Good afternoon, it's just gone. 1:00 on Wednesday the 18th of
June 2025, Welcome to UK Column News.
I'm your host, Charles Mannett. Joining me in the studio today
is Ben Rubin. Welcome to the program, Ben.
Thank you, Charles. And we have Vanessa Bailey
joining from Lebanon, Sandy Adams I remote link from
Somerset and Doctor Liz Evans from West Sussex.
Now today's program will in many ways extend the theme of
Monday's news program. And I mean by that, we will be
articulating the threads that bind together the agenda, which
express themselves even at the most local level to push out
globally policy. And to that end, we will be
taking a look at the context in the Middle East within which the
escalation of the current conflict concerning Iran is set
and how that pertains to the Sustainable Development Goals
and in particular their origins. And also looking at the local
level and how householders are affected by policy concerning
the agenda and subversion of such local authorities, as well
as the latest on the push for pharmaceutical propaganda and
weight loss jabs, and also the latest environmental concerns
over the relentless push towards AI.
Now, as I say, we're going to make a start with the conflict
in the Middle East, but in particular the context within
which that's set and tracing it back through history.
So we'll go to Vanessa now in Lebanon.
What I need to do today is to basically show a road map for
the war that is currently being waged against Iran.
That began a long time ago. But let's look at 2009 and the
Brookings Institute paper. Which path to Persia?
If we can just have a look at the actual slide itself.
Options for a new American strategy toward Iran.
Now the Brookings Institute is one of the heavyweights among
the so-called think tanks with connections to the State
Department, to the military Ministry of Defence and also in
1952 received funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and the
Ford Foundation. So they're they're very
influential. So let's have a look at this
actual strategy paper. The link will be up in the show
notes so people can go through it, but will it's 170 pages.
So which path to Persia? So this is the Part 1, the
trouble with Iran, U.S. policy options towards Iran.
And Part 1 is basically dissuading Tehran, ironically
called the diplomatic option. So let's have a look at what
that actually entails. So we then have a chapter.
We just have the next slide, please.
So first of all, Chapter 1 and offer Iran shouldn't refuse.
So this began back in 2005 through the method of
persuasion, which of course we're all well aware of with
regards to COVID and to various other regional wars,
particularly against Iraq and Syria with the weapons of mass
destruction and so on. So in 2005, Bush was already
trying to persuade Iran to halt any kind of nuclear development,
even though, of course, at that point they were also not looking
at developing nuclear weapons. So if we actually have a look at
this slide, it shows basically that the nuclear weapon gag has
been running for about 30 years. People can freeze frame this.
Obviously the writing is very small.
They can freeze frame and have a look at all of the accusations
levied at Iran for the last 30 years of having or or wanting to
develop nuclear weapons. And then 2012, this was Benjamin
Netanyahu, Israeli's Prime Minister at the UNGA, who of
course showed his his bomb, nuclear bomb image at the UNGA.
And then moving on back to the actual paper itself.
And in the second part in the paper, if we can just have the
slide, please. Sorry, tempting.
So this is Chapter 2, tempting Iran, the engagement option,
which is basically a gun related very much to the negotiations
over Iran's nuclear program. And then moving on to the
following chapter which is related to disarming Tehran, the
military option, if we can. Again, sorry, thank you.
Chapter 3 going all the way, which would involve US invasion.
Chapter 4, the Osiric option which would include air strikes.
Now that relates to Operation Opera, a Zionist operation back
in 1981. In 77, they Mossad claimed to
have found that Iraq under Saddam Hussein was developing A
platanium reactor and they bombed the Osirak plant in in
Iraq in 1981. And it then became known as the
Bagan doctrine, which basically if an Arab leader calls for the
destruction of Israel, they will not be allowed to have nuclear
weapons. So again, putting historical
context onto this and then Part 3 of the actual which path to
Persia, which includes regime change, not surprising there.
Chapter 6, The Velvet Revolution, supporting a popular
uprising, which is very similar, of course, to what we saw back
in 2022 with a Western orchestrated uprising under the
pretext of women's rights. And of course, we all know how
women's rights are doing now in Syria, that the West has imposed
their al Qaeda unelected government there.
Chapter 7 Inspiring an insurgency supporting Iranian
minority and opposition groups. And again, the West has been
doing that for a very long time with the MEK, the Mujahideen Al
Khalq terrorist group, Chapter 8, the coup, supporting a
military move against the regime, weaponizing the Iranian
military against their own government, then moving on to
Part 4, which is deterring Tehran.
And this is known as containment in the document.
So this is basically relating to if they fail in all other
strategies, Chapter 9 is accepting the unacceptable and
containment, preventing Iran from expanding beyond its
borders, but potentially allowing it its nuclear program.
And of course not forgetting that that going from Bush to
Obama to Trump and Trump again, there has been this vacillation,
Trump pulling out of the nuclear deal and then changing all of
the conditions to the nuclear deal from yes, they can enrich
uranium to know they can't to they must stop their entire
missile program. And of course Iran has
historically stuck by its red lines which which are that it
can enrich uranium. It just will not develop a
nuclear bomb and it's not going to stop it's missile program.
And then of course moving on to the Samsung option.
This is Israel's plan to to to basically use nuclear weapons if
it if it feels that it's under existential threat.
This is from the article in the Progressive.
So the Samson Option is not designed to deter a nuclear
adversary from a first strike or counter strike.
Israel is the only nuclear armed state in the region.
Rather it's purported purpose is to ensure Israel's survival.
Nuclear weapons would be deliberately used against a non
nuclear adversary as a last resort to prevent an Israeli
defeat. So clearly Israel is the nuclear
threat in the region now. It's costing Israel 300 million
per night to intercept the current missiles coming in from
Iran. At the level that they're coming
in, there are three possibilities now.
