Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 9 February 2026

Transcript

UK Column News — 9 February 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Good afternoon, it's Monday the 9th of February 2026, just after
0:11
1:00. Welcome to UK Column News.
0:14
I'm your host, Mike Robinson and joining me in the studio today,
0:16
Ben Rubin. Welcome to the programme, Ben.
0:18
Thank you, Mike. And by video link, Vanessa
0:21
Bailey joins us from Lebanon as usual.
0:24
Thanks for joining us, Vanessa. Now later in the programme,
0:26
we're going to be covering the disappointment by private
0:28
digital ID providers with UK government plans for its app and
0:32
wallet. We're going to have more on the
0:35
Vanessa on the Filton 6. And Vanessa will be reporting on
0:39
dockworker strikes in in Mediterranean ports in
0:41
solidarity with Palestine. And Ben's going to be looking
0:44
deeper into the impact economy here in the UK.
0:46
But we're going to begin, of course, with Jeffrey Epstein.
0:50
And well, his ghost is haunting grand old men of capitalism,
0:55
according to the economist. The economist here.
0:57
So let's just have a look at this.
1:00
The tint of the disgraced financier will endure is what
1:04
they say in the subheads. So I say the economists are
1:07
clearly desperate, as is the rest of the mainstream press, to
1:11
keep his title lid on who was and who wasn't involved with
1:15
Jeffrey Jeffrey Epstein as possible, as much distraction as
1:19
possible as possible. At the same time, some heads
1:22
will have to roll, of course, as Ben will discuss in a moment.
1:25
But the Economist wants to reassure reassure us that even
1:29
before the Department of Justice document dumped the Epstein
1:31
issue had quotes had claimed enough high profile careers to
1:35
fill a private jet. Les Wexner, retail magnate, was
1:41
employed by Epstein. His financial advisor was the
1:43
1st to go. They said.
1:45
He resigned from L Brands in 2020.
1:48
The next year was Jess Staley, boss of Barclays and Leon Black,
1:53
founder of Apollo. Some of the biggest names from
1:57
Bill Gates, Co founder of Microsoft to Larry Summers,
2:01
former Treasury Secretary have been they described the word
2:04
they used as tarnished and then it was Brad Karp who is chair or
2:10
was chair of what they describe as the white shoe law firm Paul
2:15
Weiss. He resigned and they say that
2:18
more will follow. But this is just a changing of
2:21
the guard that they describe it as nothing to see here.
2:25
The situation may be explosive because, quote, so many so many
2:30
who spun in Epstein's orbit are still in power.
2:33
But they have reassurances for us all.
2:36
As those embroiled in the tawdry affair are scorned, ostracised
2:40
or in some cases locked up, they say a new business elite is
2:44
getting ready to take their place.
2:46
I don't know. I don't know what you think
2:48
about that. Well, that's good, isn't it?
2:50
It's like, here's one I made earlier.
2:52
Yes, don't, don't worry about those nasty old men of
2:55
capitalism. We've got some new, less nasty,
2:57
or certainly less publicly acknowledged as being nasty, men
3:02
and women, I would imagine, of capitalism to come through.
3:05
Right. Well, OK.
3:06
But let's let's stick then with Peter Mandelson here, because
3:09
the question is how much money he received following his
3:12
sacking as British ambassador. I couldn't resist putting this
3:16
image up because it's probably one of the last times we'll ever
3:18
see this particular one. But anyway, there's to be some
3:22
confusion about this in the mainstream press.
3:24
The BBC says it was 40,000 lbs. The Telegraph says it was 50,000
3:29
lbs. Either way it's pocket change to
3:32
him so he isn't going to be too concerned if he has to pay it
3:35
back as people are now demanding.
3:37
Maybe the police have found it to Ben under his mattress during
3:41
the search by the of the two properties at the end of last
3:44
week. The property that he rents from
3:48
Lord Rothschild. Allegedly.
3:51
Allegedly. I don't know if it's allegedly.
3:53
I've heard it quite conclusively.
3:54
That's the case. I think you're going to be able
3:57
to use that picture again, Amanda.
3:59
Six. Yeah, of course.
3:59
He's like a bad smell. He's not going to work.
4:01
Right, OK, well let's let's stick with him then.
4:05
Yeah, OK, Well, what did Mandelson have to say about our
4:07
next individual of interest? Let's have a little look, he
4:12
said about this person. I don't know who and how and
4:14
when he was invented, but whoever it was will find their
4:18
place in heaven. We are of course talking about
4:21
Morgan McSweeney who is the 2nd head to roll, metaphorically
4:26
speaking, at the top of the Labor Party.
4:28
Former now Chief of Staff to Keir Starmer, one of the most
4:32
powerful people in the modern Labor Party movement, has been
4:35
in the game for 25 years. He actually began working for
4:38
Labour in what the BBC called the Towering Infernal.
4:41
So this is Millbank Tower, former HQ of New Labour, where
4:45
he helped to build the infamous Excalibur computer, which
4:48
rivalled MI 5 in the information it held of anybody and
4:52
everybody, friend or foe. He built that for Mandelson.
4:56
So he was key team member working for Mandelson and has
5:00
been inside #10 keeping Mandy's eye on Starmer, I think it's
5:05
probably fair to say. And he's now gone because he was
5:09
the one of the people that recommended that Mandelson be
5:12
appointed as our U.S. ambassador.
5:16
He's released a statement saying that after careful reflection,
5:20
I've decided to resign from the government.
5:22
The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as U.S. ambassador was
5:25
wrong. He has damaged our party, our
5:27
country and trust in politics itself.
5:30
When asked, I advised the Prime Minister to make that
5:33
appointment and I take full responsibility for that advice.
5:36
In public life, responsibility must be owned when it matters
5:39
most, not just when it's convenient.
5:41
In the circumstances, the only, only honourable course is to
5:44
step aside. I wonder if he said the same
5:47
thing to Keir Starmer. I don't think so, no.
5:50
Probably not. Anyway, he went on to say.
5:53
Well, I did not oversee the due diligence and vetting process.
5:56
I believe that process must now be fundamentally overhauled.
6:00
This cannot simply be a gesture but a safeguard for the future.
6:03
So he takes personal responsibility.
6:04
But actually it was just a process issue, right?
6:07
Really. I mean, that was really the
6:08
problem here, nothing to do with McSweeney.
6:10
He goes on to say I remain fully supportive of the Prime
6:13
Minister. He is working everyday to
6:15
rebuild trust, restore standards and serve the country, which I
6:20
think is laughable from a man like McSweeney, although I am
6:25
sure he still does support Starmer because he's actually
6:28
pushing forward the policy agenda.
