Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 8th July 2026

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UK Column News — 8th July 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon.
0:08
Speaker 2: It's Wednesday, the Hits of July twenty twenty sixth, just
0:10
Speaker 2: after one o'clock. Welcome to the UK Called News. I'm
0:12
Speaker 2: your host Mike Robinson joining me in the studio today.
0:15
Speaker 2: I'm delighted to say is Basil Valentine. Welcome to the program. Basil,
0:18
Speaker 2: thank you, Mike. Great to be here. And by video
0:20
Speaker 2: link we have Vanessa, Billy and I Letter in the program.
0:22
Speaker 2: We're going to have news from the NATTLE Summit, the
0:24
Speaker 2: continuing roll out of live facial recognition in the UK,
0:28
Speaker 2: and we're going to be joined by Lord Sega to
0:30
Speaker 2: discuss life under Burnham. I will also have an update
0:33
Speaker 2: on Albert Systems. We're going to begin today, of course
0:37
Speaker 2: with Nigel Farage because as everybody will know by Nigel
0:40
Speaker 2: Farage has sorry has thrown his toys out of the
0:45
Speaker 2: premed so to speak. He's clearly believed that he needed
0:47
Speaker 2: to come out swinging and so yesterday, after a round
0:50
Speaker 2: of quarter Pass two, he live streamed and impassioned presentation
0:54
Speaker 2: in which he claimed he was the most attacked man
0:56
Speaker 2: in British politics and in which the announced his decision
0:59
Speaker 2: to resign as an MP and let people decide. I
1:03
Speaker 2: framed this as the people versus the establishment, and we'll
1:06
Speaker 2: come back to that in a moment or two. But
1:09
Speaker 2: the effort was immediately branded a political stunt, and it
1:14
Speaker 2: has to be said that even Reform MPs were admitting
1:16
Speaker 2: that it was exactly that. So here is Sarah Pochin
1:21
Speaker 2: from on yesterday's Really A four Today program.
1:26
Speaker 3: He gains the mandate, that is, the vote and support
1:29
Speaker 3: of the British people and the residents of Clacton. And
1:33
Speaker 3: if the other parties want to pull their own stunt
1:37
Speaker 3: by not fielding candidates, what does that tell us? It
1:40
Speaker 3: tells us that they're running scared, that they are scared
1:43
Speaker 3: of Reform UK, and that they are scared of being
1:46
Speaker 3: held account by the British people.
1:50
Speaker 2: So she is clearly labeling the subsequent news that the
1:53
Speaker 2: main political parties would not stand in this by election
1:57
Speaker 2: as their own political stunt, very much tindericating that she
2:01
Speaker 2: viewed what for I should done as a political stunt.
2:04
Speaker 4: Oh, undoubtedly, I mean tremendous publicity stunt. But the other
2:08
Speaker 4: parties have really done a Judo flip and pulled the
2:11
Speaker 4: rug out from under him. If you don't mind my
2:13
Speaker 4: mixed metaphor, because he's now going to be standing it
2:17
Speaker 4: seems only against count Binface, who's in fact the comedian
2:22
Speaker 4: John Harvey, and possibly other novelty candidates. So the whole
2:26
Speaker 4: thing's descended into total face.
2:28
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
2:29
Speaker 2: We'll come on to that in a second, but let's
2:31
Speaker 2: just first of all, have a look at one section
2:33
Speaker 2: of the speech which stood at as being particularly angry.
2:37
Speaker 2: Let's just have a listen to this.
2:40
Speaker 5: Well, the new attack from the media is that somehow
2:42
Speaker 5: I am a crook, I am dishonest. He has another
2:45
Speaker 5: reason to hate me. Commentators over the weekend have said, oh,
2:50
Speaker 5: look at the interviews Nigel's doing. He's not himself, he's
2:53
Speaker 5: getting angry. Well, here's why. For some reason last week
3:00
Speaker 5: the editor of The Times newspaper decided to publish a
3:03
Speaker 5: picture of where my daughter lives. There is no public
3:09
Speaker 5: interest in my daughter whatsoever. She is not involved in
3:12
Speaker 5: current affairs, doesn't seek to be involved in current affairs,
3:16
Speaker 5: and has never been used by me once at any
3:19
Speaker 5: point in my political career, no photographs on election addresses
3:23
Speaker 5: or anything like that. I've always done my absolute best
3:27
Speaker 5: to protect the privacy and safety of my family. By
3:34
Speaker 5: publishing that photograph. The editor of the Times has directly
3:37
Speaker 5: threatened her security. I wonder what happened to the Levison
3:42
Speaker 5: inquiry of years ago, an inquiry that sought to bring
3:45
Speaker 5: better balance between what the press could do and families
3:49
Speaker 5: of those in public life. Worse still, she now has
3:53
Speaker 5: broadcasters haranguing at Sky News, well one of them, and
3:58
Speaker 5: when I question them on it, they will fully and
4:00
Speaker 5: deliberately lied and said on their channel that they hadn't
4:05
Speaker 5: contacted the family.
4:07
Speaker 6: Will.
4:07
Speaker 5: Let me be clear, I will not tolerate intimidation of
4:12
Speaker 5: my family. I will not tolerate the location of where
4:16
Speaker 5: they live being revealed. I will not tolerate any of
4:20
Speaker 5: my family being endangered because of what I choose to
4:23
Speaker 5: do in public life. So yes, you can ask, am
4:28
Speaker 5: I angry? Well, I've never been angrier in my life.
4:33
Speaker 5: I'm always pretty upset with the behavior of this labor government.
4:39
Speaker 2: So a few points to be me at her. First
4:41
Speaker 2: of all, it wasn't that, you know, he's busy accusing
4:44
Speaker 2: Sky of wilful lying and I'm not.
4:46
Speaker 1: I don't know whether.
4:47
Speaker 2: He's wilfully lying in that statement there. But first of all,
4:50
Speaker 2: it wasn't the Times or Sky News who docks the
4:53
Speaker 2: house that his daughter is living in. He did, he
4:56
Speaker 2: was photographed. I'd sided on a number of occasions. Here's
4:58
Speaker 2: one example. If we put that on screen, and although
5:01
Speaker 2: the car number plate was hidden in this case, the
5:04
Speaker 2: house number was not, because this is one of the
5:07
Speaker 2: houses that he owned. So the second point then is
5:09
Speaker 2: he's claiming that his daughter has nothing whatever to do
5:11
Speaker 2: with his political life, yet she seems to be benefiting
5:14
Speaker 2: from it because she's living in his house. Now, surely
5:17
Speaker 2: if he really wanted to protect her privacy, he wouldn't
5:20
Speaker 2: be putting her in a property so much associated with him.
5:25
Speaker 2: I think the use of his daughter in this way
5:27
Speaker 2: was particularly cynical. And then, thirdly, if he is a
5:31
Speaker 2: man of principle, why is he not invoking the name
5:34
Speaker 2: of Levison and Levison's inquiry and the press standards when
5:38
Speaker 2: at the time he was absolutely claiming that the Levison
5:41
Speaker 2: Inquiry in this article from twenty eighteen, I think it
5:44
Speaker 2: was was an attack on the freedom of the press
5:47
Speaker 2: which had to be opposed. So it seems that Farage
5:50
Speaker 2: is only a man of principle when it suits him.
5:53
Speaker 2: Robert Jenrick then was the first man who was rolled
5:55
Speaker 2: out to defend Forage's strategy, and of course it had
6:00
Speaker 2: to be him because he just realized that it backed
6:03
Speaker 2: the wrong Basil. I think the response from the main parties,
6:07
Speaker 2: as we've just mentioned, was absolutely predictable, and it says
6:11
Speaker 2: a lot about farajen as advisers that he clearly hadn't
6:14
Speaker 2: considered the possibility that they would all pull out, because
6:18
Speaker 2: as we've just mentioned, all the parties have announce they
6:21
Speaker 2: will not stand against them, which makes as Basil's mentioned,
6:24
Speaker 2: this by election a complete sham and gives Kuint binfiz
6:28
Speaker 2: here a serious chance. Well, is it a serious chance
6:31
Speaker 2: of becoming an MP? I think it is a serious
6:34
Speaker 2: chance because by the look of social media, as we'll
6:37
Speaker 2: see in a second, there's clearly a campaign building to
6:41
Speaker 2: try to get Kunt Binfas elected. But we'll see how
6:43
Speaker 2: that pans out. Why do I say that this was predictable, Well,
6:47
Speaker 2: I realized it's nearly twenty years ago. But when David
6:49
Speaker 2: Davis resigned following a hust Commons vote on the Counter
6:52
Speaker 2: Terrorism Build, which was aiming to extend the maximum attention
6:56
Speaker 2: for terror suspects without charge from twenty eight days to
6:59
Speaker 2: forty two two days, none of the main parties would stand,
7:02
Speaker 2: even though I would suggest this was a genuine statement
7:05
Speaker 2: of principle from David Davis at the time. People have
7:08
Speaker 2: short memories, or maybe they're not quite the sharpest tools
7:12
Speaker 2: in the box. I'm not quite sure which that is.
