Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News - 5th November 2025

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UK Column News - 5th November 2025 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Good afternoon. It's Wednesday, the 5th of
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November just after 1:00. Welcome to UK column News.
0:12
I'm your host, Mike Robinson. My Co host today is Charles
0:15
Mallett. Welcome to the program, Charles.
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And joining us via live link is journalist and peace campaigner
0:21
Vanessa Bailey. Now later in the program,
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Vanessa is going to be covering Sudan, Syria and Iraq and
0:26
Nigeria. Charles will be reporting on an
0:29
interview with former head of Mossad and the latest on the
0:32
claimed spread of blue tongue. And I'm going to covering Signal
0:35
Britain and Trump's latest in Latin America.
0:38
But we're going to begin today with the Tommy Tommy Robinson
0:41
court case which took place yesterday.
0:44
Will cause will call cell has sent us this report.
0:50
Good morning. This will cause of reporting
0:51
today. I'm outside Westminster
0:52
Magistrate Court here to report on the verdict of the Tommy
0:56
Robinson terrorism trial, where Tommy Robinson is here to hear
1:00
whether he'll be found guilty or not in terms of a terrorism
1:03
charge relating to giving police access to his phone when he
1:07
entered the country. Under the Terrorism Act brought
1:09
in during the New Labour era, police are able to detain people
1:13
coming into the country without access to legal representation
1:16
and without the right to remain silent.
1:18
This includes the right to access someone's phone by asking
1:21
them their pin code or password. Specifically, the defence is
1:26
being used by Tommy's team are relating to whether the arrest
1:29
in the 1st place was legal and also whether he has to provide
1:34
access to his phone as a journalist.
1:36
This is very much a question of journalism due to sensitivity
1:39
and its effect of freedom of the press.
1:40
So we're going to see what the result is going to be today and
1:43
whether Tommy Robinson is going back to prison for refusing to
1:46
allow the police into his phone. Where Tommy Robinson argues that
1:50
there are details of sexual assault victims, there are
1:53
details of accusations against government, government failure,
1:56
government corruption. At first police witness
1:59
statement on the first day because it showed the whole case
2:02
against Tommy and the reason for detaining him was completely
2:07
unlawful. But you know, if they judge it,
2:11
it went on for two days. You should have just then on the
2:14
second day, he should have had the second day.
2:16
He should have been able to give his verdict immediately.
2:19
Case should have been dismissed. The fact that it wasn't needed
2:23
the German to make his verdict. It's, it's very, you know, I'm,
2:26
I'm not. Entirely optimistic, but the
2:28
case that he's made is that he's a journalist.
2:31
He's he has sensitive information on his phone which
2:35
he would not disclose to the government because obviously
2:39
those then those people would potentially be persecuted.
2:42
You can stab 11 people on a train and not be a terrorist,
2:45
but you don't give your pin number to where where they don't
2:47
even have a probable cause for terrorism.
2:50
You are labeled as a terrorist. So these are terrorism trial.
2:53
I mean even even Axel, we work at Banner who actually had a al
2:59
Qaeda journal journal and Rising was found in his home was not a
3:05
terrorist. So here we go.
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Terrorism charge. Well, that's what it is.
3:08
It's just judiciary being used to persecute journalists one,
3:15
but two being used as a weapon against the population.
3:17
That's it. It's just simple as that.
3:19
No other reason. Are you worried about this
3:21
happening to you as journalists? Oh, yeah, of course.
3:23
I mean, I think we all run around with spare phones, don't
3:25
we? Right.
3:27
I wouldn't answer. I wouldn't.
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Yeah, I wouldn't cross the border even.
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Even just because they might have other phone numbers of the
3:34
other journalists we work with. Right.
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Since we have all these extremely oppressive, you know,
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what's it called? Terrorist laws quote, UN quote.
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We no longer live in liberal democracy with, with your rights
3:48
as an individual to, to privacy and to, to simply to, to remain
3:52
silent. You are no longer innocent until
3:56
you know proven guilty. You are now guilty until proven
4:00
innocent. That is the the, the, the
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backwardness that we have, which is very frightening for these
4:05
kind of societies. Because the people of these.
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Societies rely on their government behaving justly
4:12
towards them and people are beginning to realise that is not
4:15
the case. I wish there was 12 members of
4:17
the British public making their decision today, but there's not.
4:19
There's an appointed judge, the same judge that unfortunately, I
4:23
think I might as well say now, let Hugh, let Hugh Edwards off.
4:27
The mainstream media are their proponents of misinformation.
4:30
They will lie to you. They'll cut this Tommy Robinson
4:32
terrorism, all this, whereas reality is that this is
4:36
targeting me. And you see all the citizen
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journalists here, if they're successful today, never bring
4:41
your mobile phone or your device through the border ever again
4:44
because this will open the gates for them to come in.
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Because there's a war going to happen in the UK and it's going
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to be the mainstream media acting on behalf of the
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government against the new media.
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They, they, they wanted to shut me down as a message to any
4:55
other citizen journalist. Joe Tommy, the outcome have been
5:08
found that the police discriminated against me based
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on my belief and my my political beliefs.
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Now my, my grievance now, Well, not my grievance.
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First of all, thank you Elon Musk.
5:17
Thank you Elon Musk. Because if it wasn't for Elon
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Musk, why is it took an American businessman to fight for our
5:22
justice here and our fight against terrorism charges for
5:25
journalists. Now over there in a minute, it's
5:27
going to come the beef, the journalists, the mainstream
5:29
media. Go back now.
5:31
Do if you want to see if you can trust the media, go back now and
5:34
read the medias. Read what they said about this
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trial when I was on trial. Read what they said, read the
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headlines, read the news that they give out and then read the
5:43
judges judgment, Right. Because all those journalists
5:46
sat on that trial, they knew the police acted unlawfully.
5:49
They knew they acted illegally. They admitted it in court.
5:51
And none of the journalists told you that?
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None of them. They were hoping they had
5:55
another bench judge that would ruled against me and then you,
5:57
the public would know nothing. That judge's verdict is a slam
6:01
down against the police and absolute as read what he says.
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Yeah, read what he says. Read about their evidence.
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It was corrupt. It was unlawful for me.
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I'm frustrated still. I shouldn't be happy.
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I'm not happy because I shouldn't be put through this
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time and time again. I walked out of this court last
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year at cost of £53,000 for not guilty.
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I've just walked out again. This is nearly 100,000 lbs which
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felt in this case. What for?
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And my main thing is that mainstream media sat through
6:27
this whole trial. They knew all the unlawful taxes
6:30
in this trial and yet they didn't report one of them.
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They hid it from you. They hid it from you.
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I'm so glad that judges gave such a powerful judgement.
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Now that says it how it was. I was targeted because of my
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political beliefs to say that out loud.
