Latest / UK Column Radio / UK Column News — 24th August 2026

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UK Column News — 24th August 2026 · UK Column Radio

0:08
Speaker 1: Good afternoon.
0:08
Speaker 2: It's Monday, twenty fourth to August twenty twenty six, just
0:12
Speaker 2: after one o'clock UK time.
0:13
Speaker 1: You're watching UK column News.
0:15
Speaker 2: I'm your host, Ben Rubin and I'm delighted to be
0:17
Speaker 2: joined in the studio by mister Charles Mallett.
0:20
Speaker 1: Hello Charles. In a while, has isn't it? Keeping well?
0:23
Speaker 3: Very well?
0:23
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward today.
0:24
Speaker 2: I'm absolutely looking forward to today. Yes, we've got a
0:27
Speaker 2: lot to get through. The climate crisis is reaching an
0:31
Speaker 2: even more feverish pitch and we're going to look at
0:34
Speaker 2: who's behind it and who stands to benefit. We'll be
0:37
Speaker 2: looking at the great transition to a new political and
0:40
Speaker 2: economic system desired by the establishment, which we're going to
0:44
Speaker 2: be ushered into if they have their way through a
0:46
Speaker 2: very tightly staged, managed national conversation which has just kicked
0:51
Speaker 2: off over the past couple of weeks. Charles is going
0:53
Speaker 2: to be looking at corruption at the very top of
0:55
Speaker 2: the British Police, examining the new national day for victims
0:59
Speaker 2: and of terrorism. But before that, it's more war, as
1:04
Speaker 2: Andy Burnham hids to Ukraine.
1:07
Speaker 1: Yes it is.
1:08
Speaker 4: And it's interesting that you would mention a national conversation
1:11
Speaker 4: because I think that's one thing we haven't really had
1:13
Speaker 4: on Ukraine at any point, but we do appear to
1:17
Speaker 4: be approaching a fever pitch. And if you run the
1:21
Speaker 4: impression that Andy Burnham was going to go anywhere else
1:24
Speaker 4: on his first foreign visit, then I'm afraid you're going
1:26
Speaker 4: to be disappointed. But this is the announcement that was
1:28
Speaker 4: put out by the Prime Minister's office, shown of course
1:32
Speaker 4: here in Ukrainian, because why wouldn't you put it in Ukrainian.
1:36
Speaker 4: What it actually says in English is Britain is one
1:39
Speaker 4: hundred percent behind you. Prime Minister Andy Burnham visits Kiev
1:43
Speaker 4: on Ukrainian Independence Day for his first international trip, and
1:47
Speaker 4: I don't think anyone would have bet against him going
1:49
Speaker 4: to Ukraine. As I say now, the point to bring
1:53
Speaker 4: out of the language used there is that Britain of
1:55
Speaker 4: course is behind Ukraine, and the idea that this is
1:58
Speaker 4: anything other than a means by which Russia may be
2:02
Speaker 4: attacked by proxy using Ukrainian lives is I think put
2:06
Speaker 4: to bed by what's in this press release. They say
2:11
Speaker 4: that the Prime Minister is going to tell the Ukrainian
2:13
Speaker 4: people that the UK is four square behind Ukraine's independence
2:17
Speaker 4: and this is further reinforced by the Pallace of Westminster
2:20
Speaker 4: last night being lit up in Ukraine colors and the
2:23
Speaker 4: Minister of Events being emblazoned by a photograph of a handshake.
2:28
Speaker 4: Of course entirely meaningless, but this is the Prime Minister
2:31
Speaker 4: really got dressed up for this trip. Here he is
2:33
Speaker 4: getting off the es exactly getting off the train and
2:35
Speaker 4: in fact, interestingly they find something fascinating on the station
2:39
Speaker 4: roof which will take a look at. So there's no
2:41
Speaker 4: doubt about the grand significance of this event. But the
2:46
Speaker 4: point is it coincides with Ukraine's Independence Day and they
2:49
Speaker 4: talk about strengthening the UK's resolve, and that's interesting. You
2:53
Speaker 4: think they might be wanting to strengthen Ukraine's resolve, but
2:55
Speaker 4: not the case, apparently strengthening the UK's resolve. There were
3:00
Speaker 4: other European leaders arriving, including the European Council President Antonio Costa,
3:06
Speaker 4: the President of Moldova, Maya Sandhu, and Luxembourg's Prime Minister
3:10
Speaker 4: Luke Frieden. The press release itself, I think might be
3:14
Speaker 4: classified as revealing, both in terms of what it does
3:17
Speaker 4: say but also what it doesn't say, and it contains
3:21
Speaker 4: this line. To underline the strength of the commitment, the
3:24
Speaker 4: Prime Minister is set to announce that the government has
3:26
Speaker 4: agreed that defense firm MBDA can release classified information on
3:32
Speaker 4: UK components for the long range missile SCALP. That might
3:37
Speaker 4: mean more to you as stormshadow this course of the
3:39
Speaker 4: French variant as Ukraine and France look to establish local
3:43
Speaker 4: assembly lines in Ukraine. Now MBDA is owned by a
3:48
Speaker 4: mixture of Airbus, BAE and Leonardo and I think the
3:51
Speaker 4: critical part here, as seen on screen, is that it's
3:53
Speaker 4: listed as a deep strike capability and will come back
3:57
Speaker 4: to exactly that and what that means later. But they
4:00
Speaker 4: go on to say the move follows the UK being
4:02
Speaker 4: the first to gift long range strike weapons for defensive purposes. Yes,
4:07
Speaker 4: you did hear that correctly, defensive purposes to Ukraine in
4:10
Speaker 4: twenty twenty three, and would allow the French and Ukrainians
4:13
Speaker 4: to move forward with the Ukrainian assembly of the missile.
4:16
Speaker 4: That one has to ask at that point is it
4:17
Speaker 4: just going to be the assembly that they're moving forward
4:19
Speaker 4: with regard to the French involvement. And I should say
4:23
Speaker 4: that this follows the recent gift of the intellectual property
4:26
Speaker 4: for stone Cloak signal jamming device made by be Systems,
4:30
Speaker 4: which already appears to have been responsible for a number
4:32
Speaker 4: of civilian deaths at the wild Berries warehouses far into Russia.
4:36
Speaker 4: And that's something that Brian and I discussed in a
4:39
Speaker 4: forthcoming episode of Military Matters, so look out for that one.
4:42
Speaker 4: Burnham himself said Russia should be in no doubt of
4:46
Speaker 4: our resolve. We will not back down until there is
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Speaker 4: just and lasting peace. If you reckon to that, plus.
4:55
Speaker 2: Achonge, it's the same thing we've been hearing for the
4:58
Speaker 2: past three years plus now.
5:00
Speaker 4: I mean that is I think an absolutely valid point
5:02
Speaker 4: to make the number of times that Burnham, just like
5:04
Speaker 4: his predecessor Starmer, has issued the word change whilst being
5:07
Speaker 4: precisely the same thing that the last four, if not
5:10
Speaker 4: more Prime ministers.
5:11
Speaker 1: Have been doing.
5:12
Speaker 4: The script really at this point appears almost to have
5:14
Speaker 4: been written by the BBC. That goes on to say
5:16
Speaker 4: the Prime Minister will take part in Independence Day events
5:19
Speaker 4: and co chair his first meeting of the Coalition of
5:21
Speaker 4: the Willing to discuss how the UK can continue to
5:24
Speaker 4: support Ukraine as it courageously defends itself against Russia's illegal
5:30
Speaker 4: invasion and the UK has been one of Ukraine's foremost
5:35
Speaker 4: partners since the start of Russia's full scale invasion, providing
5:38
Speaker 4: a range of military, economic and diplomatic support underpinned by
5:43
Speaker 4: the UK and Ukraine's one hundred year partnership. This includes
5:47
Speaker 4: leading efforts to secure Ukraine's long term security and so
5:50
Speaker 4: on and so forth, before going into the eyewatering amounts
5:53
Speaker 4: of money twenty five billion committed in funding, sixteen in
5:56
Speaker 4: military assistance and nearly six billion in non military support.
6:00
Speaker 4: And we're just looking at the scalp storm shadow capability
6:04
Speaker 4: on screen at the minute, which of course has to
6:05
Speaker 4: be fired from an aircraft to enable the deep strike capability.
6:10
Speaker 4: I think the questions that fall out of this are,
6:12
Speaker 4: of course, as I've already alluded to, who's going to
6:14
Speaker 4: be operating these weapons? We think back to the death
6:17
Speaker 4: of Lance Corporal George Wholly of the Special Forces Support
6:20
Speaker 4: Group last year and what exactly was not just his
6:22
Speaker 4: involvement but that of the Support Group, Special Forces and others.
6:27
Speaker 4: What control measures are in place with regards to Ukraine's
6:30
Speaker 4: use of these technologies, especially with Article fifty one of
6:34
Speaker 4: the Geneva Conventions in mind striking specific striking of military targets,
6:38
Speaker 4: and at what point does Russia decide that.
6:40
Speaker 1: We are de facto at war with her?
