Hello IT. Hello.
It's Wednesday the 21st of May 2025, just after 1:00.
Welcome to UK column News. I'm your host, Mike Robinson.
Joining me in the studio today is Charles Mallett.
By video link, we have Vanessa Bailey and Sandy Adams.
Welcome to the programme, everyone.
Now, later in the programme, we're going to be covering the
Lucy Connelly case, health and AI and the Middle East.
But we'll begin with Brexit without the exit because The
Dirty deal is done. And here are the three Stooges.
Keir Starmer, our illustrious Prime Minister, is flanked by
two of the E US 3 presidents, because who needs only one?
So we've got Ursula von der Lehm, President of the European
Commission on the left, and Antonio Costa, President of the
European Council on the right. Uh, now the, the, the deal will,
according to Starmer, deliver on his core mission to grow the
economy, back British jobs and put more money in people's
pockets. That's so exciting.
Except there was never this, that was never the core mission.
Its core mission was, as we've been talking about European
defence, all the rhetoric about goods to flow freely again,
including between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, is just
that, rhetoric. So the sheer propaganda from 10
Downing St, however, is off the charts.
This is just one example of it. So on the top there you can see
what happens before the UKEU deal and on the bottom after the
UKEU deal and everybody's happy in the sunshine.
It's unbelievable. So Starmer said yesterday
there's no impediment to Egit at EU airports and his regime is
working on it is basically what he was saying.
We've now cleared the barrier and we're getting on with it.
So we should be particularly excited about that.
So he went on to say that ladies and gentlemen, the Britain is
back on the world stage and well, actually, according to the
facts for EU website, what he meant was that Britain is back
in the EU cage and I suspect that's probably pretty accurate.
Starmer's triumphalism was, as we've said, off the charts.
In the last two weeks alone, he said we've delivered trade deals
with India and the United States.
That means jobs saved, jobs created more growth and a huge
vote of confidence in this country leading the way
internationally made Britain a place where people wanted to do
business once again. That's that's his narrative.
And well, why was he looking so glum then?
He was looking so glum in all the all the photographs and
except when people were making the jokes.
I don't, I don't know whether anybody was talking about fires
or anything like that. But anyway, as usual with the
EU, with the EU related matters, nothing of substance was
included in the British regime's press release.
Instead, uh, we had nonsense like, uh, like this.
So let's have a look at this, uh, U, uh, sorry.
UK secures new agreement with the European Union to support
British businesses, back British jobs and put more money in
people's pockets. Uh, in the UK press release also
was package will help make food cheaper slash red tape, open up
access to EU to the EU market and add nearly 9 billion pounds,
£9 billion to the UK economy by 2040, as if that's a lot of
money over that period of time. And the Prime Minister hails the
agreement is good for jobs, good for bills and good for our
borders. If you're still not throwing up
at this point, let's have a look at what the EU, what their
position was, because they produced this joint statement
and we had to go to this to get the detail of the whole thing.
And strangely enough, this joint statement doesn't seem to be on
the UK government website. And if we compare the language
from both sides, here's what the EU said, then EU will be
overfishing in British waters until 2030.
They will effective. We will effectively be rejoining
the single market for Food and Agriculture.
It's going to tie the food sector and the UK to EU
regulation. We're effectively rejoining the
single market for energy and carbon pricing.
And we're going to see the return of legislative parity.
We never really saw that disappear.
So the EU themselves said, well, I'm going to put Ursula on this
because although she didn't actually said it's coming out of
the EU and out of her declaration.
So I'm putting the quote against her name.
We note the political agreements leading to full reciprocal
access to waters to fish until 30th of June 2038.
Actually Starmer for his part, lied by saying this.
We've reached the deal today on fish protecting our access
rights in fishing areas with no increase in the amount of EU
vessels that the amount that EU vessels can catch in British
waters. Anyway, the deal was done on
that was done on Monday is only the start.
Ursula let the cat out of the bag during the Q&A session in
the press conference. Let's have a listen to what she
said. Your second question was on safe
for the UK. Indeed it's a 2 step approach
towards SAFE. The first precondition is a
security and defence partnership that has been concluded today
and it opens the door for the UK to participate in the joint
procurement and the SAFE. Then there comes the second step
that is necessary to negotiate a second agreement and here we
detail out, it's again a process of detailing out budget
contribution, reciprocal market access and rules on security of
supply. And this will give that's
important in the end the UK industrial participation.
This is the goal that we have together.
Well, on Gibraltar, the Commission and the.
So what we have there is the first step of the U KS
partition, participation in CF as they call it now, CF being EU
Defence union. The second part, which is coming
soon, will require Britain to make budget contributions, give
contracts to EU companies, except the EU rules and defence
industry, foreign policy convergence and EU supervision
of defence projects, which is all exactly what we've been
warning about. And it, you know, if we were
ever really out in the first place, it certainly takes us
right back in. But then the question is what of
Nigel Farage? Well, he's away.
Sorry, let's go back one. He's away to France for a
holiday. Where else would he go at this
time other than the EU? The man, in my opinion, is a
fraud and always has been. And, you know, he is not
interested in this issue anymore.
As far as I can see. He's only interested in echoing
what Donald Trump has to say. And as Brian Monteith says in
The Scotsman, this is not a not even a retreat, it's a
capitulation, an unconditional surrender that changes the
relationship beyond recognition. Well, I understand that sent a
bit, but I don't think it's any of those because I think this
was the plan from the beginning. There never was an intention to
make Brexit work from any political leader or from any
section of the UNI party. And if you think that this is
probably not the best idea that has ever been thought up, then
you might like to sign the petition which Veterans for
Britain is set up on thegov.uk petition site.
The link will be in the show notes.