6:30
The no doubt McSweeney and Manderson and the rest of this
6:33
crowd are behind now. We talked about McSweeney at the
6:37
end of last year. It was related to this
6:40
organisation. So this is Labour Together,
6:43
which is a charity established in 2017 which exists to deliver
6:49
bold ideas for a Labour government, says on its website
6:53
that in Labour's wilderness years, Labour Together was
6:55
founded by a group of MPs fighting to make the party
6:57
electable again. Today, Labour Together as a
6:59
think tank offering bold ideas for Britain under a Labour
7:02
government. So essentially what he was doing
7:04
was, was while supposedly trying to unite the Labor Party, he was
7:07
actually working behind the scenes to subvert Corbyn's
7:11
leadership and having pushed out of the party and as part of that
7:15
process was deliberately hiding donations coming in from backers
7:22
that they didn't want the public to know about.
7:24
Let's just put it like that. So people like Harry Gary
7:26
Lubner, who will come back to you later.
7:28
Also, Sir Trevor Chin, you can see on the left hand side of
7:31
this image with a bunch of other scallywags, including Tony
7:34
Blair. Sorry, Sir Tony Blair, I do do
7:37
apologise to Tony. And of course there Jacob
7:40
Rothschild at that point, Lord Jacob Rothschild slap bang in
7:44
the middle of the picture. And interestingly, the operation
7:48
that McSweeney was running at the time inside Labour together
7:51
in order to get rid of Corbyn was called Operation Red Shield,
7:55
which is what Rothschild actually means.
7:59
He means Red Shield. So whether that's a coincidence
8:03
or not, I don't know, but it seems like it perhaps isn't.
8:08
And this was from a lot of this information from an excellent
8:12
report which came from Double Down News from a journalist
8:15
called Paul Holden call, which was called the scandal that
8:18
could bring down Keir Starmer's government.
8:20
And maybe it could maybe this could be the scandal.
8:23
Well, this is the scandal with another layer of scandal put on
8:26
top of it. So maybe this thing will just
8:29
keep on building and building. Now the importantly McSweeney is
8:33
gone, right? Mandelson's gone.
8:35
Well, they're certainly out, out, out of the picture for the
8:37
moment. But Labour Together still there,
8:40
You know, so there's actually anything substantially changed
8:43
here or is this just, you know, moving the deck chairs around on
8:48
the Titanic? I don't know.
8:49
Let's have a little look at the Labour Together team.
8:52
I think this is quite interesting.
8:53
We'll go past the call team. It's always important to go and
8:56
look at the the board level. This is the Advisory Board.
8:59
So we can see here a bunch of very senior Labour type people.
9:02
Alan Melbourne, who was a top Labour politician for many
9:06
years, including under Tony Blair, Andrew Cooper, Lord
9:09
Cooper, should I say over there on the right hand side.
9:12
Also just skimming through these.
9:14
Jeff Morgan. Absolutely, absolutely in the
9:17
mix with this. And we talked about Morgan last
9:20
week, you know, former editor of Marxism Today, founder of Demos,
9:27
used to share an office with common purpose back in the mid
9:31
90s. So you can kind of get a sense
9:33
of what's going on behind the scenes here.
9:35
This is effectively what Labour Together is about.
9:38
It's, it's building these clandestine networks in the back
9:42
end of the political and the economic system in order to
9:45
deliver a technical transformation agenda
9:47
ultimately, which has very little if anything to do with
9:50
the best interests of the British people.
9:53
And importantly, and I only just noticed this earlier on today,
9:56
if you go to the Labour Together website, they have these
9:58
sections on the team and then the Advisory Board.
10:00
But they don't really want to talk about the board because the
10:03
board, which is the actual, the operational oversight, this is
10:08
where the governance of the organisation comes from, only
10:11
gets a tiny little reference. And they don't have any pictures
10:13
on there. So I thought we'd just bring
10:14
them all on screen, or at least three of them, three
10:16
particularly interesting ones. So the first one is this lady,
10:19
this is Baroness Morgan, Sally Morgan, former Minister of State
10:25
for Women in Blair's first government and famously was
10:30
viewed as one of Blair's top advisors alongside Jonathan
10:33
Powell, Alastair Campbell and Peter Mandelson himself.
10:37
So, you know, Mandy might be gone, but Baroness Morgan still
10:40
there. She's less famous but sounds
10:42
like she's just as influential in many ways.
10:44
Also on the board of Labour Together.
10:45
Lord Kestenbaum, fascinating guy, former chair of Nestor, who
10:49
owned the Behavioural Insights team and also Chancellor of
10:54
Plymouth University. So that's quite interesting.
10:56
It's probably why they've got all those UN posters hanging
11:00
down the side of their building. And crucially, in the context of
11:04
what we just talked about with Operation Red Shield, he's
11:06
director of Five Arrows Limited, one of three directors of Five
11:10
Arrows Limited, which is one of the primary Rothschild family
11:13
investment vehicles actually based out of what is the Manor
11:16
in Buckinghamshire. So you know, another very clear
11:19
Rothschild link here. And then finally, Fran Friend
11:22
OBE, who is actually I believe the daughter of Lord
11:25
Sainsbury's. She's certainly member of the
11:26
Sainsbury's family. Lord Sainsbury's we talked about
11:29
extensively, Brian in particular over the past few weeks through
11:33
his support of the Institute of Government, absolutely in the
11:36
mix of the rewiring of the British state through the civil
11:40
service in particular. But Fran Perrin also has her own
11:45
charitable trust called the Indigo Trust, which is very much
11:48
involved in media regulation in particular.
11:51
And her, her husband, William Perrin, who also has an OBE, was
11:54
instrumental in setting up Ofcom, right?
11:57
So this is the, these are the types of people that are still
12:00
there in the back end, right? So Mandy's gone, Sweeney's gone,
12:03
but actually labour together and the control apparatus and the,
12:08
the, the, the networks and the, the agenda are still essentially
12:12
in place. And I don't think that's going
12:14
to change anytime soon, not least because Starmer's still
12:17
there, isn't he? Starmer's not gone.
12:19
So we had Mick Sweeney talking about accountability and all
12:23
this kind of stuff, but you know who actually made the decision?
12:26
He did, but he's still there. And importantly, the first time
12:30
I talked about Labour together on the UK column was on the back
12:33
of this event. This was in September last year
12:35
in in London, the Global Progress Action Conference.
12:39
And this is where Starmer announced the digital ID scheme
12:43
and announced that it was going to be mandatory to have digital
12:47
ID in order to work in the United Kingdom.
12:50
Right? That's what they're pushing for.
12:52
Yeah. So that's not disappeared,
12:54
although they might be trying to water it down or shift it and
12:57
move little bits of it around. But actually, this is absolutely
13:00
what they're pushing for. And I should also just say be
13:03
careful what you wish for, because if Starmer does go,
13:06
who's in the wings next? Shabana, Mahmood, Lammy, I don't
13:11
know. It's not good.
13:12
It's it's absolutely not good. So much more on this to come, no
13:19
doubt. But I will just say I did rather
13:22
enjoy this clip of Lord Faulkner being grilled about Mandelson
13:28
when he thought he'd gone on Sky News to talk about the assisted
13:31
dialling bill. Take a look at this.
13:35
Lord Faulkner, while I have you as a senior member of the Labor
13:37
Party, I do want to ask you about Lord Mandelson.
13:40
Do you mind if I don't go there? Well, I thought you might say
13:42
that. No, I do.