6:44
Speaker 4: I think also what about the long term security of
6:46
Speaker 4: the United Kingdom, whether or not Russia constitutes an existential threat,
6:50
Speaker 4: and indeed, will anyone ever mention the fact that the
6:53
Speaker 4: consequence of this supposed boost to the industry is death
6:58
Speaker 4: and the further torpedoing of national relations in particular between
7:01
Speaker 4: the United Kingdom as Russia. And the other thing pointed
7:04
Speaker 4: out by Basil Valentine last week was that this is
7:07
Speaker 4: in effect a close circuit economy, so by boosting so
7:10
Speaker 4: called defense jobs actually no wider positive impact because society
7:14
Speaker 4: can't enter that particular marketplace, and that leads us neatly
7:18
Speaker 4: into another government announcement going out at the end of
7:20
Speaker 4: last week, which is that British weapons jobs rise by
7:24
Speaker 4: more than fifty percent in a year as defense investment
7:27
Speaker 4: strengthens UK industry, and as is along the lines of
7:30
Speaker 4: what was being put out in the Defense Review last
7:32
Speaker 4: year talking about four hundred and sixty two thousand roles.
7:34
Speaker 4: Of course, site double accounting going on there, because a
7:37
Speaker 4: lot of those already exist in the armed forces and
7:38
Speaker 4: civil service, but they're talking about defense being an engine
7:41
Speaker 4: for growth and creating jobs and opportunities and all the
7:45
Speaker 4: rest of it, but apparently to raise living standards unless
7:48
Speaker 4: you happen to be on the end of a deep
7:50
Speaker 4: strike within Russian territory. Now, I want to just ask
7:55
Speaker 4: the question, where is this going and what are we
7:58
Speaker 4: actually looking at when we talk about this sort of
8:01
Speaker 4: uplift in defense jobs. And I'm singing like two firms
8:04
Speaker 4: in particular, the first being Tripilian, named after a village
8:07
Speaker 4: in Ukraine, Tripilia, and this gives this graphic on screen
8:11
Speaker 4: or motion picture, gives an idea of what it is
8:14
Speaker 4: they're up to, obviously autonomous systems. And then the other
8:17
Speaker 4: one being Defense Holdings, and they they're sort of motto
8:20
Speaker 4: is defending tomorrow today.
8:22
Speaker 1: So very catchy.
8:22
Speaker 4: Now, the reason I want to look at these two
8:24
Speaker 4: in particular is because they are both advised, admittedly in
8:28
Speaker 4: a non executive way by now Field Marshal Sir David
8:32
Speaker 4: Richards and indeed Field Marshal Sir Nick Houghton, both chiefs
8:36
Speaker 4: of Defense Staff. And this is footage from the handover
8:39
Speaker 4: between the two of them at some time back, but
8:43
Speaker 4: just it makes the point about the connections between not
8:47
Speaker 4: just serving and former military, but also government and indeed
8:51
Speaker 4: the corporate environment, so respectively. The companies describe themselves as
8:56
Speaker 4: making deep strikes and cognitive operations, being integrated into scalable
9:01
Speaker 4: systems that convert immediate impact into strategic and lasting effects,
9:07
Speaker 4: if you can follow that. As for Nick Houten's outfit
9:11
Speaker 4: Defense Holdings, they talk about human machine teaming. So it's
9:15
Speaker 4: very much a theme here. And of course the reason
9:20
Speaker 4: for looking at them as I say, is they're linked
9:22
Speaker 4: back into defense through the offices that they held.
9:26
Speaker 3: Now.
9:27
Speaker 4: They both spoke after this ceremony, and I'm just going
9:30
Speaker 4: to remind you what it was that David Richards at
9:33
Speaker 4: the time said about the connection to the political environment.
9:38
Speaker 5: Today, I would like to pay tribute to the political
9:41
Speaker 5: team for their efforts. We may not always have agreed,
9:45
Speaker 5: but I have recognized, without exception, a genuine desire across
9:49
Speaker 5: the political spectrum to do the right thing.
9:52
Speaker 6: Those politicians have asked much of him to restructure the
9:55
Speaker 6: services without an aircraft carrier, harriers or Nimroald surveillance planes,
10:00
Speaker 6: around thirty thousand fewer people, but still pack the same
10:03
Speaker 6: military punch.
10:06
Speaker 4: So in fact, I think it might be fairs to
10:08
Speaker 4: say the story hasn't changed, but that doesn't necessarily need
10:11
Speaker 4: to affect his view on foreign intervention, whether it should
10:14
Speaker 4: be done, and whether indeed the enforces are capable of it.
10:16
Speaker 4: And this is what David Richards said about that.
10:21
Speaker 3: I think Libya there's certainly a success. Tactically, what we're
10:25
Speaker 3: doing in Afghanistan, as you know well, is very important
10:28
Speaker 3: to us. We just can't allow that country to become
10:31
Speaker 3: a haven for terrorists to gain. I think we stick
10:34
Speaker 3: to the plan and is a full commitment to it, politically, military,
10:37
Speaker 3: in every other respect. I think we can pull that
10:39
Speaker 3: off and allow the Afghans a better future.
10:42
Speaker 6: And today there was a parting warning from General Richards
10:45
Speaker 6: on Syria that intervening there would be harder than in Libya.
10:48
Speaker 6: He told the Daily Telegraph. If you want to have
10:51
Speaker 6: the material effect that people seek, you have to be
10:53
Speaker 6: able to hit ground targets, and so you will be
10:56
Speaker 6: going to war if that is what you want to do.
10:59
Speaker 6: But have a pragmatic sick. He suggests, we might not
11:01
Speaker 6: have a choice, telling the Sun if we saw chemical
11:03
Speaker 6: weapons proliferate as a result of what's happening in Syria,
11:07
Speaker 6: then we would have to act.
11:11
Speaker 4: Of course, the time has changed, the places have changed,
11:15
Speaker 4: but the idea that there is no longer a choice
11:17
Speaker 4: is increasingly being presented to the public. And of course
11:20
Speaker 4: the focus both Tripllian and Defense Holdings is almost exclusively
11:23
Speaker 4: on Ukraine. This is what Defense Holdings has to say
11:28
Speaker 4: about Ukraine, and that's from a strategic perspective, or at
11:32
Speaker 4: least from their business operations relating to Ukraine. From a
11:35
Speaker 4: strategic perspective, contemporary conflicts demonstrate that electronic warfare is becoming
11:40
Speaker 4: a computational contest now in a way might seem like
11:45
Speaker 4: odd speak for a defense entity. And this is where
11:47
Speaker 4: I want to involve then in this report, because what
11:51
Speaker 4: we're going to do now is look at the chief
11:52
Speaker 4: executive of Defense Holdings, and that's a man called Andrew Ruffan.
11:57
Speaker 4: As we see on LinkedIn here he is the chief
11:58
Speaker 4: executive officer. But here's a name that will be familiar
12:01
Speaker 4: to UK Colin viewers, because Ben has dealt a lot
12:04
Speaker 4: with my life, my say, of which Andrew Ruffin was
12:07
Speaker 4: chairperson between twenty nineteen and twenty twenty five. Does this
12:11
Speaker 4: strike you as an odd place for him to end
12:13
Speaker 4: up at.
12:15
Speaker 2: A surface level it seems odd, but given what I
12:18
Speaker 2: know about My Life, My Say, and also Plexel, where
12:21
Speaker 2: he was the chief executive or perhaps the chairperson pre
12:25
Speaker 2: going to Defense holdings, he was a plexible for about
12:27
Speaker 2: six or seven years, and that's a key interface between
12:31
Speaker 2: the military industrial complex, particularly secret intelligence Agency so m
12:35
Speaker 2: I six etc. And the advanced technology startup ecosystem that
12:40
Speaker 2: is built up around the UK, primarily in the city
12:43
Speaker 2: of London. And he just so happened to be the
12:45
Speaker 2: chairperson of My Life. My SAVII is a supposing youth
12:48
Speaker 2: charity heavily backed by Blair, Rothschild, all the usual suspects
12:54
Speaker 2: who essentially actually I'm going to talk about them on
12:56
Speaker 2: an upcoming news because they're very much still sent frame
13:00
Speaker 2: and they are a critical component of the establishment ability
13:06
Speaker 2: to manufacture electoral consent for policy. And they were behind
13:11
Speaker 2: the votes at sixteen campaign for example, not just campaign,
13:14
Speaker 2: the change of legislation which is given votes sixteen year olds.
13:17
Speaker 2: So the minaitary industrial complex is very keen on owning
13:20
Speaker 2: the electoral process and controlling what young people think and
13:24
Speaker 2: how they act. So yeah, very dangerous mixture, I would
13:28
Speaker 2: say this.
13:29
Speaker 4: Yeah, Okay, Well, I mean that is terrific context and
13:31
Speaker 4: I think it is fascinating. You know, it's very obvious
13:33
Speaker 4: the connections that exist already between particularly former military and government,
13:38
Speaker 4: but also the corporate environment, and see that politics is
13:41
Speaker 4: sort of wedged in there as well.
13:44
Speaker 1: You know, it seems to fit exactly.
13:46
Speaker 4: And I would go along exactly with what you say,
13:48
Speaker 4: and we'll talk about that more an extra I think.
13:49
Speaker 1: And also you know it's no coincidence.
