Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News Podcast 11th September 2024

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UK Column News Podcast 11th September 2024 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon.
0:09
Speaker 2: It's Wednesday, in the eleventh of September twenty twenty four,
0:12
Speaker 2: just after one o'clock. Welcome to the UK Column News.
0:14
Speaker 2: I'm your host Mike Robinson joining me today by videolink.
0:16
Speaker 2: We've got Charles Mallett and Vanessa Billy Welcome to the program.
0:19
Speaker 1: Both.
0:20
Speaker 2: We're going to get started today with the situation with
0:24
Speaker 2: the prisons, and everybody will be glad to know that
0:27
Speaker 2: our prisons are almost full and that without prison spaces,
0:31
Speaker 2: police can't arrest dangerous criminals and courts can't hold trials.
0:36
Speaker 1: So in order to solve this problem.
0:38
Speaker 2: The UK government, as everybody will know ben I, has
0:41
Speaker 2: released a bunch of dangerous criminals so that the police
0:44
Speaker 2: can arrest them again and the courts can hold more trials.
0:47
Speaker 1: It's excellent stuff.
0:48
Speaker 2: Ultimately, justice would grind to the halt, says the British
0:51
Speaker 2: government if we don't act, law and order would break down.
0:55
Speaker 2: So they went on to say in their little Twitter
0:57
Speaker 2: graphics fest this morning, this is why we're changingmatic release
1:00
Speaker 2: dates for some prisoners so that they leave after serving
1:04
Speaker 2: forty percent of their sentence rather than the current fifty percent,
1:07
Speaker 2: freeing up these spaces is the only option to avert
1:10
Speaker 2: a crisis. But it's a crisis of Keir Starmer's own
1:13
Speaker 2: making because he's decided to throw aside from the people
1:17
Speaker 2: that were violently rioting, a bunch of other people that
1:22
Speaker 2: were merely commenting on social media or who are journalists
1:26
Speaker 2: and are being accused of various anti terrorist related criminal offenses.
1:33
Speaker 2: It goes on to say, it does not apply to
1:34
Speaker 2: all prisoners. There are exemptions to sentences for sex offenses,
1:38
Speaker 2: serious violent defenses with sentences of four years plus, terrorist defenses,
1:42
Speaker 2: offenses relating to national security, and offenses connected to domestic
1:46
Speaker 2: abuse like stalking and non fidtal strangulation. And yet the
1:50
Speaker 2: mainstream press is full of stories over the last day
1:52
Speaker 2: or so about cases of people not receiving warnings that
1:57
Speaker 2: the offender was being released and that they were potentially
2:00
Speaker 2: at risk. So if you are part of the victim
2:04
Speaker 2: contact scheme or the victim notification scheme, your victim liaison
2:08
Speaker 2: officer will inform you have any.
2:09
Speaker 1: Change to release it.
2:10
Speaker 2: It's why would this be necessary if people really related
2:14
Speaker 2: the domestic abuse offenses that are not being released, So
2:19
Speaker 2: this doesn't add up. It went on to say this,
2:22
Speaker 2: offenders will still serve their full sentence even after release.
2:27
Speaker 2: They'll be on probation under restrictive license conditions with strict supervision.
2:31
Speaker 2: How is that possible? As we'll see in a minute,
2:33
Speaker 2: the Probation Service has been under massive stress for a
2:37
Speaker 2: very long time now. If they breach their license, this says,
2:41
Speaker 2: or it's necessary for public protection, they can be recalled
2:44
Speaker 2: to prison. How can they be recalled to prison when
2:46
Speaker 2: there are no spaces and we're making room for the
2:50
Speaker 2: new prisoners by releasing the old prisoners. We're replacing those
2:53
Speaker 2: old prisoners with new prisoners, and so there'll be no
2:56
Speaker 2: prison spaces again. So how does this work? How will
2:59
Speaker 2: they be recalled to prison? This seems like a pack
3:01
Speaker 2: of lies. So they go on to say the Probation
3:04
Speaker 2: Service has been working over the summer to prepare for
3:07
Speaker 2: prisoners releases by carrying out safeguarding and domestic abuse checks
3:10
Speaker 2: to protect partners and children, sharing information with police and
3:14
Speaker 2: other key partners, and finding homes and job center support
3:16
Speaker 2: for those released to support the rehabilitation. And again at
3:22
Speaker 2: the end they say, if you're a victim of crime,
3:24
Speaker 2: you can find free, confidential supported victim and witness Information
3:28
Speaker 2: dot org dot UK. So this is the Victim and
3:31
Speaker 2: Witness Information website.
3:33
Speaker 1: You'll notice in.
3:34
Speaker 2: The top right hand corner there there's a small link
3:36
Speaker 2: that says online safety. I just wanted to highlight the
3:42
Speaker 2: information that they provide for online safety. They say, if
3:45
Speaker 2: you need to hide what you're doing on this website
3:47
Speaker 2: or protect yourself from someone, it can be safer not
3:50
Speaker 2: to use your home computer or your mobile phonell it's
3:52
Speaker 2: a bit late to tell people that now whenever they've
3:55
Speaker 2: already been to the website, but okay. And they go
3:58
Speaker 2: on to say, when you use this website and every
3:59
Speaker 2: time I use the Internet, your device saves a record
4:02
Speaker 2: of the pages you've looked at. And they're pointing out
4:04
Speaker 2: that this could be a risk if you've got domestic
4:08
Speaker 2: violence situation. And they talk about small files called cookies,
4:13
Speaker 2: and they say they give advice on how to delete cookies,
4:15
Speaker 2: but they say be careful because deleting cookies will also
4:18
Speaker 2: delete stored passwords for online accounts. This is complete nonsense,
4:23
Speaker 2: and this is such bad advice. If any organization is
4:26
Speaker 2: storing a password inside a cookie, then that would be
4:29
Speaker 2: the last time I would ever visit that organization.
4:32
Speaker 1: That is not what cookies.
4:33
Speaker 2: Are for, and so that is quite bad advice because
4:36
Speaker 2: that will potentially prevent people from deleting cookies. But anyway,
4:41
Speaker 2: I just want to highlight this. Speaking of the Probation Services,
4:44
Speaker 2: is NAPO the Provision Union and this is what they
4:47
Speaker 2: had to say about this. They call it a ticking
4:50
Speaker 2: time bomb. Probation Unit. NAPO fears that the early prisoner
4:54
Speaker 2: released scheme is a ticking time bomb that could put
4:56
Speaker 2: public safety at risk. The scheme, originally initiated by the
5:00
Speaker 2: previous government, will see seventeen hundred prisoners released early today
5:03
Speaker 2: that was yesterday to ease overcrowding in prisons. But NAPO
5:06
Speaker 2: and its members fear that this is just moving the
5:09
Speaker 2: problem from one place to another without properly assessing the
5:11
Speaker 2: risks to probation staff and the general public. The Probation
5:15
Speaker 2: Service is currently facing a crisis of its own. Chronic
5:18
Speaker 2: staff shortages, excessive workloads, and per morale have staff worried
5:21
Speaker 2: about how they will be able to supervise this influx
5:24
Speaker 2: of service users, particularly those who should not be eligible
5:27
Speaker 2: for the scheme but are somehow being released because they're
5:30
Speaker 2: serving concurrent sentences. Involving a lesser offense, so we get
5:34
Speaker 2: to see why some of these risky prisoners are being released.
5:38
Speaker 2: The announcement of the policy had already exponentially increased workloads
5:42
Speaker 2: for probation staff working in prisons and the community as
5:45
Speaker 2: they attempted to accelerate release plans, developing strength and risk
5:48
Speaker 2: management plans, and find appropriate accommodation for those being released.
5:53
Speaker 2: With workloads significantly higher, the ability of staff to address
5:56
Speaker 2: risk and support the transition of those being released will
5:59
Speaker 2: have a wide impact on the work that's already being undertaken.
6:02
Speaker 2: And this shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody because NAPO,
6:06
Speaker 2: as they said in the previous paragraph there, this is
6:10
Speaker 2: a continuation of a policy which the Tories had originally initiated.
6:13
Speaker 2: So again this has not changed on behalf of Keir Starmer,
6:17
Speaker 2: it's just acceleration.
6:19
Speaker 1: So if we look at.
