Good afternoon. Today is Monday the 6th of
October 2025, just after 1:00. Welcome to UK column News.
I'm your host Brian Garish, delighted to have Ben Rubin with
me in the studio. And we'll be joined by Sandy and
Adams who'll be coming in on Live Link.
Well, a very nice day here in Plymouth and we did have a
beautiful day yesterday, which is always good for uplifting the
mood. And probably most people in the
UK today need a little bit of uplift to balance out what is
generally a pretty dark news front.
We're going to try and do a bit of both.
We're going to be reporting what's been happening with the
Palestine action protests. We're going to be having a look
at protest angst, which of course is being driven up by the
mainstream media. We'll also be having a look at
uniparty politics. Ben is going to be getting into
the Judeo Islamic Alliance, which is absolutely fascinating.
Sandy Adams is going to be taking a look at drones over
Somerset. And we're also going to be
majoring in on transformational change.
Now some of this is at the global and I'll say high level
nationalist level. Of course, Tony Blair's name
comes into the mix. And we're also going to be
having a look at the bottom end, what's happening with
transformational change at community levels.
And finally, we're going to have a look at digital ID, but with a
bit of a boost, which is essentially a little bit of
focus in on what people can actually do.
Well, let's kick off with a an excellent report which will Will
Coleshill sent in for the UK column.
And this is about the protests in London.
This is Will Coleshill reporting for UK column today.
I'm here in Trafalgar Square where we have a protest against
the ban on Palestine action. The police have just moved in
behind me and we're about to witness the first arrest.
We have people here with the signs saying that they support
Palestine action, which under current legislation has been
prescribed as a terrorist organization over criminal
damage. We have the police making a
cordon now. This is the first arrest that
I've seen so far today. What first led you to come out
with this sign and face up to what they're going to throw at
you, I guess. Well.
What they're going to throw at us, whatever it is, is nothing
compared to what Israel is throwing at the Palestinians.
And it's completely out of proportion to the Hamas attack.
And it's been almost universally condemned from our own
government. And that's why I'm here.
And the idea that people like Palestine Action are terrorists
and therefore we who are now supporting them are deemed to be
terrorist is just preposterous. Our government is trying to shut
down our protest against a genocide and against the war
crimes that our government is committing with our tax money.
And we need to hold on to our our right to free speech and the
prescription. We are protesting the
prescription of Palestine action, which was an overreach
of the law, even by the standards of the UN human rights
chief Volcker Turk, and also, I believe by Amnesty
International. So we're here to to make sure we
hang on to our right to free speech and to protest.
As a Jewish person whose relatives were killed in the
Holocaust, and I'm outraged that the Israeli government and our
government used the Holocaust as a shield for a Jewish state to
commit genocide and to lump all Jewish people together.
Assume that all Jewish people support Israel, which in my mind
has resulted in anti-Semitism in this country, which resulted in
the other day in Manchester. I knew that was going to happen
because they lump everybody together, all Jews with the
genocide that Israel is committing and it's Zionism.
It's not Jewish people. You're a little maybe a little
weary that you know, we will, there will be a charge even seen
again that that we will be charged if, if we're repeat
offenders. But I think, well, I don't think
I know that we all feel so strongly that that we're
prepared to take that chance and take the consequences.
Are you worried that you might go to prison?
Well. It, I mean, makes no difference
to me. I'm retired.
It won't affect my career. For younger people, I can see it
be more of an issue because it could affect their careers.
That's why I think it's important that older people like
myself come and do our bit. The strength of this type of
protest is it has brought out the establishment.
You know, you can see the average age looking around.
They're people who don't have to worry about their employment
prospects largely. That's part of the reason.
But they're professional people. They're retired teachers,
doctors, lawyers, you know, Armed Services people.
They're establishment people. And it's very hard for the
country to ignore that. And it's even hard for the
mainstream media to ignore that. So I think the exposure that
this protest has had has made a big difference in terms of
public opinion. Are you going to try and
challenge this through conscientious acquittal by the
jury system? So you're likely to go not
guilty and then rely on the jury out of conscience to say not
guilty? I might do that, yeah.
I mean, the problem sometimes is that don't let you say why
you're doing it. And that's a ridiculous.
Why shouldn't we be allowed to say what we're doing?
So. I haven't really decided that.
This issue was only going to be solved by the grassroots, and
that seems to be what's happening.
World public opinion has shifted monumentally on the Palestine
issue, and any politician who ignores that does so at their
peril. OK, so I've spoken to some of
the people here today holding up these placards and get a little
bit of insight into how they think.
One thing that's quite interesting seems to be pivotal
is this judicial review and whether this entire prescription
of Palestine action is going to be thrown out.
Also key to this is the role of juries, whether those juries are
going to be able to get these people off through conscientious
acquittal, and therefore whether the entire state apparatus
trying to label them as terrorists is going to be
rendered ineffective. This is Will Coleshill reporting
for UK column. Well, a big thank you to Will
Coleshill for that report. That was only a a small
selection of the interviews that he actually carried out.
We've given our audience 5 minutes of that.
Of course, the beat. Nobody will ever see an
equivalent of local opinion, opinion of people on the
streets, on the BBC, for example.
So we're really going to say that Will did a great job by
getting up there and seeing those very dangerous protesters,
some 500 people arrested from 18 to 89, one blind gentleman LED
away by the police. So this is the state of the
country. If you dare challenge the
government. And notice what that Jewish lady
said. She was very concerned about
Zionism. She said that Jewish people can
effectively tell the difference between what's Zionist policy
and what's reality, what should be in the hearts of human
beings. But according to the government,
there must be no criticism of Israel.
Let's reinforce that point by having a look at the
Conservative Conference. Thank you, Conference.