Either Israel will declare a mission accomplished and declare
victory. Regardless, according to the
Washington Post, they only have about another 12 days of being
able to actually intercept Iranian missiles until their air
defence batteries basically stop working.
They will potentially use the nuclear threat.
Or of course, there is also potential for US and UK
involvement, which will lead to the devastation of the Gulf
states, the Arab Gulf states, the closure of the Hormuz
Straits and the triggering of the resistance factions in the
region against US bases. So I just want to finally bring
in said Morandi, professor at Tehran University, speaking to
Sky News on exactly what Iran is going to do to deal with this
latest round of Zionist aggression.
Iran will not hit back harder. Iran will hit back much harder.
The head of the Iranian forces says Iran will destroy, target
and destroy all of the Israeli regime's infrastructure.
This was the tip of the iceberg. Iran will lose no war.
The Israeli regime will. It is time for you and others to
end your racism and to end your support for the superior race
and to accept that all people in Palestine have equal equal
rights and the Palestinian people have a right of return.
Return. Jews, Christians and Muslims are
equal, unlike what you say, they are equal and we will accept
nothing less than that. The regime must go and keep all
people must be treated equally. If the only thing, there's no
doubt that Israel will lose, but the only variable here is the
United States. If the United States gets
involved, I have no doubt the US, the US will be swept out of
Iraq by the Iraqi resistance and all its assets in the Persian
Gulf will be destroyed. So I think the message really to
take away from this is that nothing happens by coincidence
or by accident or or suddenly. It is pre planned and the road
map runs through bipartisan presidents from the the
instigation of these. Projects, absolutely, but I say
yes, coincidences do not take place in this fashion.
And that's absolutely critical context, which people are not
having been brought to them by the by the mainstream.
Of course, now we are aware that we're having a few technical
problems with the delivery of this programme.
This is not entirely unusual and reflects what it is that we do.
So I apologise for that. We are going to stick with it.
So if you can stick with us, that would be fantastic.
Now context is everything, as we say repeatedly.
And to that end, we're now going to look at the Sustainable
Development Goals from Ben. Absolutely, yes.
And we're going to keep our eye on the Brookings Institution,
actually. Thanks, Vanessa, for that
report. Fascinating context, important
context, and really important to understand that it's these
unaccountable, unelected think tanks behind the scenes that are
really setting the agenda, whether that's through the
escalation of the conflict in the Middle East that we've seen
over the past few days or indeed.
And I think people need to really think about this in the
formulation of global political and economic policy that's
currently being rolled out by our political leaders.
So the Brookings Institution is involved in planning conflict
with Syria. It's also directly involved in
the strategy and delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals
through this initiative. It's the 17 rooms.
So this is all about rejuvenating the Sustainable
Development Goals through shared action.
And this is a collaboration between the Brookings Centre for
Sustainable Development. You can just see in the bottom
left hand side there and the Rockefeller Foundation.
And as Vanessa just pointed out, the Rockefeller Foundation
actually provided the seed funding for the Brookings
Institution, which means actually what we're looking at
here is just one single power structure that is dictating
terms to the rest of humanity. What is 17 rooms?
So it's a grand international convening of political,
corporate, NGO types. Nothing democratic about this
whatsoever. Happens once a year since 2018.
They all get together, they have a lovely time, they collaborate,
think creatively, get around their blind spots, work with a
dream team of experts, make connections, spark action, and
just go for it, right? That's what they're up to.
In 2024, there were over 100 people involved across each of
the 17 rooms. So essentially they create a
room where a discussion is convened, one for each
sustainable development goal. And you've got people there from
JP Morgan, the Clinton Foundation, the Blair Institute,
very heavy NGO for NGO focused, a lot of academics in the rooms.
Importantly, though, there are only two Co chairs, right?
So this is essentially about manufacturing a narrative of
collaboration around something which is actually only properly
understood by these two. Yeah.
So this is Zia Khan, the senior vice president of innovation at
the Rockefeller Foundation, and John MacArthur, director of the
Centre of Sustainable Development.
Now, the Brookings Institution clearly loves the SDGS.
Where can I get my hands on one of those T-shirts?
Isn't that just fantastic? Right.
But ultimately, I guess the point I'm making is that we get
a lot of communication delivered to us about the Sustainable
Development Goals and the UN and the democratic processes that
surround it. But actually it's these two guys
that are in control of this, right?
Just two people and obviously the boards that sit behind them.
But the idea that this is based on the shared understanding and
best endeavours of the holy humanities is, is really
ludicrous, right? And this is crucial for people
to understand, not least because as Vanessa's established
Brookings Institution has been helping to define the strategy
for regime change in Iran. So the people dying in the
Middle East currently, based on the thinking put forward by
these people, but also because the SDGS are being used by
people like Lisa Witter at the Apolitical Foundation, who's a
young global leader of the World Economic Forum, to reshape our
political system from the top to the bottom.
That's what they're up to right now.
And also to drive this global public private partnership.
Yeah, this integration of government and financial market
interest, best evidence through the strategic partnership that
was signed in 2019 between the UN and the World Economic Forum.
Uncle Klaus and Antonio Guterrez, we can just see here,
very proud of the fact that they've signed a strategic
partnership in order to deliver the Sustainable Development
Goals, which were developed by the same people who are
escalating conflict in the Middle East right now.
And importantly, as we'll get into, and Sandy's going to come
and touch on this and I'm going to come back and speak about
this as well. The thing that Brookings are
most particularly concerned about on their website.
This is the most recent post from May the 15th is building
state and local government innovation capacity.
They want to transform our local councils and there'll be much
more on that as we go along in the show.
Super excellent. Thank you very much, Ben.
It's all about these connections, most of them of
course entirely inappropriate. And Sandy, on that theme,
obviously people are continuing asking sort of what they can do
and whether there are ever any successes.
So let's hear what the latest is on that.