6:19
Speaker 2: Naple's comments from May twenty twenty four, when the original
6:24
Speaker 2: plan was announced by the Tory government, NAPO, the largest
6:28
Speaker 2: trade union representing probation staff, they said, has condemned the
6:31
Speaker 2: government's recent announcement that from the twenty third of May,
6:34
Speaker 2: certain categories of prisoners in any four premises across the
6:37
Speaker 2: male estate in England and Wales will be eligible for
6:40
Speaker 2: earlier release up to seventy days prior to the end
6:43
Speaker 2: of their sentence. A similar scheme that has been running
6:45
Speaker 2: and the female prisoner of state has been suspended. So
6:49
Speaker 2: the very much stronger language with the previous government. Perhaps
6:53
Speaker 2: that's because their union, I don't know, but anyway, just
6:56
Speaker 2: to highlight what Charles had reported a couple of weeks
6:59
Speaker 2: ago about the reoffending rates, adults released from custody or
7:04
Speaker 2: starting court orders had to proven reoffending rate of thirty
7:06
Speaker 2: three point four percent. Adults released from custodial sentences of
7:10
Speaker 2: less than twelve months had to proven reoffending rate of
7:12
Speaker 2: fifty six point one percent. And the question is, bearing
7:16
Speaker 2: in mind the stress of the probation service, how much
7:19
Speaker 2: actual coverage is going to be given to these new
7:23
Speaker 2: people released and what are the chances of reoffending. In
7:27
Speaker 2: the meantime, the mainstream press has been going nuts with
7:31
Speaker 2: the headlines designed to enrage the population. So my step
7:35
Speaker 2: dad broke my ribs and made me lick dog feces
7:37
Speaker 2: off his shoe when I was nine years old, and
7:39
Speaker 2: now he's free after serving just nineteen months. I mean,
7:42
Speaker 2: if these cases are true, it is shocking, and I
7:47
Speaker 2: mean starmers should be answering for this. But of course
7:51
Speaker 2: many of these headlines are inflammatory as we just run
7:54
Speaker 2: through them. So but don't worry because Starmer is uncomfortable
7:58
Speaker 2: with some of the people who have been really least
8:00
Speaker 2: apparently so we'll be back.
8:02
Speaker 1: Thieves and drug addicts admit to'll end up back behind bars.
8:06
Speaker 2: The other point to make here is, of course, part
8:09
Speaker 2: of this is about driving demand for offenders to be
8:12
Speaker 2: sent overseas in order to deal with this problem. Of
8:15
Speaker 2: this again was something that the Tories had attempted to
8:17
Speaker 2: do with the criminal justice system, and the idea of
8:21
Speaker 2: sending prisoners to Estonia apparently still on the cards. So Charles,
8:28
Speaker 2: I don't know what you think about that. Very briefly,
8:32
Speaker 2: what are your thoughts.
8:35
Speaker 3: I think the well, first of all, good afternoon all
8:38
Speaker 3: and Mike. The big question that hardly anybody wants to
8:42
Speaker 3: tackle is what is the expected outcome from a prison
8:46
Speaker 3: sentence given the reoffending rates and indeed the way in
8:49
Speaker 3: which we're seeing people who are substantially below the threshold
8:55
Speaker 3: of criminal activity are actually ending up in prison. Now
8:58
Speaker 3: what is the expected outcome And if that's not dealt with,
9:02
Speaker 3: then all of this is in effect for nought. It's
9:05
Speaker 3: just it's layers and layers of confusion upon one another.
9:09
Speaker 3: And the other thing I think is that what we
9:11
Speaker 3: forget is how quickly the prison population has risen from
9:14
Speaker 3: the nineties. Between nineteen ninety three and twenty twelve, the
9:17
Speaker 3: prison population doubled, and that's because of effectively procedural ineptitude
9:23
Speaker 3: and an inability to be able to grasp what was
9:25
Speaker 3: going on within the system.
9:26
Speaker 4: And they're still feeling the hangover from that.
9:28
Speaker 3: So it is complete chaos and unless they start again,
9:30
Speaker 3: it's not going to get any better.
9:32
Speaker 2: Well, indeed, we'll talk about this much more an extra,
9:35
Speaker 2: but Charles, in the meantime, what's going on with the police?
9:40
Speaker 3: Well throwback really to twenty twenty and we'll just look
9:45
Speaker 3: at the case of Charlie Staple, a young man who
9:48
Speaker 3: I spoke to yesterday. This is a picture of him
9:50
Speaker 3: earlier in the week outside the Royal Course Justice and
9:53
Speaker 3: he was filmed by a friend of the column, Willsie
9:57
Speaker 3: of Resistance GB out side a demonstration in London, and
10:03
Speaker 3: this is how he was dealt with by police at
10:05
Speaker 3: the time.
10:10
Speaker 5: I'm all in, young, I play under public health legislation.
10:12
Speaker 4: You don't move and go oh yeah, I've been arrested.
10:16
Speaker 6: A yeah, go in.
10:18
Speaker 5: You gotta go, agin, You've got to go, mate, mate.
10:21
Speaker 7: What are you doing?
10:22
Speaker 8: You got why are you okay?
10:28
Speaker 5: What are you doing right?
10:29
Speaker 6: Okay?
10:30
Speaker 8: Yes?
10:30
Speaker 7: Are you doing?
10:31
Speaker 9: All right?
10:31
Speaker 6: Okay?
10:31
Speaker 5: What you've been told me to move? You've been warned
10:34
Speaker 5: to go under public health okay, public under the public legislation.
10:38
Speaker 4: Okay, all right, I've.
10:39
Speaker 5: Told you shut listen, listen to me. I told you
10:43
Speaker 5: to shut I told you twice. You haven't done it
10:46
Speaker 5: and stopped. Turn around and us all right, I'm not
10:52
Speaker 5: doing that with that, okay, to show you you're not.
10:57
Speaker 5: Why why are you looking at me?
10:58
Speaker 1: That problem?
11:00
Speaker 5: You have to engage with him. He's illegal.
11:03
Speaker 4: You have to engage with him birth before your rest.
11:06
Speaker 5: Arrest is a hey, this is a large result. You're
11:15
Speaker 5: not legally allowed to do that.
11:17
Speaker 4: This public health.
11:23
Speaker 3: No, there's not enough time to go into the egregious
11:25
Speaker 3: detail of what happened, but nonetheless, Charlie himself was charged
11:30
Speaker 3: with an assault on emergency worker, among other things. Now,
11:33
Speaker 3: he defended himself, and during his trial he as almost
11:37
Speaker 3: as an aside, said it was like he was being tortured.
11:40
Speaker 3: The judge asked the jury if that was something that
11:42
Speaker 3: they would consider, and they found that reasonable. And therefore
11:47
Speaker 3: it's introducing the element of tortures as a concept. And
11:54
Speaker 3: what we have to look at is Section one three
11:56
Speaker 3: to four of the Criminal Justice Act eight. So this
12:00
Speaker 3: goes back a while, and it specifically states that a
12:03
Speaker 3: public official or person acting in an official capacity, whatever
12:07
Speaker 3: his nationality. So we have to bear that in mind
12:09
Speaker 3: because it covers act overseas intentionally inflicts severe pain or
12:14
Speaker 3: suffering on another in the performance or purported performance of
12:18
Speaker 3: his official duties. Now this is reinforced, of course by
12:22
Speaker 3: the Human Rights At nineteen ninety eight, which specifically says
12:26
Speaker 3: under Article three prohibition of torture, no one shall be
12:29
Speaker 3: subjected to torture or to sorry or too in human or
12:33
Speaker 3: degrading treatment or punishment.
12:35
Speaker 4: That's an absolute right. It's not qualified or limited.
12:38
Speaker 3: However, amazingly in the Criminal Justice Act it goes on
12:41
Speaker 3: to say that it shall be a defense for a
12:43
Speaker 3: person charged with an offense under this section to prove
12:47
Speaker 3: that he had lawful authority justification or excuse for that conduct,
12:53
Speaker 3: and given what we've just looked at, that seems perfectly extraordinary. Further,
12:57
Speaker 3: there is of course a loophole. The system is very
12:59
Speaker 3: much stacked against the individual. It states in section one
13:03
Speaker 3: three five that the requirement for the Attorney General's consent
13:07
Speaker 3: for prosecutions for proceedings for an offense under Section one
13:11
Speaker 3: three four shall not be begun except by or with
13:15
Speaker 3: the consent of the Attorney General for England and Wales
13:18
Speaker 3: or the Advocate General for Northern Ireland. So that's just
13:22
Speaker 3: one of the obstacles in the path. The other one
13:25
Speaker 3: is that in this instance he was they've been attempting
13:28
Speaker 3: a private prosecution on individual basis against the police constables
13:32
Speaker 3: who were involved in this incident. And this goes back
13:35
Speaker 3: to slides I produced a little while ago, but guidance
13:38
Speaker 3: on private prosecutions from the Crime Prosecution Service, and here
13:41
Speaker 3: we see the obstacle in the path is another individual,
13:44
Speaker 3: the Director of Public Prosecutions, of course, the office that
13:46
Speaker 3: Prime Minister used to hold, and he has the power
13:49
Speaker 3: under section six to take over private prosecutions.
13:54
Speaker 4: Now what does that mean.
13:55
Speaker 3: It means that there will be instances where it is
13:57
Speaker 3: appropriate for the Crime Prosecution Service to exercise the director's
14:01
Speaker 3: powers to discontinue or to stop it. Now this is
14:06
Speaker 3: very significant. Further, of course, with the new government, we
14:10
Speaker 3: have a new Attorney General, and I think it bears
14:13
Speaker 3: scrutiny to look at him as an individual and indeed
14:17
Speaker 3: what he is supposed to be standing for.
14:20
Speaker 4: Richard Hermer KC.
14:22
Speaker 3: Unusually he's come straight from law and not inside politics.