And you know, many may many watching this may feel like a
referendum on the EU is the last thing they want to see.
But I think this has to be resisted.
And doing nothing is not resistance.
But you know, don't worry if Starburst holiday propaganda
that I showed you at the beginning of this report isn't
enough for you. Yesterday he was visiting
supermarkets to make sure we all believe that food prices will
fall because of this fantastic deal.
So we can go go back to sleep now.
What do you think? Well.
I was a lot to say. I mean, Hotel California springs
to mind and I think anybody that voted in sincerity to get out of
the European Union will be scratching their head today.
But the promises of more money at the same time as complaining
about a 22 billion black hole and saying that only 9 billion
will be returned to the economy in 15 years seems like a pretty
poor return. So I think there's a lot more to
talk about on it, but it doesn't doesn't sound good.
Right. And so let's continue with sort
of international things with the British flavour and, and what's
the latest on the special forces killings that we were talking
about a week or two ago? Yeah, indeed.
Well, as I said last week, the report on extrajudicial killings
by special forces, a decision on the appeal of the former
Australian special forces soldier, was to be announced on
Friday. And this related to a civil
defamation case he brought against the journalist Nick
McKenzie. Now McKenzie had concluded from
his protracted investigations that Robert Smith had committed
murder while serving in Afghanistan, and Robert Smith
therefore alleged defamation against Mackenzie.
Now the appeal was thrown out, which creates the bizarre legal
situation of the Federal Court agreeing on the balance of
probability that multiple murder has been committed.
But because this is only a civil affair, Robert Smith faces no
criminal sanction. For now.
At least this is what Nick Mackenzie had to say about the
decision. Massive relief.
It's an emphatic result and I want to express my deepest
gratitude to the brave SASR soldiers have not only fought
for their country in Afghanistan, but fought for the
Australian public to know the truth that Ben Robert Smith is a
war criminal. It was always the story of these
brave SASR truth tellers. They saw Ben Robert Smith commit
war crimes and they were not prepared to have that covered
up. It's a terrifying experience to
be put before the full bench of the Federal court.
But ultimately. The full bench of the Federal
Court has scrutinised. Our journalism and more
importantly to scrutinise the testimony of SASR soldiers who
said what they saw. And the full bench of the
Federal Court has found the truth that Ben Robert Smith is a
war criminal. You can't ask for a more
comprehensive process than the full bench of the Federal Court
to have our journalism scrutinised fully, thoroughly,
to have the testimony of our witnesses, those brave SASR
soldiers scrutinised. Yet again and yet again.
The finding is utterly compelling.
Ben Robert Smith did do these things.
Ben Robert Smith is a war criminal and I want to
acknowledge his victims. There are Afghan women and
children who've lost husbands, fathers, because they were
murdered on the orders of Ben Robert Smith.
They should not be forgotten in all this.
By the recent BBC Panorama programme called I saw War
Crimes claims to have taken the testimony of special forces
veterans, though none has been named and actors were used for
the filming. Reporting on this has been very
limited and there's been extremely little attention on
the long running independent inquiry relating to Afghanistan.
But in late January, Lord Justice Hadden Cave, who's
charged with running the inquiry, requested that witness
N1141 provided a statement which should have been due within 42
days, which would detail, among other things, an overview of the
witness's career, his role as an OC, relationships with
individuals and partner forces, serious incident reviews and an
alleged confrontation with another witness.
Now reference to this witness being an OC should mean that he
was a Squadron Leader, which means that he's one of a very
small number of people who were in that role.
And given the situation with the Australian Special Forces, the
reference to partner forces should be considered as
particularly significant. In response to the request, the
MOD witness legal team wrote to inform the inquiry that N1141
will quote will be relying on his privilege against self
incrimination and will therefore not be providing a witness
statement in response. No further explanation was
provided. End Quote.
So the so called privilege against self incrimination is a
theme. In March of this year Hadden
Cave released a statement about the obstruction to Opsesto which
is the military police investigation into the
extrajudicial killings in the 1st place, which described how
soldiers see refused to give oral evidence despite having
complied with a request for a written statement.
Such refusals to give evidence or a bad look for UK Special
forces as they would appear to reinforce the point that they
believed themselves to be above the law, not just in relation to
killing non combatants but also with regard to acting in support
of an apparently legitimate judicial process.
And the reason for making that point is that the privilege
referred to relates to a civil or a criminal case, but not to
an inquiry which is by nature inquisitorial rather than
adversarial. So as a consequence, Lord
Justice Haddon Cave has now mandated a response from N1141
and I'll provide updates on this as and when.
Now not only has there been very limited coverage of this issue
in the mainstream, but the armed forces hierarchy refused to
touch it with a barge pole. And this is a point brought out
in a piece in the Telegraph by ex army journalist James
Jeffrey, who asks why no general will take responsibility.
And the answer, as always, is that it's not politically
expedient for them to do so. And to reinforce the point I
refer to the appointment of General Gwyn Jenkins as First
Sea Lord, the probability of which I mentioned last week.
Now this is important because when he he was director of
Special Forces, Jenkins is believed to have ordered special
forces personnel to lean on civil servants in order to block
Afghans from coming to the UK to give evidence in the Afghan
inquiry. And again, as to be expected,
the counter narrative is being bolstered continually.
And here we see the omnipresent Hamish to Bretton Gordon writing
for the British Forces Broadcasting Services that we
should not rush to judgement on the allegation against Special
forces. Which indeed may be the case,
though it's quite clear that he's preparing the ground for
public opinion to be such that a criminal trial, were it to go
ahead, may well end up being prejudice.
Yes, well, that will continue to rumble on.