13:43
I do kind of mind because I know that you know him quite well.
13:46
You obviously worked with him during New Labour.
13:49
I'm not going to ask you the specifics, but I do want to talk
13:51
to you about the way that this is impacting our politics.
13:55
At the moment, do you mind if I don't?
13:56
Because I'm, I'm talking about assisted dying today, which is
13:58
such a big issue both I mean primarily for the people who are
14:03
affected by it. So I'm afraid I won't go there.
14:05
You're. Not going to comment at all or
14:06
not going to talk for at least 5 minutes about assisted dying and
14:08
I do. Think I'm not going to come to
14:09
talk. I'm really sorry.
14:11
Is that because of you've had a conversation with him and.
14:13
I want I want the focus to be on assistant.
14:15
We did talk about that for at least 5 minutes and we and we
14:17
went through. In, in, in quite a lot of.
14:20
Detail. I'm really sorry.
14:21
I thought that I might be able to convince you to at least say
14:23
something, because of course you were there in the moment, in the
14:25
I'm. Really sorry.
14:26
Sat down. I'm really sorry.
14:28
Are you embarrassed by what's happened here?
14:29
I'm not. Remotely a bit embarrassed, but
14:30
I really do want to focus on assistant.
14:32
We we have talked about that. I'm going to ask you another
14:34
couple of questions on it. Have you spoken to Mr Mandelson
14:37
about this? I know you're a friend of his.
14:39
I'm sorry, can we can, can we, can we leave the focus on
14:43
Mandelson and go to assisted dying?
14:45
We, well we started on assisted dying and as the government
14:47
seems like it's in turmoil, having to sack it's man in
14:51
Washington, a man that you well know, I thought that you might
14:54
want to say something either in his defence or about the
14:57
situation we find ourselves in. For the people who have been
15:00
wanting change on assisted dying for years, whose own relatives
15:05
have really suffered in relation to it, this is a really
15:09
important day. And from my point of view, I am
15:13
trying to make this change for those people.
15:15
And so that that's what that's what I thought I was coming on.
15:18
And you are, we did. And respectfully, I, I, I, we,
15:21
we did talk about that in, in quite some detail.
15:23
But I did want to get your feelings, your thoughts on the,
15:26
the topic of the day, which is the resignation of the man from
15:29
our position in, in Washington in, in scandal.
15:32
And as a man of the the Labor Party, I thought you might have
15:35
something to say about it. Well, I'm afraid I really want
15:37
to focus. OK, we'll have you as commit
15:40
their own judgement on that decision.
15:41
Lord Fortner, we. I thought that was quite good
15:46
from Sky News, actually, remarkably.
15:50
He clearly doesn't want to say much.
15:51
He doesn't want to say much, no, although I do think that it's
15:54
relevant that the people who are particularly interested in what
15:58
they called assisted dying, what I think of really is state
16:01
murder have got links into these global human trafficking
16:05
network. Seems like a valid area of
16:07
investigation to me. So anyway, hopefully we'll see
16:09
much more of that kind of thing in the future.
16:12
Well, in the meantime then, and of course widely reported, it
16:15
turns out there was more to the relationship between Prince
16:18
Andrew and Epstein than just the allegations the girls seem to be
16:22
making. It seems he was sharing
16:24
information with Epstein related to Andrew's role as trade envoy.
16:29
So under official guidance, of course, trade envoys have a duty
16:33
of confidence, confidentiality over sensitive commercial or
16:37
political information about their official visits.
16:40
But this email, amongst others, appeared in the in the latest
16:45
release and well, he was distributing documents published
16:50
by his staff or written by his staff on his activities.
16:54
Andrew's activities in Hong Kong, in China, in Singapore and
16:58
Vietnam. Now, Andrew then subsequently, a
17:02
month or so later, emailed Epstein A confidential briefing
17:06
on investment opportunities in the reconstruction of Helmand
17:09
province in Afghanistan. And if you remember, that was
17:13
the part of Afghanistan that was mainly looked after by Britain's
17:16
military and the reconstruction there was to be funded by UK
17:21
government money. Epstein was already convicted at
17:24
that point when that email was sent.
17:26
But don't worry, as the BBC and other mainstream press are
17:30
absolutely clear about, being named in the Epstein files is
17:33
not an indication of misconduct. That's OK then.
17:37
That's OK then. OK, let's leave Epstein there
17:40
for today and welcome Vanessa to the programme.
17:44
Vanessa Patrick was covering Filton 6 on Friday.
17:47
But you wanted to add a little bit to that.
17:52
Yes, I did. I mean, with a focus on
17:55
supporting people that actually have the courage to go against
17:59
both the system and of course, in the case of the Filton 6, to
18:03
protest genocide to the extent where they were held in 17
18:07
months remand. This is a report in the real
18:11
media, the Filton trial, the verdicts, no convictions, 5
18:15
bailed. If we can just have this up on
18:17
the screen, thanks. And then if we just show the
18:19
photo of the six individuals, young people who literally put
18:24
their lives on the line, in my opinion, to protest genocide,
18:28
took direct action to prevent the British government's
18:31
complicity in the genocide being committed by Israel.
18:36
And then this is just a very quick video from the real media
18:41
showing the various verdicts. If we can just quickly play
18:45
that, people can see it and and freeze frame it if they want to
18:49
read the results. So basically 5 have been
19:22
released on bail with strict conditions in case there is to
19:27
be a retrial. Samuel Corner, who has been
19:30
accused of grievous bodily harm, although Basil Valentine told us
19:34
on Friday that the person that was injured in that event should
19:41
be fully recovered within two months.
19:43
So he's effectively been refused bail.
19:46
But finally, I just want to play this interview with Claire
19:49
Hinchcliffe, who's the mother of Zoe Rogers, one of the young
19:53
girls who was not only held on remand for 17 months but was
19:57
held in solitary confinement. Most of them were denied basic
20:02
human rights during their reminds remands period.
20:07
So let's just have a listen to what Claire Hinchclair first to
20:11
say. I mean, I have to start by
20:19
saying I'm, I'm, I'm still in disbelief that my daughter Zoe
20:22
is coming home tonight. I just, I cannot believe it.
20:26
I won't believe it till I see her walk out of there.
20:28
But I want to say about this, this whole case, what it has
20:32
shown us about our government is absolutely shocking.
20:36
And what we've seen is just the cruelty, the cruelty of the
20:40
state. My daughter has been in prison
20:42
for 18 months without being convicted of any crime.
20:46
That has been brutal, but she will never get that time back.
20:49
That has gone now. This is a government who not
20:53
only had they invested all their resources in arming A genocide,
20:58
refusing to stop arming Israel when they're clearly what it's
21:03
widely believed to be a genocide, but they had
21:06
prosecutors and imprisoned without trial and treated as
21:10
terrorists. The people that took exception
21:13
to arming Israel, even while this government was breaking
21:16
international humanitarian law. They've treated those, those
21:20
protesters who in good British protest history have put their
21:25
lives on the line. They've they've taken direct
21:27
action the same way the suffragettes did and the same
21:29
way the anti apartheid campaigners did.