14:27
Speaker 3: But The Financial Times in particular has written him up
14:30
Speaker 3: as somebody with a sort of staunch position on Israel,
14:35
Speaker 3: in so far as he is meant to be a
14:39
Speaker 3: balanced exponent of effectively sort of legal viewpoint. Now Hermer
14:45
Speaker 3: himself is Jewish, to what extent it could that present
14:50
Speaker 3: an obstacle to his objectivity given the situation in the
14:53
Speaker 3: Middle East at the moment. In an article he wrote
14:56
Speaker 3: co wrote back in October last year for the Financial Time,
15:00
Speaker 3: he states that Israel has a clear right in international
15:03
Speaker 3: law to respond in self defense. They go on to
15:05
Speaker 3: use rather a motive language and talking about civilians being
15:08
Speaker 3: brutally murdered and subjected to severe atrocities. They go on
15:12
Speaker 3: to say they also have a clear right to seek
15:14
Speaker 3: justice for the crimes that have been committed on its soil,
15:18
Speaker 3: fair enough, not simply against those captured by Israeli forces,
15:21
Speaker 3: but against the Hamas organization itself and those who enable
15:24
Speaker 3: its military operations, which surely would apply to both sides.
15:29
Speaker 4: They go on.
15:29
Speaker 3: Just as international law provides the means for categorizing, criminalizing
15:33
Speaker 3: the barbaric acts of Hamas, so too does it provide
15:35
Speaker 3: a framework for governing how Israel must respond. But how
15:39
Speaker 3: is that to be interpreted? Any nation is bound in
15:43
Speaker 3: law to comply with all the laws of war, yes,
15:46
Speaker 3: but exactly how? And finally, they state that the laws
15:49
Speaker 3: of war are not pacifist. Rather, they are the opposite.
15:52
Speaker 3: They are an admission that there are occasions when war
15:55
Speaker 3: is necessary. They are designed to ensure that when war
15:59
Speaker 3: be conduct did there are limits on what harm can
16:02
Speaker 3: be done to other human beings. Now, I think, given
16:07
Speaker 3: the situation that Charlie Staple has found himself in, that
16:11
Speaker 3: is a very significant sort of admission by the Attorney
16:16
Speaker 3: General and those that are within his orbit. And first
16:20
Speaker 3: of all, we've got the issue of whether they should
16:22
Speaker 3: be a common law taught of torture, and this could
16:25
Speaker 3: break very interesting legal ground. But also we have the
16:28
Speaker 3: other aspect of the fact that the Attorney General presents
16:31
Speaker 3: potentially an enormous obstacle not just this but also to
16:35
Speaker 3: securing peace in the Middle East possibly, but we shall see.
16:40
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you, Charles Vanessa. Let's welcome you to the program.
16:44
Speaker 2: And well you're in Damascus. A couple of days ago
16:47
Speaker 2: there was some activity from the Israeli direction.
16:52
Speaker 8: Yes, I would also first of all say that under
16:54
Speaker 8: international law is well, there's an occupied force therefore doesn't
16:57
Speaker 8: have the right to.
16:59
Speaker 7: Self to But yes, two days ago, was it yesterday?
17:05
Speaker 7: I lose track because the attacks are always in the
17:08
Speaker 7: early hours of the morning.
17:11
Speaker 8: Israel launched actually one of its largest expanded strikes against
17:16
Speaker 8: Syria for some time since, actually probably before.
17:20
Speaker 7: Twenty and eleven.
17:22
Speaker 8: So let's have a look quickly at a couple of
17:25
Speaker 8: sort of amateur videos that were taken of the attacks
17:27
Speaker 8: and the interception by Syrian air defense overall over basically
17:33
Speaker 8: the coastal areas, so this will be close to Tatoos
17:37
Speaker 8: on the western coast of Syria. There have been rumors
17:44
Speaker 8: that the Syrian air defenses did actually shoot down an
17:49
Speaker 8: Israeli wallplane. Now, obviously if they did that will have
17:54
Speaker 8: landed in the sea. And so therefore until now we
17:57
Speaker 8: haven't got substantiation of those rooms, and of course.
18:00
Speaker 7: Israel is not going to be the first one to
18:04
Speaker 7: admit it.
18:05
Speaker 8: So the first wave of attacks basically came from Lebanon
18:11
Speaker 8: the northwest of Lebanon and then from as I said,
18:15
Speaker 8: the western coastal region from the mediterraneterranean Sea. It's worth
18:21
Speaker 8: also noting that Russian jets were buzzing the Israeli jets.
18:25
Speaker 8: They were patrolling the coastal area to prevent the Israeli
18:29
Speaker 8: jets entering Syrian airspace, but they couldn't engage with the
18:35
Speaker 8: jets because of the activity of the Syrian air defense
18:39
Speaker 8: would have put them in peril. Of course, So the
18:43
Speaker 8: area that was extensively targeted is the village and the
18:47
Speaker 8: countryside of Messiah inside that red circle to the west
18:51
Speaker 8: of Hama and Homs in.
18:55
Speaker 7: Sort of central Syria.
18:57
Speaker 8: The first wave of attacks used the Delilah cruise missiles.
19:05
Speaker 7: I'm not sure of the number that were used, but
19:07
Speaker 7: it was an extensive attack.
19:09
Speaker 8: The majority of the missiles were downed by the Syrian
19:14
Speaker 8: air defenses, and it's believed that for the first time
19:17
Speaker 8: in some time, the Syrian Air Defense used the S
19:21
Speaker 8: two hundred, which was seen to arrive as far as
19:26
Speaker 8: Faifer in the occupied territories.
19:29
Speaker 7: That was then followed by a wave.
19:31
Speaker 8: So while they had tried to create almost a belt
19:34
Speaker 8: of fire for the Syrian Air Defense and then sent
19:38
Speaker 8: in the Harrop suicide drones to target certain areas inside Syria.
19:44
Speaker 7: So this was a very very extensive attack. However, a
19:49
Speaker 7: number of.
19:49
Speaker 8: The drones were brought down in various areas on the
19:53
Speaker 8: coast and surrounding the.
19:54
Speaker 7: Messiaf Pumps area.
19:57
Speaker 8: Now, interestingly, there was a French Force plane scene coming
20:03
Speaker 8: in from the Jordan airspace but carrying out surveillance shortly
20:08
Speaker 8: before the attack, and that I think is the first
20:11
Speaker 8: time that the French planes have been involved. It's also
20:15
Speaker 8: interesting that about a year ago there was talk of
20:18
Speaker 8: setting up a NATO base and headquarters in Jordan. In
20:23
Speaker 8: addition to the Syrian Armies research centers and a position
20:27
Speaker 8: in the north of the city of Mensief, the Israelis
20:30
Speaker 8: also targeted a military base in the southwest of the city, which,
20:34
Speaker 8: according to the Israeli regime, was the site of the
20:37
Speaker 8: production of rockets utilized by the Lebanese resistance movement. The
20:42
Speaker 8: military base, which is identified as an underground facility, and
20:47
Speaker 8: the Institute four thousand research center was also targeted in
20:52
Speaker 8: the airstrike by the occupying regime's army on the twelfth
20:56
Speaker 8: March of the twelfth, twenty twenty three. Since twenty eighteen,
21:00
Speaker 8: the mentioned center has been attacked by the Israeli regime's
21:05
Speaker 8: army at least on for occasions.
21:08
Speaker 7: And if we go back one year, I think.
21:10
Speaker 8: We reported on this report in Hebrew by thess Tel
21:16
Speaker 8: Aviv University related think tank that actually went into some
21:21
Speaker 8: detail about the perceived threat from Syria's weapon development. Now,
21:27
Speaker 8: in the strikes, there were fourteen people killed, many injured,
21:32
Speaker 8: six critically, all of whom were taken to the Massiff
21:37
Speaker 8: National Hospital, and in fact the director of the national
21:40
Speaker 8: hospital was himself injured and a Syrian news agency reporter also.
21:49
Speaker 8: They appeared to have deliberately caused extensive damage to water lines,
21:54
Speaker 8: to equipment and civil defense teams that were heading to
21:58
Speaker 8: put out the fires. Via causes, you can see the
22:01
Speaker 8: main road between Messiaf and various other villages was shut
22:07
Speaker 8: down and is now obviously under reconstruction. Electricity, internet lines
22:12
Speaker 8: were heavily damaged, and of course you know this is
22:16
Speaker 8: relatively normal. We've seen the water crimes in Gaza and
22:21
Speaker 8: in Lebanon, and in Lebanon of course the attacks and
22:24
Speaker 8: the burning of Lebanese forestry and the destruction of civilian infrastructure,
22:29
Speaker 8: so very similar.
22:30
Speaker 2: Pattern here, Vanessa, thank you very much for that. We
22:34
Speaker 2: will keep an eye on how that develops and how
22:37
Speaker 2: this escalates as indibtedly it will. Okay, if you like
22:41
Speaker 2: what the UK Column does, you would like to support us.
22:43
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23:16
Speaker 2: Agenda twenty one year Life in their Hands is still
23:18
Speaker 2: available for purchase if you would like to get a copy.
23:22
Speaker 1: Now.
23:22
Speaker 2: This is September the eleventh, and so I just want
23:26
Speaker 2: to remind everybody of the symposium that we hosted for
23:29
Speaker 2: the International Center for nine to eleven Justice at the weekend.