7:14
Speaker 2: But the social media response on the reform on social
7:18
Speaker 2: media channels has been overwhelmingly negative. There's deep skepticism of
7:23
Speaker 2: the framing of this by election as people versus the establishment,
7:27
Speaker 2: with people making comments like this privately educated, former merchant banker,
7:32
Speaker 2: owner of multiple properties, recipient of gifts of millions, which
7:36
Speaker 2: part of the established establishment is nig baby not part
7:40
Speaker 2: of much as the criticism of his performance as an
7:44
Speaker 2: MP has also been on social media. Here's one example,
7:49
Speaker 2: and of course this one highlighting the fact that he
7:52
Speaker 2: has hardly been seen in his constituency since he was elected.
7:57
Speaker 2: Another example here with them highlighting the suggestion that he
8:03
Speaker 2: doesn't think Clacton is safe enough to hold a surgery.
8:07
Speaker 2: So then we've got lots of mickey taking this one
8:12
Speaker 2: saying mister Faes, do you ever think about Clacton, and
8:15
Speaker 2: for I saying, well, yes I do. I think he's
8:17
Speaker 2: a superb guitarist and so on. This is right across
8:20
Speaker 2: social media. And then there's a question of whether, even
8:24
Speaker 2: if he is re elected, there would be a recall petition,
8:28
Speaker 2: and of course there would then have to be a
8:31
Speaker 2: further general, a further by election. Sorry, if the recall
8:34
Speaker 2: petition received ten percent of constituents votes, So where does
8:41
Speaker 2: that leave us battle, It really leaves us in the situation. Yes,
8:44
Speaker 2: this particular by election is going to be a farce,
8:47
Speaker 2: potentially a comedy show in phase, is going to be
8:50
Speaker 2: getting more media coverage than he's ever had in the past.
8:54
Speaker 2: But will Forage First of all, will he win?
8:58
Speaker 1: Second fall?
8:59
Speaker 2: Will he If he does, when will he remain as
9:01
Speaker 2: an MP for very long? Because of course the Standards
9:04
Speaker 2: Committee investigation hasn't gone away.
9:07
Speaker 4: Yes, I mean he's tried really to sort of grab
9:09
Speaker 4: hold of the narrative and put himself front and center
9:13
Speaker 4: stage as usual, but this one has backfired spectacularly. We
9:17
Speaker 4: were speculating in the office this morning that when he
9:20
Speaker 4: woke up he must have thought, what the.
9:22
Speaker 1: Hell have I done?
9:23
Speaker 4: I mean, he claimed yesterday that he hadn't broken any rules,
9:28
Speaker 4: certainly not any laws, but we now discover that he
9:32
Speaker 4: has actually been referred to a crime and policing unit
9:36
Speaker 4: for the five pounds he received because bankers think it
9:42
Speaker 4: might be launded money. So Labor Today had been calling
9:45
Speaker 4: on him to cooperate with the police regarding an ongoing
9:50
Speaker 4: investigation that's quite separate from the Common Standards Committee. They
9:54
Speaker 4: have their own investigation as to whether or not he
9:56
Speaker 4: broke any rules. And he's really this is all just
10:00
Speaker 4: delaying tactics. I mean, hoping to sort of score a
10:03
Speaker 4: big victory in Clacton and return to Parliament triumphant and
10:09
Speaker 4: then hopefully all this will melt away. But there's every
10:14
Speaker 4: chance he's going to be humiliated, believe it or not
10:17
Speaker 4: by the comedian John Harvey, also known as count in face.
10:22
Speaker 4: What makers give in face roughly a twenty percent chance
10:26
Speaker 4: of winning, which are a novelty candidate, is inordinately high.
10:31
Speaker 4: And if you really do want to stick two fingers
10:33
Speaker 4: up to the establishment, then in faces your man. Because
10:38
Speaker 4: as we all know, for our former commodity trader Wind
10:41
Speaker 4: yesterday about how having to serve as a member of
10:45
Speaker 4: the European Parliament for twenty years and collecting only one
10:48
Speaker 4: hundred thousand pounds plus expenses, Mike had made him immeasurably poorer,
10:52
Speaker 4: and we're all supposed to feel sorry for him. So
10:55
Speaker 4: it could well be that Bin Faces the man, you know,
10:59
Speaker 4: the baby boo us that will you know, doubtless turn
11:02
Speaker 4: out Farage in large numbers. I saw some vox pops
11:06
Speaker 4: yesterday from older voters, shall we say, in Clacton, who
11:10
Speaker 4: seemed willing to continue their support for him. But the
11:15
Speaker 4: way people have such disdain for politics and politicians these
11:20
Speaker 4: days may mean that the ultimate protest vote Binface actually
11:25
Speaker 4: becomes the MP for Clacton.
11:27
Speaker 2: The Ripard Lowe statement was pretty strong, strongly worded. He
11:35
Speaker 2: was absolutely you know, we might expect that a liberatory
11:39
Speaker 2: Greens and so on would stay out of this, but
11:41
Speaker 2: the Restore statement was pretty strongly worded that they just
11:45
Speaker 2: wanted nothing to do with this political stunt, and in
11:48
Speaker 2: fact stronger words than that.
11:51
Speaker 4: I was slightly surprised at that. I thought they might
11:53
Speaker 4: run against him from the right, you know, they ran
11:55
Speaker 4: in make a field against Burnham, and I thought that
11:59
Speaker 4: there was a chance Rupert low might think this is
12:01
Speaker 4: a chance to kill off Nigel Farage and you know,
12:06
Speaker 4: take control of the right of the conservative narrative in
12:10
Speaker 4: British politics and you know, score what would be would
12:14
Speaker 4: have been, you know, a really notable victory.
12:16
Speaker 1: But they've opted otherwise.
12:18
Speaker 2: Well because I think they think that all they have
12:20
Speaker 2: to do is sit back and with at this point,
12:21
Speaker 2: because they're busy committing collective suicide, yes exactly, and wheeling
12:27
Speaker 2: out the likes of Robert Jenrick to defend him.
12:31
Speaker 4: So all a Braverman and all these other failed Tory refugees.
12:35
Speaker 4: I mean, the idea that Rage and his gang are
12:38
Speaker 4: somehow anti establishments absolutely ludicrous. The only part of the
12:42
Speaker 4: establishment that he's pitied against really seems to be the
12:45
Speaker 4: press and the police.
12:48
Speaker 2: And just to finish off this segment, then, of course
12:50
Speaker 2: anybody that's you know, in any diet about where Fari
12:55
Speaker 2: stands with respect to establishment narratives, he was determined at
12:58
Speaker 2: the end of his presentation to make sure we all
13:01
Speaker 2: understood where he is on the Ukraine War and his
13:05
Speaker 2: position with Russia. So nothing different there. And so having
13:12
Speaker 2: said that, then let's just have a look at the
13:14
Speaker 2: NATO summit. So here we are, the thirty sixth NATO
13:18
Speaker 2: Summit is taking place well yesterday and today in Angra
13:21
Speaker 2: in Turkey. Now on screen you can see the welcome
13:23
Speaker 2: laid out for Trump and notably different, by the way,
13:27
Speaker 2: for that laid on for the other leaders of NATO countries.
13:32
Speaker 2: Secretary General Mark Ruder set three core priorities for this event.
13:36
Speaker 2: That's raising the money of course that they need, boosting
13:40
Speaker 2: transatlantic defense, industrial production, and supporting Ukraine. Those were the
13:44
Speaker 2: three things. On spending, of course, we all know that
13:47
Speaker 2: there's a commitment to spend three and a half percent
13:49
Speaker 2: of GDP by twenty thirty five, plus another one and
13:52
Speaker 2: a half percent on other broader security issues infrastructure, resilience
13:57
Speaker 2: and the so called industrial base. Nai Ruda said that
14:01
Speaker 2: European allies in Canada are no average ig around four
14:05
Speaker 2: percent of GDP on defense and security, and he was
14:08
Speaker 2: saying that this was sharply up and he said that
14:12
Speaker 2: European allies in Canada had added one hundred and thirty
14:14
Speaker 2: nine billion dollars in core defense investment in twenty twenty five.
14:18
Speaker 2: But the reality is that only five NATO members are
14:21
Speaker 2: projected to hit the three and a half percent core
14:23
Speaker 2: defense mark in twenty twenty six, and that's according to
14:27
Speaker 2: data that NATO released just before the summit, and NATO
14:31
Speaker 2: members are being pressed to submit annual plans to reach
14:34
Speaker 2: that target. Trump said he was very, very disappointed with
14:38
Speaker 2: NATO yesterday. He was complaining about European spending. He was
14:41
Speaker 2: complaining about the Russia Ukraine War, and of course he
14:45
Speaker 2: was Greenland was right front and center of the narrative
14:49
Speaker 2: once again, bus all as he was trying to demand
14:52
Speaker 2: that that island is handed over to the United States.
