Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News - 17th December 2025

Transcript

UK Column News - 17th December 2025 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Good afternoon. It's Wednesday the 17th of
0:10
December, just after 1:00. Welcome to UK column News.
0:13
I'm your host, Mike Robinson, and joining me in the studio
0:15
today is Charles Mallett. Welcome to the programme,
0:17
Charles. Thank you, Mike.
0:18
I'm Vanessa Bailey and Mark Anderson joined us live by
0:21
videolink. And later in the programme,
0:23
we're going to be asking what happens to our health data.
0:25
Vanessa is good to have more on the Bondi Beach incident.
0:28
Charles will be reporting on the spot between the Metropolitan
0:32
Police and the Freemasons, and Mark is going to report on the
0:35
childhood vaccination schedule in the United States.
0:37
But we're going to begin today with comments by the recently
0:41
appointed head of MI 6, Charles. We are, and in fact not just
0:44
her. But it certainly appears that
0:46
the one infrastructure project the government is on top of is
0:49
the construction of the path to war.
0:51
And this week is notable for the coincidence of two speeches and
0:55
some very joined up messaging from the state, they being the
0:59
chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, MI 6 and the chief of
1:03
the general staff. So we're going to look first at
1:05
what plays Metrowelli, who's taken, who's taken over
1:09
recently, as C said. Now, given what she did go on to
1:14
speak about, I think it should be noted that she is the
1:16
granddaughter of Konstantin Dobrovolski, who was a Russian
1:21
collaborator with the Nazis in what is now Ukraine during the
1:26
Second World War. And although she never knew her
1:29
grandfather, this is a difficult detail to ignore totally.
1:33
We'll just start with a video that sets the tone for her
1:37
speech. I'm going to break with
1:41
tradition and I won't give you a global threat tour, but I will
1:45
focus here on Putin's Russia. We all continue to face the
1:51
menace of an aggressive, expansionist and revisionist
1:55
Russia seeking to subjugate Ukraine and harass NATO.
2:00
I find it harrowing that hundreds of thousands have died,
2:03
with the toll mounting every day.
2:06
Because of Putin's historical distortions and his compromised
2:10
desire for respect. He is dragging out negotiations
2:15
and shifting the cost of war onto his own population.
2:20
But Putin should be in no doubt our support is enduring.
2:26
The pressure we apply on Ukraine's behalf will be
2:30
sustained because it is fundamental not just to European
2:35
sovereignty and security but to global stability.
2:42
Alongside the grinding war, Russia is testing us in the grey
2:45
zone with tactics that are just below the threshold of war.
2:50
It's important to understand their attempts to bully, fear
2:53
monger and manipulate because it affects us all.
2:58
I'm talking about cyber attacks on critical infrastructure,
3:01
drones, buzzing airports and bases, aggressive activity in
3:05
our seas above and below the waves, state sponsored arson and
3:09
sabotage, propaganda and influence operations that crack
3:12
open and exploit fractures within societies.
3:21
The only thing she hasn't tried to mention there is yellow cake.
3:24
Indeed, not yet anyway, but much of what she said could, of
3:27
course be applied to these shores and what's going on here.
3:31
But instead she wants to direct all attention away from every
3:35
other country on earth and ensure that it's directed at
3:37
Russia. She's referring to historical
3:39
distortions. Again, something that's very
3:41
much been going on on this side of the channel.
3:44
The phrase that she used, which is a particular interest, is
3:47
just below the threshold of war. And that causes us to look back
3:50
at the integrated operating concept, which was withdrawn in
3:55
June of this year. And I quote in response on the
4:00
integrated operating concept, in response to what they're
4:03
identifying as a threat. They say that it establishes the
4:06
need to compete below the threshold of war and it
4:09
distinguishes between operating and war fighting.
4:13
So in actual fact, the suggestion that we are not going
4:16
to supposedly stoop to Russia's level seems to be not exactly
4:21
reinforced by current doctrine. Mike, I wonder if you had a
4:23
comment specifically on this? Well, we like to project onto
4:26
other people what we do ourselves.
4:28
That was that was our doctrine. And suddenly it's become
4:30
Russia's doctrine. This is this is absolutely what
4:32
we constantly do. Yeah, exactly.
4:34
Yeah, Blame everybody else and then and then do it yourself.
4:37
She then goes on to talk about how should how should we
4:40
respond? The export of chaos is a
4:46
feature, not a bug, in this Russian approach to
4:49
international engagement, and we should be ready for this to
4:53
continue until Putin is forced to change his calculus.
5:00
So how should we respond? It's not enough now just to
5:05
understand the world. We must shape it too.
5:10
MI 6 is well positioned to respond to these threats and
5:13
wider global instability and we will continue to evolve, just as
5:19
we have throughout our long history.
5:23
The UK government has invested in our intelligence agencies and
5:26
we are all using our unique powers to keep the British
5:30
people safe. Our open and connected
5:33
partnerships across the UK intelligence community with
5:37
HMGCCNSIF and the wider tech ecosystem in the UK will become
5:41
even more important because in the digital battleground, no
5:45
single organisation can prevail alone.
5:51
No, considering the references to investment and her concluding
5:54
sentence there, no single organisation can prevail alone.
5:58
The the undertone there is that there is an acknowledgement that
6:00
the United Kingdom is well out of its depth and really doesn't
6:03
have sufficient equipment or manpower to deal with the
6:06
threats that she is conjuring. So therefore there's an
6:09
increased need for the use of the private sector which is
6:11
articulated by the U KS modern industrial strategy among other
6:16
documents. But this was published last
6:17
month and within the text there it says that it it's to ensure
6:22
that procurement strategically supports our industrial strategy
6:25
priorities and creates high quality jobs and skills in our
6:28
local communities and supports sectors critical to national
6:33
security. Now as part of this, there also
6:37
there's going to be a great reliance on the National
6:40
Security Strategic Investment Fund, which is described as
6:44
being the UK's deep tech venture capital fund for national
6:47
security and defence. So what we're really talking
6:50
about here is off the shelf procurement by way of venture
6:54
capital control of which goes straight to the to, to the fund
6:58
that I've just been talking about, the National Security
7:00
Strategy Investment Fund. And I think this is really an
7:03
example of what we, what's been described as the defence
7:06
dividend playing out in real time.
7:09
And now of course we get to the people and who is going to be
7:12
bearing responsibility for any of these actions that have come
7:15
in due course. And we'll just listen to hear
7:17
what she had to say about the future.
7:22
But the response to the increasing risks we face won't
7:24
be delivered by the UK intelligence community alone.
7:27
Wider society has a role to play too.
7:31
That includes work taking place in schools across the country so
7:34
our children don't get duped by information manipulation.
7:38
Let's all check sources, consider evidence, and be alive
7:42
to those algorithms that trigger intense reactions like fear.
7:47
It also means everyone in society really understanding the
7:51
world. We're in a world where
7:53
terrorists plot against us, where our enemies fear monger,
7:57
bully and manipulate, and the frontline is everywhere.