I'm not sure. And with massive attempts to
sweep it under the rug, I. Think very desperate attempts,
and I think the the appointment of Gwyn Jenkins amidst this
controversy absolutely telegraphs that precise intent.
Yes, OK. Well, Vanessa, let's come to you
now and welcome to the programme.
And what's the latest that's going on in Syria if we move
there? Actually, we keep on the theme
of British interference abroad and talking about the unelected
alleged president of Syria, Jolani, now known as Ahmed Al
Shara. Of course, we can say that his
grooming began in Camp Buka, one of the CIA black sites in Iraq,
after which he joined ISIS and he then formed Al Qaeda or Nusra
Front in Syria, which was rebranded then as HTS, but is
still adhering to the ideology of Al Qaeda.
So let's go back to 2021 and this was Apbs frontline
documentary called The Jihadists, which set the wheels
in motion for the grooming of Jelani as political opposition.
He waged jihad in Iraq and Syria.
Accused of terror and torture. You're a wanted man.
There's a $10 million price tag on your head.
The former al Qaeda commander says he's changed, speaking to a
Western reporter for the first time.
How is it that somebody is going to want to trust you?
Now on Frontline, correspondent Martin Smith investigates the
jihadist. And so now let's Fast forward to
2025, May the 1st and the former U.S. ambassador to Syria from
2011 to 2014, who spoke before the Baltimore Council on Foreign
Affairs. So let's have a listen to what
he had to say. So starting in 2023 a British
non government organisation. Which specialises in conflict
resolution, invited me to help them bring this guy.
Out of the terrorist world and into regular politics.
And at first, I have to tell you it was.
Very leery of going. I sort of had images of me in an
orange jumpsuit with a knife to my throat.
He never apologised. Never apologised for the
terrorist attacks in Iraq or in Syria, although there were many
fewer in Syria. Never apologised.
And just a very quick reminder with this image taken from an
article that I wrote back in, I think, 2017, here is Ambassador
Ford in Syria with the Free Syrian Army, the alleged
moderates, Colonel O Qaidi in 2013.
And on the right is the same Colonel with a leader of ISIS,
part of Omar, the Chechen's group of fighters who led many
of the attacks against the Syrian Arab Army.
Ford, in fact, was unceremoniously flung out of
Syria when it became very apparent that he was there to
incite the uprising against the then Syrian government.
And I just want to have a look at another section from his talk
in Baltimore. So let's have a look at this
quick video. It's not.
I went to Syria in January. I met Ahmed Shah, the president.
Then when I saw him in the presidential palace, I said
never in a million years did I expect to see you here.
And he kind of grinned and he said.
Well, I like to. Keep surprising you, Mr
Ambassador. He has a sense of humour.
I don't normally think of Al Qaeda as having a sense of
humour, but anyway, so. Now what I found quite
interesting there is that he did say Al Qaeda he didn't consider
had a sense of humour. So he still obviously considers
Jolani to be al Qaeda. So let's have a look.
There were a number of articles outlining Robert Ford's visit to
Syria, and this is just one of them.
My Syria visit, rays of hope and fears for the future.
But he also mentions in the article this section, which if
we can just have a look at the quote, I was delighted to accept
an invitation from a British NGO to join them in a visit to a
free Syria in the middle of January.
So clearly he mentioned back in 2023 that it was a British
unnamed NGO that organised his talks with Jolani and then he
went with them in January of this year to Damascus.
And then I just want to bring up the visit of the military
attache, Lieutenant Colonel Smith, that Brian mentioned on
Monday. This was the visit to Damascus
of the Lieutenant Colonel Charles Smith, military attache,
and where he met with the defence minister, alleged
Defence Minister Mahaf Abu Qashra.
And just a reminder, of course, that Mahaf Abu Qasra, his roots
lie in al Qaeda. He was an Al Qaeda commander
before he became. A suited and booted member of
the AL Qaeda government that has been put into power in Syria by
an international coup. And then I just want to focus a
little bit on this. Lieutenant Colonel Charles
Smith, in November of 2024, he was in Lebanon with a military
attache group. We can just bring that up.
UK Defence senior adviser reaffirms Lebanese Armed Forces
as the sole legitimate defender of Lebanon.
So bear in mind, this was just before the ceasefire between
Hezbollah and Israel, which then precipitated us into the
international coup that toppled the the Syrian government.
So very interesting timing. And Charles actually pointed out
to me yesterday that there was a government report on a later
visit to Damascus by Lieutenant Colonel Charles Smith.
Sorry to Lebanon in March of this year also.
So he's obviously very active between Lebanon and Syria.
And let's have a look at what was said in that meeting.
This isn't actually what he said, but it's what was reported
from the meeting. The meeting addressed
opportunities for technical and military cooperation and
mechanisms for developing the army structure to meet modern
challenges. So British military getting
involved in the so called development of Syria post coup,
which of course the British were very much involved in.
It was published and very few outlets, mostly Lebanese, Syrian
and this in the Jerusalem Post. So Israeli media, the source who
works in the ministry's public relations department, added that
the British visit may serve as a prelude to normalisation with
the current Syrian government. I would certainly agree with
that. And then a reminder that a
couple of weeks ago we talked about the fact that there are
British private military mercenaries basically on the
ground inside Syria and that they, the Syrian director of the
Emerald Group was actually appointed again in November
2024. So at the same time as
Lieutenant Colonel Charles Smith was conducting meetings with his
colleagues in Lebanon. So interesting timing.
I mean, that's pure speculation. I obviously don't have anything
to tie them together except the timing itself.
So let's have a quick look at a summary of what I've been
talking about. So in 2021 we had the PBS
interview with Jolani the jihadist, where they definitely
sort of trimmed his beard and put him in a suit and tried to
legitimise him as political opposition.