21:32
And yet they've been treated as terrorists and the the cruelty
21:36
is breathtaking. And so there's a clear message
21:39
now from the British public in the form of 12 members of the
21:43
public in the jury to say that they disagree with the
21:47
government's assessment of them as criminals and as terrorists.
21:54
Nothing to add to that, but I think it's a very good reminder
21:56
as to what exactly our government is doing to anyone
21:59
that challenges their decisions. Yes, indeed.
22:03
Thank you for that, Vanessa. OK, let's move on.
22:06
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Now Jam tonight at 7:00 PM speaks to Mackie Freeman on the
22:35
historical and ideological roots of those believed to be to
22:39
influence world events and religions.
22:42
So join Jerem at 7:00 PM for that. 1:00 PM tomorrow, Brian is
22:46
speaking to Aaron about how the feminist agenda has been used to
22:50
as a deliberate and orchestrated attack on both women and men.
22:53
This is part of the Gutsy Women series, so join Brian for that
22:57
if you can at 1:00 PM tomorrow. OK, let's move on then to
23:02
digital ID because not all is well or all is not well.
23:05
Rather in the world of digital identity at the moment, private
23:09
sector providers like Yodi Cretus and Share Ring are
23:13
finding the way that the Starmer regime is going about things a
23:17
bit tricky at the moment. This is highlighted in a post on
23:21
LinkedIn by British lawyer Richard Elephant.
23:24
Headlines UK digital ID, Sorry, UK digital ID landscape
23:28
information gateway and DVS providers.
23:32
So there's the headline. Now this is not a title.
23:37
This is not his title for it. Rather, because this is this
23:40
title has been brought helpfully forward by LinkedIn using AI,
23:46
sloppy AI to generate the headlines So well, you can make
23:49
your own decision about that. But anyway, what's he talking
23:52
about? He's commenting on the recent
23:54
webinar hosted jointly by the Government Digital Service and
23:59
the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
24:02
And his post focuses on the legislation which enables
24:05
digital, digital idea in the 1st place, which is the Data Use and
24:08
Access Act and specifically Section 45 which is establishes
24:13
an information gateway which is supposed to allow access for
24:17
private sector identity providers to government held
24:20
data, including the data, sorry, including the digital driving
24:27
licence that I was reporting on last Wednesday and other so
24:31
called attributes such as the right to work, age and the rest.
24:35
These are now known as verified credentials.
24:38
Now the problem is that there are no plans to allow the
24:41
private sector to have access to these these government held
24:43
verified credentials at this time.
24:46
And this naturally has the private sector worried because
24:48
they've been hoovering up all kinds of venture capital because
24:51
any government mandated market is one that any private sector
24:54
company would want to be in, certainly venture backed private
24:58
sector companies, but not if they're competing directly with
25:02
the government itself. And this is all of its main
25:05
point because he's saying here that prima facie this conflicts
25:09
with Section 45 of the Data Use and Access Act and accords the
25:14
UK government wallet an unfair advantage over DVS certified
25:19
wallets. That's private sector wallets.
25:22
Improving age identity, eligibility to private sector
25:25
services. And he reports that the
25:28
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said
25:30
during the webinar that public authorities will not be obliged
25:34
to share information with DVS providers.
25:37
And he said that this is a breach of the statutory
25:40
requirements. The question is why does he
25:43
expect this regime to obey the law?
25:46
They're not obeying the law in any other policy area.
25:49
So why on this one becomes very hard to see what the role of the
25:53
private sector will be here, particularly because the regime
25:57
imagines that this new digital driving licence will be used for
26:01
all the kinds of things the private sector thought they
26:03
would be doing, like getting served in pubs, getting into the
26:06
cinema, getting access to gambling accounts and betting
26:09
shops and so on, Opening bank accounts.
26:12
So the question is how long will the venture capitalists stick
26:15
around? And bearing in mind the success
26:18
of government IT projects over the years, Ben, and over the
26:22
decades in fact, the digital ID roll out promises to be a mess,
26:27
which may be something that we should welcome.
26:29
But anyway, unless the aim here I'd be interested in your
26:32
thoughts on this, and unless the aim here is to drive the private
26:35
sector into the arms of the public sector to create yet
26:40
another public private partnership.
26:43
It could be, yeah, it could be. Or it could be that they're just
26:46
flapping around and don't know what they're doing.
26:48
That's always possible with anything touching on government
26:51
IT systems. I mean, the most famous one, if
26:54
you go back about 20 years now, was the the the Spine initiative
26:57
in the NHS. And they burned about £18
26:59
billion. I remember reading reading a
27:03
quote at the time saying that they tried to build their own
27:05
Internet. That's what they tried to do
27:08
because the NHS couldn't possibly just use the existing
27:11
infrastructure. They had to have their own
27:12
thing. They burnt eighteen £18 billion
27:15
of taxpayer money, paid a load of bonuses out to Accenture
27:18
Partners and Fujitsu and bunch of companies like that and then
27:23
delivered basically nothing. And then they moved on to the
27:25
next thing. Nothing.
27:26
No one got fired, nothing really changed.
27:28
And this is what they what they seem to do.
27:30
I don't think it's very interesting though.
27:32
I guess they could be just trying to burn a load of venture
27:34
capital money, like deliberately.
27:36
Wouldn't surprise me. You know, if we're going to I, I
27:41
don't know. It's it's it's fascinating.
27:43
Yes. So we'll, we'll keep an eye on
27:44
this and see how it develops. But at the moment some unhappy
27:48
private sector digital ID folks, but.
27:52
Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people.
27:54
Well, indeed, but let's talk about the term system craft.
28:00
System craft, Yeah, great isn't it?
28:03
They love coming up with these things yeah.
28:05
We're going to talk about the elite leadership networks
28:10
working across the UK to transform our society into a
28:13
public private partnership. Actually, it's what's happening
28:16
and we mentioned this organisation at the end of last
28:18
year quite a few times. I think I did three weeks on the
28:21
trot talking about the Forward Institute, which is one of these
28:26
new leadership networks. It's a non profit based in
28:29
London. It exists to shape a better
28:31
future through responsible leadership.
28:33
They've got 1500 people in the programme.
28:35
It's run by this guy, Adam Gregki, who is a former Boston
28:41
Consulting Group consultants, BCG being one of the top
28:46
strategy firms, strategic partner of the World Economic
28:48
Forum. He's also governor of the Arc
28:50
Academy, which is Paul Marshall from GB News's attempt to
28:54
reshape, not just an attempt, he's an active programme to
28:58
reshape the education system in the UK.
29:00
And he's also the member of the World Economic Forum Global
29:03
Shaper programme, which is like their Young Global Leader
29:05
programme for the under 30s. So this is absolutely without
29:09
question a World Economic Forum guy and agenda that is being
29:13
promoted here. They got this fellowship
29:15
programme for 2025. They talk about not just
29:18
navigating the future, but leading it.
29:21
And last week they kicked off in Manchester with a whole bunch of
29:26
people in the room and these some pictures that were shared
29:29
by someone who was actually there.