8:02
Online, on our streets, in our supply chains, in the minds and
8:07
on the screens of our citizens. We must all stand together
8:12
against this. So you're saying that the
8:16
integrated operating concept has been withdrawn, but she's just
8:19
expressed it yet again, because if you remember, the other part
8:21
of that was the idea that foreign ventures are no longer
8:25
the only front, there's also the front at home.
8:27
And now she's basically reiterating that point.
8:29
Cheers. Indeed, absolutely.
8:30
And and and and wrapping it up as part of this whole of society
8:33
approach, which was written large across the Strategic
8:36
Defence Review and the National Security Strategy of this year.
8:40
But of course this is directed specifically at children, with
8:42
the references there to getting into schools and educating
8:45
people from an early age. Now coincident with this, also
8:49
on Monday, the Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief
8:51
Marshall, Sir Richard Knighton, spoke at the Royal United
8:53
Services Institute on basically exactly the same theme, talking
8:58
about the long term success and reconnecting society with the
9:01
armed forces, supported by what he describes as a national
9:05
conversation. And he wants to push that
9:08
forward now, he said. Also, specifically, he will
9:11
argue that the situation is more dangerous than I have known
9:14
during my career and the price of peace is rising and our
9:19
response needs to go beyond simply strengthening our armed
9:22
forces. He went on again hammering the
9:24
same point. It needs a whole of nation
9:26
response building, defence, industrial capacity to enhance
9:30
the resilience of society and the infrastructure that supports
9:35
it. Of course, it should be borne in
9:36
mind that the government's doing very little on that front when
9:39
we consider the capabilities of, or at least the restriction on
9:43
farmers, farmland and reliance on food from abroad, reduced
9:48
access to water and in particular, of course energy as
9:51
it's sabotaged by the net zero agenda and the massive
9:54
consumption from data centres and AI in particular.
9:57
Now. He also spoke about the
9:58
probability of an attack by Russia, or of Russia and one of
10:02
the more one or more NATO states being in conflict by 2027.
10:07
He used AI to produce this prediction, which he actually
10:10
relied upon to write his speech in the first place.
10:13
Now he also talked about more people being ready to fight for
10:17
their country and said that there were over 100,000
10:20
applications to join the armed forces last year, with only
10:22
13,000 successful applicants. And it's interesting to note the
10:25
Army website says on its joining as a non UK national page that
10:30
they're no longer inviting applications from Commonwealth
10:33
nationals, except, strangely enough, for musicians.
10:37
So it should be perfectly clear to anyone listening that both
10:40
Metro Welle and Knighton are politicians first and foremost,
10:43
installed to drive the state's propaganda.
10:46
And an important distinction to note between the two speakers is
10:49
their respective levels of operational experience.
10:52
She describes herself as operational to the core, whereas
10:55
Knighton has virtually no operational experience
10:58
whatsoever. And this disparity may well
11:00
point towards the focus when it does come to prosecuting war.
11:04
The delivery of kinetic effects is looking less likely to be on
11:08
the main effort. Base speeches printed in full on
11:10
the government website and I would recommend reading them in
11:13
full. There'll be links to the show
11:14
notes. I'll just conclude by reading a
11:16
tweet from the Russian embassy to the UK, which in effect is
11:21
responding to these speeches and says very explicitly Russia has
11:25
no plans, intentions or reasons for entering into an armed
11:29
confrontation with the UK. OK, well, part of what she said
11:35
was the rise of intelligence, as if we haven't had enough of that
11:40
from military intelligence. And we.
11:42
But the UK military intelligence is apparently going to be more
11:46
efficient, faster and better able to anticipate future
11:50
threats as the Ministry of Defences launches the new
11:53
military intelligence services. And that's according to the
11:56
Ministry of Defence. This has been done following
12:00
recommendations in Strategic Defence Review that Charles just
12:02
mentioned. Military intelligence services
12:05
brings under centralised control, they say intelligence
12:08
units from the Royal Navy, the British Army, the Royal Air
12:10
Force, UK space commander, the permanent Joint Headquarters,
12:14
ensuring they operate as one system speeding up high
12:18
information is gathered, analysed and shared across the
12:21
armed forces. So that's what they have to say
12:23
about it. This operation was launched by
12:26
the Minister for Armed Forces, Alistair Cairns at RAF Whiten in
12:31
Cambridgeshire. And this is a key intelligence
12:35
site which houses quotes top secret intelligence from across
12:39
the Five Eyes partnership. And he was some selected
12:45
journalists were brought for a briefing and they were given a
12:48
tour and they were told that the shadow war is knocking on
12:52
Europe's door once more. I mean, Blaise was talking about
12:56
the fear agenda and, and we're just being bombarded with it
12:59
from them. And the the journalists were
13:02
also warned that the next major conflict is likely to cause more
13:05
casualties than any UK deployment for decades and would
13:09
not be a war of choice. So anyway, the MIS will be
13:12
commanded by Cyber and Specialist Operations Command
13:16
and it's going to be led by this man Adrian Byrd, who's the chief
13:20
of Defence Intelligence. And the Starmer regime is also
13:25
in parallel creating a new Defence Intelligence Academy to
13:28
offer what they describe as world class training in key
13:31
intelligence disciplines such as cyberspace and geospatial
13:35
analysis. And as we see from their useful
13:38
infographic here, the basis for all this is that unnamed
13:42
adversaries are intensifying their hybrid war on Britain with
13:45
increasing cyber attacks, disruptions and satellites,
13:48
threats to global shipping lanes, increasing
13:50
disinformation. And as Blaze was saying, of
13:52
course, all those naughty drone attacks that we're being told
13:57
about constantly that don't really exist.
13:59
But on top of that, they're also launching the Defence
14:02
Counterintelligence Unit because they claim hostile intelligence
14:06
activity against the Ministry of Defence has risen by more than
14:08
50%. And they then go on to say,
14:12
would you believe that the Don Sturgis inquiry published last
14:15
week made clear that foreign intelligence services are now
14:18
operating far beyond traditional espionage norms, targeting
14:22
defence personnel, technology programmes, supply chains and
14:25
wider defence industry both at home and overseas?
14:29
So if anybody is still laughing at that, I just just remind
14:36
everybody that last Thursday we held this event in Salisbury
14:40
entitled Skripal and Novichok. What didn't happen?
14:43
So if you want to know just how real the Don Sturgis Inquiry
14:49
report is and you haven't seen that those presentations yet,
14:52
then please do head on to the UK column website and watch it.
14:56
Because the fact that they had the goal to cite that particular
14:59
report is just spectacular, isn't it?
15:01
It absolutely is, yeah. And we look forward to seeing
15:04
what the product will be from combining all the various
15:06
intelligence in the same place. Absolutely.
15:10
So let me welcome Vanessa to the programme.
