1 00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:10,400 Good afternoon. It's Wednesday the 13th of March 2 00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:13,400 2024, just after 1:00. Welcome to UK Column News. 3 00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:16,480 I'm your host, Mike Robinson Joining me today we have Vanessa 4 00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:18,880 Bailey from Damascus and Charles Mallett. 5 00:00:19,640 --> 00:00:22,200 Welcome to the programme both. Vanessa, we're going to get 6 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:25,880 started with the Middle East and well, the Newport that's being 7 00:00:25,880 --> 00:00:29,360 built isn't being built really for humanitarian purposes. 8 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:34,400 In my opinion, and in the opinion of our Gaza, and 9 00:00:34,480 --> 00:00:37,160 particularly friends of mine, now that have been displaced to 10 00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:41,400 the South in Rafa, no. But that shouldn't come as any 11 00:00:41,400 --> 00:00:42,480 surprise. Of course. 12 00:00:42,720 --> 00:00:49,880 This is basically an EUUAEUS project, ostensibly as von der 13 00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:54,440 Leyen has said, to open a humanitarian corridor, despite 14 00:00:54,440 --> 00:00:58,520 the fact of course, there are land crossings that could easily 15 00:00:58,520 --> 00:01:03,000 be used if Israel and Egypt were to open them to allow 16 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:08,560 humanitarian aid into Gaza. This plan now is being hijacked 17 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:14,240 by Netanyahu in the Israeli media in just the next slide, 18 00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:19,480 diplomatic source. This is in Jerusalem post Gaza 19 00:01:19,480 --> 00:01:22,240 maritime route, was Netanyahu's idea. 20 00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:26,360 This is an exclusive and in the article itself, what does it 21 00:01:26,360 --> 00:01:30,560 actually tell us? So it talks about Israel. 22 00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:33,400 Katz, now the foreign minister, had drawn up plans for a 23 00:01:33,400 --> 00:01:37,960 maritime route by a Cyprus involving a floating island. 24 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:41,640 One of the complicating factors with the maritime route was the 25 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:45,360 absence of a port in Gaza big enough to handle cargo ships. 26 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:48,880 Here is where, obviously, the US comes in. 27 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:52,680 Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, together with the Navy 28 00:01:52,680 --> 00:01:58,320 commander, the head of the The Coordination for Gaza itself, 29 00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:03,160 were briefed Sunday on the work needed to establish a naval 30 00:02:03,160 --> 00:02:05,440 pier. However, I'm not the only one to 31 00:02:05,440 --> 00:02:11,600 have concerns about the true purpose of this plan. 32 00:02:12,160 --> 00:02:15,080 This was only I think, two weeks after October the 7th. 33 00:02:15,080 --> 00:02:19,480 There was in fact leaked in Israeli media plan to ethnically 34 00:02:19,480 --> 00:02:24,440 cleanse Gaza, not only to Egypt, but specifically to European 35 00:02:24,440 --> 00:02:28,960 countries that would be prepared to take in Palestinian refugees. 36 00:02:28,960 --> 00:02:33,600 And a recent report regarding the port in Andalou. 37 00:02:33,600 --> 00:02:37,920 The US port plans in Gaza have hidden objectives and this is a 38 00:02:37,920 --> 00:02:42,440 Jordanian expert talking about a floating port off the shores of 39 00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:47,480 Gaza is a humanitarian facade hiding voluntary migration to 40 00:02:47,480 --> 00:02:51,280 Europe and undermines the enclaves sovereignty. 41 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:56,280 He goes on to point out the fact that also any humanitarian aid 42 00:02:56,360 --> 00:03:01,680 coming in will not go directly to the American port in Gaza, 43 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:05,320 but will go to the Ashdod port in the occupied Territories to 44 00:03:05,320 --> 00:03:10,640 be checked and then sent under Israeli Navy control and drones 45 00:03:10,640 --> 00:03:14,960 for the Palestinian territory. And then interesting that in 46 00:03:14,960 --> 00:03:17,800 reality, of course what many people are saying, this is an 47 00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:21,800 opportunity for the US to increase its military presence 48 00:03:21,800 --> 00:03:25,840 in what is effectively already its military outposts in the 49 00:03:25,840 --> 00:03:30,080 Middle East. 1000 U.S. troops deploying to build the offshore 50 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:33,360 port for Gaza aid. And they're saying that it's 51 00:03:33,360 --> 00:03:35,920 going to take at least two months for this port to be 52 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:38,680 finalized. And of course in that time we're 53 00:03:38,680 --> 00:03:42,600 already at famine situation in northern Gaza and we're heading 54 00:03:42,600 --> 00:03:45,520 that way in central and southern Gaza. 55 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:48,360 So two months. How many people are going to die 56 00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:51,680 in that time? And of course, what else 57 00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:55,920 undermines the idea that this is a humanitarian project by the 58 00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:59,760 United States? I think this was about two weeks 59 00:03:59,800 --> 00:04:02,320 after October the 7th. This was an article in The 60 00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:08,680 Intercept that talked about secret expansion of a secret 61 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:12,560 military base, U.S. military base in the Najaf desert, about 62 00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:17,760 20 kilometres from Gaza, and then added to that more recently 63 00:04:17,760 --> 00:04:20,320 Farets. Again, Israeli media 64 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:25,440 intelligence reveals unprecedented extent of US arms 65 00:04:25,440 --> 00:04:26,960 lift. Arms airlift. 66 00:04:26,960 --> 00:04:30,120 Sorry to Israel. Since October the 7th, Biden 67 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:34,840 administration has reportedly made 100 secret arms sales to 68 00:04:34,840 --> 00:04:37,040 Israel since the start of the Gaza war. 69 00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:40,520 So that's on top of the billions, of course that have 70 00:04:40,520 --> 00:04:44,640 been poured into Israel to enable its genocide. 71 00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:50,400 Palestinians publicly available flight data shows exactly what 72 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:55,680 happened and so over I think it's over 180 arms airlifts for 73 00:04:55,680 --> 00:05:00,600 Israel the majority coming in from Qatar and Germany. 74 00:05:00,920 --> 00:05:05,240 So global bases US strategic global bases spending arms 75 00:05:05,920 --> 00:05:09,960 effectively under the radar of of public knowledge but picked 76 00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:14,840 up by flight radar into basically the majority has gone 77 00:05:14,840 --> 00:05:18,120 into the Israeli Air Force Base at never team. 78 00:05:18,520 --> 00:05:23,160 And of course we shouldn't forget that certainly the US and 79 00:05:23,160 --> 00:05:29,360 Israel and the EU and the UK and all the Gulf states have an 80 00:05:29,360 --> 00:05:32,680 interest in the natural gas reserves in the Levant basin 81 00:05:32,680 --> 00:05:36,480 which are in the range of 122 trillion cubic feet. 82 00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:41,400 And Gaza has never been permitted to actually exploit 83 00:05:41,400 --> 00:05:45,520 those reserves itself and and has been deprived of billions in 84 00:05:45,520 --> 00:05:51,080 income as a result. And then actually the the sort 85 00:05:51,080 --> 00:05:55,800 of pilot boat which is leaving Larnaca and Cyprus left this 86 00:05:55,800 --> 00:05:57,720 morning. When I put this up yesterday, it 87 00:05:57,720 --> 00:06:01,480 hadn't left. It's bringing 200 tons of rice 88 00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:04,800 and flour, which should offer interesting wording here, 89 00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:06,960 immediate relief to civilians in Gaza. 90 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:12,440 It's coming from an A Spanish NGO called Open Arms. 91 00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:16,960 But we have to bear in mind that in peacetime, so even before 92 00:06:16,960 --> 00:06:22,120 October the 7th, there were 500 trucks per day coming into the 93 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:26,200 Gaza enclave. So we're talking there, what, 94 00:06:26,480 --> 00:06:31,720 10,000 tonnes per day? So 200 tonnes is, is a drop in a 95 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:35,560 in a very large ocean, as are of course the aid drops that are 96 00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:41,240 effectively Hollywood's humanitarian aid for the 97 00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:43,480 Palestinians. So effectively. 98 00:06:43,480 --> 00:06:47,080 In my view, this sport is very much a Trojan horse. 99 00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:51,200 And as I said, friends of mine have said they're expecting that 100 00:06:51,200 --> 00:06:54,880 once the work on the port has finished, the rougher incursion 101 00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:56,960 will begin. So what they're saying is that 102 00:06:56,960 --> 00:07:00,720 it will take two months, the starvation will continue, After 103 00:07:00,720 --> 00:07:03,120 two months, the rougher incursion by Israel will 104 00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:07,440 continue, and the survivors from that incursion will be 105 00:07:07,640 --> 00:07:13,960 potentially driven into Egypt or forcibly deported by ship by the 106 00:07:13,960 --> 00:07:17,640 Americans to whichever European port is prepared. 107 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:20,840 Take them in. Thank you, Vanessa. 108 00:07:20,880 --> 00:07:23,680 I just want to end this segment, maybe you'll have a comment on 109 00:07:23,680 --> 00:07:26,760 this. There was a a graph going around 110 00:07:26,760 --> 00:07:28,520 social media. I'm not sure what the source of 111 00:07:28,520 --> 00:07:30,280 it was. It may have been Al Jazeera, but 112 00:07:30,320 --> 00:07:33,800 I looked at the figures, I checked them and so I just 113 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:35,480 wanted to, to show what this was. 114 00:07:35,480 --> 00:07:38,000 So first of all, they were looking at, it was looking at 115 00:07:38,080 --> 00:07:39,760 the number of children killed in war. 116 00:07:39,760 --> 00:07:43,560 And in 2019, something around 4000. 117 00:07:43,800 --> 00:07:45,560 This is across the entire planet. 