Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 14th September 2026

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UK Column News — 14th September 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon. It's Monday, 14th September, 2026. You're watching UK
0:12
Speaker 1: Column News. It's just after one o'clock. I'm your host,
0:16
Speaker 1: Ben Rubin. Delighted to be joining the studio today by Mr.
0:20
Speaker 1: Brian Gerrish. And we've got a big week this week,
0:22
Speaker 1: haven't we, Brian?
0:23
Speaker 2: We've got a fantastically big week because Friday is the
0:27
Speaker 2: start of our 20th celebration, which is over the weekend,
0:31
Speaker 2: Saturday and into Sunday. I'm just going to reassure people
0:35
Speaker 2: we did book good weather. We thought that was something
0:38
Speaker 2: important to do. So don't be at all worried by
0:41
Speaker 2: the view of the window behind us where we got
0:45
Speaker 2: quite a lot of fog in the sound. I'm told
0:47
Speaker 2: the weather at the weekend is going to be good.
0:50
Speaker 2: If we have any problems, we'll be speaking to Devon
0:53
Speaker 2: County Council's Director of Climate Change. Yes, such a position exists.
0:59
Speaker 2: We'll be talking to Meg Booth and I'm sure Meg
1:03
Speaker 2: will be sorting the climate out for us. locally in Plymouth,
1:07
Speaker 2: because presumably it's easier to sort the climate out in
1:10
Speaker 2: a small local area, Ben, than it is to do
1:13
Speaker 2: it for the whole world.
1:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, they'll probably just have to increase our
1:17
Speaker 1: council tax or something like that, and that'll sort it out.
1:19
Speaker 2: Well, possibly. We'll take a hit on that. And we'll
1:23
Speaker 2: also add that, of course, the fog behind us will
1:26
Speaker 2: be making the day a little bit unpleasant for Some
1:30
Speaker 2: of our guests who are arriving to the UK Column
1:33
Speaker 2: 20th anniversary event by boat, the boat in question, lovely
1:38
Speaker 2: boat called Bucephalus, which, if I remember correctly, is the
1:41
Speaker 2: name of Alexander the Great's horse. But they will be
1:45
Speaker 2: in a little bit of a delicate situation because they'll
1:48
Speaker 2: be somewhere in the middle of the channel with a
1:51
Speaker 2: lot of traffic operating in that foggy environment. So we
1:56
Speaker 2: wish them a safe passage. But exciting week.
2:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, fantastic. A very exciting week. But of course, it's
2:03
Speaker 1: not the only thing going on in the country at
2:05
Speaker 1: the moment. We've got a busy show today, lots to
2:07
Speaker 1: get through. We're going to be looking at the extraordinary
2:10
Speaker 1: cult of personality that's being built up around our dear leader, Mr.
2:15
Speaker 1: Andy Burnham. We'll be exploring the huge blow to Burnham's
2:20
Speaker 1: signature local government reorganisation scheme, which came in last week
2:23
Speaker 1: as we were just ending Extra, which we're going to
2:25
Speaker 1: talk about, including... Clips of an interview with Madeleine Hunt
2:31
Speaker 1: from the Heritage Party and Rachel from Council Watch, which
2:36
Speaker 1: we're going to explore further in extra as well. That
2:40
Speaker 1: has triggered an enormous power grab at the centre of government.
2:43
Speaker 1: There's a letter that came out from Chancellor Healey in
2:47
Speaker 1: the wake of that decision, which we're going to have
2:49
Speaker 1: a little look at, see what their response has been.
2:52
Speaker 1: We're going to be exploring the social experimentation that is
2:55
Speaker 1: being carried out around the huge influx of Ukrainian refugees
2:58
Speaker 1: who've come into the country over the past few years.
3:01
Speaker 1: We'll be looking at a very eventful couple of weeks
3:03
Speaker 1: for Boris Johnson, the mind games and propaganda playing out
3:07
Speaker 1: in the UK, coordinated by the state against its own population,
3:11
Speaker 1: and also some good news at the end of the
3:13
Speaker 1: show about the Assisted Dying Bill, or the State Murder Bill,
3:17
Speaker 1: as I prefer to call it. But before we get
3:19
Speaker 1: into all of that... We're going to be continuing on
3:23
Speaker 1: a theme that the UK column has been looking at
3:25
Speaker 1: for many, many years now, which is essentially the chaos
3:28
Speaker 1: and breakdown is happening around the country. Last Monday, we
3:33
Speaker 1: spoke about the protest which took place on the south coast,
3:36
Speaker 1: the first one. in Dover on Saturday and then Portsmouth
3:39
Speaker 1: on Sunday. These Patriot protests coordinated by the chap on
3:45
Speaker 1: the left there, that is Danny Tomo, through his Patriot platform,
3:49
Speaker 1: which actually looks to me like a data gathering operation
3:53
Speaker 1: people who you really don't want to be giving your
3:55
Speaker 1: data to. Danny Tomo effectively being presented now, I think,
3:59
Speaker 1: is the new Tommy Robinson.
4:00
Speaker 2: 2.0.
4:01
Speaker 1: 2.0, exactly. They've almost got the same name, actually. It's
4:05
Speaker 1: quite an amazing thing. And the Patriot platform have continued
4:11
Speaker 1: their fight back against the establishment this week. You can
4:14
Speaker 1: see here huge amounts of propaganda coming out from their ex-account.
4:17
Speaker 1: They're really upping the ante. essentially position themselves as the
4:21
Speaker 1: counter-establishment voice, even though they are essentially backed by the
4:25
Speaker 1: people behind the establishment. You know, this is not what
4:31
Speaker 1: it's being presented at, I think it's fair to say.
4:34
Speaker 1: Although a lot of the messaging on there, I actually
4:36
Speaker 1: kind of agree with in some ways. We can get
4:38
Speaker 1: that back up. We can see it is time to
4:40
Speaker 1: fight back. But it's not to do that with violence,
4:43
Speaker 1: with courage, integrity and discipline. So they're appealing to people's
4:47
Speaker 1: good nature, but unfortunately the energy I don't think is
4:49
Speaker 1: being directed in the right direction. But people have been responding.
4:54
Speaker 1: They've been out on the streets again this weekend. Another
4:56
Speaker 1: video here from Portsmouth protesting against small boats. So similar
5:02
Speaker 1: to the protest that we had last week, the chants
5:06
Speaker 1: in the video, you can't hear them because I haven't
5:07
Speaker 1: got the volume playing in the background, but essentially it
5:10
Speaker 1: stopped the boats, stopped the boats, And this seems to
5:12
Speaker 1: be the main focus of this supposed patriot movement is
5:17
Speaker 1: stopping small boats and illegal immigration coming into the UK.
5:19
Speaker 1: But as we talk about all the time, that is
5:22
Speaker 1: a tiny part of the issue, a much broader set
5:24
Speaker 1: of issues, very complex and interconnected problems that we're facing
5:27
Speaker 1: as a society. But their attention, this patriotic attention, is
5:31
Speaker 1: being directed specifically towards this one issue. And one really
5:36
Speaker 1: has to ask the question as to why that might be.
5:38
Speaker 1: You know, is it perhaps that the people behind this
5:41
Speaker 1: don't actually want to fix the bigger problems that we
5:43
Speaker 1: have across the society. The Patriot platform and these protests
5:47
Speaker 1: have been getting quite a lot of coverage, right, and
5:50
Speaker 1: a lot of it very mainstream, including from Ant Middleton,
5:54
Speaker 1: the former SBS operative, and now I guess kind of
5:58
Speaker 1: presenting himself as a potential politician. He talks about himself
6:02
Speaker 1: as the future mayor of London, which I think is
6:04
Speaker 1: quite interesting. Maybe you know something that we don't. But
6:07
Speaker 1: he's encouraging people to stand up and be counted to
6:10
Speaker 1: go down to this protest on the weekend, which is
6:13
Speaker 1: now South Coast Patriots. So we had the Patriot platform.
6:16
Speaker 1: We now got the South Coast Patriots, which is made
6:18
Speaker 1: up of Bournemouth, Portsmouth and Southampton Patriots. So these kind
6:21
Speaker 1: of splinter groups are appearing. And of course, as you
6:25
Speaker 1: would just expect, because this is the way that they
6:27
Speaker 1: do these things, a counter protest also kicked off over
6:32
Speaker 1: the weekend in Portsmouth, coordinated by stand up to racism
6:38
Speaker 1: and various unions. And this is all extremely predictable because
6:44
Speaker 1: this is the same kind of divide and rule operation
6:47
Speaker 1: that's been running in the background across the country for
6:50
Speaker 1: at least the past two years, essentially.
6:52
Speaker 3: Right.
6:53
Speaker 1: And we can bring that up on screen. We can
6:56
Speaker 1: see here the way that I've been framing this is
6:58
Speaker 1: you've got the right wing, which is the white masculine
7:01
Speaker 1: native rural conservative Christians and who are kind of pro-Israel.
7:05
Speaker 1: And on the left, you've got the black, feminine, immigrant, urban, progressive, Islamic,
7:09
Speaker 1: pro-Palestine movement, which is evidenced by the two marches that
7:15
Speaker 1: we just had a look at there, which are the
7:17
Speaker 1: same groups that have been out marching on the streets
7:19
Speaker 1: of British cities for at least, as I said, the
7:23
Speaker 1: past 18 months, two years, led out by the people...