15:13
Vanessa, obviously weekend saw events in Australia kicking off
15:19
and just give us your take on it then.
15:24
Well, of course, it wasn't only Australia and there was the
15:27
event in Rhode Island at Brown University, also in a number of
15:31
incidents in Syria, which I'll talk about later in the news.
15:36
I'm looking into the Bondi Beach incident and I have to say the
15:42
pushback was almost immediate, that this was a false flag and
15:47
and many other variations on that kind of narrative.
15:51
I'm not reaching any conclusions of what I've tried to do here is
15:55
just bring together some of the information that we now have and
15:59
some of the opinions that are are gathering traction in social
16:04
media and in various media outlets.
16:07
But first of all, the first point I want to make was that
16:11
Netanyahu almost immediately went out to speak about the
16:17
event itself and to talk about the heroism of what he called a
16:22
Jewish individual who tackled one of the gunmen.
16:25
So let's just see Netanyahu making this statement.
16:30
Rhino tawa the Shibuto, the rhino gang.
16:39
Huayu did the Sia. Well, the interesting thing is
17:07
that I believe he had already been informed that actually that
17:11
hero came from Syria, actually from Idlib in northwest Syria.
17:16
He's Ahmed al Ahmed, a source of pride for family and friends in
17:21
Syria. He, he came from a village known
17:23
as al Nairab in Idlib. He left Syria in 2006 because,
17:28
again, many people now are trying to associate him with Al
17:32
Qaeda and ISIS because Al Nairab became a headquarters for
17:36
Jolani's Takfiri thugs from 2011 onwards.
17:41
This is a recap coming from the BBC this morning.
17:46
Now what this mentions, and this has been picked up by a number
17:50
of commentators. Australian police are
17:52
investigating a trip taken to the Philippines by two alleged
17:56
gunmen. The month before, 15 people were
17:58
killed at the shooting attack at Bondi Beach.
18:01
Apparently they travelled to the country on their Indian passport
18:06
and the son Navid using an Australian passport, border
18:10
authorities in Manila told the BBC.
18:14
It's previously been reported that they visited the
18:16
Philippines to receive military style training.
18:19
So let's see where this actual island is.
18:23
This is Mindanao, which is famous for having had an
18:29
infiltration of ISIS groups, which we talked about on UK
18:33
columns some time ago actually, and it is known as an ISIS
18:38
training area. Now this apparently was actually
18:42
known to the Australian authorities who had of course
18:46
also had the two individuals on their radar.
18:50
This was picked up by an account on X known as Propaganda Co.
18:54
You can watch the whole video, it'll be in the show notes.
18:58
But this is just the one section relating to what the Australian
19:01
authorities already knew about the two individuals.
19:07
An Australian born citizen was investigated by the Australian
19:10
Security Intelligence Organisation for six months back
19:13
in 2019 over close ties to a Sydney based Islamic State
19:17
terrorism cell. Authorities feared he was
19:19
accessing extremist material online and speaking with other
19:22
radicalised men, but an assessment was made that there
19:25
was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging
19:28
in violence. Counterterrorism police believed
19:30
the gunman pledged allegiance to the ISIS terrorist group.
19:33
Prior to carrying out the attack. 2 Black and white ISIS
19:36
flags were discussed covered in the attacker's car, according to
19:38
a senior official. They always got the flag.
19:45
Very true again. But apparently I, I was actually
19:48
told by a friend in Sydney that there are takfiri enclaves where
19:52
they actually sell Al Qaeda and ISIS flags in the marketplaces
19:57
though. So not so unusual, but the fact
20:00
that they're now trying to tie this in.
20:02
To ISIS, while of course both the US and Israel have supported
20:07
ISIS in Syria to overthrow the former government.
20:10
Then we come on to this now very famous selfie taken by Arsene
20:15
Otrovsky, who after being shot and wounded in the head, managed
20:21
to take a selfie and also then when he'd been bandaged up,
20:25
managed to give very, very lengthy interviews to the media
20:30
that were actually present. Who is Arsene Otrovsky?
20:34
We'll come on to a little report by Niko House again that he put
20:37
out yesterday. But in fact, he's basically at
20:43
the Majev Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy.
20:47
What does this translate as? He's in charge of running the
20:51
propaganda for the Zionist regime, particularly since
20:54
October the 7th. So let's just play this part of
20:58
the report by Nico House again. You can find the whole report in
21:02
the show notes. So you're trying to tell me that
21:06
one of the victims who was shot at the Bondi Beach shooting is
21:09
one of Israel's top propagandists who just so
21:13
happened to be there and October 7th and survive them both?
21:18
Meet Arsene Ostrovsky, a lawyer who resides in both Australia
21:23
and in Israel, who just so happened to be at the Bondi
21:27
Beach shooting and was shot in the head but managed to survive
21:32
his wounds. Now I need you all to
21:33
understand, this guy is one of Israel's top propagandists.
21:37
It is literally his job to go after any and everybody who
21:41
criticises Israel. And it would be one thing if he
21:43
was a top Israeli propagandist, it was at October 7th and mad to
21:48
survive. And another thing if he was a
21:50
top Israeli propagandist, was shot in the head at Bondi Beach
21:54
and was only there and managed to survive.
21:56
But when you are at both and you managed to survive both and your
22:01
first instinct is to stop, drop and take a selfie after
22:05
allegedly being shot in the head.
22:07
Yeah, you're going to get some side eyes.
22:11
Deservedly so. Well, I mean, I mean it's a
22:17
valid point. As I said, all of these are
22:19
valid points and I'm sure over time we are going to get a lot
22:22
more clarity. This is an article that was
22:26
written by Nate Bear at Substack.
22:29
He calls it terror on the beach and I actually opened it
22:32
assuming he would be talking about the Bondi event.
22:35
In fact, what he's looking at is the fact that of course the
22:39
Zionists have conducted multiple massacres on the beaches of
22:43
Gaza. He he lists them all.
22:45
This is just one section. In June last year, Israel bombed
22:49
the tents of display displaced people on the Gaza beach.
22:53
Fishermen have regularly been fired at.
22:57
Israeli soldiers film themselves enjoying firing water shells at
23:02
people on the beach. August last year, Israeli
23:04
gunships once again opened fire on the tents of displaced
23:07
Palestinians, killing and wounding.
23:10
August this year, Israel bombed a tent on the beach in Gaza
23:14
which had been turned into a makeshift cafe.
23:16
Killing for the cafe attack came after the far more deadly cafe
23:20
attack just a few weeks earlier in late June, which targeted the
23:24
popular Albaca cafeteria and killed 39 people, including a
23:29
one year old girl and numerous journalist.
23:31
So of course he's making the point that there is a degree of
23:35
hierarchalization of victimhood and we're seeing it again with
23:40
the Bondi Beach event. He then does also go on to
23:45
identify one of the victims, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who's also
23:50
again, very well known. This is from his Instagram page
23:54
where he's basically celebrating with the genocidal about Zionist
23:59
forces. And this is a video from him
24:03
inside the occupied territories talking or or rather channelling
24:07
Zionist policy. So let's just hear this.