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The government, on behalf of the government, counterterrorism
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targeted me to try and get access to my phone as a
6:50
journalist. Where's the outrage from the
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mainstream media in this? They were trying to get my
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access to my work that I do and my investigations that I do as a
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journalist. That is a corrupt state, that's
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what it is. OK, so we're outside the court.
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We've just had Tommy Robinson come out.
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He has been found not guilty on the grounds that the judge could
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not find the police testimony credible.
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He could not find that there wasn't discrimination on
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political beliefs for Tommy Robinson.
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And this is likely to have precedent going forward.
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It's likely to impact upon the cases of other journalists who
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are being stopped across the borders and also other political
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figures. So this is a very interesting
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one and we will see what happens coming down the road.
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This is Will Coleshill reporting.
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Now Charles, you know everybody, I think everybody knows what we
7:37
think about Tommy Robinson himself and what his role and
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everything is. But I have to say he does
7:44
deserve credit for the fact that he refused to give the PIN
7:46
number for his phone. And as was pointed out in that
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report, it, that is something which is generally considered to
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be an imprisonable 1 of offence. And that's, that's basically you
8:00
have no right to remain silent under those circumstances.
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We'll talk a little bit about that aspect of phone over the
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borders thing during extra. And the other point to make
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though is the question that I have is, is about the fact that
8:15
obviously he has been found not guilty in this case.
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Many people on the pro Palestine side of the argument have not
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been found not guilty in these cases.
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Exactly. That's it.
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I mean, there are a lot of issues which we will cover in in
8:27
extra, but I mean, this is the thing, you know, the Schedule 7,
8:30
the specific wording is that the decision must not be totally
8:33
arbitrary for somebody to be pulled aside under that
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legislation. And he's demonstrating that it's
8:40
not arbitrary, it's politically motivated.
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And so that should appear that that should be something that's
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applied absolutely across the spectrum.
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So that's what we, you know, yeah.
8:49
Well, look, listening to the BBC Radio 4:00 PM programme last
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night, Evan Davis is the presenter of that and you know,
9:00
he they covered the Tommy Robinson court case and as part
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of that he spoke to Jonathan Hoare KC.
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Now let's just have a listen. Well, let's talk to Jonathan
9:10
Hall, KC, independent reviewer of terrorism legislation.
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Jonathan, so tell me what you make of this case and the the
9:16
bringing of it to Westminster Magistrates Court.
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Well, I think I welcome having judges scrutinize the use of
9:22
this power. It's it's pretty exceptional
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power. The police don't have to have
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any suspicion at all that a person is a terrorist.
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And so generally speaking, you, if you get stopped under this
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power, tough luck. There is one, however, one
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really important caveat. And this is something that the
9:35
judge was doing. It was just sort of in a way,
9:37
it's established law, which is to say you can use the power
9:40
police, but you've got to use it for the purposes of looking to
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see if Tommy Robinson was a terrorist.
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And, and ultimately the the judge wasn't satisfied that that
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was why they were doing it. He thought that it was possible
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that they were looking at him simply because of his political
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views, rather than going on to say, OK, these are political
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views, but might you be involved in violence in some way?
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So that that that's that's the long and the shortest.
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Did I miss it? I hear you though.
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Did you say they don't have to suspect you are a terrorist in
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order to use that power? No, that's absolutely right.
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You do not have to. This is why it's such a strong
10:11
power. But that's that gives me they
10:13
can stop anyone and just say terrorism and like, give me your
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phone, give me your bag. I mean, that's doesn't sound
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right. So clearly Evan Davis hasn't
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been watching the UK column recently.
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But. But anyway, Jonathan Whore had
10:28
something to say later in that conversation.
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Let's just hear that comment. Then you see why it was an
10:35
arguable case, because it's some sense the the police didn't
10:38
really. Attempt to offer evidence for
10:41
terror. Did they?
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I mean they really it was, it was done.
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He wasn't, he wouldn't look us in the eye and very dodgy,
10:47
carrying a lot of money. It was all of that kind of
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stuff. Well, you certainly couldn't
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stop someone because you thought they had a stolen car.
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I mean, that wouldn't be using the power for the purpose for
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which it's given, which is to look for terrorism.
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I mean, I, I think you have to be a bit careful.
10:59
Not so true. Too many conclusions.
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It's obviously the case that when you're stopping someone to
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see if they're a terrorist, you will often ask them about their
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political views or their religious views.
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I mean, that may well be part of the way of determining if that
11:12
person in sort of violent jihad, do they believe in the great
11:18
replacement theory? That might be quite useful.
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So I thought that was quite an incredible statement because
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basically what he's saying and anyone willing to entertain the
11:28
idea of great reprisma theory as a terrorist now.
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And now to be clear, I'm not subscribing to that theory.
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I don't subscribe to that theory.
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But this is no different to Palestine Action in the sense
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that no one who does subscribe to that idea has ever been
11:40
convicted of a terror offence or even to my knowledge, convicted
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of criminal damage. And I just think it's quite
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incredible that that that ideas that aren't producing physical
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results are now being considered terrorism.
11:54
But just to comment very briefly on on Robinson's comments about
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Elon Musk, you know, this is I think a really important point.
12:04
Elon Musk is just about to get apparently a $1 trillion pay off
12:09
pay packet from Tesla. If this passes the muster of the
12:15
of the shareholders. Now one major shareholder has
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said they will to vote against $1 trillion going to Elon Bus.
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But what does that money go to? It goes to funding people like
12:25
Tommy Robinson and and other so-called philanthropic efforts,
12:29
which are all about mixing things up politically.
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And so, you know, just imagine what happens if that amount of
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money goes into his hands. Absolutely.
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Well, I mean, I think we should not forget that it wasn't that
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long gay, that it's platformed by Tommy Robinson.
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Elon Musk was in effect, calling for violence on on British
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streets. So it's yeah, 11 wonders exactly
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where this money will be spent. Vanessa, let me welcome you to
12:54
the program. And our lovely Foreign
12:58
Secretary, Yvette Cooper has been busy around the world.
13:01
What's you know? Oh dear.
13:05
Yeah, I do apologise for bringing Yvette Cooper to the
13:09
screen, but it's it's basically in reference to both genocides
13:15
in Sudan and Gaza. So looking at Sudan, let's have
13:20
a look at the history of the British colonialist role in
13:24
Sudan. This is from the Morning Star
13:26
back in April 2025. Britain's bloody hands.
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Sudan's ongoing nightmare. Kier stammers 120 million to
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Sudan can't cover the government's complicity in the
13:38
RSF genocide or a tone for the long shadow of British
13:41
colonialism and imperialism. They go into some detail about
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Britains colonialist role there in extractionist policy since
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the mid 1800s. Kirstam is going to the UAE and
13:54
Saudi Arabia and supplying weapons.
