Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 26th June 2026

Transcript

UK Column News — 26th June 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon. It's Friday, the twenty sixth at you're in
0:10
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six just after one o'clock. Welcome to the
0:12
Speaker 1: UK col News. I'm your host Mike Robinson joining me
0:14
Speaker 1: in the studio today Patrick Henninson, Welcome to the program.
0:17
Speaker 2: Patrick. Great to be with you, Mike, and by video link.
0:20
Speaker 1: We're joined by Basil Valentine. Now later in the program,
0:22
Speaker 1: we'll have an update on digitally D, a look at
0:25
Speaker 1: Exit ten years later, and we'll be asking why the
0:27
Speaker 1: Foreign Secretary is bringing students from Palestine to finish their
0:31
Speaker 1: studies here in the UK. We'll also have a report
0:35
Speaker 1: from last weekend's anti war conference in London. But we're
0:39
Speaker 1: going to begin today by asking is Andy Burnham Tony
0:42
Speaker 1: Blair two point zho Basil let me welcome to the program.
0:46
Speaker 1: What's the answer to that?
0:49
Speaker 3: Well, I think the weeks and months ahead will show
0:52
Speaker 3: that the new Burnham regime is virtually indistinguishable from the
0:58
Speaker 3: Starmer regime. He appears to be gathering all the old
1:01
Speaker 3: labor together crowd around him. But first, let's begin this
1:07
Speaker 3: trawl through the events of the week with what is
1:10
Speaker 3: undoubtedly the most important story, and that is that the
1:13
Speaker 3: UN's top investigative body on Palestine and Israel, concluded the
1:18
Speaker 3: Israeli forces deliberately targeted Palestinian children as a central element
1:24
Speaker 3: of the genocide in Gaza, inflicting death and severe bodily
1:29
Speaker 3: and mental harm on hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children,
1:35
Speaker 3: and that these killings have continued even after last October ceasefire. Now,
1:41
Speaker 3: these findings come in an eighty eight page report which
1:45
Speaker 3: examines the full scope of harm inflicted on children since
1:50
Speaker 3: the seventh of October twenty twenty three, from precision shootings
1:54
Speaker 3: by snipers and drones, to torture in detention, reproductive violence,
2:00
Speaker 3: and the destruction of schools and hospitals. The evidence shows
2:04
Speaker 3: that Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by
2:08
Speaker 3: the Israeli security forces, said Srinivas Muralida, are the chair
2:13
Speaker 3: of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Occupied Palestinian Territory.
2:20
Speaker 3: He went on, even after the October twenty twenty five ceasefire,
2:24
Speaker 3: children continue to be killed and seriously injured, with disregard
2:29
Speaker 3: by Israel for the ceasefire and the protection owed to
2:33
Speaker 3: Palestinian children under international law. He of course, is a
2:37
Speaker 3: lawyer and judge himself. The Commission has of course already
2:42
Speaker 3: previously concluded that Israel bears responsibility for genocide in Gaza,
2:47
Speaker 3: but on this occasion particularly noted that children are targeted
2:52
Speaker 3: in two main ways, both directly through precision weapons including
2:57
Speaker 3: quad coppds and sniper rifle, and indirectly through the systematic
3:02
Speaker 3: destruction of the conditions necessary for survival, including of course starvation.
3:10
Speaker 2: This all part of a.
3:12
Speaker 3: Deliberate strategy to destroy the future of Palestinians in Gaza
3:17
Speaker 3: by targeting their children. And of course he is ready
3:23
Speaker 3: governed to be very open in recent days and weeks
3:26
Speaker 3: about their plans for the accelerated ethnic cleansing of the
3:33
Speaker 3: Gaza strip. So I think it's worth just pausing for
3:37
Speaker 3: a moment at this point to remember that we're talking
3:40
Speaker 3: here about the supreme crime against humanity and against children too.
3:47
Speaker 3: So one would reasonably expect a report like this to
3:52
Speaker 3: dominate the news cycle for days, if not weeks and months,
3:58
Speaker 3: But as Marina Perkins points out in this tweet, we're
4:03
Speaker 3: still waiting for the global response from world leaders. Where
4:10
Speaker 3: is Suella Braveman on this? For example, Kemmy Baideno leader
4:14
Speaker 3: of the Conservative Party, Nigel Farage, what.
4:16
Speaker 2: Has he got to say about it?
4:18
Speaker 3: Richard Tice, Rupert Lowe, all these talking heads, and of
4:23
Speaker 3: course those in the British government. Where is the outrage. Well,
4:28
Speaker 3: it seems the only people speaking up in Britain at
4:33
Speaker 3: the moment are church figures. Sarah Malalley, now Archbishop of Canterbury,
4:39
Speaker 3: and Hossam Naom, the Anglican Archbishop of Jerusalem, issued a
4:45
Speaker 3: joint letter yesterday following the Archbishop's tour of the Holy
4:50
Speaker 3: Land this week, urging Anglicans around the world to press
4:54
Speaker 3: politicians to take all necessary measures to establish a credible
5:00
Speaker 3: health towards ending the occupation. This must lead to a
5:05
Speaker 3: viable two state solution and for Palestinians to live in peace,
5:11
Speaker 3: dignity and security. Jerusalem's status should be determined through negotiation
5:18
Speaker 3: as a shared capital. The letter read well that, of
5:21
Speaker 3: course is HARKing back to the original nineteen forty seven partition,
5:26
Speaker 3: but I'm afraid that ship has well and truly sailed,
5:29
Speaker 3: though of course it should certainly be revived. The two
5:33
Speaker 3: church leaders said they fear for the long term future
5:36
Speaker 3: of the indigenous Christian Palestinian presence in the Holy Land
5:40
Speaker 3: that stretches back to the time when our Lord walked
5:43
Speaker 3: this land. And they also pointed out that Gaza's health
5:46
Speaker 3: system is in a state of catastrophic collapse. Now it's
5:53
Speaker 3: worth pointing out too that just this week the Archbishop
5:57
Speaker 3: of York has thrown his weight behind a new campaign
6:02
Speaker 3: called Time to Act. And this campaign is calling for
6:08
Speaker 3: a just peace, including suspending UK arms sales to Israel,
6:14
Speaker 3: banning trade and investment in illegal Israeli settlements, suspending the
6:20
Speaker 3: UK Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement until the occupation is ended,
6:25
Speaker 3: and indeed imposing wide rage, wide raging sanctions and calling
6:30
Speaker 3: for accountability in war crimes. But well, we've all been hoping,
6:34
Speaker 3: of course that the new broom Andy Burnham will sweep clean.
6:40
Speaker 3: But in his leadership bid for the Labor Party back
6:44
Speaker 3: in twenty fifteen when Jeremy Corbyn of course was elected leader,
6:51
Speaker 3: he made it very clear where his priorities lay. As
6:54
Speaker 3: we can see now in this clip.
6:58
Speaker 4: I think we need to now reach out and we
7:02
Speaker 4: need to show that we are listening to people across
7:05
Speaker 4: the board, including in the community.
7:06
Speaker 5: It is clear that when we went.
7:09
Speaker 4: Into the last election, relationships were damaged. As leader of
7:13
Speaker 4: the Labor Party, I would make it my business to
7:15
Speaker 4: put those relationships right. And as a start of attem,
7:18
Speaker 4: I can say tonight that the first foreign visits I
7:21
Speaker 4: would do as Leader of the Labor Party would be
7:23
Speaker 4: to Israel to show that message on the very start.
7:27
Speaker 6: Thank you.
7:33
Speaker 3: One wonders whether eleven years later he will make good
7:36
Speaker 3: on them, he will make good on that promise. Well,
7:42
Speaker 3: we haven't heard much from Burnham since his impending coronation
7:47
Speaker 3: was confirmed, but what we do know is that he's
7:50
Speaker 3: appointed James Purnell, who was his predecessor as Councure Secretary
7:57
Speaker 3: under Tony Blair, to be his chief of staff.
8:02
Speaker 2: Now.