Thank you. Conservatives love Manchester,
it is a great city. Of.
Free trade and free thinking. 240 years ago, in the 1780s,
this was still a small market town, but something was
stirring, a spirit of enterprise that would turn Manchester into
a global economic powerhouse. And it was back in the 1780s
that the very first Jewish community was established in
this city, a small group of families worshipping in a rented
room in a back alley just a short walk from where I am
standing. And right from the very start,
Jewish people have been part of the fabric of Manchester.
They've been adding their distinct, unique contribution to
this fantastic city while at the same time embracing Britain as
their home. The horrific and despicable
attack at Heaton Park Synagogue on Thursday has shocked us all.
But for many in the Jewish community it did not come as a
surprise. Many have been living with a
sense of rising dread that an attack like this was becoming
inevitable. Yesterday I met members of the
congregation and visited the site of the attack.
The strength of Manchester's Jewish community is humbling,
targeting the centre of community life on the holiest
day of the year. Was not just an attack on
British Jews, it was an attack on all of us.
It was an attack on the idea that Britain is a safe place for
Jews. On Yom Kippur, the Day of
Atonement, Jews take time for introspection, to ask themselves
where have we gone wrong in the past and what do we need to do
to be better in the future? These are questions we urgently
need to ask ourselves as a nation.
Extremism has gone unchecked. You see it manifest in the
shameful behaviour on the streets of our cities, protests
which are in fact carnivals of hatred directed at the Jewish
homeland. Well, that that was a very short
excerpt from what Bananock had to say.
And essentially the nation got a lecture which was everything to
do with matters Jewish. Now, my personal opinion of this
is that if she'd started out with a minute's silence for the
for, for the attack on the synagogue and the people killed,
that would have been an appropriate statement to give
over the feeling of human sympathy for the event, to make
it known that the Conservative Party was feeling for the Jewish
community. But in fact, she gave the
audience and the country at at large a lecture about the fact
that it was the Jewish community that had set up Manchester.
That's effectively what the message was.
This this then I found just incredible that the party should
focus in nothing about the state of the nation, nothing about
what's happening to many, many other people in the UK, nothing
about the people killed overseas.
This was just simply a political statement in support of the
Zionist government as the start of the of the Conservative
Conference. So we must move on from that.
But people can go online and see the full clip.
Now let's compare it with Owen Jones, who we do not always see
eye to eye with, but he was at the Labour Party conference and
he challenged Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper.
Let's have a little look at this clip.
But it means the Labour Party's official position is that Israel
is committing genocide. And that's quite an odd
situation to be in where the Labour Party officially says
it's genocide as democratic side about its members whilst the
government continues to arm and. Facilitate it?
I want to see what. People think about that.
Yvette, the UN Commission, the independent Commission says
genocide has been committed. You're still arming the
genocide. There is a really important
peace process and set of discussions that are underway at
the moment, which is all about trying to get a ceasefire, the
release of all the hostages and also the return of humanitarian
aid. You're supplying the components
to F35 jets which are bombing children in Gaza.
We've had discussions at the UN General Assembly involving the
recognition, the historic recognition.
Now in fact, Owen Jones followed Yvette Cooper for several more
minutes. She would not address the issue.
The Labour Party had just admitted in conference that
Israel was guilty of genocide. And yet when he pressed her on
the fact that UK is still pumping in the arms for Israel
to use, the Foreign Secretary wouldn't engage.
So essentially we're now living in a country where the
government says you must not criticise the Zionist state, you
must not criticise the UK government's support of that
state. And even the Conservatives as an
opposition party clearly have an agenda which is more important
than looking after the people in this country.
So how can we really emphasise what's going on here and why we
need to look deeper? Well let's jump back to 2023
when the Guardian had this report.
It was talking about right wing personalities using X to bring
anti-Semitic theories to light in the US.
I'll just bring it a bit of text over this because this article,
when you got into it, suddenly started about talking, sorry,
suddenly started talking about the global project on hate and
extremism. And suddenly we're told that
this organization is capable of influencing how Twitter was
censoring reports. And it's said here that
following the report's publication that's by GPAHE,
3031 Generation of Identity accounts were suspended,
although 26 were reinstated. What point am I making here?
I'm talking about the immense power and indeed money behind
organisations protecting the reputation of the Zionist
government. Now if we look at the
organization itself, Global Project Against Satan Extremism,
this is their website. But if I come in on to the two
key women involved, we've got Wendy Vier and Heidi Bierick.
If we just have a look at the first lady, Wendy, you haven't
got to read all of this. We're just putting this up on
screen. But the first thing you can see
is huge engagement with the world media, The Guardian, The
New York Times, Wired, NBC News, BBC, etcetera.
But what you really need to understand is that this lady
comes from the Southern Poverty Law Centre.
Why is that of interest? All you'll see in just a moment.
Here's her colleague Heidi. Let's bring her CV summary up on
the screen. And again, you can see the power
in the media as an influencer with the New York Times,
Washington Post, Austin Globe, Guardian, BBC, Wired, Financial
Times. But if we get into the depths of
it, she's also formerly the Southern Poverty Law Centre.
And if we look at that organization itself, which says
it is there particularly targeting anti-Semitism, well,
this is the killer because this organization is dealing in huge
amounts of money. It has the facilities in an
endowment of 822 million as a conservative online figure.
So immense power driving the agenda as to what we can and
cannot criticize. But it's very clear from really
the last few days that both the Labour government and the
Conservative opposition are going down the lines that thou
shalt not criticize the Zionist state.
Over to you, man. Thank you, Brian.
Good afternoon, everybody. We're going to have a little
look at the state of Muslim Jewish relations in the UK,
which based on the introduction to the news today, one might
assume they're quite fragile. But actually I think they might
be more robust than people realise if we look behind the
scenes. And we're going to focus in
immediately on the new, relatively new president of the
Board of Deputies of British Jews.