13:51
Speaker 4: This is again when things are being driven by AI
13:54
Speaker 4: autonomy and all that sort of thing. As to where
13:57
Speaker 4: this is going, funny enough, rough And has just sent
14:00
Speaker 4: a letter to his shareholders in which he says that
14:04
Speaker 4: Defense Holdings is an operating technology company, not a venture
14:08
Speaker 4: capital fund. My job is to build sovereign software capability,
14:12
Speaker 4: win contracts, and create commercial value. Now, of course that
14:18
Speaker 4: is for shareholders. So this idea that Burnham has gone
14:22
Speaker 4: to Ukraine for anybody's benefit other than the likes of
14:26
Speaker 4: the shareholders or indeed the owners of Defense Holdings and
14:30
Speaker 4: the like, I think would be an overstatement or a
14:33
Speaker 4: misreading of the situation. And I think we watch to
14:37
Speaker 4: see which way this agenda is going to go. But
14:38
Speaker 4: it seems very clear that Russia is the threat. We're
14:42
Speaker 4: not going to be allowed to forget it. And the
14:44
Speaker 4: problem presented that is yet to be resolved, I think
14:47
Speaker 4: is manpower. But perhaps we can talk about that a
14:49
Speaker 4: bit later.
14:50
Speaker 1: I think we certainly will.
14:51
Speaker 2: Yes, I think we need to talk about defense holdings
14:53
Speaker 2: and Andrew rusfand a bit more so we shall come
14:55
Speaker 2: back to it. So we've got a crisis abroad and
14:57
Speaker 2: it necessitates a trillion dollar a year marketplace in defense technology,
15:04
Speaker 2: supposed defense technology, offense technology. But we also have a
15:08
Speaker 2: crisis at home and this is escalating. It's the supposed
15:15
Speaker 2: climate crisis, and the propaganda push around it is reaching
15:18
Speaker 2: an extraordinarily feverish pitch topped off I think over the
15:23
Speaker 2: past few days by the launch of a new organization
15:27
Speaker 2: from Extinction Rebellion founder Roger Hallam called four billion Dead.
15:33
Speaker 1: Let's have a listen.
15:35
Speaker 7: There are no words. Last year, the British insurance industry
15:41
Speaker 7: predicted at least four billion people will die as the
15:47
Speaker 7: past three degrees celsius in the middle of this century.
15:52
Speaker 7: This figure wasn't put in the title of the report,
15:56
Speaker 7: it wasn't put on the first page. In fact, it
15:59
Speaker 7: wasn't in fluded in the main body of the report
16:01
Speaker 7: at all. It was put in the appendix. Behind me
16:08
Speaker 7: is ten Downing Street. The Prime Minister Andy Burnham is
16:13
Speaker 7: suggesting we are quote pragmatic after thirty years of catastrophic failure.
16:22
Speaker 7: We know what pragmatic means. My name is Roger Hallan.
16:28
Speaker 7: I am a co founder of Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain
16:33
Speaker 7: and just Stop Oil. On Tuesday, I will be speaking
16:38
Speaker 7: for the new organization four Billion Dead. Thousands of people
16:44
Speaker 7: are coming, thousands of people are building the next social movement.
16:51
Speaker 1: So that was Roger Hallam, one of the founders of
16:54
Speaker 1: Extinction Rebellion, who I'll come back to shortly and I'll
16:57
Speaker 1: just say I actually saw him speak in person and
17:00
Speaker 1: in London back in twenty one. I think it was
17:03
Speaker 1: at an event in Dalston, and he was very unpersuasive.
17:07
Speaker 1: He was completely intolerant of dissent, and I should say
17:11
Speaker 1: he was playing very very fast and loose with the
17:14
Speaker 1: scientific method generally, but also his analysis of some of
17:18
Speaker 1: the statistics that he was presenting. So it's really no
17:21
Speaker 1: surprise for me to see here, look for him here
17:23
Speaker 1: launching this new organization four Billion Dead. So we can
17:28
Speaker 1: just get that up. This is their website.
17:30
Speaker 2: Sorry, has just jumped ahead slightly, but essentially this organization
17:34
Speaker 2: has been named for a line item in a report
17:38
Speaker 2: from the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries which came out
17:41
Speaker 2: last year.
17:42
Speaker 1: They're just launching now.
17:44
Speaker 2: And the reason that this was in the appendix. You
17:48
Speaker 2: saw him in that video complaining about the fact that
17:51
Speaker 2: this has been buried in the back of the report
17:52
Speaker 2: and no one's talking about it.
17:54
Speaker 1: It's because this is a total.
17:56
Speaker 2: Outlier scenario that basically has absolutely no basis in reality. Yeah,
18:02
Speaker 2: so these are projections that have come from the insurance industry.
18:08
Speaker 2: This is the absolute outside possible scenario. They call it extreme.
18:14
Speaker 2: It basically means it's not going to happen. And of
18:16
Speaker 2: course all of this is based on models and projections
18:19
Speaker 2: that are massively open to misuse, and that hasn't stopped
18:25
Speaker 2: Roger Hallen. He's gone ahead and he's named his new
18:29
Speaker 2: organization after the supposed four billion dead that are coming
18:33
Speaker 2: and is now using this as another platform to go
18:37
Speaker 2: out and terrorize the population. Ultimately, I think that's what
18:39
Speaker 2: we're looking at here, and it's become a national campaign
18:42
Speaker 2: or put some links and going to look at their website,
18:45
Speaker 2: you can be a four billion dead supporter, which seems
18:47
Speaker 2: like a really odd turn of phrase, but anyway, but
18:51
Speaker 2: I am asking myself when I look at this the
18:53
Speaker 2: same question that I asked last week relating to this
18:55
Speaker 2: post from Chris Packin talking about the emergency alert that
19:00
Speaker 2: went out, which is this terrorism?
19:02
Speaker 1: Do you think that this.
19:03
Speaker 4: Could be categorized a terrorism charts so lete you do,
19:05
Speaker 4: Section one of the terrorism back two thousand is very
19:08
Speaker 4: very clear.
19:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and this is institutional.
19:12
Speaker 2: So you'll note that Chris Packham where she's not visible
19:16
Speaker 2: on the slide, but he does have a CBE And
19:18
Speaker 2: this has been building for quite some time now, so
19:21
Speaker 2: Extinction Rebellion have resurfaced over the past couple of weeks
19:26
Speaker 2: and they've been HARKing back on their social media to
19:29
Speaker 2: this event. We saw Chris Packham take center stage back
19:33
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty four in the City of London where
19:37
Speaker 2: in their words, they brought truth to the insurers propping
19:40
Speaker 2: up fossil fuels. If they stop ensuring it stops. So
19:45
Speaker 2: they're pushing for the insurers to do something. This is
19:48
Speaker 2: two years ago, and they're also at the same time
19:51
Speaker 2: calling for what they call an upgrade to democracy for
19:54
Speaker 2: these citizens assemblies that will let people decide together how
19:57
Speaker 2: we face this crisis. And these assemblies much embodied in
20:01
Speaker 2: the National Conversation, which I'm going to come back to
20:03
Speaker 2: you later on in the news. Let's just have a
20:05
Speaker 2: look at this Extinction Rebellion protest from twenty twenty four. Now,
20:10
Speaker 2: these images will be very familiar to us. We've seen
20:13
Speaker 2: these things happening time and time again over the past
20:15
Speaker 2: few years since XI was launched. But there's something about
20:19
Speaker 2: it which I just find fascinating. It's extremely lavish. You've
20:22
Speaker 2: got the makeup, you've got the costumes, the extraordinary level
20:27
Speaker 2: of detail that has been put into these robes. So actually,
20:30
Speaker 2: if you look at this Extinction Rebellion logo embroidered into
20:35
Speaker 2: the palm, you know, there's a huge amount of money
20:39
Speaker 2: and time and thought that's been put into this. And
20:43
Speaker 2: I don't think it's just about building the case for
20:45
Speaker 2: a response to the climate crisis. I think there's something
20:48
Speaker 2: else going on here. Someone's investing an enormous amount of
20:51
Speaker 2: time and energy and to build this narrative, and there's
20:54
Speaker 2: something ritualistic about it. So again, this is from that
20:56
Speaker 2: event back in twenty twenty four, This procession through the
21:00
Speaker 2: city of London, the makeup, the symbology, it all leads
21:04
Speaker 2: me to ask myself whether this is a cult? Is
21:07
Speaker 2: this some kind of cult that we're looking at here?
21:09
Speaker 2: And another question is who is funding said cult? As
21:13
Speaker 2: we've talked about the fact that the robes and the
21:17
Speaker 2: whole ceremony around this is extremely expensive to put on,
21:21
Speaker 2: Who's funding it and then ultimately who benefits small of
21:25
Speaker 2: this kui bono Because we can see here this final image,
21:30
Speaker 2: this is in Leadenhall Market, which is in this kind
21:34
Speaker 2: of southeast corner of the City of London, immediately next
21:37
Speaker 2: to the Lloyd's of London building, the heart of the
21:39
Speaker 2: insurance industry. Essentially, it's built on the foundations of the
21:42
Speaker 2: Old East India Company. Like the Lloyd's building is built
21:46
Speaker 2: where the Old East India Company building used to be.
21:48
Speaker 1: It's that part of the city.