8:02
Speaker 3: Burnell left Parliament in twenty ten after launching a failed
8:06
Speaker 3: attempt to topple Tony Blair's successor, Gordon Brown the previous year,
8:14
Speaker 3: And of course Parnell famously is a former chair of
8:20
Speaker 3: Labor Friends of Israel. Well, as we can see from
8:23
Speaker 3: that graphic, Burnham quite a few Labour Friends of Israel
8:28
Speaker 3: to choose from from amongst senior labor glitterati. I think
8:34
Speaker 3: it's worth pointing out that convicted pedophile Paul Diggitt was
8:39
Speaker 3: his political researcher, and Pernell allowed digit to download images
8:42
Speaker 3: of children being raped unto his computer. Dig It was
8:46
Speaker 3: not only a labor man but also worked as a
8:48
Speaker 3: school governor. Believed or not, questions have naturally arose as
8:51
Speaker 3: to why anybody would allow another person to use their computer,
8:55
Speaker 3: let alone download child pornography on it, and it's unsure
8:59
Speaker 3: how long the images had been downloaded, but the police
9:02
Speaker 3: never asked why Doggett didn't delete the images, knowing that
9:07
Speaker 3: his labor comrade, the incoming Chief of Staff James Purnell,
9:12
Speaker 3: would easily be able to see them. Parnell is also
9:16
Speaker 3: a freemason and apparently was never questioned by police about
9:20
Speaker 3: the child rape images, although they'd been left on his computer,
9:24
Speaker 3: so Diggett ended up carrying the can when both men
9:28
Speaker 3: should arguably have been sure charged with possession of child
9:34
Speaker 3: pornography well. Pernell then left the government to become Director
9:40
Speaker 3: of Strategy at the BBC before becoming chief executive of
9:45
Speaker 3: the lobbying firm Flint Global in twenty twenty four, this
9:49
Speaker 3: after he'd passed through numerous other sinocures on the way.
9:55
Speaker 3: Pernell is, of course, one of Burnham's longest standing personal
9:58
Speaker 3: allies in Westminster and was instrumental in his bid to
10:01
Speaker 3: become an MP. Back in two thousand and one, Parnell
10:05
Speaker 3: suggested that Burnham, then a special advisor, speak to Blair's
10:08
Speaker 3: political secretary Sally Morgan about the possibility of running for
10:11
Speaker 3: a seat, and in his book in publishing twenty twenty
10:14
Speaker 3: four head North, Burnham described Pernell as one of the
10:17
Speaker 3: clearest political thinkers I have ever met, and thanked him
10:21
Speaker 3: for believing in me and seeing things others didn't. So
10:26
Speaker 3: it's not really surprising then that Burnham should reward this
10:31
Speaker 3: apparatic but with a plum job of chief of Staff
10:36
Speaker 3: in Downing Street.
10:37
Speaker 6: Now.
10:38
Speaker 3: A Labour source who spoke to Open Democracy on condition
10:41
Speaker 3: of anonymity, expressed concern about the appointment, comparing Parnell's political
10:47
Speaker 3: conflicts of interest with those of Peter Mandelsson when he
10:51
Speaker 3: was hired as ambassador to the United States. It's worth remembering,
10:56
Speaker 3: said the source, that the issue with Peter Mandilson's ooytman
11:00
Speaker 3: wasn't just his connections to Epstein. It was also his
11:03
Speaker 3: role as a senior lobbyist on behalf of some of
11:07
Speaker 3: the world's largest multinationals, which created a huge conflict of interests.
11:13
Speaker 3: If and he truly wants to change the country, then
11:15
Speaker 3: he will have to take on some of the big
11:17
Speaker 3: tech corporations who Pernell has been paid until this week
11:23
Speaker 3: to represent. Prepared to do that with Parnell as his
11:29
Speaker 3: chief of staff, it seems highly unlikely, given that Parnell
11:34
Speaker 3: has been representing privatized water companies until just this week.
11:42
Speaker 2: Through this.
11:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, so briefly as a backbench MP, Pernell shared
11:51
Speaker 3: both the Private Equity All Party Parliamentary Group and Labor
11:54
Speaker 3: Friends of Israel. Quitting politics at the twenty ten general
11:58
Speaker 3: election and now well, as is the case with Josh
12:01
Speaker 3: Shiman's the guy who gave up his seat in make
12:04
Speaker 3: a field for Burnham, it seems that the new in
12:09
Speaker 3: coming soon to be crowned Labor leader is gathering all
12:13
Speaker 3: the favorite old Ghools around him.
12:18
Speaker 1: Thank you for that, Basil, thank you.
12:20
Speaker 7: Let's move on then, Patrick, well, not quite moving on
12:24
Speaker 7: on the same topic. You know what's the power broken
12:27
Speaker 7: going to look like within parliament with the new Andy
12:30
Speaker 7: Burnham Prime Minister. Here's Zach Lanski, leader of the Green Party,
12:34
Speaker 7: and this just popped up in The Guardian just in
12:37
Speaker 7: the last twenty four hours here and asked about, you know,
12:40
Speaker 7: whether he can work with Andy Burman, and it seems
12:43
Speaker 7: like a red line has been drawn here asked if
12:46
Speaker 7: refusing to recognize the genocide and Gaza would be a
12:49
Speaker 7: red line that would stop the Greens from working with Burnham.
12:52
Speaker 7: Polanski replied absolutely, along with Burnham not implementing proportional representation.
12:58
Speaker 7: That's another big issue right there. So we're talking about
13:02
Speaker 7: real electoral reform in that sense. So that's going to
13:06
Speaker 7: be interesting going forward to Greens have of course increased
13:08
Speaker 7: their influence there, and let's look at this as well.
13:12
Speaker 7: This is important. Matt Kennard brought this up with the
13:14
Speaker 7: ouster of Starmer. Here, not one MSM account of his
13:18
Speaker 7: premiership left right, center or right will mention his participation
13:23
Speaker 7: in the genocide in Gaza. Propaganda biomission is how they brainwash.
13:28
Speaker 7: Those who write historical books do the same thing. The
13:31
Speaker 7: struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory
13:34
Speaker 7: against forgetting, and this is true. They don't factor this
13:37
Speaker 7: in to the commentary of how Starmer it just became
13:41
Speaker 7: so grossly unpopular with what's left of the labor base.
13:45
Speaker 7: You could say on the left and that is a
13:46
Speaker 7: central issue. They did the same thing with the Democrats
13:50
Speaker 7: in the last election in the United States. They didn't
13:52
Speaker 7: calculate that into the analysis, So that's going to be
13:55
Speaker 7: interesting going forward here. But then the big question is
13:58
Speaker 7: what's Cure Starmer going to do after his premiership?
14:02
Speaker 3: Now?
14:02
Speaker 7: I think Mike, we can all agree that he didn't
14:04
Speaker 7: serve Britain too well, but he has served another country
14:08
Speaker 7: extremely well. But this is a think piece here at
14:11
Speaker 7: the Times, and this is a quoting sources within Westminster.
14:15
Speaker 7: What will kir Starmer do next? And let's look at
14:18
Speaker 7: that for a moment here, and this is interesting. Is
14:21
Speaker 7: he going to hang out for the duration of his term?
14:24
Speaker 7: Because that didn't work out so well for David Cameron,
14:26
Speaker 7: did it? He resigned trigger to by election here Starmer
14:29
Speaker 7: could stay in Parliament represent Holburn Saint Pancras in the
14:32
Speaker 7: next general election that was a minority of view according
14:36
Speaker 7: to this report. I don't think he ever wants to
14:39
Speaker 7: set foot in the House of Commons again if you
14:41
Speaker 7: can avoid it, said one senior labor source. He did
14:44
Speaker 7: seem very awkward as a Prime minister. I mean it
14:48
Speaker 7: seems like he didn't really enjoy it. He seemed out
14:50
Speaker 7: of sorts, didn't he.
14:51
Speaker 1: And of course we've got to always remember the quote
14:53
Speaker 1: from Davos where he was asked Parliament or Davos, and
14:56
Speaker 1: the absolutely chose Davos. So he seems to have a
14:58
Speaker 1: paunch on for these nationalist organizations.
15:01
Speaker 7: He does, and that leads us to foreshadow what we're
15:04
Speaker 7: going to be appointed to next here. So the departing
15:07
Speaker 7: Prime Minister would be recruited for some major international role,
15:11
Speaker 7: possibly even UN Secretary General. Indeed, the timing could work.
15:16
Speaker 7: Antonio Gutierre's former PM of Portugal is currently set to
15:20
Speaker 7: retire at the end of the year.
15:22
Speaker 2: Just imagine it.
15:23
Speaker 7: Keir Starmer as Secretary General of the United Nations. Now
15:27
Speaker 7: that would suit Israel right down to the ground. There's
15:31
Speaker 7: another position if he doesn't manage to nab that brilliant
15:35
Speaker 7: career opportunity. Is this one, Mike, And this is also
15:38
Speaker 7: brought up in here. I think this is more his speed.
15:40
Speaker 7: One job that could soon be vacant, and what Fitztarmer's
15:44
Speaker 7: experience would be International Criminal Court in the Hague. The
15:48
Speaker 7: incumbent Kareem the incumbent Kareem cohn Uh basically mired by
15:55
Speaker 7: a smear campaign by the Israeli lobby and by the
15:58
Speaker 7: intelligence services. Here another British King's Council is suspended currently.