This is Phil Rosenberg, a youthful 38 year old and he was
when he was elected in as president in May last year and
he is now running the centuries old Board of Deputies is the
oldest Jewish community group established in 1760, which very
proudly presents itself as the voice of British Jews.
So Phil Rosenberg there is now the voice of British Jews and he
told Jewish News in this article.
Provide a link to it, as ever, that he hopes to become a
unifying figure for the community in this country while
also becoming a leader who in the aftermath of the 7th of
October, can build bridges outside of the Jewish community.
Importantly, and come back to Mr. Rosenberg later.
But one of the key initiatives that he's been progressing, we
particularly progressed at the start of this year, was this,
which is the Drum Lanrigg Accords, the Muslim Jewish
Reconciliation Accords, a framework for reconciliation,
understanding and solidarity. And this was quite an incredible
undertaking. It was agreed and signed at the
Drumland Rig Castle in Scotland back in January this year.
This castle is owned by Richard Scott, 10th Duke, 10th Duke of
Bucklew and also the 12th Duke of Queensbury.
It's quite an esteemed chap and also he was up until very
recently the largest private landowner in Scotland, owning
217,000 acres. And they gathered together in
this castle a number of senior clerics and community leaders
from the Jewish and the Muslim community in the UK.
And there was much convening and much discussion.
And I will read out some of the accords.
Actually, I think this is very interesting and important for us
to understand. So they say that Muslim and
Jewish communities around the world share a profound spiritual
heritage. Both traditions are rooted in
monotheism, the sanctity of life, and a commitment to
justice. Global tensions, particularly in
the Middle East, often strain relationships between these two
communities, leading to misunderstandings and fractures
at a local level. In times of crisis, these
fractures can deepen, escalating Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and
societal polarisation. Such tensions do not occur in
isolation. They impact daily life on our
streets and online. This includes instances in which
children face bullying in school, students encounter
hostility on campuses, and individuals and communities feel
isolated, mistrusted and afraid. This underscores the urgent need
for sustained dialogue, mutual understanding and practical
collaboration. And the basis for reconciliation
and mutual respect exists within both Jewish and Islamic sacred
texts. Importantly, they route this
into the sacred text all the way through with reference to the
Torah, to the Mishnah, Talmud and also to the Koran.
There are a bunch of things agreed out of this.
So they established some foundational principles for
reconciliation, talking about unity and diversity, sacred
texts as a guide, commitment to non harm, recognizing the impact
of global crises. They're also establishing mutual
commitments, respect and reconciliation, education and
awareness, safe spaces for worship and reflection, shared
civic responsibility, crisis response and advocacy.
And this was signed by quite an amazing group.
Price. We've just seen the image of
them. They're sitting together.
But we have from the Muslim community the chief Imam Dr.
Syed Razawi, who's a Shia Muslim, the senior Imam Khari
Aseem NBE, who is Sunni, Imam Sheikh Mohammed Ishmael who is
Sunni Hed Imam Dr. Sheikh Khalifa Azad Sunni.
Now Shaddivrav, who is president of His Highness the Aga Khan
National Council for the UK and also His Excellency Kinana
Jamaluddin by Sahib, who is Bora, which is another Muslim
sectors. I understand it.
And on the Jewish side we have Chief Rabbi Sir Efrain Mervis
KBE, who is actually now being presented as the chief rabbi for
the whole of the Commonwealth, not just the UK.
So he's got this kind of imperial remit which is
ultimately what the Commonwealth is.
It's the the former colonies also have Rabbi Josh Levy from
Reform duties and Rabbi Charlie Baginski from Liberal Judaism,
Senior Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg OBE Masotti, Senior Rabbi Joseph
Dweck Safari, and Senior Rabbi Elshanon Feldman, Orthodox
Jewish, representing the Jewish community there.
And they were very pleased with themselves for the agreement
that they made, as they well should be.
They made some commitments to practical implementation to
establish a Muslim Jewish Leadership Council, an
educational collaboration committee, civic engagement and
joint charitable projects to work on university and campus
outreach together, Religious freedoms Committee.
And they're also committed to moving forward in solidarity.
And they say that these accords lay the foundation for a
transformative relationship between the Jewish and Muslim
communities here in the UK. Quite a big deal there.
And we haven't seen a lot of mainstream media about.
This. I've not seen anything about it
at all. The public is being fed all the
strife and the supposed division.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, it's fine wine and dining in
order to set up this, whatever we call it, memorandum of
understanding. Some.
Of this, Yeah. I mean, that's quite a profound
statement by quite a significant bunch of men.
Yeah. And.
And who else was there? Obviously Charles the King, He
was there. This is exactly his sort of
things and the defender of faith.
There he is. I'm looking very carefully.
Is he where wearing a kipper is that?
No, no, that's a reflect. It's a reflection in the mirror.
It's a good question because I thought that too.
Initially, yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
So, and this is obviously playing out right.
So this is having an impact on society.
You know, we, we, we've, as we've talked about, there are
things going on in in the Middle East at the moment in Gaza that
often does get presented as a kind of Jew versus Muslim issue.
But actually many Palestinians are Christians, many
Palestinians are atheists. It's not just about Islam.
Ultimately it's, it's a much broader issue than that.
But we did in Manchester last week see an attack on a
synagogue by what is ostensibly an Islamic terrorist, a man
named Jihad, quite literally, right.
So there are there are bad things playing out at a ground
level. But then as we say, these things
are going on behind the scenes and we've seen in response to
attack in Manchester last week, phenomenal level of
collaboration actually already here between the Jewish and the
Muslim community because we've got Shabana Mahmoud who was
sworn in as home secretary on a Quran.