29:30
And I'll just I'll read through some of these, right?
29:32
It's not the most exciting thing to look at because it's just a
29:35
bunch of words on on, on on the screen in front of you.
29:38
But I think it's quite important to pull out particularly the
29:40
level of infiltration going on as it relates to the government
29:46
because we've got the Bank of England, the British Army, the
29:48
British Council, the Cabinet Office, the Department for
29:52
Energy Security and Net Zero, the Department for Environment,
29:54
Food and Rural Affairs, Department of Transport,
29:57
Department for Work and Pensions, Department of Health
29:59
and Social Care, the Government Legal Department, the Greater
30:03
London Authority. So Sadiq Khan's office, the
30:06
historic Royal Palaces, HM Prison and Probation Service, HM
30:09
Treasury, the Home Office, the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of
30:12
Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Ministry of
30:14
Justice and Ofcom. And then also something called
30:16
SPRIT, which is a coalition of NHS Trust from across the north
30:20
of London, all involved in this programme.
30:23
Yeah. So this is, this is absolutely
30:25
infiltration of government. But then also you've got in the
30:28
mix there a bunch of international corporations,
30:30
you've got Barclays, you've got a central go which is British,
30:33
British Gas and then a bunch of advisory organisations.
30:37
So Boston Consulting Group are involved.
30:39
Group of Humans, which is a digital transformation network,
30:41
actually know people who are involved in that, who work
30:43
there. And PwC Prime, formerly known as
30:46
Price Waterhouse Coopers and these people are coming together
30:50
in order to to network, to build a perspective on what's going on
30:54
in society, inside their organisations, and then to
30:58
migrate to a new system. That's ultimately what they're
31:00
doing, and they spend 3 days together in Manchester in a
31:04
hotel. Day one was about the zooming
31:06
out, seeing the system. Today, Day 2 was about the
31:09
zooming in, listening across the system.
31:11
And then day three was what next?
31:13
Inquiring in our own systems. So come together, get a load of
31:16
information, share ideas, build connections, and then think
31:19
about how we're going to take that off around society around
31:22
around the UK adopting what they call a cross systems
31:26
perspective. So this is absolutely common
31:29
purpose type language. So breaking down silos is what
31:33
common purpose used to do talk about.
31:35
And this cross systems thing is absolutely the same, this idea
31:38
of leading in uncertainty. So if there if there is a Poly
31:41
crisis, as we're constantly being told, how do you navigate
31:44
through that and what are the leadership attributes that you
31:47
need to have? How do you articulate strategy,
31:51
motivate people, all that kind of stuff?
31:53
Is is leading an uncertainty another way of saying order out
31:56
of chaos? I think that's good.
31:59
That's. Yeah, I think you just landed on
32:01
something in there, aren't you? That's absolutely correct.
32:04
That's exactly what it is. And then this word system craft,
32:07
which is coming up again and again now.
32:11
And what does that mean? Well, you're crafting the
32:14
system, they're re engineering the system.
32:16
So you've got these leadership networks who are coming together
32:18
to think about how we rewire the whole of society.
32:21
We heard about it a lot over the past few weeks in the in the
32:24
civil service. It's not just in the civil
32:26
service, not just in government, it's everywhere and it's being
32:29
facilitated through certainly still common purpose because
32:33
they're absolutely active, but more internationally.
32:35
But this forward institute is right in the mix in terms of how
32:38
that's playing out in the UK today.
32:40
System craft is is is what they're is what they're is the
32:44
term that they're using. The lady running that session is
32:48
this lady Doctor Kate Simpson, who is a Cambridge professor and
32:54
the director of the System Craft Institute at Cambridge
32:57
University. And she developed the skills
33:01
through something called Wassefilly, which is a
33:03
consulting business based in Kenya.
33:06
And this is one of the things I find really interesting because
33:08
you got people in essentially like former Imperial outposts
33:14
who are using these techniques for transforming the system, the
33:18
societies that they're that they're in in, in Africa and
33:25
Singapore is another really good example of the way you see this,
33:28
this stuff happening a lot. And then they bring that back
33:31
into the UK. So they're actually using a, a,
33:33
a sustainable development, foreign Commonwealth development
33:37
office type methodology that has been honed and tested overseas.
33:42
They're bringing that Beckett back into this country and
33:45
essentially treating the United Kingdom, England, Scotland,
33:49
Ireland and Wales as as colonies.
33:51
Essentially, that's the, the, the, the methodology and the
33:54
mindset that that is, that is behind.
33:56
This is absolutely what we're seeing.
33:58
And the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, CISL,
34:03
which is where Kate Simpson is based, is where this picture was
34:07
taken. And actually I showed this at
34:09
the end of last year as well. But I think it's worth getting
34:12
it back on screen because you can see there Charlie boy,
34:15
Prince of Wales, as he was then with Ian Cheshire just over his
34:18
left shoulder. As we're looking at the picture
34:20
here, who is also involved in Forward Institute.
34:23
You've got Lord Devon, formerly known as John Gummer at the top
34:26
left there, Sandra and Dixon from the Club of Rome and a
34:29
bunch of other people at the in the elite levels of what the
34:34
Forward Institute and these people are doing.
34:35
And this is this is how the agenda is being progressed.
34:40
Thank you for that, Ben. Vanessa, let's come back to you
34:43
then and we'll head to the to the Mediterranean and some
34:48
industrial action going on there.
34:52
Yes, again, a demonstration of how collective action can
34:56
genuinely do something to push back against a genocidal agenda.
35:02
So if we can just get the headline up on screen, this was
35:05
a report in the cradle, Mediterranean dock workers shut
35:09
down over 20 ports in solidarity with Palestine.
35:15
So what does this actually mean if we can just have the next
35:18
slide on dock workers in over 21 Mediterranean ports will carry
35:23
out coordinated actions on the 6th of February to block arms
35:26
shipments bound for Israel. Unions and port workers in
35:30
Italy, Greece, Turkey, Morocco and the Basque Country are
35:33
refusing to unload or allow transit of military cargo
35:37
destination Ashdod or Haifa port in Israel.
35:42
And we can just have a very quick look at the map of of what
35:45
that actually means. So there's a huge number there
35:47
of dock workers unions that have very proactively gone on strike
35:53
to and and are taking measures to prevent these shipments.
35:57
And of course, looking back at the fact that this is ABDS
36:00
report, we can just have that up on the screen showing that in
36:05
fact that to prevent the transit of military material to Israel
36:09
through the Italian port of Ravenna.
36:11
Because although the Italian government made promises or
36:15
guarantees that it would stop supply of arms, of course, what
36:19
happened it was going through second party or or or NGO type
36:25
organisations designed to look like civilian cargo.
36:30
So again, collective measures from people on the underground,
36:33
through unions and ordinary people.
36:36
And this of course is ongoing while the the genocide is
36:40
ongoing in Gaza. Just very quickly.
36:42
This is a recent bombing of Gaza City in central Gaza, while the
36:47
Israeli government is bringing in measures to increase
36:50
settlements and demolitions in the West Bank and to bring in
36:55
execution death penalty for Palestinian prisoners.
