker 2: thing to do.
46:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's some of the same with the other talks
46:42
Speaker 1: that Commonologists had over the past several months on issues
46:47
Speaker 1: around promoculture and different approaches to farming, truly sustainable farming practices,
46:53
Speaker 1: not just sustainable in terms of un sustainable development goals,
46:58
Speaker 1: which is actually unsustainable for humans and farms in otherwise.
47:02
Speaker 1: But some of the farmers that have come out and
47:06
Speaker 1: it's interesting to hear how switched on some of the
47:10
Speaker 1: farmers are. And obviously these are going to be feeled
47:14
Speaker 1: that work with the land and understand what supports life,
47:18
Speaker 1: because that's their job is to support life, to support
47:21
Speaker 1: us with the food that we eat. It's been very
47:24
Speaker 1: interesting to hear and you too, and some of them
47:28
Speaker 1: have been a UK column as well. To listen to
47:31
Speaker 1: farmers that are actually putting these practices into place, as
47:35
Speaker 1: well as the health practitioners. So again, you know, we're
47:39
Speaker 1: starting to see people that are offering alternatives to what
47:44
Speaker 1: we're told are the only options, which clearly are not
47:47
Speaker 1: working in a lot of ways for people.
47:50
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, no, I think unfortunately. I mean I used
47:55
Speaker 2: to teach in ecology, and these farming practice is that
48:00
Speaker 2: are working with nature, not against it. It's not man
48:06
Speaker 2: dominating the Area's saying how does how does a natural
48:10
Speaker 2: system work? How can we work with it so that
48:14
Speaker 2: you know, we get the best out of it? And
48:18
Speaker 2: to me, that's the way that ecology should go. It
48:21
Speaker 2: shouldn't be us trying to impose technological way of doing
48:26
Speaker 2: things on nature. We should be working with nature.
48:30
Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, it's it's been really it's been really helpful
48:33
Speaker 1: to hear from them, and well, obviously you're going to
48:36
Speaker 1: be an authoritative source on how nature works as someone
48:40
Speaker 1: who's worked in ecology. That's it's just it's amazing to
48:44
Speaker 1: me how because we're getting away from sort of this
48:47
Speaker 1: pro human approach to life into society that it impacts everything,
48:52
Speaker 1: all of the systems, right. It impacts our food supply,
48:55
Speaker 1: it impacts our education system, it impacts our ability to
48:59
Speaker 1: just have normal human connections with one another. And this
49:04
Speaker 1: is why we have to continue to work locally and
49:07
Speaker 1: then hopefully, as I keep saying, largely nationally internationally to
49:12
Speaker 1: fight this so that we can get ourselves back as
49:15
Speaker 1: humans in a human society, Which brings me now to
49:21
Speaker 1: our most recent Common Knowledge event, which we can speak
49:24
Speaker 1: about here. Still got the flyer here, which was called
49:29
Speaker 1: you Can Do It, inspirational talks from local people making
49:33
Speaker 1: a difference, and at the time of this recording that
49:38
Speaker 1: was just less than a week ago. So this is
49:39
Speaker 1: why I really wanted to speak with you as soon
49:42
Speaker 1: as possible to get your reflections on this event. So,
49:46
Speaker 1: as the chair of Common Knowledge, how did you decide
49:48
Speaker 1: that this was something that needed to be done next
49:52
Speaker 1: and why did you set up the event this way?
49:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think as I probably explained that the problems
50:00
Speaker 2: with being in some way alternative is you're as looking
50:07
Speaker 2: at what's going wrong and trying to react against it,
50:11
Speaker 2: and it's other people are calling the shots and you're
50:15
Speaker 2: trying to make the best of what's going on, and
50:19
Speaker 2: I think what we need is something which is proactive.
50:23
Speaker 2: We need to say, Okay, we understand what the situation is.