She is Muslim at the Community Security Trust, the CST, the
charity that protects British Jews from terrorism and
anti-Semitism, with Keir Starmer, whose wife is Jewish,
talking about the measures that would need to be taken in the
wake of the attacks. We've already seen over the
weekend some new restrictions being put in place on repeated
protests, which are going to be introduced with police being
being given fresh powers. And actually, we've got a little
video clip from the home secretary explaining what that
means. The strengthening of the
legislation that I'm going to bring about is based on the
ability of the police to place conditions and restrictions on
protests. And what I will be making
explicit is that cumulative disruption, that is to say, the
frequency of particular protests in particular places is in a in
and of itself a reason for the police to be able to restrict
and place conditions. That is to say, they can move
them to a different place. They can restrict the time that
those protests can occur on. So that will unlock all of the
broader measures that the police can already do on on, on
protests. It's been clear to me in
conversations in the last couple of days that there is a gap in
the law and there is an inconsistency of practice.
So I'll be taking measures immediately to put that right.
And I will be reviewing our wider OK protest legislation as
well to make sure the arrangements we have can meet
the scale of the challenge that we face, which is protecting the
right to protest but ensuring that our communities can go
about their daily business without feeling intimidated and
also that public order can be maintained.
So fascinating Bennett's protecting the right to protest
as long as your protest is permitted by the government and
effectively you are saying all the things which the government
is going to allow you to say. But if you dare challenge the
government, particularly on matters to do with the state of
Israel, then they're going to come in very hard.
And although we haven't got time in today's news, what is being
set up of course fits very well with the policies over
migration. So we're creating more state
assets to deal with people in large numbers that the
government is going to remove. So there's some very, very
dangerous things happening under the surface, but luckily we can
see them. Yes, well, luckily, yeah.
They protecting the right to protest by restricting the right
to process. It's like censoring speech to
protect speech. It's it's the same, same
nonsense. You say the right things, you've
got nothing to fear but. Yes, absolutely.
And I think we know which kind of protests are going to be
cracking down on, right, which is the the ones that as you say
that they don't like. So anything that is anti
Zionist, pro Palestine and also the people outside the hotels
protesting about migrants, I think those are the ones that
really going to be pushed back on, unfortunately.
And this aligns very, very, very neatly.
I'm sure it's just a complete coincidence with this statement
that came from the Board of Deputies over the weekend
calling for more than 400 protest terror arrests to also
be investigated for stirring up racial hatred.
So it's not just enough that you've been arrested for
supposedly terror offences, we've also got to come in hard
on you as a racist. We're going to throw the book at
you, right? So this is what the Board of
Deputies is looking for. This is what the home secretary
is delivering, not necessarily just for the Board of Deputies,
but they are very closely aligned.
Over the weekend, this was so this coming thick and fast at
the moment. So this was also on on Sunday,
we saw a another protest. So I think we had Trafalgar
Square on Saturday, Palestine protests, and then on Sunday we
had the commemorative event honouring the lives of those
lost on the 7th of October 2023, calling for the release of the
hostages. And we've got a short clip of
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mervis speaking at that event.
Today we remember the determination of the Jewish
people, despite everything that has happened, that we will
guarantee, with the help of Almighty God, that.
I'm Yisrael Thai. We as a nation will continue to
live on, and to live on in even greater strength in the future.
Today we remember. All subsequent atrocities since
that original 7th of October day.
On Friday, Valerie and I spent the day in Manchester with a
grieving community. We came to give strength, but we
emerged strengthened. What a remarkable community it
is, their tenacity, their resilience.
And hasn't this been the story of the Jewish people over the
past two years? We will definitely emerge
stronger. And with the help of God, I'm
Israel Kai, the Jewish people will live on and thrive for all
time. Just one point to make that if
he's passionate, we may or may not agree with what what he's
saying, but if we we accept that the man is passionate, it's
certainly something that is in contrast to the Archbishop of
Canterbury's delivery over the last few years.
We will see what the new incumbent has to say.
I don't suppose much will change.
But no, he was talking about the atrocity of October the 7th and
then all subsequent atrocities, none of which relate to what
we've been watching happening in in Gaza, as far as I could tell.
And he was talking about what happened last week, wasn't
talking about the 10s, potentially hundreds of
thousands of people that have been killed in Gaza by the
Israeli military over the past two years, Right.
So very clear set of priorities there from the from the chief
rather, I suppose as we should expect ultimately and just to
kind of draw us back into this sort of very interesting
interrelationship between the Jewish and the Muslim community
in the country. One of the one of many
organisations who helped to fund and organise that event is this
one, which Brian will be very familiar with.
This is the Peers Foundation. You can just see them tucked
away in the bottom there. And actually just having talked
about the Drum Ranri Records, which got signed back in
January, this report, the Commission into countering
online conspiracies in schools was issued in February, which
may or may not have been influenced by that.
I'm guessing that it might be, you know, it's likely that it
was, to be honest, is a very small group of people who are
very intimately connected with each other.
And this was a collaboration between Sir Trevor Pairs, who is
a Jewish gentleman, and Sir Mufti Hamid Patel CBE, who is
then subsequently gone on to become the interim chair of
Ofsted. Yeah.
So this again, aligns very neatly to that agreement that
we've described between these two groups.
I think that's that's quite interesting.
And that's happening at A at a UK level, as we talked about,
but also really importantly, at a global level as well.
And I'll just draw your attention to this organization.
This is the World Jewish Congress, which is an
International Federation of Jewish communities and
organisations founded in 1936, which describes itself as the
diplomatic arm of the Jewish people.