37:01
Thank you for that. Thank you for that, Vanessa.
37:04
Ben, let's come back to the UK then and impact investing.
37:09
Yes, impact investing, AKA the third way, AKA stakeholder
37:13
capitalism, public private partnerships, the big society,
37:16
all of those different terms that we have for the
37:18
transformation of the not just the economic system, but
37:21
political and social systems in our society.
37:24
This report just released a couple of days ago impact UK the
37:28
size and story of our impact economy 2020 six Storey that
37:32
words really important. They're really pushing to build
37:34
a narrative around this is all being LED through communication
37:39
absolutely crucial. This comes from an organisation
37:42
you can see in the top right hand corner there the NPC.
37:45
This is the, this is called New Philanthropy capital, and it's
37:49
really important because the new philanthropy is not
37:52
philanthropic. I guess that's why it's new
37:55
philanthropy because all of this stuff is being delivered for
37:57
profit and it's designed to deliver what they call social
38:02
and environmental outcomes for the richest people in the
38:08
country. I think that's probably the best
38:10
way to describe it. And it all ladders up to the
38:13
World Economic Forum agenda and the other things that we've been
38:15
talking about earlier on in the show.
38:17
Who has this come from in terms of the support for this report?
38:22
So better society capital. So that is the big society
38:26
initiative. They rebranded it a few years
38:28
ago. But this is absolutely David
38:30
Cameron's baby from when it was announced back in 2011.
38:34
It's still going, you know, between administrations, between
38:37
governments, even it's it's it's, it's the same agenda being
38:41
pushed forward. Esme Fairburn Foundation, one of
38:44
these non profits. That is absolutely everywhere in
38:49
the UK in terms of social transformation programmes,
38:52
something called Forster communications as PR agency not
38:56
come across them before the Lloyds Bank Foundation like
38:59
quite why the the UK's biggest retail bank is is engaged in
39:03
this stuff. I, I, I, I, I, I shudder to
39:05
think. But they're also a World
39:08
Economic Forum partner. And then Michigan de Raya, the,
39:10
the, the law firm who seem to think they're going to be making
39:15
a bunch of money out of this as well.
39:17
And we talked about this guy previously.
39:20
He is, he gave the introduction to the report.
39:24
This is Kieran Boyle, who is a professor at the LSE Marshall
39:29
Institute. So that's Marshall is in Paul
39:31
Marshall, the founder and major founder of GB News.
39:36
And again, I'll just sort of reinforce the point that the GB,
39:39
the person behind GB News, all the the person most influential
39:44
in terms of funding and establishing that organisation
39:47
is actually working with the World Economic Forum people to
39:52
deliver the transformation of our society.
39:55
So the idea that GB News is some kind of opposition voice, it's
39:59
it's, it's, it's, it's not credible when you understand
40:03
what else Marsh was doing in the background.
40:06
And we talked about Kieran Boyle last year.
40:09
He's absolutely leading the conversation in this space.
40:12
He's also a young global leader of the World Economic Forum.
40:15
And we can see here that he sees the opportunity for the impact
40:19
economy is to be the foundation for navigating the century
40:23
ahead. This is the scale of what
40:25
they're talking about here. And essentially what they've
40:27
done with this report is to try to spin a load of existing
40:33
activity in the education system.
40:36
No, sorry, not just the education system in the economic
40:38
system into fitting into this impact investing new economy
40:48
narrative that they're trying to build.
40:50
And they, what they're saying is that 15% of economic output in
40:55
the UK is impact economy when it isn't at all.
41:02
And it certainly wasn't established on that basis.
41:05
And they started pulling out a bunch of numbers.
41:07
So you can see here the 428 billion, if you get those back
41:10
on screen, £428 billion on in the centre right at the top
41:15
there, sorry, centre left at the top there.
41:17
UK impact economy apparently is £428 billion.
41:21
There are 700 companies that they've focused on for doing
41:24
this research. And this goes across the
41:27
education system, the housing system, charities, trade unions,
41:32
trusts, different political parties apparently a part of
41:35
this as well. And I think that they're really
41:37
reaching here is what I would say.
41:39
This is coming across as a little bit desperate to try to
41:42
build this into something which it isn't yet.
41:45
And actually, I'm getting this sense across the piece.
41:47
Actually, to go back to the section I was talking about
41:50
earlier with System Craft, the when you read through their
41:54
documentation, you can see that one of the big things that
41:57
they're coming up against is that reality is not doing what
42:00
they wanted to do. So you're having all of these
42:04
diktats handed down as to what the future is going to be like.
42:07
But actually reality is not responding.
42:09
Humanity is not responding in the way that they expect.
42:12
And I think this is just another really good example of that.
42:14
So this impact economy that they've said is going to be
42:17
absolutely foundational to the way that this society is going
42:20
to run over the next 100 years. They've actually had to create
42:23
out of a load of smoke and mirrors and and and turning
42:26
numbers that have got nothing to do frankly, with with this
42:30
initiative into they can apparently lay claim to.
42:35
We talked about some of the organisations involved really
42:38
interestingly, this chap where I mentioned earlier, Gary Ludner
42:42
is one of the case studies for this.
42:44
So Ludner was one of the one of the people who was donating to
42:50
Labour together that Morgan McSweeney was quite keen to the
42:54
hide from public scrutiny. And you can see here that he
42:59
says, and this is a crucial point in the bottom right hand
43:01
corner of the quote there is I believe that if you work with
43:04
government you can unlock billions rather than millions.
43:07
That's how you make systemic change.
43:10
So essentially what you've got is the some of the richest
43:12
people who've ever lived in the whole of history, people like
43:15
Gary Lugner, who want to deliver a particular set of social and
43:21
technological and economic outcomes that will ultimately
43:25
benefit them and help to entrench their position in
43:28
society in perpetuity. And that's the game they're
43:30
playing here, working with government in order to mandate
43:35
the implementation of the things that they want to see happen,
43:37
and then doing it all under the guise of charity, first of all,
43:41
but also in a manner that allows them to extract profit from it
43:44
while telling the world that they're being philanthropic.
43:47
It's really grubby by this, this, this whole thing, but this
43:51
is absolutely front and centre in terms of what, what the
43:56
system is pushing towards. And it all stems from, from the
43:59
big Society, you know, so this, this, this term didn't exist.
44:03
Impact investment didn't exist really.
44:05
There was a slight blip because Ronnie Cohen, Sir Ronald Cohen
44:08
actually introduced this back in around 2009.
44:11
So we did some of the early thought pieces and public
44:15
statements about it, but it really kicked into gear when the
44:19
Big Society initiative was announced in 2011.
44:22
Yeah. And we talked about this last
44:24
week because we showed some of the work going on inside the the
44:28
Civil Service 55 policy profession to completely reshape
44:33
the civil service. And on the wall of one of the
44:35
workshops that was in a picture that was taken in 2023, we could
44:40
see Big Society, not big government exactly the, the
44:45
image that you can see there behind David Cameron in the
44:47
original announcement of the Big Society back in 2011.