7:28
Speaker 1: political operators. So people are actually in the political system,
7:31
Speaker 1: but also I think at the minute, more importantly, by
7:33
Speaker 1: the street level operators, these influencer types on the right wing,
7:37
Speaker 1: I think best evidence by Danny Tomo, who we've been
7:40
Speaker 1: talking about, and then on the left wing by people
7:43
Speaker 1: like Miss Anne Harriman, who has been pushing the stand
7:47
Speaker 1: up to racism material over the weekend. You have narrative, counter-narrative, thesis,
7:53
Speaker 1: anti-thesis and And actually, they're very much backed by the
7:58
Speaker 1: same kind of people. And actually, we can get that
8:00
Speaker 1: back on screen. I'm going to say that they're both
8:02
Speaker 1: backed by Zionists. If you look at Tomo and if
8:05
Speaker 1: you look at Harriman, if you see what they're into,
8:08
Speaker 1: where the money's coming from, then they're essentially backed by
8:10
Speaker 1: the same people. And those people are profiting from the
8:13
Speaker 1: chaos that's being caused on the streets of British cities
8:17
Speaker 1: in order to bring through a totalitarian agenda. Now, the
8:21
Speaker 1: Danny Tomo saga is continuing and is going to continue
8:25
Speaker 1: to continue. So just yesterday, he was boxed in by
8:28
Speaker 1: police on the way to church. He was on the
8:31
Speaker 1: way to church with his son and he was boxed
8:33
Speaker 1: in by police. And there is a video of it.
8:35
Speaker 1: But actually, this AI propaganda, I think, is actually a
8:39
Speaker 1: really neat way of what we're looking at here.
8:42
Speaker 4: Right.
8:42
Speaker 1: So he was surrounded by police. The actual footage wasn't enough.
8:45
Speaker 1: So we've had to create something even more emotive to
8:48
Speaker 1: get people really riled up about what's happening. Danny Tomo's
8:52
Speaker 1: had a big week on a number of fronts. So actually,
8:55
Speaker 1: he had to set up a fundraiser because his mum
8:59
Speaker 1: was apparently doxxed by the Daily Mail. So her address
9:02
Speaker 1: was released. But then it turns out that Danny Tomo
9:05
Speaker 1: had actually put her address down. on a company's house
9:07
Speaker 1: registration document. So he'd actually put it into the public domain,
9:11
Speaker 1: but he still raised £ 65, 000 to help his mum relocate
9:14
Speaker 1: because of something that he did. So he's had quite
9:17
Speaker 1: a lot of money coming in. And then... I'll just add, there's.
9:20
Speaker 2: A lot to talk about there. And part of my
9:23
Speaker 2: talk at the UK Column Conference at the weekend will
9:28
Speaker 2: be on the subject of the Daily Mail and Paul Dacre, because,
9:32
Speaker 2: of course, Mr Dacre was speaking out pretty strongly recently
9:36
Speaker 2: about how mainstream press is being attacked for reporting what
9:41
Speaker 2: would have been quite acceptable to report just a few
9:44
Speaker 2: years ago. So there's some really interesting issues here, Ben,
9:48
Speaker 2: that we'll get into at the conference as well as
9:50
Speaker 2: having fun, of course.
9:52
Speaker 4: Yes.
9:52
Speaker 1: OK, fantastic. And actually, Danny Tomo was up at the
9:55
Speaker 1: Daily Mail office protesting over the past few days.
9:59
Speaker 4: Yeah.
10:00
Speaker 1: Know there's there's a lot going on here um one
10:02
Speaker 1: of the impacts that his protests on the south coast
10:04
Speaker 1: had last week was that now Hampshire police have effectively
10:07
Speaker 1: banned face coverings at protests so um you know we
10:10
Speaker 1: used to be able to cover our faces should we
10:12
Speaker 1: wish to that's now no longer allowed by the police
10:15
Speaker 1: was that the intention of that protest. I don't know,
10:20
Speaker 1: but it could have been.
10:21
Speaker 2: I swear there's lots of questions to be asked about
10:23
Speaker 2: how these groups operate and who support them and what
10:27
Speaker 2: they are attempting to do. So, a lot to talk about.
10:30
Speaker 1: Absolutely. And, of course, while we have these two warring
10:33
Speaker 1: factions protesting and counter-protesting each other on the streets of
10:37
Speaker 1: British cities, the establishment agenda is being forced right down
10:41
Speaker 1: the middle to In the background, what is that agenda?
10:44
Speaker 1: It looks like this. It looks like total commitment to
10:47
Speaker 1: a war in Eastern Europe that really has absolutely nothing
10:50
Speaker 1: to do with us so that young men, including many
10:52
Speaker 1: of those signing up for the Patriot platform, can be
10:55
Speaker 1: hunted by predator drones in Ukraine. in order to achieve what?
11:01
Speaker 1: No one's really particularly clear about that, but it will
11:04
Speaker 1: involve a lot of people dying and a lot of
11:06
Speaker 1: money being made by the military industrial complex. That's on
11:09
Speaker 1: the foreign front. On the home front, we've got this
11:11
Speaker 1: thing rumbling along, the National Emergency Briefing. We talked about
11:15
Speaker 1: it when it first appeared back in November last year.
11:17
Speaker 1: This is aiming towards a total reordering of society in
11:23
Speaker 1: response to the supposed climate crisis, a new economic model,
11:27
Speaker 1: new energy system, Billions, hundreds of billions, really unlimited amounts
11:32
Speaker 1: of public money put into new infrastructure projects, new housing systems,
11:37
Speaker 1: really the fundamentals of our entire society rebuilt from the
11:40
Speaker 1: ground up. And while we're protesting on the streets and
11:46
Speaker 1: calling each other extraordinary names in social media comments, I mean,
11:51
Speaker 1: the comments section on some of those videos, just appalling. Yeah,
11:54
Speaker 1: the language is being used. And I think you probably
11:56
Speaker 1: have to assume that a lot of it It's state
11:58
Speaker 1: operatives and bots who are trying to stir things up.
12:03
Speaker 1: It's the war and the climate crisis agenda that's being
12:07
Speaker 1: forced through in the background, right? So we've got to
12:08
Speaker 1: keep our eye on the ball here. Otherwise, things are
12:11
Speaker 1: not going to end up going well. in a very
12:14
Speaker 1: good direction for the country.
12:15
Speaker 2: I would just emphasize that you've described two groups. There
12:19
Speaker 2: are other left and rights or divides.
12:22
Speaker 5: Certainly.
12:23
Speaker 2: But they're all being played off against each other. And ultimately,
12:27
Speaker 2: both those groups are under attack. But they haven't yet
12:31
Speaker 2: worked out that the attack is not coming from the
12:34
Speaker 2: other group in the first instance. It's coming from the
12:37
Speaker 2: government system itself, which is changing very quickly from a
12:41
Speaker 2: democracy to into something which is extremely dark and dictatorial.
12:47
Speaker 2: But we'll do more on that in a few moments. Well,
12:51
Speaker 2: we've got a new prime minister. So how is he
12:54
Speaker 2: presenting himself? Well, of course, it's got to be as
12:57
Speaker 2: a lovely man out there working for charity. And he's
13:01
Speaker 2: wearing pink, of course. Let's have a look at Andy
13:04
Speaker 2: Burnham on the Great North Run.
13:07
Speaker 3: If you look here, there is the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham,
13:11
Speaker 3: on his way to the finish here in South Shields.
13:15
Speaker 3: And just, just moments ago, he was able to cross
13:20
Speaker 3: the line here, finish the Great North Run. He's the
13:23
Speaker 3: first Prime Minister to take part in this.
13:27
Speaker 1: Race or run I should say.
13:28
Speaker 3: Pretty exhausted but if you're the Prime Minister of the
13:32
Speaker 3: UK I'd expect nothing less. All the effort that goes
13:35
Speaker 3: into this and there he is. Still time for a chat.
13:38
Speaker 1: Tell you what, I'll do the interview like everybody else.
13:40
Speaker 4: What's your name?
13:41
Speaker 1: Where are you from? What brought you out today?
13:43
Speaker 4: I'm Andy and I'm not looking at my best right
13:45
Speaker 4: now but I left my indecent running shorts at home
13:47
Speaker 4: so at least I spared the people of the North
13:49
Speaker 4: East that.
13:50
Speaker 1: Sub two hours, you've got to be happy.
13:52
Speaker 4: You do have to be happy with that. It was
13:54
Speaker 4: pretty good, I must say.
13:56
Speaker 1: I loved it, though.
13:57
Speaker 4: It's just a brilliant occasion. Today, particularly, so many people
14:00
Speaker 4: out there, such positivity. You see the causes people are
14:03
Speaker 4: running for, but we're all pulling together for the bigger cause.
14:07
Speaker 4: It's just a day that reminds you how good this
14:09
Speaker 4: country is when it's together like this.
14:13
Speaker 2: So there we are, dressed in pink. He left his
14:16
Speaker 2: indecent shorts at home. That was probably the best thing
14:19
Speaker 2: that he did. He said also in that clip... that
14:22
Speaker 2: he was very proud when the red arrows flew over.