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And again, multiple media reports on the fact that the UK,
14:01
it is supplying military equipment that is being used by
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the militia, particularly the RSF accused of genocide found in
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Sudan, the UN is told. I have to also point out that
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there are multiple countries that are supplying weapons to
14:15
both sides. Those include BRICS member
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countries like China and Russia. So it it's sort of every
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powerful player in the world today is involved in Sudan.
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And if we have a look at this map, what we basically see, and
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this is what I think is coming up, you see Yemen there, you see
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the Horn of Africa. So you have Sudan, Somalia,
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Eritrea, you've got clashes breaking out in Tanzania.
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We'll talk about Nigeria later on in the program.
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Mali, there are multiple fires being lit in the Horn of Africa,
14:51
but in Central Africa also. And in my opinion, it is all
14:55
part of the targeting in the future of Yemen.
14:59
So anyway, I just wanted to show this very quick clip of Yvette
15:02
Cooper's arrival at the Manama Global Global Security
15:07
Conference 2025, just to show again how popular the British
15:12
government is in this part of the world.
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So let's just roll this. Thank you very much, Patty, and
15:25
this is a great pleasure to be here.
15:31
Now, I can't quite figure out if they added that clapping
15:34
afterwards because I don't actually see anyone clapping in
15:38
in the audience that you can see in in the view there.
15:41
However, to give her some benefit, maybe a few did clap
15:45
after they were loudly told they they should do.
15:49
But let's have a listen, basically, to what she says
15:52
about Sudan. Reports from Darfur in recent
15:57
days are truly horrifying atrocities, mass executions,
16:02
starvation, and the devastating use of rape as a weapon of war,
16:08
with women and children bearing the brunt of the largest
16:10
humanitarian crisis in the 21st century.
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For too long this terrible conflict has been neglected,
16:18
while suffering has simply increased.
16:25
Well, of course, you know rape is a weapon of war.
16:27
Then perhaps Britain should stop fomenting these wars globally,
16:32
where rape is indeed used as a weapon of war.
16:35
Of course, Yvette Cooper was one of the Labour MPs who voted for
16:39
the war against Iraq back in 2003.
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But then I wanted to look. This was a later panel where
16:45
she's asked a question about rape as a weapon of war, both in
16:50
Sudan and then in Gaza. Let's see how she deals with
16:53
this question. Miss Cooper, thank you for
16:57
naming the use of rape as a weapon of war in Sudan.
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It's one of the ugliest crimes that could be committed.
17:05
So my question is for the whole panel, What are you doing to
17:09
fight back, not only in Sudan, also in Palestine?
17:15
There have been 10s of cases after the release of Palestinian
17:19
hostages emerging about the use of rape as a weapon of war by
17:24
Israeli soldiers who carry British and German weapons.
17:29
So what are you doing to fight back there as well?
17:33
Thank you. Passionate further about rape as
17:36
a weapon of war. You know, it was 25 years.
17:39
Ago yesterday that the global community made a commitment
17:43
through UN Resolution 1325 to protect women and girls from the
17:50
horrors of war, to ensure that they are not just the victims of
17:55
conflict, but they can be leaders in peace.
17:59
And that commitment must not be forgotten.
18:05
Well, Needless to say, she doesn't address the question
18:08
relating to Israel at all and what is happening with the major
18:11
rape case. Although there are multiple
18:13
cases of rape of Palestinian prisoners by the Israeli
18:16
military, but Israel is rocked by a scandal as a top military
18:20
lawyer is thrown in jail. In fact, this is Major General
18:23
Yifa Tomah Yeroshalny who released the images or the video
18:29
of Palestinian prisoners being raped in state to man.
18:33
And in fact, those rapists have now been released.
18:37
And this was basically one of the commentary on X, the Israeli
18:42
soldiers who gang raped Palestinian detainee at the
18:45
state Damon Torture Center held a press conference boasting that
18:48
they're still free. The military prosecutor who
18:52
dared to investigate their case, an investigation that led
18:55
nowhere. She allegedly leaked the videos
18:58
of the rape to the media and she's now being placed under
19:01
detention on charges of obstructing the investigation
19:05
after she allegedly attempt suicide yesterday during the
19:08
rapist press conference. And if we just have a look at
19:11
the image of the said rapists actually celebrating their
19:16
release, of course we understand that both Yvette Cooper and
19:21
their partners in Israel are not going to be prosecuting rape as
19:26
a weapon of war with regards to the Zionist entity anytime soon.
19:31
Yes, thank you, Vanessa. And sticking with the topic of
19:34
Mossad ex Mossad chiefs and this situation, what have you got on
19:39
that? Well, something that's been
19:40
brought out by the Middle East Monitor and it's an interview
19:44
that the former head of Mossad, Yossi Cohen, gave to to a new
19:51
podcast called The Brink, and it's hosted by Jake Wallace
19:55
Simons and Andrew Fox. Now, incidentally, Cohen said to
19:59
be pursuing a career as a politician with the intent of
20:01
becoming Israel's next Prime Minister.
20:04
So this interview is promotional on several levels, but just to
20:07
get a flavour of what he's about and where the interview was
20:10
going to go, we'll just have a look at Cohen describing how
20:14
you'd set the scene for entering into a state of war.
20:19
Let me tell you about the pages. And I think that this is
20:23
something that has to be eventually sometimes said.
20:25
I'm not sure if I said that before.
20:26
So probably the brink could be the first to no exclusive When
20:31
you plan a war against Iran or when you plan a war against
20:35
Hezbollah, All right, there are layers in that war that has to
20:38
be planned in advance. OK, so now you go into two
20:41
different situations strategically.
20:43
The first one is I will react, they will start, I will do
20:47
something. What is that?
20:48
I will do accordingly. There is a menu.
20:51
How many did they do? How many did they kill?
20:53
How many did they stubborn? How many did they whatever.
20:56
OK, I mean, we'll see OK, accordingly, I mean, you will
20:59
retaliate accordingly. If they've done a lot, we'll do
21:02
a lot. OK, simple thing.
21:03
But now in a way, Israel will defend itself by itself, Baba
21:08
bomb, all this kind of very important titles.
21:10
But in the end of the day, if you want to start what we call,
21:14
if you want to surprise the enemy, there are few layers that
21:18
has to be ready to do that. I mean, from the beginning to
21:22
the top, from up till the last thing that has to be activated.
21:26
So the war that we have planned for that was pages level 1
21:33
Walkie talkies #2 then they will understand that we are about to
21:38
come, right? And then Air Force and Army
21:43
full-fledged everything would be against them.