In 2023 a British NGO Unnamed and Robert Ford visited Jolani
to again continue the grooming project in March and September.
2024 November Lieutenant Colonel Charles Smith in Lebanon just
prior to the ceasefire that led to between Israel and Hezbollah
that then was led to the coup in Syria. 2024 again Emerald BMC
Syria Director was appointed at the same time that Charles Smith
was in Lebanon. 2025 January visit by Robert Ford and again
this unnamed British NGO. And in 2025 again, Lieutenant
Colonel Charles Smith visits Damascus with a view to securing
a British military footprint alongside Al Qaeda.
Thank you for that, Vanessa. Well, more Foreign Office
related news later on. So thank you for that.
Now Sandy, let me welcome you to the programme and of course the
other news that's come out in the last day or two is
apparently a deal has been done on the from at the World Health
Organisation, which Britain is absolutely part of.
Yes. Yesterday, 20th of May, in
Geneva, the World Health Organisation Member States
quietly adopted the first ever international Pandemic
Agreement, a global treaty that would reshape how public health,
national law and everyday freedoms operate in the future.
Slovakia's abstention followed a challenge initiated by Prime
Minister Robert Fico, who called for a formal vote rather than
allowing the treaty to pass by consensus.
Fico was known for his vaccine scepticism and concerns over
national sovereignty. He instructed Slovakia's
delegation to oppose the agreement.
The Who is not led by elected officials.
You know, the director general, Doctor Tedros Gabrieus, holds
office through diplomatic negotiation, not public vote.
His record simply during the early COVID response sparked
curious concerns about neutrality and transparency.
You know, we have to remember that there was no vote for the
from the people on this. No heated debates, no
parliamentary oversight, no public referendum.
Instead was adopted by consensus, literally the back
door method of agreement that allows governments, including
the UK, to silently nod their approval without needing to
explain themselves to the people they serve.
And this is what we're finding across the board.
The foundation of this treaty is the Who's One Health framework,
an ideology that links human health to animals, the
environment, even agriculture and land use.
Under a broad lens, almost anything can be rebranded as a
health threat. Climate change, farming
practises, land ownership, all potentially within the scope.
This fits in obviously with the border, UN 20-30 Seventeen goals
agenda. And while The Who cannot
directly overhaul national laws, the treaty even creates binding
international obligations. Governments can now use it to
justify emergency laws, sweeping powers, social restrictions, all
under the shield of international compliance or
global coordination, they call it.
Even more troubling is who pays for the whose bills.
As of 2023, the largest funders weren't Democratic governments.
They were private powerhouses, the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation, GAVI, and various UN agency.
Backed by corporate interests, these donors now help set global
health priorities without a single vote cast by the public.
Among the treaties more alarming features is the proposed
Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing Pabs system.
This would give The Who rights to collect pathogen samples from
any country and control their distribution under equity rules.
I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
The treaty also pushes for digital health certificates, a
polite phrase for what could soon become global digital IDs
linked to your vaccination status.
Not every country was on board. As I mentioned earlier,
obviously you know Slovakia, but nations like Poland, Russia,
Italy, Iran also were were raising the alarm during the
negotiations. Their objections were loss of
sovereignty, vague legal language and the growing power
of unelected institutions. In the UK, meanwhile, the
silence has been deafening. There's been no real debate in
Parliament, no public consultation, no clear
explanation from the Prime Minister or the Health
secretary. Britain simply slid into the
agreement without your voice, without your vote or your
knowledge. In some cases, this treaty marks
more than a shift in health policy.
It signals A deeper transformation, the move from
national government governance to a transnational management
system. Decisions that affect your life
are increasingly made by technocrats, foundations and
global agencies. And people can't elect.
You know that these are people that you can't elect and and you
can't remove. So when COVID began, rapid
emergency powers top down mandates, censorship,
surveillance. The Who treaty now locks all
those things into place internationally.
Emergency governance is becoming the new normal.
So here's a question we all must ask.
If governments can sign binding global treaties without asking
their people, who's really in charge during the next crisis?
And there will be 1. Otherwise they wouldn't be doing
all this. And the answer increasingly is
that that you know, you didn't vote for these people and you,
you know that you and they cannot hold you to account.
I mean, when I read the treaty, the takeaway for me reading it
and you can find it online, is the pandemic agreement does not
include any provisions that would give the World Health
Organisation powers to impose domestic public health decisions
in the UK. The sovereignty of states is one
of the guiding principles of the agreement.
So bearing that in mind, you know, knowing that we're we're
getting these consensuses globally, locally that are not
representative of the people they serve.
This is all basically relying on our compliance and we have to
remember that. What do you think?
Sandy, thank you. Thank you for that.
I think that's absolutely right. But I mean, the, the, the UK
government did release a press release to say that they had
joined this, that they had signed and so on.
But they, as you say, there was very little of any real
mainstream coverage on it. And certainly the implications
haven't been discussed in the mainstream media and there is no
national debate or discussion about it.
So you know, I don't know, I don't know what your thoughts
are. Well, it's nothing to do with
health. I mean, I think that's the first
thing to point out. And this is exactly what we saw
in 2020 and people were blindsided by and large by what
happened in the name of health. And this is just an extension of
that. And of course, we mustn't forget
that that's where this is traced back to in the, in the immediate
term. And I think, you know, we can
talk more about this in extra, but but this says an awful lot
more about the, the way that wider government of society is,
well, I say working. I mean, it's obviously it's not
working because Sandy described as completely backed front.
So I think there's that, you know, this, this should
absolutely send a shiver down down people's spines if
considering that we do live in a in a society where we as the
people who pay for and vote for elected representatives are in
any way in charge of what happens to us.
