Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 22nd July 2026

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UK Column News — 22nd July 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon. It's Wednesday, the twenty second of July twenty
0:10
Speaker 1: twenty six, just after one o'clock. Welcome to UK column News.
0:13
Speaker 1: I'm your host Mike Robinson. Joining me in the studio
0:15
Speaker 1: today is Charles Mallett. Welcome to the program. Charles, Thank you, Mike,
0:18
Speaker 1: and by video link, Vanessa Billy is joining us as
0:22
Speaker 1: usual on a letter. In the program, we're going to
0:23
Speaker 1: be taking a look at how our new Secretary of
0:25
Speaker 1: State for War West treating and we'll be asking if
0:29
Speaker 1: Britain is going to go all in on nuclear weapons,
0:33
Speaker 1: and then we've got to ask what is the West
0:35
Speaker 1: strategy on Iran? And we're going to have much more.
0:38
Speaker 1: But we're going to begin today with Andy Burnham because
0:41
Speaker 1: he has now appointed his cabinet as we can see
0:45
Speaker 1: on screen, and well, it was all very embarrassing, Charles.
0:49
Speaker 2: One word for it. One of many that we could use.
0:52
Speaker 1: I mean, I've just got to show a few examples.
0:53
Speaker 1: So this is the only one that wouldn't hug and
0:55
Speaker 1: kiss him was Shabanama Mood for some reason, not sure why,
0:59
Speaker 1: but the rest were and of course he was he
1:02
Speaker 1: was following us somewhat with the appointment of Angela Renner
1:06
Speaker 1: as Housing Minister after she had, of course had to
1:09
Speaker 1: resign because of her tax problems with respect to housing taxes.
1:15
Speaker 1: But anyway, the most significant appointments, I suppose are John
1:18
Speaker 1: Healey as Chancellor in a clear signal that war is
1:21
Speaker 1: at the top of the agenda, and of course art
1:23
Speaker 1: zionis ed, Miliband and west streeting become Foreign and Defense
1:26
Speaker 1: Secretaries respectively. The Mood stays in places Home Secretary so
1:31
Speaker 1: she can oversee the rollout of the national security and
1:34
Speaker 1: surveillance agendas we've been reporting on recently. And as I
1:37
Speaker 1: just mentioned, Angela Renner back as Housing Secretary. So you'll
1:42
Speaker 1: note that they, as I said, the only one that
1:44
Speaker 1: refused to hug burnhamusm Mood. I'm not sure why that was.
1:48
Speaker 2: Well, perhaps because she hadn't had to move out of
1:50
Speaker 2: her office, she was the only.
1:51
Speaker 1: One I didn't feel the need. Yeah, okay, But of
1:55
Speaker 1: course war spending is a major talking point because the
1:58
Speaker 1: signal being sent, at least that's the signal being sent
2:02
Speaker 1: by making Heale chancellor. The corporate media is pretty delighted
2:06
Speaker 1: that the military industrial complex shares are up as a
2:09
Speaker 1: result in Charles going to be talking about this in
2:11
Speaker 1: a second as a result of the appointment, although the
2:14
Speaker 1: Times here is suggesting a potential disagreement already. Whether you
2:19
Speaker 1: think that avoiding commitment, as they say in their headline,
2:23
Speaker 1: means anything is another question, of course. But the question
2:28
Speaker 1: is if we look at bring that Times articles is
2:30
Speaker 1: back on screen for a second, the subhead there says
2:34
Speaker 1: the new Defense Secretary has distanced himself from Chancellor John
2:37
Speaker 1: Healey's plans from war bonds to fund spending in his department,
2:41
Speaker 1: And the question is what are these war bonds at
2:44
Speaker 1: the Times is referring to in their subhead. Well, theoretically
2:47
Speaker 1: Heale could just issue British sovereign war bonds and be
2:50
Speaker 1: done with it, but the City of London is absolutely
2:53
Speaker 1: saying no to that, as the Telegraph reports. But we
2:57
Speaker 1: have to remember that Heally was onded a fan of
3:00
Speaker 1: the so called Defense Bank otherwise otherwise known as a
3:04
Speaker 1: Defense Security and Resilience Bank, and the spat between him
3:08
Speaker 1: and the Treasury over this upcoming institution was pretty sure,
3:13
Speaker 1: at least partly why I resigned this Defense Secretary, And
3:16
Speaker 1: now that he's Chancellor, this must be back on the
3:19
Speaker 1: agenda for British involvement. Now, just to remind everybody, this
3:23
Speaker 1: is modeled on the World Bank. The Defense Security and
3:28
Speaker 1: Resilience Bank is a proposed multilateral lending institution. It's going
3:32
Speaker 1: to be owned by participating nation states and designed the
3:35
Speaker 1: finance defense, security and resilience investments across NATO members and
3:40
Speaker 1: allied democracies. This is how they describe it. It's kind
3:44
Speaker 1: of a bank of a board of governors which is
3:46
Speaker 1: going to be composed of finance ministers and a board
3:48
Speaker 1: of directors handling operational decisions, and their central business will
3:53
Speaker 1: be a combination of direct lending to member states which
3:56
Speaker 1: can be handed straight over to the military industrial complex,
4:00
Speaker 1: but also currency hedging and lease arranging, at least financing
4:04
Speaker 1: arrangement between NATO allies. The intention is to create a
4:08
Speaker 1: capital structure which will consist of what's paid in capital
4:12
Speaker 1: if you remember, in other words, money that member states
4:14
Speaker 1: have actually paid into the bank, and then also subscribed capital,
4:18
Speaker 1: which is money that member states have promised to put
4:20
Speaker 1: into the bank at some point by agreeing perhaps to
4:23
Speaker 1: buy shares. And they expect that this is all going
4:26
Speaker 1: to combine to create a triple A rating so that
4:29
Speaker 1: the Bank can issue sovereign great bonds to raise money
4:32
Speaker 1: which will be lent to member states at a low cost.
4:36
Speaker 1: And of course they describe the bank's appeal as the
4:39
Speaker 1: off balance sheet if you remember nature of this. In
4:42
Speaker 1: other words, it's a way for governments to commit public
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Speaker 1: money to defense spending while keeping those commitments off the
4:48
Speaker 1: national books and therefore away from any kind of accountability
4:53
Speaker 1: and so on, and as we say, designed to move
4:58
Speaker 1: lots of money towards the defense industry. Now, on the
5:03
Speaker 1: twenty ninth of April this year, after charging negotiations in
5:07
Speaker 1: Montreal and nineteen finding member nations agreed that Canada was
5:11
Speaker 1: going to be the banks post country. And Mark Carney
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Speaker 1: was absolutely behind that bid and so that was success
5:19
Speaker 1: for him. So time will tell whether or not Britain
5:22
Speaker 1: eventually joins. Now that Heley holds the purse strings, but
5:26
Speaker 1: Canada is already strongly urging Burnham if we bring that
5:30
Speaker 1: on screen to and he Lee to become a founding member.
5:34
Speaker 1: So what do you think, is it going to happen
5:37
Speaker 1: or not? I think it is.
5:39
Speaker 2: I think it will do a variation of it. I mean,
5:41
Speaker 2: one of the things that seems interesting and trivial, childish,
5:44
Speaker 2: whichever word you want to use, is the idea of
5:47
Speaker 2: defense bonds, because of course that was also put forward
5:49
Speaker 2: by the Liberal Democrats Daty cooper a seemingly competition for
5:54
Speaker 2: whose idea it was, and therefore some sort of pettiness
5:58
Speaker 2: regarding whether or not you're going to take it up
6:00
Speaker 2: as somebody else.
6:01
Speaker 1: So I doa.
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Speaker 2: But of course the other you know, the other thing
6:02
Speaker 2: that clearly has never touched on when this sort of
6:05
Speaker 2: language is used is that it's not the government's money.
6:08
Speaker 1: It's no entire money money, yes, or other your money, yes, indeed,
6:12
Speaker 1: But streading, what are your thoughts on him as defense.
6:16
Speaker 2: Well, yes, let's let's have a little bit of a look,
6:18
Speaker 2: shall we, and he and his compadres, because here's a
6:24
Speaker 2: photograph from the Ministry of Defense showing to his right
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Speaker 2: you're left Jeremy Pocklington, the recently appointed Permanent Secretary to
6:33
Speaker 2: the Department, and also Richard Knighton, the Chief of Defense Staff,
6:37
Speaker 2: and as I will now illustrates, no experience necessary, because
6:41
Speaker 2: of course has talked about many times, Knighton as Chief
6:45
Speaker 2: of the Defense Staff, has one operational tour under his belt,
6:49
Speaker 2: and that was as an engineer on the ground in
6:51
Speaker 2: Kosovo many years ago, of course, treating no prior experience
6:56
Speaker 2: in defense, and no Pocklington who has pinballed around the
6:59
Speaker 2: civil sear for many years. However, where else, Streeting went
7:04
Speaker 2: straight to X to talk about maximizing our deterrance, creating
7:09
Speaker 2: good jobs, or all the sign bites he could cram
7:12
Speaker 2: into one tweet, and then he said, all to make
7:16
Speaker 2: sure that if the terrance fails, we are ready to
7:19
Speaker 2: fight and win, which seems to illustrate Sorry, I've gone forward,
7:24
Speaker 2: I meanto I as seems to illustrate exactly how much
7:26
Speaker 2: time he has spent analyzing his new brief. He does
7:31
Speaker 2: also go on to analyze the GCAP, the Global Combat
7:34
Speaker 2: Air Program, which, of course, using the word global something
7:38
Speaker 2: of a misnomer there because actually it involves Japan, the
7:41
Speaker 2: United Kingdom and Italy. It sorry, I have yes, Sorry,
7:48
Speaker 2: the photograph shown there includes the Canadian his Canadian counterpart.