21:45
I mean you'd. Against Hezbollah or against
21:47
the? Hezbollah, just Hezbollah, I
21:49
mean Hezbollah mean and, and this is something that has to be
21:52
eventually understood and said. So when the minister of defence
21:56
says we'll get them both together at the same time with
21:58
the army is not ready. Now we are recruiting 500,000
22:02
people right in one Saturday. It's quite a claim to say that
22:09
they're recruiting half a million people in one day.
22:11
But another actor on the world stage with both a flagrant,
22:16
flagrant sort of ignorance, but also apparent disregard for
22:20
international humanitarian law describing that there's a menu
22:23
for what he's calling retaliation, but really it's
22:26
just retribution. And note the words or when he
22:30
was describing the sort of more active phase saying or if you
22:33
want to start a war. Utterly peculiar, obviously
22:38
continued in this vein. And he went on to show off about
22:43
what he describes as manipulated equipment.
22:46
So we'll just have a look at that.
22:48
It is. But there's something that you
22:52
want to ask about because, yeah, you talk about Lebanon
22:55
capabilities in Iran being up here and Gaza being down there,
22:57
but in a way. Did you see any surprises in
22:59
Gaza? Surprises.
23:00
Yeah, Like the intelligence surprise.
23:02
Pages, walkie talkies. You know how many equipment, I
23:04
mean traded equipment do we have in these countries?
23:07
You can't. You're not.
23:08
I do. You mean I do you mean you mean
23:10
booby trapped equipment? Not only booby trapped and
23:14
spying manipulated equipment. All right, in which countries
23:17
you're talking about? In all the countries that you
23:18
can imagine and not Gaza, not Gaza at all.
23:25
Did you see that if we had it, I mean we knew something about
23:29
them coming something right or they sold them everything, just
23:37
everything. I mean you can't imagine when
23:39
the quantity when I have invented that that method that
23:45
was in 2002 to 2004. The pager method.
23:50
The the manipulated equipment method, OK, we have already used
23:56
it manipulated equipment in Second Lebanon war, some of the
24:03
elements were speaking to us. How did you use it?
24:10
Want a glass of water? So it's quite the best, but it
24:15
seems somewhat inconsistent that either he's suggesting that the
24:19
Israeli state really does have equipment all over the world or
24:23
that they did not have any kit or intelligence on the 7th of
24:27
October 2023 which would have pertained to what happened then.
24:32
So it's not quite stack up, one might contend, but he's
24:36
nonetheless very happy to show off.
24:39
And the suggestion that that there would be any issue with
24:43
behaving like this doesn't seem to have entered his head.
24:45
And of course, this follows what Netanyahu said in September of
24:49
this year at a meeting in Jerusalem with the delegation
24:52
from the the US Congress was was to ask the audience, do you have
24:56
cell phones here? And then to tell everybody that
24:58
they're holding a piece of Israel right there.
25:00
You know that, as he said now, you would have seen Andrew Fox
25:04
on the left of the frame as one of the interviewers.
25:07
He then put a question to Cohen and we'll just hear what what he
25:11
asks. I think, you know, the high tech
25:19
stuff is very sexy and very cool.
25:23
Tanks, fighter jets, explosions are very cool and Israel's had
25:27
huge success in all of those things.
25:29
In your book you talk about the other aspect, which is the
25:31
information. The intentions.
25:34
You mean no, no more the the propaganda war, should we say?
25:37
Oh, you talk about? Psychological war, you mean?
25:39
Yeah, and you talk about the 54 to 1 TikTok ratio, so 54 pro
25:44
Palestinian Tik Toks for every pro Israeli 1.
25:48
But I wonder that's the number, I thought it's higher on the
25:51
Palestinian side. Yeah, but either way, maybe
25:53
either way, either way, it's a huge overmatch.
25:55
So you've got all the cool kit and the cool stuff, but they've
25:57
got this incredible propaganda campaign that has you portrayed
26:01
as genocidal and apartheid and all that sort of nonsense that
26:05
comes out now. I'd I'd make a case, I think
26:08
that Israel's international isolation is almost as much, if
26:12
not more of a security threat than certainly Hamas poses right
26:16
now. Of course it is.
26:17
So how do you, how do you account for such an enormous
26:21
success on the physical side, but such an enormous defeat, I
26:25
think we can say on the on the propaganda information war, how
26:29
do you account for that imbalance?
26:30
First, I think that your description hurts, but it is the
26:34
truth. So Andrew Fox there displaying
26:40
that frankly, the results of kinetic action being the deaths
26:44
of hundreds or thousands of people don't seem to matter.
26:47
It's just cool. So that's interesting.
26:51
And indeed, we have to consider who is he and does it matter?
26:53
And his LinkedIn profile, which we just look at now, shows that
26:57
he's associated with the Henry Jackson Society.
26:59
He describes himself as being a research fellow specialising in
27:02
defence, the Middle East and the psychology of disinformation.
27:07
Now he's a civilian now, but commissioned into the Royal
27:09
Welsh and transferred into the Parachute Regiment.
27:12
Now he, in addition to describing himself like this, he
27:20
attempted a joke about the sorts of associations that are made
27:23
with him and Mossad. So we'll just have a listen to
27:26
how that played out. What would Jake and I are often
27:31
accused of being in the pay of Mossad.
27:33
Exactly. And actually I was wondering
27:35
when is the money coming because I've not received any yet.
27:38
Which one? You know the money from your
27:40
checks? Yeah, let.
27:41
Me check, let me check that. Let me check that you've never
27:44
been paid right? No, not yet.
27:46
Not yet. Yeah, we thought you were a
27:47
volunteer. For anyone at home, this is a
27:49
joke. By the way, You're just joking.
27:51
Just joking. Of course it was.
27:54
Yeah, I mean actually it's going not very funny, but it's worth
27:59
considering in in relation to his association with the Henry
28:03
Jackson Society because as reported by Matt Kennard for
28:07
Declassified UK in 2020, the Home Office had paid more than
28:11
£80,000 to the Henry Jackson Society for, among other things,
28:16
a report into Islamist terrorism and its effect on on the UK.
28:20
Now in Matt Kennard's article he wrote the Henry Jackson Society
28:24
also appears to have particular links to the Israeli government
28:28
and organisations promoting Israeli policy.
28:31
At least two HJS staffers have moved directly from the group to
28:34
working for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
28:37
And the report itself, which is on screen now entitled Islamist
28:40
Terrorism, says in the executive summary at the end of 2016,
28:45
terrorism directed, approved or inspired by Islamic State posed
28:48
A predominant threat to national security, while Al Qaeda and
28:52
affiliate groups continue to aspire to attack Western
28:55
interests. Interesting to read that now in
28:57
light of the recent D prescription of HTS.