50:28
Speaker 2: We've analyzed the situation. Okay, I understand it. What can
50:32
Speaker 2: I do about it? And the idea of the conference
50:37
Speaker 2: was to bring together people who'd seen a problem, analyzed
50:42
Speaker 2: it and thought out how you might combat what was
50:47
Speaker 2: going on, and then they'd take an action. And that's
50:53
Speaker 2: the next step is having analyze what's wrong to actually
50:59
Speaker 2: do something about it, show that you have enough power
51:02
Speaker 2: to go and be out and do something about it.
51:05
Speaker 2: So we have somebody actually a family who had originally
51:10
Speaker 2: been over in Canada very high intensity agriculture. They were
51:16
Speaker 2: involved in huge numbers of pesticides being used which were
51:20
Speaker 2: damaging the health of the farmers. And they and other
51:23
Speaker 2: people in the same family who had been trying to
51:26
Speaker 2: improve people's health through exercise, and they were getting nowhere
51:32
Speaker 2: and they realized, what's the problem. People don't have proper food,
51:36
Speaker 2: people who are producing the food, they're being damaged. Okay,
51:39
Speaker 2: what can we do about it? And they decided to upsticks,
51:42
Speaker 2: come back, start out afresh and do things properly and
51:46
Speaker 2: start regenerative farming. So they were people who said, yeah,
51:50
Speaker 2: I understand the problem, I've analyzed it, I know what
51:52
Speaker 2: to do, and I'm going to do something about it.
51:55
Speaker 2: And they have and to me, that is incredibly inspirational.
52:01
Speaker 2: They learned huge numbers of new things. They can now
52:04
Speaker 2: spread that knowledge to other people. So that was one
52:07
Speaker 2: group of people. We had somebody who was formerly a
52:13
Speaker 2: GP and now is basically re educating himself and realizing
52:18
Speaker 2: that a lot of the things that he did in
52:20
Speaker 2: the past were actually wrong. And he came and told
52:23
Speaker 2: us about it, and he reassured people about your body
52:27
Speaker 2: being able to look after itself if you treat it properly,
52:31
Speaker 2: and how it can really heal itself. We had someone
52:38
Speaker 2: who used to be a primary school teacher and came
52:40
Speaker 2: out of retirement to head up a new school, and
52:45
Speaker 2: that new school has the values which he feels to
52:50
Speaker 2: be the proper values for education. Get away from technical technology,
52:59
Speaker 2: go back to people learning facts. Give them the facts,
53:03
Speaker 2: give them the knowledge, and they can take away that
53:06
Speaker 2: knowledge and they can make the best of that they are.
53:13
Speaker 2: That gives them a grounding, a solid grounding from which
53:17
Speaker 2: they can take off. Get them to lead to read
53:21
Speaker 2: well get them to do their sums. Well, once you've
53:25
Speaker 2: got the basics, you can take it away yourself. And
53:28
Speaker 2: that's what he's doing, and he's really inspirational talk. And
53:33
Speaker 2: the other thing that he was talking about was setting
53:36
Speaker 2: up a school where we don't have this imposed sex education,
53:42
Speaker 2: which to me is taking away the innocence of children,
53:48
Speaker 2: which I value tremendously. I mean, I have grandchildren. I
53:53
Speaker 2: wish I could tend my grandchildren to his school because
53:57
Speaker 2: then they would get the very best in education and
54:00
Speaker 2: a huge grounding, and they wouldn't be worried about their
54:05
Speaker 2: gender or that nonsense. They would just be little girls
54:09
Speaker 2: and they would be doing things that little girls do,
54:12
Speaker 2: and they would retain their incense for as long as possible.
54:18
Speaker 2: But then they would also have the grounding that when
54:21
Speaker 2: they met with the problems in the world, they'd know
54:23
Speaker 2: they'd understand how to cope with them. And then we
54:26
Speaker 2: had yourself canceled from academia. But you've turned your talents
54:35
Speaker 2: to the media and getting a media that we can
54:42
Speaker 2: be proud of and something which is integrity. And we
54:47
Speaker 2: had people who set up a reco ring telling us
54:50
Speaker 2: about that. And we also had someone who was interested
54:54
Speaker 2: in trying to reform the political system. Now that's a
54:58
Speaker 2: very tricky thing to do, but it is something which
55:02
Speaker 2: I guess a lot of us shy away from it.