14:56
Speaker 2: It remains to be seen what happens in the course
14:59
Speaker 2: of today on the issue of Iran. This is what
15:02
Speaker 2: he had to say for Vanessa will correct me in
15:04
Speaker 2: a second, but I believe this is this morning.
15:06
Speaker 1: So let's just have listened to.
15:07
Speaker 7: This questions fire over? Is he fire down? Is the
15:13
Speaker 7: IMO you dead?
15:16
Speaker 8: It's a very interesting question to me. I think it's over.
15:22
Speaker 8: I don't want to deal with him with this gum.
15:24
Speaker 8: You know what scum is. There's gum, there's sick people.
15:27
Speaker 8: They're led by sick people, and they're vicious, violent people.
15:34
Speaker 2: Vanessa, let me welcome to the program. Who exactly or
15:38
Speaker 2: which country is being led by sick people?
15:42
Speaker 9: Oh well, I think everybody can respond to that, but
15:45
Speaker 9: certainly Trump heads it up. The whole Epstein class cabal
15:51
Speaker 9: just extraordinary really that the head of the most powerful
15:55
Speaker 9: nation in the world is able to publicly come out
15:58
Speaker 9: with a statement like that. It's it's a reflection of
16:01
Speaker 9: where we are in the world these days. Horrifying actually.
16:06
Speaker 9: But I'm still focusing very much on this NATO summit,
16:11
Speaker 9: and I refer people to the conversation that Mike and
16:14
Speaker 9: I had which is up at the UK column website
16:18
Speaker 9: Syria Podcast episode eleven, where I talk about the build
16:22
Speaker 9: up of forces by Jolani, of course in service to
16:26
Speaker 9: Washington and Tel Aviv, but also again with the help
16:29
Speaker 9: of special forces from Ukraine that are gathering in the
16:33
Speaker 9: coastal areas of Syria but also to the west of Alapa. Now,
16:38
Speaker 9: during that conversation, I predicted that Trump would huddle together
16:44
Speaker 9: with Jolani and Zelenski and that pressure would be brought
16:47
Speaker 9: to bear upon Turkey and particularly Erduwan, because effectively, what
16:52
Speaker 9: Erduwan is trying to do is to blackmail Jolani, Washington
16:57
Speaker 9: and Tel Aviv by saying, my proxy for that form
17:01
Speaker 9: part of Jolani's strikeforce are not going to take part
17:05
Speaker 9: unless effectively I can have guarantees that I will maintain
17:09
Speaker 9: dominance and influence in northern Lebanon if and when we
17:14
Speaker 9: intervene to defeat Hesbola, because Israel has been palpably unable
17:19
Speaker 9: to do so. And so what did we actually see
17:22
Speaker 9: in the last two days. We saw a prediction of
17:25
Speaker 9: a meeting between Trump, Celenski, andre Lani, and as I said,
17:29
Speaker 9: Burring and mind Selenski and Ukraine. In other words, NATO
17:32
Speaker 9: are supplying many of the weapons that Julani now has,
17:35
Speaker 9: and again providing the drone technology and support for Jolani
17:40
Speaker 9: and this potential strikeforce. So let's just listen to Trump
17:44
Speaker 9: speaking in front of President Berdowan.
17:50
Speaker 10: Because of the President, you know, we have a very
17:53
Speaker 10: good relationship with the new leader of Syria, and he's
17:57
Speaker 10: done an amazing job and a year and a half
17:59
Speaker 10: he's pulled the whole country together. And I have a
18:02
Speaker 10: very great relationship with them.
18:03
Speaker 1: And somebody said, well, it's pretty row to put him there.
18:06
Speaker 10: I approved him along with the President were the two
18:09
Speaker 10: that really wanted him. And he's done a great job.
18:12
Speaker 4: He's done a great job.
18:13
Speaker 7: He's pull it together.
18:19
Speaker 9: And President Duwan looking remarkably like a ventriloquist stummy there.
18:23
Speaker 9: But nevertheless, Trump began his buttering up of Duwan in
18:27
Speaker 9: this initial statement, and as they said, this was actually
18:31
Speaker 9: reported in multiple media outlets. I just picked up the
18:35
Speaker 9: South China Morning post. Trump to meet leaders of Ukraine
18:38
Speaker 9: and Syria at the Turkey NATO summit. And then if
18:42
Speaker 9: we move on, of course, what else has been going
18:45
Speaker 9: on in the last few days, So Syria and deurch
18:48
Speaker 9: to discuss bolstering border control and combating smuggling. Of course,
18:52
Speaker 9: you can cross out the combating smuggling because the mercenaries
18:56
Speaker 9: that are effectively comprising the strikeforce of July are mercenaries
19:01
Speaker 9: and therefore they will allow weapons to cross Syria provided
19:05
Speaker 9: they're paid to do so. But what this is all about,
19:08
Speaker 9: of course, the threats from the Iraqi resistance actors like
19:12
Speaker 9: a taypos Bula and the PMU that if Julani does
19:17
Speaker 9: intervene in Lubanon there will be an attack from Iraq,
19:20
Speaker 9: including the seventy thousand odd Syrian Arab Ami soldiers who
19:25
Speaker 9: left Syria back in December twenty twenty four and have
19:28
Speaker 9: since been harbored in Iraq by the resistance actors there.
19:32
Speaker 9: There has also been concerted efforts by Washington to force
19:37
Speaker 9: the Iraqi government to disarm what is described here as militious,
19:43
Speaker 9: but of course they are non state, non state resistance
19:47
Speaker 9: actors in who act against ISIS and al Qaeda supported
19:52
Speaker 9: by the US, but also are there in support of
19:56
Speaker 9: Iran and the entire resistance access. Now those resistance actors
20:02
Speaker 9: have said they will attack Siria, so of course there
20:05
Speaker 9: is this concerted effort by Washington to protect their assets,
20:10
Speaker 9: which are effectively Jolani and his forces, and then also
20:13
Speaker 9: to bring Uwan on board to form part of the strikeforce.
20:18
Speaker 9: Again we see here this kind of pivot towards being
20:22
Speaker 9: nice to Turkey because they need them right now. So
20:26
Speaker 9: here you have the Turkish Foreign Minister saying Turkey seeks
20:30
Speaker 9: to use the Duwan Trump ties to ease NOTO tensions.
20:35
Speaker 9: That's coming from Turkish FM Fidan, And basically Turkey is
20:40
Speaker 9: trying to position itself as the regional mediator, a role
20:45
Speaker 9: or rather an influence that it lost very much after
20:48
Speaker 9: Jolani was brought to power by six and CIA and Israel.
20:55
Speaker 9: And then finally this is quite interesting for me because
20:58
Speaker 9: again the July strikeforce is going to be in service
21:02
Speaker 9: to Israel because, as I've described in the conversation with
21:06
Speaker 9: Mike and myself. The border area between Syria and Lubanon
21:11
Speaker 9: is where has Blaw manufactures the majority of its weapons,
21:15
Speaker 9: where it has stored weapons that it had received previously
21:18
Speaker 9: from Syria, and where it stores its own missile arsenal.
21:22
Speaker 9: Israel is unable to bomb that area sufficiently because those
21:28
Speaker 9: manufacturing hubs and storage depots are deep beneath the granite
21:34
Speaker 9: of the mountains that separate Syria from Lubanon. They need
21:38
Speaker 9: a ground force to take control of that area, to
21:42
Speaker 9: enable Israel to enter those facilities and to destroy them,
21:46
Speaker 9: which of course will effectively seriously weaken has below now.
21:51
Speaker 9: Up until now, Israel has been very much against the
21:55
Speaker 9: US supplying F thirty five to Turkey. However, suddenly we
22:00
Speaker 9: see a bit of an about turn from I like
22:06
Speaker 9: so thank you from Yekiah later the Israeli ambassador to
22:11
Speaker 9: the US, who says, we don't believe Turkey should possess
22:14
Speaker 9: F thirty five aircraft. However, Israel understands that the US
22:19
Speaker 9: administration has a broader set of strategic considerations it must
22:23
Speaker 9: take into account when making the decision. So therefore they're saying, now, well,
22:28
Speaker 9: if America decides to do so, then we'll go along
22:31
Speaker 9: with it. So very interesting maneuvering going on right now.
22:35
Speaker 9: And it still seems that that strikeforce from Jilani is
22:39
Speaker 9: still poised to intervene in Lebanon at some point or
22:43
Speaker 9: on the borders.
22:45
Speaker 2: Yes, thank you for that, Vanessa. Just before we move on,
22:48
Speaker 2: the stem of the Trump made that we showed at
22:51
Speaker 2: the beginning of that segment where he was basically saying
22:53
Speaker 2: that the cease far with Iran is finished. Is that
22:57
Speaker 2: do you think timed with what's going on in Iran
23:00
Speaker 2: this week?