29:00
Of course. Now the other reason I've
29:02
singled out Andrew Fox and his role as a propagandist for the
29:06
Israel lobby, of course, is because he was back at Sandhurst
29:09
between 2021 and 2024 as a senior lecturer in
29:13
communications and behavioural science, a role that would seem
29:17
completely inappropriate for somebody holding these sorts of
29:20
extremely partisan views. Now he appears to have made a
29:24
habit of being in the right place at the right time, so to
29:27
speak. So it shouldn't be considered a
29:29
coincidence that whilst the company commander with three
29:32
para. He streamlined and revitalized
29:34
diversity and inclusion policies driving forward DNI awareness
29:39
and he just happened to be an Aston Villa fan when The Who are
29:42
over the West Midlands Police decision to ban Maccabee Tel
29:45
Aviv went took place and he was brought on by both Sky and GB
29:50
News to comment on this. One final remarkable coincidence
29:55
is that he is now on screen on the left hand side of the image
29:58
that was used in recent edition of military matters, a
30:03
discussion that Brian and I had about the state of the armed
30:07
forces as they are today. So a curious character to say
30:11
the least, but but I think much more to fall out of what has
30:15
been said in that on the Brink podcast with your CEO and we'll
30:21
talk about that more. Thanks, Charles.
30:25
OK, let's move on. If you like the what the UK
30:28
column does, if you'd like to support us, please have a look
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at the front page of the UK column website.
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the front page of the UK column website.
30:48
Now tonight at 7:00 PM, Jerem is going to be speaking to David
30:51
Curtin on being principled and unpopular.
30:54
And then at 9:00 PM, join us again for Silken Steel Podcast
30:59
with Carl Zarr. And a reminder that yesterday at
31:03
1:00 PM my discussion with Dell Bigtree went out at on the the
31:08
live stream. And so the on demand version is
31:10
now on the UK column website and at other places as well.
31:13
So there's discussing an inconvenient study.
31:15
If you haven't seen that yet, please do watch.
31:18
And at 1:00 PM tomorrow, then Sandy Adams is speaking to Neil
31:21
Oliver and that was quite a wide-ranging and interesting
31:25
conversation. Sunday, a reminder that the
31:28
third party part of 1000 Words with James Darling Paul is going
31:33
to be for members only on the website.
31:35
The second part is there now, if you haven't seen that yet.
31:39
And then Charles, finally we've got an advertisement.
31:41
We have yes, for this Saturday, if you're up in the North, then
31:46
do get to the marketplace in Crook if you can for 12:30,
31:50
between 12:30 and 2:30. And among the speakers there
31:53
will be UK Collins, Diane Rasmussen.
31:56
Thank you. Now let's move on then to Sick
32:00
Note UK. Sir Charlie Mayfield is a former
32:03
British Army officer and the former chief executive of John
32:06
Lewis. He was tasked by the British
32:09
regime to review sickness in the working age population and to
32:15
look at what to do about the 800,000 extra long term sick
32:19
working age people since in the UK since 2019.
32:22
So let's begin just by hearing a little bit from Charlie
32:25
Mayfield. Hi, I'm Charlie Mayfield.
32:29
I'm leader of the Key Britain Working Review.
32:30
I was asked to leave this review because there's a huge increase
32:33
in the incidence of ill health across the population as a
32:36
whole, and that's affecting people in the workplace.
32:38
We have been all around the country, spoken to literally
32:41
thousands of people, and from that we've then been able to
32:44
both understand how ill health and disability effects people
32:48
and also what things need to get fixed in order to improve how we
32:52
support all those people so they can stay and thrive in work.
32:55
So the review's being published tomorrow.
32:57
What we'll be saying is that this is a very serious problem,
33:00
but it's also fixable. There's a role for employers,
33:02
there's a role for employees and there's a role for government,
33:05
and everybody's got to play their part.
33:07
And if they do that, we can absolutely fix this issue with
33:10
better outcomes for the whole country.
33:14
So we talked about the report being published tomorrow.
33:16
Well, that video was recorded yesterday.
33:18
So the report has in fact now been published.
33:20
So if we bring it on screen, this is what the report says.
33:25
One in five working age adults are now out of the labour force.
33:29
That's 800,000 people more than in 2019 due to health reasons.
33:35
It says the cost of ill health that prevents work equals 7% of
33:38
GDP. And they said that's nearly 70%
33:41
of all income tax receipts. They say that employers lose 85
33:46
billion a year from sickness, turnover and lost productivity.
33:51
And so my question then is have a guess how many times are the
33:55
terms COVID, coronavirus or SARS COV 2 used in this report?
34:00
Well, I think you got a clue there as to how many it was
34:03
because it was in fact none. So the 10 month review engaged
34:07
hundreds of organizations, they said, with evidence from
34:10
employers, disabled people, clinicians and international
34:15
comparators. They talk about a category of
34:18
employers called Vanguard employers who are going to be
34:20
asked to embrace the healthy working life cycle, providing
34:25
workplace health and work with the workplace.
34:28
This health intelligence unit, we'll come on to that in a
34:30
second. So this is the healthy working
34:35
life cycle. An employer advertisers and
34:38
hires an individual to join an organization.
34:41
They might get sick, they might take time off, and they might
34:43
get fired if they take too much time off.
34:44
It seems to be what's being discussed there.
34:47
But as I say, these were the three main categories to
34:49
establish this healthy working lifestyle, to develop better
34:53
workplace health provision and to drive adoption with evidence
34:59
and incentives. And they're talking about
35:02
creating this sort of surveillance network to keep an
35:08
eye on what everybody's doing. So the question is, is this
35:12
about actually keeping people healthy in the workplace, or is
35:15
it about further data collection?
35:18
That seems to be what it's about more than anything else.
35:21
But the question remains, why is there no acknowledgement for
35:27
from anybody of the effect of covert policy on this?
35:31
Because that has had a massive effect.
35:33
It's like it's just been just brushed under the carpet.
35:35
We don't need to look at it. What?
35:36
Would have been a great chance of pumped up Long Cove as well
35:39
and to have encouraged people to go and get perhaps.
35:42
But yes, very odd not to mention it.
35:45
But Charles Stigam is sort of health matters.
35:48
Yeah. And with animals blue tongue.
35:50
We are continues to spread. Can't be too careful.
35:52
Yeah. So this has come from the
35:55
Minister of State from Wales. They've announced there's a
35:59
restricted zone for Blue Tongue across all of Wales and whilst
36:04
the statement is in large part a push for vaccination, it should
36:09
be regarded as a significant concession to livestock farmers.