55:05
Speaker 2: But ultimately we would really like to have some people
55:10
Speaker 2: who we're all Ultimately we're going to be paying taxes
55:14
Speaker 2: for any any foreseeable future, and we need people in
55:22
Speaker 2: politics who will make use of those of all of
55:28
Speaker 2: that in ways which which we approve of. And currently
55:34
Speaker 2: there's no accountability at all what they do with the
55:36
Speaker 2: money which is given to the government, and we need
55:39
Speaker 2: to have people in place there who are there for people.
55:44
Speaker 2: And so I think politics ultimately is going to be
55:47
Speaker 2: something that's very important in the future. So in all
55:52
Speaker 2: these cases it was people who'd seen a problem and
55:55
Speaker 2: they'd said, right, I'm going to do something about it,
55:57
Speaker 2: and it is really positive. And I think you go
56:03
Speaker 2: away from something like that saying yeah, we can do it.
56:06
Speaker 2: It's possible. It may be just a small thing, but
56:12
Speaker 2: got we have got amazing power, and if we could
56:15
Speaker 2: set up things like that going on lots of different places,
56:20
Speaker 2: then I think it would really improve the quality of
56:24
Speaker 2: life for a lots of people.
56:26
Speaker 1: Oh, I absolutely agree. I think really important to show
56:32
Speaker 1: why I especially wanted to have you on because this
56:35
Speaker 1: has been so important and even though these are things
56:38
Speaker 1: that people are doing locally here in Scotland and well
56:43
Speaker 1: me recently now in the North of England, but I'm
56:45
Speaker 1: still close that this is just something within our region.
56:52
Speaker 1: These are just examples of people doing different things and
56:55
Speaker 1: just the value of us coming together to talk about
56:58
Speaker 1: what we can all do in our own areas of expertise.
57:02
Speaker 1: I think I said in my time when I was
57:05
Speaker 1: talking about the media that I have no idea about
57:08
Speaker 1: soil quality or protozoa or bacteria or anything, but I'll
57:13
Speaker 1: leave that to the farming people and I can talk
57:14
Speaker 1: about the media people. So one message I keep trying
57:17
Speaker 1: to get out is we all find what we can
57:20
Speaker 1: do and we work from there, and it's too overwhelming
57:24
Speaker 1: to try to think about doing everything. But maybe you know,
57:28
Speaker 1: as you know, we have you know, the person who's
57:31
Speaker 1: motivated to take political action and run for office, which
57:35
Speaker 1: is really interesting in Scotland this year with the Scottish
57:38
Speaker 1: Parliament elections coming up in May, to see what happens
57:41
Speaker 1: with that. We have media, way of education, we have farming,
57:46
Speaker 1: we have health you know, so all of these different
57:50
Speaker 1: areas whatever that is that we can do where we
57:52
Speaker 1: just need to do something, and I think that was
57:55
Speaker 1: what was really valuable about the day. I do want
57:59
Speaker 1: to mention as well before I forget that you also
58:02
Speaker 1: hosted Brian Gerrish for the Christmas party.
58:05
Speaker 2: Yeah we did.
58:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So if you did, you want to talk
58:08
Speaker 1: a little bit about what that was like on your end,
58:11
Speaker 1: because I know you were in a pub Edinbran. I was.
58:14
Speaker 1: I was at home running running the call for Brian,
58:18
Speaker 1: but I would how did the group react to those
58:20
Speaker 1: of you who were there.