16:04
Speaker 7: Now Starmer could fill that position as well as the
16:07
Speaker 7: international courts of justice here. Again, that would be great
16:10
Speaker 7: for Israel because to derail the genocide conviction against Israel.
16:16
Speaker 7: I think at every turn it's pretty clear that Starmer
16:19
Speaker 7: has served the State of Israel extremely well. So I
16:23
Speaker 7: would bet that one of those two positions might be
16:26
Speaker 7: where Israel wants Starmar to go and where what Israel
16:29
Speaker 7: wants Israel normally gets. But he's going to you know,
16:32
Speaker 7: this will be I don't think he can mullify Well,
16:34
Speaker 7: he's going to have to mullify Andy Burnham because to
16:37
Speaker 7: get the UN Secretary General position.
16:39
Speaker 2: You'll need the rubber stamp. You'll need the rubber stamp
16:42
Speaker 2: from government. So that will be interesting.
16:45
Speaker 6: One.
16:45
Speaker 7: I don't think it'll be a problem if you think
16:47
Speaker 7: of the friends of Israel, no, I think that. I
16:49
Speaker 7: think the scenes.
16:50
Speaker 1: Probably a dale's already been done because Starmer, if you remember,
16:53
Speaker 1: was initially saying, no, I'm going to fight a fight
16:55
Speaker 1: to the death. I'm going to fight until I'm actually
16:57
Speaker 1: kicked out and then suddenly its actually know I'm off,
17:00
Speaker 1: So some kind of background deal has been done there.
17:03
Speaker 2: I would suggest it does appear that way.
17:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, let's move on then to digital ID. Now,
17:09
Speaker 1: let's bring this on screen because the Department for Business
17:13
Speaker 1: and Trade has they're very excited at the moment to
17:15
Speaker 1: tell us all about the massive success of the digital
17:18
Speaker 1: ID rollout at company's house. Everybody will know that company
17:21
Speaker 1: directors have been required for the last couple of months
17:25
Speaker 1: to identify themselves officially. So they're saying three point million
17:30
Speaker 1: director identities have now been verified, so that's just another
17:34
Speaker 1: three million to go. They claim that one hundred and
17:36
Speaker 1: fifty eight thousand companies are subject to compliance action, although
17:39
Speaker 1: they haven't started that action as yet, and that they're
17:42
Speaker 1: saying that this has contributed to nine hundred and twenty
17:47
Speaker 1: four arrests under the National Crime Agency's Operation Marchialized. Now,
17:52
Speaker 1: for those who don't know, this is the operation to
17:55
Speaker 1: target the sale of illegal vibes, tobacco products and drugs
17:58
Speaker 1: being sold in high street jobs. Now, as this particular
18:03
Speaker 1: graphic that they put out says ten point seven million
18:07
Speaker 1: pounds cash and high value goods seeds. Well, that doesn't
18:09
Speaker 1: seem like a massive success if we consider that the
18:12
Speaker 1: drugs supply has been estimated at ten point seven billion,
18:17
Speaker 1: and organized fraud at eight point nine billion, and organized
18:20
Speaker 1: immigration crime at one billion. I'm going to say those
18:23
Speaker 1: figures are significantly out of date, and they're in fact
18:26
Speaker 1: in twenty ten and twenty eleven prices, because strangely, statistics
18:30
Speaker 1: of value for organized crime in the UK don't seem
18:33
Speaker 1: to be updated terribly regularly, so we can't really get
18:36
Speaker 1: an idea, an up to date idea any way of
18:39
Speaker 1: the skal for what's being faced. But anyway, if the
18:43
Speaker 1: company size digital ID efforts seem unconvincing, what about more generally, Well,
18:48
Speaker 1: Anthropic has joined the bandwagon and is now rolling out
18:51
Speaker 1: identity verification for Claude, which is their major AI platforms.
18:55
Speaker 2: Everybody will know.
18:57
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. They're using a company called person
19:00
Speaker 1: Za to handle this for them. My Persona came to
19:02
Speaker 1: notoriety in November last year for exposing seventy thousand discord
19:07
Speaker 1: users government issued ID photographs to the world, and then
19:11
Speaker 1: in February this year it came to light the Persona
19:13
Speaker 1: is busy feeding the United States government surveillance machine through
19:16
Speaker 1: the so called Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, and
19:20
Speaker 1: the quote from this article on screen. Persona's platform is
19:24
Speaker 1: capable of screening users against global watch lists flagging potential
19:28
Speaker 1: money launderers or terrorist financers. Built in functionality includes filing
19:34
Speaker 1: direct reports to the US Treasury's Financial Intelligence Unit and
19:38
Speaker 1: Canada's equivalent, which is the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis
19:42
Speaker 1: Center of Canada. And so I'm just going to end
19:46
Speaker 1: by saying, if we remember this, this is the world
19:49
Speaker 1: the famous World Economic Forum them that went about everywhere
19:53
Speaker 1: you'll own nothing and be happy. But most people forget that.
19:56
Speaker 1: The original quote that that graphic was was a blog
20:01
Speaker 1: came in a blog post on the World Economic Forums
20:04
Speaker 1: medium blog channel written by Ida Organ, who was Member
20:08
Speaker 1: of Parliament for Denmark, and the headline of that blog
20:13
Speaker 1: was welcome to twenty thirty. I own nothing, have no privacy,
20:17
Speaker 1: and life is never be better. And this is the
20:19
Speaker 1: vision that's clearly on the way to being implemented at
20:22
Speaker 1: the moment. Patrick, any thoughts on.
20:24
Speaker 7: That nothing we haven't said already over the last right
20:28
Speaker 7: six years. But yeah, it suits some people, especially if
20:34
Speaker 7: those people are have shares in the interests of the corporations.
20:37
Speaker 7: They're going to be underpinning all this because it's all
20:40
Speaker 7: about money. At the end of the day, it absolutely is. Okay, well,
20:44
Speaker 7: now let's move on.
20:45
Speaker 8: Then.
20:45
Speaker 1: If you like what the UK Column's doing, please do
20:49
Speaker 1: head over to the website. There's an option there that
20:51
Speaker 1: takes you to a page where she'll explain how you
20:54
Speaker 1: can't support us. If you are supporting us, we'd like
20:56
Speaker 1: to say thank you very much for that. Once again,
21:00
Speaker 1: join as a member and you get access to extra
21:03
Speaker 1: various ways you can make a donation, Join as a
21:05
Speaker 1: member at various membership levels and join us for extra
21:09
Speaker 1: immediately after this news program every time.
21:11
Speaker 2: But don't forget.
21:12
Speaker 1: The column is available as well. Issue one is in
21:15
Speaker 1: the shop at the moment. Issue too is shipping on
21:18
Speaker 1: the second of July and is available for pre sale,
21:21
Speaker 1: so pre order sorry, so please head over to the
21:24
Speaker 1: shop and pick up your copy if you can, and
21:26
Speaker 1: don't forget the twentieth anniversary event eighteenth to twentieth of
21:30
Speaker 1: September this year. Now Tonight at seven pm, Germ is
21:34
Speaker 1: discussing Nietzsche and Christianity at seven and at nine Carl
21:40
Speaker 1: is asking whether Iran holds all the most powerful economic
21:44
Speaker 1: cards and so join them at nine for that and
21:48
Speaker 1: tomorrow at one pm Brian is speaking to Robin Tilbrook,
21:53
Speaker 1: leader of the English Democrats. Join him at one for
21:56
Speaker 1: that discussion, Patrick. Last weekend was a pretty big event.
22:01
Speaker 1: We mentioned it on Friday's program last week at massive
22:05
Speaker 1: anti war event in London. You and Basil attendant. Where
22:09
Speaker 1: did it go?
22:10
Speaker 7: Yeah, it was amazing sold out there, I don't know
22:14
Speaker 7: between at any point three or four thousand people there,
22:18
Speaker 7: massive venue at two massive halls in Westminster, right in
22:22
Speaker 7: the central Westminster, the Assembly Hall there. So yeah, we
22:26
Speaker 7: had a chance to get there very early and just
22:29
Speaker 7: start really talking to different people and a number of
22:32
Speaker 7: very great and high profile speakers, including political leaders as well.
22:37
Speaker 7: We managed to put together a report I think that
22:40
Speaker 7: will give you a sort of feel for what the
22:43
Speaker 7: day was like and the content of it and some
22:45
Speaker 7: of the conversations we had they're not in their entirety year.
22:49
Speaker 7: Just part of those conversations will share with you here
22:52
Speaker 7: and we might do longer interviews which we very well
22:55
Speaker 7: might share on the channels very soon.
22:59
Speaker 2: But here it is.
23:00
Speaker 7: This is myself and Basil Valentine at the International Anti
23:04
Speaker 7: War Conference in Central London.