7:54
Speaker 2: Because this is concerning the development of what's being described
7:57
Speaker 2: as a sixth generation fighter aircraft to replace the Iphoon.
8:01
Speaker 2: It's named Tempest at the minute, and this story really
8:04
Speaker 2: is is actually a rehash of old news. The types
8:07
Speaker 2: of commitment that we do see on the slide that
8:10
Speaker 2: I'm nugg finally going to show you, it does refer
8:13
Speaker 2: to things that have actually been published quite some time ago.
8:17
Speaker 2: The only news really is that Canada has joined as
8:20
Speaker 2: what's being described as an observer a nation, which means
8:24
Speaker 2: not really very much. They'll prove you to a little
8:26
Speaker 2: bit of information, but according to the press release, it
8:29
Speaker 2: paves the way for discussions on Canada's future participation and
8:33
Speaker 2: contribution to GUCAP. So again, just with your recent references
8:38
Speaker 2: to Carney in mind, we'll see what happens there. Of course,
8:41
Speaker 2: the other thing that's not really being talked about directly
8:43
Speaker 2: is this is clearly designed to be something that keeps
8:46
Speaker 2: track with the Russian development of a sixth generation airframe.
8:51
Speaker 2: There isn't a huge amount of information on that. There
8:53
Speaker 2: is speculation around an interceptor aircraft our incept to certainly
8:57
Speaker 2: in terms of its ability to defeat high personic missiles.
9:02
Speaker 2: The other thing that the Streeting has been very keen
9:04
Speaker 2: to put out for release Ministered Defense under his tenure
9:07
Speaker 2: is a so called twenty billion pound investment for a
9:09
Speaker 2: hypersonic target. They're calling it a clay pigeon. Basically, a
9:13
Speaker 2: device that is meant to be used as a training
9:17
Speaker 2: aid to systems that are able to defeat hypersonic missiles
9:22
Speaker 2: in due course, of course, the political capital here is
9:26
Speaker 2: attempting to be extracted from that last clause. Boost British
9:30
Speaker 2: small businesses. Now, this is something which the Royal International
9:34
Speaker 2: Air To two in Fairford usually does. Here's the sale
9:39
Speaker 2: page for next year's show and in the local community
9:44
Speaker 2: section we can see that they talk about loving to
9:46
Speaker 2: boost the local community as it bursts into life around
9:49
Speaker 2: the time the event offering a substantial boost to pubs, restaurants,
9:53
Speaker 2: et cetera, all of which will add over twenty five
9:56
Speaker 2: million pounds to the local economy. But not this and
10:00
Speaker 2: this is the weekend that just immediately preceded Streeting's appointment.
10:05
Speaker 2: They issued a press release, in fact several weeks ago,
10:08
Speaker 2: saying it's with great disappointment that we are letting you
10:10
Speaker 2: know this year's Royal International Air To two will not
10:13
Speaker 2: be taking place. It's not been an easy decision, and
10:16
Speaker 2: then using euphemistic mastery, they say given the ongoing situation
10:21
Speaker 2: in the Middle East, so this is the world's biggest
10:25
Speaker 2: air show canceled. That makes it somewhat ironic Streetings first
10:28
Speaker 2: speech has been at Farnborough Air Show just today. But
10:32
Speaker 2: of all the euphemisms for genocide, the ongoing situation does
10:36
Speaker 2: take some beating. And of course this does remind us
10:39
Speaker 2: that the use of United Kingdom air bases by United
10:43
Speaker 2: States visiting forces has certainly fallen out of the news.
10:46
Speaker 2: Here we see Migflag here talking about ten battered raptors
10:50
Speaker 2: F twenty two's coming into Fairford just last week. And
10:54
Speaker 2: the question really has to be asked, is this in
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Speaker 2: the name of the so called defensive support for activity
11:01
Speaker 2: the United States taking in collaboration with or support to Israel.
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Speaker 2: And I'll leave you to decide what the answer to
11:10
Speaker 2: that question necessarily is. But there's been virtual silence on
11:13
Speaker 2: this in the Houses of Parliament. Caroline Voden did ask
11:17
Speaker 2: the Foreign Sectuary, the then Foreign Sectary Eva Cooper about
11:20
Speaker 2: this on the ninth of June, Carolinevoden being the MP
11:24
Speaker 2: for South Devon, and we'll just listen to the questions
11:27
Speaker 2: she asked specifically about Fairford and the response from Evac Cooper.
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Speaker 3: To Speaker. A constituent wrote to me deeply concerned that
11:36
Speaker 3: the British public had been misled about the UK's involvement
11:39
Speaker 3: in the US conflict with Iran. His sister lives next
11:42
Speaker 3: to Aria Fairford and reported twenty four to seven use
11:45
Speaker 3: of the base by US bomber flights in May. After
11:47
Speaker 3: the cease fire, residents were experiencing constant aircraft movements and
11:51
Speaker 3: noise with little or no respite. Constant use of the
11:54
Speaker 3: base does not appear to be consistent with facilitating specific
11:58
Speaker 3: and limited defensive action against missile facilities. So can the
12:02
Speaker 3: Foreign Secretary reassure both the House and my constituent that
12:05
Speaker 3: RAF Fairford was used exclusively for defensive strikes against Iran,
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Speaker 3: that no planes or drones have conducted no RAF planes
12:13
Speaker 3: or drones have conducted reconnaissance over Palestine or Lebanon, and
12:17
Speaker 3: shared that intelligence with Israel, and that the truth here
12:20
Speaker 3: is not being concealed from the British public.
12:23
Speaker 4: Well, the Ard member will know that fair and Fairford
12:28
Speaker 4: is a US base and we work clear at the
12:33
Speaker 4: beginning of this conflict that we would not support the
12:36
Speaker 4: use of the base for offensive action against Iran, and
12:40
Speaker 4: for offensive action as part of this conflict. Once the
12:44
Speaker 4: Iran started to strike golf partners, including their civilian infrastructure,
12:50
Speaker 4: including their airports, including ore their assets, and put lives
12:54
Speaker 4: at risk, including the lives of British citizens at risk.
12:56
Speaker 4: We did provide support for the air defences directly. UK
13:02
Speaker 4: assets provided that support and we also enabled basing support
13:07
Speaker 4: for US operations as well, and I think that was
13:11
Speaker 4: the right thing to do in order to be able
13:13
Speaker 4: to defend our partners who were facing Iranian strikes. There
13:17
Speaker 4: is a difference between the offensive and the defensive approach,
13:20
Speaker 4: and that is the approach We've taken.
13:25
Speaker 2: The right thing to do. She said, No, Caroline Voden
13:28
Speaker 2: asked to be reassured. Do you feel reassured by what
13:32
Speaker 2: Cooper was saying there?
13:33
Speaker 5: No?
13:35
Speaker 2: Do go on?
13:39
Speaker 1: Well, I mean we've made this point many times. This
13:42
Speaker 1: was not a defensive reaction, no matter what they said
13:45
Speaker 1: was the evidence is clear from the activities they were
13:48
Speaker 1: carrying on and so you know what else can we say?
13:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, exactly apart from I think, as I said
13:57
Speaker 2: at the introduction of that video, I think this has
13:59
Speaker 2: just fallen, It's fallen out of the news cycle and
14:01
Speaker 2: there's not nearly enough attention on this and I was
14:05
Speaker 2: certainly as a reminder, I did put it a drawn
14:08
Speaker 2: into the Wider War video a little while back which
14:11
Speaker 2: contains quite a lot about Fairford in particular. But I
14:13
Speaker 2: think this is very very little regard plated this. But
14:16
Speaker 2: of course, as you heard of at Cooper saying there,
14:19
Speaker 2: it was as though she was justifying this on the
14:21
Speaker 2: basis that there was a threat and to our partners
14:25
Speaker 2: in the region and all the same restaurant that was
14:26
Speaker 2: coming out in early March. Now, on that note I threat.
14:31
Speaker 2: We're going to listen now to a video that Luke
14:34
Speaker 2: Pollard put out yesterday.
14:38
Speaker 6: Hello Plymouth. Earlier today, a Russian naval vessel conducted a
14:42
Speaker 6: brief live fire weapons exercise in international waters, approximately forty
14:46
Speaker 6: nautical miles south of Plymouth. Standard maritime safety procedures were followed.