Well, a few weeks ago I mentioned that the West
Knowledge Action Group had actually managed to overturn an
LTN, a low traffic neighborhood within their within their
neighborhood. And I just sort of looked at
this ruling and and realised that, you know, the Lambeth
Council lost and it was denied appeal and the LTN must be
removed immediately, which is really quite, quite a success.
The order is binding and enforceable and as a court
judgement and failure to comply could lead to contempt of court.
Now the council must also pay claimants legal costs £35,000 as
ordered plus potentially more for for driver refunds over the
LTN fines which is a massive of win.
Now the main tool used to win this case was the gunning
principle, which was a precedent set quite a while ago and the
court focused on the procedural impropriety, particularly
breaches of the gunning principles, which were principle
one is the formative stage and Principle 2, sufficient
information where the West College Action Group prepared a
detailed 53 page dossier and this dossier was submitted to
Lambeth offices in June 2024, but it wasn't taken into
account. And then principle 4
conscientious consideration. The judgment found that the
council officers ignored significant objections and
produced selective partial reporting of consultation
responses without any explanation of why the dossier
wasn't wasn't weighed. Now these procedural failings
rendered the consultation unfair and thus unlawful under
established case law, which is Brent versus Gunning and R
Mosley versus Harringay. These these are this is the
precedent that was used. So the key takeaways are you can
draw direct parallels when challenging 15 minutes.
It is renewable energy planning, 5G master approvals, any sort of
consultation. The consultation was truly
formative. Was the consultation truly
formative or was the decision already fixed?
You know, was it a predetermined outcome?
Did the authority provides sufficient info and informed
response, and was this response time adequate and accessible?
Were the responses genuinely considered?
Now, in this case, none of that was done.
So that's how it was overturned. Even if one principle is
breached, a court may find the process unlawful and orders to
push decisions can be enforced, just as in the Stolage case.
So that's a reason to be cheerful this week.
OK. Thank you.
Sandy, thank you very much indeed.
And I think that links neatly into what Ben's going to go on
and and develop as a theme. Indeed it is, yes.
Thanks for that, Sandy. That is the reason to be
cheerful, isn't it? And I think that the the people
of East Sussex need to be aware of that because we've got a
consultation coming up which we want to talk about in a moment.
I will just start with this one quote though from GK Chesterson.
What we should try to do is make politics as local as possible.
Keep the politicians near enough to kick them.
The villagers who met under the village tree could also hang
their politicians to the tree. It is terrible to contemplate
how few politicians. Are hanged.
Quite like that, right. So this is on the back of the
segment that Brian delivered last week on Monday about the
dissolution, the Theta complete essentially, which has been
handed to residents of South Hams in in Devon with local
councils being dissolved. And the whole county ultimately
apparently is going to be integrated into one single
authority under Plymouth Council without really much discussion
about this at all. And we've been inundated with
examples over the past few days of this happening elsewhere
around the country from the Highlands of Scotland, right the
way back down to the South Coast of England.
I'm going to focus on East Sussex today.
Thanks to Flowy for sending this over and I'll draw your
attention to this article, which is who will govern your council
time to have your say, right? And importantly, I think that
the the operative term is in the opening paragraph there it says
that there'll be, there'll be 1 council.
The government wants to reorganise local government so
that everyone in East Sussex gets their services from just
one council. It could mean apparently, so
this means the county, districts and borough councils are going
to be replaced. There'll be a single authority
for about half a million people potentially, right.
And they're saying that this could happen.
But as the article goes on to say, a letter to the government
from Wealding District Council suggests the smaller councils
have been given little choice but to support their own
abolition, given the time constraints and government
criteria limits. And so this apparently is just
happening. It doesn't sound like any of the
gunning principles have been adhered to, very importantly and
unsurprisingly. So what is this all about?
Well, obviously it's presented as a good thing.
It's all about streamlining local government, delivering
efficiencies, improving outcomes.
Love those outcomes for residents and communities,
making best use of resources, some very non specific isn't it?
Noun for the future. Importantly, enhancing local
democracy, local identity, transparency, accessibility,
local decision making and accountability.
Which seems ludicrous given that the while trying to reduce the
number of councils, right? It's going to deliver the exact
opposite of this, isn't it? What else?
Supporting and driving decision making and public service
reform, both Sussex and local level public service reform.
I'll come back to that in a minute because then that gives
us a clue as to where this is coming from.
And then finally providing a stronger and unified voice to
help attract investment and tackle priorities, which I think
probably gives the game away, right?
This is ultimately about money. So attracting inward investment,
international capital to buy land, buildings, whatever it
might be from one authority that controls the whole of the county
and makes it easier for that money to come in and take the
things they want take. But then also to tackle
priorities, unspecified priorities.
Essentially this is the government missions, right?
So it says, though on the right hand side, it's not a done deal.
There is a consultation running, it's open to East Sussex
residents until next Monday June 23rd.
So if you're in Eastbourne under East Sussex Council, Hastings,
Lew's, Rother or Weald and District Council then you are
able to reply to this. The link is on screen.
It'll also be in the show notes. And it sounds like that the
precedent set in Bulwich could actually be quite compelling.
So I think they need to be told about that by as many people as
possible, right. And maybe we can have another
victory on our hands here. So back to public spending
reform or sorry, public service reform and a little look into
where this is coming from. And ultimately it's coming from
the centre. Yeah.
So if we go to look at the spending review which was
announced last week by Rachel Reeves in Parliament on
Wednesday, I think it was, we'll go straight to the section on
public service reform. 3.3 Yeah. The governments approach to
public sector reform is guided by three principles to integrate
services so that they are organised around people's lives.
This is the state organising itself around your life and
don't think that that's being done in a positive way.
Yeah, this is about micromanaging you ultimately.
Yeah. So they want to improve long
term outcomes for people through a focus on prevention.