58:23
Speaker 2: It was incredibly positive when you hear Brian's story from
58:28
Speaker 2: the very beginning and actually the the amazing things that
58:36
Speaker 2: happened to him and gave him guidance on his journey
58:42
Speaker 2: to setting up the UK column. To me, that was
58:46
Speaker 2: that was that was wonderful, and he said many many
58:51
Speaker 2: things about you know, it just seemed like I was
58:54
Speaker 2: being someone someone was telling me that this is what
58:57
Speaker 2: I needed to do. And I think proper bully, we
59:00
Speaker 2: all have at the back of our minds there are
59:04
Speaker 2: occasions where something says to you, yeah, this is something
59:09
Speaker 2: you must do, this, this is you know, you're in
59:13
Speaker 2: this life. You can only do so much, but you
59:17
Speaker 2: can do something. And he heard that message and he
59:20
Speaker 2: did something about it, and that was tremendous. It also
59:26
Speaker 2: shows that every person has their own particular background, so
59:30
Speaker 2: they they in his case, we have a background in
59:35
Speaker 2: the forces, and of course that will give him knowledge
59:38
Speaker 2: of certain things, a certain way of looking at things,
59:42
Speaker 2: and the way that he's gone about things is a
59:44
Speaker 2: very personal way of doing that and that it's really
59:50
Speaker 2: good to hear about that. That people don't do things
59:53
Speaker 2: in the same way. They all everyone is different. And
59:57
Speaker 2: that's the fascinating thing about life is that every when
1:00:00
Speaker 2: it's different, and everyone can do something and because of
1:00:03
Speaker 2: their unique background, they can do it in a unique way.
1:00:06
Speaker 2: And I think people should think about themselves and think, well,
1:00:10
Speaker 2: you know, I am I'm different from everybody else. I'm
1:00:14
Speaker 2: I'm unique, and I have certain things that I'm good at,
1:00:17
Speaker 2: and why can't I make use of that, make use
1:00:20
Speaker 2: of that to help other people. And that was one
1:00:26
Speaker 2: of the things that kind of came came out from
1:00:28
Speaker 2: from what Brian was saying. It's, you know, he has
1:00:31
Speaker 2: a particular background, and so he was he was in
1:00:34
Speaker 2: the right place to do what he what he what
1:00:37
Speaker 2: he did, and and people gather around. If people make
1:00:44
Speaker 2: the effort, then other people gather around them and help them.
1:00:47
Speaker 2: So it doesn't mean that people, you know, have to
1:00:50
Speaker 2: do things on their own. They will gather if they
1:00:53
Speaker 2: if they have the motivation, they will gather around other
1:00:55
Speaker 2: people and and things will will snowball and you'll get somewhere.
1:01:02
Speaker 2: So we had a great We had a great I
1:01:05
Speaker 2: think it was probably over an hour with Brian speaking
1:01:09
Speaker 2: and very personal, and it's really wonderful to hear about
1:01:12
Speaker 2: people's personal experiences because that's what humans like to hear.
1:01:16
Speaker 2: They want to hear about stories about you know, what
1:01:19
Speaker 2: actually really happened from the horse's mouth as it were.
1:01:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that was really great to hear all that
1:01:26
Speaker 1: from Brian. And I've heard bits and pieces of it
1:01:29
Speaker 1: before at other events in personal conversations, but to have
1:01:32
Speaker 1: it all together the way he told it that day,
1:01:35
Speaker 1: I thought was just amazing. We put out the recording
1:01:40
Speaker 1: of that on the UK Column YouTube channel and on
1:01:43
Speaker 1: our live stream on Christmas Eve, and I wasn't sure
1:01:47
Speaker 1: if we would get if it would get any attention
1:01:49
Speaker 1: because it was Christmas Eve, but we did very very
1:01:54
Speaker 1: well in terms of views. It was great to see that,
1:01:57
Speaker 1: and I think that just shows especially during the holidays,
1:02:00
Speaker 1: when not everyone has a perfect Christmas, not everyone has
1:02:07
Speaker 1: wonderful family around them, and some people just need inspiration
1:02:11
Speaker 1: and sort of a feeling that they are part of
1:02:14
Speaker 1: something and motivation for the coming year, which I think
1:02:19
Speaker 1: maybe really speaks to the power that Brian's story has
1:02:22
Speaker 1: for others and the fact that people were tuning in
1:02:25
Speaker 1: listening to him over Christmas was it just shows, you know,
1:02:30
Speaker 1: thank you again for supporting and organizing that, because you
1:02:34
Speaker 1: made a difference to thousands of people over Christmas. Without
1:02:37
Speaker 1: even realizing it, I thought it maybe it was just
1:02:40
Speaker 1: for common knowledge, but it reached a lot of places.