Yes, thank you. OK, well let's move on.
If you like what the UK does, we do need your support.
I want to say a massive thank you to everybody that does
support us. But if you go to our support
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you can access to a few members on the content like UK called
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But if you can't do that, please do share the material you find
on the UK column website. Share links are available.
And that is massively helpful to get around the censorship regime
in this country and around the world now.
Christiansen, Cornwall. Yes, indeed.
Now this is an interview with an accompanying article.
It's about Truro diocese and it relates to the On the way plan,
which through all intents and purposes extends the lockdown
policies in an effort to destroy congregations and Christian
worship under the forced pretext of the lack of funds.
Really diverting money towards the absurd net zero agenda and
how to sort of push up push back by via the PCCs.
So worth getting into. And then next, an article about
the steel, what's happened with the steel industry and a
description of the process by which government may purport to
act in support of an entity or industry whilst actually doing
everything in its power to subvert it.
So, a cautionary tale from a legislative and policy
perspective. And we shouldn't pass by the
fact that you wrote it. I did write it.
Yes, OK, And German tonight is going to be talking about the
Titanic conspiracy. I'm going to be very interested
in watching this because my uncle was the man who project
managed the building of the massive cranes in Harland Wolf
Shipyard where of course the Titanic was built.
And while he was there in the 60s and 70's the stories of the
so called Titanic conspiracy were absolutely right for then.
Of course this is well before the Internet ever happened.
So watch Germs interview tonight at 7:00 PM live at with John
Hammer. If you can possibly join, I'm
sure the discussion will be interesting.
Now a reminder of Standing the Light is taking place this
weekend in Gagarin and Cumbria. So a last chance to get tickets
and to go for that. So if you possibly can get along
to it, a reminder of the Sounds Beautiful festival taking place
in Wimborne and Dorset. 26th the 29th of June and just to say
that the tickets, the ticket competition is now over and the
winner is Gongster Joe on Facebook.
And so well done if you if you for Gongster Joe for winning
those two free tickets, look forward to seeing you on the at
the sounds Beautiful festival in June.
Great. OK, let's move on then to the
situation with Lucy Connolly. Now Lucy Connolly was gaoled for
31 months back in October as a victim of the British regime's
attack on free speech. And yesterday she had her appeal
against her sentence turned down.
Now Connolly's tweets at the time were pretty reprehensible
for sure, but the punishment way overboard in my opinion,
particularly when considered against the punishment given for
other offences. And we'll come on to that in a
second. The appeal judges considered
that the final the the trial judge, sorry, had acted
correctly. And in a sense, it's hard to
disagree with that. But before you jump down my
throat for saying that, just hear me out for a second because
what we have here, I think is a perfect example of why juries
are important, because the trial judge could only act based on
the letter of the legislation. And it's in the legislation that
we have to look for the injustice in this case.
Connolly pled guilty, but if she'd been in front of a jury,
she may well have been felt able to challenge the charge.
And remember that a jury has the power to overturn bad
legislation, which a judge does not, other than in very
exceptional circumstances like incompatibility with the Human
Rights Act. But the bottom line here is that
the legislation, it's the legislation which is the
problem. And therefore, if there's going
to be resistance to what happened to her and to others,
including, for example, Peter Lynch, who was imprisoned under
the same kinds of circumstances and hanged himself in prison,
then resistance has to be political.
Now, the reaction on Twitter last night was predictable.
Perhaps all the tweets were the same or at least mostly the
same, mentioning Hugh Edwards who got a suspended sentence for
his crimes, and Mike Amsbury, former MP who punched the
constituent and who ended up with a suspended sentence on
appeal and the requirement to do some voluntary work and an anger
management course. So these comparisons that
everybody was tweeting and retweeting last night came from
Lucy's husband Ray, who's the Tory councillor in Northampton
Town Council. And so to the end, to the end
this segment, I just want to mention the BBC coverage of all
this On this morning's Today programme, presenter Anna Foster
made these comments. I note comments by Lucy
Connolly's husband Ray in this case and I wanted your your take
on a couple of those. He said that he thought the
system wanted to make an example of her so other people would be
scared to say things about immigration.
And he also said Lucy got more time in gaol for one tweet than
some paedophiles and domestic abusers get.
Is that the case here? So she couldn't, as ABBC
presenter couldn't even acknowledge the fact that the
paedophiles, that was only one paedophile being talked about on
the on all the Twitter, Twitter comments that I saw.
And that was Hugh Edwards. And because of course he was BBC
himself, they didn't want to to discuss that at all.
I just thought that was pretty pathetic effort by the BBC
there. I wanted to mention that in
passing. Let's come on to Charles to
state threats. Yeah, indeed.
Now the Counterterrorism Division of the Crown
Prosecution Service have charged 3 Iranian men under the newish
National Security Act, saying that they sorry, we'll just
animate that, saying it's extremely important that there
should be no sorry, wrong. We have authorised the
Metropolitan Police Service to charge 3 Iranian men with
offences under the National Security Act.
And they go on to say that it is extremely important that there
should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of
information which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.
Now, this prompted the Home Secretary to give a statement
with an update on national security, in which he continued
to push the point that Iran presents an existential threat
to the UK. OK, citing the meaningless
statistic that MI 5 has conducted more and more
investigations into Iranians, she went on though to say this.
But we need to go further in strengthening our powers to
address national security threats.
Security Minister and I both warned of the increasing
complexity of the threats we face.
Threats from extremist and terrorist groups and
individuals, including Islamist extremism and far right
extremism, continue, and vigilance and action against
those remains crucial. But malign activities against us
by or on behalf of foreign states have grown and the
threats we face have become more complex and intertwined.