14:25
Speaker 2: So we can't look after the defence of the country,
14:29
Speaker 2: but we could have the red arrows flying over the
14:31
Speaker 2: prime minister as he sweats. But the image, of course,
14:34
Speaker 2: is that he's a lovely man. He's got the best
14:37
Speaker 2: interests of the country. And if everybody will just be
14:40
Speaker 2: out running every weekend for charity, then this is Britain
14:44
Speaker 2: at its best. But this, of course, is a very
14:47
Speaker 2: cynical ploy, and we've seen it before. Let's just have
14:50
Speaker 2: a look at David Cameron. This is going way back
14:54
Speaker 2: in David Cameron's early days when he was taking part
14:58
Speaker 2: in the charity Mud Race. And if we can just
15:02
Speaker 2: pop this one up, this is Cameron also getting even
15:06
Speaker 2: more publicity with another charity race with, of course, a
15:10
Speaker 2: lot of children and demonstrating... the fact that he's got
15:15
Speaker 2: a lot of support from across communities in UK. So
15:19
Speaker 2: this is all unbelievably cynical stuff, Ben.
15:22
Speaker 1: It's a nice man.
15:23
Speaker 2: Yes, what a nice man.
15:25
Speaker 1: It's a lovely person, David Cameron must be.
15:28
Speaker 2: Let's remember what David Cameron did to this country. And
15:31
Speaker 2: let's also remember that his famous statement was that his
15:35
Speaker 2: loyalty to Israel was unshakable. So his loyalty to the
15:40
Speaker 2: United Kingdom was second place. to his loyalty to Israel.
15:45
Speaker 2: Just remember that and think about what ultimately has happened
15:49
Speaker 2: in the world. Now, while Andy Burnham has been trying
15:53
Speaker 2: to put that image across of the nice man in pink,
15:56
Speaker 2: something a lot more serious is going on in the background.
15:59
Speaker 2: And the UK column is going to absolutely keep ramming
16:03
Speaker 2: this home to people. Instead of paying attention to the
16:06
Speaker 2: rubber boats, pay attention to what Andy Burnham and his
16:11
Speaker 2: unknown team behind the the door in number 10 of
16:15
Speaker 2: the North are saying they're going to do with the country.
16:18
Speaker 2: And that is devolution. This is the breakup of the country.
16:22
Speaker 2: And we can see from this headline here, if we
16:24
Speaker 2: put that on screen, the Institute of Government, this is
16:27
Speaker 2: actually from a couple of years ago, but absolutely saying
16:31
Speaker 2: in black and white, the intention is to break, particularly
16:36
Speaker 2: England up, devolving it into these fiefdoms of mayors, but
16:41
Speaker 2: also there's going to come a wider breakup of the country.
16:45
Speaker 2: And I've got a report here from the Irish News,
16:49
Speaker 2: which is absolutely on the button, because it's basically saying
16:53
Speaker 2: that there's going to be an independence declaration signed. And
16:58
Speaker 2: if we have a look at a little bit of
16:59
Speaker 2: the report here, it says Stormont First Minister Michelle O'Neill
17:03
Speaker 2: will join her counterparts from Scotland and Wales in Cardiff Monday.
17:08
Speaker 2: to sign a memorandum of understanding, calling on Prime Minister
17:12
Speaker 2: Andy Burnham to hold independence referendum. Now, these individuals are
17:17
Speaker 2: meeting just as party leaders. They say they're not actually
17:21
Speaker 2: meeting to represent their countries. However, it's very clear, Ben,
17:26
Speaker 2: to see what's coming here. It's to break up the
17:30
Speaker 2: UK into ever smaller parts, because, of course, that dilutes
17:34
Speaker 2: the power of the nation state. and makes us easier
17:38
Speaker 2: to control both internally from a dictatorship operating behind that
17:44
Speaker 2: number 10 door of the North, but also for external
17:49
Speaker 2: powers such as the European Union. So this is the
17:52
Speaker 2: real policy, and your two protest groups on the streets,
17:56
Speaker 2: the left and right, divide absolutely unaware that they're both
18:02
Speaker 2: going to be grabbed, as it were, by the alligator.
18:05
Speaker 2: operating from Andy Burnham's office. Now, if we dig into
18:09
Speaker 2: this a little bit deeper, we can come on to
18:11
Speaker 2: some good news because the local government reorganization plan a
18:18
Speaker 2: few days ago was actually paused. There was a hiatus
18:22
Speaker 2: crept in. A review of plans to streamline local government
18:26
Speaker 2: has been announced. A review to ensure the protest is
18:30
Speaker 2: robust and aligns with the new government's plans to, quote,
18:34
Speaker 2: rewire the state. If you don't understand what that is,
18:38
Speaker 2: that is the breakup of the state. That's the introduction
18:41
Speaker 2: of the new dictatorship. So if I had an extra
18:45
Speaker 2: label to that slide, if we just come back up here,
18:47
Speaker 2: we're going to say that this is hold fire on
18:52
Speaker 2: the local government reorganisation. So this is a pause and
18:56
Speaker 2: it does represent good news. So let's get into this
19:01
Speaker 2: a little bit more. The review was announced by the
19:03
Speaker 2: Secretary of State in Parliament. And it includes decisions on Essex, Hampshire,
19:08
Speaker 2: Norfolk and Suffolk, which have been withdrawn in light of
19:13
Speaker 2: new legal advice. Now, remember that something has taken place
19:18
Speaker 2: here in a legal sense, which has forced the government's hand.
19:22
Speaker 2: So if we get on to what Angela Rayner has
19:26
Speaker 2: had to say as Secretary of State, she says, as
19:28
Speaker 2: we are now determined more than ever to devolve power
19:32
Speaker 2: closer to the people of We represent its only right
19:35
Speaker 2: that as the new Secretary of State, I make sure
19:39
Speaker 2: that everything we do is working towards that plan to
19:43
Speaker 2: change Britain. Here she is telling you there's major change coming.
19:48
Speaker 2: But of course, the change is not full. defined because
19:51
Speaker 2: the public are not to know exactly what is going
19:55
Speaker 2: to come out from behind that door in the north.
19:59
Speaker 2: She goes on to say that in that context, in
20:02
Speaker 2: light of legal advice, I want to satisfy myself firstly
20:06
Speaker 2: that the right process is in place that it's robust
20:10
Speaker 2: and of course complies with the law. So you pick
20:14
Speaker 2: up very strongly that something has happened at law, which
20:19
Speaker 2: is now forcing the hand of the government. And in
20:21
Speaker 2: a minute, we're going to be showing you some of
20:23
Speaker 2: the people that have worked desperately hard in order to
20:27
Speaker 2: get that wedge, that legal wedge into the system. She
20:32
Speaker 2: goes on to say, secondly, I want to fully test
20:35
Speaker 2: whether our proposals for local government reorganisation meet the priorities
20:40
Speaker 2: of a new administration and the new prime minister. This
20:45
Speaker 2: is actually a little bit of a smokescreen because, yes,
20:48
Speaker 2: the reality is that the legal challenges to the government's
20:52
Speaker 2: rewiring of the state plans have hit home. Now, who
20:57
Speaker 2: has been working behind the scenes today? to make this happen.
21:01
Speaker 2: We are delighted to say that last week we were
21:04
Speaker 2: able to speak to Madeleine Hunt from the Heritage Party
21:09
Speaker 2: and also Rachel, the creator of Council Watch. And both
21:16
Speaker 2: these two tremendous ladies have been working very, very hard
21:21
Speaker 2: to tackle the government on these issues. Now in extra today,
21:25
Speaker 2: we're going to have the full 18 minute interview It's
21:30
Speaker 2: very informative. It's very important. It's exceptionally positive. I will
21:36
Speaker 2: give you a two minutes and a little bit taster
21:39
Speaker 2: here so that you can see what these ladies are
21:41
Speaker 2: talking about and what they've been doing.
21:46
Speaker 1: So what is the actual mechanism, the technical legal mechanism
21:51
Speaker 1: that you've used to turn the light red and not
21:55
Speaker 1: green anymore? Very simple.
21:57
Speaker 6: It's just asking for a basic law. What is allowing
22:00
Speaker 6: them to do this? What is actually allowing them to
22:03
Speaker 6: make these massive systematic changes in the country? That was
22:07
Speaker 6: the first basic question and they failed to answer from
22:10
Speaker 6: the beginning. And we've been just drilling and drilling and
22:14
Speaker 6: drilling the hole in this brick wall and they finally
22:18
Speaker 6: have to stop. We expect them to stop and they
22:20
Speaker 6: will never give us any credit.
22:22
Speaker 3: Never.
22:23
Speaker 6: We are so used to this, Rachel, are we? But
22:28
Speaker 6: we know, people know who've done it, people know who
22:30
Speaker 6: put the pressure on them because people have done it themselves.
22:33
Speaker 6: So we've been basically asking them, where is the law
22:37
Speaker 6: which allowed you to do this? And where you have
22:40
Speaker 6: a consultation with people, this is the most important thing.
22:44
Speaker 6: Who asked you to change the system? Because everything what
22:47
Speaker 6: they always do, they're saying people want, people ask. And
22:51
Speaker 6: even the law, it's clearly showing that this kind of
22:56
Speaker 6: change is should happen when the nation is asking for
22:59
Speaker 6: it but that's not the case.
23:02
Speaker 1: So this is quite a humiliating climb down though from
23:04
Speaker 1: the government is this something that's been happening at a
23:10
Speaker 1: white hall level as well as a council level like
23:14
Speaker 1: what's the the whole kind of network surrounding this Well, yeah.