24:12
Friends, ladies and gentlemen, I am here at the Malpesa
24:16
Chalamdina, which means the porch of the country.
24:19
It's an unbelievable place. It's a very, very High Peak, and
24:23
from here you can see half the country.
24:25
Unbelievable place. Can you imagine?
24:27
If. This was in the hands of the
24:30
Arabs. This is right in the heart of
24:32
the West Bank. This is why this needs to be in
24:35
the hands of the Jewish people, because of its security and
24:39
obviously the obvious. Because it belongs to us,
24:41
because our land. I'm standing over here with a
24:44
beautiful, beautiful Khayal soldier man who has left his
24:47
family to be able to protect this village at this very very.
24:51
Heightened. Moment.
24:53
What's your name? And my name is Dolev.
24:55
Dolev and Dolev, on behalf of the entire village over here,
24:58
has received a very, very sizeable donate.
25:04
So he was obviously very in support of of the genocide
25:08
that's ongoing in Palestine. The Shabbat movement in Bondi
25:12
also was responsible for raising funds for the IOF since October
25:18
the 7th. And Nate Bear actually pointed
25:20
out again, I think it's a very valid point, he said.
25:23
Actually, rather than being dead, these people should be in
25:27
The Hague. They should be prosecuted for
25:30
having raised money to support a genocidal entity while it's
25:34
slaughtering and exterminating Palestinians for the last 100
25:38
years, but of course intensified since October the 7th.
25:43
And then of course, we have to also look, this is another
25:46
potential lead to it being a false flag.
25:49
Almost immediately there were claims from Israeli media that
25:54
Iran could potentially be responsible for the Bondi attack
25:59
or agents of Iran. Of course, that's been slightly
26:01
mudded by them having ISIS affiliations.
26:05
And Hezbollah was also mentioned at some point in the Israeli
26:10
media. And this report in Jerusalem
26:13
Post is claiming that should Israel respond, if Iran was
26:17
behind the attacks, then it would be supported by the United
26:20
States. So, ongoing narratives to watch
26:24
for here. But clearly not all is as it
26:28
seems. Thank you for that, Vanessa.
26:31
Any thoughts? Well, I mean the, the other
26:33
element to it obviously being manipulated in Australia, it was
26:36
the the proposals for gun control either across the whole
26:39
country or or by sort of state. So it'd be interesting to see
26:42
which direction that goes in and whether there's going to be a
26:45
knock on effect in other places because of that.
26:48
Yes, OK, let's move on then. If you like what the UK column
26:52
does, we do need your financial support.
26:54
If you are a member, we want to say thank you very much for all
26:58
of that. Or if you've made a donation.
27:00
But if you're not, please have a look at the front page of the UK
27:03
column, your website. You'll find a link that takes
27:06
you to a page that explains how you can support us.
27:09
As I said, we do need your ongoing financial support and
27:11
that'd be very much appreciated. If you can't support us
27:14
financially, then please do share anything you see on the
27:17
website because that helps us beat the censorship regime.
27:21
Now tonight at 7:00 PM, Jeremy will be speaking to Simon Roche
27:25
on the incoming global catastrophe.
27:27
So that's at 7. And Carl is talking to Doctor
27:32
Work Paul, about China's trade surplus reaching a trillion
27:36
dollars, allegedly. So watch that at 9 yesterday.
27:41
Charles, you were speaking to Chris Coverdale.
27:43
Yeah, indeed, this second interview with Chris, first one
27:46
was dealing with the sort of individual issues with paying
27:48
taxation and how it shouldn't be done because it's used to fund
27:52
wars. And this is essentially the same
27:55
theme but with a with more of a corporate focus and what people
27:59
can do when they're working within organisations.
28:02
OK, now next on Friday is our last UK column, News of the
28:06
Year, and we'll be doing our usual end of year roundup while
28:09
we're off on the Christmas break at 1:00 PM.
28:13
Most days there'll be some content going out and most of it
28:16
will be the presentations from the Cheltenham event that we
28:20
held earlier this year. So Catherine Gunn, Alex
28:22
Thompson, Patrick Henningson, Raja Mayor Brian Gerrish and
28:26
also the the panel discussion that UK column members had the
28:32
Q&A that will those will all go out at 1:00 PM on most days.
28:37
Obviously, we're not putting out a thing out on Christmas Day,
28:39
Boxing Day and so on, but join us at 1:00 PM for those if you
28:42
possibly can. OK, Charles, let's move on then
28:46
to the question of Freemasonry and the police.
28:49
Yes, the Metropolitan Police Service has finally kicked the
28:52
hornet's nest and they put out an announcement saying that they
28:56
have changed the conditions under which people are regarded
29:01
when they have membership of what's described as a
29:04
hierarchical organisation. So hierarchical organisations
29:07
added to declarable association policy and they said
29:13
specifically the move follows a consultation of officers and
29:15
staff which showed 2/3 of those who responded felt membership of
29:19
such organisations effects perception of police,
29:22
impartiality and public trust. Now they went on saying that
29:28
officers and staff are now required to declare a
29:30
membership, past or present, of any potentially influential
29:33
organisation that is hierarchical as confidential
29:36
membership and requires members to support and protect each
29:40
other. Now, that was 1 one of the
29:43
particular thorns that the United Grand Lodge of England
29:46
has taken with the Metropolitan Police Service, as well as the
29:50
percentage of Metropolitan Police staff that actually took
29:53
part in the survey. That's effectively delivered
29:55
this result because it was only about 5% of the total.
29:59
However, the point about public perception is one that we'll
30:01
come back to now. This changes the situation
30:05
somewhat according to how it is at the moment.
30:07
The College of Police Vetting Code of Practise gives a number
30:12
of reasons why people might be ineligible for joining the
30:15
police, and that relates to connections to criminals or
30:19
criminal activity posing risks to the public and those who are
30:22
vulnerable have a demonstrable lack of honesty and so forth.
30:25
Now the suggestion here is not that membership of the Masons
30:30
would actually preclude one from being a member of the
30:33
Metropolitan Police Service, but rather that it's just something
30:36
that needs to be declared. Now.
30:38
On the 11th of December, the United Grand Lodge put out a
30:42
statement entitled Metropolitan Police Update in which they
30:45
critically say we are disappointed that a decision
30:48
which potentially effects our members has been taken without
30:52
open or effective consultation. Now it might be seen that what
30:56
they're doing there is effectively giving a tacit
30:59
admission that they do have undue influence or indeed
31:02
certainly that they want to as part of this process, presumably
31:06
to overturn it and make sure that doesn't happen.