23:34
Speaker 2: The archive of that is on the UK Column website.
23:37
Speaker 2: At the moment we will be splitting these up into
23:40
Speaker 2: separate presentations, but the archive of the full live stream
23:44
Speaker 2: is there for you to have a look at if
23:46
Speaker 2: you would like, with timings in the show notes so
23:48
Speaker 2: that you can step forward to the place you'd like
23:52
Speaker 2: to watch. Tomorrow at one pm we're putting out premiering
23:57
Speaker 2: the interview that I've done with Diane Sah and jose
24:00
Speaker 2: Vega from the United States. They are standing for Senate
24:04
Speaker 2: and Congress respectively in New York and well, they had
24:08
Speaker 2: plenty to say about that. It's probably the only interesting
24:11
Speaker 2: thing that's going on in the US election at the moment.
24:14
Speaker 2: But join us at one pm for that tomorrow if
24:17
Speaker 2: you can. A reminder of the Bristol event UK Column
24:21
Speaker 2: A location on the nineteenth of October.
24:23
Speaker 1: There's still tickets a bill available for this.
24:26
Speaker 2: Piers Robinson, David Miller, Peter Ford will be and will
24:30
Speaker 2: be among the people relaunching Media on trial. Bob Moran
24:34
Speaker 2: will be speaking Amed Malik, Katie, Joe Murphin will be
24:37
Speaker 2: talking about Hope Sussex. Claire Willis Harrison will be talking
24:40
Speaker 2: about how we deal with tax and whether we would
24:44
Speaker 2: like to perhaps hold a tax strike, and Brian and
24:49
Speaker 2: I speaking at the Heritage Party conference on the twenty Saturday,
24:52
Speaker 2: the twentieth of September. That's in reading details at Heritage
24:56
Speaker 2: Party dot org. And this coming Saturday there's a rally
25:00
Speaker 2: piece taking place on Glasgow Green at the Commonwealth Monument
25:03
Speaker 2: at one pm and a number of speakers there. Please
25:07
Speaker 2: get along to that if you are in the Glasgow area,
25:10
Speaker 2: if you possibly can. Now, Charles, you spoke to David
25:15
Speaker 2: Clues in the last couple of days.
25:19
Speaker 4: I did, yes.
25:20
Speaker 3: He had been the subject of a campaign of sort
25:24
Speaker 3: of vitriol from mainstream media over his reporting in the
25:28
Speaker 3: wake of the Southport killings, and I've recorded an interview
25:31
Speaker 3: with him which is now on the UK Column website
25:33
Speaker 3: entitled you May Be Next. I really would encourage you
25:36
Speaker 3: to listen to it. We've just got a short excerpt
25:38
Speaker 3: after I'd asked him the question what do you think
25:41
Speaker 3: the end state is for government.
25:45
Speaker 9: And an idea wild they would shut down social media
25:47
Speaker 9: entirely and you would just be stuck at home watching
25:50
Speaker 9: the BBC or ITV or Sky and you'd be watching
25:54
Speaker 9: the approved titles. They they simply do not want people
25:58
Speaker 9: having alternatives of information because if they do, people can
26:02
Speaker 9: then expose their scams and they can expose their lives.
26:06
Speaker 9: And we all have a track record over COVID, we
26:09
Speaker 9: have a track record over the war in Ukraine, We've
26:12
Speaker 9: got a track record over the conflict in Israeli and Gaza,
26:16
Speaker 9: and they clearly don't like us because we provided nuanced
26:22
Speaker 9: and balanced view. It's like they say they're conspiracy theorists,
26:28
Speaker 9: they're brainwashed. They say, we're the ones that actually have
26:35
Speaker 9: a proper look at the situation and try and say, look,
26:39
Speaker 9: in every conflict, there's one side, there's another side, and
26:41
Speaker 9: there's other people and this is some of the and
26:44
Speaker 9: they just they hate that.
26:47
Speaker 1: So he's absolutely right in what he says.
26:50
Speaker 2: They're worry about the so called alternative media and social media,
26:54
Speaker 2: and so one of the question is the Online Safety Bill,
26:57
Speaker 2: for example, has been focused on the big platforms least
27:00
Speaker 2: that's what most of the headlines have said so far,
27:02
Speaker 2: but Peter Kyle, who's the Secretary State for Science, Technology
27:06
Speaker 2: and Innovation, have got.
27:08
Speaker 1: That the wrong way round.
27:10
Speaker 2: Has decided to write to Dame Melanie Dawes at Offcom
27:14
Speaker 2: because he's very concerned about this. So this is what
27:16
Speaker 2: he said in his letter. Dear Melanie, I know you
27:18
Speaker 2: and everyone working at offcom share my concerns about the
27:21
Speaker 2: proliferation of extremely detrimental material online, which is often far
27:26
Speaker 2: too easy to access. I appreciate your organization's hard work
27:30
Speaker 2: to date and setting up the regulatory regime for the
27:33
Speaker 2: Online Safety Act.
27:35
Speaker 1: I'm writing on a related.
27:36
Speaker 2: Issue regarding so called small but risky services, which is
27:40
Speaker 2: an area of concern that has been raised with me directly.
27:44
Speaker 2: The Act was designed to ensure that tech companies take
27:47
Speaker 2: more responsibility for the safety of their users. I'm therefore
27:50
Speaker 2: keen to understand how OFCOM will monitor these small but
27:53
Speaker 2: risky online services. In particular, can you update me on
27:57
Speaker 2: how you intend to use the full force of enforcement.
28:02
Speaker 2: So the government clearly expressing a concern about smaller organizations
28:08
Speaker 2: of all kinds that might be pushing out what they
28:10
Speaker 2: describe as hitful content. For example, I mean of course
28:14
Speaker 2: they're also trying to frame this under the guise of
28:18
Speaker 2: suicide prevention and other things, but the disinformation aspect of
28:22
Speaker 2: this is one hundred percent there. So kind of related
28:26
Speaker 2: then is a statement from the Media Freedom Coalition. Now,
28:30
Speaker 2: this is a group of what they call themselves a
28:32
Speaker 2: partnership of countries working together from media freedom at home
28:36
Speaker 2: and abroad, and they're particularly concerned about what's been going
28:40
Speaker 2: on in Hong Kong. And they begin their press release
28:43
Speaker 2: by saying journalism is not a crime. So that's the
28:47
Speaker 2: quite definitive journalism is not a crime. And you'll be
28:50
Speaker 2: glad to know that the Media Freedom Coalition includes the
28:54
Speaker 2: British government. They have published the same press release on
28:57
Speaker 2: the government website, so they are also saying that journalism
29:01
Speaker 2: is not a crime.
29:02
Speaker 1: It was signed by.
29:03
Speaker 2: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Denmark, Estonia when you can read
29:07
Speaker 2: them there, United Kingdom, United States are on the list.
29:10
Speaker 2: So we might take that into consideration when we consider
29:14
Speaker 2: the people that have been arrested recently because of claims
29:18
Speaker 2: by the British government that they've somehow breached the Terrorism
29:21
Speaker 2: Act by somehow supporting a prescribed organization or the people
29:26
Speaker 2: that have been complaining on social media about immigration and
29:30
Speaker 2: they are going to prison at the moment because they
29:32
Speaker 2: dared to speak out on social media. We've got to
29:36
Speaker 2: consider that and remember that journalism is not a crime.
29:38
Speaker 2: And in the meantime, Vanessa Craig Murray deciding that he
29:42
Speaker 2: needs to leave the UK because he's concerned about colleagues
29:46
Speaker 2: and friends who are journalists who have been arrested under
29:50
Speaker 2: the Terrorism Act.
29:51
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've got any thoughts on that.
29:54
Speaker 8: Well, of course, Craig Murray was incredibly unfairly penalized for
29:58
Speaker 8: his reporting on trial and was then also I think
30:05
Speaker 8: detained under the Terrorist Act very recently. So, I mean,
30:10
Speaker 8: this is a former British ambassador for her sake. I mean,
30:14
Speaker 8: it is becoming ridiculous but extremely dangerous.
30:20
Speaker 1: Also, yes, yes, indeed it is. Okay, Well, thank you
30:23
Speaker 1: for that.
30:24
Speaker 2: I bring us up to date then, with what's going
30:27
Speaker 2: on in the wider Middle East.
30:29
Speaker 8: Well, I mean I've talked about the expansion of aggression
30:32
Speaker 8: against Syria, but that has to be looked at in
30:36
Speaker 8: the context of what's happening in the West Bank, in
30:38
Speaker 8: Braza and in Lebanon.
30:41
Speaker 7: Also so we are seeing and actually in rhetoric regarding
30:45
Speaker 7: your own as I'll show at the end of the report.
30:47
Speaker 8: So last Friday and Israeli snipper killed US Turkish activist
30:53
Speaker 8: in the West Bank by shooting her in the head.
30:56
Speaker 7: And there is.
30:57
Speaker 8: I think reports circulator that he was celebrating the kill
31:02
Speaker 8: immediately after.
31:04
Speaker 7: So that was on Friday.
31:06
Speaker 8: On Monday, Natagna who gave a press conference during which
31:12
Speaker 8: he showed a map of Palestine with Palestine completely missing
31:18
Speaker 8: from the map.