1:02:43
Speaker 1: That's great, So think thank you for that. So what
1:02:47
Speaker 1: are you doing now? I know that we've had some
1:02:50
Speaker 1: conversations about your investigations, as you know, as a researcher
1:02:56
Speaker 1: on viruses and how we get sick, and I think
1:03:00
Speaker 1: that's your current project, isn't it.
1:03:03
Speaker 2: Yes, So, I mean I'm a biologist, but I didn't
1:03:09
Speaker 2: really know very much about viruses. That wasn't my area
1:03:14
Speaker 2: of excivitise and more in ecology and forestry and areas
1:03:18
Speaker 2: like that. But I have moved around within biology during
1:03:22
Speaker 2: my career, and what I've seen is that viruses have
1:03:26
Speaker 2: been used as weapons. The lack of knowledge of viruses,
1:03:33
Speaker 2: all of the stories that put out about them have
1:03:36
Speaker 2: been used against us, and that continues to be the case.
1:03:44
Speaker 2: That these are supposedly things which are inevitably pathogens, and
1:03:54
Speaker 2: they're out to get us. And it's only through medicine
1:03:58
Speaker 2: that you know, we're able to some how protect ourselves
1:04:01
Speaker 2: from this. So what I decided to do, you know,
1:04:05
Speaker 2: I'm a biologist. I must know. I must find out
1:04:08
Speaker 2: about what viruses really are, and I want to give
1:04:11
Speaker 2: the proper story about what viruses are. So that's something
1:04:15
Speaker 2: which has been a bit of an obsession of me
1:04:18
Speaker 2: for me for the last four or five months, and
1:04:23
Speaker 2: I want to put across a completely different idea about
1:04:27
Speaker 2: what viruses are. I think they're part of our our
1:04:30
Speaker 2: normal biology, and that we don't need vaccines against them,
1:04:37
Speaker 2: and that it's quite difficult to research it in a
1:04:45
Speaker 2: way because people have a fixed idea about and all
1:04:47
Speaker 2: the people who are searching in it have a fixed
1:04:49
Speaker 2: idea about what they are, and they don't even question that.
1:04:52
Speaker 2: And what I want to do is to question that
1:04:55
Speaker 2: and to try and provide the evidence that is it
1:04:58
Speaker 2: isn't something that to be feared, and that I want
1:05:04
Speaker 2: want people to be in a situation in the future
1:05:08
Speaker 2: where they cannot be used as a weapon against them.
1:05:11
Speaker 2: And that's through knowledge, and that's through understanding, and that's
1:05:14
Speaker 2: through changing people's ideas. I don't expect I'll be able
1:05:19
Speaker 2: to do that to change people as ideas, but at
1:05:22
Speaker 2: least I might be able to make a start on
1:05:24
Speaker 2: that and to make use of all of the work
1:05:27
Speaker 2: that has been done to do that. Virus is a
1:05:31
Speaker 2: very divisive issue because there are I think there's been
1:05:37
Speaker 2: deliberate attempts to divide the community of people who are
1:05:41
Speaker 2: dissidents by dividing them into no viruses or virus camps,
1:05:47
Speaker 2: and it's a typical divide and conquer strategy. And the
1:05:51
Speaker 2: only way of combating things like that is actually to
1:05:55
Speaker 2: find out what's really going on and to give people
1:05:58
Speaker 2: and are proper understanding. And when you have a proper understanding,
1:06:01
Speaker 2: there's no need to have divisions. And yeah, I would
1:06:07
Speaker 2: I would like to have to be able to write
1:06:12
Speaker 2: cogently enough a lot of people would be able to
1:06:17
Speaker 2: see through the fog that has been put there and
1:06:21
Speaker 2: all of the propaganda that's been put out there and
1:06:26
Speaker 2: continues to be proper put out there about viruses and
1:06:29
Speaker 2: how dangerous they are, and actually to see them as
1:06:33
Speaker 2: part of the normal biology of any organism. I guess
1:06:39
Speaker 2: I can't go into great detail about it now here,
1:06:42
Speaker 2: but I just want to get that across that idea
1:06:45
Speaker 2: that they're not something external to us. I think there's
1:06:48
Speaker 2: something which is part of us. And in the same
1:06:52
Speaker 2: way that in your regenerative farming we're working with nature,
1:06:57
Speaker 2: then we work with viruses in the same way. It's
1:07:01
Speaker 2: not something to be fought against and eliminated. It's something
1:07:06
Speaker 2: that we understand and therefore can work with in a
1:07:10
Speaker 2: positive way.