MI 5 State threats investigations have increased by
nearly 50% in a year. Policing investigations into
state threats, led by counterterrorism policing are up
fivefold since 2018. And as well as growing, those
threats are becoming more interconnected and the old
boundaries between state threats, terrorists and
organised criminals are being eroded.
We have seen malign foreign state organisations seek to
exploit any vulnerability from criminal networks to our
cybersecurity to our borders to do us harm.
In our manifesto we committed to stronger action on state based
security threats and before entering government the Foreign
Secretary and I set out plans for the establishment of a joint
unit to pursue and Co ordinate action.
I can announce that the new State Threats Joint Unit is in
place with staff from across Whitehall, driving a broader
approach across government, building new partnerships with
industry and academia. She speaks of interconnectedness
and it's this message that we're supposed to take away.
MI 5 has had ownership of the Joint States, the Joint State
Threats Assessment team, since 2017.
So here's another example of the plan for change translating as
very much more of the same. Now, since the events in
Southport last summer, the conflation of terrorism,
extremism and national security has gathered momentum, and not
just here in the UK, although there still remains some.
Confusion over the current situation.
But in Germany, if Afd is conclusively classified as
extremist then the authorities may invoke powers to surveil
them which would otherwise not be available.
So it can be no coincidence then that this falls at exactly the
same time as David Clues of Unity News Network and Mark
Collett of Patriotic Alternative, neither of which is
a prescribed organisation, are being reported by the BBC as
plotting to infiltrate the Reform Party with Neo Nazis.
So this must be looked at as the perfect springboard for rolling
out similar powers of surveillance for those
organisations which are at that halfway house before
prescription. Now by way of context of course,
there's no mention of the fact that the Fabian Society has
virtual total control of the government, an organisation in
pursuit of smashing the system in order to impose A1 world
government. Now ever since Michael Gove
cooked up the new version of extremism which bore a very
striking resemblance to the Criminal Code of the Soviet
Union of 1924, this has been the telegraphed progression.
And as to the National Security Act, I think it must be noted
that making the all important link between UK activity and
another state is at the heart of it.
Which is why there've been several references to the
Swedish group Foxtrot Network, which is always being reported
as being controlled by, of course, Iran.
So I think there's no doubt that this event agenda will develop
and we'll keep you up to speed with exactly how that works out.
Vanessa, let's welcome you back to the programme and what's the
FCD you've been up to? What, you mean more than normal?
And I love how they're they're they're prescribing someone as
neo Nazis while supporting neo Nazis in Ukraine.
But that's another subject altogether.
Well, no, I think my, my curiosity was piqued by this
unnamed British NGO that was basically helping, I'm quite
sure at the behest of the UK Foreign Office helping groom
Jolani to be legitimate political opposition.
So while I was searching for who this NGO might be, and of course
we're probably going to be trying to raise an FOI on, on
that subject, or at least contact the UK Foreign Office, I
discovered this document, the UK Syria Development Partnership
Summary, July 2023. And of course this was published
under the 22 to 24 Sunak Conservative government.
But two items in that document again rose up and and sort of
presented themselves to me. First of all, is this novel idea
of building local resilience in Syria, having basically
destabilised, destroyed and devastated Syria since 2011 on
purpose. So allegedly the programme
objective to address the economic stress drivers of
violence alongside social norms, et cetera, et cetera.
You can freeze frame it and and read, I would say the nonsense
therein. But what's interesting is the
programme partners, the Food and Agricultural Organisation and
undisclosed NGO partners. How often do we see that?
And also that programme is running through to 2027, which
is interesting because that means basically it's of course
under the auspices of the Al Qaeda government, in place since
December 2024. Then I came across this
programme which is Syria Independent monitoring too and
people might remember that to some degree the the largest with
arguably non non NGO operating in Idlib in particular alongside
Al Qaeda is the CI AM I6 created White Helmets started by a
former British military intelligence officer in Turkey
and Jordan in 2013, James Lemejure, who allegedly fell to
his death from a from a roof in November.
Oh gosh, 2019 OK. Can I just have that back on the
screen for a second please Mike? So here we have to provide
independent third party monitoring of FDO funded
projects in Syria, which of course include the White Helmets
and to verify results reported by implementing partners.
So the programme partners are Co water and land, old Mills.
The programme date was the 16th of April 2020 to 15th July 2023,
Budget 16 to 18,000,000. And as you and I, Mike, were
discussing passing, where are these reports now?
These reports are mentioned on the cold water website.
So this is the Syria independent monitoring.
And according to their website, they should be producing reports
on independent project monitoring, assessment of SDO,
implementing partners, monitoring and evaluation
systems, thematic studies, inclusion and accountability to
affected populations, reports and lessons learned.
Now, as far as I can see, I cannot find hide nor hair of
this report in any of the UK Foreign Office documents.
I've written to Co Water and Landell Mills to ask them where
I might be able to find such reports that are funded by
British taxpayer money. And presumably they would have
investigated the White Helmet activities in Edlib in
particular, because these organisations won't be operating
anywhere else in Syria until after the coup of December 2024.
So far no reply. What a surprise.
And of course, Foreign Office doesn't like to give replies to
anything, but we'll keep you posted on that.
Keep everybody posted on that. Sandy, let me welcome you back
and now this report is we're coming back to the UK now and to
local so called local democracy. Anyway, this report takes the
column right back to the very beginning, because what's been
going on at Somerset Town Council or County Council?
Well, it it would appear that some money has a lot of money
has disappeared into a big black hole.
The Life Factory, which was supposed to be a community.
Harbin Glastonbury was meant to be a vibrant space uniting
music, arts, youth, work and small businesses under one roof.
A shining sort of symbol of their regeneration project.