36:12
I would say. Because not only does the
36:14
announcement stop the process of culling, effectively slaughter
36:18
on suspicion, but it also permits free, free movement of
36:21
livestock between England and Wales which would hitherto have
36:23
been prevented. And vaccination is not a
36:26
requirement but, and it is quite a big but it must be noted that
36:31
the vaccines which are available have a zero days withdrawal
36:35
which means that any milk or beef may be taken immediately
36:40
after vaccination. So I would say that common sense
36:44
would dictate that checking whale or milk and beef or indeed
36:47
any other products that are subject to these sorts of
36:49
vaccinations concerning blue tongue, anything that that
36:54
you're not sure about, I would encourage you to check because
36:57
among the listed adjuvants in the same information note are
37:00
aluminium hydroxide, saponin and timerosol, which of course is
37:05
50% mercury. And if you want to check this
37:07
for yourself, try looking it up on Google and you'll find that
37:10
particularly with the with the last item, all the top returns
37:13
on that search are pieces from the CDC and so forth stating
37:17
that it's extremely safe. So it's absolutely one to watch
37:22
both into in terms of this idea that humans are at risk from
37:26
animal diseases, but also this, this forgotten element of what
37:30
it is that actually enters the food chain.
37:32
So they state it safe to the state it's effective.
37:35
Well, I mean, in effect, that's exactly what they're saying
37:38
because that's why they're, they're, you know what, of
37:39
course, midges are only part of the issue, but they say that
37:42
midges have calmed down. And so that's why they're able
37:44
to relax the, the system for, for the time being.
37:48
But I as I say, I would say that this does indicate that pressure
37:51
from livestock farmers who've basically been able to push back
37:54
and say that the situation is completely unworkable has
37:57
actually yielded a result. OK, well done, Vanessa.
38:00
Let's come back to you then and bring us up to date with what's
38:04
going on in Syria and Iraq. Yeah.
38:08
I mean, it's, it's really a bit of a regional update because so
38:10
much is going on here. Israel has escalated its attacks
38:14
in Southern Lebanon, as we expected and as we've been
38:18
reporting. But I just also wanted to play
38:22
this from the beginning of the Oman foreign minister's
38:26
statement at the same global security conference where Yvette
38:30
Cooper was speaking, where he presents a very different vision
38:35
of who exactly is the threat to the region.
38:38
So let's just play this. It's before the 6th and possibly
38:44
the decisive round of talks. Israel unleash his bombs and
38:50
missiles in any illegal and deadly act of sabotage.
38:58
This was shameful, but unfortunately it was not
39:03
surprising. We have long known that Israel,
39:08
not Iran, is the primary source of insecurity in the region.
39:16
Israel's deliberate efforts to prolong tensions had in this
39:22
case killed hundreds of Iranian civilians.
39:28
But Iran responded with remarkable restraint, just as it
39:32
had when Israel bombed its consulate in Syria, injured its
39:37
ambassador in Lebanon and assassinated a leading
39:43
Palestinian negotiator in Tehran.
39:49
This is a very brave statement. I mean, Oman has been very open
39:53
in its condemnation of the Zionist genocide in West Bank
39:58
and Gaza, particularly in Gaza also, but bearing in mind that
40:02
Oman has a role as, let's say, the Switzerland of the Gulf.
40:06
It's very much under the control still of the British that have a
40:11
2022 sovereign Investment Partnership and use Oman as a
40:16
military logistics hub. So I think this was really quite
40:19
an extraordinary statement on behalf of Oman now coming on to
40:25
Syria and the follow up from Jolani's visit to the Kremlin in
40:30
Moscow and then the new government or the new Syria
40:35
defence minister's visit also to Moscow.
40:40
Russia is now going to be increasing it's bases in Syria.
40:43
If we can have a quick look at the map while I'm talking, you
40:47
can see there that of course Russia already had consolidated
40:51
its presence in Tartus on the coast and up in the North East
40:56
in Kalamishli. It's talking about having a
40:59
security force in the South to allegedly prevent Israeli
41:05
expansion. But Israel is expanding on an
41:08
almost daily basis with very little impediment.
41:11
But also, sorry if I can just have the map back for a second,
41:15
but also to establish bases, which will be expansion for
41:19
Russia in Hama and Homs, the two red dots there.
41:22
That effectively is part of the partitioning of Syria.
41:26
So this will potentially give Russia control of that coastal
41:29
area, which to some degree is going to be of benefit to the
41:33
minorities living in that area. But however, it is still part of
41:37
the partitioning, the carving up of Syria since the fall, our
41:42
Syrian government in December 2024, and of course can only be
41:46
done in collaboration with Washington, Turkey and Israel.
41:52
So that's Syria. Then.
41:54
I want to come on to what's happening in the region, how
41:58
Pete Hagseth has been threatening the foreign
42:01
minister, or rather he's been informing the foreign minister
42:04
in Iraq, the Iraqi, sorry, the Iraqi defence minister warned
42:09
him in a telephone call of an impending operation in the
42:12
region. So let's have a look at what he
42:14
actually said. This was a post by Mint Press
42:17
news. The Iraqi defence minister was
42:19
warned by the US Secretary of War, Pete Hagseth that a war is
42:23
coming to the region. In a recent interview, he
42:26
recounted a call he received from Hagseth regarding impending
42:30
US operations in the region. There is a lot of chatter on
42:34
social media that it could be Lebanon, it could be Iraq, it
42:37
could be Iran, it could be Yemen, it could of course be all
42:40
of them. But basically what Hexa
42:42
threatened. And he said that this is your
42:44
final warning and you know very well how the current
42:47
administration will respond if any of the resistance factions
42:52
in Iraq are not kept under control when this war breaks
42:57
out. There was a corresponding
42:59
article in the Israeli media, I-24, Israel heightened border
43:05
security amid growing threats from Iraq.
43:07
Now, what it's saying within the text of that article is that
43:11
effectively the Israeli army and Mossad have intensified their
43:15
vigilance in response to what intelligence officials describe
43:18
as a mounting threat emerging from Iraq.
43:21
And of course what they're saying is that pro Tehran
43:24
militias and terrorist infrastructure inside Iraq are
43:28
going to be launching aerial and ground attacks against Israel.
43:32
And if we actually have a look of the region, you can see where
43:35
Israel is considering the threat to be.
43:38
So if you look at Iraq, this is a map from a couple of years ago
43:44
showing the attacks by Iraqi resistance on US bases in Iraq
43:48
and Syria. But you can see that very
43:51
easily. They could cross the Jordanian
43:53
border and reach the Israeli border with Jordan, but also the
43:58
occupied Golan Heights. And that is where Israel is
44:01
feeling the threat. So to some degree, Pete Hagseth
44:04
could effectively be launching or planning to launch an attack
44:07
pretty much anywhere in the region.
44:09
As I said, many people are commenting, claiming that it
44:13
could be one area or or or a collection of countries involved
44:19
in the resistance against Israel and the US.
44:24
Then finally, I wanted to finish up with the extraordinary news,
44:27
really that President Trump apparently is now going to host
44:32
the president of Syria, who of course is the former founder of
44:37
al Qaeda. So this makes an absolute
44:40
mockery, of course, of the war waged against al Qaeda, since
44:43
911 people will remember the head of CENTCOM General, whose
44:50
name has just completely escaped me, talking about Idlib in
44:55
northwest Syria being the largest.