31:19
Speaker 7: He had raised it entirely from the map.
31:22
Speaker 8: Let's see what Matthew Miller, the US State Department spokesperson, said,
31:27
Speaker 8: in response to a question about this basic disappearance at
31:32
Speaker 8: Palestine from the map of Palestine.
31:36
Speaker 7: One last funny question.
31:37
Speaker 4: Yesterday Natanio showed a map when he talked about the
31:40
Speaker 4: Philadelphia Corridor.
31:41
Speaker 7: It has no West Bank, it has nothing on it.
31:44
Speaker 4: Is this kind of normal that he shows a map
31:46
Speaker 4: with just Israel on it.
31:48
Speaker 1: There's no.
31:50
Speaker 10: You know, I'm not going to comment on normal for you,
31:53
Speaker 10: So I'm not going to comment on the Prime Minister's
31:55
Speaker 10: press cards. We have been quite clear about our position
31:59
Speaker 10: when it comes to Gaza, when it comes to the
32:02
Speaker 10: West Bank when it comes ultimately to a two state solution.
32:05
Speaker 4: Yeah, a.
32:09
Speaker 7: No comment, but I mean, you know, this is quite extraordinary.
32:13
Speaker 8: Would he be quite quite so medily mouthed if this
32:15
Speaker 8: was regarding Ukraine and Russia for example, Then followed by
32:20
Speaker 8: Natanyongho actually doubling down with the map of Israel.
32:25
Speaker 7: It goes from the river.
32:27
Speaker 8: The river is right here, that's the Jordan River to
32:29
Speaker 8: the sea, the Mediterranean Sea. So when Hamas is talking
32:33
Speaker 8: about liberating Palestine from the river to the sea, basically what.
32:36
Speaker 7: They're saying is destroying Israel.
32:38
Speaker 8: That comes after he is effectively ranged Palestine from the map.
32:43
Speaker 8: Then let's have a look at what's been happening in Gaza,
32:46
Speaker 8: just ongoing genocide, appalling massacres of course, the majority of
32:52
Speaker 8: victims or children again Israeli massacre in Jabalia camp, another
32:58
Speaker 8: one of the heavily con.
33:00
Speaker 7: Esto refugee camps where people have.
33:02
Speaker 8: Been gathering after being displaced from other areas of Gaza.
33:06
Speaker 8: After the fun Unis massacre, which was one of the
33:10
Speaker 8: worst again that we've seen, So let's have a look
33:13
Speaker 8: at the details on that.
33:15
Speaker 7: The shelling of Mowazi Unis.
33:18
Speaker 8: Mawazi of course, was one of the primary safe areas.
33:22
Speaker 7: That Israel persuaded people to go.
33:24
Speaker 8: To whenully hours of Tuesday, Israel launched an extensive attack
33:35
Speaker 8: against the displacement company Al Mawazi. The area was previously
33:40
Speaker 8: declared an alleged safe zone. An unfinalized death toll indicates
33:45
Speaker 8: that at least forty Palestinians have been killed in the aggression,
33:48
Speaker 8: while sixty five others were injured. However, the numbers are
33:51
Speaker 8: expected to exponentially increase in the upcoming mh pound bombs
34:02
Speaker 8: dropped by the i O. Sorry, entire families have been
34:06
Speaker 8: wiped out, while others completely disappeared.
34:09
Speaker 7: In the sand.
34:10
Speaker 8: So let's just have a look at a video which
34:13
Speaker 8: shows the creators left behind by these two thousand pound bombs.
34:19
Speaker 6: Mark you McCain, I'm sorry, I many the hasteners than McCain. Okay,
34:53
Speaker 6: shut out into those that heard the McConnel basis.
34:56
Speaker 11: And remember this is in an an incredibly.
35:07
Speaker 8: Crowded area that they've dropped this size of munition just extraordinary.
35:16
Speaker 8: This is a report by Dr Christopher Busby for Almaya
35:19
Speaker 8: Dean co authored is Israel using small nuclear weapons in
35:24
Speaker 8: Gaza and South Lebanon and what does he say in
35:27
Speaker 8: the report, This investigation has been ongoing for some time.
35:32
Speaker 8: The American Peace Information Council and Green Audit, which is buzzby,
35:37
Speaker 8: are conducting an investigation of Israel's possible use of small
35:40
Speaker 8: nuclear weapons in Gaza and South Lebanon. So basically what
35:45
Speaker 8: he says ask they've asked people who drive ambulances down
35:51
Speaker 8: in the South or live there to come forward with
35:53
Speaker 8: engine air filters from ambulances driven involund areas, samples of
35:58
Speaker 8: long hair if they live in bond areas, and guide
36:01
Speaker 8: counter readings, and soil samples from bond craters, and they
36:05
Speaker 8: ask for those samples to be sent. Interestingly, the Lebanese
36:08
Speaker 8: Red Cross has so far refused to collaborate in the investigation.
36:13
Speaker 8: So again, just horrific. And this is from the IOF,
36:18
Speaker 8: so take it with a degree of a pinch of salt.
36:20
Speaker 8: But these are the latest attacks on southern Lebanon, which
36:24
Speaker 8: is the Brown area, showing, according to the IOF, the
36:28
Speaker 8: targeting of launchpads, ammunition areas and so on, showing an
36:36
Speaker 8: extensive targeting of those areas across the south of Lebanon,
36:43
Speaker 8: but of course not taking into account the fact that
36:47
Speaker 8: many of those missiles have actually landed in or ended
36:51
Speaker 8: up doing serious damage to civilian infrastructure.
36:56
Speaker 7: And if we actually look at the next video.
36:58
Speaker 8: We can see again it's amateur videos of the targeting
37:03
Speaker 8: from about five am this morning.
37:31
Speaker 7: And I mentioned Iran also.
37:35
Speaker 8: This is Gance speaking at the m EAD conference in Washington.
37:41
Speaker 8: Bennigance calls for increased pressure on Iran and says the
37:45
Speaker 8: time for action in the North has come and that
37:48
Speaker 8: Israel is late on this, that they need to take
37:51
Speaker 8: care of Hezbala. Now interesting timing, So this presentation is
37:58
Speaker 8: coming just before elections and with Trump in I would say,
38:03
Speaker 8: voting ascendancy in the US.
38:07
Speaker 7: So what did he say? This war has shown that
38:10
Speaker 7: we need.
38:10
Speaker 8: To increase military, diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran and
38:15
Speaker 8: that we cannot accept an agreement that only addresses nuclear
38:19
Speaker 8: issues but must also include restrictions on funding and operating proxies. Proxies,
38:25
Speaker 8: of course, are another word for the allies of Iran,
38:28
Speaker 8: which will mean Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, state and non
38:34
Speaker 8: state actors. Dance identified Iran as the root of regional problems.
38:39
Speaker 8: While Hezbula poses an operational threat. We must remember that
38:43
Speaker 8: Iran is the core issue. Look at the situation in Iraq,
38:48
Speaker 8: Yemen and Lebanon.
38:48
Speaker 7: Achieving real victory is.
38:51
Speaker 8: About resolving the COMMSS issue and recovering hostages. It's about
38:56
Speaker 8: general alliance against the Iranian access that has established terra
39:00
Speaker 8: cells around US.
39:03
Speaker 7: Syria is described therefore as a terra cell.
39:05
Speaker 8: One presumes Iran is involved in almost every conflict, from
39:09
Speaker 8: supplying UAVs to Russia, which Iran is currently actually denying
39:14
Speaker 8: the use in Ukraine, to supporting terrorism in Sudahan and Algeria.
39:19
Speaker 8: The prospect of Iran with nuclear capabilities is concerning. We
39:22
Speaker 8: must maintain pressure on Iran, not just militarily, but economically
39:26
Speaker 8: and politically with greater intensity.
39:29
Speaker 7: This is a global responsibility.
39:32
Speaker 8: Any future nuclear deal must address enrichment and launch capabilities
39:37
Speaker 8: and impose severe restrictions on funding and operating proxies. As
39:42
Speaker 8: I've said, Iran presents a global and regional challenge, not
39:46
Speaker 8: just and Israeli concerned. So quite incredible belligerent rhetoric from Gants,
39:52
Speaker 8: who's previously been described as.
39:55
Speaker 7: A more moderate version of NETANYAHUO.
39:58
Speaker 8: And then let's have a look at a recent video
40:00
Speaker 8: of Trump on his campaign trail speaking about Israel.
40:06
Speaker 7: And let's just roll this quite extraordinary again.
40:11
Speaker 12: And if I don't win this election, Israel with Comrade
40:14
Speaker 12: Kamala Harris at the helm of the United States is doomed.
40:20
Speaker 12: Israel is doomed. That's a tough statement. Israel will be
40:24
Speaker 12: gone one year, two years, Israel will no longer exist.
40:28
Speaker 12: I better win. I better win, or you're gonna have
40:30
Speaker 12: problems like we've never had.
40:32
Speaker 1: We may have no country left.
40:35
Speaker 5: It may be our last election.
40:36
Speaker 9: You want to know the truth.
40:37
Speaker 12: People have said that this may be our last election.