118 00:07:45,560 --> 00:07:49,440 Of course in 2020 that looks like another 2000 or so. 119 00:07:49,760 --> 00:07:53,880 In 2021 about the same and in 2022 about the same. 120 00:07:53,880 --> 00:07:57,360 So in those four years the number according to the United 121 00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:02,680 Nations was 12,193. And just to put that in 122 00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:06,840 perspective, since October the 7th in Gaza, the current number 123 00:08:07,320 --> 00:08:10,080 and although that the Israelis of course would dispute that 124 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:14,520 because it's come from the Gazan authorities, it's 12,300. 125 00:08:14,520 --> 00:08:18,240 But I think Vanessa, just very briefly, that puts this whole 126 00:08:18,240 --> 00:08:19,760 thing and a little bit of perspective. 127 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:23,400 Yeah, absolutely. And actually I was watching 128 00:08:23,400 --> 00:08:26,320 Scott Ritter yesterday who made a very interesting point. 129 00:08:26,320 --> 00:08:30,040 He said that what has caused such an awakening about the 130 00:08:30,040 --> 00:08:34,240 Palestinian cause is the fact that these 13,014 thousand 131 00:08:34,240 --> 00:08:36,720 children, whatever the number is, it's horrific. 132 00:08:37,080 --> 00:08:40,120 Has been. They've been massacred on a very 133 00:08:40,120 --> 00:08:44,200 short time scale. You know, thousands of children 134 00:08:44,280 --> 00:08:49,760 have died at the hands of Israel since 1948, But because that's 135 00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:54,160 spread out over a very long time span, people are not as 136 00:08:54,560 --> 00:08:58,520 horrified as they have been, of course, by this genocidal 137 00:08:58,520 --> 00:09:01,960 campaign in Gaza in particular. Yeah. 138 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:06,000 Thank you. OK, let's move on with war 139 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:10,320 situation and, well, good news perhaps because Admiral Sir Tony 140 00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:13,640 Rattigan, of course, who recently as we mentioned, was 141 00:09:13,640 --> 00:09:16,760 telling us that no one in the Ministry of Defence is talking 142 00:09:16,760 --> 00:09:19,680 about conscript conscription in any traditional sense of the 143 00:09:19,680 --> 00:09:23,440 term. He has been given another term 144 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:27,120 as Chief of the Defence Staff. So the Prime Minister and the 145 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:29,680 Defence Secretary are pleased to confirm that the Chief of the 146 00:09:29,680 --> 00:09:32,640 Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Tony Rattigan, will be extended 147 00:09:32,640 --> 00:09:36,720 in his post until autumn 2025. The Chief of the Defence Staff 148 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:39,520 is the professional head of the Armed forces and the principal 149 00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:42,040 military adviser to the Defence Secretary and the Prime 150 00:09:42,040 --> 00:09:44,160 Minister. He was commissioned into the 151 00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:48,120 Royal Navy in 1990. He served, they say, in numerous 152 00:09:48,120 --> 00:09:52,000 command and staff appointments, both ashore and afloat and in 153 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:54,160 command of UK and international forces. 154 00:09:54,400 --> 00:09:58,560 So I was interested in that and wanted to know what had he 155 00:09:58,560 --> 00:10:02,200 commanded at least afloat. Well, this is one of the things 156 00:10:02,200 --> 00:10:06,640 he commanded for two years. HMS Blazer, I'm not sure what 157 00:10:06,640 --> 00:10:09,040 that whether that's an offshore patrol vessel or what, but it's 158 00:10:09,040 --> 00:10:12,120 it's pretty small boat anyway. And then apparently he was three 159 00:10:12,120 --> 00:10:14,840 years on HMS Norfolk, which is a frigate. 160 00:10:15,120 --> 00:10:18,000 So that looks like Charles, I don't know if you've got any 161 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:21,880 thoughts on this, but that looks like five years in operational 162 00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:24,400 command. Prior to that of course he was 163 00:10:24,400 --> 00:10:27,560 in relatively junior roles. Subsequent to that he was in 164 00:10:27,560 --> 00:10:31,400 staff roles which don't seem to have had any operational role at 165 00:10:31,400 --> 00:10:32,640 all. So do you think that's 166 00:10:32,640 --> 00:10:35,360 sufficient for somebody who's the the effective head of the 167 00:10:35,360 --> 00:10:39,960 British military? Good afternoon, everybody. 168 00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:43,320 No, I don't think it is at all, and I don't think it is even in 169 00:10:43,320 --> 00:10:46,080 relation to his peer group. It was said at the time that 170 00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:49,680 Patrick Sanders, who's now Chief of the General Staff, would have 171 00:10:49,680 --> 00:10:53,360 been preferred to Radican. He's got much more command and 172 00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:58,080 operational experience. But perplexingly, Boris Johnson, 173 00:10:58,760 --> 00:11:01,040 the then Prime Minister, decided to appoint Radican. 174 00:11:01,040 --> 00:11:04,520 So there's a possibility, I suppose, that he's being set up 175 00:11:04,560 --> 00:11:08,280 as the fall guy for what happens over the next two years. 176 00:11:08,640 --> 00:11:12,240 But the other thing to to make note of is what he conducted 177 00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:14,920 alongside his naval career. I mean he he continued to 178 00:11:14,920 --> 00:11:18,880 practice law and qualified as a barrister in 1996. 179 00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:22,840 So it it does seem in many ways a very, very odd appointment and 180 00:11:22,840 --> 00:11:25,600 even order extension. Yes indeed. 181 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:30,200 Well, sticking with British military, we were talking about 182 00:11:30,720 --> 00:11:35,040 British defence spending recently and £25 billion MOD 183 00:11:35,080 --> 00:11:37,720 expenditure across the country and so on. 184 00:11:37,720 --> 00:11:40,640 They produced this nice little graphic that they were sending 185 00:11:40,640 --> 00:11:44,560 out in the across the social media and so on. 186 00:11:44,560 --> 00:11:47,520 But we were talking about the fact that Russia and China's 187 00:11:47,520 --> 00:11:50,720 defence spending is significantly lower than the 188 00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:52,400 West. But they seem to be able to do 189 00:11:52,400 --> 00:11:55,160 that in a much more effective or apply it in a much more 190 00:11:55,160 --> 00:11:58,120 effective way. Well, CNN now has published this 191 00:11:58,120 --> 00:12:02,040 article, Russia producing three times more artillery shells than 192 00:12:02,240 --> 00:12:05,720 US and Europe for Ukraine. So what they're saying is that 193 00:12:05,720 --> 00:12:09,280 Russia is producing about 250,000 artillery munitions per 194 00:12:09,280 --> 00:12:11,760 month, that's about 3 million per year. 195 00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:15,880 And CNN is quoting NATO intelligence estimates of 196 00:12:16,040 --> 00:12:19,960 Russian defence production. And that's compared to the US 197 00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:23,000 and Europe, which have capacity to generate only about 1.2 198 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:26,840 million munitions annually to send to. 199 00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:29,840 Well, they're mostly sending them to Kiev, of course. 200 00:12:29,840 --> 00:12:33,560 At the moment, the US military has set has set a goal, 201 00:12:33,560 --> 00:12:37,280 apparently according to CNN, of 100,000 rounds of artillery a 202 00:12:37,280 --> 00:12:40,880 month by the end of 2025, which is still less than half of what 203 00:12:40,880 --> 00:12:44,280 the Russians are doing. And they quote officials who are 204 00:12:44,280 --> 00:12:47,160 saying that Russia is currently firing around 10,000 shells a 205 00:12:47,160 --> 00:12:50,920 day compared to just 2000 shells a day from the Ukrainian side. 206 00:12:51,520 --> 00:12:54,760 And the ratio is worth worse in some places across the Ukrainian 207 00:12:54,760 --> 00:12:58,400 front. So they're really upset that 208 00:12:58,440 --> 00:13:03,280 Russia is running artillery factories 24/7 on a rotating 12 209 00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:08,400 hour shifts and that Russia is now recruited a further million 210 00:13:08,400 --> 00:13:10,120 people to work in the defence sector. 211 00:13:10,200 --> 00:13:13,880 So that's up from 2:00 to 2:00 and a half million before the 212 00:13:13,880 --> 00:13:17,560 war to about 3 1/2 million now. So let's just put that back on 213 00:13:17,560 --> 00:13:21,520 screen for a second and have a look at the comment from the 214 00:13:21,520 --> 00:13:25,480 Lieutenant General, Stephen Basham, who's from US European 215 00:13:25,480 --> 00:13:27,400 Command. He's saying if you can actually 216 00:13:27,400 --> 00:13:30,960 control the economy, so because it's an authoritarian regime, 217 00:13:30,960 --> 00:13:34,520 it's much easier, then you can probably move a little faster 218 00:13:34,520 --> 00:13:37,080 than other countries out there, but the West will have more 219 00:13:37,080 --> 00:13:40,280 sustaining power, he claimed. Well, will it? 220 00:13:40,560 --> 00:13:43,360 Because in parallel with the with this Politico was 221 00:13:43,360 --> 00:13:46,520 published, this article saying Pentagon needs Congress to hand 222 00:13:46,520 --> 00:13:49,360 over $10 billion to replace weapons sent to Ukraine. 223 00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:52,760 And they're basically saying in this article that if Congress 224 00:13:52,760 --> 00:13:56,000 doesn't hand over the $10 billion, then the US will have 225 00:13:56,000 --> 00:13:58,440 no capacity to replace those weapons. 226 00:13:59,160 --> 00:14:04,880 So it it just is such a a a pathetic situation really. 227 00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:09,520 The West finds itself in has shut down its manufacturing 228 00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:13,200 capability to such an extent that even if it wants to bang 229 00:14:13,200 --> 00:14:16,680 the war drums it's not really in a position to other than through 230 00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:20,360 just a load of rhetoric. So anyway in the meantime then 231 00:14:21,320 --> 00:14:26,320 in Poland the US have been basing military over there for a 232 00:14:26,320 --> 00:14:30,200 couple of years now. Here is Donald Tusk. 233 00:14:30,400 --> 00:14:34,760 He went over with Mr. Duda to try and persuade Joe Biden to 234 00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:38,680 send more troops to the United to Poland. 235 00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:42,560 Sorry he wants more and he basically got down on his knees 236 00:14:42,560 --> 00:14:45,280 and begged. Please please please, he said. 237 00:14:45,280 --> 00:14:48,360 And well Biden, maybe this was the only word he knew at the 238 00:14:48,360 --> 00:14:51,000 time or something but he said Nope it ain't going to happen. 239 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:55,880 So the US refusing to send any more troops to Poland at this 240 00:14:55,880 --> 00:15:00,160 time at least Now In the meantime, the question of of 241 00:15:00,160 --> 00:15:05,800 what happens with EU KS nuclear deterrent is in the headlines as 242 00:15:05,800 --> 00:15:07,240 far as Chatham House is concerned. 