44:50
And then the, as you can see, this term has then been pushed
44:54
out into public discourse through the media, through
44:57
government communication since then.
44:59
And they're trying to turn this into the next thing ultimately.
45:04
And if you want to find out more about that, then the best place
45:07
to go actually, not just not just because I'm saying it also
45:10
because when I searched for it is one of the first things that
45:13
came up is this article from Martin Edwards on the UK column
45:17
back in 2011 where he laid the whole thing out.
45:19
And it's about as relevant today as you possibly imagine.
45:23
Great piece of work and just goes to show that the UK column
45:26
was on the case back then and I believe we probably still are
45:29
right now. Well, hopefully, thank you.
45:32
Yeah, thank you very much for that.
45:34
Vanessa. Let's come back to you now.
45:36
And while the focus has been, of course, on the human costs of
45:42
what Israel's been doing in Gaza and so on and in the West Bank,
45:46
the environmental cost is also something that we should not
45:50
ignore. Yeah, and I find it particularly
45:54
interesting. I mean, you and I, Mike, were
45:55
talking about this earlier in the sense that the WEF is now
46:01
talking very much all of the kind of oligarchy class are
46:05
talking about making assets of fresh air, of water, of all of
46:11
mankind's natural resources. And yet here you have the
46:17
Zionist block basically destroying the environment,
46:21
committing echo side, particularly in this region, in
46:24
all of West Asia. And the most recent report is
46:28
this one. Israeli chemicals devastate 540
46:31
hectares of Lebanon's Borderlands.
46:33
So that's basically in southern Lebanon where Israel has been
46:38
spraying farm lands with glycophate.
46:42
And this is a section of a report from Russia Today and
46:47
their correspondent, Steve Sweeney.
46:51
Guard by War initial laboratory analysis has now identified the
46:55
substance as a herbicide banned in Lebanon and several other
46:58
countries, one the World Health Organisation says increases
47:01
cancer risk. Laboratory analysis results
47:04
showed that the substance sprayed is the herbicide
47:06
glyphosate, which could damage vegetation cover with direct
47:10
repercussions on agricultural production, soil fertility and
47:13
ecological balance. The ministry say this was
47:16
neither accidental nor harmless, and one human rights group
47:20
condemned the incident as a war crime.
47:22
The deliberate targeting of civilian farmland violates
47:25
international humanitarian law, particularly the prohibition on
47:29
attacking or destroying objects indispensable to civilian
47:32
survival. Large scale destruction of
47:35
private property without specific military necessity
47:38
amounts to a war crime and undermines food security and
47:42
basic livelihoods in the affected areas.
47:47
And of course, this is a policy that Israel has conducted
47:51
throughout history, really poisoning wells in Gaza and also
47:55
spreading glyphosate on the borders between Israel and the
48:00
barricade that that maintain the prison of Gaza itself.
48:06
Now this is a report from March 2025 forced desertification in
48:12
Lebanon, which is related to the use of white phosphorus.
48:16
And bearing in mind it's not only white phosphorus itself,
48:19
they dropping incendiary bombs onto forestry and farmland for
48:25
the last two or three years since the ceasefire in November
48:30
2024. And the report documents
48:34
Israel's use of white phosphorus bombs in this war against
48:37
Lebanon since the events of October the 7th.
48:41
And then if we actually have a look at the report itself,
48:45
Director of the Nature Conservation Centre at the
48:48
American University of Beirut says the spread of white
48:51
phosphorus can affect multiple ecosystems and may threaten food
48:55
security at the local level. It will contaminate water
48:59
streams, impacting the health of nearby communities that rely on
49:03
these sources for drinking water.
49:05
Nearby fish traps become at risk of contamination, which could
49:09
transfer to humans through consumption.
49:11
And this was confirmed by the National Authority of the Litani
49:14
River as the Israeli targeting which affected all Lebanon also
49:18
reached the Litani River. This impacted the rivers colour
49:21
and the odour emanating from its course was toxic, according to
49:25
information obtained by um the ARIG from the authority through
49:31
the Global Initiative. Now I have also first hand
49:35
knowledge that much of the the the spring water that is sold
49:40
here in Lebanon comes from sources related to the Litani
49:44
River. So potentially those are also
49:46
being contaminated. Then if you look, you mentioned
49:49
the human cost also, Mike, this is the highest civilian toll
49:53
from phosphorus aggression. If we can just have a look to
49:56
that. According to figures from the
49:58
Lebanese Ministry of Health, the number of casualties during the
50:00
ongoing war from October the 8th, 2023 to October 20th, 2024
50:06
reached 2412 people, including 257 individuals who were injured
50:12
by white phosphorus. This indicates that 10.6% of the
50:16
injuries were caused by the phosphorus.
50:19
So I mean this is a banned substance.
50:22
It's constantly used of course, in Gaza during the so called
50:26
mowing the lawn campaigns by Israel to to effectively target
50:33
civilian communities inside Gaza, not only since October the
50:38
7th, of course. And then if we go back to 2024,
50:42
this was the war against Lebanon's trees, Israel's wars
50:46
on Lebanon's trees. And again, if we look at what
50:48
the agricultural ministry here has said, at that point, Israeli
50:52
bombing has caused severe damage to 6000 hectares of agricultural
50:56
land, 2000 are totally destroyed, 60,000 olive trees
51:01
destroyed, some 300 years old citrus, banana, almond trees and
51:07
vast areas of forest destroyed. And then also in the last couple
51:12
of days, there have been instances of glyphosate
51:17
poisoning. Sorry, I've I've got it.
51:19
The SNP the wrong way round. On the slide on farmland in
51:24
Hebron, local activists told WAFA that Israeli forces chase
51:29
shepherds in the community of Hebert Zimba in Masayata and
51:35
barred them from reaching grazing areas before arresting
51:38
Palestinian citizen Shah Ahmad Issa and his son Mamoon.
51:42
He also added that the colonists from the Shajiya colony built on
51:47
Palestinian land in Masaya to destroyed large areas of wheat
51:50
and barley fields in the region. The fields were sprayed with
51:53
chemical substances late Thursday night using drones,
51:56
causing heavy losses for farmers.
51:59
So it extends beyond crops and of course it poses a serious
52:02
threat to livestock that are grazing on these lands.
52:06
And then if we look at South Syria, which of course, Israel
52:09
has been increasing its occupation of since the fall of
52:12
Damascus in December 2024, they have there also sprayed
52:18
glyphosate on the farmland in the Kanatra area, which they now
52:23
fully occupy. And they're preventing Syrian
52:26
farmers from actually reaching their land, firing on them if
52:29
they try to get to their livestock.
52:32
They've also been seen stealing livestock from farmland in
52:36
Kanatra. And of course, that goes back
52:39
historically correctly. Israel was responsible for many
52:41
of the forest fires, particularly in the South, but
52:44
also through their Al Qaeda proxies who set fire through
52:48
incendiary devices both in the northeast and the northwest.
52:53
And then not related to West Asia, but still related to the
52:57
destruction being caused by Israelis.