21:49
Speaker 2: So the people running x on know that they need
21:51
Speaker 2: to take this message directly to the insurers. They appear
21:54
Speaker 2: to have full access to the city and what this
21:57
Speaker 2: could potentially unlock is a multi trillion dollar a year
22:01
Speaker 2: international marketplace in new highly extractive supposed climate technologies which
22:07
Speaker 2: is being championed and pursued by the city explicitly. So
22:11
Speaker 2: this quote came from I believe it's the beginning of
22:14
Speaker 2: last years in twenty twenty five, Chris Hayward from the
22:18
Speaker 2: City of London Corporation basically saying that he wants London
22:21
Speaker 2: to be a global city. This is a global center
22:24
Speaker 2: for this new industrial transition, and also that he wanted
22:28
Speaker 2: to be the best place in the world to raise
22:29
Speaker 2: private capital to fund the global transition to a net
22:33
Speaker 2: zero future, the transition to which we will get into
22:37
Speaker 2: a little bit later as we talk about the Transition
22:39
Speaker 2: Town movement, which is indelibly linked with this, so lots
22:46
Speaker 2: to get into there.
22:47
Speaker 1: We're going to stick with the theme of terrorism though.
22:50
Speaker 4: Well in fact, specifically I was a fear because we're
22:54
Speaker 4: talking about first of all fear of war, but specifically
22:57
Speaker 4: a fear of Russia, fear of climate, fear of three
23:00
Speaker 4: degrees and four billing people die, and now we have
23:03
Speaker 4: to fear things that might happen to any one of us.
23:06
Speaker 4: Because Friday, the twenty first of August marked what's being
23:09
Speaker 4: called the National Day for Victims and Survivors of Terrorism.
23:12
Speaker 4: Of course, the Home Office did not miss the chance
23:14
Speaker 4: to tweet about it. Victims and survivors of terrorism deserve
23:17
Speaker 4: to be remembered, recognized and supported, and that's why this
23:20
Speaker 4: will be marked every year as that day. Today we
23:23
Speaker 4: stand with everyone whose lives have been changed forever by terrorists. Now,
23:29
Speaker 4: this very much appears like it's part of a narrative
23:31
Speaker 4: to reinforce the idea of their being a threat at home,
23:34
Speaker 4: and not one that you can't touch, like climate change,
23:36
Speaker 4: but one that absolutely is all around you. Apparently, the
23:40
Speaker 4: Security Industry Authority made a statement about this marking the day,
23:45
Speaker 4: and they specifically said in their statement that the introduction
23:48
Speaker 4: of this national day follows years of dedicated campaigning by
23:51
Speaker 4: survivors and berief families to ensure the victims stories are
23:56
Speaker 4: heard now of significance. They went on to say it's
23:58
Speaker 4: their voices in determination that have driven this change, as
24:01
Speaker 4: well as the forthcoming Martin's Law which will reinforce protective
24:06
Speaker 4: security and preparedness in premises and events across the UK.
24:10
Speaker 4: Now Martin's Law is an actual fact. The Terrorism Brackets
24:13
Speaker 4: Protection of Premises Clothes Brackets Act twenty towy five, named
24:17
Speaker 4: after Martin heat who died in the events at the
24:19
Speaker 4: Manchester Arena.
24:20
Speaker 1: In twenty seventeen.
24:21
Speaker 4: So what we're going to do is just have a
24:24
Speaker 4: quick look at the way in which Martin's Law is
24:26
Speaker 4: described and then consider what it might mean.
24:30
Speaker 8: When we think about public safety, fire exits and evacuation
24:34
Speaker 8: plans come to mind, but soon venues will also need
24:38
Speaker 8: to plan for terrorism threats thanks to a new piece
24:41
Speaker 8: of UK legislation known as Martin's Law. This act is
24:46
Speaker 8: designed to make public places safer by requiring venues to
24:50
Speaker 8: plan for the unthinkable, a terrorist attack. It applies to
24:54
Speaker 8: any publicly accessible venue where two hundred or more people
24:59
Speaker 8: could be present. That includes shops, schools, clubs, and even
25:04
Speaker 8: temporary events. There are two tiers, Standard for sites expecting
25:09
Speaker 8: two hundred to seven hundred and ninety nine people and
25:13
Speaker 8: Enhanced for venues over eight hundred. Each tier brings different duties.
25:19
Speaker 8: Standard tier venues must register with the regulator and have
25:23
Speaker 8: a terrorism response plan covering evacuation, lockdown and communication. Enhanced
25:31
Speaker 8: venues must go further, adding physical security measures and preparing
25:35
Speaker 8: a written plan outlining how they'll reduce risks. For brokers.
25:41
Speaker 8: Understanding Martin's law is crucial. It effects liability, risk assessments
25:47
Speaker 8: and how you support clients managing public facing spaces. The
25:51
Speaker 8: law won't be enforced until twenty twenty seven, but preparation
25:54
Speaker 8: starts now. Free tools like ACT training and SCAN can
25:59
Speaker 8: help build readiness today.
26:04
Speaker 4: I think one of the number of questions is what
26:05
Speaker 4: sort of advice and training is going to come from
26:08
Speaker 4: those agencies shown on screen there. But what I'm going
26:10
Speaker 4: to do now is just go to bend because we've
26:12
Speaker 4: obviously we talked about Martin the Manchester Arena events, but
26:16
Speaker 4: then London Bridge and specifically the idea of there being
26:20
Speaker 4: danger and safety and the sort of boundary between the
26:25
Speaker 4: two and how people are supposed to be thinking about
26:28
Speaker 4: and responding to this sort of thing.
26:29
Speaker 2: Yes, so you're referring to the fact that I was
26:32
Speaker 2: on London Bridge during the first terror attack that took
26:35
Speaker 2: place back in I think it was twenty sixteen am
26:38
Speaker 2: I got the date wrong, but it was in the
26:39
Speaker 2: summer of twenty sixteen, so ten years ago now actually, Yes,
26:42
Speaker 2: So that was quite an extraordinary string to see. I
26:46
Speaker 2: arrived onto the bridge about ten twenty seconds before the
26:50
Speaker 2: first responders, so it's actually like a live scene. We
26:53
Speaker 2: had no idea what was going on, and then noticed
26:56
Speaker 2: at the time, I thought to myself, oh, look, this
26:59
Speaker 2: one's knocked off their bike, and there's someone else been
27:01
Speaker 2: knocked off their bike, and then you realize that there's
27:03
Speaker 2: just body string down the side of the bridge, and
27:08
Speaker 2: so we kind of made our way away from the scene.
27:12
Speaker 2: When the first responders arrived, then there was this whole
27:15
Speaker 2: period of just not understanding, not knowing what had gone on.
27:18
Speaker 2: I'd never seen anything like that in my life. This
27:21
Speaker 2: was actually very traumatic to see that kind of thing
27:25
Speaker 2: up close. But we were on our way to an
27:28
Speaker 2: event that evening which we were running, so we had
27:31
Speaker 2: to continue on our journey. And actually when we got
27:33
Speaker 2: to the venue, the guy that was running the security
27:36
Speaker 2: team said, don't worry. If they come down here then
27:40
Speaker 2: they'll be dealt with. There weren't as exact words. I
27:42
Speaker 2: can't really say exactly what we said on the news,
27:44
Speaker 2: but maybe we'll talk about it an extra But there
27:47
Speaker 2: was a real sense of relief to me when I
27:50
Speaker 2: got there and the security basically said you could you're
27:53
Speaker 2: safe now. But then looking at this new legislation, it
27:58
Speaker 2: feels like it's completely onerous and overbearing and unnecessarily well exactly,
28:07
Speaker 2: and I think we'll see which way it's going to go.
28:09
Speaker 4: And I think we should definitely flish this conversation out an
28:10
Speaker 4: extra But you see what it is looking like, is
28:13
Speaker 4: that exactly the emotions you described are what are going
28:16
Speaker 4: to be harnessed by not just the security industry authority,
28:20
Speaker 4: but by government in the wider sense. And just to
28:23
Speaker 4: get a flavor of that, we'll look at the strategic
28:25
Speaker 4: plan for the SIA, because in particular, what they talk
28:28
Speaker 4: about is a strategic shift, and this means that they
28:32
Speaker 4: are going to have responsibility, as it said in that video,
28:34
Speaker 4: to regulate places. So they're going to move beyond licensing
28:37
Speaker 4: individuals to regulating publicly accessible premises and events under Martin's Law. Now,
28:43
Speaker 4: the significant thing I would say about this, bearing in
28:46
Speaker 4: mind the sort of COVID experience, insofar as it was learned,
28:50
Speaker 4: I think that if you offered the public little information,
28:53
Speaker 4: then by and large people would gold plate any advice
28:57
Speaker 4: and before you knew it, yes, and the authoritarian, draconian
29:01
Speaker 4: system had come in. And so it's I think noteworthy
29:05
Speaker 4: that there's not any prescriptive element to this as yet.
29:08
Speaker 4: So there is no compulsion to do anything in particular,
29:13
Speaker 4: but equally, nothing has actually been ruled out, so I
29:16
Speaker 4: think we will wait and see which way this goes.
29:19
Speaker 4: But just to give a flavor of which way it
29:21
Speaker 4: could go and an idea of what already is in place,
29:23
Speaker 4: we're just going to look at the patron Scan website,
29:26
Speaker 4: which is one of a number of providers that produce
29:29
Speaker 4: bits of equipment that provide security for existing venues. So
29:33
Speaker 4: we've got facial ID fake ID detection and various systems
29:41
Speaker 4: that enable you to monitor not just those people that
29:44
Speaker 4: are coming in, but they have connections to systems which
29:48
Speaker 4: are outside and therefore it is possible to have a
29:50
Speaker 4: system that flags anyone who might be considered a threat
29:54
Speaker 4: before they come in. And as I say, I think
29:56
Speaker 4: the critical part of this is how this advice is
29:59
Speaker 4: going to be framed in the future, So more to
30:02
Speaker 4: talk about on that.