23:04
Speaker 9: Yeah, I mean I think you know, the July the
23:06
Speaker 9: fourth in the United States was completely overwhelmed by the
23:11
Speaker 9: images that we're seeing on social media covering the funeral
23:15
Speaker 9: of the Supreme Leader in Iran and now of course
23:18
Speaker 9: an Ira. So the bombing of Bandara Bas last night
23:23
Speaker 9: was the beginning of the end of the MoU as
23:26
Speaker 9: far as I can work out.
23:29
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, thank you for that. And I will be
23:30
Speaker 2: discussing more on the NATO summit on Friday with author
23:34
Speaker 2: and geopolitical analyst Naath Taylor, and so we'll have more
23:40
Speaker 2: on that on Friday. Okay, let's move on. Then, if
23:42
Speaker 2: you like what the UK con does. We do need
23:44
Speaker 2: your ongoing financial support. Head over to the website. You
23:47
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23:50
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23:56
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Speaker 2: on going support that we need to do what we're doing.
24:02
Speaker 2: But do pick up a copy of issue two of
24:05
Speaker 2: the Column and basil this is the first issue with
24:08
Speaker 2: some input from yourself.
24:10
Speaker 1: And not the last, I hope. Yes.
24:13
Speaker 4: I'm currently working on another article for the next edition,
24:16
Speaker 4: which will also form the basis of my talk at
24:21
Speaker 4: the event in September, very much looking forward to it,
24:24
Speaker 4: for which I'm borrowing the late great Ian Crane's title
24:30
Speaker 4: Humanity Versus Insanity. That's what he called his YouTube channel.
24:34
Speaker 4: So if you.
24:35
Speaker 2: Haven't picked up a ticket for the twentieth anniversary UK
24:38
Speaker 2: Column event in September, details also on the website, please
24:42
Speaker 2: do that. Tonight, Jerream is speaking to Ray mcgovernor. He
24:47
Speaker 2: is in the CIA for twenty seven years. I know
24:50
Speaker 2: Ray mcgoverny is very nice, gentlemen, and do join at
24:54
Speaker 2: seven pm for that and at nine pm Carl. We'll
24:57
Speaker 2: be discussing the question of whether the AI level is
25:00
Speaker 2: bursting tomorrow at one pm. Brian is speaking to Rebecca Manning. Sorry,
25:06
Speaker 2: yes to Rebecca Manning, and this is about relationships and
25:11
Speaker 2: sex education curriculum and whether or not that is going
25:14
Speaker 2: too far. Let's move on, then, basil to the question
25:19
Speaker 2: of Andy Burnham, our new great leader in Wadding. Perhaps yes,
25:25
Speaker 2: a bit like it with the eight Isn't he yet
25:28
Speaker 2: to be crowned? But it seems only a matter of
25:31
Speaker 2: time before he years. He's certainly got a lot on
25:33
Speaker 2: his plate and I'm delighted to say I'll be joined
25:36
Speaker 2: in a moment by Lord Premiseika, who sits in the
25:39
Speaker 2: House of Lords as a labor peer. These are one
25:43
Speaker 2: or two of the things that will be on in
25:48
Speaker 2: in Andy Burnham's inbox.
25:52
Speaker 1: Sorry first, yeah, okay, first of all. Seven.
25:57
Speaker 4: Almost no progress made on UK regional house income divide
26:01
Speaker 4: in thirty years, despite the promises of successive governments. The
26:05
Speaker 4: gap between Richester borest areas of the years has remained
26:08
Speaker 4: consistent since nineteen ninety seven. Meanwhile, it doesn't really matter
26:14
Speaker 4: if you're the CEO of seven Trent Water because your
26:17
Speaker 4: reward plan is rising to three point one million pounds.
26:23
Speaker 4: Absolutely extraordinary. It's a foot Sea one hundred company, which
26:27
Speaker 4: would seem to suggest that there was an element of
26:29
Speaker 4: competition involved or something, but we all know there isn't.
26:32
Speaker 4: It's long term incentive plan. There you go, you need
26:35
Speaker 4: an incentive for people to turn on their taps. I
26:39
Speaker 4: suppose is going to increase his pay from two hundred
26:42
Speaker 4: percent they said the four hundred percent absolutely extraordinary stuff.
26:48
Speaker 4: Jessic could receive as much as four point eight million
26:52
Speaker 4: pounds in a single year after salary, annual bonus, LTIP
26:57
Speaker 4: and benefits are counted. Meanwhile, over at Thames Water, creditors
27:03
Speaker 4: say they're going to bid for the company even if
27:05
Speaker 4: it's nationalized. One hundred investors are discussing a ten billion
27:09
Speaker 4: pound rescue proposals with officials from regulator off What now
27:15
Speaker 4: to discuss these?
27:16
Speaker 2: And no, we've got the video with Vandy Browne. Oh
27:19
Speaker 2: of course, so go ahead and introduce that long premises
27:22
Speaker 2: is joining us in a moment. But first, here's what
27:24
Speaker 2: Burnham had to say. This is his pitch for the
27:28
Speaker 2: top job.
27:30
Speaker 11: You can't go round pointing fingers when you haven't been
27:34
Speaker 11: good enough yourselves, and I would say that all politicians
27:38
Speaker 11: haven't been good enough yourself. Yeah, I would accept it.
27:41
Speaker 11: My generation of politicians, I think has failed in many
27:45
Speaker 11: ways in that the country isn't where it should be
27:48
Speaker 11: right now. The country needs lifting up, and at some
27:51
Speaker 11: point someone has to step forward and say you know
27:53
Speaker 11: what this does mean, practicing a different way of working
27:58
Speaker 11: doing and trying to bring people together in greater Manster.
28:01
Speaker 11: I've said place first, not party first, problem solving not
28:06
Speaker 11: point scoring, long term not short term, and I think
28:09
Speaker 11: those are three good principles to underpin British politics at
28:13
Speaker 11: a national level going forward.
28:17
Speaker 1: Right there we go.
28:18
Speaker 4: I'm delighted to say I'm joined to discuss these and
28:21
Speaker 4: other matters related to the British economy and what Andy
28:24
Speaker 4: Burnham might or might not be able to do about it.
28:27
Speaker 4: By Lord Prem Siker, who sits in the House of
28:30
Speaker 4: Lords as a labor peer. Welcome to the program, Praymer,
28:32
Speaker 4: It's great that you can be with us.
28:34
Speaker 7: Hello, good afternoon everyone.
28:37
Speaker 4: First of all, I just want to go back to
28:39
Speaker 4: Trump and the NATO summit and this commitment to spend
28:43
Speaker 4: more and more on defense, on weaponry effectively kiss starmers
28:48
Speaker 4: tried to sell it to the public as somehow beneficial
28:52
Speaker 4: to the economy. But it's economics one oh one prem
28:55
Speaker 4: isn't it. The military spending is the least effective way
28:59
Speaker 4: of refloating an economy.
29:01
Speaker 7: I think it's not only that. I mean you look
29:04
Speaker 7: at Britain. Britain effectively has been deindustrialized for the last
29:09
Speaker 7: forty to fifty years, and the weapons we buy, for example,
29:12
Speaker 7: the F thirty fives, they will come from the US.
29:16
Speaker 7: There is probably a thirty forty percent profit loading by
29:19
Speaker 7: the manufacturers, and if you compare that to France, which
29:23
Speaker 7: produces as own fighter jets such as Rafels, that profit
29:28
Speaker 7: margin effectively goes back to the state. So when Trump
29:32
Speaker 7: SA's countries should increase their defense spending, it affects different
29:39
Speaker 7: countries in different ways. If the UK buys more F
29:42
Speaker 7: thirty fives, that's not really going to add to our
29:45
Speaker 7: industrial base or create a lot of jobs. Though in
29:49
Speaker 7: principle I think that we need to revisit defense spending,
29:54
Speaker 7: but we need to make sure we get value for money,
29:57
Speaker 7: and that is a question which has not really been
30:00
Speaker 7: addressed at the moment in the UK.
30:03
Speaker 4: Yeah, you make a very good point. Burnham has promised
30:06
Speaker 4: a number ten of the North rewiring Britain. But do
30:10
Speaker 4: you think he's actually going to be able to do
30:11
Speaker 4: anything to address that enormous regional wealth gap.
30:16
Speaker 1: The Guardian highlighted.
30:18
Speaker 7: Well, I think again the issues go back to the industrialization.
30:22
Speaker 7: Many of the giant industries have disappeared. You've got very
30:26
Speaker 7: poor infrastructure. Ever tried traveling from London to Wales and
30:31
Speaker 7: see how hard it is, and a lot of the
30:34
Speaker 7: infrastructure is for a lot of universities there are really
30:38
Speaker 7: struggling so effectively, we need to rethink the policies, rethink
30:44
Speaker 7: public spending, and there has to be increased in public spending.