1:07:13
Speaker 1: That's really helpful. And I can almost guarantee you that
1:07:17
Speaker 1: anyone watching this in the future, if they're with UK
1:07:21
Speaker 1: column or have looked into the issue at all, is
1:07:24
Speaker 1: that you will see an immediate division. Someone saying viruses
1:07:28
Speaker 1: don't exist, a virus has never been isolated all the
1:07:31
Speaker 1: way to well, maybe there was something all the way
1:07:33
Speaker 1: to well, maybe not UK column members, but people still
1:07:36
Speaker 1: saying there was a big, scary virus that can still
1:07:38
Speaker 1: be caught from person to person, and they're still wearing
1:07:41
Speaker 1: their masks when they go out in the shops in
1:07:44
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. It's amazing how divisive that is.
1:07:49
Speaker 2: It is. Yeah, yeah, and you know they I expect
1:07:53
Speaker 2: to get a little flat for this, but but to
1:07:58
Speaker 2: me that doesn't doesn't matter, because I just feel that
1:08:04
Speaker 2: I was put on the earth to find out more
1:08:06
Speaker 2: about what goes on here, and to me, that gives
1:08:10
Speaker 2: me the greatest joy to find out more about the
1:08:13
Speaker 2: living world. And if I can make a little contribution
1:08:17
Speaker 2: in that sense, then that would be great for me.
1:08:20
Speaker 1: That's great. That's really great to hear about your inspiration
1:08:23
Speaker 1: for everything you've done for your academic career and that
1:08:27
Speaker 1: you still continue to do in retirement. I just find
1:08:29
Speaker 1: it so inspirational personally, So thank you for everything that
1:08:33
Speaker 1: you've done. I think we're just about out of time here, unfortunately,
1:08:37
Speaker 1: so I just want to ask you, is there anything
1:08:39
Speaker 1: else that you want to say about common knowledge, or
1:08:42
Speaker 1: about what you've been doing, or what you hope for
1:08:45
Speaker 1: the future, or just anything else that you would like
1:08:48
Speaker 1: to share with the audience.
1:08:51
Speaker 2: Just get together with other people of like mind and
1:08:57
Speaker 2: have meetings, have meetings, face to face. It's amazing what
1:09:02
Speaker 2: will come out when you have conversations. Don't restrict yourself
1:09:07
Speaker 2: to commenting on social media about things. Go and to
1:09:13
Speaker 2: speak with other people and have a great time. And
1:09:17
Speaker 2: you'll have a good laugh as well, because you'll find
1:09:19
Speaker 2: people who you can really open up to. And that's
1:09:22
Speaker 2: the time when you can have good jokes and you
1:09:27
Speaker 2: can really speak about the things that matter and are
1:09:30
Speaker 2: important to you. So yeah, be as human as you can.
1:09:34
Speaker 2: Get together with other people, form groups. It might be
1:09:38
Speaker 2: just a little group, it doesn't matter. It'll be a
1:09:41
Speaker 2: light in the darkness. And we get enough of those
1:09:45
Speaker 2: we can go forward.
1:09:48
Speaker 1: That's great. That's a great place to end. Thank you
1:09:50
Speaker 1: so much again, Richard for your time. Really appreciate you
1:09:53
Speaker 1: that again. This is professor Richard Andols and I'm Jane
1:09:55
Speaker 1: Rastus with you, Kuklum. Thanks for your time today and
1:09:59
Speaker 1: thank you to the audience for listening. And thank you
1:10:01
Speaker 1: once again, Richard. Appreciate it.
1:10:03
Speaker 2: Thank you very much for inviting me.