30:02
Speaker 2: For sure, there certainly is yes and wide open to
30:06
Speaker 2: abuse those systems. Acshua and I remember post COVID, the
30:11
Speaker 2: event industry just pushing this stuff out almost unquestioningly. It
30:15
Speaker 2: felt like there was absolutely no resistance to this at all,
30:17
Speaker 2: no discussion about civil liberties, the idea that you might
30:20
Speaker 2: just want to go out for a drink somewhere and
30:22
Speaker 2: not have to check in and have your face scanned.
30:26
Speaker 2: You know, there used to be nothing controversial about that
30:29
Speaker 2: kind of opinion, but you know, this is the world
30:31
Speaker 2: that we're being ushered towards unfortunately, but not if UK
30:36
Speaker 2: Column can help it, and if you value the work
30:38
Speaker 2: that we do here, we do need your ongoing financial
30:41
Speaker 2: support and other kinds of support as well.
30:43
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30:44
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31:13
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31:16
Speaker 2: can also pick up a copy of one of our
31:20
Speaker 2: fantastic print publications, the second edition is still going like hotcakes.
31:26
Speaker 2: The third one will be coming up in the next
31:28
Speaker 2: few weeks as well. Are also just going to give
31:30
Speaker 2: a plug to that Martin Edwards Agenda twenty one in
31:32
Speaker 2: Your Life in Their Hands. If you haven't got it
31:33
Speaker 2: and read it, you need to because it's just absolutely crucial,
31:36
Speaker 2: must read material if you want to understand what we're
31:39
Speaker 2: talking about here on the news on a weekly basis.
31:43
Speaker 1: I also have a.
31:44
Speaker 2: Few tickets left for the twentieth anniversary coming up in gosh,
31:50
Speaker 2: under three weeks.
31:51
Speaker 1: How on earth did that happen?
31:52
Speaker 2: Eighteenth to twentieth September twenty twenty six, I will be
31:56
Speaker 2: celebrating twenty years of the column in Plymouth and it's
32:01
Speaker 2: going to be a fantastic event. Festivities, great people, excellent
32:07
Speaker 2: information being shared, the stellar cast of presenters, and we
32:11
Speaker 2: cannot wait to see all of you there. Also this
32:17
Speaker 2: evening we have Germ Warfare this week, where German Charles
32:22
Speaker 2: will be talking about infanticide, pharma and feminism.
32:26
Speaker 4: Not as gloomy as it signs, I can assure you
32:28
Speaker 4: quite a heady mix that, yes, absolutely so. That's from
32:32
Speaker 4: seven pm nine pm. We've got Carlzar talking about the
32:35
Speaker 4: American Empire breaking apart. I think it well, I think
32:38
Speaker 4: it potentially is breaking apart. That might be a good
32:41
Speaker 4: way of looking at it. And the fact that China
32:43
Speaker 4: and I ran a change in the world. Okay, I
32:46
Speaker 4: think I have to check in and see what they're
32:47
Speaker 4: saying about that. And then tomorrow at one pm, Diane
32:52
Speaker 4: will be interviewing Chris Dobson about the fact that we
32:55
Speaker 4: need beauty and positivity in our lives. I couldn't agree
32:59
Speaker 4: more with that. And then just just a chime and
33:01
Speaker 4: briefly this is also in effect a sort of teaser
33:04
Speaker 4: because Chris is going to be doing some work with
33:07
Speaker 4: uk column, so please do take a look at that
33:09
Speaker 4: and find out what he's all about, because it will
33:11
Speaker 4: be absolutely.
33:11
Speaker 2: Fascinating, fantastic. And then Thursday one pm Menagement Matters Episode nine,
33:17
Speaker 2: which I think you trailed earlier, didn't you a little bit?
33:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, so we're talking about, in fact, exactly what Burnham
33:22
Speaker 4: has just done handing over the rights to various very
33:25
Speaker 4: destructive technologies to Ukraine, as though there will be no
33:29
Speaker 4: unintended consequences at all, and much else besides.
33:34
Speaker 2: Yes, extraordinary, Yeah, we need to talk about that. Just
33:36
Speaker 2: the fact that the politicians can just steam in and
33:39
Speaker 2: give ip away that's been built up is in extraordinary development.
33:44
Speaker 2: So anyway, more than that's come now. It talked earlier
33:48
Speaker 2: about the transition to a new political and economic system,
33:54
Speaker 2: and who better to tell us what that's all about
33:57
Speaker 2: than Rob Hopkins, the founder of the Transition Town projected.
34:09
Speaker 3: And feeding, and feeding and seeding.
34:16
Speaker 9: This is my apartment. I wake up here and get
34:19
Speaker 9: my kids up ready for school.
34:21
Speaker 1: Go our kids.
34:22
Speaker 9: These apartments were built fourteen years ago with strawberry walls
34:25
Speaker 9: and using local materials. They're incredibly energy efficient, and the
34:28
Speaker 9: composting toilets in the basement mean that we now use
34:31
Speaker 9: a fraction of the water that we used to use
34:33
Speaker 9: in twenty nineteen. The streets are quiet due to sparse
34:38
Speaker 9: motorized traffic aligned with fruit and nut trees. There are
34:41
Speaker 9: food gardens everywhere, and the air smells like spring. I
34:46
Speaker 9: dropped my kids at school by kids, see you later.
34:49
Speaker 9: School is now very different from fifteen years ago. Testing
34:53
Speaker 9: was eliminated, play is encouraged, and the great reskilling means
34:57
Speaker 9: that kids can now turn their hands to pretty much anything.
34:59
Speaker 9: I call it to buy bread at my favorite bakery
35:02
Speaker 9: This place was set up in twenty twenty two as
35:04
Speaker 9: part of a citywide holistic mental health strategy based on
35:08
Speaker 9: the idea that baking is the new prozac. I pass
35:12
Speaker 9: former supermarkets now repurposed as a flourishing mix of local enterprises.
35:17
Speaker 9: Many of the enterprises here are run by people who
35:19
Speaker 9: arrived during the time of the Great migrations, and they
35:22
Speaker 9: were now so fully integrated it's really hard to remember
35:24
Speaker 9: life before they came. I walked down streets full of
35:27
Speaker 9: children playing, neighbors in conversation, people growing food everywhere. Thank
35:32
Speaker 9: Home absolute. I visit a meeting run by our municipality's
35:38
Speaker 9: Civic Imagination Office, which has transformed local democracy and what
35:43
Speaker 9: feels possible to us as citizens of this place. As
35:46
Speaker 9: the day draws to a close, I noticed the hooting
35:49
Speaker 9: of owls and the swooping of the bats, just two
35:52
Speaker 9: of the indicators that the biodiversity of this place is
35:55
Speaker 9: really starting to bounce back.
36:00
Speaker 2: It was Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition Town Project,
36:04
Speaker 2: taking us on a walk through a day in twenty thirty.
36:07
Speaker 2: There's a film that's made in twenty nineteen, and there's
36:10
Speaker 2: quite a lot of points in there which really do
36:12
Speaker 2: seem to be coming to fruition because actually what he's
36:14
Speaker 2: describing is a completely new political and economic model, a
36:19
Speaker 2: new education systems changing how children are educated, a new
36:23
Speaker 2: approach to building. So introductional, I mean it sounds like
36:26
Speaker 2: regressive technology to me. Straw bales for installations.
36:31
Speaker 4: Well, we might have to agree to disagree on that one,
36:32
Speaker 4: but I don't want to queer your pitch, so we'll
36:34
Speaker 4: talk about it more extra in that. I think there's
36:37
Speaker 4: a lot of common sense being put out, but for
36:40
Speaker 4: the wrong reasons.
36:41
Speaker 2: Yes, I would absolutely tend to agree with that. Yes,
36:44
Speaker 2: because he does talk about food gardens and the transformation ideas.
36:48
Speaker 2: Yes to ask why, yes exactly? And here exactly is
36:53
Speaker 2: this chat? Rob Hopkins, We're just getting back on screen,
36:56
Speaker 2: and who's you back by? And where is this all
36:58
Speaker 2: going to? Particularly in the context of this kind of
37:01
Speaker 2: huge propaganda push that we talked about earlier on in
37:04
Speaker 2: the show, I should not as well. Rob Hopkins really
37:07
Speaker 2: doesn't like Brian Gerish, really really really doesn't like Brian Gerrish,
37:10
Speaker 2: and I can't imagine why, or maybe the segment will
37:14
Speaker 2: reveal some of that. So let's just have a quick
37:16
Speaker 2: look at the transition town top ness. So this is
37:19
Speaker 2: what he started. This is his big kind of claim
37:22
Speaker 2: to fame. It began in two thousand and five. It's
37:26
Speaker 2: what he calls a community led charity that exists to
37:29
Speaker 2: strengthen the local economy, reduce our environmental impact, build our
37:33
Speaker 2: resilience as we adapt to a change in climates. And
37:35
Speaker 2: there's this kind of pre supposition at the climate is
37:37
Speaker 2: changing and we've got to react to it. It then
37:39
Speaker 2: describes it as a grassroots organization run by a collection
37:42
Speaker 2: of local volunteers with a small staff team who come
37:45
Speaker 2: to work together on projects. Now in isolation, that all
37:48
Speaker 2: sounds perfectly reasonable, but actually it's not just that in isolation.