30:49
Speaker 7: It's no good Andy Burnham saying I will follow the
30:52
Speaker 7: fiscal rules, because fiscal rules which we have at the
30:55
Speaker 7: moment are not accompanied by any social objectives. Nobody says
31:01
Speaker 7: fiscal rules that should result in extraduction in poverty or
31:05
Speaker 7: full employment or what new industry we are going to
31:09
Speaker 7: get into, whether that be semiconductors or earth materials or
31:14
Speaker 7: anything else. So at the moment, for quite some time,
31:18
Speaker 7: we've been managing the economy by numbers. It's like painting
31:22
Speaker 7: by numbers. But nobody having a full view of the
31:25
Speaker 7: picture that they're trying to reach.
31:27
Speaker 4: It's a very good way of describing it to prem
31:31
Speaker 4: And of course, though Burnham is claiming quite rightly politicians
31:36
Speaker 4: have failed Britain over the last twenty five or thirty years,
31:39
Speaker 4: it seems like he is really just endorsing the same
31:42
Speaker 4: need of liberal economics as its predecessors.
31:46
Speaker 7: I think that is a fair comment, and he basically
31:51
Speaker 7: he is inheriting a labor party which has boxed itself
31:55
Speaker 7: in with various election promises about not increasing income tax
32:00
Speaker 7: or corporation tax. He's going to operate within that constraint.
32:04
Speaker 7: But even then he's got a lot of room to maneuver.
32:07
Speaker 7: For example, he can eliminate lots of tax anomalies. Just
32:12
Speaker 7: to give you one example, at a moment, capital gains
32:15
Speaker 7: and dividends are taxed at a lower rate than wages.
32:19
Speaker 7: By simply aligning the taxation of capital gains and dividends
32:24
Speaker 7: with wages, that can give him up to about twenty
32:26
Speaker 7: five billion pound extra to spend. So if he wants to,
32:31
Speaker 7: he can find ways. But at the moment we await
32:35
Speaker 7: really details of what he's going to do. But I
32:38
Speaker 7: think we do need to address poverty. We can't have
32:41
Speaker 7: twenty five point three million people, that is thirty six
32:45
Speaker 7: percent of the population living below for what I called
32:49
Speaker 7: minimum income standards. That is unacceptable and that can't deliver
32:54
Speaker 7: any form of sustainable.
32:55
Speaker 4: Growth exactly, and actually putting money in pockets of the
33:00
Speaker 4: poorest people in society is one of the most effective
33:04
Speaker 4: ways of refloating in economy because they spend a higher
33:09
Speaker 4: proportion of any increase in income on local goods and
33:12
Speaker 4: services than anybody else.
33:14
Speaker 6: Am I right?
33:15
Speaker 7: Absolutely right? I mean the difficulty we have is that
33:20
Speaker 7: we have stripped people off all kinds of purchasing power,
33:24
Speaker 7: not only by having austerity low wages, but we have
33:29
Speaker 7: lots of essential industries such as water, energy, owned by
33:34
Speaker 7: the private sector, and there've been profiteering a great deal,
33:38
Speaker 7: which is essentially squeezing the spending power of households. He's
33:43
Speaker 7: got to address that. He can help the poor by
33:46
Speaker 7: increasing personal allowances about one thousand pounds increase in personal
33:53
Speaker 7: allowances will cost about eight and a half nine billion
33:57
Speaker 7: pounds a year, and I think that is highly desirable.
34:01
Speaker 7: So we have a crazy situation at the moment. We
34:04
Speaker 7: reduce people's purchasing power, reduce their disposable income, and then
34:09
Speaker 7: there is a queue to say, well, okay, now we
34:11
Speaker 7: will give your children a free school meal, but we
34:15
Speaker 7: we need somebody needs to take account of a bigger picture,
34:19
Speaker 7: connect the dance and see how they are connected. And
34:22
Speaker 7: at the moment I think for quite a few years
34:26
Speaker 7: that just hasn't really been done well.
34:29
Speaker 4: I hope and he reaches out to you, Prem to
34:32
Speaker 4: join his economic team, but I doubt whether he's going
34:36
Speaker 4: to follow through on Jeremy Corbyn's promise to renationalize the
34:41
Speaker 4: water utilities, which, as you say, has seen count the
34:45
Speaker 4: billions of pounds paid out in dividends to shareholders and
34:48
Speaker 4: also these I watering sums paid to chief executives and
34:53
Speaker 4: senior management in this company. We just saw three point
34:57
Speaker 4: one million, possibly four and a half million pounds to
35:00
Speaker 4: the chief executive of seven Trend Water. It's not as
35:05
Speaker 4: if these companies operate in any kind of competitive environment.
35:10
Speaker 4: There's no invention of creativity required to supply water to
35:14
Speaker 4: people's homes, I mean, just lining their own pockets. This
35:19
Speaker 4: is fact cats gorging themselves at the expense of the public,
35:23
Speaker 4: isn't it.
35:23
Speaker 7: Prim absolutely I think what needs to be done is
35:28
Speaker 7: that the customers of water companies, or whether they are
35:31
Speaker 7: in public ownership or private ownership, should have a statutory
35:36
Speaker 7: right to vote on executive pay customer. Let customers be
35:40
Speaker 7: the ultimate arbiters. If they think directors have not done
35:44
Speaker 7: a good job, they will simply not give them a
35:46
Speaker 7: pay rise at a moment. To customers are just cash
35:50
Speaker 7: cows and they have absolutely no say on the question
35:54
Speaker 7: of public ownership are footwater companies. I think that is
35:58
Speaker 7: the only viable option. If private sector, after possible temporary naturalization,
36:04
Speaker 7: is allowed still to own these companies, you're back to
36:08
Speaker 7: the problem we had in the first place, which is
36:10
Speaker 7: that the companies will extract returns through dividends and other means.
36:14
Speaker 7: And also private sector costs are borrowing far exceeds the
36:19
Speaker 7: cost of borrowing by the government, so again money will
36:24
Speaker 7: be drained out, and that is one reason why we
36:27
Speaker 7: have had hardly any or very low investment in infrastructure,
36:32
Speaker 7: and we are losing more than a billion, more than
36:37
Speaker 7: a trillion liters of water every year through leaky pipes.
36:42
Speaker 7: So I think it's not just issue about public ownership,
36:46
Speaker 7: but it is also an issue about accountability. Hence my
36:50
Speaker 7: suggestion that every company should be required to allow customers
36:57
Speaker 7: to have a vote, and executive pay should also apply
37:01
Speaker 7: to the board of any regulatory body, and indeed the
37:05
Speaker 7: majority of that board should be elected by customers. So
37:09
Speaker 7: let us have a bit of democracy to address some
37:11
Speaker 7: deep economic and social issues which actually nobody really talks
37:15
Speaker 7: about it.
37:17
Speaker 4: No, but which Andrew Burnham poses as being in favor
37:21
Speaker 4: of Mike.
37:22
Speaker 1: What do you want to add, Yeah, I just have
37:23
Speaker 1: one other question on this.
37:25
Speaker 2: You know, I don't have an opinion on privatization or
37:29
Speaker 2: nationalization of water, but I do have an opinion of
37:32
Speaker 2: the situation we're in at the moment, and that is that,
37:34
Speaker 2: of course, as a result of the asset stripping of
37:37
Speaker 2: the water industry, where if there is a move to nationalize,
37:42
Speaker 2: it would be nationalized at a point where there's a
37:45
Speaker 2: massive bill for infrastructure redevelopment, and it seems to me
37:50
Speaker 2: that that should not be done unless there's some way
37:54
Speaker 2: of recovering some of the what I would consider stolen
37:58
Speaker 2: assets in the sense that that investment does not systematically
38:02
Speaker 2: not be made by the privateist companies.
38:06
Speaker 7: I think you make excellent point there, but let's look
38:08
Speaker 7: at it all. Also, in another way, water companies have
38:12
Speaker 7: paid out roughly about eighty eight billion pound in dividends
38:17
Speaker 7: since they were privatized, given the level of bills that
38:21
Speaker 7: the customers have. If it was in public ownership, that
38:25
Speaker 7: eighty eight billion could have gone into infrastructure. Also, for example,
38:30
Speaker 7: Thames Water borrowed three billion pound at at the cost
38:34
Speaker 7: of about nine point seventy five percent interest rate. Now
38:38
Speaker 7: if it was in public ownership, the cost of borrowing
38:41
Speaker 7: would be considerably less. Thames Water is paying every year
38:45
Speaker 7: about two hundred million pounds to various advisors on how
38:48
Speaker 7: to negotiate with the regulators and many other things that
38:53
Speaker 7: would not be required either. So in public ownership there
38:57
Speaker 7: would be a lot of surplus which would not be
39:00
Speaker 7: going to private hands what would actually go into infrastructure.