We'll put a link to the website. You can go and have a little
look. This is the website page and you
can see there the president gentleman called Ron Lauder from
the SD Lauder Dynasty, and he's on the executive committee with
Phil Rosenberg from the Board of British Deputies, Board of
Deputies of British Jews. She links us right back into
where we were at the start of this.
And just last week over in New York at the UN General Assembly,
Ron Lauder was very happy to put this post up, talking about
having the opportunity to have a first meeting with Syria's
President Ahmed Al Sharar on the sidelines of last week's UNGA,
very positive discussion about normalisation between Israel and
Syria. And regular viewers of the UK
column will know that the the Syrian currency president is
actually a former al Qaeda leader.
And we've reported on that extensively, including in this
excellent article by by Vanessa Bailey, which came out in
August, which I think puts a rather interesting and
potentially quite concerning spin on the relationship between
Israel and Syria and then also between the Jewish and the
Muslim communities that could potentially be playing out here
in the UK. Excellent, one more image to
bring on screen. Oh yes, Mr. Rosenberg, let's
bring him back and see how it goes for Phil Rosenberg, the new
voice of British Jews. Ben, thank you very much for
that analysis. Now obviously this is UK column
news, so we can't spend huge amounts of time on this subject,
but clearly there are lots and lots of questions to be asked
and we would like to thank the members of the Jewish community
who are now speaking to the UK Column to express their
concerns. What they see is inappropriate
political behaviour by Zionist Israel.
So we're not making these comments alienated from the
Jewish viewpoint, we're actually reflecting Jewish viewpoint.
And of course the Jewish lady who spoke in the Little World
Council clip at the beginning of our news today expressing some
of those concerns. Well, let's move on.
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Just a few words on the UK column on location event
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involved and we'd love to have you there.
And of course, we want the information to go out as far as
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Now, just a few words about UK column material.
We've got the German warfare edition going out tonight at
7:00 PM. He's going to be talking from in
China with Carl Zoa. And this is Part 2.
So I'm sure that's going to be very interesting.
And Sandy, let's bring you in here because we've got the
interview here with Doctor Noel McRae.
Yes, thank you, Brian. Yes, I, I interviewed Nile
McRae, doctor Nile McRae last week and it's going out
tomorrow, I believe. Was it today?
Can't remember. Oh, it's tomorrow at 1:00 PM.
Tomorrow at. 1:00 PM Yeah, and he's a it was a really good
conversation about the the deception of climate change.
And we discussed one of his many books, but the one that we
discussed was Green in Tooth and Claw, which is a fantastic dive
into the deception of climate change.
So if you really want to get in on the argument, then do TuneIn
and and and learn learn a little bit too.
Thank you. Excellent, Sandy.
Now your key segment for today is on the subject of drones in
Somerset. People will be saying, well, how
does this fit into the rest of the news?
We're going to we're going to try and show people some of the
linkage, but take us into what's happening with Somerset, the
Somerset Levels and drones. Well, um, this is not just kind
of, um, Somerset specific because I think this is, this is
part of a bigger project that's being, uh, rolled out really
across the UK. And as we know, Deloitte, um,
did, uh, put out a few months ago that they, they're going to
have their, their, their, their aim is to have 900,000 drones
across the UK between 2030 and onwards.
So, yeah, the, the, this is from the, the Country Gazette in
Somerset and the, the Somerset Council have been been given an
award of 191,370 lbs. And this project, this, this
money comes from the Future Flight Regional Demonstration
Fund and they call it Project Rescue.
Now this is the, this is the acronym for the Resilience and
Emergency Services coordination using enabled drones.
And that that actually equates to rescued.
The project will also bring together local emergency
services, resilience teams, government agencies and drone
service operators to develop the case for adopting the scheme in
Somerset. Now in 2015, Sorry, yeah, it was
20. Was it 2015?
Yes, it was 2015. We had 14.
We had a massive flood in Somerset and we have here a
company called Horizon 51 and they put drones across Somerset,
but it was purely photography. This is a different kind of
exercise they're using over Somerset.
And in my I believe it's, it's to normalise the use of drones
because as we know they're, they're, they're, they've,
they're priming the Somerset people for major flooding this
year. And a lot of that is to do with
the fact that they've, they've actually the Environment Agency
are not maintaining the reins and the ditches and the pumping
stations and the culverts. They've been told they haven't
got the money to do that and that we in Somerset have to get
used to the fact that we are going to flood and they've got.
Flood wardens and they've got lots of pamphlets they're
putting through doors about resilience, but all this could
be avoided if they were to actually maintain the means for
which it is built for it not to flood.
So unfortunately, I think this is an exercise in in getting us
used, you know, to, to all these drones in the sky.
So I'm going to look at the, the, the funding given to the,
to the, the future flight regional demonstration fund
comes from the governments innovation funding organization
Innovate. Um, and you know, the innovate
really is about inspiring innovation in the UK And, uh,
we'll just look at some of the, the things that they're actually
funding. Can we take, Yeah, the next
slide? Um, it's, you know, the future
of indoor farming and they've, they've got a thing here that's
all about, you know, the mindset of, of, of winning at war.
And then you've got, you've got apply for your funding.
So they, they will fund anyone who's got big innovation ideas.
Now, one of those companies is a company called Limacero and they
are a data collection company. They're a drone company.
Um, now they're called they're pioneering solar powered fixed
wing drones capable of flying long distances and uh.
There's a, there's also the, uh, Somerset based land and minerals
consulting company, which again, all of this is big money into
these, these, these companies and they're funded by, by all
sorts of stakeholders. And then one of the other
companies is the Southwest Future Flight Innovation Zone.
Now I've got a little bit, they are sort of they've got lots of
stakeholders and partners. Now they are based in Yeovil and
they, they're working alongside Leonardo, which was the, the,
the big helicopter factory, which used to be called Westland
in, in the West Country. So we have a video now of the
the future Aviation test zone, the heart of Southwest.