31:09
Now, if they're talking about having their members affected by
31:13
this, how do they mean? I mean, you know that the the
31:16
point of this is purely a declaration that you are a
31:20
member of such an an organisation and and nothing
31:24
beyond that. Anyway, the the level of their
31:27
dissatisfaction has gone further and just today they've announced
31:31
that they are going to launch legal action against the
31:34
Metropolitan Police and they say that they've made their concerns
31:38
clear and that the requirement has the potential to undermine
31:41
public credibility of Freemasons and could impact negatively on
31:45
its members. So the same line in effect about
31:49
the priority going to the members of Masonic lodges rather
31:53
than to the public and not undermining the credibility of
31:57
the police by having among their number people who do have
32:02
conflicts of interest or at least potential conflicts of
32:04
interest. The Federation, effectively the
32:06
Union, has come out and issued a short statement in which they
32:10
say that this is unnecessary and wrong, so don't.
32:12
This is going to be quite a bit more back and forth on this
32:15
particular issue. Thanks, Charles.
32:18
Now let's, well, let's again, I want to introduce everyone to
32:23
this company, Zivr. This is the secure
32:26
communications company, they say.
32:29
Zivr was founded in 2015 in Amsterdam in the Netherlands and
32:32
they raised $32.2 million in funding from investors,
32:36
including DM Capital and Dawn Capital.
32:39
They currently employ around 130 staff with offices in Amsterdam,
32:43
London and New York and provide secure communications for 11,000
32:48
organisations. That's what they say, but as
32:51
their announcement banner at the top of their website shows, they
32:57
have just been acquired by Kite Networks.
33:01
Sorry, Kite works, sorry, and we'll come on to that.
33:03
Come back to that in a second. Zipper provides cloud based
33:07
secure communications solutions specialising in encrypted email,
33:11
file transfer and E signatures, and they market themselves as a
33:16
European alternative with quotes Zero knowledge 0 access
33:20
encryption and they're saying that neither Zivr nor cloud
33:24
providers could access customer data, which is apparently not
33:29
the case. In fact, because content is not
33:33
encrypted on the user's computer in all situations, it is
33:38
encrypted on Zivr servers in some situations.
33:41
So Zivr can read the data before it's transmitted to its
33:44
destination. Now this report on screen at the
33:46
moment sites the news website follow the money, which is a
33:50
Dutch news website, and also sites independent security
33:55
analysts who discovered the data centre servers are sent in the
33:59
clear before being encrypted. Now, the headline implies this
34:03
is a problem because of the acquisition by Kiteworks.
34:06
And so the question is then, why would that be?
34:09
Well, it's because Kiteworks is yet another of these is really
34:13
Unit 8200 founded tech companies, Well, actually not
34:15
founded, but at least run by hoovering up bulk data from,
34:20
well, WHO, including health data.
34:22
So their chief executive then is Jonathan Yaron.
34:27
He has a background in Unit 8200.
34:29
He was appointed to the board in 2016.
34:31
He later became chairman and chief executive.
34:34
He recruited Yaron Gallant, we'll see in a second, also a
34:38
Unit 8200 graduate, the chief product officer is Ahmed Turin
34:44
that we could see on screen. At the moment, he is department
34:48
head at Israel Defence Forces Intelligence Unit 8200, where he
34:54
founded and LED a special data analytics team that received the
34:58
Israeli Defence Prize. And we just mentioned Yaron
35:01
Gallant here. He is described as an 8200
35:04
graduate and inventor of the web application firewall.
35:08
He was appointed chief product officer at Kiteworks.
35:11
And then on top of that, we've got other Israeli executives
35:13
working for the company, including Ron Margalit, who
35:17
worked at Unity 200 before serving in the office of Israeli
35:20
Prime Minister Benji Netanyahu. And mergers and acquisitions
35:25
director Yuri Kadem is a former Israeli naval captain.
35:29
So lots of links to Israeli intelligence and the IDF in
35:34
this. And yet, despite these concerns,
35:36
multiple NHS trusts and European government agencies continue to
35:40
use ever though they were originally attracted to it
35:44
specifically because it was European owned.
35:46
And this idea of data sovereignty in Europe, in the UK
35:51
publicly, we know about West Sussex NHS Foundation Trust and
35:56
and a whole host of others because in fact, the NHS mail
36:01
system is connected up to this infrastructure as well.
36:05
I'm just going to say, you know, although Kiteworks is AUS
36:08
company now, it is run by these guys.
36:13
This data export from the UK to the United States was really
36:19
enabled by this legislation, the Data Use and Access Act that we
36:22
were warning about well before it ever became formal
36:26
legislation. And this is enabling a lot of
36:30
the bulk data collection surveillance that we're seeing
36:32
at the moment and the export of that to the United States,
36:36
where, of course, it falls into the hands of not only Israeli
36:39
intelligence, but also the AI companies.
36:41
So we should be absolutely paying attention to what's going
36:45
on here. We should.
36:46
I mean, I think, you know, interesting to have the sort of
36:48
reference to data sovereignty, which effectively as a concept
36:52
is made to be utterly laughable in so many ways.
36:55
I mean either by people who we might regard as bad actors, or
36:58
by corporations or states who simply want to do what they
37:01
like. Yes, we'll undoubtedly discuss
37:03
that more during Extra Mark. Let me welcome you to the
37:07
programme now and bring us up to date on what's going on with the
37:10
childhood vaccination schedule in the United States.
37:16
Good to be back, ladies and gentlemen and everyone at UK
37:19
column after some domestic and holiday related breaks there.
37:25
Interesting thing, it's kind of a scalpel here.
37:28
You might say something very precise.
37:30
RFK and the HHS have made the recommendation, a vote in fact,
37:38
by the vaccine advisory committee, to end the
37:41
requirement that all babies at birth should get the hepatitis B
37:46
vaccine. It might not sound like much,
37:48
but the critics of RFK and the vaccine industry and the mass
37:53
media cartel that's basically in the thrall of Big Pharma are all
37:57
screaming to high heavens. They're saying this is terrible.
38:01
What it is, is for 30 years, the hep.
38:04
Hep the B vaccine was required for all newborn babies, no
38:08
matter what their condition or the condition of the mother.
38:11
Now this this gets rid of the universal requirement.
38:16
Now the Hep B shot will only be limited to those mothers that
38:22
test positive for hepatitis B, but even then I believe they'll
38:26
still be some room for choice, but it basically makes more room
38:29
for for choice and informed consent, which in principle is
38:33
very important. This slide mentions some of the
38:36
background of the CDC's advisory committee voted to change the
38:40
hepatitis B birth dose recommendation, moving towards
38:45
individual decisions for infants of negative testing mothers.
38:49
The vaccine sceptical groups have been pushing for this shift
38:52
away from the universal birth dose mandate, although
38:55
paediatric groups strongly disagree.
38:58
So there's a lot of pushback going on, and some of that
39:02
pushback is from a usual source here.
39:05
This is from the University of Minnesota.