243 00:15:07,280 --> 00:15:09,920 This is a few days ago. The failed Trident test that we 244 00:15:09,920 --> 00:15:13,160 talked about a couple of weeks ago highlights an imbalance in 245 00:15:13,160 --> 00:15:15,720 UK defence strategy and Chatham House now pushing the 246 00:15:15,720 --> 00:15:18,160 narratives. Really what we want to do is to 247 00:15:18,160 --> 00:15:20,520 give nuclear weapons to the RAF as well. 248 00:15:21,080 --> 00:15:27,480 Now as we know, the US is moving F35A's into Lake and Heath, and 249 00:15:27,480 --> 00:15:30,640 there's talk of nuclear weapons going to Lake and Heath, the 250 00:15:30,640 --> 00:15:33,800 first time that the US has based nuclear weapons in the UK for 251 00:15:33,800 --> 00:15:37,880 quite some time. And the F35 of course the F35A 252 00:15:38,040 --> 00:15:42,680 at least set up to launch those tactical nuclear nuclear weapons 253 00:15:42,680 --> 00:15:47,120 we're talking about here. And so Chatham House very keen 254 00:15:47,120 --> 00:15:52,120 that perhaps the UK might want to invest in some F35A S so that 255 00:15:52,120 --> 00:15:56,360 we can do, we can have some tactical nukes on ours as well 256 00:15:56,360 --> 00:16:00,560 as on the Americans. I don't think this is a really 257 00:16:00,760 --> 00:16:05,280 useful platform for that. But Charles, let's move on then 258 00:16:05,280 --> 00:16:10,720 to EU KS energy security. Thanks, Mike. 259 00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:12,560 Yes. And we start with the not 260 00:16:12,560 --> 00:16:15,400 altogether surprising announcement from the Energy 261 00:16:15,400 --> 00:16:20,360 Secretary that there are one or two holes in the Net 0 policy, 262 00:16:20,360 --> 00:16:26,080 an announcement yesterday saying that the strategy for gas is to 263 00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:29,000 take a common sense approach. And she said, this is Claire, 264 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:32,320 Coutinho said that in a plan set out today, the government has 265 00:16:32,320 --> 00:16:35,560 committed to support the building of a new gas power, 266 00:16:35,560 --> 00:16:38,880 sorry of new gas power stations to maintain a safe and reliable 267 00:16:38,880 --> 00:16:42,520 energy source for days when the weather forecast doesn't power 268 00:16:42,520 --> 00:16:45,480 up renewables. As though the penny has just 269 00:16:45,840 --> 00:16:48,840 dropped. She goes on to say that this is 270 00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:51,800 the latest step in efforts to reach net zero in a sustainable, 271 00:16:51,800 --> 00:16:56,280 pragmatic way that rids the UK of the need to rely on foreign 272 00:16:56,280 --> 00:16:59,400 dictators like Putin. And this very much is part of 273 00:16:59,400 --> 00:17:03,440 the of the agenda. The UK led the way on banning 274 00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:06,560 imports of Russian gas and is delivering new sources of home 275 00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:10,440 grown energy with new nuclear power plants, record investment 276 00:17:10,440 --> 00:17:13,880 in renewables and new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea. 277 00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:18,400 So let's see exactly how dependent upon that terrible 278 00:17:18,400 --> 00:17:21,359 dictator Putin we actually were. This is a House of Commons 279 00:17:21,359 --> 00:17:25,319 briefing paper which is about the imports of fossil fuels from 280 00:17:25,319 --> 00:17:30,080 Russia, and we see here that in actual fact, in 2021 imports 281 00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:33,560 from Russia made-up just 4% of the gas that we used, notably 282 00:17:33,560 --> 00:17:37,320 though 27% of coal, which we will come back to, but 283 00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:41,240 nonetheless straight away sort of disingenuous statistics being 284 00:17:41,240 --> 00:17:44,680 used from the start. Rishi Sunak follows it up with 285 00:17:44,800 --> 00:17:49,080 an article in the Telegraph in which he also points out that 286 00:17:49,080 --> 00:17:51,960 renewables cannot be relied upon all the time because the sun 287 00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:54,320 doesn't shine at night and the wind doesn't blow all the time. 288 00:17:54,760 --> 00:17:57,160 So he says that this is how we'll keep your lights on and 289 00:17:57,160 --> 00:17:59,600 your bills down. It's the insurance policy 290 00:17:59,600 --> 00:18:02,360 Britain needs to protect our energy security. 291 00:18:02,360 --> 00:18:05,320 Now, this recurring theme while we deliver our net zero 292 00:18:05,320 --> 00:18:08,080 transition. And he continues, you can't 293 00:18:08,080 --> 00:18:11,440 protect national security without delivering energy 294 00:18:11,440 --> 00:18:13,520 security. The war in Ukraine reminded us 295 00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:16,400 all of that a nation that is dependent on the whims of 296 00:18:16,400 --> 00:18:20,200 dictators for its energy supply can never be truly safe. 297 00:18:20,200 --> 00:18:22,720 Well, how consistent is his message? 298 00:18:22,760 --> 00:18:26,920 And in particular we consider the relationship the UK either 299 00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:31,800 may or may not have with countries that are possibly or 300 00:18:31,800 --> 00:18:35,440 could be or have been declared as dictatorships by the United 301 00:18:35,440 --> 00:18:37,480 Kingdom. For example, we buy gas from 302 00:18:37,480 --> 00:18:41,040 China, Algeria, we bought gas from North Korea as recently as 303 00:18:41,040 --> 00:18:47,400 2018, Nigeria, Qatar and of course the European Union, even 304 00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:51,800 the Daily Telegraph last year with a comment on Britain now 305 00:18:51,800 --> 00:18:54,560 being an elite dictatorship where majority opinions are 306 00:18:54,560 --> 00:18:57,200 crushed. And it's hard to disagree with 307 00:18:57,320 --> 00:19:00,280 the sentiment of Alistair Heath's point. 308 00:19:00,280 --> 00:19:05,240 Now coming back to the security part of it, it's as though the 309 00:19:05,240 --> 00:19:09,880 narrative is in actual fact to push us towards the idea that 310 00:19:09,920 --> 00:19:14,920 everything that we do must be concerning NATO and Russia. 311 00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:19,280 And so we see that NATO is broadcasting a lot about energy 312 00:19:19,280 --> 00:19:21,080 security. This is from January and they 313 00:19:21,080 --> 00:19:24,200 talk about NATO not being an energy institution, which of 314 00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:27,320 course it certainly isn't, but energy development to affect the 315 00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:30,400 International Security environment and how can have far 316 00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:33,600 reaching security implications for the Allies. 317 00:19:33,600 --> 00:19:36,120 And so they go on. Here's a picture of Jens 318 00:19:36,120 --> 00:19:40,240 Stoltenberg last year on the coast of Norway, effectively 319 00:19:40,240 --> 00:19:44,360 suggesting that that NATO is is sort of verging on being a a 320 00:19:44,360 --> 00:19:48,920 protection racket where it comes to particularly gas. 321 00:19:49,480 --> 00:19:51,080 And Norway again will come back to you. 322 00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:56,360 But what we'll look at now is the energy that we do actually 323 00:19:56,360 --> 00:20:00,440 use in the UK at the moment and in particular how the renewable 324 00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:01,960 side of it works. So this is from Energy 325 00:20:01,960 --> 00:20:03,600 Dashboard. This is taken at 6:00 this 326 00:20:03,600 --> 00:20:06,800 morning and on the left hand side you can see the red arrow 327 00:20:06,800 --> 00:20:10,800 pointing at 17.3% of the energy being used being provided by 328 00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:14,240 gas. And notably at the bottom 60% 329 00:20:14,240 --> 00:20:16,400 being provided by wind. Now you might be thinking, oh 330 00:20:16,440 --> 00:20:19,120 that's that's great, how admirable that wind is able to 331 00:20:19,120 --> 00:20:20,920 provide that. Of course the moment the wind 332 00:20:20,920 --> 00:20:24,680 stops that 60% of energy that we need to find from somewhere 333 00:20:24,680 --> 00:20:26,440 else. The other part though that the 334 00:20:26,440 --> 00:20:30,000 Prime Minister and the Energy Secretary are not being entirely 335 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:35,040 consistent on on the right hand graphic is that 71% of the 336 00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:38,000 carbon intensity is coming from that 17%. 337 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:41,560 So they've got to make their minds up as to what they really 338 00:20:41,800 --> 00:20:45,440 mean by all of this. For a bit more detail we'll look 339 00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:50,160 at the Digest of Energy UK energy statistics, which again 340 00:20:50,840 --> 00:20:54,600 picks holes in their narrative. We can see the graph starts here 341 00:20:54,600 --> 00:20:59,400 on on 1996 on the left hand side and effectively in both supply 342 00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:01,640 and demand for natural gas in the UK. 343 00:21:01,800 --> 00:21:05,960 There's been a steady decline since the turn of the century. 344 00:21:05,960 --> 00:21:11,480 So it's it's frankly unrepresentative to suggest that 345 00:21:11,640 --> 00:21:13,800 this has become a problem just now. 346 00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:16,880 The the graph on screen now the bottom part shows exactly how 347 00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:21,640 dependent we are on Norway's gas, which supplies over half of 348 00:21:21,640 --> 00:21:26,640 what we use, and again makes relevant Sweden's recent move 349 00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:31,680 into NATO. And also we see from the graph 350 00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:37,120 export from the UK that actually before Russia made an incursion 351 00:21:37,120 --> 00:21:40,760 into Ukraine back in 2021, exports of natural gas from the 352 00:21:40,760 --> 00:21:43,720 United Kingdom had in fact gone up quite considerably. 353 00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:48,320 Now I'll just close out with by pointing out that the National 354 00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:52,800 Grid has renamed itself or is renaming itself a National 355 00:21:52,800 --> 00:21:55,880 Energy System Operator. And the reason I draw your 356 00:21:55,880 --> 00:21:59,400 attention to that is that they have rebroadcast the government 357 00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:01,800 line that the UK government has set a clear deadline for 358 00:22:01,800 --> 00:22:04,720 coal-fired power stations to cease production by October 359 00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:07,720 2024. So what are we doing to make 360 00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:09,400 that happen? We won't go into that now, but 361 00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:13,080 we will put a marker there and have a look at it back in or or 362 00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:16,400 sorry in the future in October of this year to see exactly 363 00:22:16,400 --> 00:22:18,440 where the government have got to with that. 364 00:22:20,280 --> 00:22:24,000 You called NATO running a protection racket for, you know, 365 00:22:24,240 --> 00:22:25,920 let's protect your gas pipelines. 