39:05
Speaker 7: So that is one advantage. Now at the same time,
39:09
Speaker 7: we do recognize that additional investment would be needed, how
39:14
Speaker 7: much more well that would be our for negotiations. But
39:18
Speaker 7: water companies themselves should not really cost a great deal
39:23
Speaker 7: to nationalize the off what publishes what it calls our CV.
39:33
Speaker 7: I'm just forgetting regulatory capital value, and according to that,
39:39
Speaker 7: water companies have a regulatory capital value of about one
39:43
Speaker 7: hundred and seven billion. Tens of water has twenty one billion,
39:47
Speaker 7: and the governments say that is what it would cost
39:50
Speaker 7: and nationalize, which is absolutely rubbish. A few months ago,
39:54
Speaker 7: somebody was only willing to I think it was KKR
39:57
Speaker 7: only willing to pay four billion to acquire control. A
40:01
Speaker 7: consortium there is willing to offer about three point five
40:04
Speaker 7: billion to acquire control. So what we have is this
40:07
Speaker 7: kind of a del boy Arthur Daily kind of accounting
40:12
Speaker 7: for water companies. If I may just give you an example,
40:16
Speaker 7: hopefully your viewers know Arthur Daily. He was a in
40:22
Speaker 7: a TV program called The Minder. So basically, imagine Arthur
40:27
Speaker 7: Daily buys a car in nineteen eighty nine, at the
40:30
Speaker 7: end of a year that has come nineteen ninety. It
40:34
Speaker 7: multiplies the price he paid by the rate of inflation,
40:38
Speaker 7: adds any improvement or investment he made, and for good
40:42
Speaker 7: measure to cheat, he throws it. He says he bought
40:44
Speaker 7: a pair of tires and a new battery. He slings
40:47
Speaker 7: that in two and then takes away what he thinks
40:51
Speaker 7: is depreciation. He repeats that exercise every year, and that
40:56
Speaker 7: is exactly how water companies have got one hundred and
40:58
Speaker 7: seven billion pounds. That does not, in any way whatsoever
41:03
Speaker 7: represent market value. It is a paper exercise, and off
41:08
Speaker 7: what has accepted that calculation. So imagine Arthur Dailey takes
41:15
Speaker 7: his jealopy from nineteen eighty nine to the marketplace and says, well,
41:19
Speaker 7: this gelopia paid five billion for is now worth one
41:22
Speaker 7: hundred and seven billion. He'd be laughed out of the market.
41:26
Speaker 7: That is the basis on which the government is trying
41:29
Speaker 7: to persuade people that water companies were nationalization would cost
41:34
Speaker 7: it too much. The other side of the equation is
41:38
Speaker 7: all the media's emphasizing how the government borrowing would increase
41:43
Speaker 7: if it bought water companies. What they're ignoring is that
41:48
Speaker 7: if government got control of water companies on the balance sheet,
41:53
Speaker 7: they will also have assets. That's what businesses do when
41:57
Speaker 7: they borrow money, they buy something. They have assets and
41:59
Speaker 7: the sheet. But the way we look at public debt
42:03
Speaker 7: we totally ignore the asset site. That is utterly ignored.
42:07
Speaker 7: All the media emphasizes is the government debt and the borrowing.
42:11
Speaker 7: So you know, if you look at a private equity model,
42:15
Speaker 7: you could buy water companies and whatever the government cost
42:18
Speaker 7: is loaded onto water companies effectively in that with little
42:23
Speaker 7: or no debt on the government balance sheet. So the
42:26
Speaker 7: problem we have is how is One is there is
42:30
Speaker 7: misinformation about the financing issues. Second is lack of political will.
42:36
Speaker 7: So you know, we've got to remember giant corporation of
42:39
Speaker 7: funding political parties, the fund individual legislators, many former ministers
42:44
Speaker 7: work in the City of London. They're advising private equity.
42:49
Speaker 7: They're prioritizing their own interests above the interests of the
42:53
Speaker 7: population at large.
42:55
Speaker 4: Well, that's that's been one of the biggest problems in
42:57
Speaker 4: Britain over the last thirty or forty years. Agree with
43:00
Speaker 4: you more, Brahm, Lord Primsika, thank you so much for
43:02
Speaker 4: joining us today on UK column and we hope to
43:05
Speaker 4: see you again very soon.
43:06
Speaker 1: Thank you for that. Vanessa, let's welcome you back.
43:09
Speaker 2: And I a couple of days ago Macron was in Syria.
43:15
Speaker 2: The number of global leaders that head over to visit Jiulani,
43:19
Speaker 2: it just doesn't stop.
43:23
Speaker 9: Yeah, and this was a real man in black parade.
43:27
Speaker 9: Macron didn't take his sunglasses off from the moment he landed.
43:30
Speaker 9: Not quite sure why, but basically so, this was the
43:35
Speaker 9: first visit from a French dignitary or president since two
43:39
Speaker 9: thousand and eight. And here you see Gilani actually looking
43:43
Speaker 9: rather disgruntled there and basically sorry. It began with a
43:49
Speaker 9: tour of the amired Mosque, which now of course negates
43:52
Speaker 9: the fact that it was also formerly a site of pilgrimage.
43:57
Speaker 9: If we can just play the video, if it's which
44:02
Speaker 9: formerly was a side of pilgrimage also for Christians, after
44:06
Speaker 9: the discovery of the head of John the Baptist, which
44:09
Speaker 9: was then basically discovered in a cave chapel during the
44:13
Speaker 9: mosque construction and subsequently reburied beneath a specific pillar, leading
44:19
Speaker 9: to the incorporation of the Shrine of John the Baptist.
44:22
Speaker 9: Of course, that is very much sideline now and here
44:26
Speaker 9: you see Julani and Macron joining together in the mosque.
44:31
Speaker 9: Very sweet anyway, then if we move on to the
44:36
Speaker 9: actual so far published memorandum of understanding between the two countries,
44:42
Speaker 9: which I find quite interesting. So first of all, and
44:46
Speaker 9: MoU with Francis Seedel. It's not actually French as far
44:49
Speaker 9: as I understand. It's now part of a multinational corporation
44:54
Speaker 9: of Swedish origin with its headquarters in Palmer, Italy. But
44:57
Speaker 9: that's a minor detail, I guess anyway, basically what they
45:01
Speaker 9: are a producers of packaging for beverages. Then there's a
45:07
Speaker 9: project with Ellipse Projects SAS to support the university hospitals.
45:11
Speaker 9: Of course, we are heading towards privatization of healthcare in Syria,
45:16
Speaker 9: something which Syria previously was very proud of its free
45:19
Speaker 9: healthcare Declaration of intent on confiscated Syrian public funds, of
45:26
Speaker 9: course were confiscated under the former president Bashar Ala Sad.
45:31
Speaker 9: And then interestingly, of course, here comes the financial colonialism AfD,
45:37
Speaker 9: France's Development Bank and Expertise France which is part of
45:41
Speaker 9: the AfD complex to operate in Syria. And of course
45:45
Speaker 9: you won't be surprised that AfD is recognized as a
45:48
Speaker 9: pioneer in green finance, being the first development bank to
45:51
Speaker 9: align one hundred percent of its portfolio with the Paris Agreement,
45:55
Speaker 9: having phased out fossil fueld financing since twenty twenty, etc.
46:01
Speaker 6: Etc.
46:01
Speaker 9: It's in line with you and sustainable goals. And then
46:05
Speaker 9: finally there's a bilateral corporation on politics counter terrorism, which
46:11
Speaker 9: is kind of ironic as he's now speaking to the
46:15
Speaker 9: head of Al Kada with Isis elements within his forces
46:20
Speaker 9: security and defense. Apparently great pains were taken to say
46:24
Speaker 9: that that is not legally binding. And then French heritage
46:28
Speaker 9: institutions and Syria's antiquities direct to it. And interestingly, there
46:33
Speaker 9: are a number of artifacts that are going to be
46:35
Speaker 9: returned from France back to Syria, which I find quite amusing,
46:38
Speaker 9: as it was Julane's thugs that had in the beginning
46:42
Speaker 9: stolen more than one million artifacts from inside Syria during
46:46
Speaker 9: the fourteen year regime change war. So here you have
46:48
Speaker 9: confirmation that allegedly France is to return fifty million euros
46:54
Speaker 9: to Syria. And then, perhaps one of the most important
46:58
Speaker 9: factors in these discussions, this is the CEO of Total Energies.