14:52
Speaker 6: Prior to firing, The Russian ship notified HMS Time, which
14:56
Speaker 6: was escorting it, of its intention and requested that she
15:00
Speaker 6: position to a safe distance, which HMS Tyne did. The
15:03
Speaker 6: exercise lasted approximately thirty minutes. HMS Tyn monitored the exercise
15:09
Speaker 6: throughout and the Royal Navy continues to track the vessel's
15:13
Speaker 6: movements very closely. I know, seeing activity like this close
15:17
Speaker 6: to our coastline can cause concern, but I want to
15:21
Speaker 6: reassure residents of Plymouth that our armed forces remain vigilant,
15:26
Speaker 6: professional and fully prepared to safeguard UK national security at
15:32
Speaker 6: all times.
15:35
Speaker 2: Well, there we are, and the words mountain and Molehill
15:38
Speaker 2: do spring to mind. And if anyone does have a
15:39
Speaker 2: pair of binoculars that can see forty nautical miles off Plymouth,
15:42
Speaker 2: then I'd like a pair. But that was what Luke
15:45
Speaker 2: Pollard had to say about the threats that apparently we're seeing.
15:49
Speaker 2: Now what must be pointed out therefore, and has been
15:52
Speaker 2: pointed out by the UK Defense Journal, is that exactly
15:56
Speaker 2: the same activity being conducted for exactly the same set
15:59
Speaker 2: of reasons has just been carried out in the High
16:01
Speaker 2: North by the type forty five destroyer HMS Duncan. And
16:07
Speaker 2: I will quote now from the UK Defense Journal, which
16:10
Speaker 2: is that this is a minor event and a very
16:12
Speaker 2: routine one. Warships fire their guns in training all the time,
16:16
Speaker 2: and some readers may, as I said, scoff at reporting
16:19
Speaker 2: it at all. And then he goes on to say
16:21
Speaker 2: a British warship putting rounds out is not a headline event,
16:24
Speaker 2: but it is really the bread and butter of a
16:26
Speaker 2: navy that intends to remain a fighting force, and that
16:29
Speaker 2: is what we're here to do here to report. So
16:30
Speaker 2: that's the UK Defense Journal's take on it. And of
16:34
Speaker 2: course if you replace the word British with Russian then
16:38
Speaker 2: you get a completely different result, which is inconsistent and
16:43
Speaker 2: extremely hypocritical, because of course the whole point of posturing
16:45
Speaker 2: up in the high North in the Arctic with exercises
16:48
Speaker 2: like NATO's Arctic Century is to do exactly what the
16:52
Speaker 2: Russians appear to have been doing forty nautical miles south
16:56
Speaker 2: of Plymouth. But as Mike said in his opening report,
17:00
Speaker 2: that the underlying focus here is of course the military
17:04
Speaker 2: industrial complex. And so what I will do is look
17:07
Speaker 2: at the well, I'll show you the chart from Financial
17:11
Speaker 2: Times today. That's the all share Areaspace and Defense index
17:15
Speaker 2: from the last five years, and you can see that
17:18
Speaker 2: the reason that Luke Pollard and i VT Cooper have
17:21
Speaker 2: to use the language that they do is because it
17:23
Speaker 2: fills the coffers of the military industrial complex. Would you
17:27
Speaker 2: say that that's a fair comment.
17:30
Speaker 1: Very fair comment. Early next week we're going to be
17:34
Speaker 1: putting out or next week we're going to be putting
17:36
Speaker 1: out an interview I've just done with John Helmer, the
17:38
Speaker 1: veteran journalist, and we're having exactly this type of conversation.
17:43
Speaker 1: We're looking at what Russia's reaction is to the types
17:47
Speaker 1: of rhetoric that we're hearing from the British government and
17:49
Speaker 1: so on. It's a fascinating conversation and it fits in
17:52
Speaker 1: very well with it with this. But you know, the
17:56
Speaker 1: point is that, as you say, look Pollard, if Parlor
18:00
Speaker 1: had not made that statement, nobody in Plymouth would have
18:02
Speaker 1: known that there had been a life fire exercise off
18:05
Speaker 1: the coast of England, and therefore there would have been
18:08
Speaker 1: no cause for concerns. So they are causing the angst
18:11
Speaker 1: in people. But Vanessa, let's come to you unit and well,
18:15
Speaker 1: obviously the situation in Iran is beginning to ramp up again,
18:19
Speaker 1: and the question is what is the strategy.
18:23
Speaker 7: Yes, actually I'm looking at it very much from the
18:25
Speaker 7: perspective of the Iranian strategy rather than the Western strategy.
18:29
Speaker 7: I think we're getting enough coverage of that in US
18:32
Speaker 7: and UK EU media. However, one of these memes has
18:37
Speaker 7: been circulating again on social media. I think we saw
18:40
Speaker 7: one previously in the forty day war generated by Trump's
18:43
Speaker 7: truth social if I remember correctly, this one is a
18:47
Speaker 7: little bit more complex, but just as fantastical in many
18:52
Speaker 7: people's opinions. So this is basically showing the multiple stages
18:57
Speaker 7: of NATO, US Kurtis starin Israeli, the entire zonis block
19:05
Speaker 7: Alliance ground invasion of Iran. Now, while I'm slightly mocking
19:11
Speaker 7: this meme for being a little bit exaggerated, let's say
19:15
Speaker 7: I would equally say that there is potential for there
19:19
Speaker 7: being plans for this kind of operation. Now, why do
19:24
Speaker 7: I say that, If we look at where the US
19:26
Speaker 7: has been bombing. So if we pull up the next slide,
19:30
Speaker 7: you can see very clearly, and this is in the
19:34
Speaker 7: last twenty four hours. I think the bombing has been
19:38
Speaker 7: very much along that western corridor where the Kurdish separatist
19:43
Speaker 7: factions are based in northeastern Iraq, and then along all
19:49
Speaker 7: of the coastal regions. Some interior strikes also, but following
19:53
Speaker 7: very much the line of that Allied invasion meme that
20:00
Speaker 7: has been circulating. But then also at the same time,
20:04
Speaker 7: if we look at the Iran retaliation map, so this
20:07
Speaker 7: is between July the twelfth to July the nineteenth. This
20:11
Speaker 7: is from mensch Ocent, which is one of the few
20:15
Speaker 7: ocent accounts that I would recommend following most of them
20:18
Speaker 7: are putting out fairly spurious information. So there you can
20:22
Speaker 7: see the US bases on the Persian Gulf that have
20:26
Speaker 7: been severely damaged. But you can also see in Jordan
20:30
Speaker 7: there has been extensive damage and strikes, particularly at the
20:34
Speaker 7: Mahwa Fak Salty Air Base located near Azrak, which has
20:38
Speaker 7: suffered multiple ballistic missile strikes, including a deadly attack on
20:43
Speaker 7: July the eighteenth that killed two soldiers and damaged helicopters
20:47
Speaker 7: and aircraft shelters. These to some degree have been admitted
20:50
Speaker 7: by the United States, although we're seeing casualties being severely downplaged.
20:55
Speaker 7: You've also got the princess An Air Base and the
20:58
Speaker 7: King Faisal Air Base. Of course, Jordan is if you like,
21:02
Speaker 7: the last air defense before Israel, So I'll come on
21:07
Speaker 7: to the actual Uranian strategy shortly. Jordan has recently seen
21:12
Speaker 7: an upgrade and its ability to defend Israel basically through
21:17
Speaker 7: air defense. If I can just have that up on screen,
21:21
Speaker 7: that would be great, full screen, Thank you, so one
21:25
Speaker 7: hundred and forty three million upgrade basically has been put
21:30
Speaker 7: into the MOA Fuk Salti Air Base since twenty eighteen,
21:34
Speaker 7: mostly focusing on drone special ops helicopters, but also on
21:40
Speaker 7: the Patriot air defense that has arranged for around one
21:42
Speaker 7: hundred and sixty kilometers. It's worth also noting that the
21:46
Speaker 7: estimated sixty five billion annual cost to build and maintain
21:51
Speaker 7: overseas military basis includes significant Middle East investments. That's all
21:56
Speaker 7: coming out of US taxpayer pockets, of course. And then
22:01
Speaker 7: as a result of the recent strikes on Jordan US spaces,
22:06
Speaker 7: let's hear Trump talking about that in his recent meeting
22:10
Speaker 7: with President Allen of Lebanon.
22:14
Speaker 8: They did slip something through in Jordan, and if we
22:18
Speaker 8: had other operators, you know, would have not happened, unfortunately,
22:24
Speaker 8: But we because we have the best equipment in the world,
22:27
Speaker 8: you know, we've stopped almost everything. But when you let
22:30
Speaker 8: other people do your job. With the United States, we
22:33
Speaker 8: let other people do the job, and sometimes it doesn't
22:35
Speaker 8: work out so well.