40:40
Speaker 12: You got to get out and vote. This could be
40:42
Speaker 12: our last election.
40:48
Speaker 8: I mean, honestly, US elections are I don't know, off
40:53
Speaker 8: the scale pantomime.
40:56
Speaker 7: At the moment.
40:58
Speaker 2: Yes, Vanessa to put a smile on with this. Any
41:01
Speaker 2: allegations that are ran as supporting terrorism in Sedan and Algeria,
41:05
Speaker 2: I think Britain is a much more likely candidate for that.
41:07
Speaker 2: But anyway, thank you for that. Let's come back to
41:10
Speaker 2: Britain then, Charles and the Litiston farming.
41:17
Speaker 4: Thanks Mike.
41:17
Speaker 3: Yes, today is at least according to the National Farmers
41:21
Speaker 3: in Union f you today is back British Farming Day
41:24
Speaker 3: and they've been setting up a stall in Parliament Square
41:28
Speaker 3: to make this public. I think the big question to
41:31
Speaker 3: ask is are the NFU supporting British farming and there
41:36
Speaker 3: might be some evidence to suggest that might not exactly
41:39
Speaker 3: be the case. They've also criticized DEFRA today about underspending
41:45
Speaker 3: on subsidy. Of course, subsidy described as creating slaves by
41:52
Speaker 3: Julian Rose, who gave a very good interview to JA column.
41:55
Speaker 3: And here's Tom Bradshaw, the n OFF you president, from
41:58
Speaker 3: that article saying that a three hundred fifty eight million
42:01
Speaker 3: underspend over three years is unacceptable and nothing short of
42:05
Speaker 3: a kicking, nothing short of a kicking the teeth to
42:07
Speaker 3: farmers and growers who have faced years of uncertainty and
42:10
Speaker 3: loss of income during the agricultural transition. Well you think
42:15
Speaker 3: therefore that DEFRA and the NFU might be at loggerheads,
42:19
Speaker 3: but that's perhaps not quite the case. Also published today
42:23
Speaker 3: are the statistics from DEFRA on the amount of money
42:26
Speaker 3: they have spent in all the various subsidy classes. The
42:29
Speaker 3: Farming and Countryside Program annual Report covering the period up
42:34
Speaker 3: to the year up to thirty first of March twenty
42:37
Speaker 3: twenty four, so it is going to be a bit
42:38
Speaker 3: of a date, especially given all the changes that were
42:40
Speaker 3: put in place by Steve Barkley, the previous Secretary for
42:43
Speaker 3: the Environment, earlier on in the year. But nonetheless in
42:47
Speaker 3: the introductory text here it's worth noting that they say
42:49
Speaker 3: that the program paced farmers and land manages to deliver
42:52
Speaker 3: significant and important outcomes for climate mitigation, adaptation and the environment.
42:57
Speaker 3: Alongside food production, thesetions contribute to the goal set out
43:02
Speaker 3: in the Environmental Improvement Plan, third National Adaptation Plan and
43:06
Speaker 3: the Net Zero Growth Plan. Now simply the order in
43:09
Speaker 3: which those things are listed suggests that actually the priority
43:13
Speaker 3: is not perhaps food production, but is more likely to
43:17
Speaker 3: be net zero and the environmental schemes, which do not
43:20
Speaker 3: go hand in hand with food production when you scrutinize
43:23
Speaker 3: the schemes themselves. Now, just to look at the figures
43:25
Speaker 3: in a bit of detail, we see that the total
43:27
Speaker 3: spend this year has been two point one four billion,
43:30
Speaker 3: but that's down from two point four to five billion
43:33
Speaker 3: four years ago. The land management schemes, which is what's
43:36
Speaker 3: been referred to that this is where things are changing,
43:39
Speaker 3: is now a total of eight hundred and six million
43:41
Speaker 3: in the year versus four hundred and thirty three million
43:44
Speaker 3: four years ago. Productivity and innovation, though essentially money with
43:50
Speaker 3: which to produce more food, is it one hundred and
43:52
Speaker 3: thirty seven million not might increase from one hundred and
43:55
Speaker 3: twenty million in twenty twenty to twenty twenty one. But
43:57
Speaker 3: they do describe that they have take on a data
44:00
Speaker 3: driven approach to engage farmers across ninety seven regional and
44:04
Speaker 3: stakeholder events in London. Essentially, they would have been harvesting
44:07
Speaker 3: information with which to better control the farmers that they
44:10
Speaker 3: can reach. And also they show off that they've produced
44:12
Speaker 3: twenty six videos with twelve thousand views and four podcast
44:16
Speaker 3: episodes with nine hundred dollars. I would say they could
44:18
Speaker 3: do better on that score, so I'm not quite sure
44:21
Speaker 3: why they've included it. But the thing to look at
44:24
Speaker 3: really is what are the priorities of a food production
44:28
Speaker 3: for either the NFU or DEFRA or not. And the
44:32
Speaker 3: NFU particularly is banging the drum for achieving net zero
44:36
Speaker 3: in farming by the year twenty forty, and in the
44:39
Speaker 3: introduction by Manette Batters the President, she says that there's
44:44
Speaker 3: no single answer to this problem to achieve our aim
44:46
Speaker 3: will need to We'll need a range of measures that
44:48
Speaker 3: fall under three broad headings, improving farming's productive efficiency, improving
44:53
Speaker 3: land management and changing land use to capture more carbon,
44:57
Speaker 3: boosting renewable energy and the bioeconomy. So overall, it looks
45:04
Speaker 3: like the priorities for both the NFU and DEFRA are
45:08
Speaker 3: summed up not just by the way in which the
45:09
Speaker 3: money's being spent and indeed the shift of focus onto
45:13
Speaker 3: environmental schemes that people are being pushed into or at
45:15
Speaker 3: least incentivized into, but also the lack of investment into
45:20
Speaker 3: the production of food, combined with the fact that of
45:22
Speaker 3: course a lot of land has been taken away from that. Now,
45:25
Speaker 3: to look further into this, going back some years, admittedly,
45:28
Speaker 3: I would encourage you to go to the UK column
45:30
Speaker 3: website and look at an article that Malcolm Massey wrote
45:32
Speaker 3: back in twenty twelve, the National Farmers' Union making Government
45:36
Speaker 3: policy since nineteen forty seven just a tiny excerpt from that.
45:39
Speaker 3: The NFU's relationship with the government is further supported by
45:43
Speaker 3: the National Archives, which states, in regards to the NFU's
45:46
Speaker 3: inclusion in the nineteen forty seven Agriculture Act, the government's
45:49
Speaker 3: aim was to maintain high levels of agricultural production through
45:53
Speaker 3: a system of guarantee prices negotiated annually by the Ministry
45:57
Speaker 3: of Agriculture and the National Farmers' Union. The unveiling of
46:00
Speaker 3: this close relationship will not surprise those farmers that believe
46:03
Speaker 3: NFU was pulling the strings during the foot and Math
46:06
Speaker 3: disaster in two thousand and one. Now a lot might
46:09
Speaker 3: have changed since then, but nonetheless, the power base the
46:12
Speaker 3: NFU has is significant, and it certainly doesn't have to
46:15
Speaker 3: go along with the reviews of its membership. Of course,
46:18
Speaker 3: the Council itself does decide what it is going to
46:22
Speaker 3: do and what it is going to say, and it
46:24
Speaker 3: looks at the moment that all they really care about
46:26
Speaker 3: is an obsession with what they're calling climate change.
46:30
Speaker 1: Thanks Charles.
46:31
Speaker 2: And so the question is, if we're reducing our food
46:34
Speaker 2: production capability by taking land out of productive use, what
46:37
Speaker 2: are we going to do to replace it? And we've
46:39
Speaker 2: been highlighting for quite a few years now the issue
46:42
Speaker 2: of gene editing. Well, the BBC's decided to get onto
46:45
Speaker 2: this and I'll explain why they have done in a second,
46:47
Speaker 2: But the BBC in depth has published this article the
46:52
Speaker 2: grid gene editing the bit can if be see if
46:55
Speaker 2: an ethical and this is their typo, So I just
46:58
Speaker 2: want to make sure everybody's clear about they do not
47:01
Speaker 2: understand the difference between the word if and the word it,
47:04
Speaker 2: So can if be safe and ethical? Now, just in
47:07
Speaker 2: case you're not sure, BBC in Depth is a new
47:10
Speaker 2: home and website on the website and app for the
47:12
Speaker 2: best analysis and expertise from our top journalists. So if
47:15
Speaker 2: you're wondering where the typos come from, it's from the
47:17
Speaker 2: BBC's top journalists. And they do offer a feedback button,
47:22
Speaker 2: so you can give your feedback if you want.
47:24
Speaker 1: Maybe you would like to.
47:25
Speaker 2: But I wanted to highlight one particular aspect of this
47:28
Speaker 2: because of course, the Precision Breeding Act as it's known
47:32
Speaker 2: now was passed a couple of years ago, and so
47:37
Speaker 2: they have to say that at the time when that
47:39
Speaker 2: act has passed, many scientists working in the field were overjoyed,
47:43
Speaker 2: and they quote Professor Jonathan Napier saying, I thought, great,
47:49
Speaker 2: this is going to uncork a whole area of activity
47:51
Speaker 2: in the public and private sector. But he says his
47:54
Speaker 2: hopes were soon dished. The BBC reports for the law
47:56
Speaker 2: to come into effect. Secondary legislation was required in this
48:00
Speaker 2: was due to be passed by the Parliament this July.