So that means the state intervening in your business in
order to stop you doing things it doesn't like you doing.
And then apparently this is about devolving power to local
areas that understand the needs of their communities best with
services that are designed with and for people.
And I don't buy this for a second.
This is about power getting closer to people, not people
getting closer to power as we spoke about last week.
But importantly, this is being done in partnership with civil
society and the impact economy, right?
So this is charitable foundations, philanthropic
wealth, IE rich people with an agenda trying to re engineer
this the the country in a way that that meets their ends
ultimately, right? And this is embedded into
government policy. This is driving the spending
review, right? Did they continue?
I'd highly recommend going to read this, particularly Section
3 because all this is being done under the the narrative of
improving the NHS. By the way, they've kind of
tucked this away in the bottom of the NHS section.
If you go to the 3.31, we can also see that in reforming local
government, the government will take action to return local
government to a sustainable financial position, including by
providing an additional 3.4 billion of grant funding per
year by 2829. So central government is
propping up local government which is broke.
So the tax base has collapsed out in the regions.
So central government is going to pump £3.4 billion of money
into keep these structures propped up and obviously as as
as a consequence of that is going to be exerting control
over what happens in in those localities.
We can also see that wider reforms unspecified will ensure
funding is effectively targeted based on an updated assessment
of need and will consolidate funding to give local
authorities greater flexibility to innovate.
That word is very important to innovate, to transform
themselves, to move from one system to to a new system.
And ultimately, and these consultations that are popping
up all around the country are about this.
It's the transformation of central government.
Where else is it coming from? We talked about Rachel Reeves
and the spending review. Well, crucially it's coming from
Cabinet Office. Georgia Gould MP, Cabinet Office
minister speaking to Demos earlier on this year saying when
the rules at the centre are blocking services, are you
stopping me from doing what I want to do?
Georgia Gould then we need to change those rules and they're
completely re engineering the state she was in.
The Guardian also George Gould on Saturday talking about the
fact that the civil service is too remote from people's lives
across the UK. Apparently the civil service
needs to be in people's lives. So what she's saying, a few
quotes from the article, she says that her job was to help
close the big gap between those doing the front line operational
roles and those who are making policies.
Whitehall working would be turned inside out.
It's the term that she's used as the Cabinet Office has announced
that Starmer's health mission is going to be based in Leeds.
So a lot of NHS people moving to Leeds, it's opportunity mission
moving to Sheffield, it's growth mission to Darlington and civil
servants are going to be working with local government and
frontline workers to pioneer new approaches.
So again, this is the transformation of service
delivery around the government's missions.
And the Cabinet Office has also announced it was back in May
that they're going to be shutting down Whitehall
buildings and moving civil servants.
So about 12,000 civil servant roles are going to be moving out
of Whitehall into the regions, and they're actually trying to
get to a point where 50% of all senior civil servant roles are
going to be based outside of London in the next five years.
And apparently that's about policy being made close to the
communities that are affected. But actually, this isn't about
the evolution of power. It's about turning the whole
country into Whitehall, essentially.
Yeah, that's what I can see happening here.
And putting Georgia Gould and the Cabinet Office in the
driving seat, right? So what's a little bit more
about her background? She's a fascinating and
important character. She learnt her political trade,
certainly professionally as mayor of Camden Council and the
central London councils are a test bed for a lot of the
policies that are currently being introduced.
And importantly, she's a Labour Party insider.
She's the daughter of Lord Gould, Blair's favorite
pollster. Lord Gould was then a partner at
Floyd Communications who run communications PR for the UN
Sustainable Development Goal. So this links directly back to
the Brookings Institution that we were talking about a few
minutes ago. And importantly this this popped
up which I think is quite interesting in telling about the
connections between Gould and the other component parts of the
Labour establishment. So this is from 2003 in the
Camden New Journal, you can see George Gould there in the
background on the right hand side.
She's also interestingly there with a young woman called Alex
Burtles, who is the daughter of Patricia Hewitt, who was health
secretary under Blair from 2005 to 2007.
And in the 1970s Hewitt was general secretary of the
National Council for Civil Liberties when it was affiliated
with the Paedophile Information Exchange for eight years from
1975 to 1983. And in the centre there we can
see that's Margaret Hodge, who at the time this was taken was
the education minister under Tony Blair.
A position that Hodge was supremely well placed for given
that she arrived into office with a reputation for ignoring
horrific cases of child abuse in care homes that she was
responsible for while she was the leader of Islington Council.
Who better to mentor a new generation of Labour politicians
coming to office and who better to oversee the transformation of
local government? And Sandy, I think you've got
something coming up about Islington Council as well.
From Islington people that had bought their properties under
the Right to Buy scheme quite a while ago.
And what's happening now in Islington Council is that they
are actively repurchasing homes previously sold via the National
Right to Buy scheme. And this includes around 907
homes by March 2026, with 193 bought in the latest round using
funds from the G, the Greater London Council and the Ministry
of Housing, Communities and Local Government, which is the
MHCLG now. Why are they doing it now?
It's apparently they're facing the highest ever numbers in
temporary accommodation. Over 1700 homeless households
are under pressure to house both local families and refugee
arrivals from Afghanistan and Ukraine.
Why are home owners being asked to pay now?
This is, this is what's happening is that the home
owners are being levied massive bills up to £70,000 for repairs
as part of this sale back process.
So it's almost a fait accompli. These people that have bought
their homes are now leaseholders, private
leaseholders are now being given these huge bills which is
forcing them into either bankruptcy or you know, if they
can borrow the money from the bank.
If they can't, they are being forced to sell up.