366 00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:28,320 Is that what Nordstrom was about, do you think? 367 00:22:30,120 --> 00:22:34,280 Well, I, I, I didn't want to expand this segment too much, 368 00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:37,560 but I mean that you know it's it's a very, very interesting 369 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:40,800 part of it for sure. And also the other bit that I 370 00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:44,560 didn't really mention was that in in all this sort of NATO 371 00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:48,440 rhetoric does go very much, you know, with your previous segment 372 00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:51,680 about conscription and about this idea that we must do 373 00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:55,040 something to protect our own energy security and therefore 374 00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:57,760 come and you know, come and join the armed forces to do so. 375 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:01,760 And yes, and just finally on that then, Charles, I mean, when 376 00:23:01,760 --> 00:23:04,200 we look at what's going on with farming and the issue of farm 377 00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:07,280 security with food security and then we've got this issue of 378 00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:10,440 energy security that there doesn't seem to be a terrible, 379 00:23:10,440 --> 00:23:13,640 terrible momentum going on here to try to build the capacity 380 00:23:13,640 --> 00:23:17,600 that we need if we're going to maintain the type of population 381 00:23:17,600 --> 00:23:19,400 that we have on a longer term basis. 382 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:22,760 Yeah, I think, I think that's absolutely right and it's been 383 00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:26,000 pointed out, I mean the farming community I think is divided on 384 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:30,000 whether or not net zero is a thing in that, whether the 385 00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:33,640 science behind it stacks up. And even for those that do 386 00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:37,320 believe that climate, the changing climate can be driven 387 00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:40,760 by carbon dioxide emissions, they are still very quick to 388 00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:45,400 point out that in not producing foods here that are said to 389 00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:49,720 produce, you know, a certain amount of carbon dioxide that 390 00:23:49,720 --> 00:23:51,200 still has to come from somewhere. 391 00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:55,080 So it's again, it's just smoke and mirrors with how you're 392 00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:59,240 actually purporting to be putting forward these 393 00:23:59,240 --> 00:24:01,280 statistics. And I mean really that they're a 394 00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:03,760 nonsense, I'm afraid, but exactly as you say, nothing 395 00:24:03,760 --> 00:24:07,880 being done really, to address the population increase and the 396 00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:09,600 enormous pressure on all these systems. 397 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:10,800 Yes. OK. 398 00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:12,160 Thank you, Charles. Thank you for that. 399 00:24:12,720 --> 00:24:15,360 OK, now if you like what the UK column does, you'd like to 400 00:24:15,360 --> 00:24:18,600 support us, please go to support.ukcolumn.org. 401 00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:20,600 All the options to help us out are there. 402 00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:24,880 We are completely funded by our viewers and listeners and 403 00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:27,560 readers, so if you can help us that would be fantastic. 404 00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:32,800 The shop is there if you would like to pick something up and 405 00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:35,880 but please do share anything that you see on the various 406 00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:38,480 platforms especially UK columns.org and UK column 407 00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:44,080 extracts.co.uk. Now tomorrow at 1:00 PM, the 408 00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:49,000 second part of No Smoke Without Fire, which is focusing on King 409 00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:54,800 Charles and his influence on the net zero agenda is going out. 410 00:24:54,800 --> 00:24:56,960 This is Brian and Debbie discussing this issue. 411 00:24:57,240 --> 00:25:00,520 That's at 1:00 PM tomorrow on the UK column website in the 412 00:25:00,520 --> 00:25:03,880 usual places. I'd like to say thank you to 413 00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:06,920 everybody that's signed up for the climate science master 414 00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:08,640 class. Now, we had planned that this 415 00:25:08,640 --> 00:25:13,400 would go begin on Tuesday next week, Tuesday the 19th, and 416 00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:16,160 that's exactly what will happen. But we're actually going to run 417 00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:22,120 a second session in parallel, effectively Tuesdays and 418 00:25:22,120 --> 00:25:26,520 Thursdays at 7:00 PM, so that anybody that wants to join on 419 00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:29,040 either of those days can do, or on both if you want to. 420 00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:32,160 If you've signed up for this, if you still want to have a look at 421 00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:35,120 it, at the details of it, it's climatecourse.ukcolumn.org. 422 00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:38,640 But basically we've had sufficient people sign up for 423 00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:42,120 this that that we want to split it into two so that maybe we can 424 00:25:42,120 --> 00:25:45,520 share people out between the two sessions and and give more time 425 00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:49,400 for everybody to interact with David David Siegel directly. 426 00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:52,280 So thanks again everybody that's signed up for that. 427 00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:56,120 The interview that I did with Matt Erett on the British 428 00:25:56,120 --> 00:26:00,720 origins of the UFO psychological operation is up on the UK column 429 00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:02,200 website. If you haven't seen that yet, 430 00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:04,760 please have a look at it and do share it. 431 00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:10,640 And that's what we have for now. So back to you, Charles, and 432 00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:14,840 well, the issue of transitioning. 433 00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:21,320 Yes, thanks Mike. Yes, specifically if one 434 00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:25,440 believes it to be possible transitioning gender And this is 435 00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:28,680 the news that NHS England published yesterday saying that 436 00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:30,960 they will no longer be prescribing what are called 437 00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:33,480 puberty suppressing hormones. PSH. 438 00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:37,000 Puberty suppressing hormones are not available as a routine 439 00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:40,760 commissioning treatment option for the treatment of children 440 00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:44,560 and young people who have gender incongruence or gender 441 00:26:44,560 --> 00:26:48,480 dysphoria. Now where has this come from and 442 00:26:48,760 --> 00:26:51,800 what do we think about it? The NHS in their statement say 443 00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:55,360 what we have decided. They say NHS England has 444 00:26:55,360 --> 00:26:57,880 carefully considered the evidence review conducted by the 445 00:26:57,880 --> 00:27:01,640 National Institute for Clinical Excellence and has identified 446 00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:04,600 and reviewed any further published evidence available to 447 00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:06,840 date. We have concluded that there is 448 00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:11,160 not enough evidence to support safety or clinical effectiveness 449 00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:15,160 of PSH to make the treatment routinely available at this 450 00:27:15,160 --> 00:27:17,200 time. Now there are a number of things 451 00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:19,400 that fall out of that. The first I've highlighted the 452 00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:24,480 date 2020. Why has it taken four years for 453 00:27:24,480 --> 00:27:27,880 the evidence reviews to be examined and considered in this 454 00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:31,120 way? Further, if there is deemed to 455 00:27:31,120 --> 00:27:36,080 be insufficient evidence now, why was it considered that there 456 00:27:36,080 --> 00:27:38,240 was enough evidence at that time? 457 00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:41,320 And who made these decisions? Who is it that can be held 458 00:27:41,320 --> 00:27:44,080 accountable for these things having happened? 459 00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:48,200 How many people have been affected by this and and indeed 460 00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:52,720 who has been allowed to conduct these sorts of treatments? 461 00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:57,160 So in the background to the document, the NHS effectively 462 00:27:57,160 --> 00:28:00,000 tries to justify its position by saying diagnostic approaches 463 00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:02,600 have been described with reference to the Diagnostic and 464 00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:06,160 Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders Version 5 465 00:28:06,160 --> 00:28:09,520 published in 2013, Gender Dysphoria and the International 466 00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:12,400 Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health 467 00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:17,560 Problems, Version 11, effective 2022 Gender incongruent. 468 00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:22,280 So the reason I show you that is that we are repeatedly told that 469 00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:27,040 any issues surrounding gender are not a mental disorder, but 470 00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:30,560 they are in fact some sort of physical manifestation. 