37:53
Speaker 2: It's not just in top ness. It's actually part of
37:55
Speaker 2: a global network. So actually in two thousand and seven
37:58
Speaker 2: Hopkins established this this is the Transition Network International, which
38:03
Speaker 2: facilitates a network of fourteen hundred projects in fifty countries.
38:10
Speaker 2: So this is a huge international movement that he initiated,
38:15
Speaker 2: which is backed by many of the foundations that we
38:19
Speaker 2: talk about on a constant basis.
38:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, really the usual.
38:22
Speaker 2: Suspect, so the Open Society's Foundation, George Soros, the Esme
38:26
Speaker 2: Fairbern Foundation, Joseph Rowntree Trust kr Foundation, which is the
38:31
Speaker 2: Lego for money the Lego family and importantly a Shocker
38:36
Speaker 2: as well, where Hopkins is a fellow in this organization
38:41
Speaker 2: I've been speaking about a lot recently. It was founded
38:45
Speaker 2: in the US in Washington, d C. In nineteen eighty
38:49
Speaker 2: one and is operating internationally, and it envisages what they
38:54
Speaker 2: call an everyone a change maker world. So they actually
38:58
Speaker 2: invented the term change main cut. They also invented the
39:02
Speaker 2: term social entrepreneur. Those are kind of interchangeable with each other. Effectively,
39:06
Speaker 2: this is a leadership class that is going to going
39:09
Speaker 2: to progress the great transition to this new political and
39:13
Speaker 2: economic system envisaged by people like Rob Hopkins, or certainly
39:18
Speaker 2: led out publicly by people like Rob Hopkins, because actually,
39:22
Speaker 2: when you look at who backs a Shoker, it's a
39:25
Speaker 2: very similar story to the people backing the Transition Network
39:29
Speaker 2: I just spoke about a moment ago, right, So if
39:31
Speaker 2: we examine a Shocker who are based in the city
39:34
Speaker 2: of London, you can see a few names jumping.
39:38
Speaker 1: Out of us.
39:38
Speaker 2: So we've got Rothschild roth Town Foundation are backing this.
39:42
Speaker 2: So this is obviously Dinist money and also where a
39:45
Speaker 2: lot of the discussions about the miniature Industrial complex investment
39:50
Speaker 2: strategy are hosted in the Rothschild offices in the City
39:53
Speaker 2: of London. You've got Freud's there as well, who run
39:56
Speaker 2: the global communications campaign for the Global Goals Initiatives. So
40:01
Speaker 2: this is explicitly UN Policies as a UN agenda, and
40:06
Speaker 2: as I've spoken about on the news a couple of
40:09
Speaker 2: times recently, actually because the Shoka was very much coming
40:11
Speaker 2: to the forefront. We have the Edge Foundation, which is
40:15
Speaker 2: an educational charity whose patron is His Royal Highness, the
40:19
Speaker 2: Duke of Kent, who when he's not doing that and
40:21
Speaker 2: being trustee of many many other charities, he's hanging around
40:24
Speaker 2: with his friends, his brother Mason's events like this, and
40:29
Speaker 2: this is the three hundredth anniversary of the United Grand
40:31
Speaker 2: Lodge of England, of which he is the Grand Master.
40:35
Speaker 2: So this is directly linked into Freemasonry as well. So
40:38
Speaker 2: this transition agenda appears to be being coordinated by the
40:42
Speaker 2: Masons and the networks over which the Masonic movement have influence,
40:47
Speaker 2: which is basically everything in the country, I would say,
40:51
Speaker 2: And this is getting to the mainstream. So Rob Hopkins
40:54
Speaker 2: has been doing this since two thousand and five. As
40:56
Speaker 2: we've talked about, it's been quite niche. It's been kind
40:59
Speaker 2: of an area of interest for people who are into
41:03
Speaker 2: that kind of thing. With the massive increase in climate
41:08
Speaker 2: propaganda and this drive, particularly young people towards these new
41:13
Speaker 2: systems that are going to be required by the climate
41:16
Speaker 2: transition that is desired by the international world, in class,
41:20
Speaker 2: the city of London, all of these people. It's actually
41:23
Speaker 2: hitting the mainstream of political discourse, not leashed through this
41:28
Speaker 2: recent visit by Caroline Lucas, former head of the Green
41:32
Speaker 2: Party here in the UK to retrofit house in Birmingham,
41:36
Speaker 2: which took place last weekend.
41:40
Speaker 10: So we've been spending the afternoon with Immy Kauer, the
41:43
Speaker 10: truly inspirational co founder of Civic Square, and we're standing
41:47
Speaker 10: outside one of the houses that Civic Square have taken
41:50
Speaker 10: over really and turned into a kind of a living workshop.
41:53
Speaker 10: In each room of this house, there are different things
41:56
Speaker 10: being learned from how do you repair things, how to
42:00
Speaker 10: properly retrofit things. There is just such a sense of
42:05
Speaker 10: real energy and commitment and more than anything, community building.
42:09
Speaker 10: So I think this whole afternoon has been about learning
42:12
Speaker 10: how you build community from the bottom up.
42:15
Speaker 11: Yeah, it's been really, really inspiring to see this community adaptation,
42:21
Speaker 11: community resilience, climate adaptation space taking shape here in Birmingham,
42:27
Speaker 11: and it's one of the examples we're using in our report.
42:31
Speaker 11: Caroline and I have just been writing, which would be
42:33
Speaker 11: coming out in mid September, on what we're calling climate popularism,
42:37
Speaker 11: and one of the things we're doing in this report
42:39
Speaker 11: is showcasing amazing initiatives like this around the country. But
42:43
Speaker 11: I've got to say this is one of the most
42:44
Speaker 11: amazing initiatives that I have ever seen. One of the
42:47
Speaker 11: things that they're really doing here at Retrofit House and
42:50
Speaker 11: at Civic Square is uniting theory and practice. We've been
42:54
Speaker 11: having absolutely sophisticated conversations about collapse and adaptation and preparedness
42:59
Speaker 11: and community building, and we've been seeing it over and
43:02
Speaker 11: over again on the ground here. So yeah, it couldn't
43:05
Speaker 11: really be much better.
43:12
Speaker 2: Collapse and adaptation and retrofitting the entire estate of the country,
43:18
Speaker 2: essentially all housing that was probably pre I don't know,
43:22
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen or something like that, it would be forced
43:25
Speaker 2: into compliance with his new regulations. It's going to be billions,
43:29
Speaker 2: tens of billions hundreds of billions potentially poured into this.
43:33
Speaker 2: It will being forced through legislation and the political case
43:38
Speaker 2: for it. The kind of manufacturing of consent is coming
43:41
Speaker 2: from the mainstream political parties now.
43:43
Speaker 1: So that was obviously.
43:44
Speaker 2: Caroline Lucas very recently handed over the leadership of the
43:47
Speaker 2: Green Party to Zach Klanski. Zat Planski, one of the
43:50
Speaker 2: key figures in political discourse in this country, whether we
43:54
Speaker 2: like it or not. Quite frankly now the chap next
43:57
Speaker 2: to her, that was Rupert Reid. And for those with
43:59
Speaker 2: the keen and I in the chap box, yes, it
44:03
Speaker 2: was the number thirty three. The demonstrator houses the number
44:06
Speaker 2: thirty three. I asked the question is that number thirty three?
44:09
Speaker 2: And he very keenly said it sure is. And Reaper Reid,
44:14
Speaker 2: welcome to the UK Colin News. I wasn't aware of
44:16
Speaker 2: you before, but we'll probably be revisiting you at some
44:18
Speaker 2: point because.
44:19
Speaker 1: You are absolutely in the mix here.
44:21
Speaker 2: You are the co director of a climate majority project
44:24
Speaker 2: and you're really pushing this narrative and absolutely you can
44:28
Speaker 2: see how this is hitting the mainstream now. So you've
44:30
Speaker 2: got Rory Stewart and Al Campbell talking about it on
44:34
Speaker 2: the rest is politics. You've got the National Emergency Briefing
44:37
Speaker 2: being promoted there. I read, which I talked about on
44:40
Speaker 2: the news last week and actually many times over the
44:43
Speaker 2: past few months, and this narrative and the preconceived transition
44:53
Speaker 2: response that we're being pushed towards is very clearly coming
44:58
Speaker 2: to the surface, and as we've described, to be being
45:00
Speaker 2: formulated and progressed with the full backing of all the
45:05
Speaker 2: people pushing the war agenda and everything else is going
45:10
Speaker 2: on absolutely well. I think the sort of phrase that
45:13
Speaker 2: stood out by it's incongruit. It was the idea that
45:15
Speaker 2: any of this was bottom up right, and you know,
45:19
Speaker 2: would this could look good if there were any sense
45:22
Speaker 2: that any of it were organic, But it is absolutely
45:25
Speaker 2: being foisted upon. And also I think it's a point
45:28
Speaker 2: worth making that with regard to planning law or law
45:31
Speaker 2: of any kind, if a community did organically decide to
45:35
Speaker 2: change the way in which they wanted to do things,
45:36
Speaker 2: they would be met with terrific resistance from the system
45:41
Speaker 2: being imposed from above. So the whole thing is a
45:44
Speaker 2: gigantic contradiction made so obvious by that clip. It certainly is, yes,
45:48
Speaker 2: and will be made even more obvious I think based
45:51
Speaker 2: on the segment we're going to look at now because
45:53
Speaker 2: they are manufacturing consent to this transition agenda and in
45:59
Speaker 2: order to do that, they need to lead the national
46:02
Speaker 2: discourse and the national conversation around this response. And who
46:08
Speaker 2: better to introduce us to this than Sajid Javid, former
46:12
Speaker 2: Tory minister, who is now leading out the national conversation.