And that was the promise of the Life Factory project at the red
brick building in Glastonbury. But that promise has collapsed
into scandal. Instead of a finished community
centre, what we've got is 1/2 built Shell, angry unpaid local
contractors and a serious question, where has the money
gone? The Life Factory was part of
Glastonbury's 23.6 million town deal, a central government
scheme to level up communities and nearly 2.85, sorry 2.89
million of public money was awarded to transform this red
brick building Building C into a creative hub with radio studios,
Youth Services, therapy rooms and more.
Now looking at those pictures, does it really look as though
there's, you know, that there's that amount of money being spent
on, on those buildings? I mean, nothing has been done on
this building and yet 2.89 million has literally
disappeared. So in early 2004, Somerset
Council, the body responsible for managing the town Deal
funds, froze all payments to the red brick project because
serious concerns were raised over financial governance, poor
invoicing practises and a total lack of transparency about where
the money was going. That triggered an urgent audit
by the Southwest Audit Partnership Swap, a group that
investigates how public money is spent.
And what they found was damning. The audit uncovered complete
collapse in governance in, you know, if you break it down,
there was no match. Funding was ever secured despite
being a core condition of the grant.
There was no fully costed project plan, no clear timeline.
Invoices couldn't be matched to work.
Financial records were missing, procurement rules were ignored
in formal staffing arrangements and no evidence of competitive
quotes for even basic cheques. The red brick building and its
spin off company Becky Reconstruction failed every
standard of good financial management, but Somerset Council
didn't escape the blame either. They kept signing off payments
even when the red flags were already raised.
Meanwhile, the contractors were left unpaid.
And this is this is the the sad human story.
One firm, R4 Scaffolding, said they worked for months in good
faith and they never got paid. 1 subcontractor said around 40
people are owed money, a lot of money.
And heartbreakingly, a local man named Jonathan Wilkins told the
town council he lost his wife to suicide in part due to the
financial stress this project caused him.
Now this is just awful. This isn't just about paperwork,
it's about real people's lives being torn apart by
institutional incompetence. You know, Building C still
stands half built, it's derelict, it's exposed.
Structural engineers now say the wooden frame could soon
deteriorate beyond repair if action isn't taken.
There's still no roof, no planning permission, no bat
licence, no contractor, nothing in place to finish the job now,
Conservative councillor Lily Osborne said.
They have drawn down a huge amount of money with, with very
little scrutiny, this public money and the public have a
right to know what's going on with it.
The chair of the red brick building, ex mayor and Green
councillor XR member Indra Don Francesco is accountable for
this project, she said. We are concerned that there was
not enough funding left in the budget to get the roof on.
Well that's kind of the first thing you do isn't it?
We did our own internal audit and paused a lot of things.
Yeah, like finishing the building and made a lot of
changes and made a lot of savings.
Well, for who? This is not just a failed
project, it's a public embarrassment.
So who's to blame? The audit makes it clear both
the Red Brick Building Centre and Somerset Council should
share the responsibility. The Red Brick team ran an
operation with no proper financial procedures, no
governance between the main organisation and no match
funding. The body is supposed to
safeguard the public money approved the payments.
I mean, it was a total incompetence.
Now, interestingly, they've they've they've admitted, you
know, failures. It was the taxpayers money, your
money, my money spent to regenerate this building.
Instead it's vanished into this back black hole of bad
management and buck passing. The question is now simple.
I mean, who is actually going to be accountable for all this?
Now I want to take a good look at the Town Deal Chairman,
Doctor Lynn Sedgmore CBE. Lynn is a qualified teacher and
has an MSC in Change Agent Skills Strategies.
Well, no common purpose training there.
She was awarded the CBE in 2004. She's a Fellow of the Royal
Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Institute of Directors and is a
Chartered Marketeer headed up the Anne Frank Trust UK.
Interesting. She she's married to John
Capper, who was the director of the Beckery Construction Company
that was employed to finish the job from May 20 to 22 to
November 2023. So, you know, it sounds like a
bit of nepotism going on there or some sort of vested interest.
Lynn Sedgmore CBE is executive director also of the 157 Group
of Further Education Colleges and has has advised Whitehall on
a range of projects including leadership, innovation,
community and interfaith cohesion.
The 157 Groups exists to serve its members and to be at the
leading edge of sector more widely on three levels.
Thought leadership, setting out visionary challenges and radical
agendas for how things might be done.
Practise improvement and policy influence.
Using the experience of our members to directly inform the
views of government and policy makers, government bodies and
agencies, academics and other influencers.
So the people of Glastonbury are not going to let this one rest.
You know, we will find justice for the people who've been
devastated by this fiasco. It's it's absolutely dreadful.
Thank you, Sandy, thank you. Now let's move on to back to
health matters in fact and well, first of all, bio N tech.
Well, first it was Starmer's. Well, let's put it this way.
It was Starmer's announcement of personalised medicine for cancer
treatments that was announced at the beginning of the year
enabled by AI driven data centres.
Then it was Operation Stargate, announced by Larry Ellison at
Trump's inauguration for exactly the same reason.
Well now COVID-19 vaccine pioneers bio N tech, and I say
that with deep sarcasm for the avoidance of doubt, has been has
have announced A commitment to A10 year up to £1 billion
investment in the UK. And this is for new research and
AI centres to be established in London as well as Cambridge.
And Starmer's government claims that this demonstrates the
benefits of the Oxford Cambridge Growth Corridor.
Right Bio N Tech says they will develop the next generation of
life changing medicines, underpinned by up to 129,000,000
lbs of government support. And this agreement underscores
the government's commitment to life sciences as a key part of
the plan for changes as their language that they use driving
improvements in healthcare and delivering economic growth.