471 00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:35,320 But quite clearly stated there it this is a mental disorder and 472 00:28:35,320 --> 00:28:37,880 indeed, whether or not you believe it's fuelled by 473 00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:42,480 influences on the children or it comes from within and is being 474 00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:45,640 in effect the the flames are being fanned by these 475 00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:49,080 professionals. Either way, this is, you know, 476 00:28:49,080 --> 00:28:52,160 in effect a shocking admission that they proceeded to do this 477 00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:56,640 for a number of years with completely insufficient evidence 478 00:28:56,640 --> 00:28:59,320 that in any way what they were doing was the right thing. 479 00:28:59,920 --> 00:29:03,880 We'll go on to look at the particular drug of choice for 480 00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:08,800 the NHS, which is tryptoroline and some of the side effects. 481 00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:11,440 Now the side effects, as you might imagine, are far too long 482 00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:15,160 to read out or list, but I thought concerning since we've 483 00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:17,200 just looked at the mental side of it. 484 00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:20,120 We'd look at the psychiatric effects and listed here. 485 00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:23,640 Bear in mind this is prescribed to children very common 486 00:29:23,640 --> 00:29:27,520 decreased libido, sleep disorders or mood changes, and 487 00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:31,680 common psychiatric disorders, although a side effect insomnia, 488 00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:35,640 emotional lability, loss of libido, depression, depressed 489 00:29:35,640 --> 00:29:40,000 mood or irritability. Now, does that sound in any way 490 00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:43,160 like the sort of drug that should be given to children who 491 00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:46,240 are already in a state of mental turmoil? 492 00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:51,520 I think not, but of course the world being as it is, even 493 00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:54,240 though the NHS is saying that it can't prescribe this anymore. 494 00:29:54,240 --> 00:29:57,320 If you want to buy it, very quick search on the Internet 495 00:29:57,320 --> 00:30:01,040 produced pure peptides UK where you can buy a bottle of 496 00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:05,720 tryptoralin for £10 a throw. So again, no problem getting it. 497 00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:09,880 As I said at the beginning, I mean perhaps we consider that 498 00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:12,760 the wind is changing direction. So I just want to point towards 499 00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:15,720 2 private members bills in Parliament at the moment, the 500 00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:19,280 first in the House of Lords sponsored by Baroness Burt, the 501 00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:22,000 Conversion Therapy Prohibition Bill. 502 00:30:22,360 --> 00:30:25,480 And within that, she's suggesting that a person commits 503 00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:28,080 an offence if they practice or offer to practice conversion 504 00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:33,720 therapy, which is defined as the practice aimed at a personal 505 00:30:33,720 --> 00:30:36,560 group of people, which demonstrates an assumption that 506 00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:39,600 any sexual orientation or gender identity is inherently 507 00:30:39,600 --> 00:30:42,680 preferable to another, and which has the intended purpose of 508 00:30:42,680 --> 00:30:45,840 attempting to change the person's sexual orientation or 509 00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:49,880 gender identity, or suppress a person's expression of sexual 510 00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:54,200 orientation or gender identity. Now, somewhat regrettably, at 511 00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:58,960 the same time, there is a bill in the House of Commons from the 512 00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:03,120 Labour MP Lloyd Russell Moyle, which in effect has similar 513 00:31:03,120 --> 00:31:05,280 provisions. But what I do want to highlight 514 00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:10,120 from his bill is the rather ambiguous text where he suggests 515 00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:12,480 that, or rather the bill suggests that no offence is 516 00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:16,120 committed where a person expresses a religious or other 517 00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:18,280 belief. Now it's easy to see how that 518 00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:21,720 could be manipulated. And further at the bottom there, 519 00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:24,280 a health offence is not committed where a health 520 00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:27,520 practitioner takes an action in the course of providing a health 521 00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:31,040 service, provided that the health health practitioner 522 00:31:31,040 --> 00:31:34,840 complies with regulatory and professional standards and 523 00:31:34,840 --> 00:31:38,360 considers in their reasonable professional judgement that it 524 00:31:38,360 --> 00:31:40,120 is appropriate to take that action. 525 00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:44,880 So this is where we return to the prescriptions of these drugs 526 00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:48,760 and we think that those professionals believed that it 527 00:31:48,760 --> 00:31:51,760 was reasonable to be prescribing those things in the 1st place. 528 00:31:51,760 --> 00:31:56,000 So even if these bills do go through, it's very easy to see 529 00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:59,920 already how they could be manipulated for effectively, to 530 00:31:59,920 --> 00:32:02,840 the detriment of the mental health and physical well-being 531 00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:05,240 of children. Thank you, Charles. 532 00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:09,320 OK, now let's move on now to Foreign Office. 533 00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:12,400 First of all, for Foreign Office spending, we published this 534 00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:16,240 website some time ago and almost immediately the Foreign Office 535 00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:18,320 stopped publishing their information. 536 00:32:18,320 --> 00:32:21,360 Now this is a database which is basically intended to make it 537 00:32:21,360 --> 00:32:25,240 easier for people to search the information that the Foreign 538 00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:28,680 Office used to publish on spending over 25,000 lbs. 539 00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:32,280 So what I'm showing on screen is just one example of FCFCO 540 00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:36,000 spending to the Westminster Foundation for Democracy and the 541 00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:38,520 amount amount of money that they've spent with them over the 542 00:32:38,520 --> 00:32:41,280 years. But if we Scroll down further 543 00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:44,840 down the page and look at the details of this, we see that all 544 00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:48,200 that we we can never find out exactly what the money went for. 545 00:32:48,200 --> 00:32:50,840 So we know that it went to a particular organization, but we 546 00:32:50,840 --> 00:32:53,320 don't know what project it went to because everything gets 547 00:32:53,320 --> 00:32:57,800 allocated to something called Programme Spend Brackets, Oracle 548 00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:01,560 Projects, Control Account. And of course what we're talking 549 00:33:01,560 --> 00:33:05,480 about there is an Oracle database which is being used to 550 00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:10,240 host all these records, the public side of which the public 551 00:33:10,240 --> 00:33:12,680 never, never gets to see the detail of those records. 552 00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:16,080 But Vanessa, we thought we'd look at, well, you thought you'd 553 00:33:16,080 --> 00:33:19,880 look at what Oracle is up to with the British government and 554 00:33:19,880 --> 00:33:23,520 more broadly, in fact. Yeah, I mean, we had a 555 00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:27,200 discussion about this and and you know, I know that you and a 556 00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:31,360 lot of people would say yes, but I mean Oracle is just one of 557 00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:37,680 many storage cloud systems like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM, 558 00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:39,680 etcetera. What's the problem? 559 00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:43,200 The government has to use something to store its 560 00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:46,040 information. But what worried me immediately 561 00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:49,320 is that Oracle appears to have what is virtually a monopoly 562 00:33:49,320 --> 00:33:56,760 across government information and what is also worrying and is 563 00:33:56,760 --> 00:34:00,000 a question that I would like to ask, and we were talking, Mike, 564 00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:05,520 about a potential FOI who actually can access this 565 00:34:05,520 --> 00:34:08,960 information, who controls this information? 566 00:34:09,159 --> 00:34:14,679 Who decides where this information is shared? 567 00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:17,880 So let's have a look at this, what I consider to be really a 568 00:34:17,880 --> 00:34:21,480 monopoly of information storage from the British government 569 00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:25,159 across all sectors. So if we look at Oracle 570 00:34:25,159 --> 00:34:31,800 customers on the next slide where it will talk about the 571 00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:36,120 Cabinet Office. So there is a recommendation 572 00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:39,880 there from Steve Paul Borough who's Deputy Director, 573 00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:43,239 Architecture and Information Assurance, government shared 574 00:34:43,239 --> 00:34:45,560 services at the UK Cabinet Office. 575 00:34:45,560 --> 00:34:48,480 And then if we move on, you can see, sorry, the dogs have 576 00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:54,320 decided to start playing. It is connected to local 577 00:34:54,320 --> 00:35:00,480 government and across the NHS in specific areas of the country, 578 00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:04,440 but growing. And then perhaps most worrying, 579 00:35:05,240 --> 00:35:08,320 this was in 2020 and as far as I know it's ongoing. 