46:17
Speaker 11: So tell us about this product, this project, the National Conversation.
46:24
Speaker 12: Well, this has come about because I co chair commission
46:27
Speaker 12: called the Independent Commission on Community in Cohesion with a
46:30
Speaker 12: former Labor MP John Cruddas, and we wanted to make
46:33
Speaker 12: sure it's part of our independent work is that it's
46:36
Speaker 12: not just sort of politicians or the Westminster bubble telling
46:40
Speaker 12: us what it is that units us or divides us.
46:44
Speaker 12: We're actually listening to people, people across the country, millions
46:48
Speaker 12: of people, and that's how this came about. We work
46:50
Speaker 12: together with boffins at Oxford University and we've put together
46:54
Speaker 12: this online survey, the National Conversation dot org dot UK.
46:59
Speaker 12: It's a few minutes for everyone, but at the end
47:02
Speaker 12: of it is just what you said, and this is
47:03
Speaker 12: probably the most exciting part of it. It's a sixty minute,
47:06
Speaker 12: a sixty sixty second voice clip that people can leave
47:12
Speaker 12: and obviously in their own words and with their sort
47:14
Speaker 12: of own emotions, the texture of their voice and every
47:18
Speaker 12: single word, every minute will be listened to. And we
47:22
Speaker 12: can promise that because of AI technology which Oxford has
47:26
Speaker 12: worked on, that will mean that we can just listen
47:30
Speaker 12: to every person. And what we want to know is
47:32
Speaker 12: from people up and down the country. Doesn't matter who
47:35
Speaker 12: you are, what your background is, what part of the
47:36
Speaker 12: country you live in, what is it that you think
47:39
Speaker 12: unites us, what divides us? What can help us bring
47:43
Speaker 12: us closer together? Why do we want to know? This
47:45
Speaker 12: is because I think we can all tell you know,
47:48
Speaker 12: there's lots of stats on this here. The British Red
47:50
Speaker 12: Cross recently did a survey said seventy five percent of
47:53
Speaker 12: people think the country is divided. There's like half of
47:57
Speaker 12: us won't even talk to our partners about your immigration
48:00
Speaker 12: issues or politics. And I think we don't need the SATs.
48:03
Speaker 12: We could all feel it. And the idea is like,
48:05
Speaker 12: what more can we do to bring people together? And
48:08
Speaker 12: let's listen to the collective wisdom of the British people.
48:13
Speaker 2: Yes, let's listen to the collective wisdom of the British people.
48:16
Speaker 2: But get an Ai to do it for us, because
48:19
Speaker 2: we can't really be bothered and there's too many of
48:21
Speaker 2: you and actually you're just, you know, kind of insignificant
48:24
Speaker 2: if you're said to Javid former Chancellor, former Health secretary
48:29
Speaker 2: aka Savage jab Head, because he was one of the
48:32
Speaker 2: people really pushing the COVID vaccines during twenty twenty and
48:37
Speaker 2: twenty one, if I remember correctly. Now they're talking about
48:40
Speaker 2: this thing. This is the national conversation. You may have
48:43
Speaker 2: seen these ads popping up there all around the country.
48:46
Speaker 2: The media spend on this must be absolutely through the roof.
48:50
Speaker 2: The one that caught my eye originally was the one
48:52
Speaker 2: on the left hand side there where you've got a
48:54
Speaker 2: George Cross basically flying at half mast. You know, I
48:58
Speaker 2: think the symbolism in this is just have to read
49:00
Speaker 2: into it right. So they're mourning something. Are we'll we
49:02
Speaker 2: mourning the death of the country. Do you feel pride
49:05
Speaker 2: when you see that? Or is it shame? Is it panic?
49:08
Speaker 1: You know?
49:08
Speaker 2: So they're teeing this up perfectly to fit into the
49:11
Speaker 2: divide and rule narrative that we've been witnessing and commenting
49:14
Speaker 2: on here at the column extensively over the past eighteen months.
49:18
Speaker 2: Where's this actually being coordinated from? So I've mentioned this
49:23
Speaker 2: organization before. This is Together, which was co founded by
49:28
Speaker 2: Justin Welby, former Arspeed of Canterbury who had to resign
49:32
Speaker 2: for covering up extraordinary issues of systemic child abuse in
49:35
Speaker 2: the church, and then also Brendan Cox, who, amongst other things,
49:38
Speaker 2: as a young global leader of the World Economic Forum.
49:41
Speaker 2: This was founded in twenty nineteen describes itself as one
49:46
Speaker 2: of the most powerful and diverse coalitions ever assembled in
49:49
Speaker 2: the UK. They are here to build a kinder, closer
49:52
Speaker 2: and more connected society. Loads of corporate backers, huge lists
49:56
Speaker 2: of advisors from across the establishment and actually you very
49:59
Speaker 2: quickly get into some interesting networks that UK Colin was
50:02
Speaker 2: reporting on back in twenty sixteen twenty seventeen. I'll just
50:05
Speaker 2: draw your attention quickly to this organization, the Belong Network
50:09
Speaker 2: And importantly Ted Cantle CB Deputy Lieutenant who is the
50:14
Speaker 2: former chief executive of Nottingham City Council, who wrote this report,
50:18
Speaker 2: the Cancil Report in two thousand and one for the
50:20
Speaker 2: Blair government, which is called Community Cohesion, and he wanted
50:25
Speaker 2: to take a new approach to race and community relations,
50:28
Speaker 2: which is what community cohesion is. He describes this as
50:31
Speaker 2: being based on intercultural exchange or contact theory, and he
50:35
Speaker 2: actually coined that term, So community cohesion whenever you hear
50:40
Speaker 2: that being used by our political classes or in Ngngoland,
50:44
Speaker 2: it came from this report from Ted Cantell, who is
50:48
Speaker 2: part of an organization that is delivering advice and support
50:51
Speaker 2: to Together. As we sit here today in twenty twenty
50:54
Speaker 2: six This is a program that's been happening for the
50:57
Speaker 2: over twenty five years now. The same people who are
51:00
Speaker 2: involved will put some links to some previous reporting that
51:03
Speaker 2: Martin Edwards and others did on this for the UK
51:06
Speaker 2: column back in twenty sixteen twenty seventeen, as well as
51:09
Speaker 2: a link to that Community Cohesion report, so you can
51:11
Speaker 2: take a look at it yourself. And the Together organization
51:15
Speaker 2: which we've just spoken about is intrinsically linked to as
51:19
Speaker 2: I spoke about in previous reporting on this network to
51:23
Speaker 2: the Independent Commissioner on Community and Cohesion of a mouthful
51:26
Speaker 2: that the community and cohesion things. So this is the
51:28
Speaker 2: commission to deliver Cantle's agenda twenty five years down the track,
51:32
Speaker 2: which is overseen by Shadi Javid, who'd just spoken about,
51:36
Speaker 2: and also John Kroulis, former Labor MP for Agenham, which
51:40
Speaker 2: is one of the London boroughs that has been a
51:41
Speaker 2: test case for this social and economic and political transformation
51:46
Speaker 2: of the country and they're continuing to do this through
51:51
Speaker 2: this stage managed AI enabled national conversation which is going
51:57
Speaker 2: to be designed to deliver an outcome that this aablishment
52:00
Speaker 2: is happy with. Let's be honest, Yeah, there's no other
52:03
Speaker 2: direction of travel that is going to be allowed to
52:06
Speaker 2: us if these people have their way, I would say.
52:09
Speaker 2: And to give you a sense of who's involved in this,
52:13
Speaker 2: quite a heady mixture of commissioners. Two that jumped out
52:17
Speaker 2: of me as I reviewed this again this morning, Dave
52:20
Speaker 2: halpen Cbe. So this entire thing is going to be
52:23
Speaker 2: absolutely sodden in behavioral insights approaches. This is about mind control.
52:30
Speaker 2: This is about getting the population to comply with preconceived policies.
52:34
Speaker 2: And then, importantly, given what we've just been looking at
52:37
Speaker 2: earlier on in the show, Caroline Lucas, former leader and
52:39
Speaker 2: co leader of the Green Party of England and Wales,
52:42
Speaker 2: because she's part of the group that's running this national conversation,
52:45
Speaker 2: and we've just seen her up in Birmingham at the
52:47
Speaker 2: retrofit house, basically saying that this is the direction of
52:50
Speaker 2: travel that we should be heading down. So it looks
52:52
Speaker 2: to me like they've already made up their mind. This
52:54
Speaker 2: is coming to a head right now. So the commissions
52:58
Speaker 2: launched last year, perhaps a year before, but we're beginning
53:02
Speaker 2: into autumn twenty twenty six, which is where they're looking
53:04
Speaker 2: at implementation and impact. My final question, we'll talk about
53:09
Speaker 2: this much more in EXTRA is who on earth do
53:11
Speaker 2: these people think they are to be pushing this thing forward?