39:07
And the paediatricians, at least some of them are rebelling,
39:11
outright rebelling. Paediatricians reject the CDC
39:14
advisor's guidance and they plan to continue vaccinating all
39:18
newborns against TAP B. So they're really pushing back
39:21
hard. Many healthcare providers,
39:23
including doctors, medical societies, state health
39:27
departments, etcetera, are rejecting what they're calling
39:30
unscientific vaccine recommendations from an
39:33
influential federal advisory panel and will instead continue
39:38
following guidance from the American Academy of Paediatrics.
39:42
So it's kind of a turf war going on here.
39:45
And this is just some of the responses of the media.
39:48
The nation is sort of a centre left, a publication.
39:52
They're, they're really making their views known.
39:54
RFK Junior is a public health disaster.
39:57
They're even going so far as to say, but local Maha laws may be
40:01
an even bigger threat. And what they're talking about
40:03
there is the Make America Healthy Again recommendations to
40:08
reduce fluoride or eliminate fluoride in public water
40:11
supplies. So they're not just criticising
40:13
RFK along vaccine lines. Meanwhile, we have something
40:17
that you're not hearing much about, and that's an impeachment
40:20
effort out of Michigan. And this is Haley Stevens, a
40:24
pretty new member of Congress. As of the 10th of December,
40:28
Michigan Congresswoman Haley Stevens formally announced
40:31
articles of impeachment against RFK, Secretary of the Health and
40:35
Human Services Department, citing what she calls his
40:38
dangerous actions that have endangered public health and
40:42
gutted life saving medical research.
40:44
And we have a quote from her. Senator RFK has, excuse me,
40:50
Secretary RFK Junior has turned his back on science, on public
40:55
health and on the American people.
40:57
A bit of hyperbole here, spreading conspiracies and lies,
41:01
driving up costs and putting lives at risk.
41:04
And it definitely sounds like she's overstating the case.
41:08
It's also interesting to note that there is a long way to go
41:13
the the age. The age requirements from birth
41:16
to age 6 include hepatitis, BRSV, diphtheria, tetanus,
41:20
whooping cough, polio, COVID, flu, measles, MMR, chicken pox,
41:26
and hepatitis A. And that's the myriad of
41:30
vaccines that are required for age 0 to 6.
41:33
So there is a long way to go, but many are seeing this as a
41:37
good step forward for informed consent.
41:39
Although there's much more that could be done.
41:42
And I can extrapolate a little more on this an extra if you'd
41:45
like, but a lot of people aren't hearing about the impeachment
41:48
effort. I'm putting it all together
41:51
where most of the media reports this in a very fragmented way.
41:54
But that's the latest, and we'll see how this develops as this
41:57
year ends. Thank you, Mark.
41:59
Thanks very much for that, Vanessa.
42:01
Let's move back to the Middle East then.
42:04
And of course recently the attack on U.S. military there by
42:11
ISIS. Yes, I would argue, I think it's
42:15
the first attack by by ISIS against U.S. military and the
42:20
only time that ISIS attacked Israel, they actually apologised
42:23
for it to Israel back in 2017. So people should pay attention
42:29
to that when when the US and Trump in particular is claiming
42:32
that he's he's in Syria to fight against ISIS.
42:36
Of course, ISIS is another proxy of the US that has been used to
42:41
overthrow the former Syrian government and to destabilise
42:46
Iraq also. So on the 15th of December,
42:50
three Americans were killed in Syria, in Palmyra.
42:53
And I'll show that on the map in a second by ISIS.
42:57
And ISIS terrorists were members of the Iowa National Guard.
43:01
So that was two of the three Americans killed.
43:04
Let's have a look. Actually where the attack took
43:06
place. It was in really central, can't
43:10
be any more central than that. In Palmyra, which actually
43:13
traditionally was an ISIS held area just before the fall of
43:20
Damascus, the Syrian Arab Army had been running a campaign in
43:24
exactly that area to try and clean out the the ISIS terrorist
43:28
cells that was still operating there and that had conducted
43:32
attacks against the Syrian Army and and which led to massacres
43:36
of the Syrian Arab Army personnel.
43:39
At that time. Pete Hagseth went on X in his
43:43
usual rational way. The savage who perpetrated this
43:47
attack was killed by partner forces.
43:49
Let it be known, if you target Americans anywhere in the world,
43:53
this is obviously come from AI. You will spend the rest of your
43:56
brief, anxious life knowing that the United States will hunt you,
43:59
find you, and ruthlessly kill you.
44:01
So, again, demonstrating that he's perfectly of sound mind
44:05
when he's putting posts on X. This was from Ambassador Tom
44:10
Barrack, Trump's hitman, economic hitman in the region,
44:14
strongly condemning the cowardly terrorist ambush targeting a
44:18
joint US Syrian government patrol.
44:21
They had been warned of the potential for attack.
44:24
No one had taken any notice of it.
44:26
And then a response there from Karim Franceski, who's a Kurdish
44:32
supporter. With respect, Ambassador, you
44:35
helped legitimise A faction whose security apparatus is full
44:40
of recycled ISIS and Nusra, Al Qaeda and Syria fighters.
44:46
You pushed to replace the SDF, the only force that actually
44:52
broke ISIS. I would disagree with that with
44:54
HTS, a group that absorbed them. Now U.S. troops are dead.
44:59
Now, he's making a valid point. the US actually supported ISIS
45:04
and as President Assad said in one interview, if you supporting
45:09
terrorism is like putting a scorpion in your pocket, I'm
45:12
paraphrasing, eventually the scorpion will sting you and kill
45:16
you. Now, what is particularly
45:17
interesting, and there is a photo circulating on social
45:20
media, but I can't verify it, but this was in Le Man today.
45:24
The Syrian who killed the Americans was actually part of
45:28
the security forces, so he was actually part of Jolani's
45:33
entourage, albeit ISIS. But then again, this shows the
45:37
ridiculousness of Jolani being made part of the coalition
45:41
against ISIS when the majority of his Takferi forces are in
45:46
reality de facto ISIS. But then let's see what excuse
45:50
Jolani and the Syrian authority new Syria authorities came up
45:54
with. So basically they said, well,
45:56
no, hang on, we were about to sack this guy.
46:00
But actually we were waiting until Monday.
46:02
This was from another report because Saturday is an
46:06
administrative holiday. Well, believe that and I've got
46:10
a bridge somewhere else to to sell you.
46:12
But anyway, they were going to sack him just as the White
46:15
Helmets were going to sack a White Helmet that was involved
46:18
in the execution of Syrian Arab Army soldiers back in 2016.
46:22
And then he reappeared in White Helmet promo videos about a
46:26
month later. So, and you know, let's take
46:29
that with a pinch of salt and then what is happening?
46:34
Of course, as I said, after Jolani was made part of the anti
46:38
ISIS coalition, ISIS would use this as a very successful
46:43
recruitment drive because the majority of Jolani's Takferi
46:48
forces were ISIS. Now many of them have laughed
46:51
and have defected to the official ISIS organisation.
46:56
And this was in the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
47:00
this morning, an alarming development.