580 00:35:08,320 --> 00:35:12,040 Oracle was awarded the UK Ministry of Defence Cloud 581 00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:15,680 Infrastructure contract and let's have a look at what that 582 00:35:15,680 --> 00:35:18,880 entails. So basically, the Ministry of 583 00:35:18,880 --> 00:35:22,200 Defence will capitalize on the choice and economic benefits all 584 00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:26,600 Oracle Cloud Infrastructure can provide, Led by Chief 585 00:35:26,600 --> 00:35:28,760 Information Officer Charlie Forte. 586 00:35:28,800 --> 00:35:32,560 The Ministry of Defence's digital organization, Defence 587 00:35:32,560 --> 00:35:35,920 Digital, brought together and replaced a number of 588 00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:39,040 organisations including information systems and 589 00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:43,920 services, in 2019. It has an annual budget of over 590 00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:49,040 2 billion and a team of around 2400 personnel, including 591 00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:51,360 military civil servants and contractors. 592 00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:55,240 The organization is responsible for making sure that effective 593 00:35:55,240 --> 00:35:59,360 digital and information technology is put into the hands 594 00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:07,080 of the military and business. Frontline, who founded Oracle. 595 00:36:07,480 --> 00:36:12,000 A guy called Larry Ellison was the Co founder of Oracle in 596 00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:15,000 1977. But let's have a look at a 597 00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:19,840 little bit of his background. So Oracle itself started off as 598 00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:23,960 a project for the CIA. Allison named his company after 599 00:36:23,960 --> 00:36:28,480 Project Oracle, a 1970 CIA operation he worked on. 600 00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:32,760 Our very first customer was the CIA, Allison boasted, telling 601 00:36:32,760 --> 00:36:37,520 the story of how in 1977, the CIA commissioned his firm to 602 00:36:37,520 --> 00:36:40,680 build them a database. From there, Allison immediately 603 00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:44,360 began pitching to other wings of national security state, and 604 00:36:44,360 --> 00:36:46,720 within months had secured contracts with Navy 605 00:36:46,720 --> 00:36:49,800 intelligence, Air Force intelligence, and the NSA. 606 00:36:50,440 --> 00:36:53,440 The bottomless pit of money available for the military has 607 00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:59,760 helped turn Oracle from a tiny operation to a $46 billion per 608 00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:03,040 year behemoth. Then let's have a look again. 609 00:37:03,080 --> 00:37:07,320 We talked last week at unit 8200 and the development of a 610 00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:10,960 surveillance state in Israel itself. 611 00:37:11,520 --> 00:37:15,560 So the founder of Oracle, Larry Ellison, is Jewish. 612 00:37:15,560 --> 00:37:19,720 I would counter that by saying he's clearly Zionist. 613 00:37:20,120 --> 00:37:22,680 Then let's have a look at a little bit of information about 614 00:37:22,680 --> 00:37:26,640 him. So he's connected with Warren 615 00:37:26,640 --> 00:37:30,480 Buffett, Bill Gates, Benjamin Netanyahu, the current Prime 616 00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:33,480 Minister in Israel, conducting, of course, the genocidal 617 00:37:33,480 --> 00:37:37,800 campaign against Palestinians. But most interesting among his 618 00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:42,120 contributions to Israeli causes are more than 26,000,000 given 619 00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:45,600 to the Friends of the Israeli Defence Forces, as well as 620 00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:52,320 $500,000 to fortify a community centre in Sterot in 2007. 621 00:37:53,360 --> 00:37:56,880 Reportedly according to the New York Post and various other 622 00:37:57,320 --> 00:38:01,160 media outlets, Netanyahu was reportedly offered lucrative 623 00:38:01,160 --> 00:38:05,720 Oracle board seat by Larry Ellison in 2021. 624 00:38:06,720 --> 00:38:10,560 I I would assume he didn't accept that because to do so he 625 00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:15,080 would have to step down from the Knesset, which would lead him to 626 00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:18,480 prosecution or corruption. But then let's have a look at 627 00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:22,480 the Larry Ellison Foundation, current investments, guess what? 628 00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:26,120 The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. 629 00:38:26,120 --> 00:38:29,880 And then let's have a look at how much money Ellison poured 630 00:38:29,880 --> 00:38:31,960 into this. Let me try. 631 00:38:32,600 --> 00:38:36,040 Mike, can you read that for? Me According According to the 632 00:38:36,040 --> 00:38:39,200 Larry Ellison Foundation's IRS Return file late last year, 633 00:38:39,200 --> 00:38:44,920 Oracle CTO and founder donated $33.83 million to the Tony Blair 634 00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:50,120 Institute in 2021 and plans to contribute another 49.37 million 635 00:38:50,120 --> 00:38:54,040 in the near future. And thank you, Mike. 636 00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:59,600 And guess what this is focusing on With the Tony Blair Institute 637 00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:04,120 and Oracle launch the Africa Vaccine Management in the cloud 638 00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:08,440 people can freeze that screenshot and and read it for 639 00:39:08,440 --> 00:39:11,240 themselves or go to the Larry Ellison Foundation. 640 00:39:11,440 --> 00:39:13,360 Charles that might be of interest to you. 641 00:39:14,040 --> 00:39:19,040 And then I took from an article by Mint Press news Alan McLeod 642 00:39:19,080 --> 00:39:23,880 and Loki the pro Palestinian activist in the UK openly pro 643 00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:27,440 Israel tech group now has control over the UK's most 644 00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:32,000 sensitive national data. Now Larry Ellison stepped down 645 00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:36,400 in 2014. However, he was replaced by 646 00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:42,720 Safra Cats, billionaire American Israeli who has also contributed 647 00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:48,240 to various Israeli organisations and contributed to the Trump 648 00:39:48,360 --> 00:39:57,960 presidential campaign in 2021. Second, come here and then If we 649 00:39:57,960 --> 00:40:02,480 look also so while opening a new data centre in Jerusalem in 650 00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:06,040 2021. Afrikaats laid out Oracle's 651 00:40:06,040 --> 00:40:10,320 purpose, stating very clearly we are not flexible regarding our 652 00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:14,520 mission and our commitment to Israel is second to none. 653 00:40:15,240 --> 00:40:17,360 Sorry. Come here. 654 00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:23,360 I do apologize. This is a free world and I love 655 00:40:23,360 --> 00:40:26,360 my employees. And if they don't agree with our 656 00:40:26,360 --> 00:40:30,160 mission to support the State of Israel, then maybe we aren't the 657 00:40:30,160 --> 00:40:33,600 right company for them. So very clearly stating that 658 00:40:33,600 --> 00:40:39,960 Oracle supports Israel and does not effectively stem any 659 00:40:40,840 --> 00:40:43,800 confrontation or dissidents towards that support. 660 00:40:44,240 --> 00:40:47,560 Larry Ellison and I are publicly committed to Israel and devote 661 00:40:47,560 --> 00:40:50,560 personal time to the country, and no one should be surprised 662 00:40:50,560 --> 00:40:52,760 by that. Katz made the comments in 663 00:40:52,760 --> 00:40:55,960 response to a question about Israel's for human rights record 664 00:40:55,960 --> 00:40:59,960 and the rebellion of Silicon Valley employees refusing to 665 00:40:59,960 --> 00:41:02,440 facilitate the country's war crimes. 666 00:41:02,760 --> 00:41:08,040 In 2017, Katz was offered the position of US Director of 667 00:41:08,200 --> 00:41:12,400 National Intelligence. And interesting, you pointed out 668 00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:16,920 to me, Mike, that interesting how the UK government has 669 00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:20,800 basically kicked you. Are we out of UK telecom 670 00:41:20,800 --> 00:41:25,360 networks because of what is considered to be a threat from 671 00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:29,080 China itself? And I would again remind 672 00:41:29,160 --> 00:41:34,360 everybody to look at the 2030 road map for UK, Israel 673 00:41:34,360 --> 00:41:39,520 bilateral relations and bearing in mind Oracle's, let's say, 674 00:41:39,520 --> 00:41:42,640 partisan approach towards Israel. 675 00:41:43,480 --> 00:41:50,200 How many Unit 8200, the spy network from Israel employees 676 00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:55,200 are actually at Oracle and the extent to which Oracle now has 677 00:41:55,200 --> 00:41:59,920 control over the majority of the information from all sectors of 678 00:41:59,920 --> 00:42:03,120 the British government. Yes, thank you for that. 679 00:42:03,120 --> 00:42:05,080 Vanessa. We're going to follow up on this 680 00:42:05,080 --> 00:42:09,960 with with other companies that are embedded in British 681 00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:12,240 infrastructure, whether that be government infrastructure or 682 00:42:12,240 --> 00:42:16,560 corporate infrastructure. So we will see how we do with 683 00:42:16,560 --> 00:42:19,880 that over the next few weeks. Now I want to then move on to 684 00:42:19,880 --> 00:42:26,120 the DSTL Porton Down. So Theresa May was visiting here 685 00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:29,560 she is yesterday. I visit Salisbury, six years 686 00:42:29,560 --> 00:42:33,520 from Russia's brazen use of a chemical weapon on British soil. 687 00:42:33,760 --> 00:42:38,200 It was a pleasure to thank staff at DSTL Mod Porton Down for 688 00:42:38,200 --> 00:42:41,240 their professionalism and for everything they do away from 689 00:42:41,240 --> 00:42:43,040 public view to keep our country safe. 690 00:42:43,360 --> 00:42:47,160 So, you know, she's not worried about making the point that 691 00:42:47,160 --> 00:42:50,240 Porton Downs right beside Salisbury where the alleged 692 00:42:50,240 --> 00:42:53,680 chemical weapons attack on the Skripals happened. 693 00:42:53,960 --> 00:42:56,120 But I just thought for the sake of a bit of a laugh, we would 694 00:42:56,120 --> 00:42:58,880 have a look at some of the comments under this. 695 00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:03,040 So first of all, we have Honesty 2022 here saying a, the criminal 696 00:43:03,040 --> 00:43:05,400 perpetrator returns to the scene of her own crime. 697 00:43:05,400 --> 00:43:10,680 So somebody gets it. Then we have Rob Brabo here 698 00:43:10,680 --> 00:43:13,640 saying yeah, and wasn't an amazing stroke, stroke of luck 699 00:43:13,640 --> 00:43:16,040 that the first person to go to the aid of the Skripals was the 700 00:43:16,040 --> 00:43:19,440 chief nurse of the British Army. And indeed it was. 701 00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:23,320 And then we have Charlie Radnor here saying here we go, anti 702 00:43:23,320 --> 00:43:26,000 Russian rhetoric mixed with the old fear factor. 