22:36
Speaker 7: But so he's blaming Jordan for the deaths of US
22:44
Speaker 7: soldiers in Jordan despite giving Jordan one hundred and forty
22:49
Speaker 7: three million upgrade. Then probably one of the most important
22:54
Speaker 7: pieces of news that I've actually reported on that happened
22:58
Speaker 7: on I think July sixteenth and seventeenth. So initially, claims
23:03
Speaker 7: came from Iran that they had struck the US ALTANAF
23:08
Speaker 7: base in Syria that basically straddles Jordan and Syria. People
23:13
Speaker 7: will remember from my Syria reporting me talking very often
23:17
Speaker 7: about the unlawful occupation base of the US in Syrian territory,
23:23
Speaker 7: basically on that triangle between Eric, Jordan and Syria. But
23:29
Speaker 7: then if we go on, of course, the US defense
23:32
Speaker 7: officials talking to the National claimed that attacks on US
23:37
Speaker 7: forces in Syria were all false. The claims US Central
23:41
Speaker 7: Commands separately said that no US troops in the region
23:44
Speaker 7: have recently been killed or captured. Now I find it
23:47
Speaker 7: slightly interesting that they're talking about capture because I haven't
23:52
Speaker 7: seen any statement from the IOGC to talk about captures.
23:56
Speaker 7: That does raise questions for me as to whether there
23:59
Speaker 7: have been US personnel military personnel actually captured. However, if
24:04
Speaker 7: we look at the most recent satellite images again that
24:07
Speaker 7: are circulating on social media and have been verified. So
24:11
Speaker 7: this is Tower twenty two, which is about one kilometer
24:14
Speaker 7: into Jordanian territory, so one could say the US defense
24:18
Speaker 7: official was correct in saying that there were no strikes
24:21
Speaker 7: on Syria. However, it is literally on the border. Now.
24:25
Speaker 7: The area that you see there circled in red is
24:29
Speaker 7: accommodation for US forces, and that amount of damage does
24:36
Speaker 7: suggest that there were more victims than, of course, are
24:40
Speaker 7: being admitted by the United States.
24:44
Speaker 2: And then I.
24:44
Speaker 7: Also wanted to show the following map because according to
24:49
Speaker 7: sources that I have inside Syria, in the days before
24:54
Speaker 7: the strike, the United States had actually air dropped special
24:57
Speaker 7: forces into the altanav base. They'd also increased radar equipment
25:03
Speaker 7: special forces helicopters. The helicopters and the radar system equipment
25:08
Speaker 7: were destroyed according to the IRGC. But the IRGC has
25:12
Speaker 7: also made a statement saying that those special ARP forces
25:16
Speaker 7: were to join the Kurdish Resistance or Kurdish as sorry
25:20
Speaker 7: separatist forces in the northeast of Iraq as part of
25:25
Speaker 7: the project of a ground invasion into Iran. So what
25:30
Speaker 7: is interesting here is that Iran has effectively breached US
25:35
Speaker 7: surveillance and intelligence by conducting this strike. Then I wanted
25:41
Speaker 7: to just quickly come back to the NATO map, which
25:44
Speaker 7: again shows if you can see the Arab theirittal tensil
25:49
Speaker 7: for a ground build up. Sorry it's not showing for
25:53
Speaker 7: some reason, from Syria to the border of Iran, and
25:58
Speaker 7: then mentioned radar again. Sorry Mensch ocean On as if
26:02
Speaker 7: I can have that up is talking about basically the
26:08
Speaker 7: fact that Iran has been targeting the eyes of the
26:12
Speaker 7: US coalition, destroying radar across the Persian Gulf and obviously
26:18
Speaker 7: within Jordan itself. Now, this map, which comes from a
26:22
Speaker 7: substack account, shows the project of debasification, as they call it,
26:26
Speaker 7: so the pushing back of US military personnel by the
26:29
Speaker 7: destruction of their bases and radar as far back as
26:33
Speaker 7: to Jordan, which of course then will push them into Israel,
26:36
Speaker 7: with the potential for Iran to then begin strikes on Israel.
26:41
Speaker 7: And bearing all that in mind, I just wanted to
26:44
Speaker 7: listen to Trump again.
26:47
Speaker 3: It's a president.
26:48
Speaker 8: There are no signs that Iran is ready to stop fighting.
26:51
Speaker 2: So what is the plan? Is the plan?
26:53
Speaker 8: Would you know? How would you know?
26:54
Speaker 9: If? What?
26:56
Speaker 3: Do you know?
26:57
Speaker 10: Something that I don't know? Well, they continue to attack
26:59
Speaker 10: our ally.
27:00
Speaker 8: You don't know what the dialogue is behind the scenes
27:02
Speaker 8: that they want to meet desperately to try and end
27:04
Speaker 8: it because they're getting decimated. You don't get that when
27:07
Speaker 8: you listen to your fakestation. But you don't know, you
27:13
Speaker 8: don't know anything. You know something that I don't know.
27:16
Speaker 8: You know something I don't know.
27:18
Speaker 9: Tell us.
27:19
Speaker 8: I will tell you. They want to desperately meet, and
27:23
Speaker 8: until they're ready to meet in a meaningful way, we
27:25
Speaker 8: have no interest in.
27:26
Speaker 7: Even I'll leave the audience to judge which one is correct.
27:35
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, thank you Vanessa. Okay, if you like what
27:39
Speaker 1: the UK Colin does, we do need your ongoing financial support.
27:43
Speaker 1: Have a look at the uk Colme website. You can
27:45
Speaker 1: make a donation, you can join as a member. There
27:49
Speaker 1: are various membership levels monthly, annual and lifetime. This helps
27:53
Speaker 1: us keep doing what we're doing, and we want to
27:56
Speaker 1: say once again a massive thank you to everybody that's
27:58
Speaker 1: helping us. Oute do pick up a copy of the
28:02
Speaker 1: latest issue of the column or magazine. Issue two is
28:05
Speaker 1: at the moment. Issue three will be ayed in a
28:07
Speaker 1: few weeks time, and we've got the twentieth anniversary event
28:12
Speaker 1: taking place in September. Charles.
28:14
Speaker 2: Any thoughts, yeah, plenty. We have been furiously planning and
28:19
Speaker 2: We've put together what will be an absolutely tiptop schedule
28:22
Speaker 2: of incredible speakers, which we will publish as soon as
28:27
Speaker 2: well as soon as we can, I suppose, so you'll
28:30
Speaker 2: have plenty of more information on that, but there will
28:32
Speaker 2: be there will be lots for everybody, and we are very,
28:35
Speaker 2: very excited about it, So please do book one of
28:38
Speaker 2: the few remaining tickets.
28:40
Speaker 1: Okay, super Tonight at seven, jerem is spaking about Christian
28:44
Speaker 1: Drawsten and PCR tests at nine Trump Spigel's biggest scamible yet.
28:50
Speaker 1: Can America survive another around war? I think Vanessa is
28:54
Speaker 1: giving us a clue on that. And Charles Tomorrow at one,
28:57
Speaker 1: what's going on?
28:58
Speaker 2: Yes, completely by chance, I came across a young man
29:01
Speaker 2: in Scotland called Robin Aldoslow who was as impressive as
29:06
Speaker 2: he was articulate in my opinion, and he's talking about
29:10
Speaker 2: the disappearing culture of his nation. And we'll just play
29:14
Speaker 2: a short clip of what we can expect from tomorrow's interview.
29:19
Speaker 5: And University was where there just seemed to be a
29:22
Speaker 5: lot more actual direct propaganda. It's not just about the
29:27
Speaker 5: way that they treat you, but it was actually about
29:29
Speaker 5: the way that they're telling you the world is. So
29:31
Speaker 5: there's a really good example of this. I was studying
29:33
Speaker 5: a film course, right, so you can imagine the types
29:35
Speaker 5: of earlier on a film course, and maybe that's why they
29:37
Speaker 5: thought this was acceptable. So we had to write an
29:39
Speaker 5: essay a university and we had to take an angle
29:43
Speaker 5: on culture studies, either through the lens of Marxism, critical
29:47
Speaker 5: race theory, or feminism.
30:05
Speaker 1: Is he going to be giving you lessons?
30:06
Speaker 2: Well, I hope so, but probably not something he wants
30:09
Speaker 2: to do. He is the piper for Clan Buchanan. He's
30:12
Speaker 2: a very very good piper and he's also been a
30:14
Speaker 2: live of the world, playing his pipes to different cultures.
30:16
Speaker 2: So there's a lot to listen to. I think even
30:18
Speaker 2: he is a young fellow, but I would encourage you
30:20
Speaker 2: to tune in.
30:22
Speaker 1: Okay, Now, we have given a lot of coverage in
30:25
Speaker 1: the last number of weeks to the National Security State
30:27
Speaker 1: Threats Bill, an act of course, and rightly so. Unsurprisingly,
30:32
Speaker 1: perhaps the acts in tent has echoed in other European countries,
30:36
Speaker 1: not least in Germany, although the approach is somewhat different.