23:17
Speaker 7: We've got... The councils have basically been going ahead on
23:21
Speaker 7: a whim. The government said, oh, you should do this,
23:23
Speaker 7: and they've gone and done it. They haven't checked the
23:25
Speaker 7: legal standing as to whether they should or not. So
23:28
Speaker 7: they've basically broken the law by going ahead with something
23:32
Speaker 7: they didn't have a legal mandate for. And what we've
23:35
Speaker 7: done with the NRCA is getting people to send all
23:39
Speaker 7: of these freedom of information requests and letters to ministers.
23:43
Speaker 7: So we've got all this evidence that shows... that it
23:46
Speaker 7: was always a choice as to whether councils went along
23:50
Speaker 7: with it or not. So that's the evidence and they
23:54
Speaker 7: can't wriggle out of it. No matter what they do
23:56
Speaker 7: from now on, they broke the law back here. So
23:58
Speaker 7: even if they change something over here, we've still got
24:01
Speaker 7: them on this main critical point that they spend money
24:04
Speaker 7: they really shouldn't have done. And that's where we're able
24:07
Speaker 7: to get them with the judicial review because we have
24:09
Speaker 7: all this evidence.
24:13
Speaker 2: So, Vem, what a tremendous effort that those two women
24:17
Speaker 2: got out there working with a relatively small team, not
24:21
Speaker 2: only connected to the Heritage Party, but also many people
24:26
Speaker 2: connected to the Council Watch organisation itself. They've dealt in
24:31
Speaker 2: evidence and facts. They've put a case together. They've tackled
24:36
Speaker 2: local authorities. They've tackled the government direct. And the result
24:40
Speaker 2: is suddenly... The whole of Burnham's plans for the future
24:46
Speaker 2: are now on hold. That doesn't mean to say it's
24:49
Speaker 2: gone away. And when you listen to the full interview
24:52
Speaker 2: in UK Column Extra, you'll hear more about that. The
24:56
Speaker 2: ladies describe it as a car now stopped at traffic lights.
25:01
Speaker 2: But all of that has been done by simple, calculated
25:07
Speaker 2: work to do with legal evidence, to do with exposing
25:10
Speaker 2: the fraud victims of what Burnham's and the government has
25:15
Speaker 2: been saying, that people want these changes when nobody wants
25:19
Speaker 2: continual change. They actually want peace and quiet. And contrast
25:24
Speaker 2: what the two women have done with the fact we've
25:27
Speaker 2: got men in black suits and balaclavas frightening people on
25:32
Speaker 2: the streets over rubber boats. The people in the rubber
25:35
Speaker 2: boats are not creating the chaos and the destruction that
25:40
Speaker 2: is coming through the political arm.
25:43
Speaker 1: They're symptomatic of it, yeah. They're a subset of a
25:47
Speaker 1: much bigger problem. But I think the main thing for me,
25:49
Speaker 1: and this is incredible news, that came in right at
25:52
Speaker 1: the end of Extra last week, and we'd been talking
25:55
Speaker 1: about this on the show, just demonstrates that we can
26:00
Speaker 1: stop this, to me. It's an incredible development, and And also,
26:07
Speaker 1: I think, you know, when we talk about getting in
26:09
Speaker 1: touch with local councils and local politicians, we get a
26:11
Speaker 1: lot of comments coming back saying that won't change anything,
26:13
Speaker 1: that never works. And actually, it turns out it does,
26:16
Speaker 1: doesn't it? Look at that.
26:17
Speaker 2: And, of course, what both the women are saying is
26:21
Speaker 2: that when there is now talk that the government and
26:24
Speaker 2: local authority people, so that's councillors and officers, have broken
26:29
Speaker 2: the law, all of a sudden there's a lot of
26:32
Speaker 2: fear now circulating through people local authorities. And that is
26:38
Speaker 2: really making some of the guilty parties think about their
26:42
Speaker 2: position and their future. So this is calculated activism within
26:48
Speaker 2: the law, using the law back of the government itself,
26:52
Speaker 2: and it shows what can be done. So when people
26:55
Speaker 2: are saying to the UK column news, yes, but what
26:58
Speaker 2: can we do? This is a fantastic example of what
27:01
Speaker 2: calculated action can do. And in extra, we'll be making
27:06
Speaker 2: sure that you've got details as to how you can
27:08
Speaker 2: get involved, repeating this style of work in your own
27:14
Speaker 2: local area.
27:15
Speaker 1: Indeed, yes. And we'll be making extra available to the
27:19
Speaker 1: public as well. So it won't just be for UK
27:21
Speaker 1: column members, it'll be for everybody, as we do from
27:24
Speaker 1: time to time when there's particularly important information. So look
27:27
Speaker 1: out for that. We'll provide links so you can... go
27:30
Speaker 1: and watch it and act most importantly do something about
27:35
Speaker 1: it um now obviously the government in like this one
27:39
Speaker 1: bit and interestingly on the exact same day within about
27:42
Speaker 1: an hour of that decision coming through they issued this
27:45
Speaker 1: piece of guidance the simplification and agency of government which
27:48
Speaker 1: came from um the chancellor mr healy there he is
27:52
Speaker 1: and i've just taken a few excerpts i'm just going
27:55
Speaker 1: to read it because it gives you a real sense
27:56
Speaker 1: of what these people are about um He says that
27:59
Speaker 1: the government exists to serve and it's our duty to
28:02
Speaker 1: deliver the change that we have promised the British people.
28:05
Speaker 1: That word change.
28:06
Speaker 2: Undefined.
28:07
Speaker 1: Very, very poorly defined.
28:09
Speaker 2: Never define it because if he defined it, it would
28:12
Speaker 2: be the dictatorship. That's what the change is. is leading
28:17
Speaker 2: us towards very quickly.
28:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is a document that reeks of dictatorship, actually.
28:22
Speaker 1: We can just get that back on screen just to
28:25
Speaker 1: finish that first quote. It says, we want to be
28:27
Speaker 1: clear that the government will act with the full agency
28:30
Speaker 1: that sits with the executive and which flows from our
28:33
Speaker 1: command of a majority in the House of Commons. Goodness me,
28:37
Speaker 1: it's just, he's doing it for, it's a sense of duty,
28:40
Speaker 1: I think, that he has.
28:41
Speaker 4: It's speed.
28:42
Speaker 2: The underlying arrogance is resting.
28:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, it really is. Yeah. So he goes on to
28:46
Speaker 1: say the way government approaches policymaking is not functioning as
28:50
Speaker 1: well as it could. Consultation culture has turned a sensible
28:54
Speaker 1: mechanism for sourcing external input into an industry of dither
28:58
Speaker 1: and delay. We will end this trend by reasserting that
29:01
Speaker 1: there is no general duty of consultation. And that the
29:05
Speaker 1: default position should be that ministers reach decisions and proceed
29:08
Speaker 1: to act on them. So if you remember that clip
29:11
Speaker 1: that we just watched, Madeline said that the lack of
29:13
Speaker 1: consultation is one of the major things that prevented this
29:17
Speaker 1: legislation from progressing. He's now saying, well, we don't have
29:20
Speaker 1: to consult.
29:21
Speaker 2: And that fits because, as Mike Robinson would be saying,
29:25
Speaker 2: the government's already passed a bill saying that it can
29:29
Speaker 2: break the law where it chooses, supposedly to keep us safe.
29:33
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
29:34
Speaker 2: But these people are building a dictatorship. They know it.
29:38
Speaker 2: The pieces are being assembled. out of sight of the public,
29:42
Speaker 2: but we get glimpses.
29:44
Speaker 8: Yeah.
29:46
Speaker 1: They're telling you that's what they're doing. They're literally telling
29:49
Speaker 1: you in black and white through statements like this that
29:53
Speaker 1: that's what they're doing. Just a final section from this paper.
29:57
Speaker 1: The way government approaches policymaking is not functioning as well
30:00
Speaker 1: as it could. Consultation culture has turned a sensible mechanism
30:03
Speaker 1: for sourcing external input into an industry in dither and delay. Actually,
30:06
Speaker 1: hang on a minute. I've already read this. It's this
30:08
Speaker 1: one that we need to look at. Even where departments
30:10
Speaker 1: have historically consulted or previously promised to consult, we expect
30:15
Speaker 1: each individual instance to be considered afresh, thinking about what
30:19
Speaker 1: is fair in the particular circumstances. So even when they
30:22
Speaker 1: would normally consult, you're not going to consult anymore. And
30:25
Speaker 1: then he says, we also want to see this approach
30:28
Speaker 1: to consultations adopted, not just within central government and its agencies,
30:31
Speaker 1: but across the wider public sector.
30:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's controlled consultation. It's Delphi technique where the
30:39
Speaker 2: members of the public are going to be steered to
30:41
Speaker 2: give the result the government or the mayor and his
30:45
Speaker 2: local fiefdom want. And of course, no consultation given to
30:50
Speaker 2: people in Ukraine who've been dragged off the streets to
30:54
Speaker 2: die on a battlefield in a war where people like
30:58
Speaker 2: this have helped create it. It's truly... shocking what is
31:02
Speaker 2: taking place here. And it's got to be called out.