703 00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:29,360 And let me guess, we must be sending more pounds to Ukraine. 704 00:43:29,600 --> 00:43:32,400 Softeners up. Well, I think that's a fair 705 00:43:32,400 --> 00:43:37,400 point, but a couple of weeks ago, Charles was talking about 706 00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:42,720 Dragon Fire and DSTL all over their Twitter account over the 707 00:43:42,720 --> 00:43:45,240 last couple of days, really excited about Dragon Fire. 708 00:43:45,240 --> 00:43:51,240 This is this, how do we describe it, Energy directed energy 709 00:43:51,240 --> 00:43:53,280 weapon. Let's have a look at a little 710 00:43:53,280 --> 00:43:55,720 bit of video that they've been posting on their Twitter feed. 711 00:44:00,120 --> 00:44:03,840 The Dragon Fire laser has achieved AUK first with a high 712 00:44:03,840 --> 00:44:08,440 power firing against an aerial target with precision accuracy 713 00:44:08,440 --> 00:44:11,080 and costing only around £10 per shot. 714 00:44:11,440 --> 00:44:14,200 It's a potential game changer for air defence. 715 00:44:15,320 --> 00:44:19,000 Working closely with industry, the UK continues to invest in 716 00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:22,240 cutting edge technologies to keep the nation safe. 717 00:44:24,840 --> 00:44:27,160 So, Charles, you were talking about this a couple of weeks 718 00:44:27,160 --> 00:44:28,800 ago. They're clearly extremely 719 00:44:28,800 --> 00:44:31,640 excited about it. I mean, I'm not sure you've got 720 00:44:31,640 --> 00:44:37,280 any more thoughts. Well apart from it sounding like 721 00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:40,920 Liz Truss has done the voice over for the for the publicity. 722 00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:45,760 Yeah I think that they do seem to go on about the the cost of 723 00:44:45,760 --> 00:44:48,960 it the cost per shot. I mean on on a serious sort of 724 00:44:48,960 --> 00:44:54,400 defence note if it were a a capable technology and there was 725 00:44:54,560 --> 00:44:58,480 there was a certainty that it didn't harm the user and that 726 00:44:58,480 --> 00:45:01,880 there was not collateral damage. All of those things I think are 727 00:45:01,880 --> 00:45:04,120 completely unproven at the moment. 728 00:45:04,480 --> 00:45:08,360 Then in comparison with weapon systems that would wreak similar 729 00:45:08,360 --> 00:45:12,320 havoc the the the price would be astonishing. 730 00:45:12,320 --> 00:45:16,160 I mean you know 10 if if, if what she says is true. 731 00:45:16,160 --> 00:45:19,520 I'm not again I'm not quite sure how that's calculated and again 732 00:45:19,520 --> 00:45:22,000 I dare say like most of the figures were presented with it 733 00:45:22,000 --> 00:45:26,080 would have been arrived at by a slightly spurious means but but 734 00:45:26,080 --> 00:45:29,240 but it it it potentially is very capable. 735 00:45:29,240 --> 00:45:32,680 I think the question, the question to ask is is what is 736 00:45:32,680 --> 00:45:36,080 the intended purpose and what sort of countermeasures would 737 00:45:36,720 --> 00:45:39,560 for example, Russia have And with everything else we've 738 00:45:39,560 --> 00:45:44,240 talked about drones particularly the Russians either have the the 739 00:45:44,240 --> 00:45:47,960 the exact same capability or they have the countermeasure 740 00:45:47,960 --> 00:45:50,240 which is better established and more capable. 741 00:45:50,240 --> 00:45:53,840 So I think what remains to be seen is what on earth the 742 00:45:53,880 --> 00:45:57,280 operational, the intended operational use for this is. 743 00:45:57,680 --> 00:45:59,040 Uh, well, that's a very good question. 744 00:45:59,040 --> 00:46:02,160 And uh, so I wonder, is it about shooting down drones or other 745 00:46:02,880 --> 00:46:06,160 missile defence? Or is it for UH, setting forest 746 00:46:06,160 --> 00:46:09,240 fires which which help with the climate change agenda? 747 00:46:09,240 --> 00:46:12,280 But anyway, we can discuss that more in the future. 748 00:46:12,600 --> 00:46:16,080 I'm saying that a little bit tongue in cheek, but let's stick 749 00:46:16,080 --> 00:46:18,160 with DSTL. And they've decided to set up 750 00:46:18,480 --> 00:46:22,200 what they're describing as Centres for Doctoral Training. 751 00:46:22,760 --> 00:46:24,400 So there are two of them being set up. 752 00:46:24,400 --> 00:46:26,800 These centres are going to enable novel research and 753 00:46:26,800 --> 00:46:29,520 provide a future pipeline of trained research staff and 754 00:46:29,520 --> 00:46:32,000 critical technology areas for defence. 755 00:46:32,320 --> 00:46:33,680 So it's not a huge amount of money. 756 00:46:33,680 --> 00:46:37,160 It's 16,000,000 lbs so far, but it's going to fund centres for 757 00:46:37,720 --> 00:46:41,760 doctoral training LED from the universities of Southampton and 758 00:46:41,800 --> 00:46:43,680 Edinburgh. So let's have a look at the 759 00:46:43,720 --> 00:46:47,080 Edinburgh one in particular and look at the key areas that 760 00:46:47,080 --> 00:46:49,600 they're looking at. So artificial intelligence, 761 00:46:50,120 --> 00:46:53,680 autonomy, so that's autonomy of vehicles and so on. 762 00:46:53,880 --> 00:46:57,320 Digital twins and human machine interaction. 763 00:46:57,320 --> 00:47:01,960 So this fits in with the 6G video that we were showing I 764 00:47:01,960 --> 00:47:05,200 think this time last week. But I want to focus for this 765 00:47:05,320 --> 00:47:08,600 purpose on the digital twins aspect of this because many 766 00:47:08,600 --> 00:47:10,360 people aren't aware of digital twins. 767 00:47:10,640 --> 00:47:14,080 So let's just remind everybody what digital twins are. 768 00:47:14,080 --> 00:47:17,440 So this is from the IBM website. What is a digital twin? 769 00:47:18,040 --> 00:47:20,480 So let's look at their their definition. 770 00:47:20,480 --> 00:47:24,280 A digital twin is a virtual representation of an object or 771 00:47:24,280 --> 00:47:27,480 system designed to reflect a physical object accurately. 772 00:47:27,760 --> 00:47:31,400 It spans the object's life cycle, is updated from real time 773 00:47:31,400 --> 00:47:34,520 data and uses simulation, machine learning and reasoning 774 00:47:35,080 --> 00:47:37,880 to help make decisions. And of course, mostly this is 775 00:47:37,880 --> 00:47:39,960 being promoted as something which you apply to 776 00:47:39,960 --> 00:47:42,680 infrastructure. So you if you create a digital 777 00:47:42,680 --> 00:47:48,240 twin of a railway network and you you can analyse it's 778 00:47:48,720 --> 00:47:52,600 maintenance requirements, you can analyse it's any potential 779 00:47:52,600 --> 00:47:57,120 for, you know, problems on on the lines and so on in real 780 00:47:57,120 --> 00:48:00,400 time. But my issue with this is the 781 00:48:00,720 --> 00:48:02,200 behavioural change in particular. 782 00:48:02,200 --> 00:48:05,200 Because they're not just looking at digital twins of physical 783 00:48:05,880 --> 00:48:08,720 steel and infrastructure, they're looking at digital twins 784 00:48:08,720 --> 00:48:11,800 of human beings as well. This is something which is being 785 00:48:11,800 --> 00:48:14,480 widely researched in universities. 786 00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:18,320 Let's just bring a couple of the research papers on screen. 787 00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:22,160 So here is 1 Designing Human Digital Twins for Behaviour, 788 00:48:22,160 --> 00:48:25,440 Changing Therapy and Rehabilitation A systematic 789 00:48:25,440 --> 00:48:27,880 review. Here's another one Designing 790 00:48:27,880 --> 00:48:30,640 Human Digital Twins. Well that actually that's the 791 00:48:30,640 --> 00:48:31,800 same one. I do apologise. 792 00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:35,000 Here's the here's the another example from another paper. 793 00:48:35,520 --> 00:48:38,120 This is all about human behaviour modelling in the 794 00:48:38,120 --> 00:48:42,360 digital twin. So digital twins, The human 795 00:48:42,360 --> 00:48:47,360 digital twins being a feature of academic research already. 796 00:48:47,360 --> 00:48:51,240 Now of course it wouldn't be possible to model with current 797 00:48:52,080 --> 00:48:55,240 IT infrastructure to model or create digital twins for every 798 00:48:55,240 --> 00:48:58,400 human being in the country. But what happens if you want to 799 00:48:58,960 --> 00:49:02,720 create a digital twin for perhaps some people of interest? 800 00:49:03,320 --> 00:49:06,720 Maybe people that are involved in campaign groups or in 801 00:49:06,720 --> 00:49:10,560 activism in some way, with a view to either working out what 802 00:49:10,560 --> 00:49:13,520 would be the best way to change people's behaviours or at least 803 00:49:13,520 --> 00:49:16,840 to try to analyse what actions they might be taking in the 804 00:49:16,840 --> 00:49:18,760 future. So this there are a couple of 805 00:49:18,760 --> 00:49:22,440 aspects to this. One is how they analyse changing 806 00:49:22,440 --> 00:49:27,120 behaviours in human beings, but also how they analyse the 807 00:49:27,120 --> 00:49:31,320 potential for, shall we say, pre crime and thought crime and 808 00:49:31,440 --> 00:49:34,520 things that people haven't actually done but may in the 809 00:49:34,520 --> 00:49:38,960 digital metaverse be considered as being a likely, likely 810 00:49:39,080 --> 00:49:41,320 outcome. I think this is an extremely 811 00:49:41,320 --> 00:49:47,280 dangerous direction to be heading in and so, well, we'll 812 00:49:47,280 --> 00:49:50,160 keep reporting on this in the coming days and weeks. 813 00:49:50,920 --> 00:49:54,280 Charles, let's bring you back then and come on to the 814 00:49:54,840 --> 00:49:59,040 Holocaust Memorial. Thanks, Mike. 815 00:49:59,040 --> 00:50:01,920 Yeah, this is something I covered at the end of last year, 816 00:50:02,080 --> 00:50:05,640 the very bizarre and somewhat underhand process by which the 817 00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:09,200 government is pushing forward plans for Holocaust Memorial in 818 00:50:09,200 --> 00:50:11,840 the Victoria Tower Gardens to the South of the Palace of 819 00:50:12,200 --> 00:50:15,920 Westminster. Now an update on this. 820 00:50:16,240 --> 00:50:18,960 First of all, the controversy continues. 821 00:50:18,960 --> 00:50:23,400 The architect of the entire scheme, Daniel Lieberskind, has 822 00:50:23,400 --> 00:50:27,800 suggested that even he thinks that it might be the wrong site 823 00:50:27,800 --> 00:50:30,800 for it. Following the report that I gave 824 00:50:30,920 --> 00:50:34,360 a couple of months ago, many people wrote in to refer 825 00:50:34,360 --> 00:50:37,960 specifically to the Imperial War Museum and the Holocaust 826 00:50:37,960 --> 00:50:41,640 galleries that it holds there. So I've been in touch with the 827 00:50:41,640 --> 00:50:45,520 Imperial War Museum to find out exactly what it is that they 828 00:50:45,800 --> 00:50:47,920 have to say about this. I was interested to know as to 829 00:50:47,920 --> 00:50:50,280 whether the government had been in touch, bearing in mind the 830 00:50:50,280 --> 00:50:54,680 proximity and I've heard back from the Press office, the 831 00:50:54,680 --> 00:50:58,520 Imperial War muse. The museum's position is such 832 00:50:58,520 --> 00:51:03,000 they welcome the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation's commitment 833 00:51:03,000 --> 00:51:05,600 to preserving the memory of the Holocaust with the Initiative 834 00:51:05,920 --> 00:51:08,120 for a Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre. 835 00:51:08,120 --> 00:51:10,960 We support the commitment to stand up against anti-Semitism, 836 00:51:10,960 --> 00:51:13,880 prejudice and hatred, as well as supporting existing 837 00:51:13,880 --> 00:51:17,480 organisations across the UK to continue to advocate the 838 00:51:17,480 --> 00:51:20,080 importance of learning about the Holocaust for generations to 839 00:51:20,080 --> 00:51:22,320 come. OK, fair enough, they go on to 840 00:51:22,320 --> 00:51:24,120 say. We are grateful to the 841 00:51:24,120 --> 00:51:26,760 Foundation for generously sharing its plans for the 842 00:51:26,760 --> 00:51:29,920 Memorial and Learning Centre, located less than a mile from 843 00:51:29,920 --> 00:51:32,880 Imperial War Museum, London at Victoria Tower Gardens. 