30:40
Speaker 1: So let's bring this on screen. This is from Senior
30:42
Speaker 1: German blogger Robert Herring, and let's just do a quick
30:46
Speaker 1: translation of that. And he's discussing Germany's draft Intelligence Agencies
30:50
Speaker 1: Act in a post on his blog, and he describes
30:54
Speaker 1: it as aiming to turn the domestic and foreign intelligence agency, so,
30:57
Speaker 1: in other words, the German equivalent about m I five
30:59
Speaker 1: and six into what he describes as intervention agencies. And
31:04
Speaker 1: this is contrary to the German basic law, which is
31:07
Speaker 1: the German Constitution. And he says, with this draft bill
31:10
Speaker 1: on Intelligence Service reform, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrint is laying
31:15
Speaker 1: the groundwork for using intelligence agency resources to investigate and
31:20
Speaker 1: combat political parties and journalists who challenge the narratives of
31:24
Speaker 1: the government, the EU or NATO, he charges it. He says,
31:29
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter whether a journalist who publishes material critical
31:32
Speaker 1: of the government or NATO does so under foreign influence
31:36
Speaker 1: for that person to be considered a participant, it's enough
31:39
Speaker 1: for his act that his actions are perceived to benefit
31:42
Speaker 1: the foreign propaganda agents, as the government describes it in Germany.
31:47
Speaker 1: And he goes on to say, so it takes, and
31:49
Speaker 1: it takes little so that the Federal Office for the
31:52
Speaker 1: Protection of the Constitution may not only investigate a critical publicist,
31:56
Speaker 1: but may also mislead and DiSavoy him by leaking false information.
32:01
Speaker 1: The same applies to members of political parties who are
32:04
Speaker 1: critical of the EU or of NATO. He says, if
32:06
Speaker 1: the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution asks
32:10
Speaker 1: a bank for account data, the termination of the account
32:13
Speaker 1: is often not far for the media outlet or the
32:16
Speaker 1: publicis concerned. Banks are explicitly prohibited from using the request
32:21
Speaker 1: as an opportunity to do so, but they don't have
32:23
Speaker 1: to justify an account termination. So in other words, he's
32:26
Speaker 1: saying it's happening anyway, and in any case, he says,
32:29
Speaker 1: they're prohibited from forming the person concerned about the request,
32:32
Speaker 1: So the person just has their bank account closed and
32:35
Speaker 1: they have no idea why, and they're not being given
32:38
Speaker 1: any explanation. He says that the explanatory notes for the
32:43
Speaker 1: legislation use the term not illegal but certainly illegitimate. That's
32:48
Speaker 1: the translation, of course, but nonetheless it absolutely echoes the
32:51
Speaker 1: British legal but harmful rhetoric used so often in connection
32:55
Speaker 1: to the Online Safety Act here in the UK. And
32:58
Speaker 1: another similarity is the speed of implementation we discussed the
33:02
Speaker 1: fact that the National Security Act was passed in a
33:04
Speaker 1: matter of a few weeks, and the fact that the
33:06
Speaker 1: Commons part of that was passed in the matter of
33:08
Speaker 1: a day. The consultation on this draft legislation in Germany
33:13
Speaker 1: had only eleven days for responses, and the German government
33:17
Speaker 1: chose to push forward with that during the summer news
33:21
Speaker 1: lull in order to minimize any kind of public scrutiny.
33:24
Speaker 1: It is quite incredible, Charles.
33:25
Speaker 2: It is, I mean, it is an absolutely direct parallel.
33:29
Speaker 2: Is not just the National Security State Threat To Act
33:32
Speaker 2: that's just gone through, but with so many other parts
33:35
Speaker 2: of legislation and directives, but also this idea that people
33:38
Speaker 2: may be ensnared by a determination that is completely out
33:43
Speaker 2: of their control. So it is always up to the
33:45
Speaker 2: state as to whether there is benefit to a foreign
33:49
Speaker 2: state or a foreign agent or any involvement like that
33:52
Speaker 2: is completely within the gift of the Secretary of State.
33:57
Speaker 2: And then there's the other element of criminalizing activity that
34:00
Speaker 2: is not does not meet the criminal threshold, and we
34:02
Speaker 2: saw this with the twenty years ago with orders control orders,
34:08
Speaker 2: where people who had not committed terrorist activities were put
34:11
Speaker 2: under a control order and if they breached the order
34:14
Speaker 2: subsequently fell fout of the legislation. So it is outstandingly cynical,
34:17
Speaker 2: but also unfortunately gives huge, huge power to the States
34:22
Speaker 2: to be able to do absolutely anything they like with
34:25
Speaker 2: the most spurious justification.
34:28
Speaker 1: Vanessa, back to you and across the Atlantic, what has
34:32
Speaker 1: a Texas's been up to?
34:35
Speaker 7: Well, I'd just like to remind people. I know Basil
34:37
Speaker 7: mentioned it on Friday, but that Heccesth has recently been
34:41
Speaker 7: talking about the worrying factor of testosterone deficiency in the
34:46
Speaker 7: American Armed Forces. So let's just have an introduction from
34:49
Speaker 7: Hexcesth on.
34:50
Speaker 11: That I'm authorizing a new screening program for test asterone
34:56
Speaker 11: deficiency for our service members, ensuring you have the right
35:00
Speaker 11: testosterone levels to operate at your absolute best, because it's
35:05
Speaker 11: well established science that as we age, testosterone levels often
35:09
Speaker 11: naturally drop.
35:14
Speaker 12: Sorry, I really can't take that very seriously anyway. Then
35:18
Speaker 12: I want to move on to Hegxeth defending himself in
35:23
Speaker 12: the Senate under question from Senator John Osov and Senator
35:28
Speaker 12: Gary Peters. Osof did a fantastic job, and I do
35:33
Speaker 12: recommend watching the whole section, which will be obviously linked
35:37
Speaker 12: to in the show notes bit hegxeth is cornered in
35:41
Speaker 12: this entire debate, so let's just play one.
35:44
Speaker 7: Section of it.
35:46
Speaker 13: On day fourteen of this conflict, in the second week
35:49
Speaker 13: of the conflict, you stated that Iron's military had been
35:52
Speaker 13: quote destroyed and quote made combat ineffective. Was that an
35:57
Speaker 13: accurate statement? Yes? Or no?
36:00
Speaker 14: Iran's ability to challenge the United States of America at
36:03
Speaker 14: the level of which we're capable of.
36:04
Speaker 13: That's not what I asked him as a secretary. You
36:06
Speaker 13: said on day fourteen, Iran's military had been quote destroyed
36:10
Speaker 13: and quote made combat ineffective. Yes or no? Was that
36:14
Speaker 13: an accurate statement?
36:17
Speaker 14: What the American military has answered to the Questionian military
36:20
Speaker 14: is a historic military?
36:21
Speaker 13: You answer the question effect in that context. Three weeks later,
36:26
Speaker 13: you declared victory that was now nearly four months ago.
36:32
Speaker 13: Three weeks after you'd already said Iran's military was a
36:35
Speaker 13: destroyed and combat ineffective. You said, quote Operation Epic Fury
36:39
Speaker 13: was a historic and overwhelming victory. You said Iran's military
36:43
Speaker 13: had been rendered quote combat ineffective for years to come,
36:48
Speaker 13: and you stated we had quote achieved every single objective.
36:52
Speaker 13: Were those accurate statements?
36:55
Speaker 14: It certainly was on behalf of the men and women
36:56
Speaker 14: in uniform, a historic military victory over Iran.
37:03
Speaker 7: Anyway, let's move on to Senator Gary Peters, who's absolutely
37:08
Speaker 7: displaying some frustration having sat through the conversation with Senator
37:14
Speaker 7: John Osoff. But let's play this.
37:17
Speaker 15: Failure. The word I heard exactly will tell you how
37:20
Speaker 15: I use the word failure because I use the word
37:22
Speaker 15: failure to their leaders.
37:23
Speaker 1: You, sir, are the failure.
37:25
Speaker 15: Not the men and women who are on that front line,
37:28
Speaker 15: not the men and women who hold up their honor
37:31
Speaker 15: with the distinction. But if there's a lack of a
37:34
Speaker 15: winning strategy, they're in harm's way. Their leaders have failed them,
37:38
Speaker 15: and that's what's happening. We have political leadership. You You
37:41
Speaker 15: don't have a strategy, You don't have a long term
37:43
Speaker 15: plan to actually win this war.
37:46
Speaker 1: Win the war.
37:47
Speaker 15: The men and women are going to be able to
37:48
Speaker 15: do it, but they need to have leadership.
37:50
Speaker 8: Quinn, will.
37:53
Speaker 16: You show some leadership and stand up your fellow Democrats
37:55
Speaker 16: who won't fund the troops, who stand and play partisan politics.
37:58
Speaker 16: Why you don't give us the money to stand up
38:00
Speaker 16: here and talk about the troops. You won't show courage
38:03
Speaker 16: to actually fund our department because you have Trump Trump
38:06
Speaker 16: arrangement syndrome and can't actually.
38:08
Speaker 11: Commit to anything meaningful. So I put this on you,
38:10
Speaker 11: Senator Sir.
38:14
Speaker 7: I mean, honestly, this is just quite extraordinary Trump derangent syndrome,
38:18
Speaker 7: while genuinely American military personnel are dying I think in
38:23
Speaker 7: their drobes in this war, and that is not being
38:26
Speaker 7: admitted to the families.