31:05
Speaker 1: It certainly does, yes. And of course, all of this
31:07
Speaker 1: being done in the name of liberal democracy, which, as
31:11
Speaker 1: I've said previously, basically means we can do whatever we
31:13
Speaker 1: want if enough people go along with it. And in
31:16
Speaker 1: this instance, that's basically 20% of the eligible electorate who
31:20
Speaker 1: actually voted for Labour at the last general election. So
31:22
Speaker 1: the idea that they've got some kind of mandate to
31:25
Speaker 1: completely reshape the entire country and to just bulldoze through
31:29
Speaker 1: any kind of public opposition, it's just ludicrous quite frankly
31:34
Speaker 1: and of course that is our job sat here as
31:36
Speaker 1: we do on a monday wednesday and friday pushing back
31:39
Speaker 1: on this stuff so if you appreciate the work the
31:41
Speaker 1: uk column does then we need your ongoing support in
31:44
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31:47
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31:50
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31:52
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31:55
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32:00
Speaker 1: to the UK column, which brings all sorts of fantastic benefits,
32:04
Speaker 1: including discounts at our shop where you can buy things
32:07
Speaker 1: like the latest edition of the column, which came out, well,
32:11
Speaker 1: we put it up there last week. I think they're
32:13
Speaker 1: going out this week. There's not a promise, but they
32:16
Speaker 1: are imminent. They're going to start hitting doormats very soon.
32:19
Speaker 1: This is the 9-11 issue following on from the 9-11
32:23
Speaker 1: issue special new show which went out on Friday last week.
32:27
Speaker 1: We also, as Brian said at the top of the show,
32:29
Speaker 1: have our extraordinary event coming up, 20th anniversary this weekend,
32:35
Speaker 1: 18th to 20th September in Plymouth. It's going to be fantastic.
32:39
Speaker 1: We can't guarantee that the weather's going to be like that. But,
32:42
Speaker 1: you know, who knows? Maybe the weather gods will smile
32:45
Speaker 1: on us. We'll see.
32:46
Speaker 2: We're going to do our best, but I am going
32:48
Speaker 2: to stress once again that we've got talks. Obviously, a
32:52
Speaker 2: lot of it, we're going to be talking about how
32:54
Speaker 2: we got started as the UK column, all of the
32:58
Speaker 2: wonderful people who supported us over 20 years to help
33:02
Speaker 2: get us to where we are. But amongst those talks,
33:06
Speaker 2: lots and lots of time for people to be together,
33:10
Speaker 2: enjoying the each other's company, socialising. Fantastic location in the hotel.
33:18
Speaker 2: I know the food will be utterly brilliant. And of course,
33:21
Speaker 2: there's going to be time to have a glass of
33:23
Speaker 2: wine or a beer or a soft drink in order
33:27
Speaker 2: to talk to other people, not only about what's going
33:30
Speaker 2: on in the country and what we are doing about it,
33:34
Speaker 2: but of course, to have some normal social interaction and
33:38
Speaker 2: some good humour and some laughter as we remember from
33:43
Speaker 2: many years ago. And I'll just reinforce the point that
33:47
Speaker 2: it's a weekend event because UK column members asked us
33:53
Speaker 2: whether we'd put on an event where people were staying
33:55
Speaker 2: over a weekend. So you asked, we've given it to you,
34:01
Speaker 2: and I think it's going to be utterly fantastic with
34:05
Speaker 2: a few interesting surprises.
34:08
Speaker 1: There certainly will be some interesting surprises. And also, if
34:10
Speaker 1: you can't join us in Plymouth, you can also buy
34:12
Speaker 1: a ticket to the live stream as well. So you
34:14
Speaker 1: can watch it over the weekend or you can watch
34:18
Speaker 1: it back any time you want after that as well.
34:20
Speaker 2: We do have a handful of tickets left. If anybody
34:24
Speaker 2: has been sitting on the fence, don't know whether you
34:26
Speaker 2: want to come or not. There are a handful of
34:29
Speaker 2: tickets left. So get in there quickly. If you want
34:32
Speaker 2: to get one or two, bring a friend and we'd
34:35
Speaker 2: love to see you.
34:37
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Now, coming up later on today, we have the
34:42
Speaker 1: weekly banter session at 7 p.m. German and the fellas
34:47
Speaker 1: talking about kids, sleep and making writing. Great again. Looking
34:50
Speaker 1: forward to that. And then following on at 9 p.m.,
34:53
Speaker 1: Carl Zar will be talking about Trump's war and the
34:57
Speaker 1: position taken by South Korea. It should be fascinating discussion. Now, Brian,
35:05
Speaker 1: Ukrainian refugees, what's going on?
35:07
Speaker 2: Well, this is extremely interesting. I know that a lot
35:11
Speaker 2: of people have watched with interest a very, very large
35:15
Speaker 2: number of Ukrainians coming into UK. In the early days,
35:19
Speaker 2: clearly a lot of women and children being sent out
35:24
Speaker 2: of the country, out of Ukraine by their families in
35:27
Speaker 2: order to find peaceful sanctuary in UK and other countries,
35:32
Speaker 2: but very large numbers. I was very interested in in
35:36
Speaker 2: the role of the church of England in supporting what
35:39
Speaker 2: was going on here, because of course the church of
35:42
Speaker 2: England has not been very prevalent in calling for a
35:47
Speaker 2: cessation to the hostilities in Ukraine. Uh, you almost get
35:51
Speaker 2: the impression that the church of England is for the war. Um,
35:55
Speaker 2: but on the church of England website, I got very
35:57
Speaker 2: interested in this section about the war in Ukraine. Let's
36:01
Speaker 2: make sure we know who we're talking about, the church
36:04
Speaker 2: of England. And, um, I was not too happy with
36:09
Speaker 2: the photograph of the little child there with just a
36:12
Speaker 2: stop war in Ukraine sign instead of a face. I
36:17
Speaker 2: found that rather offensive, but the church has chosen to
36:20
Speaker 2: go with that. But what do they say? Well, the
36:23
Speaker 2: church says that the brutal war in Ukraine has triggered
36:26
Speaker 2: the largest war-related migration of people since the Balkan War
36:31
Speaker 2: of the 1990s. As the war develops, the situation on
36:35
Speaker 2: the ground can change quickly. So when you get into
36:39
Speaker 2: the small text, and I've left it small, you have
36:42
Speaker 2: to read it and pay attention to what's being talked about.
36:46
Speaker 2: I was very interested to see the church talking here
36:50
Speaker 2: and what they have to say. Well, they said, check
36:54
Speaker 2: with your diocese to see whether it has a scheme
36:57
Speaker 2: or register with Reset or the Sanctuary Foundation. Now, I
37:02
Speaker 2: had no idea what these two organizations were doing. And
37:06
Speaker 2: so I followed the link through. So here is Reset.
37:10
Speaker 2: It's talking about the power of community. It says community
37:15
Speaker 2: sponsorship is a powerful way for ordinary people to make
37:19
Speaker 2: an extraordinary difference, a safe place to call home, a
37:23
Speaker 2: sense of belonging and the chance to rebuild their lives
37:26
Speaker 2: with dignity. There's a lot of.
37:30
Speaker 2: Manipulation going on in all this language, Ben, so that
37:35
Speaker 2: really good people in this country, generous, kind people, feel
37:40
Speaker 2: an obligation to get involved and to look after the
37:44
Speaker 2: extremely high number of Ukrainians that came into the country.
37:47
Speaker 2: But what is going on here? Is this just a
37:50
Speaker 2: simple relationship between the Church of England and charities? Or
37:56
Speaker 2: is there something deeper going on? Well, it doesn't take
37:59
Speaker 2: long before you can start to look at some figures,
38:02
Speaker 2: which makes you think. Because if we go looking at
38:05
Speaker 2: where the funding for this operation is coming from, what
38:09
Speaker 2: we discover pretty quickly is that income from government is
38:13
Speaker 2: the overwhelming, the lion's share of what's taking place here.
38:18
Speaker 2: So this isn't so much charity as a government initiative,
38:23
Speaker 2: it seems to me. And if that was a look
38:27
Speaker 2: at Reset, we can go in the direction of Sanctuary Foundation,
38:31
Speaker 2: supporting refugees to find welcome work and worthwhile housing. And
38:38
Speaker 2: a very glossy website. And one of the things that
38:44
Speaker 2: they touch on, of course, is that there's a lot
38:46
Speaker 2: of Ukrainian children coming into the U.K., But there's some
38:51
Speaker 2: statistics here mentioned. The UK has seen 120,000 refugees welcomed
38:57
Speaker 2: into homes of strangers through the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
39:02
Speaker 2: Sanctuary has been at the heart of this, registering 29,000
39:06
Speaker 2: hosts even before the sponsorship program was developed. Now, I
39:12
Speaker 2: have to be careful because I'm looking at the initial
39:15
Speaker 2: information here, but you get a sense that the charity
39:19
Speaker 2: community knew something was going to happen in relation to
39:23
Speaker 2: the fact that a lot of hosting families were needed.
39:26
Speaker 2: So they didn't get on board an agenda. It was
39:29
Speaker 2: like they were able to preempt an agenda. And this
39:33
Speaker 2: is where things start to get very interesting indeed, because
39:37
Speaker 2: is this a humanitarian operation? Is this about good people
39:43
Speaker 2: connected with charities and the Church of England reaching out
39:47
Speaker 2: to help other individuals? Or is there something a little
39:50
Speaker 2: bit darker going on? Well, if we follow through on
39:53
Speaker 2: the sanctuary information, this is an article written by Krish Kandia,
40:01
Speaker 2: and it's talking about tens of thousands of people in
40:04
Speaker 2: the UK who've opened their homes to Ukrainians. But let's
40:08
Speaker 2: just look at the title. The UK's Homes for Ukraine Scheme,
40:13
Speaker 2: a Model for the Future. So strong indication here, Ben,
40:17
Speaker 2: that this isn't just something that's dealing with a problem
40:20
Speaker 2: around the war in Ukraine. This is actually a structure
40:24
Speaker 2: which is being seen as a model for what's going
40:28
Speaker 2: to happen in the future. Now, the model is not
40:31
Speaker 2: just in relation to Ukrainians coming into the country. It
40:36
Speaker 2: also is covering people who are coming out of Afghanistan,
40:40
Speaker 2: out of the destruction and the war. largely instigated by
40:45
Speaker 2: the West in that poor country. So let's follow this
40:48
Speaker 2: little article through. It's talking about homes for Ukraine being
40:56
Speaker 2: launched a mere 18 days after the start of the war.