So, you know, if the leaseholders must settle these
service charges and any outstanding major works before
completion. And since the council only buys
back the homes with vacant possession, developers often
pass the repair costs on to the homeowners via Section 20
notices, which is really, you know, you've got to bear the
cost of this. And for, I think there's a slide
there. I'm sorry, I've lost the, the
screen that shows me the slides. So I'm sort of doing this a bit
blind, but there is a a slide there that shows the cost of,
for instance, a three to four bedroom flat is 60 8700 and
something which is a massive amount for someone to have to
pay and it it's forcing them out basically.
Now what's interesting is the announcement will make the
council's buybacks program one of the largest in the country.
All the homes will be ex council homes in Islington that were
sold under this right to buy policy.
And it will be a mix of 123 and four bedroom properties for
individuals and families. Now what what seems to be
happening is that the, the part it was Islington Council have
employed a a public private partnership, really a management
it's called partners Islington Private finance initiative
management and they've passed responsibility on to this this
management company. And unfortunately the the
repurposed buyback homes are being used for temporary
accommodation. So this isn't long term.
This isn't long term council tenants like we used to have.
These are for refugees and homeless households from
Afghanistan, Ukraine and other crises under the UN and UK
resettlement schemes. These homes support integration
and stability for people in vulnerable situations and part
of the borough's commitment as a borough of sanctuary.
Well that's all very good, but why are people being made
homeless for this? I don't, I don't, I don't
really. Yeah, I find this really
astounding. So the, the, you know that
you've got Councillor John Wolf, who's the executive member for
Homes and neighborhoods. And he says there his reason is
there are currently 1737, 1737 homeless households living in
temporary accommodation in Islington, the highest figure
since records began. These homes will provide
security for people experiencing homelessness or for those who
fled conflict, giving them the stability they need to start
rebuilding their lives locally. More people will have access to
good quality temporary accommodation in Islington when
they need it most. I'm proud that we are leading
the way with our buyback program and doing everything we can to
increase the number of council homes in the borough.
And then there's a quote from Abdul Basit Bahami Bahrami who's
a resident of an ex right to buy property and he said moving to a
council buy back home changed my life.
After fleeing Afghanistan safely and having a safe and secure
place to live gave me the stability I need to rebuild, I
was able to continue studying for my PhD, something I once
thought was impossible. Being close to my two brothers
has made a huge difference. It's meant our family could stay
connected and support each other.
This home has also given me the chance to raise my own family in
a safe and welcoming community. Well, I think that's great if we
can help people, but do we need to force people out of their
homes and bankrupt them to do so?
I don't think it's, you know, this is just madness.
And then you've got other residents who actually did buy
on the the Right to Buy scheme. Auguste George Reggio, who is
retired. He's been living in his flat
since 1981 and received an estimated bill of between 57,000
and 61,000. And he says I would expect a
Labour council to be more caring to the needs of ordinary
citizens. This will take up most of my
savings, leaving me at the mercy of friends and family.
And then there's another man called Neil Hoskin who's a
resident also and he said I'm incredibly worried.
I fear it will sink me both financially and in terms of my
mental health. So this is a real problem.
I mean, I don't know what you think, Ben, but it's astounding.
And it's happening, you know, in Islington.
And it will be trialled everywhere else as well I would
imagine. It's just theft, isn't it, theft
of private assets by the state. And actually, the, the fact that
these were sold by the councils in the 80s now obviously being
bought back significantly more, I would imagine them than the
value that was, that was got for them at the time is, you know,
classic mismanagement and, and corruption by, by, by local
councils. And who's running the Cabinet
Office at the moment? The the former mayor of Camden.
So there you go. Yeah, Thank you very much
indeed, Ben and Sandy really joining the dots.
And I think it does bring to bear the very significant
subversion and manipulation of the system that the local
authorities should be running for the benefit of those who are
paying for it. But obviously we see that that's
not happening. I think specifically with that,
getting people to buy homes in a leasehold capacity and then
abusing the freehold system by which they control what's spent
on the building, leaving the leaseholder powerless is
particularly egregious. And also, of course, it this
makes it totally relevant to a lot of what Ben's been reporting
about the control of local media in order that these issues are
communicated in a particular way.
Now if you are not yet a member of UK column, you may not be
aware that we are funded solely by our members and our donors.
So if you would like to join in and support us, then please go
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Now Ben and Brian spoke and that went out and was very well
received yesterday. Ben, just going to give us a few
quick words on that. Brian Gerrish, legend leader.
Go watch it. Perfect.
Well done. Very brief and to the point.
Now going out tomorrow, Mark Anderson spoke speaks to Phil
Turney going back to 1967 about the unprovoked attack on the USS
Liberty by Israel. Of course, particularly timely
interview to to think back to that period.
So that's going out tomorrow at 1:00.
And then tonight at 7:00, we've got German warfare show with Stu
Peters being interviewed tonight, next weekend, it's
nearly there. We're going to be at the Sounds
Beautiful festival in Dorset between the 26th and 29th this
month, so please come and see us there.
And then next month we've got the Thetford Truth and Freedom
Beer Festival, which both Sandy and Diane are involved in, so do
get along to that. Just after that, on the 20th of
July, there'll be a dissident meet up near Exeter.
Of course, links to all this will be in the show notes.
And then August Bank Holiday weekend will be the Freedom, the
Hope Freedom Music Festival and UK column will have a strong
presence there. So we do hope we will see you at
that point. Now, as you'll be aware,
there've been many campaigns by the Pharmaceutical industry,
aided and abetted by governments and media organisations.
To bash us over the head with enormous amounts of propaganda.
And the latest of those, or at least the one that's been
concentrated on by Doctor Liz Evans, is the weight loss jabs.
Now, Liz, please give us the latest and set it within the
context that you've been reviewing.
Hi there. Thanks very much, Charles.
Yeah, I've done a deep dive into the agenda behind weight loss
jabs. They've been hailed by the media
and others as a panacea for all societies ills and there are
growing calls for these products to be rolled out widely to the
UK public. So just to give some background,
you've probably heard of a Zenpic, which is produced by
Novo Nordis. This has been around since 2017
as a treatment for type 2 diabetes, but it can only be
used off label for weight loss in the UK.