So the future aerospace test environment is a test and
demonstration zone for low carbon aviation in the heart of
the southwest of England. So in effect it is a living
laboratory for the aviation industry to develop low carbon
aircraft technology, for example from the electric fueled or
hydrogen fueled or maybe unmanned vehicles such as
drones. Key thing about the Southwest is
it's the second biggest aerospace cluster in Europe.
We have the capability of building whole aircraft with
Leonardo helicopters and we have a fantastic opportunity in terms
of design, manufacture, test and maintenance repair in the
Southwest. So as a region, we're actually
quite unique. I know I speak for all of the
employees here when we're very proud that we've got a very long
manufacturing history here, over 100 years.
And we're very proud that we consider ourselves the home of
British helicopters. And it's exciting for us
therefore, that we're sat here this morning in IRA, which we
very much see as the next chapter of that history for us.
So what we want to do here is allow this to be a free space, A
sandbox for creativity, to allow us to have all of those
different parties come together. In November 2021 at Centre Line
Bristol, we equipped our latest generation military helicopter,
the AW149, with a blend of sustainable aviation fuel.
The capability is now there and not only on the AW149 but across
the entire Leonardo helicopter fleet.
That's enabling our operators to make greener choices for future
flights. So the G7 Summit was held, was
held last year and we were able to support that operation down
in Newquay by having the Ospreys based here.
They were here for a week and they were supporting the US
President. So these are these are very,
very big, quite advanced drones they're using and developing in
Somerset. And I think this is an exercise
really, it's the perfect place to trial it all and get ready
for the the big drone roll out that Deloitte have in mind.
Now we have the Councillor Mike Rigby from Somerset Council's
lead and he's, he's, he's, he says the potential for drones is
exciting and shows that Somerset is the forefront of imaginative
and innovative, innovative solutions to real problems that
affect our communities. I'm delighted that Innovate UK
is showing faith in our county through this funding.
We've demonstrated clearly that Summitset can lead the way in
the future of flight with Iero. That's another company they're
using so that. He's also said Somerset suffered
devastating floods more than 10 years ago, leaving communities
maroon, homes underwater and farmland swamped.
The economic costs were up to 147.5 million, but the cost in
human terms were immeasurable. It's going to happen again, you
know, and, and it's, I think it's a deliberate flooding.
They also he. There was also a quote from
Aviation Minister Keir Keir Mather.
Now you'd be forgiven. I think we have a oh, sorry,
that's, that's that slide is just what I've said.
So it's just a, it's just a little text slide.
Yeah. We've got Kier Mather here now.
He is one of the youngest members of Parliament.
He you could be forgiven. I mean, that suit looks a little
bit big for him. He looks about 12, bless him,
but he's not. He's 20.
He was 25 when he won the Selby election and he is now the
Minister for Transport, so he also has he's a Minister for
Aviation as well. And umm.
He said investing in emerging technologies like drones and
unmanned aircraft is key to build a greener and more
efficient transport system. But this isn't just good news
for the environment. This tech will also save our
public sector and businesses valuable time in cash while
helping to boost skills and support for high quality jobs
across the country. And it's interesting.
Now I've, I've done a bit of a dive into Mather and he's
incredibly young to be a minister of, of transport.
And it looks as though that some of these young candidates are
groomed through the elite universities, think tanks and
lobbying circles rather than trade unions or local activism,
which is the way they used to get recruited.
They, you know, they're, they're kind of put on a trajectory, a
sort of rapid, rapid advancement due to ideological reliability
obviously in networking within the central party machine.
It's a shift in Labour's recruitment from grassroots sort
of messaging to technocratic management and messaging with
them, with them. It's kind of in line with the
post Blair professional politician model.
So as of September 2025, he's parliamentary Under Secretary of
State in the Department for Transport.
So he has all the, you know, he's going to be in charge of
all these drones over over the UK.
In that role, his responsibilities include
oversight of aviation, maritime affairs, decarbonisation,
electric vehicles, freight and borders.
And before this appointment, he served as an assistant whip in
the House of Commons. He was active in Labour students
and the Oxford University Labour Club.
But he also was a, he was, he worked with W Streeting before
he was elected. And so he's been very, very well
taught by West Streeting about what, what it's all about.
So that's, that's really what Mather seems to be about.
And he's so young. I'm, I, you know, you can see
that he's been absolutely put there for a purpose.
He'll probably be Prime Minister one day.
Sandy, thank you very much for that.
Really it's it's quite unpleasant to think of the skies
covered in drones, whatever else we have to put up with.
But of course, this is policy that's coming from somewhere.
So where does the policy come from?
What type of people are pushing the policy for all of the drone
technology, the AI technology, the transformational technology?
Well, of course, absolutely. At the top of the tree is Tony
Blair. Let's have a look at this little
clip where he's talking about AI coming into government.
We could have chosen another clip where he was talking about
transforming governments by new agenda, but this particular one
he's into AI. The world is just beginning a
revolution in the way in which identity is secured and trusted.
Identity is 2 things. It's a set of facts about you,
and it's the process of ensuring that you are the human being who
owns those facts. And in trusted wallets, we can
put trusted information, things like our passport, our driving
license, education information, employment information, health
information, to enable me to prove not just who I am, but
things about myself that enable me to instantly access services.
Imagine the ability to deliver money and aid in places where
they weren't able to do that fairly and equitably.
Those things are quite extraordinary.
I think the opportunity for the UK to adopt digital identity is
enormous. I think it can drive
efficiencies in government. If we can have digital identity
and financial services, it provides opportunity to provide
better customer experience, produce fraud, provide real
efficiency. I think there's opportunity in
the education system. I think there's opportunities in
travel. When the Internet was first
built, it wasn't built with an identity layer.