38:29
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you for that, Fanessa Charles offer to you then,
38:32
Speaker 1: and back to the UK and the question of Dartmoor
38:35
Speaker 1: and the police.
38:36
Speaker 2: Yes, which is a fascinating story because of the very
38:40
Speaker 2: many elements that it encapsulates. But you may remember over
38:44
Speaker 2: recent weeks that we have covered the apparent plight of
38:47
Speaker 2: the Dartmoor Hill Pony because of the actions taken by
38:50
Speaker 2: Natural England, in particular in that they have set the conditions,
38:54
Speaker 2: or appear to have set the conditions for a widespread
38:58
Speaker 2: removal of the ponies from art More, which would have
39:00
Speaker 2: inevitably led to a cul Now that's been resisted in
39:03
Speaker 2: the strongest possible terms with a petition that garnered over
39:06
Speaker 2: two hundred thousand signatures. You'll remember we had Joe Lovemore
39:08
Speaker 2: on the program from Friends of the Dartmore Hill Pony
39:12
Speaker 2: and there has been subsequent engagement with Natural England. We'll
39:15
Speaker 2: just look at the Dartmoor Hill Pony Association's posts saying
39:19
Speaker 2: the ponies are safe. That's the determination at the minute.
39:23
Speaker 2: And as I say, this has come from engagement with government.
39:27
Speaker 2: Now I'm going to show the press release because it
39:30
Speaker 2: is staggering. The government have written that they the Government
39:33
Speaker 2: secure the future of Dartmore's iconic ponies. Now, that is
39:37
Speaker 2: an interesting take on the situation and I'm going to
39:39
Speaker 2: enter that immediately into the finals of the Double Speak
39:43
Speaker 2: Awards for twenty twenty six. But what I am pleased
39:46
Speaker 2: to say is that we have the chair of the
39:50
Speaker 2: Dartmore Hill Pony Association and the founder of the Friends
39:53
Speaker 2: of the Dartmore Hill Pony, Charlotte Faulkner, with us on
39:56
Speaker 2: the program. Charlotte very war, Welcome to k Colin. Thank
39:59
Speaker 2: you very much for joining me. Now, please just give
40:02
Speaker 2: your take on the most recent developments with the government
40:05
Speaker 2: and Natural England.
40:08
Speaker 10: I think we can say we celebrated the adrenaline's gone
40:12
Speaker 10: and we're a bit flat now, but we're cautiously optimistic
40:15
Speaker 10: and we've written an invited Dame Angelie Eagles, our new
40:19
Speaker 10: Secretary of State, to come and visit us, with the
40:22
Speaker 10: bribe of a cream tea. I think it's probably on offer.
40:24
Speaker 10: But we have very odd ways of fighting on Dartmoor,
40:29
Speaker 10: I think. But it has been the most extraordinary. I
40:35
Speaker 10: don't know how you can thank so many people and
40:39
Speaker 10: politicians across the board, but especially Steve Race and Loopollard
40:45
Speaker 10: and just they've all been so incredible at making our government.
40:50
Speaker 10: The Secretary of State aware of what was happening on
40:54
Speaker 10: Dartmoor when we started was said, you don't stand the
40:58
Speaker 10: hope of even getting to hit them, to hear you,
41:01
Speaker 10: And due to everyone's amazingness, we have got what we
41:06
Speaker 10: need going forward. But as I said, we're remaining very cautious.
41:11
Speaker 2: The optimistices, sorry, sure, so no, no continue, Sorry, I
41:17
Speaker 2: don't mean to drop.
41:19
Speaker 7: That's fine.
41:20
Speaker 10: I just I mean, what can you say really that
41:23
Speaker 10: we are these ponies that are found on Dartmoor. They're
41:27
Speaker 10: totally genetically rare, They've been here for at least four
41:31
Speaker 10: thousand years. Everything about them is they're incredibly valuable to
41:37
Speaker 10: the bio diversity of Dartmore and so everyone's battle has
41:41
Speaker 10: been well worthwhile. If you love Dartmore, everyone who's helped,
41:45
Speaker 10: you've helped ensure generations to come, we'll see ponies on
41:49
Speaker 10: Dartmore and enjoy the biodiversity that's here and everything about it.
41:53
Speaker 2: Really, I think, yeah, absolutely, and that is incredibly important.
41:57
Speaker 2: And in the press release the government specifically that farmers
42:00
Speaker 2: and I'm not facing a choice between keeping ponies and
42:03
Speaker 2: maintaining sheep or cattle. With regard to your comments on caution,
42:09
Speaker 2: do you take the view that this has been done
42:12
Speaker 2: with the ponies solely in mind, or with political expediency
42:17
Speaker 2: or opportunism in mind with regard to public opinion, or
42:21
Speaker 2: is it sort of hard to discern between the two.
42:24
Speaker 10: I think it's hard to discern between the two. I
42:25
Speaker 10: think I think actually everyone just realized that this was
42:30
Speaker 10: a very important moment where we all talk about keeping
42:35
Speaker 10: our our nature secure and everything, and so it was
42:40
Speaker 10: cross party really. I think everyone just believed that something
42:43
Speaker 10: had to happen, and they made it happen. And I
42:46
Speaker 10: do believe that actually Natural England were not in the
42:50
Speaker 10: discussion with us as such, it was decided by the
42:54
Speaker 10: government as to how this would go forward and make
43:00
Speaker 10: it work in the correct way. I think consequences of
43:03
Speaker 10: actions have got to be addressed more clearly when things
43:09
Speaker 10: are brought forward.
43:11
Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's been such.
43:13
Speaker 10: An also emotional about it that you find it really
43:19
Speaker 10: hard to address that even even became a question.
43:25
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, and I think you know this highlights the
43:27
Speaker 2: concerns that a lot of people have had on a
43:30
Speaker 2: number of related issues, specifically with Natural England. So your
43:33
Speaker 2: comments on the government in effect keeping Natural England in
43:36
Speaker 2: check our most interesting. Is there to be any sort
43:40
Speaker 2: of follow up discussion from now?
43:44
Speaker 10: I should think we're just waiting for Natural England to
43:46
Speaker 10: react to what has been put forward. We've got lots
43:51
Speaker 10: of ideas. We're very willing to talk and ensure that
43:55
Speaker 10: the three animals grazing on Dartmoor works for everyone to,
44:00
Speaker 10: you know, ensure nature recovery and ensure all the right
44:05
Speaker 10: things happen in the right direction, and look after our
44:10
Speaker 10: own culture of looking after Dartmore, the farming community. Everyone
44:14
Speaker 10: needs to be looked at. I mean, I do feel
44:17
Speaker 10: very strongly that that people are not being considered in
44:22
Speaker 10: all these decisions, and our community on Dartmoor is really
44:25
Speaker 10: suffering not knowing what's going to happen next, and this
44:28
Speaker 10: was just the tip of the iceberg. I think what's
44:32
Speaker 10: happened with the ponies is it shows that we can
44:35
Speaker 10: be heard, which I think is a fairly fantastic thing
44:37
Speaker 10: in itself.
44:38
Speaker 7: And so there's the door is.
44:39
Speaker 10: Open an inch and we now need to open it
44:42
Speaker 10: actually get everyone talking properly in a really genuine way
44:47
Speaker 10: to ensure Dartmore remains as we as it needs to be.
44:51
Speaker 1: Because we all love it.
44:52
Speaker 2: We prove that. Indeed you have and emphatically so well,
44:56
Speaker 2: my congratulations to you for pushing this as far as
44:59
Speaker 2: you have. I wish you luck in the future. Charlotte,
45:02
Speaker 2: thank you very much indeed for joining us on the program.
45:06
Speaker 2: Now I would encourage you the audience to take a
45:08
Speaker 2: look at this because it does speak to the much
45:10
Speaker 2: wider issue of the connection exactly like Charlotte describes the
45:14
Speaker 2: connection between people and the landscape and indeed what happens
45:16
Speaker 2: to livestock, and of course that moves us neatly to
45:20
Speaker 2: the issue of food security, or at least the way
45:23
Speaker 2: in which food security is absolutely not addressed. Now UK
45:27
Speaker 2: column spent some time talking about the various incentives the
45:30
Speaker 2: sustainable Farming Incentive being one such which is described as
45:34
Speaker 2: an environmental land management scheme and is supposed to incentivize
45:37
Speaker 2: farmers in the correct direction. Now there is a scheme
45:40
Speaker 2: open at the minute, which has been since June. Now
45:44
Speaker 2: is it fair? Of course, it's on a first come,
45:46
Speaker 2: first serve basis, so I quote from the schemes rules
45:50
Speaker 2: and guidance that it may close sooner if demand is
45:52
Speaker 2: high and window Window one budget is fully allocated. There's
45:57
Speaker 2: been a reduction of one hundred from one hundred and
45:59
Speaker 2: two actions down seventy one, but it's still very confusing,
46:02
Speaker 2: and of course there are restrictions now, such as some
46:05
Speaker 2: SFI actions can only be done on up to twenty
46:08
Speaker 2: five percent of your farm. And here's the critical phrase.