53:01
And particularly sorry if I can just have the slide back on
53:03
screen. Israeli settlers in Patagonia,
53:07
in Argentina, and not forgetting the Andinia Plan, which was part
53:12
of Theodore Herzl, one of the founders of the Zionist movement
53:16
in the late 1800s. Going into the early 1920s
53:21
onwards, it was seen as a potential settlement land before
53:27
Palestine was finally agreed on. And apparently there there are
53:32
accusations that there are Israeli settlers that set alight
53:36
the Patagonian forestry. So again, while the WEF is is
53:42
talking very clearly about privatising all natural
53:47
resources, other Zionists creating demand for the WF
53:54
etcetera, to be able to privatise those resources.
53:58
Good questions. Vanessa, at what point is the
54:03
world going to say enough on this, whether whether the target
54:07
is, is humanity or whether the target is, you know, the, the
54:12
environment what, what are your thoughts on that?
54:17
Well, I mean, they haven't said enough after more than two years
54:21
of the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.
54:24
I guess for many people, the environment, the nature and and
54:29
the whole ecological structure in West Asia is being destroyed,
54:33
which will eventually have an effect on the rest of humanity,
54:36
of course. Yes, indeed.
54:39
OK, well thank you very much for that.
54:41
Now we're going to finish then today with the BBC of course,
54:45
because what could be better? Well the, the news of course is
54:49
that the annual cost of ATV licence is going to rise to 180
54:54
lbs from the 1st of April 2026. And this is required by the 2022
54:59
licence fee settlement in line with inflation apparently.
55:03
So, I mean the, the, the rise isn't that much, but I just
55:06
think it's obscene that it's, that anybody's expected to pay
55:09
£180 a year to that organisation.
55:12
But anyway, the BBC is. And finance.
55:17
I'd be very keen in your thoughts on this, but the BBC
55:19
is, according to the Starmer regime, the U KS #1 Media brand
55:24
with 94% of UK adults using the BBC each month last year.
55:30
And it remains the UK's most widely used and trusted news
55:34
outlet. That must be true.
55:40
I think they should get UK column verify on to that.
55:47
In my opinion the BBC is not fit for purpose and anyone who still
55:51
thinks it is is is kind of living in an ulterior dimension
55:58
to the rest of us. Yes, well, indeed.
56:00
Well, I'll. Tell you all though, I I think
56:03
it might be true. Do you?
56:05
Yeah, he's, I think he's probably the most trusted news
56:08
brand still. Yes, well.
56:10
I think he probably is. Yes, but we need to change that
56:12
but. We certainly do, yeah.
56:14
Anyway, the question is what are they doing with with all this
56:17
money? Well, the BBC has recently
56:20
announced the a series of initiatives with what they
56:25
describe as the aim of bringing trusted public service content
56:28
to more young people and families where they are.
56:31
And so that is including a new content partnership with YouTube
56:35
that the BBC was very pleased to tell us about a few days ago.
56:38
With a CBBS parenting YouTube channel launching later this
56:42
year, what could possibly go wrong?
56:44
As well as six themed channels featuring content from CBBC
56:48
shows. So they're absolutely targeting
56:50
the children here and of course this is undoubtedly going to
56:55
bring quite a lot of ad revenue to the BBC as well, of course,
56:59
because you know, this will undoubtedly generate quite a
57:02
number of of views. It's quite, it's quite a big
57:05
shift for them going to YouTube. There's an admission of failure
57:09
for them in many ways. Well I, I would say so.
57:12
Yeah, I would say so. But anyway, look the BBC.
57:14
The current BBC Charter began on the 1st of January 2017 and it
57:18
ends on the 31st of December 2027.
57:22
The Royal Charter is what provides the BBC with its
57:25
constitutional basis and it also defines the BB CS mission with a
57:30
capital M and public purpose with a capital two capital PS
57:34
there. And it sets out how the BBC is
57:36
governed, regulated and funded. This is how the government
57:39
describes it. But anyway, there is a charter
57:43
review going on at the moment. This is a big discussion within
57:46
the BBC itself and there's a charter review green paper to be
57:51
published and the the contents of that are going to be based on
57:55
a public consultation on options for BBC future funding.
58:01
Now that consultation is currently running and they say
58:03
that the the BBC belongs to all of us, we are therefore looking
58:07
to hear from a wide range of voices on the future of the BBC
58:10
as our national broadcaster and how it can represent and deliver
58:14
for every every person in the UK as part of the Charter review.
58:18
Now the the links for this, if we put this on screen, the links
58:22
for this will be in the show notes and on the UK column
58:26
website. And of course that will include
58:28
the link to the consultation response form itself.
58:32
And I would say everybody needs to be responding to that.
58:37
Please do, yes. Whether they'll listen to
58:40
anything that you have to say is is up for debate.
58:42
I put a complaint into the BBC once.
58:45
Oh. Nothing back.
58:47
Well, I can't imagine why. That's because the BBC
58:49
complaints, if I remember correctly, are run by Capita.
58:52
Yeah, it is Capita. Yeah, so.
58:54
That's that's certainly one reason for that finesse.
58:59
Just to finish off very briefly, I mean, what do you, what would
59:02
be your thoughts on on how the BBC should be funded?
59:07
I suspect the answer that's coming is it shouldn't be.
59:12
Exactly. It shouldn't be.
59:13
It should be defunded. Yeah.
59:15
But the problem, the problem here is the problem here is, it
59:18
is, it is an element of British soft power.
59:22
So it's something that the British government would be
59:25
considered would consider it to be an organ of the state.
59:29
And so it's not going to be let let go in any way whatever the
59:33
final settlement is. Yeah, but then surely the state
59:37
should pay for it. Why should the public have to
59:40
pay for it? I mean, if it's essential to the
59:45
existence of the British state, which is effectively what you're
59:48
saying, and certainly through foreign policy, the BBC is very
59:53
important to that. So yes, the government should
59:56
fund it. Well, yeah, unfortunately that.
59:59
But we found the government. The government so.
1:00:00
So actually it's de facto, it's government department.
1:00:04
It presents itself as being independent, but it's funded
1:00:06
through taxation, that's what the licence fee is.
1:00:08
So it's de facto government department.
1:00:11
So yeah, you know, like there's my view is, I mean, putting
1:00:15
aside all of the issues that we could obviously sit here all
1:00:17
week and talk about the things that are wrong with the BBC, the
1:00:20
basic thing to say is if it didn't exist today, would you
1:00:22
create it in its current form? And the answer is no, no.
1:00:25
So that has to be your starting point.
1:00:27
Indeed, So it should be defunded, but then so should the
1:00:29
government. So anyway, we'll talk about more
1:00:31
bit more about that in extra in a few minutes.
1:00:33
Thanks to everyone that's joined us for the news today.
1:00:37
If you are Auk call member, stick a stick around on the live
1:00:39
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1:00:41
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1:00:48
website. But anyway, thanks for watching.
1:00:51
We will see you next and for extra see you then.
1:00:55
Bye bye. Bye bye.