53:14
Speaker 2: And my question to the country is should we have
53:16
Speaker 2: a new national conversation which doesn't involve any of the
53:20
Speaker 2: people running this.
53:21
Speaker 4: One, perhaps one that's not multiple choice, Yes, exactly. Yes,
53:28
Speaker 4: it's patronizing, to say the least. Also interesting that they're
53:32
Speaker 4: imagining a huge number of people will submit a recording
53:35
Speaker 4: of their voice to AI. Yeah, in some very dangerous places. Again,
53:40
Speaker 4: I think we can talk about that during Extra. No,
53:43
Speaker 4: we're going to move on to policing, which has over
53:45
Speaker 4: the last few years I think, experienced some bad times
53:48
Speaker 4: and of course some even worse times. We're looking now
53:50
Speaker 4: at the police Federation, which has been reported by the
53:55
Speaker 4: Sorry just stick this on screen now by the City
53:57
Speaker 4: of London Police Domestic Corruption Unit as been in trouble
54:00
Speaker 4: yet again because there have been four arrests at the
54:04
Speaker 4: head of the Police Federation of the investigation into the SORRY,
54:09
Speaker 4: the Police Federation of England and Wales and the investigation
54:12
Speaker 4: into them. They include tiflinch the chairwoman and John Partington,
54:17
Speaker 4: the General Secretary, for offenses including suspicion of bribery or
54:23
Speaker 4: rather sorry bribery, fraud by abuse of position of trust
54:26
Speaker 4: and fraud by failing to disclose information. Now this is
54:30
Speaker 4: I think in the scheme things fairly serious stuff and
54:33
Speaker 4: should be regarded as such as part of Operation coup
54:36
Speaker 4: As or at least the investigation is which has been
54:38
Speaker 4: running by the Domestic Corruption Units since at least last year.
54:44
Speaker 4: Of course this is owned by City of London Police
54:46
Speaker 4: and will come back to that. They do remind the
54:49
Speaker 4: public that no charges have been brought, so these just
54:53
Speaker 4: remain as allegations at the moment as to what the
54:56
Speaker 4: Police Federation says. In accordance with the Federation governance rules,
55:01
Speaker 4: Tiflin and John Partington have been suspended from their jobs
55:04
Speaker 4: pending ongoing investigations, of course for blanned language used there.
55:08
Speaker 4: But they go on to say it's important to emphasize
55:11
Speaker 4: that suspension is a neutral act. It's not a disciplinary
55:13
Speaker 4: sanction and does not imply any presumption of wrongdoing or guilt.
55:19
Speaker 4: So we'll see which way it goes now, as I say,
55:21
Speaker 4: it's an investigation that's been running for some time. And
55:24
Speaker 4: we look back to March of this year when there
55:27
Speaker 4: were a number of other arrests made by the Domestic
55:30
Speaker 4: Corruption Unit again on exactly the same lines into the
55:35
Speaker 4: Police Federation of England and Wales, and notable by his
55:39
Speaker 4: arrest last time was the Chief Executive Mukund Krishna here
55:45
Speaker 4: shown by Emergency Services Times. Police Federation chief Executives suspended
55:49
Speaker 4: following fraud arrest. Now he has actually maintained that he
55:53
Speaker 4: is innocent and will be exonerated. But Dizzy did leave
55:56
Speaker 4: his job at the end of May. Now you may
55:59
Speaker 4: not know very much about Police Federation and what it's
56:01
Speaker 4: supposed to do, so we just have a look at
56:03
Speaker 4: about us paige from the website and what it may
56:06
Speaker 4: or may not say about their rate of success at
56:09
Speaker 4: achieving that they've been successfully representing officers, and I've put
56:13
Speaker 4: it in bold, influencing the policing agenda for over one
56:15
Speaker 4: hundred years. Now, when we consider the amount of fraud
56:17
Speaker 4: that has taken place during that time, we wonder what
56:20
Speaker 4: sort of influence that has been. Having first established in
56:23
Speaker 4: nineteen nineteen, and then with regard to the current predicament
56:26
Speaker 4: of those we've just referred to, some of whom are
56:28
Speaker 4: of course serving officers, they say at some point in
56:31
Speaker 4: their career many police officers face challenges they had not anticipated,
56:36
Speaker 4: like presumably being arrested for fraud. Again, whether or not
56:41
Speaker 4: this surprises you is a matter for you to judge,
56:45
Speaker 4: but certainly it's not new news in so far as
56:48
Speaker 4: trouble with the Federation is concerned. We go back to
56:51
Speaker 4: twenty fourteen to look at the Select Committee report from
56:54
Speaker 4: the Home Affairs Committee Reform of the Police Federation, in
56:58
Speaker 4: which they stated that the Police Federation does not command
57:02
Speaker 4: the confidence of its own members, and they went on
57:05
Speaker 4: to be fairly prescriptive exactly why that was the case,
57:08
Speaker 4: Because there was an independent review by Sir David Normington
57:11
Speaker 4: back in twenty thirteen which dealt with twelve thousand members
57:14
Speaker 4: of the Federation is basically the rank and file of
57:17
Speaker 4: the police. Fifty seven percent thought the Federation did a
57:20
Speaker 4: poor job of explaining the value of police officers to
57:22
Speaker 4: the general public. Sixty eight percent were not satisfied that
57:25
Speaker 4: the national leadership that's the police leadership, not the federation leadership,
57:29
Speaker 4: was adequately safeguarding their interest. My apologies, that was the
57:33
Speaker 4: federation leadership, not the police leadership. Sorry, important clarification. And
57:37
Speaker 4: ninety one percent agreed with the statement that the Police
57:40
Speaker 4: Federation should change, but only twenty nine percent of those
57:43
Speaker 4: agreed that it was able to change. The report also
57:46
Speaker 4: states that the financial governance is weak, and it recommends
57:49
Speaker 4: that as a result of the fact that it's now
57:52
Speaker 4: sitting on seventy million pounds of its own members' money,
57:56
Speaker 4: and that this is far in excess of the federation's
57:59
Speaker 4: operation and costs. They recommend that the money held by
58:02
Speaker 4: the national rank committees should be returned to members at
58:05
Speaker 4: the earliest possible opportunity as a subscription rebate and so forth.
58:11
Speaker 4: So there was a lot that came out of that
58:13
Speaker 4: at that point, and it looks very much like none
58:16
Speaker 4: of this has in actual fact been dealt with. What
58:18
Speaker 4: I said I would do is go back to the
58:20
Speaker 4: point about the City of London Police having ownership of
58:23
Speaker 4: this investigation in the first place. You might be wondering
58:25
Speaker 4: why that is, and it's because they are the National
58:28
Speaker 4: Lead Force for fraud.
58:30
Speaker 1: The City of.
58:31
Speaker 4: London Police has an agreement with the Home Office to
58:33
Speaker 4: act as the National Lead Force for fraud. In other words,
58:36
Speaker 4: no other police force is going to get a look
58:38
Speaker 4: in because of the profile and the nature of the crime.
58:41
Speaker 4: And they report to the board. The board is chaired
58:44
Speaker 4: by the Home Office and includes representatives from the City
58:47
Speaker 4: of London Police, the National Crime Agency and the City
58:50
Speaker 4: of London Corporation. And just as we close out this report,
58:55
Speaker 4: i'd just like your hot take on the fact that
58:58
Speaker 4: the City of London Corporation is on the board of
59:01
Speaker 4: the National Lead Force for Fraud.
59:05
Speaker 1: Well, I mean the city is.
59:09
Speaker 2: I don't mean I would say about that other than
59:11
Speaker 2: it feels deeply inappropriate given that it is in fact
59:14
Speaker 2: a foreign country within the United Kingdom. So the idea
59:18
Speaker 2: that he's overseeing fraud and it is itself.
59:23
Speaker 4: Funded by the banks, well yes, and I think it's
59:26
Speaker 4: you know, it's hard to see how there's not at
59:28
Speaker 4: least the possibility of there being influenced into what types
59:31
Speaker 4: of fraud do and specifically do not get investigated.
59:35
Speaker 1: Yes, but again more for Extra it certainly is yes.
59:38
Speaker 2: And actually the city down the police becoming more and
59:40
Speaker 2: more active outside of the city of London, I think
59:43
Speaker 2: as well, which is something that I've noticed myself I
59:45
Speaker 2: was in London and also elsewhere around the country as well.
59:49
Speaker 2: So what the news we've delivered to you today, War, chaos, corruption, breakdown, propaganda, terrorism,
59:57
Speaker 2: The country appears to me to be going in completely
59:59
Speaker 2: the wrong direction. I suppose the question to our viewers
1:00:02
Speaker 2: at home is what are you going to do about it?
1:00:04
Speaker 2: More than that in Extra and in forthcoming shows, no
1:00:08
Speaker 2: doubt we're at a time for today. Don't forget the
1:00:12
Speaker 2: Germ and Charles will be on this evening at seven pm,
1:00:15
Speaker 2: CARLSR at nine great interviews on Tuesday and Thursday at
1:00:18
Speaker 2: one pm, and of course we'll be back for the
1:00:21
Speaker 2: news at one o'clock on Wednesday. Until next time, Thanks
1:00:25
Speaker 2: for watching, Goodbye,