44:58
Brett McGurk, thank you. Being the largest al Qaeda haven
45:02
since 911. Trillions spent on the regime
45:06
change war against the Syrian government, the former Syrian
45:09
government weaponizing al Qaeda and ISIS.
45:13
And perhaps the final cherry on the cake here, and this was made
45:17
by somebody on social media, which I think is very
45:20
appropriate. Syrian President Ahmed Al Shadah
45:24
is renaming orders the arrest of ISIS al Jilani.
45:29
And this is this is the total hypocrisy of what we're now
45:32
seeing where the worst, the collective worst, but led by
45:36
President Trump is now totally legitimizing al Qaeda in Syria
45:41
and including them in the anti ISIS coalition, despite the fact
45:45
that that a large majority Jilani's secular forces are
45:50
made-up of ISIS members. So quite extraordinary.
45:56
Not not really sure what to make of that.
45:58
It is, it is quite extraordinary.
46:00
Thank you for that, Vanessa. Now let's move on then.
46:04
Speaking of what Trump's up to, the bombing of the alleged
46:08
trafficking drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean and
46:11
Eastern Pacific is based apparently on an interpretation
46:17
of the legal definition of the term hostilities, which is both
46:21
incorrect and dangerous. That's according to former State
46:24
Department lawyer Brian Finnegan.
46:27
Sorry on this. In this article in Just
46:30
Security, Finnegan writes that Trump has decided that what the
46:35
US is doing does not constitute hostilities as defined in the
46:39
1973 War Powers Resolution. He says in contravening the
46:44
restriction of the War Powers Resolution, the Trump
46:46
administration would circumvent legislative safeguards on
46:50
military action and usurp Congress's constitutional
46:53
authority over the use of military force.
46:55
And he points out that under Section 5B of the 1973
46:59
resolution, a 60 day clock is started for the withdrawal of US
47:03
armed forces from such hostilities unless Congress
47:06
declares war or otherwise enacts statutory authorisation for the
47:10
use of force. And Trump's 60 day clock began
47:13
on the 4th of September. So following on from Patrick's
47:18
report on this program on Friday about Secretary of War peak, he
47:22
tags us requiring the journalists have reports they
47:25
want to publish approved by the Department of War prior to
47:28
publication. He's followed up by issuing a
47:31
list of topics that Defense Department personnel or sorry,
47:33
Department of War personnel are required to seek prior approval
47:37
for before engaging with Congress, which includes any and
47:41
all quotes sensitive military operations and also anything
47:46
related to US strikes on suspected drug boats around
47:49
Latin America. CNN reported yesterday, citing
47:54
quotes. People familiar with the latest
47:56
guidance that a Pentagon spokes and included that a Pentagon
48:01
spokesperson told CNN that the memo is, quote, a pragmatic step
48:06
to internally review the department's processes from
48:09
communicating with Congress. The department intends to
48:12
improve accuracy and responsiveness in communicating
48:15
with Congress to facilitate increasing increased
48:18
transparency. This review is for process
48:22
processes, sorry, internal to the department that does not
48:24
change higher from whom Congress receives information.
48:29
Yes, Try not to laugh too much, Charles.
48:31
Indeed. And and then following on from
48:33
that, NBC here is reporting that the Trump regime has become
48:36
detailed has begun detailed planning for a new mission to
48:39
send American troops and intelligence officers in Mexico.
48:42
Patrick on Friday was talking about Colombia being brought
48:45
into this whole thing, Venezuela, then Colombia, now
48:48
Mexico to target drug cartels. And that's according to what NBC
48:53
says are two US officials and also two former US seniors
48:57
officials familiar with the effort.
49:00
The early stages, they say, of training for the potential
49:03
mission, which would include ground operations inside Mexico,
49:06
has already begun. But they say that deployment to
49:09
Mexico is not imminent. They say the US troops, many of
49:13
whom would be for Joint Special Operations Command, would
49:16
operate under the authority of U.S. intelligence community,
49:19
known as Title 50 status. And they said that officers from
49:23
the CIA would also participate. Yes.
49:28
I think we should quickly move on back to Vanessa then, because
49:32
I don't really know what else to say about that.
49:34
This is clearly an increasingly insane world we live in.
49:37
But you were talking about the Horn of Africa and you mentioned
49:43
Nigeria in passing earlier in the program.
49:45
Vanessa, what's what's going on in Nigeria?
49:48
That is really pretty indicative of the entire of the situation
49:52
in the entire region. Well, the you know, the the
49:57
Department of War is attic again.
50:01
Basically, we seem to be heading towards some kind of military
50:07
intervention in Nigeria. Listen, basically, Trump said to
50:13
voters. I think it was yesterday.
50:20
So we need video 12, please. They're killing record numbers
50:25
of Christians in Nigeria and they have other countries very
50:30
bad. Also.
50:31
You know that that part of the world very bad.
50:34
They're killing the Christians and killing them in very large
50:37
numbers. Not going to allow that to
50:38
happen. So now we basically have the
50:45
genocide of Christians in Nigeria, which is being
50:49
trumpeted across, sorry, excuse the pun, trumpeted across the
50:53
mainstream media, including the BBC that has picked up the story
50:57
without, of course, historical context or questions.
51:01
Trump tells military to prepare for action against Islamist
51:05
militants in Nigeria. Where have we heard this before?
51:09
The protection of Christians in Syria, of course, under attack
51:12
from Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda having been created by the collective
51:18
worst in order to topple the government in in Syria.
51:22
So I just thought that we don't have time to go into huge depth
51:25
about the situation in Nigeria, which is incredibly complex
51:29
today. We can discuss it in extra, but
51:32
I just wanted to take this from a Council on Foreign Relations
51:36
report from 2018. So this is a matically showing
51:41
the density of the attacks by Boko Haram, an equivalent of Al
51:47
Qaeda in the northeast of the country, whereas the majority of
51:52
the Christian communities are actually in the southern area of
51:57
Nigeria. I'm not saying there are no
51:58
Christians in that area, but it's majority Muslim and the
52:03
attacks are majority Muslim on Muslim.
52:06
Then again, let's just look at this graph from the CFR, which
52:10
again shows from 20/15/16 onwards, the attacks on churches
52:17
basically reduced down to the majority then being on mosques
52:22
as opposed to churches. So OK, that's 2018.
52:26
It could be that the attacks against Christian communities
52:29
have increased to the level that we're being told.