46:13
Speaker 2: This is because they take land out of agricultural production. Now,
46:17
Speaker 2: this goes back to correspondence I had with DEFRA in
46:20
Speaker 2: January twenty twenty four, because I asked, at the instigation
46:23
Speaker 2: of this very incentive how it was going to be managed,
46:28
Speaker 2: because there was a possibility that people could enter into
46:31
Speaker 2: it up to one hundred percent of their land, and
46:33
Speaker 2: of course Dephra had the arrogance or ignorance. You decide
46:38
Speaker 2: to say that the utilized agricultural area has remained broadly
46:42
Speaker 2: stable in recent years and we do not expect this
46:45
Speaker 2: to change as more farmers sign up to our farming schemes.
46:48
Speaker 2: Of course, it did go up by one hundred and
46:50
Speaker 2: seven percent, which is why it is now restricted to
46:53
Speaker 2: seventy five percent. But on the specific issue of whether
46:56
Speaker 2: or not there is much regard given to food security,
47:00
Speaker 2: we look at the statistical release for total factor productivity
47:04
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five. Of course that's not actually going to
47:06
Speaker 2: come out till June and July twenty twenty seven, and
47:08
Speaker 2: then we've got the Food Security Report, which which they
47:10
Speaker 2: are bound to submit to Parliament every three years. Food
47:13
Speaker 2: Report not due to be released between December and January
47:16
Speaker 2: twenty twenty eight. Not quite sure what that means as
47:18
Speaker 2: a date, but there we are. Also I had an
47:21
Speaker 2: email from Alistair Carmichael this morning, who has petitioned for
47:25
Speaker 2: a debate on food security in House Commons. He's not
47:28
Speaker 2: yet been given a date for a backbench business debate.
47:32
Speaker 2: But I think the reason this is worth mentioning is subplefold,
47:34
Speaker 2: not least because it's a critically important issue regardless of
47:38
Speaker 2: the backdrop, but also because of the relentless propaganda about
47:41
Speaker 2: shocks to the system, the fragility of the food chain,
47:45
Speaker 2: and the overall approach to food security I would say
47:48
Speaker 2: seems in Congress at best.
47:51
Speaker 1: Indeed, Okay, well, last talk about an extra today, So
47:55
Speaker 1: stay with us after this program A for a UK
47:57
Speaker 1: cale member for that the that's a let's come back
48:00
Speaker 1: to you then. And well, I mean, what is We've
48:05
Speaker 1: already seen a little bit of Trump today. Sadly we
48:07
Speaker 1: do have to look a little bit more.
48:10
Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm so sorry. I apologize for inflicting Trump across
48:14
Speaker 7: all my sections today or excess. I mean, I don't
48:17
Speaker 7: know which one is worse, but anyway, Yes, the Lebanese
48:21
Speaker 7: current president, President Allan, was in Washington for a meeting
48:26
Speaker 7: with Trump. I have to say during this press conference
48:29
Speaker 7: he responded to one question the entire press preference. He
48:33
Speaker 7: sat next to Trump very meekly, agreeing with everything he said.
48:39
Speaker 7: But of course Trump went on his normal charm offensive
48:43
Speaker 7: and this was how he pretty much introduced President Alan.
48:47
Speaker 2: So if we just quickly play this the UK Prime Minister, yes,
48:52
Speaker 2: homes drive president.
48:53
Speaker 8: So I say he's answer also, and I think he
48:56
Speaker 8: could become one of the most important leaders in the
48:59
Speaker 8: Middle East action. We do this because they've been doing
49:01
Speaker 8: trying to do this for decades, right, decades and decades.
49:05
Speaker 8: So if I made that statement about somebody else, I
49:09
Speaker 8: would put him in the same game.
49:15
Speaker 7: So he starts off with President Alan being handsome, particularly
49:19
Speaker 7: I would disagree with him. He then moves on to Iran,
49:24
Speaker 7: and of course this is how he describes Iran, with
49:29
Speaker 7: President Alan sitting next to him, who makes absolutely no
49:33
Speaker 7: counter to Trump's statement.
49:36
Speaker 8: Iran, who's very evil people leading their country. You saw
49:42
Speaker 8: the number of protesters that they kill, fifty two thousand plus.
49:46
Speaker 8: I put a couple of them up to their young kids.
49:48
Speaker 8: They kill them. They kill them like they're like they're candy.
49:52
Speaker 8: It's crazy what they do. They treat him so badly.
49:57
Speaker 8: They just killing people just at random, over fifty two
50:01
Speaker 8: thousand people, and nobody talks about it.
50:03
Speaker 7: But so Iranians kill children like Canda. Of course, Israel
50:12
Speaker 7: doesn't geneside children in Gaza. And as one very good
50:17
Speaker 7: Iranian account that I recommend everybody follows posted as sixty two,
50:24
Speaker 7: more body parts of the martyrs of the Minab School
50:27
Speaker 7: bioming have been found. Maccan the young boy there on
50:31
Speaker 7: the right is still missing. After genetic tas it was
50:35
Speaker 7: determined that the sixty two pieces belonged to thirty two
50:38
Speaker 7: students who can now be buried. No part of the
50:42
Speaker 7: martyr Macan Nasiri has been found so far, as she says,
50:47
Speaker 7: the kid was simply vaporized. And then unfortunately we have
50:53
Speaker 7: to go back to Trump in the meeting with President Awn,
50:56
Speaker 7: and here he's talking about targeting Iranian nucleus.
51:01
Speaker 8: Will absolutely attack we you know, the new site that
51:06
Speaker 8: they're talking about. I mean, how about these people. They're
51:10
Speaker 8: in this because of nuclear weapons that they're trying to
51:13
Speaker 8: possibly reconstitute a say, we'll hit that, say any site
51:19
Speaker 8: where they're even thinking about nuclear will be hitting it
51:21
Speaker 8: very very powerfully. Now nobody knows except the Iranians the
51:27
Speaker 8: damage that we've done.
51:31
Speaker 7: So we're back to the decimation of Eron. Interesting that,
51:35
Speaker 7: of course he's talking about iron not having nuclear capability.
51:39
Speaker 7: At the same time, according to AP report today or
51:43
Speaker 7: rather yesterday, Trump approves nuclear agreement that may allow Saudi
51:47
Speaker 7: Arabia to enriched uranium to AP sources say, of course,
51:53
Speaker 7: we also need to talk about Israel's nuclear capability that
51:57
Speaker 7: has never spoken about in the halls of power. He
52:00
Speaker 7: then goes on to talk about the potential for Jolani,
52:04
Speaker 7: the whistling Syrian president of al Qaeda, being used against Hezbola.
52:10
Speaker 7: So again this topic is brought to the four.
52:12
Speaker 2: Let's listen.
52:14
Speaker 8: The President of Siria has done a very good job.
52:17
Speaker 8: I wouldn't be surprised if this gentleman is going to
52:19
Speaker 8: do a job just like that. He's done a very
52:21
Speaker 8: good job. He's pull Syria together. He would like to
52:24
Speaker 8: come in and do something with Hesbella. You know, they've
52:28
Speaker 8: been fighting. He's been fighting Hezbela.
52:29
Speaker 9: For a long time.
52:31
Speaker 8: I think it'd be very effective.
52:33
Speaker 10: So something I think.
52:37
Speaker 7: So wait, did he just compare President Jolani to President
52:41
Speaker 7: Owan of Lebanon. There so, in that case, does that
52:44
Speaker 7: mean the President Allan is going to be running sectarian
52:48
Speaker 7: ethnic cleansing campaigns for the United States and Israel in Lebanon.
52:52
Speaker 7: Good question. Anyway. Finally President Allan gets to speak, and
52:57
Speaker 7: what does he talk about. He talks about the two
53:00
Speaker 7: things that he needs from President Trump. During his statement,
53:04
Speaker 7: he also insults has Bulla by calling them a militia.
53:09
Speaker 7: But let's listen to what he says about that the Laugh,
53:12
Speaker 7: by the way, is the Lebanese Armed Forces. No idea
53:15
Speaker 7: why he reduced it to an acronym, but anyway, let's
53:18
Speaker 7: listen to him.
53:20
Speaker 9: Definitely was the support of President Trump. And we spoke
53:23
Speaker 9: on the phone and I told him I need to
53:25
Speaker 9: thinks from you political support and supporting of the Laugh,
53:29
Speaker 9: which is the Laugh is the most trusted institution in
53:32
Speaker 9: the country that has the most powerful weapon, which is
53:35
Speaker 9: the trust of the public.
53:40
Speaker 7: Didn't he just give away the sovereignty of Lebanon. Forgive
53:44
Speaker 7: me if I'm wrong. Anyway, when we're talking about the
53:47
Speaker 7: National Security Act, it appears that Lebanon, that has always
53:50
Speaker 7: had annoyed him of press and thought and speech, is
53:55
Speaker 7: suddenly arresting journalists for criticizing Saudi Arabia. And this is
54:00
Speaker 7: based on instructions from Joseph Allen, the President, to prosecute
54:05
Speaker 7: anyone who criticizes Bin Salman and his regime. This is
54:10
Speaker 7: Lebanese journalists very well known. Hassan alike has very good reputation,
54:16
Speaker 7: and he basically says, whoever seeks the arrest of a
54:19
Speaker 7: journalist today in Lebanon because of his criticism of Bin Salman?