48:02
Speaker 1: That was before the election.
48:05
Speaker 2: But earlier, but the earlier than it's sorry that was
48:08
Speaker 2: after the election, but the earlier than expected election meant
48:11
Speaker 2: that this was not voted on by MPs and the
48:13
Speaker 2: Act is currently in limbo. So the Precision Breeding Act,
48:16
Speaker 2: as the BBC calls it, and I have to say
48:19
Speaker 2: Charles called it the last time you mentioned it as well,
48:23
Speaker 2: is what it's known as. But I wonder why it
48:25
Speaker 2: has been called that, because of course in doing that
48:28
Speaker 2: they removed or they don't make the point that the
48:30
Speaker 2: words precision breeding were in brackets and genetic technology has
48:34
Speaker 2: been effectively removed from.
48:36
Speaker 1: The title, and.
48:38
Speaker 2: Perhaps that's for reasons that they don't want to highlight
48:42
Speaker 2: the genetic aspect of this. But I just wanted to
48:44
Speaker 2: remind everybody what this piece of legislation does and should
48:49
Speaker 2: it get the secondary legislation passed, which the Libor government
48:53
Speaker 2: regime has said that it will do. It removes plants
48:56
Speaker 2: and animals produced and this again is the governments typo
49:00
Speaker 2: in this case remove plants and animals produced through precision breeding.
49:04
Speaker 2: Technologies from regulatory requirements applicable in England to the environmental
49:09
Speaker 2: release and marketing of genetically modified organisms. Introduced two notification systems,
49:14
Speaker 2: one for precision bread organisms used for research purposes and
49:18
Speaker 2: the other for marketing purposes. The government collected will be
49:22
Speaker 2: the information collector will be published on the public register
49:25
Speaker 2: on gov dot UK. Well, that hasn't happened because the
49:28
Speaker 2: secondary legislation hasn't been passed yet established proportionate regulatory system
49:32
Speaker 2: for precision bread animals to ensure animal welfare safeguarded. We
49:36
Speaker 2: will not be introducing changes to the regulations for animals
49:39
Speaker 2: until this system is in place, and finally establish a
49:43
Speaker 2: new science based authorization process for food and feed products
49:48
Speaker 2: derived from using precision bread plants and animals again using
49:53
Speaker 2: gene editing. And so the question is are we replacing
50:00
Speaker 2: food production on farmland, whether that be orable food production
50:04
Speaker 2: or animals with food production in factories and labs and
50:08
Speaker 2: so on. I see that that is the direction of travel,
50:11
Speaker 2: and therefore we've got to be aware of that and
50:14
Speaker 2: making sure that this secondary legislation never gets past Charles
50:18
Speaker 2: back to you on more countryside news.
50:23
Speaker 4: Thanks mate.
50:24
Speaker 3: Yes, of course farming being but one economic activity that
50:27
Speaker 3: takes place in the countryside. The Labor manifesto from this
50:31
Speaker 3: year has said that under animal welfare considerations or concerns
50:36
Speaker 3: they are going to improve the situation and they say
50:39
Speaker 3: they will ban trail hunting and the import of hunting trophies. Now,
50:45
Speaker 3: this of course is an extension effectively of the Blair
50:49
Speaker 3: era Hunting Act of two thousand and four, which came
50:51
Speaker 3: into effect as a ban in two thousand and five.
50:54
Speaker 3: Regardless of your views on the practice of hunting, the
51:00
Speaker 3: situation at hand is that trail hunting has effectively replaced
51:05
Speaker 3: hunting with dogs. There were exemptions for stalking or flashing
51:09
Speaker 3: wild animals effectively to prevent damage to livestock, feed crops, timber, etc.
51:14
Speaker 3: Or to obtain meat for human or animal consumption, or
51:17
Speaker 3: to participate in a field trial, but essentially that was
51:20
Speaker 3: with a restriction to working with only two dogs and
51:23
Speaker 3: not working underground, So of course it was effectively impossible
51:27
Speaker 3: to actually continue to hunt.
51:29
Speaker 4: Now.
51:29
Speaker 3: Even the Guardian at the time back in two thousand
51:32
Speaker 3: and four, Jeffrey Wheatcroft writing here George or on hunting
51:35
Speaker 3: is a sop to MPs for war war in Iraq
51:37
Speaker 3: and I think it is worth just going back and
51:39
Speaker 3: having a look over some of the things that were
51:41
Speaker 3: being said at the time. Short of improbable developments in
51:44
Speaker 3: the courts, fox hunting will become illegal in England on Friday.
51:47
Speaker 3: Many people reading this will no doubt be pleased, but
51:50
Speaker 3: I suggest that the left might pause before gloating and
51:53
Speaker 3: wipe any smiles off their face. This is a very
51:55
Speaker 3: nasty piece of political work, indeed, and what it says
51:58
Speaker 3: about the Labour Party is truly horrible for those who
52:01
Speaker 3: don't know the figures. By the way, more than seven
52:04
Speaker 3: hundred hours of parliamentary time were devoted to the hunting ban,
52:07
Speaker 3: as against seven hours spent on the decision to invade Iraq,
52:12
Speaker 3: a comparison that sums up the way we are governed now.
52:15
Speaker 3: I would absolutely agree with that statement. Then, and now
52:20
Speaker 3: to go back to the practice of trail hunting, which
52:22
Speaker 3: effectively came into being after the ban on fox hunting.
52:27
Speaker 3: This is a statement from the British Hound Sports Association
52:29
Speaker 3: just to define what it is, but specifically the concerns
52:34
Speaker 3: on the other side of the argument, effectively, which are
52:37
Speaker 3: that animals do still get chased and that the Hound
52:41
Speaker 3: Association stating here, if the hones pick up the center
52:43
Speaker 3: of a live quarry, the huntsmen and other members of
52:46
Speaker 3: the staff stop the hounds as soon as they are
52:48
Speaker 3: made aware that the hones are no longer following a
52:51
Speaker 3: trail that has been laid. Okay, that is somewhat questionable
52:53
Speaker 3: because there does seem to be a significant degree of
52:55
Speaker 3: evidence suggests that doesn't always turn out like that. Nonetheless,
52:58
Speaker 3: they go on due to the spurious allegations from our
53:01
Speaker 3: opponents that hunts are not trail hunting. The presence of
53:05
Speaker 3: saboteurs is trying to intentionally disrupt the legal activities. Hunts
53:09
Speaker 3: record and keep evidence of their trail lane and files.
53:12
Speaker 3: Files are kept of the day's activities. Now, as I
53:16
Speaker 3: said at the start, effectively this concerns what goes on
53:19
Speaker 3: in the economic situation or the economic dimension of the
53:23
Speaker 3: rural environment. So if this is of interest to you,
53:26
Speaker 3: then the British Hounsports Association is having a National Trail
53:29
Speaker 3: Hunting Day this Saturday, the fourteenth of September. But the principle,
53:35
Speaker 3: of course is that the government is proposing to do
53:38
Speaker 3: away with an activity that provides a significant economic contribution
53:43
Speaker 3: to the rural environment. And here we have the Countryside
53:45
Speaker 3: Alliance a couple of years ago having a sort of
53:49
Speaker 3: look back at what happened back in two thousand and four,
53:52
Speaker 3: and an interesting remark by Tim Bonner has written for
53:55
Speaker 3: the Countryside Alliance saying I'm asked at least once a
53:58
Speaker 3: week and have been for the past twenty years, when
54:00
Speaker 3: are we going to march again? And my answer is
54:03
Speaker 3: we need a moment now. To me, this is an
54:07
Speaker 3: interesting remark and a strange way to look at things,
54:10
Speaker 3: because I would perceive that, in fact, the Royal environment
54:13
Speaker 3: has been under attack from successive governments for an awfully
54:16
Speaker 3: long time. And I wrote to the Countryside Alliance last
54:20
Speaker 3: year on exactly this principle to effectively ask why they.
54:23
Speaker 4: Didn't challenge the.
54:26
Speaker 3: COVID restrictions due to their banner of liberty and livelihood.
54:31
Speaker 3: And I wrote as part of a longer email in
54:33
Speaker 3: twenty twenty and beyond, when a divisive and underdemocratic campaign
54:37
Speaker 3: to destroy almost all of the British economy under the
54:39
Speaker 3: falsehood of a public health emergency, the Countryside Alliance remained
54:43
Speaker 3: silent and their reply was that the COVID pandemic and
54:47
Speaker 3: subsequent policies put in place was not an area the
54:50
Speaker 3: Countryside Alliance had expertise in, so it was only right
54:54
Speaker 3: that we left the debate and discussions to those more qualified.