So a higher dose of the same drug, Semaglutide is called
Ragovi and this was authorized in 2021 for weight loss.
Then at the end of last year, Eli Lilly's Monjuro was approved
by NICE for a phased roll out on the NHS to obese people with
ABMI of over 35 + 1 related comorbidity.
So 3.4 million people in England are eligible for the jabs and
the NHS is hoping to reach about 300,000 of them in the first
three years of the roll out. Both Wygovy and Monjuro are
injected weekly and Saxenda is a similar drug but requires daily
injections. These drugs cost the NHS about
£150 a month per eligible person and it's estimated that another
one and a half million people are buying them privately from
clinics, supermarkets and online pharmacies and this is costing
people 2 to £300 a month. So this is big business.
So looking at how they work, they're powerful drugs with
multiple modes of action. They promote rapid and often
dramatic weight loss of up to 20% of body weight.
They suppress appetite. They delayed stomach emptying so
you feel full for longer. They also act on the pancreas
and liver to stabilise blood sugar.
But worryingly the weight loss is not just fat, it's also bone
and healthy muscle mass which has serious long term
implications for health and ageing.
And as with all drugs, the jabs have side effects and some of
these are very serious. Common side effects are nausea,
vomiting, bloating, Constipation and diarrhoea.
At more serious side effects include gallbladder and kidney
damage and depression. Then pancreatitis and
gastroparesis can be life threatening and studies are now
suggesting an increased risk of thyroid cancer.
So the the last couple of decades we've seen an increased
public acceptance to take drugs like statins for life as a
health prevention measure. This has created the climate for
a lucrative market for pharma to produce preventative drugs to be
taken repeatedly by healthy people promising better life,
longer life, better health claims of reducing the risk of
serious and common diseases that people fear the most, such as
heart disease, cancer and dementia.
And of course the biggest winners in this scenario are the
pharmaceutical companies who will have a high guaranteed long
term income stream. So I wanted to talk about wild
claims for weight loss jabs which began at the end of last
summer. In July 2024, there was an
observational study from Oxford University published in The
Lancet, which was widely reported, claiming that Ozempic
could cure depression and cut the risk of dementia by half.
Then at the end of August 2024, there was a rash of headlines
across the mainstream media in perfect Harmony, all claiming
that Ozempic could be a fountain of youth by slowing down ageing,
the elixir of life. Then in January this year, we
saw more sensational headlines, claims that Wygovy and Monjuro
could reduce the risk of up to 42 conditions.
Then at the beginning of May this year came an extraordinary
weeklong push of pharma propaganda for the jabs across
the mainstream media. And so I've put together some
slides. I think you can see the first
one there showing some of the Telegraph headlines that week.
So if we could just go back to the 9th, these headlines were
mirrored most days in the Guardian and other newspapers.
So on the 9th of May where there were claims that the jabs would
be a game changer for the economy, saving 5 billion a year
by boosting productivity. But this study was based on
government modelling. So say no more than May the 10th
brought reports that the jabs could effortlessly reduce
alcohol cravings. May the 11th we were treated to
the exciting news that these miracles of science could also
treat anxiety and depression, apparently disproving earlier
concerns that the jabs actually increase the risk of suicidal
behaviour and psychiatric hospital admissions.
In case you weren't persuaded by now that you should start these
miracle jabs immediately, On May the 12th we read that weight
loss jabs may halve the risk of cancer, but they had saved the
best till last. The Telegraph headline on May
the 13th hailed the fact that everyone, whether obese or not,
could live longer on these jabs, leading to a golden age of
medicine halving deaths from multiple diseases by preventing
heart disease, cancer, liver and kidney disorders and even
dementia. This incredible news was
accompanied with inevitable calls for the NHS to roll out
the jobs at scale, although a telling quote came from
Catherine Jenner from the Obesity Health Alliance who
admitted that pharma is investing heavily in obesity
because they quotes recognise the scale of the opportunity.
We were reassured that there are 150 new injections and pills in
the pipeline to help people who are neither overweight nor
obese. So up to this point there was
almost no mention of side effects or any issues with these
new drugs. Then on May the 14th came the
admission that when patients stop weight loss drugs they
rapidly regain the weight within months.
But this was spun as a demand for the NHS to drop its two year
limit prescribing policy and instead prescribe the jabs for
life to reap the benefits. If this is sounding too good to
be true, you are correct. Every single media report failed
to mention the ongoing class action Ozempic lawsuit in the
US, which is currently at over 1800 claimants and includes
Monjuro, Wygovy, and Saxenda. Legal cases are being brought
against Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly for failure to warn
patients of the risk of gastroparesis and ileus, or
about a potential link with blood clots and a condition that
causes blindness. Gastroparesis, or paralysis of
the stomach, is very serious. It may be irreversible.
Even after stopping the jabs, victims are left with constant
nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, reflux, bloating, severe
dehydration. Their food doesn't digest.
They have nutritional deficiencies, blood sugar
instability, severe weight loss, and a very poor quality of life.
It is a psychologically devastating condition.
Every meal is a battleground with the loss of the pleasure of
eating and the stress of trying to maintain adequate
nourishment. And there is no known cure.
Now if that wasn't bad enough, Ozempic face is another well
known side effect, an aged haggard appearance now being
treated by cosmetic clinics with fillers.
You couldn't write it. So where was all this pharma
marketing propaganda in the media?