41:01
Speaker 2: So this is quite interesting, isn't it? Did they have
41:03
Speaker 2: a premonition or were they just very quick off the mark?
41:08
Speaker 2: Something tells me that people knew the government was going
41:12
Speaker 2: to expect something along this housing of Ukrainian refugees before
41:17
Speaker 2: it actually hit the mainstream press. But if we follow
41:20
Speaker 2: that image through, we'll put a bit more meat on
41:24
Speaker 2: the bones. If you get involved with the scheme, you're
41:28
Speaker 2: eligible for £ 500 per month for hosting. And this has
41:32
Speaker 2: enabled 127,600 Ukrainians to come to the UK. So That
41:39
Speaker 2: figure is a little bit stale now, but it gives
41:41
Speaker 2: you an indication of the numbers of people you're talking about.
41:44
Speaker 2: And then this is where it got interesting because it
41:47
Speaker 2: says that Sanctuary Foundation conducted a large scale survey. Now,
41:55
Speaker 2: what was the survey about? Well, I'll give you a
41:57
Speaker 2: little bit of a summary of it. Potential for future initiatives.
42:04
Speaker 2: So Homes for Ukraine has been more successful and cost-effective
42:09
Speaker 2: than any other method of refugee hosting used in the
42:13
Speaker 2: past 70 years in the UK. The government's willingness to
42:18
Speaker 2: take risks, act with compassion, collaborate with civil society, very
42:23
Speaker 2: interesting expression, and optimize processes can and should be redeployed
42:29
Speaker 2: for other refugee groups and vulnerable people. Now, what they're
42:33
Speaker 2: actually doing here is an experiment. This is a social
42:37
Speaker 2: experiment to see what happens when migrants don't go into
42:42
Speaker 2: horrible hostels, as we're seeing happening with many of the
42:46
Speaker 2: young men from other countries. What happens if you can
42:50
Speaker 2: get the refugees into people's homes? And what comes out
42:55
Speaker 2: of it is, of course, that generous, loving people welcome
43:01
Speaker 2: in the refugees and And this breaks down barriers to
43:05
Speaker 2: anybody saying, well, should these refugees be displaced from their
43:10
Speaker 2: own countries to come to the United Kingdom in the
43:13
Speaker 2: first place? All of that is forgotten because everything comes
43:18
Speaker 2: down to an emotional level that you are welcoming strangers
43:22
Speaker 2: into your house and you're effectively mopping up the destruction
43:28
Speaker 2: from the government in displacing people through wars in the
43:31
Speaker 2: first place. Now, I took a quick look at who
43:34
Speaker 2: was carrying out the survey on behalf of Sanctuary, and
43:40
Speaker 2: it's the Whitestone Insight. And if we have a little
43:44
Speaker 2: look at the boss, the chief executive, Andrew Hawkins, he's
43:48
Speaker 2: worked with political and corporate clients, including NATO, the World Bank, McDonald's, Unilever, GMC, MasterCard, BBC,
43:59
Speaker 2: and others. Now, there's no suggestion that Whitestone Institute or Mr.
44:03
Speaker 2: Hawkins have done anything wrong. We are interested in focusing
44:07
Speaker 2: on what this charity and the charities paid for by
44:11
Speaker 2: the British government are doing to supposedly break down resistance
44:17
Speaker 2: to mass migration into the United Kingdom. I'm not sure
44:22
Speaker 2: where this report is landing, Ben, but in my mind,
44:25
Speaker 2: this is the heart of of where the attack is
44:28
Speaker 2: coming for this country. We're going to break down the
44:31
Speaker 2: country into ever smaller units by devolution, and we're going
44:35
Speaker 2: to pack the country with people from varied backgrounds and
44:40
Speaker 2: nation states because that mixed blob is easier to control
44:46
Speaker 2: because values get lost. Now, I'm just going to emphasize
44:51
Speaker 2: what we're dealing with here by having a look at
44:54
Speaker 2: another page here from Sanctuary. And this is a resource page,
44:59
Speaker 2: but top right caught my eye, how to talk to
45:03
Speaker 2: children about the St. George's flag and St.
45:09
Speaker 1: George.
45:10
Speaker 2: Let's have a look at this video clip.
45:14
Speaker 8: 1277 apparently was the earliest sightings of the St. George's
45:18
Speaker 8: cross being flown on an English ship. That's a long
45:23
Speaker 8: time that this beautiful flag has been associated with the
45:26
Speaker 8: great nation of England. And that flag celebrated a man
45:31
Speaker 8: that was born a thousand years earlier in 270 AD.
45:35
Speaker 8: His name was Giorgi. He was born in Cappadocia, which
45:39
Speaker 8: today would be called Turkey. There was a lot of
45:42
Speaker 8: religious wars in those days. And St. George refused to
45:46
Speaker 8: give up his Christian faith and was willing to be
45:48
Speaker 8: executed once. And so people wanted to celebrate him.
45:52
Speaker 1: In fact, St.
45:53
Speaker 8: George became the patron saint, not just of England, but
45:56
Speaker 8: of many nations around the world. Now, today you might
46:01
Speaker 8: see around your town or around the country, many St.
46:05
Speaker 1: George's crosses.
46:06
Speaker 8: And some of them have been put up under a
46:08
Speaker 8: campaign called Raise the Colors. And for some people in Britain,
46:13
Speaker 8: that is a problem. It's made people a little bit nervous.
46:17
Speaker 8: Because you see, when I was a child in the 1970s,
46:20
Speaker 8: there was a group called the National Front and they
46:22
Speaker 8: were quite angry, particularly at people like me, people who
46:25
Speaker 8: are brown or black. And they used to chant some
46:28
Speaker 8: pretty horrible racist things and wave the flag. And so
46:32
Speaker 8: the St. George's Cross for a long time was a
46:35
Speaker 8: symbol of fear. People were worried about it. But in
46:38
Speaker 8: the 1990s, thanks to the England football team doing brilliantly
46:41
Speaker 8: in the European football championships, it got revived again as
46:45
Speaker 8: a positive symbol of what it means to be great
46:49
Speaker 8: at sport and proud of the nation of England. People
46:53
Speaker 8: were protesting wearing the white and red of St George's
46:56
Speaker 8: Cross or waving that flag. People are associating this as
47:00
Speaker 8: a way of saying that they are in solidarity or
47:03
Speaker 8: they're supporting the anti-immigration campaign. But a lot of people
47:07
Speaker 8: have begun to feel a little bit nervous about this.
47:10
Speaker 8: The best way I can think about it is this. Look,
47:12
Speaker 8: this is a brick. And bricks are brilliant.
47:14
Speaker 1: We love bricks.
47:15
Speaker 8: Without bricks, there wouldn't be any houses. There probably wouldn't
47:18
Speaker 8: be a school for you to go and study it.
47:21
Speaker 5: They're a good thing.
47:22
Speaker 8: But if I'm walking down the street carrying a brick
47:25
Speaker 8: like this and I don't look like I work on
47:28
Speaker 8: a building site, people might assume I'm going to try
47:31
Speaker 8: and hurt someone with the brick or smash something with
47:34
Speaker 8: the brick. You can see how something like a brick
47:37
Speaker 8: can be used for good purposes or for bad purposes.
47:40
Speaker 8: It can symbolize something positive or something negative. Well, it's
47:44
Speaker 8: been the same with the St. George's Cross. For some people,
47:47
Speaker 8: we're celebrating the greatness.
47:51
Speaker 2: So this interesting man's taking government money to help embed
47:57
Speaker 2: migrants displaced by war into this country. And cynically, families
48:03
Speaker 2: are going to be used to help this process. They
48:06
Speaker 2: think they're doing wider good, but in fact, they're being
48:08
Speaker 2: used by the government. And then he turns around and
48:11
Speaker 2: effectively says that anybody that dares support the national flag
48:16
Speaker 2: of England is a brick carrying thug. This is so outrageous.
48:22
Speaker 2: And of course, that video clip is designed apparently by
48:27
Speaker 2: that organization to teach our children where values lie. And
48:33
Speaker 2: you picked it up straight away, Ben. He said, well,
48:36
Speaker 2: of course, the only thing we should be using the
48:39
Speaker 2: English flag for is to support football.
48:42
Speaker 1: Yes.
48:43
Speaker 2: I actually found this some of the most offensive narrative
48:47
Speaker 2: that I've come across. But the key point here is
48:51
Speaker 2: that many, many Ukrainians suffered. They've come out of the country.