23:25
Speaker 3: Well just a arriet here in Westminster Central Hall for
23:28
Speaker 3: the International Anti War Conference. And as you can see,
23:32
Speaker 3: there's tremendous buzz and energy here, people from all over Europe,
23:36
Speaker 3: all over the world, a number of eminent speakers, elected officials,
23:42
Speaker 3: trade unionists, but most of all it's simply the will
23:45
Speaker 3: of the people here.
23:46
Speaker 7: We thought it was really important to be down here.
23:48
Speaker 7: You've got people from all over the world attending, speakers
23:52
Speaker 7: from all over the world. It's coming at such a
23:54
Speaker 7: crucial time. We've got multiple conflicts, multiple geopolitical flashpoints. We've
23:58
Speaker 7: obviously got the situation in Gaza and ongoing genocide. We've
24:03
Speaker 7: also got now another genocide unraveling in Lebanon, both at
24:08
Speaker 7: the hands of Israel, in addition to the Iran War,
24:12
Speaker 7: which is really I think transformative in terms of the
24:15
Speaker 7: global landscape and geopolitics and distribution of power, as well
24:20
Speaker 7: as the Ukraine conflict.
24:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm particularly looking forward to seeing Medea Benjamin, who
24:26
Speaker 3: I believe is over from Washington. She's of course the
24:29
Speaker 3: founder of Code Pink, one of the most active and
24:36
Speaker 3: encouraging anti war organizations.
24:40
Speaker 7: We're hoping to connect with some of the speakers today
24:43
Speaker 7: as well as some of the incredible activists, anti war
24:47
Speaker 7: activists that are going to be represented here today.
25:05
Speaker 9: We're here today joining with activists, trade unionist, political representatives
25:10
Speaker 9: from across Europe, many of whom have been at the
25:13
Speaker 9: heart of the huge mobilization so we've seen in opposition
25:17
Speaker 9: to Israel's genocide and gaza in recent years. We are
25:21
Speaker 9: here because Palestine is and must remain at the heart
25:25
Speaker 9: of the wider anti war movement, the wider struggle against
25:28
Speaker 9: militarism and war. And I say that for kind of
25:31
Speaker 9: two reasons.
25:32
Speaker 8: Really.
25:32
Speaker 9: Firstly, if you look at Donald Trump, what he is doing,
25:36
Speaker 9: his war in Iran, his attacks against Venezuela, his threats
25:40
Speaker 9: to Cuba, this is what it means to live in
25:43
Speaker 9: a world of impunity. He's trying to use Palestine as
25:47
Speaker 9: the model for what Palestinians have called mike mates makes
25:51
Speaker 9: right order the threatened humanity at large. But secondly, because
25:55
Speaker 9: Israel can only do what it does because of the
25:57
Speaker 9: support that it receives from Western government. Just last week,
26:00
Speaker 9: the British government allowed the sale of stolen Palestinian land
26:04
Speaker 9: and illegally occupied territory to be openly sold here in London.
26:09
Speaker 9: And it's those same governments whose moral bankruptcy has been
26:12
Speaker 9: exposed by their support for Israel's atrocities, who are now
26:16
Speaker 9: dragging us all towards the disaster. So we're here joining
26:20
Speaker 9: with activists across the wider movement. We're hoping that the
26:23
Speaker 9: conference will issue a call for the tenth of October
26:26
Speaker 9: and we'll be marching in London to commemorate the three
26:29
Speaker 9: years since the start of Israel's genocide, and we're hoping
26:32
Speaker 9: the Conference will call for an international mobilization on that day,
26:36
Speaker 9: coordinated demonstrations to mark that important data.
26:43
Speaker 10: Is something major notes about y years, yes, twenty years
27:00
Speaker 10: he took in humans of open against Iman, since from
27:07
Speaker 10: which this major deview of the US influence.
27:10
Speaker 2: Has come about.
27:12
Speaker 11: I think we are now in a major turning point
27:17
Speaker 11: in history because after almost two and a half of
27:21
Speaker 11: almost three years of general side in Gaza and the
27:25
Speaker 11: extension of that general side in Lebanon, two rounds of
27:30
Speaker 11: aggression against Iran last year and earlier this year, the
27:35
Speaker 11: Irenian people, led by the government of the Islamic Republic
27:40
Speaker 11: of Iran, have now inflicted a huge massive and historic
27:46
Speaker 11: defeat on the might of the Empire. They combined military
27:53
Speaker 11: might of US imperialism and it's a Zionist entity in
27:59
Speaker 11: the region. And it's got historic importance because first of all,
28:07
Speaker 11: we have the might of the Empire defeated by by
28:12
Speaker 11: Iwan and this is a devastating defeat. It will have,
28:18
Speaker 11: it would have, it will have the precautions for years
28:23
Speaker 11: to come, and I would say decades to come, because
28:26
Speaker 11: it's going to change the balance of forces in favor
28:30
Speaker 11: of national liberation movements, not just in West Asia, in
28:35
Speaker 11: favor of the resistance in West Asia, the resistance of Lebanon,
28:39
Speaker 11: resistance in Gaza and Iraq, but also it's a major
28:46
Speaker 11: victory for national liberation movements all around the world.
29:00
Speaker 12: Schools of our age time genside as, the pacity of
29:05
Speaker 12: people in Gaza, and the discusting role play countries, including
29:13
Speaker 12: in supplying last to Know your genocide is playing in
29:19
Speaker 12: those parts to sac life hosts of the school children,
29:25
Speaker 12: a parsa and the past let's four people pass, we
29:31
Speaker 12: will be there as as intense the occupation allowed Pastillon
29:37
Speaker 12: people design their own future in peace.
29:49
Speaker 3: You know, it's really disappointing that other than Jeremy Corbyn.
29:53
Speaker 3: There aren't more members of parliament here. It's as simple
29:56
Speaker 3: as that. But you know where is where is the
30:00
Speaker 3: a Party? Where are the Liberal Democrats? For that matter,
30:03
Speaker 3: we do have both in ardis one of the deputy
30:05
Speaker 3: leaders of the Green Party uh and Muster from Barghuti,
30:10
Speaker 3: a Palestinian activist and journalist. I'm very much looking forward
30:13
Speaker 3: to hearing him speak as.
30:15
Speaker 8: Well, as long as.
30:29
Speaker 13: It's really important that people from across the country who
30:34
Speaker 13: have a united vision of a world of peace come
30:38
Speaker 13: together to build networks, to build that alliance something more
30:42
Speaker 13: strategic than a protest. So this is really really important
30:46
Speaker 13: that we go out, we find our connections people who
30:50
Speaker 13: are like minded from across the world, and we've put
30:54
Speaker 13: up a united front against the military industrial complex, and
30:58
Speaker 13: we find a way of creating in a world where
31:01
Speaker 13: our children can live free and live sathe We.
31:08
Speaker 14: Are. We're concerned about the rise of militarism around the world.
31:29
Speaker 14: There is a feeling to international affairs presently reminiscent of
31:34
Speaker 14: the period before the First World War. It feels like
31:38
Speaker 14: there is an almost uncontrollable drive towards.
31:41
Speaker 6: War, and.
31:44
Speaker 14: With modern weaponry and nuclear weapons, of today, one mistake
31:49
Speaker 14: could lead to catastrophe, and particularly for a country like Britain,
31:56
Speaker 14: where we've had forty years of neoliberal politics which has
32:02
Speaker 14: left the country geared up for a globalized economy which
32:06
Speaker 14: no longer exists. So we don't make anything here anymore.
32:10
Speaker 14: We have the city of London. We are a collection
32:14
Speaker 14: of banks with a country attached to it, the center
32:17
Speaker 14: of international money laundering. That doesn't cut the mustard in
32:20
Speaker 14: the world of trade wars and separating trading blocks. Our
32:25
Speaker 14: manufacturing base is only about eight percent. A quarter of
32:29
Speaker 14: our workforce is in part time employment or gig economy work,
32:33
Speaker 14: and eighty five percent of them are in the services sector.
32:37
Speaker 2: So that leaves us.
32:38
Speaker 14: Remarkably reliant on impulse and foreign capital. And you've only
32:43
Speaker 14: got to look at the bond markets to see what
32:45
Speaker 14: that means for us. I think there's more than seven
32:47
Speaker 14: hundred billion worth of our debt is held by foreign capital.