Reports coming from? Every article cited the European
Congress on Obesity which was held in Malaga from the 11th to
the 14th of May this year. The Telegraphing Guardian had
sent their health correspondents to Malaga to cover the
conference, so I decided to do some digging into who runs and
funds this conference, which was the 32nd Congress on Obesity
held by the European Association for the Study of Obesity, who
are known as ESO. So the screenshot that's on your
screen from the Congress website shows that Novo Nordisk and Eli
Lilly are two of the major sponsors of this conference,
confirming my suspicions that this was a farmer marketing
event. The glossy shop window and
vehicle for their scientific papers to be released to the
media with maximum coverage and minimum scrutiny.
And Hua ESO, the Europeans Association for the Study of
Obesity, who run these annual conferences.
Well, from their website I learned that they are a charity
established in 1986 as a federation of professional
membership associations from 38 countries.
They claim to be Europe's leading voice of obesity
science, medicine and community. They are in formal relations
with The Who and are actively involved in EU Commission
initiatives including scientific consultations and obesity
education across Europe, a powerful influence on national
policies and who funds ESO. You've guessed it, the top
corporate members on their website are Lily and Novo
Nordis, and they also say that ESO is currently engaged in
project partnerships with Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly and Pfizer
and receives support from the Novo Nordisk Foundation to award
5 research grants. I then discovered that the UK
government had announced A partnership with Eli Lilly at
the end of last year, stating that this public private
collaboration aims to set the stage for government to work
with industry to trial innovative approaches to
treating obesity and includes A5 year trial called Surmount Real
UK to evaluate the long term safety and efficacy of Bonjour.
So with all this industry and media lobbying to roll out
weight loss jabs to millions, what's next?
So my last few slides show a relentless push from all sides
to get more and more of the population taking weight loss
medications. Big Pharma has its sights on
exploiting this untapped and highly lucrative market.
The Who recently indicated that they may endorse the use of
weight loss jabs to treat obesity in adults.
Their new guidelines on treating obesity are due in August and
are expected to include calls to increase access to the jabs in
low and middle income countries. And another WHO team is even
looking at adding these jabs to their essential medications
list. Then organisations such as the
Blair Institute are joining the clama with a call this month for
the NHS to speed up the roll out of fat jabs by sending them in
the post to half the adult population by using digital
first methods, which is their word for online health
screening. Only three days ago, NHS Medical
director Professor Sir Stephen Powis called for a mass rate
roll out of weight loss jabs like statins.
And alongside the roll out of the fat jabs, new weight loss
pills are being developed, presumably to reach those who
find the idea of injections unpalatable.
Disturbingly, but predictably, big Pharma has obese children in
their sights as a cash cow. The use of weight loss jabs in
children was presented in Malaga as a neat solution to meal time
rows with families. And in true Big Brother style,
the NHS has just announced A sinister plan to give out
bathroom scales to families with overweight children, enabling
the state to monitor children's weight remotely.
Initially sold as a nudge for healthy habits, it is not hard
to imagine weight loss jobs for children being rolled out in the
not too distant future. So to conclude, are we
sleepwalking into another public health disaster?
Rolling out novel drugs with no long term safety data to
millions of people without proper informed consent?
Overplaying benefits, underplaying risks, and failing
to address more natural solutions for obesity such as
dietary and lifestyle modifications sold as a quick
fix for a complex problem and creating a generation of people
who will need regular injections for life just to maintain a
normal weight. And all boosting the coffers of
big pharma with a steady stream of taxpayers money by doing
while doing nothing to improve public health.
Does this sound familiar? Liz, unfortunately, it sounds
very familiar indeed. Thank you very much indeed for a
very, very thorough and I'm afraid, rather harrowing report.
Appalling to think that people should be put in that position
or at least find themselves in such a position to be looking
for that as the alternative. And just to round off, I found
that the Brookings Institute, with whom we have been or rather
at whom we've been looking today, have of course engaged
with this topic, writing a paper on it just back in April, of
course, in effect promoting exactly what it is you've just
been talking about. So we'll go on and discuss that
in extra. But Liz, thank you very much
indeed. Now, Next up, and you might be
wondering how it's related to what Liz has just been talking
about, but I would put it that it is in that we are considering
a society that has fallen from good health and therefore the
issue of recruitment and retention into the armed forces
is going to be an increasingly difficult situation to resolve.
And despite like this, of course, the armed forces putting
out much propaganda about all the things that are on offer.
But with the spectre of the escalating violence in the
Middle East at the moment and the Prime Minister indeed
talking about de escalation at the same time as sending or at
least committing resources to the very escalation of the
conflict that he's talking about de escalating, I think we need
to be very much mindful of the the agenda at play now the
Brookings Institution here we are again.
How how must your reorganize its conventional defence and this is
absolutely a another propaganda exercise in which they write
just yesterday. In fact, most Western European
armed forces face growing personnel shortfalls and are now
exploring various conscription models.
And of course, they go on site. The Nordic countries as an
example, they talk about military preparedness and how
this requires A proactive political messaging.
Well, on that front, back in March of this year, House
Commons Library put out a conscription and national
service paper. Do note that the photograph
there shows women, so the messaging is very clear there.
And of course, they're hanging this on what they describe as
being the COVID-19 pandemic and changing security situation in
Europe, prompting discussions about the need to improve
civilian resilience in the face of emergencies up to and
including a state of war. And they go on to say that many
countries have long had some form of compulsory national
service and several have begun reintroducing mandatory military
service. Now, this, of course is
absolutely attempting to normalise and legitimise the
idea that conscription will be a thing.
And of course, this should be considered alongside the land
warfare conference at which John Healey and Roy Walker, the head
of the army, have been speaking. Walker, in fact, said that
fighting with the British Army would be such an unfair
proposition that that no one in their right mind would do so.
Now, I think I know what he means by that, but I would
question whether a potential adversary might actually be
considering it the other way about in terms of that very
unfairness. And we go on on the propaganda
side of it, with the Telegraph putting out an article very much
about conscription, the tiny Swedish island regiment tasked
with protecting Europe from Russia.