This is our new chance of getting it.
Right. Digital identity is essential.
We need government to get behind it, put the regulation in place
and to really drive the adoption of it and support the
development of digital identity in the UK.
Must apologise there. That wasn't the video with Tony
Blair. We will show that now, but just
to comment on the video that's just streamed, this is a video,
of course, telling you what's happening behind the scenes with
governments, particularly in relation to UK.
And note, we have an Australian banker, the lady talking about
what she thinks is best for UK. So we're now into the
transnational agenda. We're into bankers deciding
what's good for us and what's good for us is to transform
national government and to bring in AI because at the end of the
day, we're just stupid little people that can't manage
ourselves. So on top of that clip talking
about the wider transformational change, let's have a listen to
Tony Blair talking about AI. Great to see so many of you
here. Thank you for joining us decided
despite it being lunchtime. And thank you 2 for being here
today and such an exciting panel about how AI can make government
better. Now, you've both talked a lot
about the potential of AI and how it'll empower citizens and
make government more functional. Let's cut the buzzwords and the
jargon. I really want to know what this
actually means. Now, Mr. Blair, over to you.
How would you? How could AI make government
better? What does that mean?
How does AI make government better?
Because it allows you, number one, to transform the process of
government and #2 to transform public services for which
government's responsible. So no, it's absolutely
transformative. And look, I I am, I'm not an
expert on AI, But when I stand back and I look at what it's
doing, I think we're in the foothills of the most
transformative revolution since the Industrial revolution of the
19th century. And but concretely, how is it
going to change things? Well, for example, government's
all about process. So you can use AI to speed up
the processes of government. You could use it for everything
from making sure that you do, for example, all the routine
jobs of government much more efficiently.
You could be responding to people in a much more sensitive,
faster, better, more efficient way.
If, for example, you're able to merge data sets across
departments, you're going to save money.
You're going to better analyse, for example, your health data in
a way that allows you to make better health policy.
And then when you look at public services, you should be able to
personalize education in the future.
You, you're going to have AI tutors.
You you should have AI nurses, AI doctors, you're going to be
able we. Already do a lot of imaging
much, much better through using artificial intelligence.
Well, there's a Tony Blair waxing lyrical on the advantages
of of AIAI teachers, AI doctors, AI to make government better.
But of course, later on in the interview, he admits there's a
lot he doesn't know and he doesn't understand.
And he says to the other gentleman gentleman with him on
the stage, I'm sure you know more than I do.
But at the end of the day, Tony Blair is one of the key front
Enders backed by a huge amount of money that is pushing this
globe global AI agenda. So look, let's look at this next
clip of where Tony Blair has, has has interfaced with the
Prime Minister of Albania and what has resulted.
So this is Tony Blair working in Albania with the Prime Minister
of Albania. And what has transpired in the
Albanian parliament uproar? In Albania's parliament,
opposition politicians block the lectern, hurl papers and hurl
their disapproval, insulted that an artificial intelligence
should be appointed. To the cabinet, Prime Minister
Eddie Rama defended his decision.
Introducing artificial intelligence in the service of
good governance, anti corruption and accelerated socio economic
progress will be an unwavering priority for all the country's
ministries and agencies. It's a vitigenous promotion for
the AI called Diella earlier. This year she was rolled out on
a public service website as a virtual assistant.
Now she's a full blown government minister tasked with
making corruption free decisions on public tenders.
The opposition accuses her of being unconstitutional since
she's not a real Albanian. It's true that I do not have
citizenship, but nor do I have any personal ambition or
interests. Well, there you are.
This is the the sheer madness coming in and and it resulted in
paperwork being thrown in the Albanian parliament as that
parliament at least realises that what's happening by having
an AI minister is utter madness driven by Tony Blair who's been
working in the background. Let's have a look at the next
should we should have a new another clip on that?
I think maybe not OK, well, just on the explanation.
The key thing to remember is that clearly emerging countries
and particularly countries that have been very poor prior to the
arrival of the European Union on the scene are now absolutely
being targeted as AI test vehicles as a nation state to
bring this madness in. And Tony Blair, one of the key
figures in Albania going as far as helping the agenda to to
bring in an an AI robot. So just quite, quite
extraordinary. But this is reality, Sandy.
Let's bring you in at the end of the news today because many
people are listening to the very dark topics that we are forced
to report on as reality in the country.
But let's have a look at not only what's happening at the
local level, but what people can actually do to prevent it.
Yeah. I mean, we, we've got, we've got
to Keir Starmer's announcement and all the noise about
mandatory digital ID schemes. But actually, you know, and
there's a big March going on in London this coming week, not,
not this weekend, the following weekend, 18th.
And really this is not the way it's going to happen.
I mean, we've already got digital ID infrastructure here
now and it's operational and I don't think people fully
realise. They think we're going to be
given something that we can reject.
And I think that is a little bit of the trick that they think
that that that we don't understand.
So I'm just going to give you a, you know, a little bit of an
idea now. If we just look at the five
pillars of technocracy, you've got digital ID, track and trace,
surveillance, biometric monitoring, social credit
systems, central bank, digital currencies.
Well, the first three we've pretty much already got in
place. And I'm just going to explain
how, and people may know, may or may not know this, but it's that
whole thing that I, I would think after that March in, in
London on the 18th, that there will be almost like they will
probably say they'll stall it or stop it or something.
And we'll be lulled into thinking, oh, it's all OK.
But covertly it's continuing through the back door.
So I just want to just flag up a few of the, the bills that are
in place now that are, you know, that we are Co, you know,
quietly of, you know, kind of signing up to without really
understanding what, what, what we're doing.
Umm, and I don't want to sort of put anybody down, but this is
just to, uh, highlight it. So we've got the, uh, the data
use and access bill, which was put in place in 2025.