32:51
Speaker 14: Who that is we've got no idea. You do one
32:53
Speaker 14: thing they don't like. They can just pull the plug
32:54
Speaker 14: in your economy. So we've sold the country. We don't
32:58
Speaker 14: have any sovereign sovereignty left in terms of having an
33:02
Speaker 14: economic base and The idea that through some perverse version
33:08
Speaker 14: of military Canesianism, we're going to kickstart our economy is
33:12
Speaker 14: for the birds. What we will see is a massive
33:14
Speaker 14: transfer of our national wealth to American defense companies. We'll
33:18
Speaker 14: see very little benefit of it here. And if you
33:22
Speaker 14: look at the resignation of the previous Defense minister, you
33:29
Speaker 14: can see really clearly what the rise in military spending
33:33
Speaker 14: means for the country at large. Treasury spokesperson leaked to
33:37
Speaker 14: the press his plans would have meant cutting off school
33:40
Speaker 14: budgets and the closure of hospitals. So while we've got
33:43
Speaker 14: this drive towards more and more militarism and war, it's
33:47
Speaker 14: going to be less infrastructure, public services and security for
33:51
Speaker 14: people at home.
34:11
Speaker 2: Welcome to Britain today.
34:12
Speaker 6: Thank you.
34:13
Speaker 3: Nice to be here, great, particularly since two of your
34:15
Speaker 3: compatriots were so disgracefully denied the ability to travel to
34:22
Speaker 3: London for similar reasons Sanpika and chank Wiga. So I
34:25
Speaker 3: sincerely hope you didn't have any such problems from our
34:29
Speaker 3: increasingly authoritarian government.
34:31
Speaker 6: I think I'm not as important as they are, so
34:33
Speaker 6: I slipped through.
34:37
Speaker 3: All sorts of people from all over the world here
34:39
Speaker 3: Parliamentarians trade union officials. Is great to see so much
34:43
Speaker 3: energy behind the anti war movement, and it's never been
34:46
Speaker 3: more important as it no.
34:49
Speaker 6: And especially with this latest war in Iran, totally unprovoked,
34:54
Speaker 6: totally reckless, that the world was against. And fortunately now
34:59
Speaker 6: President and Trump has tried to find a way to
35:02
Speaker 6: back out. But as long as Israel keeps sabotaging this
35:05
Speaker 6: agreement by refusing to stop it its at tax On Lebanon,
35:09
Speaker 6: we don't know where this is going. And that's why
35:11
Speaker 6: the international anti war movement has to really come together
35:15
Speaker 6: and be as loud and effective as we can. And
35:18
Speaker 6: I come from the US, so I say, unless there's
35:20
Speaker 6: a sea change in the United States and we stop
35:23
Speaker 6: giving billions of dollars to Israel to keep this rampage going,
35:28
Speaker 6: I don't think we'll see a change in Israel. So
35:31
Speaker 6: all of it has to happen. At the same time,
35:34
Speaker 6: I wish there were a strong anti war movement in Israel,
35:38
Speaker 6: but it is good that there are so many Jewish
35:41
Speaker 6: people around the world, including in the United States, including myself.
35:46
Speaker 6: They are horrified by what Israel is doing, horrified by
35:50
Speaker 6: what our own governments are doing. The complicity that we have.
35:53
Speaker 5: So my name is Sophie Bolt. I'm the General Fectary
35:56
Speaker 5: of the Campaign for Neway Defarmament. So today I was
36:01
Speaker 5: really trying to impress upon people. I don't need to
36:05
Speaker 5: lots of people understand this the seriousness of growing nuclear
36:10
Speaker 5: threats in the world. Today. We have a situation where
36:14
Speaker 5: all of the nuclear weapon states are either modernizing expanding
36:19
Speaker 5: their nuclear weapons, including of course here in Britain. But
36:23
Speaker 5: I also wanted to look at the situation across Europe
36:28
Speaker 5: because we now have a very rapidly moving, very dangerous
36:33
Speaker 5: situation where we already have over one hundred new US
36:40
Speaker 5: nuclear bombs stationed at NATO bases across Europe. But now
36:47
Speaker 5: President Macron has now brought out a new nuclear doctrine
36:52
Speaker 5: which means that French nuclear capable jets are potentially going
36:58
Speaker 5: to be deployed in many countries across Europe, including potentially Poland.
37:05
Speaker 5: Why is that so serious? So significant? Poland is right
37:08
Speaker 5: on the border with Russia, and we have real concern
37:12
Speaker 5: that you're literally having a massive increase in nuclear dangers,
37:17
Speaker 5: in nuclear threats, and we think that that's going to
37:21
Speaker 5: massively increase the risk of a nuclear confrontation in Europe.
37:26
Speaker 13: We hear the drum beat of war from our media.
37:30
Speaker 13: We hear the drum beat of war from leaders like
37:34
Speaker 13: Donald Trump, most powerful leader in the world, who called
37:40
Speaker 13: or said he was going to wipe out a civilization,
37:43
Speaker 13: quite openly calling or saying that he was going to
37:48
Speaker 13: commit genocide. We have an actual genocide taking place in Gaza.
37:56
Speaker 13: When you have that and the narrative that's consistently built
37:59
Speaker 13: like that, the world does look bleak. But we have
38:03
Speaker 13: an opportunity as people who want a vision and want
38:07
Speaker 13: a world where we can all come together and find
38:12
Speaker 13: a world where we want to live in that's safe,
38:17
Speaker 13: that's peaceful, that works for the for the very foundation
38:23
Speaker 13: of humanity. We have to be the ones who create that,
38:28
Speaker 13: and we have to find those networks and those light
38:30
Speaker 13: minded people and work together because it's war is never
38:37
Speaker 13: in the interests of ordinary people. War is in the
38:41
Speaker 13: interest of those who can capitalize off war, arms, corporations, lobbyists,
38:48
Speaker 13: and certain politicians, and the ones who pay the price
38:53
Speaker 13: are the ordinary people. Because it's ordinary people who end
38:55
Speaker 13: up fighting on the front lines. They're the ones who
38:58
Speaker 13: end up losing their lives. And it's going to be
39:01
Speaker 13: kids from constituencies like mine, working class kids that are
39:06
Speaker 13: conscripted antique into the front line, and we've got to
39:10
Speaker 13: do everything we can to protect them.
39:13
Speaker 7: And so you've never seen such a diverse set of
39:18
Speaker 7: views on this type of gathering, which would have been
39:21
Speaker 7: totally different in two thousand and three during the Iraq War,
39:25
Speaker 7: but now the overlap is incredible and people are really
39:29
Speaker 7: starting to see the underlying structures for this global system
39:34
Speaker 7: of I would say the whole of society militarization that
39:38
Speaker 7: we're seeing right now, especially in Europe.
39:40
Speaker 3: People do not want war. They don't want it in
39:43
Speaker 3: the Middle East, they don't want it in Europe. The
39:46
Speaker 3: only people that benefit are the military industrial complex and
39:51
Speaker 3: power hungry oligarchs with their own nefarious geopolitical agendas. So
39:57
Speaker 3: it's never been more important, it's never been more urgent
40:01
Speaker 3: that we say to governments the world over, and particularly
40:05
Speaker 3: here in Britain, we don't want to go to war.
40:09
Speaker 6: No.
40:09
Speaker 1: I thought, thanks for that Basil at the end great report, Patrick,
40:16
Speaker 1: I mean I thought that you know, the recognition of
40:20
Speaker 1: where the problem comes from across the board, and also,
40:24
Speaker 1: perhaps surprisingly to some people, the recognition of the city
40:30
Speaker 1: of London influencing all this and what Britain is constituted
40:37
Speaker 1: at the moment is it's maybe something we haven't heard
40:40
Speaker 1: from treadin US before.
40:41
Speaker 7: Yeah, because it's so out in the open. Well we
40:44
Speaker 7: you know, to the RMTS credit by the way, they're
40:47
Speaker 7: probably the most geopolitically astute organization in the country, I
40:52
Speaker 7: would say year on year they're they're absolutely incredible that
40:55
Speaker 7: all their leaders included from Eddie Dempsey and Bob Crow
40:58
Speaker 7: before him, the powerhouses in terms of geopolitical analysis. But
41:03
Speaker 7: I think because things are so out in the open now,
41:05
Speaker 7: the agenda is just so naked. I think it's just
41:08
Speaker 7: hard for intelligent, educated people not to see the whole structure,
41:14
Speaker 7: the whole system. Now they're connecting the dots and they're
41:17
Speaker 7: doing it fast and now people can see. So the
41:20
Speaker 7: conversation's transcended even you know, political ideologies. Now now we're
41:24
Speaker 7: getting into real politic and I think I think a
41:28
Speaker 7: lot of people at this event really demonstrated to me
41:30
Speaker 7: the depth of understanding they having the issues is incredible.
41:34
Speaker 7: And there's a lot of left ing groups there traditionally
41:37
Speaker 7: trade unions as well, the Green Party very much on
41:41
Speaker 7: the left. But you know, I think the right that's
41:44
Speaker 7: missing a trick on this and other issues. The analysis
41:50
Speaker 7: was impressive from all these people, including Jeremy Corbyn himself.