48:57
Speaker 2: They have indeed come here for peace and respite from
49:00
Speaker 2: the war. They are being used by the British government
49:04
Speaker 2: now to help further break down UK's social structure. And
49:11
Speaker 2: we've got charities and the Church of England helping this
49:15
Speaker 2: process as well. I'm going to add that recent information
49:19
Speaker 2: that's come across to the UK column is also now
49:23
Speaker 2: pointing a finger and saying, are Ukrainian children safe when
49:28
Speaker 2: they come to this country? And my answer to that
49:31
Speaker 2: is absolutely they're not, particularly if they're orphans in the
49:36
Speaker 2: first place. Lots to talk about then.
49:39
Speaker 1: It certainly is.
49:40
Speaker 7: Yes.
49:40
Speaker 1: Thanks for that, Brian. That leads very nicely onto the
49:43
Speaker 1: next section because I've called this mind games. And I
49:47
Speaker 1: think that guy was playing mind games with us. It's
49:50
Speaker 1: fairly standard fare, actually, that kind of communication. The tone
49:53
Speaker 1: of it, it's very different. Very condescending. And it's supposed
49:56
Speaker 1: to come across as reasonable, but it's really they're asking
49:59
Speaker 1: you to go along with things which are not reasonable
50:02
Speaker 1: at all. And this event popped up over the weekend.
50:07
Speaker 1: So this was the 10th anniversary of Hypernormalization, which is
50:13
Speaker 1: a documentary created back in 2016 by Adam Curtis, who's
50:19
Speaker 1: a BBC documentary filmmaker. There he is. And, uh, offensively
50:24
Speaker 1: this event that, um, came into my inbox somehow was, um,
50:29
Speaker 1: being run as an anniversary for hyper normalization, which is
50:33
Speaker 1: one of his documentaries, but then run as a, the
50:36
Speaker 1: event was run in the style of his documentary. And
50:38
Speaker 1: the thing about Adam Curtis films is that they are, um,
50:43
Speaker 1: It's very abstract and almost sort of hallucinogenic and odd.
50:49
Speaker 1: And this one, hypernormalization, was based on a word which
50:54
Speaker 1: means a fake reality created by propaganda that people can't
50:58
Speaker 1: break out of. It's a term that came from the
51:01
Speaker 1: former Soviet Union. And he splices together footage from BBC archives,
51:09
Speaker 1: and he talks about the role of the military intelligence
51:12
Speaker 1: agencies post-Second World War, the fall of the Soviet Union,
51:16
Speaker 1: the rise of Islamic extremism and suicide bombing, the breakdown
51:20
Speaker 1: of the international banking system, people like Donald Trump and
51:24
Speaker 1: his emergence in the 1970s as a political and an
51:29
Speaker 1: economic figure, Gaddafi. and how Libya was destroyed by Western interest,
51:35
Speaker 1: the rise of white nationalism, all this kind of thing.
51:37
Speaker 1: And it's presented as a kind of, objective view of
51:42
Speaker 1: what's going on, but done in a really interesting style.
51:46
Speaker 1: But I do actually have to wonder whether Mr. Curtis
51:50
Speaker 1: or some of the people involved in this event are
51:52
Speaker 1: not just commenting on this idea of post-truth, but they're
51:55
Speaker 1: actually participating in it and manufacturing it as well, right?
52:00
Speaker 1: Because actually that event was held at Freemasons Hall in
52:04
Speaker 1: Interestingly enough, in Bournemouth, sure, that's just a coincidence, but
52:07
Speaker 1: some of the people involved in it, and I'll provide
52:09
Speaker 1: a link and kind of have a look at it yourself,
52:10
Speaker 1: were absolutely fascinating. So at that event that was held
52:14
Speaker 1: over the weekend, you had Paul Mason, who is a
52:18
Speaker 1: MI6 asset, amongst many other things, that's widely acknowledged. Tobias Elwood,
52:22
Speaker 1: who is 77th Brigade. And these two are supposedly on
52:27
Speaker 1: the complete opposite ends of the political spectrum. So Paul
52:29
Speaker 1: Mason is pretty much hard left, just written a book
52:32
Speaker 1: about communism. Tobias Elwood was a Tory politician and involved
52:38
Speaker 1: in the whole kind of COVID propaganda program through 2020.
52:42
Speaker 1: And then also joining them is this chap, Charlie Waterhouse,
52:46
Speaker 1: who amongst other things was one of the founders of
52:48
Speaker 1: Extinction Rebellion. And also he set up the Fate of
52:51
Speaker 1: Britain that I spoke about a couple of years ago.
52:53
Speaker 1: He was involved in Just Stop Oil. And you have
52:56
Speaker 1: to look at this group coming together to talk about
52:59
Speaker 1: hyper-normalization in the post-truth world and think, are you playing
53:05
Speaker 1: tricks on us? What's actually happening here? We've got a
53:11
Speaker 1: hard left-wing, supposedly, military intelligence collaborator, a guy that was
53:16
Speaker 1: in the 77th Brigade and is a former Tory politician,
53:19
Speaker 1: and someone's from Extinction Rebellion, all coming together at the
53:22
Speaker 1: same event.
53:23
Speaker 2: Yes, precisely.
53:25
Speaker 1: That doesn't make any sense at all, does it?
53:27
Speaker 2: Well, it does if they're involved in things which they're
53:30
Speaker 2: not declaring to the public. So the problems we are
53:33
Speaker 2: facing are being created in the background by people who
53:37
Speaker 2: generally stay out. of sight now whether it's these three
53:40
Speaker 2: individuals or not we don't know but the question we've
53:43
Speaker 2: got to ask is what were these three individuals actually
53:46
Speaker 2: doing there.
53:47
Speaker 1: And the other people that were there together yes what
53:49
Speaker 1: what very very strange event and i will ask again
53:52
Speaker 1: what what trickery is this paul mason charlie walter house
53:55
Speaker 1: tobias edward what are you up to what was going
53:58
Speaker 1: on in this event what brings you three together I wonder. Anyway,
54:03
Speaker 1: how did I find out about this? So it's through
54:05
Speaker 1: this guy. So this is Pierre Dallin-Cassé. I hope I'm
54:09
Speaker 1: saying that correctly. He's the curator of Verdurin, which is
54:13
Speaker 1: a gallery in Islington in North London.
54:18
Speaker 2: So he put that together.
54:20
Speaker 1: He promoted that event through his mailing list, which I
54:24
Speaker 1: signed up to because he came to my attention not
54:27
Speaker 1: so long ago. because he was actually saying some interesting things,
54:32
Speaker 1: which I saw as sort of quite counter-cultural in the
54:36
Speaker 1: context of where he sits in the art scene, right?
54:41
Speaker 1: So he was saying things which are basically against the
54:44
Speaker 1: kind of LGBTQ plus insanity, which I thought were very
54:47
Speaker 1: interesting to be coming out of the art world, very
54:49
Speaker 1: unusual to be coming out of the art world. But
54:51
Speaker 1: then actually, I do wonder if he's potentially playing some
54:54
Speaker 1: kind of role here in order to Play with our
54:58
Speaker 1: minds and use postmodern trickery and strange language to do
55:04
Speaker 1: what exactly? I'm not entirely sure. And then on their website,
55:08
Speaker 1: amongst other things, they were selling this. So this is a...
55:12
Speaker 1: You're going to love this, Brian. Check it out. Santa Mariana.
55:17
Speaker 1: So this is a devotional triptych for the digital age.
55:22
Speaker 1: which features three luminous photographs of Marianna Spring, the BBC's
55:27
Speaker 1: disinformation correspondent, framed with the reverence usually reserved for saints.
55:33
Speaker 2: Well, the best thing about the product is that it's
55:35
Speaker 2: got two doors that you can shut. So you don't
55:38
Speaker 2: actually have to look at Marianna Spring or see the
55:41
Speaker 2: words BBC verify. She's looking very dark and satanic there.
55:46
Speaker 1: I would say so. Yes, I would say so. And
55:48
Speaker 1: how does this link into an art gallery in Islington?
55:53
Speaker 1: And how does this all link into post-truth hyper-normalization, the
55:58
Speaker 1: activities of military intelligence agencies and are we being attacked
56:02
Speaker 1: in ways that we can't even begin to comprehend? I
56:04
Speaker 1: think we probably are.
56:05
Speaker 2: Indeed we are, but we can comprehend increasingly. We can
56:09
Speaker 2: comprehend a lot of them. And I hope that UK
56:11
Speaker 2: Column's news, particularly today, is going to help people focus
56:16
Speaker 2: in on how we're being attacked. So if you're out
56:19
Speaker 2: there protesting on the streets, you need to be looking
56:23
Speaker 2: deeper and there are ways of countering it, as those
56:27
Speaker 2: two very brave ladies have shown. Now, if we're moving
56:31
Speaker 2: on Well, we're talking really about a horror story there
56:34
Speaker 2: with Santa Mariana. I'm going to have trouble getting that
56:38
Speaker 2: one out of my head.
56:38
Speaker 4: I know.
56:39
Speaker 2: Thank you for that, Ben. But if you're of weak disposition,
56:44
Speaker 2: then be careful here because we've got a little video
56:47
Speaker 2: clip of Boris Johnson speaking. And of course, wherever he goes,
56:52
Speaker 2: it's around war, the fermenting of war, weapons for war,
56:58
Speaker 2: or generally enjoying war. and see what he's got to say.
57:02
Speaker 1: Hi, folks.