52:32
We're literally, we're being told that hundreds of thousands
52:35
of Christians are being massacred in a genocide in
52:39
Nigeria. And then if we just have a quick
52:42
look, this was an article in Gimba Kakando, who's the senior
52:49
advisor to the Nigerian president who's basically
52:52
denying the Christian genocide and he's naming Bill Maher as
52:57
one of the number one components of the rumors regarding a
53:02
Christian genocide in Nigeria. He again also talks about the
53:06
fact that Christians are to some degree being targeted, but the
53:10
majority of the attacks are Muslim on Muslim.
53:13
And of course, if we actually look at the background of Boko
53:15
Haram, what we discover that it is a collective Western
53:19
organization. Boko Haram is the CIA covert
53:23
operation. This was WikiLeaks back in 2014.
53:26
And this report talks very much, it's from African Renaissance
53:30
News. It talks about how the US
53:33
Embassy in Nigeria was a forward operating base for subvertive
53:39
operations, wide and far reaching inside Nigeria.
53:43
And it goes into some depth about who created Boko Haram.
53:47
It is an al Qaeda affiliate inside Nigeria, as is, of
53:52
course, ISIS, which is also operating inside Nigeria.
53:57
And and then it also goes into some depth about why is Nigeria
54:02
being targeted now? This was in 2014.
54:05
And even back then, they were talking about the potential for
54:08
weaponizing attacks on Christians for particularly US
54:12
intervention. Nigeria has been seen to as a
54:16
threat in itself to US supremacy in Africa, being one of the most
54:22
powerful countries in the African continent.
54:27
And then of course, it's a race for resources against Russia and
54:30
China and other colonial actors in Africa.
54:35
There is also a degree of persecution of Shia Muslim
54:40
communities by the terrorist groups, which of course ties
54:44
into the global resistance access against the Zionist bloc
54:49
and the West and and the imperialist access.
54:52
So there's a number of reasons why Nigeria is is coming into
54:56
focus now, but I think we should be very careful about falling
55:01
for yet another template for military intervention by the US
55:06
and another sovereign nation. Yeah.
55:09
And Vanessa, you know, we, we keep making this point, but I
55:12
think it is absolutely it needs to be restated time and again
55:15
because extreme Islam is a creation of Britain, the United
55:20
States, primarily for geopolitical purposes.
55:24
It was deployed in Egypt. It was deployed in a host of
55:28
different countries in the Middle East and is, has been
55:31
being deployed in the, in the Sahel for 203040 years now in
55:38
particular. And you know, we've got to
55:41
remind ourselves that the Sahel, if we're looking at North Africa
55:45
here, the Sahel is considered to be strategically vital for not
55:49
only the European Union, but also for the Tony Blair
55:53
Institute. So, you know, we've got to
55:56
always keep in mind when we see these types of stories that
55:59
there may be something other than what it appears to be on
56:03
the surface to consider. Yeah, absolutely.
56:08
At the end of the day, where we see any kind of Al Qaeda or
56:11
affiliate, we have to understand that there is high potential for
56:15
it being a subversive element that's been introduced by
56:19
intelligence agencies in the West.
56:23
Charles, Ministry of Defence. Yeah, turmoil there as well.
56:27
2025 we've had the publication of not only the Strategic
56:31
Defence Review but also the National Security Strategy in
56:36
which they wax lyrical about national resilience and the
56:40
whole of society approach to war predicated on the existential
56:45
threat posed by Russia. And like just last week the
56:49
Public Accounts Committee put rather damning report together
56:52
on the UKS F35 stealth fighter capability.
56:56
They said it will not have a stand off weapon, talking about
57:00
the Spear 3 missile that can be used to attack ground targets
57:04
from a safe distance until the early twenty 30s.
57:07
They're also seriously compromised by having a severe
57:10
shortage of several types of personnel including engineers,
57:13
cyber specialists, pilots and qualified flying instructors.
57:17
And again, that will not be resolved for several years.
57:21
Then we look at recruiting and we lurch perhaps from the
57:25
disaster with Capita to another one.
57:28
Well, maybe in the offing with Serco, who in a sort of parody
57:31
are still in the phase of recruiting the recruiters and
57:36
into this and more the deputy chief of the general staff.
57:39
Let's have Lieutenant General David Eastman has tossed a
57:43
grenade in the form of a letter to all regiments.
57:47
Now the particular issue he has hit upon concerns, he writes all
57:52
aspects of our professional and social engagements which align
57:57
with the principles of equality, respect and inclusivity that
58:01
underpin our ethos. And he goes on to say it has
58:06
come to my attention that some cause and regiments maintain
58:09
historical associations with private members clubs whose
58:12
rules, policies, or cultural practices may not align with the
58:16
Army's commitment to inclusivity.
58:18
Now as a first comment, this is obviously disingenuous in the
58:22
extreme. This can't have come to as a
58:24
surprise to somebody who's spent an entire career in the Army.
58:28
But little wonder that the Chief of General Staff really Walker
58:31
didn't write the letter himself. Now, as if the contents aren't
58:35
remarkable enough, he's directing 3 follow up actions
58:39
and he's instructing all regiments and cause to review
58:42
all of the clubs that they're associated with.
58:45
They, they must then go through a period of engagement with
58:48
these clubs to, and I quote, advocate for change.
58:53
And then there must be a period of disassociation where
58:58
necessary. And he winds up by saying that
59:01
there's a moral imperative and a strategic necessity.
59:05
So absolutely fascinating insight into what's going on in
59:08
the minds of those apparently running the Ministry of Defence
59:12
and indeed in this case, the army.
59:15
Of course, it's not clear whether a copy has gone to the
59:17
Pope, who will presumably need to reconsider supplying male
59:20
only Catholic chaplains to the armed forces.
59:24
So somewhat ridiculous. But we're going to go on to
59:27
something slightly more ridiculous, if that's possible,
59:30
which is that the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering
59:34
was announced today and it's said to champion bold,
59:38
groundbreaking engineering innovation which is of global
59:42
benefit to humanity. Now, I might say this is one of
59:46
the better indicators of where we've got to as a society
59:48
because not only is one of the sponsors BAE Systems, which of
59:52
course manufacturers lethal weapons, but the prize has gone
59:56
to the seven so-called pioneers of modern machine learning.
1:00:00
So that's another 500,000 lbs on.
1:00:02
On artificial intelligence, which of course has absolutely
1:00:04
nothing to do with humanity. Indeed Well, we've got to leave
1:00:09
it on that note. I'm going to say thank you very
1:00:11
much, Charles and Vanessa and everybody that's watched today.
1:00:15
We'll be back in a few minutes. If you're UK column member for
1:00:18
some UK column news extra, join us for that if you stick around
1:00:21
on the live stream. Otherwise, Joy Germ and silken
1:00:26
steel tonight and also Neil Oliver with Sandy Adams tomorrow
1:00:32
and we'll see you 1:00 PM as usual on Friday.
1:00:34
See you then. Bye bye.