54:57
Speaker 3: They went on to say, I appreciate you are concerned
54:59
Speaker 3: about state control and being monitored and tracked, but our
55:02
Speaker 3: campaigns reflect the concerns of our members and this is
55:07
Speaker 3: not an issue that is on their agenda for the
55:09
Speaker 3: Countryside Alliance to campaign on. Well, without wanting to have
55:13
Speaker 3: too much of a pop at the Countryside Alliance or
55:15
Speaker 3: their membership, I would say that they are staggeringly naive
55:19
Speaker 3: and very very shortsighted not to have seen this coming,
55:22
Speaker 3: for they are in a terrible predicament now. And this
55:25
Speaker 3: was encapsulated in a letter I saw in the back
55:28
Speaker 3: of the program from the amazing Frampton Fair of this year.
55:33
Speaker 3: It's a picture of a huntsman with a letter written
55:36
Speaker 3: on his back, which I'll read out, which is, Dear labor,
55:38
Speaker 3: what will you do with the homes no longer used?
55:41
Speaker 3: What will you do with the horses? What jobs and
55:43
Speaker 3: houses will you find for thousands of those in hunt service?
55:46
Speaker 3: Will you collect the dead stock from farmers? Will you
55:49
Speaker 3: support the local pubs and shops? No longer seeing the
55:52
Speaker 3: benefit of hunt events and hunting folk. Will you support
55:55
Speaker 3: the farriers with no work? Will you fix fences, plant
55:58
Speaker 3: hedges and trees, provide a community who helps one another
56:02
Speaker 3: in any situation. No, you won't, And that is the
56:06
Speaker 3: bottom line here. The government are not suggesting any kind
56:09
Speaker 3: of economic alternative to this, and yet they're banging the
56:12
Speaker 3: drum about animal welfare. So, just to remind you, as
56:14
Speaker 3: a concluding remark, under the guidance on home slaughter, we
56:18
Speaker 3: have a passage here on stunning animals before killing, which
56:21
Speaker 3: is a requirement according to their guidance. It is a
56:24
Speaker 3: requirement in law, and specifically they say, if you kill
56:27
Speaker 3: an animal to eat on your property, you must know
56:29
Speaker 3: how to restrain, stun and kill the animals humanly and
56:32
Speaker 3: quickly to avoid causing the animal any avoidable pain, to
56:36
Speaker 3: stress or suffering. However, slaughter without stunning, in accordance with
56:41
Speaker 3: religious rights can only take place in an approved slaughterhouse.
56:45
Speaker 3: So for the government to suggest that they are intending
56:47
Speaker 3: to improve animal welfare at the same time as having
56:50
Speaker 3: guidance and policy and legislation that quite clearly has a
56:55
Speaker 3: very sort of at least flexible line on where it's at.
57:00
Speaker 3: The animal welfare is perceived to be is hypocrisy in
57:05
Speaker 3: the highest order, and they haven't considered the economic ramifications
57:08
Speaker 3: of what they're planning to do. So I would just
57:10
Speaker 3: encourage people to think about exactly what this is and
57:13
Speaker 3: put to one side the actual practice of trail hunting itself.
57:17
Speaker 1: Charles, thank you for that.
57:19
Speaker 2: Now, last week we were talking about digital ID, and
57:23
Speaker 2: in EXTRA we talked about the new regulations that are
57:28
Speaker 2: in place for getting if you're a British citizen and
57:31
Speaker 2: want to travel to the EU. So let's just play
57:35
Speaker 2: a little excerpt from EXTRA last week. The other thing
57:40
Speaker 2: I wanted to mention with hers following on from the
57:42
Speaker 2: digital ID segment. There, you'll all be glad to know
57:46
Speaker 2: that the formal announcement is out, so the government press release.
57:50
Speaker 2: I'll just read it to you.
57:51
Speaker 1: You'll love it.
57:52
Speaker 2: From Autumn twenty twenty four, the EU will be introducing
57:55
Speaker 2: a new digital border system to strengthen the security of
57:58
Speaker 2: its external sheed border. The new registration process, called the
58:02
Speaker 2: Entry Exit System or EES for short.
58:05
Speaker 1: There you go.
58:06
Speaker 2: That's good stuff, is expected to be introduced in November. However,
58:09
Speaker 2: the EU has yet to confirm specific date for his introduction.
58:13
Speaker 2: It will apply those traveling to the Shengen Area, which
58:15
Speaker 2: encompasses all EU countries except from Cyprus and Ireland. Additionally,
58:20
Speaker 2: the non EU states Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Lichtenstein are
58:25
Speaker 2: also part of the Shengen Area. This will require most
58:28
Speaker 2: citizens of countries outside the EU to create a digital
58:31
Speaker 2: record and register their biometric details, such as providing fingerprints
58:35
Speaker 2: and having their photo taken as they enter of the
58:38
Speaker 2: Shengen Area. This should only take a few minutes for
58:41
Speaker 2: each person to do. British travelers will need to do
58:44
Speaker 2: this on their first visit to the EU. After EES
58:47
Speaker 2: is introduced, their records will be checked on point of
58:50
Speaker 2: entry into the Shengen Area, verifying either their.
58:53
Speaker 1: Fingerprints or photographs. So there you go.
58:57
Speaker 2: Digital ID will if you refuse to take part, will
59:01
Speaker 2: prevent you going to France, Germany or any other Schngen country.
59:07
Speaker 2: I did receive an email from somebody suggesting that perhaps
59:10
Speaker 2: it was voluntary. It is absolutely not voluntary. But don't
59:14
Speaker 2: worry if you think it's unfair that British people British
59:17
Speaker 2: citizens have to do this going to the EU. It
59:20
Speaker 2: works both ways and Britain has its own similar scheme.
59:24
Speaker 1: It's not called the EEES.
59:26
Speaker 2: Such a brilliant acronym, but it's called the Electronic Travel
59:30
Speaker 2: Authorization and there's an app that you can get from
59:32
Speaker 2: the App Store or from the play Store if you're
59:34
Speaker 2: on Android. And so anyone willing to wishing to travel
59:38
Speaker 2: to the UK, except British and Irish citizens will need
59:41
Speaker 2: permission to travel in advance of coming here, and this
59:45
Speaker 2: can be either through an ETA or an eVisa. So
59:49
Speaker 2: they are confirming that from the twenty seventh of November
59:52
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, eligible non Europeans can apply for an ETA,
59:56
Speaker 2: and we'll need an ETA to travel from the eighth
59:58
Speaker 2: of January twenty twenty five. EAS will then extend eligible
1:00:01
Speaker 2: Europeans from the fifth of March twenty twenty five and
1:00:04
Speaker 2: will need an ETA to travel from the second of
1:00:06
Speaker 2: April twenty twenty five. So the digital id regime moves
1:00:11
Speaker 2: on a piers. I'm sure we'll be talking a little
1:00:14
Speaker 2: bit more about that as well. In Extra Charles. Let's
1:00:17
Speaker 2: just end then with.
1:00:20
Speaker 3: A government contract, Yes, a government contract of some note.
1:00:27
Speaker 3: Now we're all scratching our heads along with SAKIA. A
1:00:30
Speaker 3: few weeks ago when he discovered there was a great
1:00:32
Speaker 3: big black hole in the economy or in something, and
1:00:36
Speaker 3: looking at the government contracts finder, I was extremely surprised
1:00:42
Speaker 3: to see that there is a contract out at the
1:00:44
Speaker 3: moment for facilities management and security services to the value
1:00:48
Speaker 3: of one hundred and twenty billion pounds. Yes, you did
1:00:52
Speaker 3: read that correctly.
1:00:53
Speaker 4: And so did I.
1:00:55
Speaker 3: They have gone to say that it's sorry, just trying
1:00:59
Speaker 3: to make the thing go for The Grand Commercial Service
1:01:01
Speaker 3: intends to put in place a pan government collaborative agreement
1:01:04
Speaker 3: for the provision of facilities management and security services to
1:01:08
Speaker 3: be utilized by central government departments and all other UK
1:01:11
Speaker 3: public sector bodies including local authorities, health, police, fire and rescue,
1:01:15
Speaker 3: education and devolved administrations. Now, admittedly this is over a
1:01:19
Speaker 3: number of years, but it is an eye watering figure
1:01:22
Speaker 3: and when we can consider the question of what is
1:01:24
Speaker 3: government for and how much do we need it, this
1:01:27
Speaker 3: is one such statistic that really does make one think.
1:01:30
Speaker 4: That little bit more about it.
1:01:32
Speaker 3: And also I should say that with the vast parts
1:01:35
Speaker 3: of the former defense estate now being used for asylum seekers,
1:01:39
Speaker 3: refugees and perhaps prisoners, I wonder if that might explain
1:01:43
Speaker 3: why there are quite so many zeros on the end
1:01:45
Speaker 3: of that figure.
1:01:47
Speaker 2: Yes, indeed, I wadering as you say. Thank you Charles,
1:01:50
Speaker 2: thank you Vanessa for joining us as well. Thank you
1:01:52
Speaker 2: all for watching. We'll be back in a few minutes
1:01:55
Speaker 2: for some extra if you're a UK Golan member. If
1:01:58
Speaker 2: you're not, don't forget the end. You at one pm
1:02:00
Speaker 2: tomorrow and we'll be back with more news at one
1:02:03
Speaker 2: pm on Friday.
1:02:04
Speaker 1: We'll see you then, Bye bye.