The government is crowing about what a great deal this is,
citing the Academy of Medical Sciences who report that every 1
LB spent on medical research delivers a return of 25 P every
year forever after that. What a business model, Charles.
Almost as good as perpetual war, which is the other major
business model the current British regime is pursuing.
But that means they've covered their costs in four years and
everything for for eternity is is profit, share, profit from
then on. Incredible.
Absolutely. So they'll be licking their lips
at the prospect of going back into the European Union.
But sticking with AI. Sticking with AI indeed.
Yes. Now I was reporting on the
situation last week of the deliberate policy creating water
scarcity and the Labour MP Bell Ribeiro Adi during UK Column
News created a rather awkward atmosphere during Prime
Minister's Questions last week by asking about the potential
impact of AI on the environment. Now the reply from the Permanent
Secretary made reference to the long term sustainability and the
creation of the AI Energy Council.
The government expects quote the council will also look at clean
energy like renewables and nuclear, advising on improving
energy efficiency and sustainability in AI and data
centre infrastructure such as the use of water.
End Quote Now as well as the energy operators, the council
includes Google, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.
So I think we can take an educated guess at which version
of sustainability that we are going to get now at the same
time as insisting that we can harness the power of the sun via
solar panels. Government courses funding
search into how to block same sun and now, as it tells people
to conserve water, the government is desperately
pushing to create technology that's projected to use as much
as 2/3 of the whole of the UKF water supply.
A recent announcement by AI growth zones has caused some
people at last to scratch their heads, and the guidance
references the availability of water as being a technical
consideration now, specifically, enough water to satisfy 500
megawatts of AI infrastructure. And the issue therefore becomes
rather straightforward. It's one of priority.
So what form does the written confirmation from a water
supplier take? And if there is a water
shortage, does a data centre assume that priority over the
people or animals who might need to drink it?
So if the data centre is there at all, then presumably there's
no point in its existence if it's to be switched off
periodically. So with that in mind, I think
the question is why does the burden for the provision of
water not fall upon either the government whose bright idea of
these growth zones are, or indeed the businesses which
intend to build the data centres?
Now, as has been pointed out by the Guardian among others, it's
a mighty coincidence that the data centre proposed for Cullum
in Oxfordshire will be just a stone's throw from the proposed
reservoir at Abingdon. So, as is exactly the case with
electricity, the inference here is that AI will only work if you
stop using all of its electricity and water.
And finally, it should be noticed, noted rather that
Microsoft has trialled successfully and used and
undersea storage of data centres for cooling.
That's something that the Chinese continue to do.
Now on screen here is Project Natick or Natick in Scotland.
And despite the abundance of seawater in Scotland, Microsoft
have decided that they're not going to go further with it.
And one can only imagine this is because it's easier and cheaper
to abstract all of the rest of the water which the taxpayer
will be providing for them. So I think an area that we will
have to keep people updated on, such as the government's push
and push and push for AI being the answer to absolutely
everything. Yes, OK.
Well, let's move on then to the MHRA because yesterday you'll
all be glad to know it was International Clinical Trials
Day. And to celebrate that the new
Chief Executive of the MHRA, Lawrence Talon, has been
reflecting. And this is how he reflected.
He said clinical trials don't just help us determine whether a
medicine is safe and effective, they lead to better care
outcomes for participants overall.
He was reflecting this on some kind of MHRA blog post.
But he said we want to go further in cementing the UK as
one of the best places in the world to conduct trials for both
patients and researchers. Last month, he said we began
implementing the most significant update to UK
clinical trials regulation in over 2 decades.
These reforms will address the research sectors need for more
efficient, streamlined and adaptable regulatory framework
for clinical trials. In other words, to make the
regulation as lightweight as possible, all at the same time
that other areas of regulation are coming down ever stronger on
organisations. But anyway, he went on to say
and of course they will help us get cutting edge new treatments
to patients and the NHS as quickly as possible and of
course keep the profits rolling. And he didn't specify that, but
I'm quite sure that's what he was meaning there.
We've also seen some exciting developments in the use of
artificial intelligence, which could speed up vital parts of
our clinical trial application review from three hours to just
35 seconds. Brilliant.
I mean, what more could you wish for?
And finally, he said, of course it's not just about getting
trials set up quickly. It's important that trials in
the UK are innovative and inclusive too.
To support this, we've recently launched a pilot inclusion and
diversity plan with the Health Research Authority.
The next year will be an exciting one for UK trials as
the government pushes forward its life science vision and 10
year health plan. Our reforms could not come at a
more important time. The MHRA just gets better and
better. Charles.
I'm quite sure we'll be talking a little bit about that an extra
as well. I think we absolutely will, and
we come to the last part of today's show, which is the news
that the Ministry of Defence are pleased to announce that they
have created a method of sticking things together
underwater. Yes, indeed.
Could a new underwater glue give the UK the competitive advantage
in a theatre of conflict? It's scarcely believable, but at
a time where billions of pounds are going out the door to fund
conflict in Ukraine and we're talking up the state threat with
Iran, the Ministry of Defence apparently now believes that the
answer to everything could be to be able to stick things to other
things underwater. And they are claiming that this
in time might well save lives. Now whether or not that would
have prevented or been able to fix the the connection problem
we had on the stream earlier and the programme is something we'll
just have to leave hanging, but there we go.
Yes, OK. Well, look, thank you, Charles.
Thank you, Vanessa and Sandy, and thanks to everybody at
watch. Sorry for the technical problems
earlier. We'll be back in a few minutes
for some extra. Join us for that if you can.
There'll be an interview going out at 1:00 PM tomorrow and
we'll be back for the news on Friday.
See you then. Bye, bye, bye bye.