47:03
Speaker 9: You won't be surprised to see that Patrick Priyane, Siria's
47:07
Speaker 9: geographic location could enable it to become a pivotal transit
47:11
Speaker 9: country for oil heading towards the Mediterranean, offering alternative routes
47:15
Speaker 9: to the Strait of four Moose. So is there you
47:18
Speaker 9: see the connection, of course, of the or perhaps the
47:21
Speaker 9: building of the Katari pipeline, which President Azad had refused
47:26
Speaker 9: back in two thousand and nine. Which was one of
47:28
Speaker 9: the reasons that the wall kicked off to depose him,
47:32
Speaker 9: but also the connection with the Saudi East West pipeline,
47:36
Speaker 9: which is trying desperately to circumnavigate a blockaded straight of
47:42
Speaker 9: four moose. And then finally, I too want to end
47:44
Speaker 9: up with this man in black photo, which was one
47:47
Speaker 9: of the last photos taken before Macron's departure. And interestingly,
47:54
Speaker 9: or perhaps not, during his visit, there were two explosion
48:00
Speaker 9: and one dead thirty six injured in the area around
48:04
Speaker 9: the Ministry of Tourism and quite close to Macron's hotel.
48:08
Speaker 9: Nobody has yet claimed responsibility, but with the number of factions,
48:14
Speaker 9: of course competing for power and influence in Syria, it
48:18
Speaker 9: could be any one of them.
48:21
Speaker 1: Thank you for NASA.
48:22
Speaker 2: And I think the sunglasses, by the way, is because
48:26
Speaker 2: Micron had this pretty nasty eye infection, which he possibly
48:30
Speaker 2: still has.
48:31
Speaker 12: He still doesn't look so good anyway. He's a bit
48:34
Speaker 12: nothing to do with a punch up with any members
48:36
Speaker 12: of his family. This is always a possibility, of course,
48:38
Speaker 12: you just never quite know. But Basil, let's move on
48:42
Speaker 12: to ficial recognition then.
48:44
Speaker 4: Yes, the relentless march of facial recognition Mike, and this
48:49
Speaker 4: little sequence ends with a really extraordinary case of some
48:55
Speaker 4: people seemingly dragged out of their car. But first, Qatar
49:00
Speaker 4: Airways has launched fast Pass. Everything you need to know
49:05
Speaker 4: about facial recognition system.
49:09
Speaker 1: You will be able to.
49:10
Speaker 4: Use your face as a boarding pass and to get
49:13
Speaker 4: to a port security gates and drop your bag off. Meanwhile,
49:18
Speaker 4: Sainsbury's is extending facial recognition to two hundred stores by
49:23
Speaker 4: Christmas in a bid to beat shoplifting. And of course,
49:28
Speaker 4: British Transport Police are rolling out facial recognition technology at
49:35
Speaker 4: more and more railway stations and key transport hubs in London.
49:41
Speaker 4: Here's the kicker. Members of the public may be familiar
49:44
Speaker 4: with the roadside LFR deployments live facial recognition deployments already
49:49
Speaker 4: in use by other police forces, and we can see
49:53
Speaker 4: an example of one such deployment here.
49:56
Speaker 6: Mike, thanks very well. How are you?
50:00
Speaker 7: Yeah, QUI conversation? Take your flag because you have some
50:04
Speaker 7: probably four of you.
50:06
Speaker 6: That's something we stopped about it or something right? Okay, no, right, okay,
50:12
Speaker 6: have you got if you've written on it today or
50:13
Speaker 6: anything like that? You want a public I mean, am
50:16
Speaker 6: I being stopped for any Can I go, I'll probably
50:18
Speaker 6: twent year for a minute. Okay, mate, Uh do I
50:21
Speaker 6: need to give you my name? We don't need to.
50:23
Speaker 6: But we're obviously investigating for something. What you're investigating me before,
50:27
Speaker 6: I don't know, because.
50:28
Speaker 7: You've flagged up in our life facial recognitions, right, so
50:31
Speaker 7: I just need to establish who you are, okay, if
50:33
Speaker 7: all right?
50:36
Speaker 6: Okay, Well, I was just waiting awareness to the genocide
50:40
Speaker 6: that's going on in Palestine. I written and complicity in
50:42
Speaker 6: it wrong, Okay, we're not saying thing you don't know. Yeah,
50:44
Speaker 6: but obviously didn't stop buying on my police vehicles. A
50:46
Speaker 6: bit strange. I've never had that happen to me before.
50:49
Speaker 1: Okay.
50:50
Speaker 6: Obviously we've stopped criminals get pulled over by the police.
50:53
Speaker 6: We stopped on peaceful protesters. We stop a lot of
50:55
Speaker 6: people that have done nothing wrong whatsoever. Sorry, I'm video
50:58
Speaker 6: and just for I know, I'm guess you guys just
51:01
Speaker 6: for your yeah. Yeah, No, we're.
51:03
Speaker 9: Not stopping and saying we've done everything wrong.
51:06
Speaker 1: We're just doing to stop check to make sure nothing
51:08
Speaker 1: is wrong.
51:08
Speaker 6: Okay.
51:09
Speaker 1: We stop a lot of people that have.
51:11
Speaker 6: Done nothing wrong, right, And we stop a few people
51:13
Speaker 6: that happened. Okay, yeah, so I'm not going to take
51:16
Speaker 6: your details.
51:19
Speaker 9: Sorry, No, we've lived.
51:20
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. Sorry.
51:23
Speaker 6: Eighty eight miles bang, yeah, ten in yesterday.
51:28
Speaker 1: As well, allay from the Yeah.
51:31
Speaker 6: It's just energy for this man. It's just I just
51:33
Speaker 6: hate seing kids being murdered in enough tens of thousands
51:35
Speaker 6: by weapons made in this country, and I don't know
51:38
Speaker 6: we're complicit in it, and people I don't know I'm
51:41
Speaker 6: being stopped for. It's just it's just hoping in my eyes.
51:44
Speaker 6: But I'll be honest with you, completely honest. And the
51:46
Speaker 6: last time you stop the feeling some writing on your
51:48
Speaker 6: chest or we're getting told is writing on your chest. Yeah,
51:52
Speaker 6: so I've never been stopped with writing on my chest.
51:56
Speaker 6: I've never been stopped from running with my flower.
52:01
Speaker 4: So this chat appears to have been stopped because he's
52:03
Speaker 4: cycling with the Palestine flag on show to, as he said,
52:08
Speaker 4: demonstrate his disapproval of the genocide and Britain's role in it.
52:14
Speaker 4: We stop a lot of people that have done nothing wrong,
52:16
Speaker 4: said plot. That's extraordinary on its face. Remember we don't
52:20
Speaker 4: live in a police state, folks. And then they wanted
52:23
Speaker 4: to see whether he had anything written on his chest
52:27
Speaker 4: and he appears to have been pulled over as a
52:30
Speaker 4: result of live facial recognition software operating inside the panda car.
52:37
Speaker 2: Okay, well in related news, and it's not live facial
52:40
Speaker 2: recognition as such, but as of yesterday, if we bring
52:42
Speaker 2: this on screen, every new car sold in the European
52:46
Speaker 2: Union must include a driver monitoring camera, which is seem
52:49
Speaker 2: that the driver's face glance at your phone, your children
52:53
Speaker 2: in the backseat, or the radial for too long and
52:55
Speaker 2: the car will flash a warning light and signed an alert.
52:58
Speaker 2: The system is called Driver Distraction Warning or ADEW, and
53:03
Speaker 2: a small infrared camera near the steering wheel or the
53:06
Speaker 2: dashboard tracks where your eyes point, so if you look
53:10
Speaker 2: away from the road for more than three and a
53:11
Speaker 2: half seconds on a motorway or six seconds at slower speeds,
53:15
Speaker 2: and the car will warn you with some kind of
53:17
Speaker 2: combination of lights assigned or vibration, and it apparently switches
53:22
Speaker 2: on there. The specification said that needs to switch on
53:25
Speaker 2: automatically above twelve miles per hour and it cannot be
53:28
Speaker 2: permanently turned off. And in fact, there are some reports
53:32
Speaker 2: that people are now simply covering up the cameras using
53:35
Speaker 2: products similar to those vailable for covering up webcams on laptops.
53:39
Speaker 2: But I don't know how that might affect insurance cover
53:42
Speaker 2: or whether manufacturers will simply prevent the car starting if
53:46
Speaker 2: cameras are covered in the future. We'll talk more about
53:49
Speaker 2: this in extra, but I'll just end by saying if
53:53
Speaker 2: you didn't see my particular rant that Vaness will remember
53:56
Speaker 2: this well from back in October twenty twenty four, I
54:00
Speaker 2: had to rent a new car and it turned out
54:03
Speaker 2: to be a new car and one time I went
54:05
Speaker 2: back to Belfast. If you're a UK ca'll remember have
54:09
Speaker 2: a look at the UK called News Extra from the
54:11
Speaker 2: ninth October twenty twenty four, where I'm sort of discussing
54:15
Speaker 2: these are my experience of these types of issues, Vanessa.
54:19
Speaker 2: Let's come back to you then, and the question of
54:23
Speaker 2: Albert's systems, because the young guy that was being stopped
54:26
Speaker 2: by the police there was of course highlighting the fact
54:29
Speaker 2: that weapons are built in this country continue to be
54:32
Speaker 2: used in Gaza.