54:23
Speaker 7: Will do the same in the future when Natigno, who
54:26
Speaker 7: is criticized a very prescient statement there from Hassan alike.
54:31
Speaker 1: Worrying times indeed, and the same we're seeing the same
54:36
Speaker 1: situation rolling out right across the Western world at the moment.
54:40
Speaker 1: We'll talk more about that later and I Earlier this
54:44
Speaker 1: month in the UK, the of Atomic Scientists published a
54:47
Speaker 1: long article headlined is London shifting from nuclear deterrence to
54:53
Speaker 1: war fighting?
54:54
Speaker 15: Now?
54:54
Speaker 1: They begin with the twenty twenty one decision to increase
54:57
Speaker 1: the number of nuclear warheads from one hundred and eighty
54:59
Speaker 1: to two hundred and sixty in the UK, and they
55:01
Speaker 1: highlight the planned by twelve nuclear capable F thirty fives.
55:05
Speaker 1: Would they which they suggest would be stationed at Lake
55:08
Speaker 1: and Heath Air Base that Charles talking about earlier, and
55:12
Speaker 1: be capable of delivering B sixty one twelve nuclear gravity bombs.
55:16
Speaker 1: Now that's inaccurate because they're going to be based at
55:20
Speaker 1: Raf Maram, which is about twenty miles away from Nake
55:23
Speaker 1: and Heath. But anyway, I suspect the confusion comes from
55:26
Speaker 1: the fact that the that US nuclear armed F thirty
55:30
Speaker 1: five's are based at Lakenheath and in fact, we've been
55:33
Speaker 1: reporting on US nukes being back on UK soil since
55:37
Speaker 1: October twenty twenty four, when it came to light that
55:40
Speaker 1: US Congress had received an Air Force budurary request for
55:44
Speaker 1: fifteen million dollars to build a surety dormitory at the
55:49
Speaker 1: at Lakenheath. And in this case, the term seurity is
55:52
Speaker 1: used in US military parlance to refer to nuclear weapons.
55:56
Speaker 1: So this has been covered over the last couple of
56:01
Speaker 1: years that they were coming back, and I believe they
56:04
Speaker 1: are back. But anyway, back to the boat. They also
56:08
Speaker 1: point to another alarming aspect raised if we bring this
56:12
Speaker 1: back on screen then by historian Lawrence Friedman, who notes
56:16
Speaker 1: that a larger stockpile of two hundred and sixty warheads
56:19
Speaker 1: might allow the United Kingdom have two fully armed nuclear submarines,
56:23
Speaker 1: each potentially carrying a maximum of one hundred and twenty
56:26
Speaker 1: eight warheads on sixteen missiles on patrol at once. That's
56:31
Speaker 1: what they're suggesting that the increase in stockpile size was
56:35
Speaker 1: motivated by plans for the UK to the option of
56:38
Speaker 1: requiring a non strategic nuclear capability only emerged later. It's
56:42
Speaker 1: what he said. Now it might do that except for
56:46
Speaker 1: the fact that the British submarine fleet is in a
56:49
Speaker 1: sorry state and there's not much danger of being able
56:51
Speaker 1: to get two Vanguard class subs to see at the
56:53
Speaker 1: same time. And on top of that, each of the
56:56
Speaker 1: last two tried and firing tests has filled spectacularly. And
57:00
Speaker 1: then coming back to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists again,
57:03
Speaker 1: they say the decision to station tactical nukes and UK
57:06
Speaker 1: soil amounts to the facto settlement of the long running
57:10
Speaker 1: debate over adopting a doctrine of no first use or
57:14
Speaker 1: sole purpose and over the future of tactical nuclear weapons
57:17
Speaker 1: in NATO, the deployment of high precision, variable yield Kunter
57:20
Speaker 1: force weapons signals a willingness to carry out retaliatory or
57:24
Speaker 1: pre empt of nuclear strikes on an adversary. So by coincidence,
57:29
Speaker 1: then if you believe in such things. RUSSI published an
57:32
Speaker 1: article on exactly the same day saying more or less
57:35
Speaker 1: exactly the same things. They're saying that the next global
57:39
Speaker 1: shock may be the use of nuclear weapons, assisted by
57:43
Speaker 1: the more casual attitudes of less responsible world leaders and
57:47
Speaker 1: the lack of popular understanding and fear is what they're
57:51
Speaker 1: saying remember in March twenty twenty, when nobody could believe
57:55
Speaker 1: that the world was locked down, locking down due to
57:57
Speaker 1: the pandemic. They said, a nuclear war will not be
58:00
Speaker 1: about an inability to join dots, but another massive failure
58:04
Speaker 1: of human imagination. And they write that it's only a
58:07
Speaker 1: matter of time before we use drones used in the
58:10
Speaker 1: domestic context, perhaps against critical infrastructure such as nuclear reactors,
58:15
Speaker 1: that by far the greatest danger of a massive global
58:18
Speaker 1: shock would come from the use of a nuclear weapon
58:20
Speaker 1: in Angri for the first time since nineteen forty five.
58:23
Speaker 1: Who would do this, they say, Populist leaders such as Trump,
58:26
Speaker 1: Putin and Modi Pakistans as seem Nuneer are named, and
58:32
Speaker 1: these leaders cannot be trusted with weapons of such are
58:35
Speaker 1: Now I'm going to say Charles that I think find
58:37
Speaker 1: it interesting that he invokes COVID and the lockdown in
58:40
Speaker 1: this article because the fear based narratives which are being
58:44
Speaker 1: used in an attempt to drive support for war with
58:48
Speaker 1: Russia bear striking parallels to what happened in twenty twenty.
58:52
Speaker 1: And just like COVID when billions of tax pans and
58:54
Speaker 1: dollars were pumpted, this straight into big farmat today's billions
58:57
Speaker 1: of points that we were already discussed on the program
59:00
Speaker 1: are being pumped into the military industrial complex. In this case,
59:03
Speaker 1: I'd say there is one difference this time because I
59:06
Speaker 1: don't see any real resistance to it. People are too
59:08
Speaker 1: busy taking size over Israel, pasta in Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Sorry, Iran, USA.
59:14
Speaker 1: It's I think time to stand on principle stop all
59:17
Speaker 1: these wars.
59:18
Speaker 2: Well, I would completely agree with that. I would also
59:21
Speaker 2: agree with what was written about the potential for drone
59:24
Speaker 2: attack on in structure or anything else. Is the point
59:28
Speaker 2: that I've made to a certain extent with the idea
59:32
Speaker 2: that the Civil Aviation Authority may permit drones to be
59:36
Speaker 2: flown in certain circumstances but not others. And how as
59:40
Speaker 2: somebody on the ground, how on earth you meant to
59:41
Speaker 2: tell the difference? So how do you know that it's
59:44
Speaker 2: your Amazon delivery rather than something that's coming to kill
59:47
Speaker 2: you or the power station you live next to? Indeedee,
59:53
Speaker 2: and finally, and finally, yes, the elevation of Edminliband into
59:57
Speaker 2: a position that meant he was able to give Andy
59:59
Speaker 2: Burnham terribly awkward hug put me in mind of the
1:00:02
Speaker 2: cover of Private Eye back in twenty fourteen, and I
1:00:04
Speaker 2: thought we just have a quick look at that. It's
1:00:05
Speaker 2: actually interesting to note that there's Nigel Farage as well,
1:00:07
Speaker 2: of course Cameron and Clegg at the bottom, but they've disappeared.
1:00:10
Speaker 2: But it was particularly the Miller Band picture that made
1:00:13
Speaker 2: me laugh. I hope will make you laugh. And if
1:00:15
Speaker 2: you can't see the screen, it says the caption at
1:00:17
Speaker 2: the top says, the header at the top says normal
1:00:19
Speaker 2: ed Wow's voters. It's a picture of him at a
1:00:23
Speaker 2: meat counter in an indoor market where he's saying, two
1:00:27
Speaker 2: pints of cheese please, Barman. So I suppose I yearned
1:00:31
Speaker 2: for the days where it's fine to poke harmless fun
1:00:34
Speaker 2: at people.
1:00:35
Speaker 1: Indeed, I'm quite sure that was anti semitic at the time.
1:00:39
Speaker 1: Sure it is not as well, but anyway, we've got
1:00:41
Speaker 1: to leave it there for today, Thanks very much to
1:00:44
Speaker 1: everybody's was thanks to Vanessa and to Charles, and stick
1:00:48
Speaker 1: around a few UK column member for UK col News
1:00:51
Speaker 1: Extra in a few minutes. Otherwise, don't forget interviews tonight
1:00:54
Speaker 1: and tomorrow at one pm. I'll be back for another
1:00:57
Speaker 1: news program at one pm on Friday, as usual you'll
1:00:59
Speaker 1: see then about w