41:53
Speaker 7: I mean he's as sharp as anything on this issue,
41:57
Speaker 7: as are pretty much all the other speakers. So you know,
41:59
Speaker 7: we can all come together and learn a lot from
42:02
Speaker 7: each other. I went there to learn. I think Basil
42:04
Speaker 7: was the same, and we came out with a whole
42:07
Speaker 7: lot more than we went in with. And I think
42:10
Speaker 7: that's really the point. So I encourage people to attend
42:12
Speaker 7: and participate in these types of events no matter what
42:15
Speaker 7: your political stripe is. It's absolutely paramount importance right now.
42:20
Speaker 1: Absolutely Now let's stick with the topic then, because if
42:23
Speaker 1: we bring this on screen, Britain and France both, as
42:25
Speaker 1: we've been reporting for the last couple of weeks, escalating
42:28
Speaker 1: their game of intercepting, boarding, and diverting so called shadow
42:32
Speaker 1: fleet oil tankers accused of carrying Russian oil. The two
42:36
Speaker 1: countries have imposed unilateral sanctions against any ships carrying Russian
42:41
Speaker 1: oil and claim to have the right to board them
42:43
Speaker 1: in international waters. This is, I would argue, otherwise known
42:47
Speaker 1: as Parisi. As we just saw there on Tuesday, the
42:50
Speaker 1: French NIVIY intercepted the Cameroon Flagg Deliver tanker near Sicily.
42:56
Speaker 1: The tiger was in international waters, one thousand miles from
42:59
Speaker 1: the nearest French port of Marseille and far from French
43:02
Speaker 1: territorial orders either. French President Macron said that Deliver was
43:07
Speaker 1: in violation of maritime law. And you're going to have
43:10
Speaker 1: to explain that to me, Emmanual, because this doesn't make
43:13
Speaker 1: sense factor your behavior. It seems like it's in violation
43:17
Speaker 1: of maritime law to me. But anyway, then as last
43:19
Speaker 1: week last week is sorry, as Charles was reporting last
43:22
Speaker 1: week on this program, the seizure by the Royal Marines
43:27
Speaker 1: or whatever they're called these days of the tankers smirt us.
43:30
Speaker 1: Now at the time we asked what would happen to
43:33
Speaker 1: the oil? And apparently we now have the answer because
43:35
Speaker 1: and we to see the Telegraph was reporting that British
43:38
Speaker 1: officials believe the ninety eight thousand tons of crude oil
43:41
Speaker 1: on the ship now I legally belongs to the UK
43:44
Speaker 1: and can be used or treated by the British government.
43:47
Speaker 1: The Telegraph is saying that the oil is likely to
43:49
Speaker 1: fetch around thirty five million dollars and that the British
43:53
Speaker 1: plan is to transfer that money cots directly to Ukraine
43:56
Speaker 1: or used to fund equipment to send to the front lines.
44:00
Speaker 1: And they go on to say that this seizure of
44:02
Speaker 1: Smirtof marked a major escalation in Britain's fight against Putin's
44:06
Speaker 1: illicit oil trade. Russia is continually warning about this, and
44:11
Speaker 1: I'll just highlight one example, which is former head of
44:13
Speaker 1: the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, who said earlier in
44:17
Speaker 1: the month, a couple of weeks ago, that Britain and
44:19
Speaker 1: the French Britain and France are playing with fire. He
44:22
Speaker 1: said that in his view, the EU countries and NATO
44:26
Speaker 1: want to shut down Russian shipping, including oil tanker shipments.
44:30
Speaker 1: He said, we must understand that the West is preparing
44:33
Speaker 1: for more than just a blockade. Judging from incoming information,
44:36
Speaker 1: they're working on scenarios including preemptive strikes against our basis.
44:41
Speaker 1: So the Russians being as highlighted in your report, Patrick,
44:46
Speaker 1: and with the continuing pressure on the so called Shadow Fleet,
44:50
Speaker 1: they're being pushed into a corner and it's becoming very,
44:54
Speaker 1: very dangerous. But just to conclude on the military side
44:58
Speaker 1: of things, on Tuesday. Then, well, we'll start off by
45:02
Speaker 1: saying that for over a decade, you know, the UK
45:04
Speaker 1: column has been maybe one of the only voices warning
45:07
Speaker 1: about the creation of an EU level defense union and
45:11
Speaker 1: the implications. First all of that, now, just consider this
45:16
Speaker 1: for a second, the nuclear button in the hands of
45:19
Speaker 1: Ursula vonder Land. Does this seem like a good idea,
45:22
Speaker 1: because that's the destination she herself has put it in
45:25
Speaker 1: the past, single point command, control and procurement at the
45:28
Speaker 1: European Commission level. We've been tracking their progress, which is
45:33
Speaker 1: admittedly painfully slow, but faster, absolutely faster since Trump began
45:37
Speaker 1: his second term. And so on Wednesday, according to the
45:41
Speaker 1: British government's press release on this and against the backdrop
45:45
Speaker 1: of the current threats and challenges, it's the security environment
45:49
Speaker 1: their words, the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland and
45:53
Speaker 1: the United Kingdom met in Berlin. They said that leaders
45:57
Speaker 1: affirmed their unwavering commitment to the Your Atlantic Security Transatlantic Bond,
46:01
Speaker 1: recognizing the vital role that the US continues to play
46:04
Speaker 1: in the alliance, and they agreed to collectively work towards
46:08
Speaker 1: a successful NATO summit in Agra hosted by Erduwan on
46:11
Speaker 1: the seventh and eight seventh eighth of July upcoming. Now,
46:16
Speaker 1: this has always been the mantra of the pro Defense
46:19
Speaker 1: Union pride, because we have to remember that NATO is
46:22
Speaker 1: one of the pillars of their defense union. So what
46:26
Speaker 1: were they talking about here? Will European leadership and burden sharing,
46:32
Speaker 1: collective security cooperation, defense industrial cooperation, specifically support for Ukraine
46:40
Speaker 1: and also a united position on Iran. These are their
46:43
Speaker 1: their main motivations or talking points at the moment. But
46:47
Speaker 1: at the heart of this is the idea that EU
46:50
Speaker 1: member states lose effectively lose operational control of their militaries.
46:55
Speaker 1: Moves upper level to the European Commission, and at that level,
47:01
Speaker 1: of course, they would argue that member states still have
47:04
Speaker 1: some kind of input, but deployments and so on would
47:06
Speaker 1: be decided at the European Commission level. And bearing in
47:09
Speaker 1: mind the rhetoric we've heard out of multiple incumbents of
47:14
Speaker 1: various offices at European Commission level, that's a pretty scary thought.
47:18
Speaker 7: Well, that's assuming that there's going to be an automatic
47:20
Speaker 7: compliance by each member state, because it's a political question
47:24
Speaker 7: at the end of the day, it's not merely about
47:26
Speaker 7: whether your military is independent, but more do you have
47:29
Speaker 7: an independent foreign policy?
47:31
Speaker 6: Right?
47:31
Speaker 7: And that's going to come down to the mechanisms of
47:34
Speaker 7: government in those respective countries. And we can already see
47:37
Speaker 7: there are people wavering in the NATO family regarding let's say,
47:42
Speaker 7: the war against Iran. So I can't imagine what the
47:45
Speaker 7: E five's position is on Iran when the United States
47:48
Speaker 7: instigated and started an i llegal war. I mean, is
47:51
Speaker 7: it their position to support an illegal war of aggression
47:55
Speaker 7: or is there a position peaceful diplomacy and trying to
47:58
Speaker 7: de escalate. Isn't that That's the fundamental question that I
48:02
Speaker 7: have anyway on that.
48:04
Speaker 1: So yeah, But sticking with the European Union, then, Patrick,
48:07
Speaker 1: this week was the tenth anniversary of the Brexit vote.
48:11
Speaker 7: That's right, ten years of Brexit fireworks. The ten year anniversary, well,
48:16
Speaker 7: let's just take a look and see, you know how
48:19
Speaker 7: it's going. It's been a while, hasn't it Since that
48:22
Speaker 7: fateful day when David Cameron announced the referendum in February
48:26
Speaker 7: of I believe it was twenty sixteen, wasn't it, Yes?
48:30
Speaker 7: And since then a lot has happened. Boris Johnson has
48:34
Speaker 7: come and gone as a political force. They'll take a
48:36
Speaker 7: look at you Gov here and how many prime ministers
48:39
Speaker 7: have we had since then? We don't even want to ask,
48:42
Speaker 7: but what what do Britains think of Brexit? Ten years
48:46
Speaker 7: on since the referendum? Now this is very revealing here.