57:04
Speaker 9: Very busy couple of days in Ukraine. We were in
57:08
Speaker 9: Lviv and then in Kyiv today. Fascinating meeting with this
57:15
Speaker 9: company called Firepoint, who make the famous Flamingo long-range cruise missiles,
57:25
Speaker 9: which are doing so much damage to Putin and Putin's economy.
57:28
Speaker 1: Thank goodness.
57:31
Speaker 5: We need to do more to help Ukraine and we
57:34
Speaker 5: need to give them, they're worried now about the ballistic
57:40
Speaker 5: missiles coming in to Kiev and other cities, the fast
57:45
Speaker 5: jet drones, and they need air defences.
57:50
Speaker 9: They need Starlink into Russia to take out the sites
57:53
Speaker 9: from which these Missiles are coming, and they need the
57:56
Speaker 9: European cash, and they need it now. The most important
58:00
Speaker 9: thing that Ukraine needs is a political statement from NATO,
58:06
Speaker 9: from Europe, from the White House, and Downing Street doesn't matter.
58:10
Speaker 9: They need a joint statement from the West that the
58:13
Speaker 9: destiny of Ukraine is in the West as a free, independent,
58:19
Speaker 9: sovereign country. We haven't heard that for too long. We've
58:23
Speaker 9: got to hear it now.
58:25
Speaker 2: How do you describe that man, Ben? A slug comes
58:28
Speaker 2: to mind.
58:29
Speaker 4: A buffoon.
58:29
Speaker 2: A very dangerous buffoon. He's a dangerous buffoon. But think
58:35
Speaker 2: about what he was saying there, because basically he's talking
58:37
Speaker 2: about giving Ukraine the ability to build more long-range missiles,
58:43
Speaker 2: which they can only target into Russia with Western targeting information,
58:48
Speaker 2: US or British or European targeting information. But the result
58:55
Speaker 2: of them targeting Russia is that at the moment, the
58:58
Speaker 2: Russians are absolutely destroying Ukraine's economy. And Boris Johnson is
59:06
Speaker 2: now into the mix, not to call for peace, but to...
59:10
Speaker 2: invite the taxpayer in UK to put more money into
59:14
Speaker 2: stoking up the war in Ukraine, presumably so that you
59:18
Speaker 2: can then pay more money to accept the Ukrainian refugees.
59:22
Speaker 2: What a disgusting individual. It's very difficult to know how
59:26
Speaker 2: to comment on him. But if that isn't bad enough,
59:29
Speaker 2: then the other thing that Boris Johnson did recently was
59:33
Speaker 2: wrote an article for the Daily Mail where bizarrely he says,
59:37
Speaker 2: don't worry about the tens of thousands of mainly women
59:41
Speaker 2: and children dead in Gaza. Just concentrate on the fact
59:45
Speaker 2: that when the Gazans were offered a water park, it
59:50
Speaker 2: didn't go very well and they didn't support it. So
59:53
Speaker 2: Israel did try. It's a It tried to help by
59:57
Speaker 2: building water parks. Those nasty Palestinians weren't interested. And therefore,
1:00:03
Speaker 2: it's quite reasonable to flatten Gaza and murder whatever it is, 55,000, 58,000 men, women,
1:00:12
Speaker 2: and children. That is absolutely fine. And Boris adds that
1:00:16
Speaker 2: nobody should call it genocide. Now, of course, Boris was
1:00:22
Speaker 2: given a jolt. at least as he left Ukraine, because
1:00:26
Speaker 2: as he was on the train about to cross the
1:00:30
Speaker 2: border into Poland, the train was actually hit by a
1:00:34
Speaker 2: Russian drone. The Russians have been attacking rolling stock across
1:00:38
Speaker 2: the whole of the Ukrainian railways over the last two
1:00:42
Speaker 2: months in particular. The strikes are inevitably on the engines
1:00:47
Speaker 2: pulling the train. They're not on the carriages and the
1:00:50
Speaker 2: bulk of the civilians traveling. They're targeted at the engines themselves.
1:00:55
Speaker 2: But of course, the BBC tried to make very big
1:00:58
Speaker 2: of this issue with this pathetic little news report. Let's
1:01:03
Speaker 2: have a listen.
1:01:05
Speaker 10: So what do we know about this Russian attack? Well,
1:01:08
Speaker 10: we know that a drone struck a train at a
1:01:11
Speaker 10: station in the far west of Ukraine, right on the
1:01:14
Speaker 10: Polish border. There were warnings beforehand. Some passengers were evacuated.
1:01:19
Speaker 10: There'd been no reports of any casualties. But this attack
1:01:22
Speaker 10: matters because just about an hour or so earlier, a
1:01:26
Speaker 10: very special train had passed through exactly the same station.
1:01:29
Speaker 10: This was a diplomatic train. It was packed full of
1:01:32
Speaker 10: VIPs who'd been here in Kyiv heading home. Now, this
1:01:36
Speaker 10: train flew through to Poland, but the Ukrainian rail operator
1:01:41
Speaker 10: says It is quite likely that Russia was targeting this
1:01:46
Speaker 10: train because it had left the station about an hour
1:01:48
Speaker 10: early because of all the security chaos. This matters not
1:01:52
Speaker 10: just because Russia is showing that it's preparing to escalate,
1:01:56
Speaker 10: attacking trains and border crossings, but also potentially that Russia
1:02:02
Speaker 10: may now be trying to target members of the international
1:02:05
Speaker 10: community who come to Ukraine. If that's the case, that's
1:02:09
Speaker 10: a new development.
1:02:11
Speaker 2: Ben, I have to ask if this man actually has
1:02:13
Speaker 2: a brain, because of course the Russians would have been
1:02:17
Speaker 2: absolutely well aware of the timings for that diplomatic train,
1:02:21
Speaker 2: and they were not going to be so stupid to
1:02:24
Speaker 2: strike a diplomatic train. They were carrying on their normal
1:02:27
Speaker 2: work of destroying railway infrastructure across Ukraine, and they were
1:02:33
Speaker 2: very confident in which train they were targeting. But of course,
1:02:37
Speaker 2: striking so close to the Polish border, gives the West
1:02:42
Speaker 2: the absolute message that if the West continues to supply
1:02:46
Speaker 2: the weapons to attack into Russia itself, the Russians are
1:02:51
Speaker 2: going to respond. But I think the BBC, Ben, has
1:02:54
Speaker 2: lost all credibility now in relation to not only the
1:02:59
Speaker 2: war against Iran, but also in Ukraine itself. So to
1:03:04
Speaker 2: quote the Ukrainian railway authority as knowing anything about what's
1:03:10
Speaker 2: actually happening inside Russia and the prosecution of the war
1:03:14
Speaker 2: is simply ridiculous.
1:03:15
Speaker 1: It certainly is. Yes, I think it lost all credibility
1:03:18
Speaker 1: quite some time ago. Now, we're just going to wrap
1:03:20
Speaker 1: up on one more really good piece of news, which
1:03:23
Speaker 1: came in on Friday. The assisted dying bill, or should
1:03:27
Speaker 1: I say the state murder bill, which is basically what
1:03:29
Speaker 1: it is, was voted down 286 to 270. This is
1:03:36
Speaker 1: great news. So this is going to be kicked well
1:03:39
Speaker 1: into the long grass until at least the next general election.
1:03:42
Speaker 1: And then hopefully, frankly, we'll never hear it discussed again.
1:03:48
Speaker 2: As you report on that, Ben, my mind goes back
1:03:50
Speaker 2: to previous generations, be it from the Second World War
1:03:55
Speaker 2: or earlier. What would they have said if somebody had
1:03:59
Speaker 2: told them that in 2026, the government would be trying
1:04:03
Speaker 2: to make it easier and legal to kill vulnerable members
1:04:08
Speaker 2: of society. What would they have actually said? And unfortunately,
1:04:12
Speaker 2: this is the regime we're under. It's the agenda being
1:04:17
Speaker 2: forced through. And if you don't really understand the mentality
1:04:25
Speaker 2: of the government that's in power now, it wants to
1:04:28
Speaker 2: kill vulnerable people. That's what the bill is about. So
1:04:33
Speaker 2: the fact it's been turned down is another great point
1:04:36
Speaker 2: to end on.
1:04:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, and a great point you made there, Brian, the
1:04:41
Speaker 1: government wants to kill vulnerable people. And when you understand that,
1:04:46
Speaker 1: then all of its decisions begin to make a lot
1:04:49
Speaker 1: more sense. But we can push back on it, as
1:04:51
Speaker 1: evidenced today, with the vote against the assisted dying bill
1:04:54
Speaker 1: and also very crucially the vote against or the pausing,
1:04:59
Speaker 1: should I say, of the local government reorganisation scheme, which
1:05:01
Speaker 1: is the primary vehicle for the implementation of the New
1:05:04
Speaker 1: World Order. So, you know, things are pretty crazy out there,
1:05:08
Speaker 1: but actually on some fronts they're going in a very
1:05:11
Speaker 1: good direction.
1:05:12
Speaker 2: So join us for Extra.
1:05:13
Speaker 1: So join us for Extra, yes, exactly. And, of course,
1:05:18
Speaker 1: busy week this week with the event coming up on
1:05:20
Speaker 1: the weekend. But Mike and team will be back for
1:05:24
Speaker 1: the news on Wednesday and Friday. I can't remember. No,
1:05:30
Speaker 1: no news on Friday. So get your news fix on Wednesday.
1:05:33
Speaker 1: And that's it for now. Take care. Goodbye.
1:05:36
Speaker 3: Bye-bye.