47:03
Gunmen in military uniforms with ISIS patches established
47:08
makeshift checkpoints in Aleppo and Derozorso in effectively the
47:12
north of Syria and the North East.
47:14
And in fact, 1 of Jolani's security forces was killed this
47:17
morning by an ISIS or or rather sorry, an unknown assailant,
47:23
masked assailant. No guesses for who that might
47:25
be. So in my opinion, either the US
47:28
is trying to stoke some kind of civil war between Jolani's less
47:32
tack fury entourage against a newly reinforced ISIS, of course
47:38
reinforced by the US and Israel effectively, or the US is
47:45
looking to carry out a bombing campaign on Syria on the basis
47:48
that American forces are getting killed.
47:52
OK, Thank you for that. Thank you for that.
47:54
Let's come back to the United Kingdom and Charles Online
47:58
Safety Act. Obviously, the petition got
48:00
quite a response. What happened?
48:03
Well, very little unfortunately. And as Mike says, there was a
48:06
petition earlier in the year which attracted over half a
48:08
million signatures and this was therefore debated in Westminster
48:13
Hall just on Monday. And the question to be asked is
48:18
who cares that it was very, very sparsely attended and indeed
48:22
only by people who were in support of it.
48:25
So it looks very much like there was absolutely no resistance to
48:30
censorship whatsoever. And that is in stark contrast
48:33
with the attendance at the debate into digital ID, which
48:37
took place the previous week. Now, the debate was led by Lewis
48:40
Atkinson, and in the many remarks he did make was to say
48:45
my only regret is that the few members of the House who have
48:47
publicly called for outright repeal of the Online Safety
48:50
Safety Act were not here this afternoon.
48:53
So now how one explains that is not really totally clear, but
48:57
we'll just show a short clip of Lewis Atkinson in his closing
49:01
remarks, of course having had absolutely no pushback during
49:04
the entire debate. As a result, I think it's it's
49:09
entirely natural that the first. Attempt at regulation and
49:13
legislation will not ever get everything right and will
49:15
require require evolution. And the Online Safety Act was a
49:19
landmark moment attempting to regulate online harms.
49:23
And I think it's fair to say that the the consensus that
49:27
we've heard today. Is that that needs to evolve,
49:30
that we shouldn't be looking to repeal, but to evolve at pace
49:34
and ensure implementation at place at pace.
49:37
To ensure that we tackle those online and harms in a way that
49:40
is consistent with our rich values and there's freedoms of
49:42
expression and association that we've heard.
49:47
So that's basically what the government are taking from that
49:49
petition. They've got a couple of things
49:50
wrong, but they should now proceed at pace.
49:52
Yes, because we've got to accelerate everything all the
49:55
time. We have.
49:55
We do. Yeah.
49:57
OK. Well, I suppose in a sense
49:59
related to this, the Trump lawsuit against the BBC, which
50:04
was, was that yesterday it was announced to.
50:06
The way time goes, it's hard to say, but this is what the BBC
50:09
had on on their thing. BBC says it will defend Trump
50:11
over defamation lawsuit over Panorama speech Edit Well, it's
50:16
not $5 billion as they, as they reported.
50:18
There's what they said about it. They're going to defend
50:20
themselves against a $5 billion lawsuit.
50:24
Well, before we clarify exactly what the amount is, let's just
50:28
look at what Trump had to say. I'm sorry to do this, but we
50:32
just thought there's certain comedy value in it.
50:36
In a little while, you'll be seeing I'm suing the BBC for
50:39
putting words in my mouth. Literally, they put words in my
50:41
mouth. They had me saying things that I
50:43
never said coming out. I guess they used AI or
50:46
something. So we'll be bringing that
50:48
lawsuit. A lot of people are asking when
50:50
are you bringing that lawsuit? Even the media can't believe
50:53
that one they would. They actually put terrible words
50:56
in my mouth having to do with January 6th that I didn't say
51:00
and the beautiful words that I said, right?
51:04
The beautiful words talking about patriotism and all of the
51:09
good things that I said, They didn't say that, but they put
51:12
terrible words they actually have me speaking with.
51:16
Words that I never. Said And they got caught because
51:20
I believe somebody at BBC said this is so bad it has to be
51:23
reported. Let's go fake news.
51:26
So we'll be filing that soon, probably this afternoon or
51:29
tomorrow morning. What did those three chaps do
51:34
wrong to have to stand behind him?
51:35
Well ended good question, but but anyway, as I say, it's not 5
51:39
billion because it's 10 billion. So the the lawsuit is seeking 5
51:43
billion in damages for defamation, sorry for defamation
51:46
and other and another $5 billion under Florida's deceptive and
51:50
unfair trade practises Act. So more information if we have a
51:54
look at this tweet here from Judicial Hub.
51:57
And they have, I think that on that Twitter thread, they have
52:00
links to the the actual suit itself.
52:04
The BBC had, of course, as we reported, issued a formal
52:08
apology saying that their editing gave the mistaken
52:12
impression that President Trump had made a direct call for
52:14
violent action. And they also reported that the
52:18
Trump team never responded to BBC's apology, but their apology
52:24
sort of gave the impression that they had created.
52:28
They had created the impression sorry that Trump had incited
52:31
violence that and that that was unintentional on their part.
52:34
Well, that has clearly hasn't gone down well with Trump.
52:39
They said on the 15th, which was Monday, We're not going to make
52:43
further comment on ongoing legal proceedings.
52:46
But here's the thing. Also on Monday, Trump suspended
52:49
the tech prosperity deal with the UK and what is being
52:53
reported as a major set back. So if you remember, this was the
52:58
the whole business of the new UKUS Energy partnership powering
53:03
1.5 million British homes. And let's not forget Stargate UK
53:08
as well. So that has apparently been
53:11
suspended as a result of the BB CS actions here.
53:15
And I haven't really seen that much coverage of that particular
53:17
aspect of this in any of the British press.
53:19
So I just thought best to to mention it.
53:23
But where does that bring us then?
53:24
Back to Mark then and sticking with Trump and tariffs.
53:31
Thanks gentlemen. Yeah, this is a really big
53:33
issue, bigger than meets the eye.
53:36
You might recall April 2nd and I covered it some on UK column
53:41
after that, the Trump introduced a major tariff initiative and it
53:45
would rescue America from what was basically deemed as a would
53:49
be or actual economic emergency. And so before we talk about the
53:55
Lutnick family for a moment before we do that, a a Supreme
53:59
Court decision is hanging in the balance.
54:01
It could happen any day, conceivably even later today,
54:05
probably after the new year. And that Supreme Court decision
54:09
would cancel Trump's ability to carry out his tariff policy
54:14
under a emergency law in 1977. That's when that law was passed,
54:20
and that law gave Trump delegated authority from
54:24
Congress to enact tariff laws on his own as long as an emergency
54:30
threshold was made. Otherwise, you would have to
54:34
default to the US Constitution where under 1, Section 8, tariff
54:39
policy, trade policy is up to Congress and Article 1, Section
54:43
7 of the Constitution says that all bills for raising revenue
54:48
shall be in the House of Representatives.