844 00:51:33,120 --> 00:51:35,800 We're in discussions with them on the thematic exhibition 845 00:51:35,800 --> 00:51:38,720 within the Learning Centre to ensure that the curation and 846 00:51:38,720 --> 00:51:43,960 narrative does not replicate IW Ms. own Holocaust and digitally 847 00:51:43,960 --> 00:51:47,960 enabled Learning Suite. So I think they're being very 848 00:51:47,960 --> 00:51:50,520 diplomatic. But the highlighted text there 849 00:51:50,520 --> 00:51:53,800 really seems to suggest that the Imperial War Museum have taken 850 00:51:53,800 --> 00:51:57,720 the common sense view that to put an almost identical memorial 851 00:51:57,720 --> 00:52:01,280 in a completely inappropriate site less than a mile away is 852 00:52:01,280 --> 00:52:05,840 complete and utter madness. And that's before we even get 853 00:52:05,840 --> 00:52:09,040 into the political ramifications of doing such. 854 00:52:09,400 --> 00:52:12,080 The map here just shows the proposed site on the left or the 855 00:52:12,080 --> 00:52:14,440 West of the picture, and the existing site. 856 00:52:14,440 --> 00:52:16,320 They really are that close together. 857 00:52:16,640 --> 00:52:20,400 And exactly how a government department would suggest a 858 00:52:20,440 --> 00:52:24,840 Holocaust centre is going to be so markedly different to what 859 00:52:24,840 --> 00:52:29,560 the Imperial War Museum has as to justify its existence on land 860 00:52:29,560 --> 00:52:33,640 that is specifically protected from such developments is 861 00:52:34,000 --> 00:52:37,240 certainly a mystery if one follows due process. 862 00:52:37,800 --> 00:52:42,360 But this goes further and really I think the politicisation of 863 00:52:42,800 --> 00:52:47,440 war memorials or of the dead, and indeed capitalising on the 864 00:52:47,440 --> 00:52:51,040 situations, is something Jeremy Hunt's taken up here in his 865 00:52:51,080 --> 00:52:56,960 budget speech last week. He has said that as we mourn the 866 00:52:56,960 --> 00:52:59,440 tragic loss of life in Israel and Gaza, the Prime Minister 867 00:52:59,440 --> 00:53:01,960 reminded us last week of the need to fight extremism and heal 868 00:53:01,960 --> 00:53:04,280 divisions. So I start today by remembering 869 00:53:04,280 --> 00:53:07,040 the Muslims who died in two world wars in service of freedom 870 00:53:07,040 --> 00:53:10,920 and democracy. And it's amazing to see that he 871 00:53:10,920 --> 00:53:14,160 has sort of suggested that had the Prime Minister not mentioned 872 00:53:14,160 --> 00:53:18,120 it, he wouldn't necessarily have thought of any Muslims that had 873 00:53:18,120 --> 00:53:21,240 died in those wars being nearly 80 years ago. 874 00:53:21,800 --> 00:53:23,600 We need a memorial to honour them. 875 00:53:23,600 --> 00:53:26,200 So following representations from the Right honourable Member 876 00:53:26,200 --> 00:53:29,480 for Bromsgrove and others, I've decided to allocate £1,000,000 877 00:53:29,480 --> 00:53:32,960 towards the cost of building 1. Whatever your faith or colour or 878 00:53:32,960 --> 00:53:36,160 class, this country will never forget the sacrifices made for 879 00:53:36,160 --> 00:53:38,920 our future. So what's this all about? 880 00:53:38,920 --> 00:53:42,400 Why is he doing it? Well, the announcement in The 881 00:53:42,400 --> 00:53:44,920 King's Speech last year about the Holocaust Memorial seemed 882 00:53:44,920 --> 00:53:49,080 very much to to capitalize on what happened in Israel and 883 00:53:49,080 --> 00:53:51,680 subsequently on October the 7th last year. 884 00:53:51,960 --> 00:53:57,080 So it looks like Jeremy Hunt is either seeking to sow division 885 00:53:57,080 --> 00:54:01,960 or score political capital or as he refers to, flush out people 886 00:54:01,960 --> 00:54:04,080 that can be described as extremists. 887 00:54:04,080 --> 00:54:07,080 But furthermore, he's also suggesting, which I think is 888 00:54:07,080 --> 00:54:11,800 totally disingenuous, that Muslims were fighting as Muslims 889 00:54:11,800 --> 00:54:14,800 and not as nationals of the particular country that they 890 00:54:14,800 --> 00:54:18,280 were fighting from. And I think this is something 891 00:54:18,280 --> 00:54:21,720 that really should be pointed out and and sort of stopped. 892 00:54:22,000 --> 00:54:25,640 So just to highlight how things have been done to date or were 893 00:54:25,640 --> 00:54:27,840 done at the time, the Commonwealth, the Commonwealth 894 00:54:27,840 --> 00:54:31,120 War Graves Commission, which has responsibility for all the 895 00:54:31,560 --> 00:54:37,240 graveyards, that of soldiers or combatants of all faiths. 896 00:54:37,880 --> 00:54:42,880 I just illustrate here, here is a grave of or headstone rather 897 00:54:42,880 --> 00:54:46,440 of a Christian soldier with a with a cross at the bottom of 898 00:54:46,440 --> 00:54:50,840 it. And here we see Muslim and 899 00:54:50,960 --> 00:54:54,760 Jewish grave. So to suggest that there's the 900 00:54:54,760 --> 00:55:01,000 necessity for something other than this is is frankly an 901 00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:05,120 overstatement and as I say, seems to have behind it nothing 902 00:55:05,120 --> 00:55:08,600 more than than political opportunism and and and 903 00:55:08,600 --> 00:55:10,880 disingenuity. OK. 904 00:55:11,000 --> 00:55:13,920 Thank you, Charles. Now we will let's move on back 905 00:55:13,920 --> 00:55:18,840 to the UK and and sister dying. We were talking about this on 906 00:55:18,840 --> 00:55:21,880 Monday's programme and the fact that Emmanuel Macron had decided 907 00:55:21,880 --> 00:55:24,640 to bring in legislation in France. 908 00:55:25,160 --> 00:55:28,920 If we can just bring the he was bringing this legislation in 909 00:55:28,920 --> 00:55:31,680 France and we talked about this on Monday's program. 910 00:55:31,680 --> 00:55:37,160 Well, Keir Starmer was being interviewed by ITV News 911 00:55:37,760 --> 00:55:41,120 yesterday and as part of that interview he made a telephone 912 00:55:41,120 --> 00:55:48,080 call to Esther Ranson and he said this we are going to commit 913 00:55:48,080 --> 00:55:49,880 to this. I'm personally committed to it 914 00:55:49,880 --> 00:55:55,520 because as you know, the current law is a complete prohibition 915 00:55:55,560 --> 00:56:00,800 ban on assisted suicide and then it's left essentially and in 916 00:56:00,800 --> 00:56:03,920 reality to the chief prosecutor. So me, when I was sitting in 917 00:56:03,920 --> 00:56:07,720 that role for five years to decide which cases go forward 918 00:56:07,720 --> 00:56:10,800 and which don't, and I tried to get that right in all the cases 919 00:56:11,120 --> 00:56:12,920 I saw. But that's not a very good way 920 00:56:12,920 --> 00:56:15,560 of doing it. It ought to be for Parliament to 921 00:56:15,560 --> 00:56:17,680 decide. I'm personally in favour of 922 00:56:17,840 --> 00:56:20,720 changing the law. I can give you my commitment, 923 00:56:20,720 --> 00:56:21,760 Esther. Absolutely. 924 00:56:22,160 --> 00:56:25,520 But if we are privileged enough to win the election, then we 925 00:56:25,520 --> 00:56:28,600 will make time for this vote. It'll be a a conscience vote 926 00:56:28,600 --> 00:56:32,560 obviously, but that's why cross party support is going to be 927 00:56:32,680 --> 00:56:37,320 really important. So that is the position of Keir 928 00:56:37,320 --> 00:56:40,480 Starmer and let's face it, he is likely to become the next Prime 929 00:56:40,480 --> 00:56:43,280 Minister. So we've got to be prepared for 930 00:56:43,280 --> 00:56:45,280 that. And if you feel that assisted 931 00:56:45,280 --> 00:56:50,400 dying is not something that you want to see being made routine 932 00:56:50,440 --> 00:56:54,520 in the UK, then it's time to start campaigning on that pretty 933 00:56:54,520 --> 00:56:58,080 soon. So OK, we got it finished, but 934 00:56:58,080 --> 00:57:01,000 we're just going to end with this because I saw this doing 935 00:57:01,000 --> 00:57:04,960 the rounds of social media and I thought it was quite 936 00:57:05,320 --> 00:57:07,320 appropriate. So OK, we're talking about 937 00:57:07,320 --> 00:57:10,240 Ireland here, So the headline is on the graphic. 938 00:57:10,240 --> 00:57:12,960 Ireland will change forever depending on who you vote for. 939 00:57:13,000 --> 00:57:16,280 Lots and lots of countries with elections coming up at the 940 00:57:16,280 --> 00:57:20,000 moment, the UK included. But if we scroll on down this, 941 00:57:20,520 --> 00:57:22,520 they're comparing the political parties. 942 00:57:22,680 --> 00:57:26,520 So on the left hand they've got the Independence, the Irish 943 00:57:26,520 --> 00:57:28,840 Freedom Party, Liberty Republic and so on. 944 00:57:29,320 --> 00:57:32,840 And on the right side they've got mainstream parties like Sinn 945 00:57:32,840 --> 00:57:36,160 Fein, Fiona Foyle, Fina Gale, Green Party, Labour Party, 946 00:57:36,160 --> 00:57:41,280 Social Democrats and so on. And they're looking at the sort 947 00:57:41,280 --> 00:57:44,200 of positions of those parties, so the the party, the 948 00:57:44,200 --> 00:57:47,280 independent candidates and the various other smaller parties 949 00:57:47,720 --> 00:57:51,160 being pro rights, pro privacy, pro freedom, pro cash, pro 950 00:57:51,160 --> 00:57:54,720 culture, neutrality, ownership, sovereignty, freedom of speech 951 00:57:54,720 --> 00:57:57,480 and so on. And on the right hand side, the 952 00:57:57,480 --> 00:58:02,720 mainstream parties being against rights, against privacy, against 953 00:58:02,720 --> 00:58:05,480 freedom, against cash, against culture neutrality, ownership, 954 00:58:05,480 --> 00:58:07,880 sovereignty, freedom of speech and the rest. 955 00:58:08,160 --> 00:58:12,480 I just thought that was a really interesting comparison. 956 00:58:12,480 --> 00:58:15,880 I think it's something that applies equally to the UK, to 957 00:58:15,880 --> 00:58:18,880 the many EU countries, if not all EU countries, certainly to 958 00:58:18,880 --> 00:58:21,560 the United States. I'm not seeing anybody standing 959 00:58:21,560 --> 00:58:24,760 in the presidential election who's going to be any different 960 00:58:25,560 --> 00:58:27,760 to the parties on the right hand side. 961 00:58:28,480 --> 00:58:32,000 And we might want to consider that whenever we're looking for 962 00:58:32,160 --> 00:58:35,160 a candidate to vote for in the coming general election in the 963 00:58:35,160 --> 00:58:37,440 UK. It is a good point. 964 00:58:37,440 --> 00:58:38,920 Well made. I thought so. 965 00:58:38,920 --> 00:58:40,480 Anyway, we've got to leave it there for today. 966 00:58:40,480 --> 00:58:42,920 I'm going to say thank you very much to Charles and Vanessa for 967 00:58:42,920 --> 00:58:44,800 joining me today. Thank you all for watching. 968 00:58:45,320 --> 00:58:48,680 We'll be back in a few minutes if you're UK column member for 969 00:58:48,680 --> 00:58:53,960 some UK column news extra. Otherwise, don't forget no smoke 970 00:58:53,960 --> 00:58:55,600 without fire at 1:00 PM tomorrow. 971 00:58:56,000 --> 00:58:59,720 And we'll be back for the news on Friday with Debbie and Ben as 972 00:58:59,720 --> 00:59:01,200 usual. See you then. 973 00:59:01,360 --> 00:59:01,800 Bye. Bye.