48:50
Speaker 7: Some of the data points that have merged from this
48:53
Speaker 7: I think are worth pointing out. We'll take a closer
48:55
Speaker 7: look at some of the key ones here. Let's look
48:58
Speaker 7: at this. Fifty seven percent of Britain's think the UK
49:01
Speaker 7: was wrong to vote to leave the EU. Now this
49:04
Speaker 7: is after the fact the reflections, okay, not at the time,
49:08
Speaker 7: obviously including twenty three percent of Leave voters. So what
49:11
Speaker 7: that indicates to us, Mike, is that if there was
49:14
Speaker 7: another referendum or another vote on it, it would decidedly
49:17
Speaker 7: go towards rejoining Europe, or at least under a different.
49:24
Speaker 2: Conditions.
49:25
Speaker 7: As it were, Six out of ten Britains think Brexit
49:27
Speaker 7: has been a failure. That's a pretty decisive result there.
49:33
Speaker 2: And then on from that.
49:35
Speaker 7: Fifty five percent of Britain say they support the UK
49:39
Speaker 7: rejoining the EU. But this falls to just thirty five
49:43
Speaker 7: percent if the UK had to rejoin rejoin without prior
49:48
Speaker 7: opt outs, So there's a condition there, there's a caveat.
49:52
Speaker 7: Clearly it's represented in the polling. But just beyond that,
49:57
Speaker 7: this is interesting here. This is what we're going to
49:58
Speaker 7: delve into. Briefly, fifty nine percent of Britain support a
50:02
Speaker 7: closer relationship with the EU, but without joining the EU
50:06
Speaker 7: the Single Market or the Customs Union the only relationship
50:10
Speaker 7: backed by the majority of remainers and leavers. Okay, that's interesting,
50:16
Speaker 7: so they want there's the idea of the Single Market
50:20
Speaker 7: and the customs Union seemed to this seems to be
50:23
Speaker 7: a hangover from Brexit, and I don't know if it's
50:26
Speaker 7: been properly explained or not, but I think the best
50:28
Speaker 7: explanation on this is to look at the economic data
50:31
Speaker 7: because that should be an indicator of whether there's any
50:35
Speaker 7: benefit to being in the Single Market or the customer
50:37
Speaker 7: Union or not. So one of the things that all
50:40
Speaker 7: the experts do agree on, and we'll show you the
50:43
Speaker 7: receipts for this as well.
50:45
Speaker 2: Well.
50:46
Speaker 7: First of all, remember Nigel Faraj amidst Brexit had failed.
50:50
Speaker 7: This was from the Mirror in twenty twenty three. But
50:53
Speaker 7: let's look at that for a moment here. How Brexit
50:56
Speaker 7: devastated Britain's SME sector small to medium sized enterprises. Let's
51:01
Speaker 7: take a look at that. There he is, remember the
51:03
Speaker 7: good old days when it was all sun and all
51:07
Speaker 7: positive going forward? What is it brought? Trade barriers, red tape,
51:11
Speaker 7: supply chain disruptions. This is what has devastated the small
51:15
Speaker 7: to medium sized business sector, which is the lifeblood of
51:18
Speaker 7: the British economy. It represents something like what ninety percent
51:21
Speaker 7: of the economic activity in the country is SMEs or
51:25
Speaker 7: something like crazy number like that. Inability to expand business. Obviously,
51:29
Speaker 7: if you cut out a major market, it's going to
51:32
Speaker 7: hurt your ability to expand. Labor and skills shortages. That's
51:37
Speaker 7: also a problem for a lot of businesses as well,
51:40
Speaker 7: regional disadvantages like behind the red wall for instance. So
51:45
Speaker 7: the bottom line here is that there have been serious problems.
51:49
Speaker 7: The other thing that's interesting in some of these reports, Mike,
51:51
Speaker 7: and we'll show you the academic report on this. So
51:54
Speaker 7: there's been an increase in migration since Brexit. Okay, But
52:00
Speaker 7: to me, and this is what I covered in the
52:01
Speaker 7: last first edition of the column. It's offset by net
52:04
Speaker 7: emigration people leaving the country and also falling birth rates,
52:09
Speaker 7: not as many people getting married. Those are both indicators
52:12
Speaker 7: of people that don't see a future so yet so
52:14
Speaker 7: they're going to leave the country for economic reasons. So
52:17
Speaker 7: those are all point to economic problems. Those statistics here
52:22
Speaker 7: here is the receipts on this. Oh and by the way,
52:25
Speaker 7: let's not forget leaving the European Union has made people
52:28
Speaker 7: in Britain up to eight percent poor. Where do the
52:31
Speaker 7: numbers come from? We go to Science Direct here the
52:34
Speaker 7: impact of Brexit on SME lending in the UK, and
52:37
Speaker 7: a lot of what we just said right there is
52:40
Speaker 7: outlined in this peer reviewed paper on Science Direct, one
52:44
Speaker 7: of many resources which you can get on the topic here.
52:49
Speaker 7: In addition to that, deep class division has increased, the
52:52
Speaker 7: wealth gap has increased. In other words, Mike, the same frustrations,
52:56
Speaker 7: the same issues that drove the frustration in twenty sixteen
53:01
Speaker 7: or not only still exist, but they're worse. They've been exacerbated.
53:05
Speaker 7: So I think when you're looking at whether Brexit was
53:08
Speaker 7: a success or not, you do have to take a
53:10
Speaker 7: lot of these factors into consideration when evaluating that. Put
53:15
Speaker 7: aside the dopamine rush of patriotism, and I think we
53:18
Speaker 7: can all agree that people. A lot of Brexit was
53:21
Speaker 7: about anger and empowerment. People felt like they weren't being hurnt,
53:25
Speaker 7: especially the working class and the working war so it
53:29
Speaker 7: gave them a chance to have a stake in the
53:31
Speaker 7: country's future. The question is what was that future and
53:36
Speaker 7: is that future going to be bright? Or is there
53:40
Speaker 7: is there there's leeway to rejoin the EU. But under
53:44
Speaker 7: different terms, those are legitimate questions. I think that are
53:47
Speaker 7: going to come up with the Andy Burnham premiership because
53:51
Speaker 7: it does seem like this issue is being revised and
53:54
Speaker 7: there's going to be a lot of pressure I think.
53:57
Speaker 2: Okay in that direction.
53:58
Speaker 1: Oh okay, well, I'm going to say that while I
54:01
Speaker 1: agree with your analysis, mostly I think we're going to
54:04
Speaker 1: have an interesting conversation and EXTRA about this. So we
54:07
Speaker 1: will be discussing this and EXTRA, have no doubt, and
54:09
Speaker 1: it's going to be It's going to be fun.
54:11
Speaker 2: So do join us. And more fireworks, absolutely, more fireworks
54:14
Speaker 2: and Extra. Don't miss it. If you remember, If you remember,
54:17
Speaker 2: you'll get you'll get a chance to look at that. Absolutely.
54:20
Speaker 1: Now, look, let's come back onto the Gazza situation for
54:23
Speaker 1: a second. But this is a Vet Cooper who is
54:26
Speaker 1: of course, our lovely Foreign Secretary, because she was pushing
54:31
Speaker 1: out this graphic on social media today, high achieving gaz
54:35
Speaker 1: And students to complete their studies in the UK, critically
54:38
Speaker 1: ill gas And children to receive specialist care in the UK.
54:41
Speaker 1: So let's just have a look at a couple of
54:43
Speaker 1: things that she said here. The UK must continue to
54:46
Speaker 1: support students and injured children from Palestine. How about supporting
54:49
Speaker 1: them by condemning.
54:51
Speaker 2: What Israel's doing.
54:52
Speaker 1: That might be a place to start, but no, we're
54:54
Speaker 1: not going to do that. We're going to continue with
54:56
Speaker 1: what's going on there, and then we're going to cherry
54:58
Speaker 1: pick some of them to come to the UK for
55:01
Speaker 1: educational purposes and for NHS purposes. She said, talented young
55:06
Speaker 1: people from across Gaza must not be denied their chance
55:09
Speaker 1: to study because of the horrendous conditions and restrictions they
55:13
Speaker 1: still face. This woman is a disgrace. And she went
55:17
Speaker 1: on to say, we're also helping some of the most
55:19
Speaker 1: vulnerable children to leave Gaza and get expert medical attention
55:23
Speaker 1: in the NHS, building on similar evacuations we facilitated last year.
55:28
Speaker 1: So this is people trafficking. But here's the point. Here's
55:31
Speaker 1: the point, Patrick, because let's choose put that back on
55:33
Speaker 1: screen if your mind, William for a second, because here's
55:35
Speaker 1: the key quote from this. We will continue to run
55:39
Speaker 1: special arrangements to help chievening scholars and other students with
55:42
Speaker 1: places at world class UK universities to support the next
55:46
Speaker 1: generation of Palestinian leaders. That's it right there.