54:50
The only way to get an exception to that is to have a statue.
54:53
That's the key here. Now, briefly, meanwhile, the
54:57
Lutnick family, Howard Lutnick, of course, is the commerce
55:00
secretary under Trump. They've been angling.
55:03
Let's show this. This hasn't been reported much,
55:07
only in a piece meal fashion and not with a lot of hoopla.
55:10
They're angling to make a lot of money.
55:12
If the court votes down Trump's tariff policy, the Supreme
55:17
Court, what they would basically do is they'd approach the
55:20
importing companies, the ones that pay the brunt of the tariff
55:23
taxes, and they would give them some money and say here, take
55:27
take a couple million each and you'll be happy.
55:30
And in return, Howard Lutnick, who divested himself of this
55:36
direct involvement of this, but his son Brandon Lutnick is is
55:39
head of the company now Cantor Fitzgerald.
55:43
So the sun has taken over because Howard is commerce
55:47
secretary. But nevertheless, it's the
55:49
Lutnick family anyway, they'd pay off the importing families.
55:52
And then that would give the the the Lutnick business, Cantor
55:57
Fitzgerald rights to collect the full payback that the Trump
56:02
administration would have to do, paying back the the money it had
56:06
collected through the tariffs. So the Lutnick family's business
56:10
here, it stands to make a killing if the Supreme Court
56:13
rules against Trump's tariffs, a very illicit and and rather, you
56:19
know, repellent development. You might say it.
56:22
A lot of corruption here, a lot of robber Baron kind of
56:26
behaviour. Now, let's move on real briefly.
56:29
And basically the rest is the Supreme Court's pending
56:33
decision. The rest of the slides basically
56:36
outlined that. And this here, this slide here
56:41
we can show very briefly, this is the main thing, the Supreme
56:44
Court ruling on EPA, that's the 1977 law, the International
56:49
Emergency Economic Powers Act. That's what gives the president
56:53
this exception from congressional power and allows
56:56
him to regulate commerce during national emergencies.
57:00
Yes, we ran huge trade deficits with China, China realising huge
57:04
record surpluses. That's all true.
57:07
Did it ever constitute an economic emergency?
57:10
Probably not. Something of a crisis, something
57:13
of a economic problem for sure. This is something from the
57:18
Peterson Institute. Will the Supreme Court determine
57:21
the fate of Trump tariffs? That's something else that'll be
57:24
in the show notes, but that's sufficient for the slides.
57:27
It, it boils down to this being a bellwether decision, guys, as
57:31
to whether Trump's tariff policy will stand.
57:34
So once once these Supreme Court makes that decision anytime now,
57:38
then it's just a question of whether Trump will appeal to
57:41
other laws that are on the books that might give him some wiggle
57:45
room. Otherwise, he'll have to defer
57:47
to Congress under the Constitution.
57:49
So there's billions of dollars at stake here.
57:52
The Lutnick family engaging in hanky panky like we're seeing
57:56
and many other matters, and it'll change very quickly, so
58:00
we'll see what happens. Thanks, Mark.
58:03
Thank you for that. Let's finish then Charles with
58:06
farming. Yes, and via an examination of
58:10
the Finance Bill, the second reading of which took place
58:12
yesterday, and that has resulted in two days worth of committee
58:16
hearings on a number of provisions therein.
58:19
Now, one of those is the proposed changes to inheritance
58:22
tax for farmers and business owners.
58:24
And I just have a video clip really to illustrate how
58:28
parliamentary democracy works, or indeed doesn't, as expressed
58:32
by comments made during a meeting of the Liaison Committee
58:35
on Monday. And we'll see Alan Carmichael,
58:38
who's the chair of the Environment, Farming and Rural
58:41
Affairs Committee, asking the Prime Minister about what would
58:44
appear to be a vindictive attack on smaller farms via the changes
58:49
to agricultural property relief. It is a it's an economic reform
58:54
which we took in the budget before last, not targeted.
58:57
It is to adjust the rate at which inheritance tax is that
59:03
the fact that it's paid, the rate at which it's paid and the
59:06
period over which it is paid. But it's not targeted against
59:10
individuals. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not
59:13
arguing with you that there are therefore going to be
59:16
individuals affected, as there are with any change in any tax
59:19
regime. But there's a difference between
59:21
changing the tax regime and targeting a group of
59:24
individuals. This is about changing the tax
59:26
regime. The anti force stalling clause
59:29
that we've spoken about traps farmers.
59:32
And. Into the new rules, it doesn't
59:35
allow them the same opportunities that other
59:38
taxpayers will have to use tax planning to manage their affairs
59:42
in a sensible way that will allow the succession of family
59:46
farms in this country. That doesn't make it targeted.
59:50
It is a necessary consequence of the decisions that we've taken.
59:54
But I can assure you, as you would expect, the president of
59:58
the NFU has raised this issue issue with me on more than one
1:00:02
occasion. Not just the president of the
1:00:04
NFU. Well, I appreciate that You've
1:00:05
heard it from Kat Smith, you've heard it from my Select
1:00:08
Committee, you've heard it from the Welsh Affairs Select
1:00:10
Committee, you've heard it from the Northern Ireland Affairs
1:00:13
Committee. You don't.
1:00:15
These are all select committees, incidentally, that have
1:00:17
majorities from the Labor Party, and they have all produced
1:00:22
unanimous reports calling for this to be paused and rethought.
1:00:26
You don't have to listen to me. You don't even have to listen to
1:00:29
the farmers out there. You don't have to listen to the
1:00:31
president at the NFU. But why do you not listen to
1:00:34
your own party colleagues? I do listen to party colleagues
1:00:37
all the time. And then do what you're going to
1:00:39
do anyway. The last word going to Alan
1:00:44
Carmichael. And it should be noted that the
1:00:46
projected return from changing this inheritance tax threshold
1:00:50
would be £500 million in the year, which is equivalent to 1
1:00:53
day's pay for the National Health Service.
1:00:56
And when we think back to what Blaze meant well and Richard
1:01:00
Knighton was saying about resilience and whole of society
1:01:03
approach, in fact it seems nothing more than a drive for
1:01:06
corporate capture and a deliberate destruction of of the
1:01:09
establishment of certainly the rural economy as it stands.
1:01:14
There we are. Thank you, Charles.
1:01:15
Well, lots to talk about an extra.
1:01:18
We will be there in a few minutes.
1:01:20
If you are UK call members, stay on the live stream for that, but
1:01:23
we're going to leave it there for today.
1:01:26
Enjoy the rest of the day, enjoy Germ and and Carl tonight.
1:01:30
We'll be back for news at 1:00 PM as usual on Friday.
1:01:33
We'll see you then. Thanks for joining us.
1:01:35
Bye bye. Bye bye.