54:36
Speaker 6: Yeah.
54:36
Speaker 9: Sorry, I was just laughing at the thought of that
54:38
Speaker 9: face camera and being in Lebanese cross the whole of
54:41
Speaker 9: Lebanon would.
54:42
Speaker 1: Be grid loot.
54:42
Speaker 9: Because I don't think anyone looks at the road for
54:44
Speaker 9: longer than three seconds must of my driving with their
54:48
Speaker 9: mobile phones in their hands. It would be a disaster
54:53
Speaker 9: here anyway, Sorry, I digress. Yeah, So this was a
54:57
Speaker 9: report across pret mainstream media, both Hebrew and Western. This
55:04
Speaker 9: is in the Guardian. Israeli command system identified eight hundred
55:08
Speaker 9: and fifty thousand targets in Gaza and Lebanon wars or
55:13
Speaker 9: I would call them genocide, says suppliers. So what are
55:16
Speaker 9: they actually talking about? This is Mickey Adelstein. He's basically
55:23
Speaker 9: if we pull up on screen, his background is he's
55:28
Speaker 9: executive vice president for Strategy and business Development at Albert Systems,
55:33
Speaker 9: a role he assumed covering the global Albert Systems in
55:39
Speaker 9: April twenty twenty six, a major general in the iof Reservists,
55:43
Speaker 9: former commander of the Gaza Division from twenty twelve, and
55:48
Speaker 9: at a recent Russie conference, Adelstein presented data on the Zayad,
55:53
Speaker 9: which means Hunter digital army program, which identified eight hundred
55:58
Speaker 9: and fifty thousand real time to time targets during the
56:01
Speaker 9: Gaza and Labanon genocides between October the seventh, twenty twenty
56:05
Speaker 9: three and the end of twenty twenty five. Now, despite
56:11
Speaker 9: the fact that he actually apparently, according to the reports,
56:14
Speaker 9: presented a slide actually determining eight hundred and fifty thousand
56:20
Speaker 9: explicitly mentioned real time intel targets, Albert is now trying
56:25
Speaker 9: to walk this back, and they're effectively saying they clarified,
56:30
Speaker 9: I've put that in inverted commers, of course, that the
56:33
Speaker 9: figure represents aggregated system activity and operational data rather than
56:38
Speaker 9: confirm strikes. Read that as you will. Nevertheless, the system
56:43
Speaker 9: facilitated over twenty thousand battle plans and significantly reduced the
56:48
Speaker 9: coordination time for fire support from forty to fifty minutes
56:53
Speaker 9: down to one to seven minutes, So that means basically
56:56
Speaker 9: every one to seven minutes a target is potentially being eliminated. Now,
57:03
Speaker 9: albert as a result of their genocidal weaponry, have now
57:09
Speaker 9: achieved new one hundred million contracts to develop the iOS
57:15
Speaker 9: next generation Digitalization Array, And I'll just read from one
57:20
Speaker 9: of the reports. The new systems, described as the fifth
57:24
Speaker 9: generation of the Digitization Array, are intended to integrate innovative
57:29
Speaker 9: technologies across command control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance,
57:35
Speaker 9: along with digital fire and border protection. The work will
57:39
Speaker 9: be executed through joint development teams made up of Albert Systems,
57:43
Speaker 9: which of course includers includes the UK subsidiary the Ministry
57:48
Speaker 9: of Defense and IOF ground forces leveraging Albert's digital warfare
57:53
Speaker 9: infrastructure now also interesting and we can talk about this
57:57
Speaker 9: in extra Edelstein is also working within Albert on a
58:01
Speaker 9: development of high energy weapons you'll be interested in that
58:05
Speaker 9: might ostensibly as an air defense, so they'll be included
58:10
Speaker 9: in pods on fighter jets, particularly I think F sixteen's
58:14
Speaker 9: and used to intercept drones and missiles, but one can
58:17
Speaker 9: imagine what else they might be used for. And I
58:20
Speaker 9: just wanted to end with this video that was released
58:23
Speaker 9: today of scenes in Gaza currently, which if we're going
58:28
Speaker 9: to talk about a holocaust, I think this qualifies absolutely appalling.
58:32
Speaker 9: These are people queuing for any kind of humanitarian aid, food,
58:37
Speaker 9: medicines and so on in this liver of territory, within
58:42
Speaker 9: this liver of territory that is Gaza that they're being
58:45
Speaker 9: forced into on the coastal areas, where of course they
58:48
Speaker 9: are still being drone strike and bond on a daily basis.
58:56
Speaker 2: Thanks Vanessa, No just moving on then following from the
59:00
Speaker 2: coverage on Monday's program Monday's News Program of the Starmer
59:04
Speaker 2: government forcing social media companies prioritize corporate media narratives over
59:08
Speaker 2: all others. They've announced yesterday their intention to further shore
59:12
Speaker 2: up local news providers with financial incentives. So local news
59:17
Speaker 2: Let's can I bid for a share of up to
59:19
Speaker 2: twelve million pounds in government funding over the next two years,
59:22
Speaker 2: they say, And this is part of a scheme called
59:25
Speaker 2: Amplify colon the Local Media Action Plan, which they say
59:29
Speaker 2: quotes demonstrates the government's commitment to the future of local journalism,
59:33
Speaker 2: ensuring it continued to can continue to enrich our national conversation,
59:38
Speaker 2: strength and communities and social cohesion, rebuild social trust and
59:41
Speaker 2: support local growth. And of course this has to be
59:44
Speaker 2: kept in the context of the whole devolution bringing centralized
59:50
Speaker 2: control to the local level policy that's currently being implemented night.
59:55
Speaker 2: To qualify for local News let funding, any bidders be
1:00:00
Speaker 2: able to demonstrate a track record in the provision of
1:00:03
Speaker 2: local news to audiences in England, in England and Wills.
1:00:06
Speaker 1: Now I put a bit of this bit.
1:00:07
Speaker 2: Of context since Farage raised the demon of Levis Levison
1:00:11
Speaker 2: at the beginning of the program today. The British States Levison,
1:00:14
Speaker 2: if you remember, was the British state's initial gambit to
1:00:19
Speaker 2: regulate the media into submission and that field. I'm delighted
1:00:23
Speaker 2: to say, the UK call and played a role in
1:00:24
Speaker 2: that fear. That then came the car and Cross Review,
1:00:28
Speaker 2: which represented a shift in policy towards funding the corporate
1:00:31
Speaker 2: media and submission. And that goal was pretty much achieved
1:00:34
Speaker 2: during the so called pandemic when the state was able
1:00:37
Speaker 2: to demonstrate the corporate media that might work in practice
1:00:41
Speaker 2: with massive advertising budgets in return for the production of
1:00:44
Speaker 2: compliant propaganda. Now, at that time, the then DCMS Secretary
1:00:51
Speaker 2: Matt Hancock was pretty open about the consequences of this.
1:00:54
Speaker 2: We just bring it back on screen, we will see
1:00:57
Speaker 2: what he said. Yeah, thank you. So I tremble at
1:01:01
Speaker 2: the thought of a media regulated by the state in
1:01:04
Speaker 2: a time of malevolent forces and politics. I would argue
1:01:07
Speaker 2: that's exactly what we're seeing play out in front of
1:01:09
Speaker 2: our eyes, Basil, as we are absolutely in the time
1:01:13
Speaker 2: of malevolent forces and politics. And you know, providing bonds
1:01:20
Speaker 2: to the corporate media is equivalent to regulation in many ways.
1:01:25
Speaker 4: Yes, exactly, It's all ultimately forms of mind control, because
1:01:31
Speaker 4: the language that corporate media use to describe contemporary events
1:01:35
Speaker 4: what they omit from their coverage, propaganda by admission being
1:01:40
Speaker 4: as important as anything else. All this serves to condition
1:01:44
Speaker 4: the public into accepting a version of reality which is
1:01:49
Speaker 4: often a long way removed from what's actually going on.
1:01:53
Speaker 1: Absolutely well, so well, look we do have to leave
1:01:56
Speaker 1: it there for today. Thank you, Basil Vanessa.
1:01:59
Speaker 2: Thanks to Lord Secret for joining us earlier on Stick
1:02:02
Speaker 2: Around a UK column member for some news extra. We've
1:02:05
Speaker 2: got lots to talk about today. If you're not a member,
1:02:07
Speaker 2: maybe you'd like to join and then you can you
1:02:09
Speaker 2: can get access to the extra content that we produce
1:02:12
Speaker 2: for members. Thanks to everyone that is doing that. We
1:02:16
Speaker 2: will be back as usual one pm on Friday and
1:02:19
Speaker 2: Basil will be in the studio once again.
1:02:21
Speaker 1: We'll see then. Thanks for joining us. By bye,