Of course, this is a regiment of conscript and we're showing a
chap from 2 Power there with this regiment.
Conscription is mentioned over and over again throughout this
article. The Daily Mail joining in, of
course, presenting graphics like this, which very much suggests
that we are absolutely at war. And briefly, I will just round
off with one of the latest messages from Donald Trump
saying that we now have complete and total control of the skies
over Iran. And he goes on to make comments
about that. But the what I want to focus on
is the use of the word we. Who does he mean by we?
And how long is it before we start hearing language
concerning Israel and Iran that are, if you're not with us, then
you are against us. And there is very, very little
doubt this is a push towards a conscription narrative here in
the UK and we will absolutely follow this.
Now that takes us into a final report from Sandy.
We've been looking at AI and the way in which government is
pushing it as though it must be the defining feature of all
communications between people and indeed with government.
But we've also looked at the environmental concerns about it.
And Sandy, you've got more on that and and particularly Elon
Musk's role within this. Yes, thanks.
Thanks very much, Charles. Yeah, I mean, you, Charles, have
done some great work on data centers in the UK, highlighting
the hypocrisy of sustainability in both water and energy.
And Elon Musk seems to have really upset people in Memphis
with air pollution. So Elon Musk's massive XAI data
centre is poisoning Memphis. It's burning enough gas to power
a small city with no permits and no pollution controls.
And residents tell us they're they can't breathe and they're
getting sicker. So if we could have that video
clip, please. Thanks, Kenny.
Sometimes the most shocking corporate misconduct is hidden
in plain sight, invisible to the naked eye.
What is happening here will swallow up our world if we don't
stop it right here, right now. Looking back, there was an early
clue that the world's richest man was up to something here.
It's just like, why is Elon Musk coming to Memphis?
The people of Memphis soon found out.
Now Elon Musk is coming to Memphis.
To build the world's largest supercomputer.
A year later, people here want answers.
To protect our lungs and not. To see that they had 35 gas
turbines operating and polluting our.
We went to Memphis and found an environmental crime scene,
Musk's data center, burning enough methane to power a small
city with no permits and no pollution controls.
I have not seen anything like this.
We believe they've already violated the Clean Air Act.
As Musk helps dismantle the very federal agency that's supposed
to protect us against pollution like this, there is no way to
miss how this is a coordinated strategy.
Yes, that's quite quite worrying really.
Apparently 11 months ago, Elon Musk's ex AI opened a large AI
dentist centre nicknamed Colossus, and he named it after
a 1970s film about a supercomputer that becomes
sentient and takes over the world, which is quite
interesting. It was housed in a former
Electrolux factory in South Memphis to power his chat box,
Grok. Now, Musk was late to the AI
party with all of this because Open AI and other chat box
platforms were operating already, and he was in a big
hurry to get Grok up and running.
And to meet massive energy demands, the company brought in
35 portable methane gas turbines, operating them with
proper without proper air quality or Clean Air Act
permits. XI claimed 364 day exemption for
temporary generators, but this loophole doesn't apply to these
industrial scale turbines. Aix has become one of Shelby
County's largest emitters of smog, producing nitrogen oxides,
according to calculations by environmental groups, and aerial
images confirmed 33 turbines were active, despite Permix
being filed only for 15. The facility's emissions are
estimated at up to 2000 tonnes of nitrogen oxides and NOXS
annually, far exceeding nearby. Anything nearby that's
regulated. The surrounding community,
including historically black neighborhoods like Box Town, are
already burdened with health problems.
Residents report worsened health systems and symptoms, sorry and
invisible pollution from the site.
Environmental and civil rights groups including the NANAAPC or
CP, and the Southern Environmental Law Centre have
launched legal action, calling the project a clear case of
environmental racism and demanding accountability from
both AXI and local authorities. The conflict now puts a
spotlight on where the technological advancement can
coexist with community well-being, or whether powerful
corporations can be held responsible when they sidestep
environmental safeguards. One of the residents of of
Boxtown said he may be a millionaire or a billionaire,
but what we need is clean air. And they, they, they've had many
meetings about this and they are actually challenging it legally
and I'm pleased they are. Now what we have to realise is
in the UK, every major data centre uses diesel generators
for backup power in case of grid failure.
And these generators admit, you know, they emit nitrogen oxides
and contribute to smog and respiratory issues.
They have particulate matter harmful to lungs and
cardiovascular health, and carbon monoxide, which is toxic
to at high concentrations in areas with many cluster centers
like Slough or parts of London. This back off infrastructure can
create local air quality risks, especially during blackouts and
testing cycles. Now every open AI chat box
question you ask, believe it or not, uses 50 millilitres of
water. Now you imagine the amount of
questions that are asked worldwide in a day and daily
uses are enough to enough energy to power 300,000 homes.
So is our energy and our health being sacrificed to these
centres. And I think they, without a
doubt they are. I don't know what you guys think
about that, but yeah, we, we, we are sacrificing our health and
our, our use, our, you know, we will be rationed because these
energy centres are taking all the water and energy.
Sorry, these data centres are taking all the energy and water.
Absolutely does appear to be the case Sandy and and exactly how
the priorities will fall is something that we must continue
to scrutinise. Now.
Thank you very much indeed for that.
Apologies if that appeared rather glitchy with the
technical difficulties have persisted and and Sandy I'm
afraid was made to look somewhat like an AI rendition for that
report. So apologies for that.
But that brings us to the end of the programme.
So thank you very much to Ben for joining me.
Also Vanessa and Liz and Sandy by remote link.
If you are a member, stay on and join us for Extra.
If you're not, please do consider joining and you will
have access to Extra. As I say tonight, the German
Warfare Podcast will be an interview with Stu Peters.
And then we've got Phil Turney going out tomorrow at 1:00 PM.
And otherwise, we will see you for the news program again on
Friday. Thank you very much.
Bye bye.