Umm, which is really, umm, it's a, you know, it's, it's there
and it's, it's operational and it gives birth to things like
the, the next one, the register of digital identity and
attribute services. So all this is rolling out
underneath the radar. And then you've got the, the
digital verification service that people have been talking
about where you have to verify your, your business.
So that is a form of digital ID and you've got the government
one login, which is coming where you, you, in order to get your
driving licence, your uh, or renew your driving licence or
your pensions, which is coming, you'll have to verify and all of
that is going in through and it will all end up in a digital
wallet. Now it, this is how they, they,
they, they want it to work. Now, people that, you know,
that, you know, in order to get your driving licence and things
like that, This is what people are signing up to, umm, without.
And you've got NHS apps, supermarket biometrics, QR
codes, cookies and apps and HMRC apps as well.
They're building the whole thing under the guise of efficiency
and convenience, not forcing it on you by getting you to opt in
voluntarily. And this isn't just the UK, It's
happening right across the EU and the Five Eyes countries.
Different flags, but the same playbook.
The real system's already here it.
It's not a thing that you get given or choose to reject or
whatever. Whitehall has quietly built
foundations of a national digital ID system.
So at the moment we. You know, the clever bit is that
the ministers keep saying there's no centralized database
and technically that's true for now.
Instead, it's what they call a Federated model, which means
certified providers, banks, employers, tech companies, all
verifying your identity through the government, government's
framework. So politicians can stand there
and say no, there isn't a national identity database while
still still helping to build one in all but name basically.
So every time you verify yourself for a job, a tenancy, a
phone contract, a benefit claim, your data's linked across these
systems and paper alternatives will remain, but they'll be made
deliberately slower and more expensive and inconvenient.
So over time everyone takes a digital route and once
everybody's doing it and that's, that's when it becomes the
default. The so-called voluntary system
is now effectively mandatory. So the beauty is.
Or rather, the danger of the system is that you'll never have
to say yes. You just have to take an easier
option. Take HMRC. 97% of people now
file their tax returns online because paper forms are awkward,
slow and discouraged. The same nudges are being built
into every public service and soon you'll need your one login
for for your pensions, your benefits or your healthcare.
You'll be asked to verify your identity with a certified
provider and that creates A credential that follows you
everywhere. So you'll think you've just
logged into your pension, but in reality you've just been on
boarded to a digital identity system.
That is the trick. So, and when the with government
wallet pops up, you know, would you like to save your
credentials for next time you click yes.
And now your government proofs are in, in, you know, they're
stored in one sort of place, one container.
So banks and employers already being integrated, landlords too,
especially for more housing gets followed up by corporate owners
like Black Rock and Lloyd's. So paper alternatives will
exist, but they will be slower, costlier and and that's what
they they're relying on. Now there's, there are ways
round this and this is how we can possibly push back.
Just, you know, avoid the centralised database for now.
This, you know, this, this is the way we do it.
We, we, we can, we can actually use the, the, the system against
them. Because what we can do is I can
put it, put it, put it up on what we can do is don't accept
cookies or apps on your phone. Better still, get rid of your
smartphone or severely limit its use.
Be awkward. Insist on paper documents.
You can do this because the government has made provisions
for those people who don't have access to technology.
Millions of pensioners. We can use this and fill in
forms at the post office. Verify through your accountant.
For instance, like a lot of people who thought they'd have
to verify through the digital app thing, the digital
verification system, they, you can actually do it with your
accountant and your passport and any other ID you have.
So we just, you just have to be awkward and, and do it, you
know, act dumb. And the, The thing is that the
Equality Act is there to support this.
They've made the government have made provisions to people who
don't have access to technology and who can't use the technology
and just act dumb and say I can't use this.
And there's always an option. It's called find, find another
way. And you click on that and there
is a way out of it. I did it with my driving
licence. I, I didn't go through their
system, I did it through the post office and my passport.
So if we have enough people doing this, it will delay and
frustrate the whole system. And I think if we can just be
awkward just, and I know it's awful, but it's about, it's
about ditching these for a bit. Ditch them or don't use them or
don't use these for doing, for doing anything online for
verification. OK, over to you, Brian.
Sandy, thank you very much for that.
And significantly you've ended up your segment there of how to
challenge the system with a smile on your face.
And this is the beauty of it that what what you're suggesting
people can do. There are there's facility for
it within the government's own system.
You don't have to go down the the AI digitised route.
You can challenge it, but maybe you've got to look for that
alternative route. And while you're taking this
route of protest, you can also be a perfectly happy, smiley,
reasonable person. If you're engaging with a member
of the government staff. That's another huge tick in the
book, in the box. But the key point is that if a
million people are protesting, yes, that brings people
together. But your point is that what we
really need is for the million people to then go away and take
that protest everywhere they can, and particularly when
they're interfacing with these new controlling government
systems. So I think this is really
excellent advice. And yes, on many occasions we
don't need a smartphone. We could simply have a a push
and old fashioned push button phone.
And that stops a lot of the interaction.
With the government dead in its tracks.
We must leave it. There a lot happening in the
world. You always feel better about
yourself if you're actually challenging it.
So action conquers fear. Don't get dragged into the pure
darkness of what's happening. Do something and you will feel
better. And of course, stay watching the
UK column. We're going to bring you as much
information as we can as to this draconian one world government
system that's coming into place. We must end there.
Sandy, thank you very much for joining me.
Ben, thank you for being here in the studio.
Huge thank you to all our audience, wherever you are in
the world. If you're AUK column member,
stay with us because we'll be back into UK column extra in
just a few minutes. If you're anywhere else, we look
forward to seeing you at 1:00 on Wednesday.
See you then. Bye bye.