55:50
Speaker 2: That bold is my bold.
55:51
Speaker 1: That wasn't her bold, But that is the key point,
55:54
Speaker 1: I think Patrick, because what we're looking at is making
55:56
Speaker 1: sure that the leadership in Gaza, whatever state Gaza is
56:01
Speaker 1: in in the future, is being led by pro Israeli
56:06
Speaker 1: British trend and educated leaders and pro.
56:09
Speaker 7: Western, pro American, pro British. So this was in my
56:12
Speaker 7: article in the first edition of Column I called it
56:14
Speaker 7: the fifth column in exile. And this is a geopolitical
56:17
Speaker 7: strategy that's employed by the US, by Britain and by
56:21
Speaker 7: other NATO countries with all conflict zones to jerry pick
56:25
Speaker 7: the best in the brightest where in that is if
56:27
Speaker 7: At Cooper said, the reason why there's no schools in Gaza,
56:31
Speaker 7: that thirty universities have been completely turned to dust, is
56:36
Speaker 7: it because Israel has flattened them all, has destroyed them all.
56:41
Speaker 7: With US and British munitions and spy flights directing targeting.
56:47
Speaker 7: Where is that in any of these statements, because isn't
56:49
Speaker 7: that the problem? Is that not the cause of the problem. No, No,
56:53
Speaker 7: We're just going to help the children because it all
56:55
Speaker 7: sounds good, doesn't it.
56:56
Speaker 6: Yeah?
56:56
Speaker 2: Wonderful? Absolutely? Do they ever get sent back again afterwards?
57:01
Speaker 1: I dot it? But anyway, that's another conversation we have, basil.
57:04
Speaker 1: Let's finish the program then with more in case you
57:08
Speaker 1: missed it. Now, look, I will advance the graphics here
57:11
Speaker 1: because there's clearly a technical issue there. But let's start
57:14
Speaker 1: with this with this guardian, this guardian peace.
57:20
Speaker 3: Yes, Bill Gates testified in Washington, and it seems that
57:26
Speaker 3: Jeff Epstein sought to blackmail him over his extramarital affairs.
57:31
Speaker 2: Who knew?
57:32
Speaker 3: Transfitt of congressional testamenty shows Microsoft founder spoke of veiled
57:37
Speaker 3: threats made by the supposedly dead sex offender, which of
57:42
Speaker 3: course begs the question who else was Jeff Epstein blackmailing?
57:47
Speaker 3: Well we might find out soon enough, because Thomas Massey
57:51
Speaker 3: may have lost his primary, but he's still in Congress
57:55
Speaker 3: for some time and a lot more revelations are to come.
57:59
Speaker 3: As we can see in this.
58:02
Speaker 15: I mean, there's going to be a lot of revelations
58:05
Speaker 15: still to come out over what Epstein did and his
58:07
Speaker 15: connections to government officials in Israel. Either there's the video
58:14
Speaker 15: or I'm sorry, the audio tape of Jeffrey Epstein advising
58:18
Speaker 15: a hood Barak on how to leverage the things that
58:21
Speaker 15: he did while he was in office once he becomes
58:24
Speaker 15: a private citizen to extract favors from people.
58:27
Speaker 2: I thought that was very revealing.
58:30
Speaker 16: So I haven't seen the emails.
58:31
Speaker 15: You're talking about, but it wouldn't surprise me at all.
58:34
Speaker 16: The Oversight Committee's contribution.
58:35
Speaker 15: To this effort has been an absolute total joke.
58:38
Speaker 16: We basically just bring in people over there and giving
58:41
Speaker 16: them almost a whitewash. They once they do some perfunctory
58:46
Speaker 16: testimony there in the Oversight Committee.
58:48
Speaker 3: They've checked a box.
58:50
Speaker 16: It says, I've showed up and done something.
58:55
Speaker 3: Look forward to finding out more about that, of course,
58:58
Speaker 3: I'm sure we all do. And let's not forget thousands
59:01
Speaker 3: of other documents and items have so far been hidden
59:05
Speaker 3: from the public because they're too disturbing for us to see. Apparently,
59:09
Speaker 3: will we ever get full disclosure who knows. No one's
59:12
Speaker 3: been arrested yet anyway. Next up the store Britain candidate
59:18
Speaker 3: for the Manchester mayoral team, Marlon West. He backs Handy
59:23
Speaker 3: Burnham for Prime Minister. His daughter sadly was targeted by
59:28
Speaker 3: one of these grooming gangs, which seems I was rather
59:32
Speaker 3: surprised about. I thought it was only sort of vulnerable
59:35
Speaker 3: working class girls. But Marlon West a successful businessman, and
59:40
Speaker 3: yet his daughter was apparently amongst those raped. Now a
59:44
Speaker 3: good news story for a change. Next up, the British
59:48
Speaker 3: Medical Association voted overwhelmingly to chuck out the discredited in
59:55
Speaker 3: so called International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Anti Semitism definition, which
1:00:01
Speaker 3: of course goes a long way to censoring any serious
1:00:06
Speaker 3: criticism of Israel, including singling Israel out. Well, I mean,
1:00:10
Speaker 3: I think given the report we've seen this week about
1:00:14
Speaker 3: the genocide of children in Gaza, it's perfectly fair enough
1:00:17
Speaker 3: to single out any state that commits genocide against Garza.
1:00:22
Speaker 3: So this vote by the BMA the Doctors' Union effectively
1:00:26
Speaker 3: puts them on a collision course with Lord Man and
1:00:30
Speaker 3: no doubt who the incoming Health Secretary is in the
1:00:33
Speaker 3: new Starma regime, we'd be very interesting to see how
1:00:37
Speaker 3: that plays out. And there is of course a legal
1:00:39
Speaker 3: challenge well worth looking up, being led by the British
1:00:43
Speaker 3: Palestinian surgeon Rand Duke bra calling for a judicial review
1:00:48
Speaker 3: of that IHR definition.
1:00:51
Speaker 2: To go and look that up elsewhere if you like.
1:00:55
Speaker 3: Next up, Tucker Carlson gave an interview to Sky News
1:01:00
Speaker 3: and absolutely fascinating it was to here he is decrying
1:01:06
Speaker 3: the lack of democracy in Britain.
1:01:10
Speaker 9: To undermine Britain's democracy.
1:01:13
Speaker 1: That he's democracy.
1:01:19
Speaker 10: We do, we do, we do, we do have a democracy,
1:01:22
Speaker 10: and we can talk about all of those issues.
1:01:26
Speaker 7: We can talk about all.
1:01:27
Speaker 3: The issues that you're concerned about, including free speech.
1:01:30
Speaker 2: I just love George Galloway.
1:01:32
Speaker 10: I just want to say that I'm sure he'll be
1:01:34
Speaker 10: very happy.
1:01:34
Speaker 16: He's living in exile, can't even go back to the
1:01:38
Speaker 16: UK where he's from.
1:01:42
Speaker 3: It is true that George feels he can't reside in
1:01:45
Speaker 3: Britain at the moment for fear of political persecution. But
1:01:49
Speaker 3: it's interesting too that Tucker, a supposedly right wing figure,
1:01:54
Speaker 3: endorsing somebody from UH generally considered to be the left
1:01:58
Speaker 3: of the spectrum. The former leader of the Workers Party
1:02:01
Speaker 3: of Britain and finally this week. Yes, Starmer is gone,
1:02:07
Speaker 3: but what's the difference between Kiir and Andy really asked
1:02:12
Speaker 3: this meme. Replacing Starmer with Burnham is like being a
1:02:15
Speaker 3: kid in the hospital in the nineteen seventies and being
1:02:18
Speaker 3: told the Jimmy Saville visit has been canceled, only to
1:02:21
Speaker 3: hear the sound of did you redo coming down the corridor?
1:02:25
Speaker 3: That reference, of course to the late Ralph Harris. Look
1:02:30
Speaker 3: forward to talking about all these things in extra.
1:02:33
Speaker 2: With you, gentlemen.
1:02:34
Speaker 1: Yes, brilliant, Thank you, Basil, thank you very much for that. Now, look,
1:02:37
Speaker 1: we've got to leave it there for today. I'm very
1:02:39
Speaker 1: sorry to say, but we'll be back if your a
1:02:41
Speaker 1: UK COLN member for some UK col News Extra and
1:02:45
Speaker 1: where Patrick and I will be discussing for exit amongst
1:02:50
Speaker 1: other things. We'll see you in a couple of minutes.
1:02:53
Speaker 6: A B.