Hello and welcome to UK Column studio #2 So it's a great pleasure to bring you into this studio because it's relatively relatively recent edition for the UK Column. And I'm delighted to be joined today by Gemma Cooper. And Gemma and I are going to talk about festivals because UK Column team have been to quite a few festivals over the years. We're delighted to get invitations, we've enjoyed them
all. The weather has been different in as much as we've experienced, everything from blue sky and sunshine to some quite strong winds and heavy rain, but nevertheless they're a a lovely environment and of course recently we went to Sounds Beautiful in Dorset. What a location, Gemma. Oh, it was just absolutely stunning. I was really aware that Sounds beautiful was in its kind of first inception at that location last year and how successful it was.
And I thought and everyone was really raving about it and I thought, well, you know, there's but there's a lot of freedom festivals now. Thank goodness. We all need them. But when I got to Gaunts Estate, I was like, oh wow, it really was really was beautiful and and such a lovely place for like minded people to get together, relax, be away from the matrix, you know, and be with like minded people. And there was no screens, no
heart didn't see, no phones. I mean, it was just a wonderful place to be away from, from the world and all the robots running it, you know, it was great. Yeah, the world's an an increasingly mad world. And from my experiences at the the festivals is that you can absolutely relax because anybody that's there, you can chat to them about any subject you like and you can have a good conversation.
There are serious conversations, there are amusing conversations, there are personal conversations, but people are talking and interacting. And as, as we'll hear in one of the clips, somebody is sort of saying, you know, could it be like this all the time? Isn't it So wonderful events?
And we are very grateful to the Sounds Beautiful team for putting on that event in Dorset. Now, you spent some time taking some film footage, which is we're going to watch and we're going to share with our viewers today. But tell us a little bit about your approach to making that little film and who did you have assisting you? Well, I was really lucky I had Steve Jeffries from Edge of the Matrix, who's getting a huge following on, on his YouTube channel for the work he's been doing.
He's self taught and taught himself 2020 onwards and how to use it. Then he's become a, a brilliant cameraman and, and shoot edit. He's really good. And he was, and I said, do you fancy making a little film? You know, of, of, of sounds beautiful, 'cause that's, that's my background. You know, I'm a broadcast journalist and reporter, as it were. And he said, yeah, he jumped at the charts, especially to make
something for the columns. So we went out with the camera and we just tried to really capture a flavour of how good it was and, and the vibe, you know, which is quite difficult to do through a screen, you know, capture the vibe. But you know, we'll leave it to the for you to judge. But I think we, I think we did a good job.
We tried to capture the music, the atmosphere, of course UK columns place in the festival and what UK column was there to do. And what UK column did do there, which was, you know, take over the the talk tent for for a couple of hours on the on the Sunday. And we just went off and had a lovely time and everyone was really friendly and it was great.
Yeah, it was a lovely thing. And I think back to my old career in the Broken Biscuit Company, and it wasn't always like that, you know, it wasn't always as relaxed. It was, you know, and often we'd, you'd get sent out with an agenda, even if that one was in your own head because of where you were working. But this was like, we're not going to have an agenda. We're going to go out filming.
We're going to see what happens. We're not going to try and curate it. We're just going to capture it. So yeah. Yeah, it was really good. And what was your description of the BBC? The Bad Biscuit. The broke slang, isn't it? There are many anachronisms now for the BBC. The most polite one you're allowed to use it is Broken Biscuit Company. There are others, but that
they're not for broadcast. No, OK, But just for just for people who who who watch this video so that they understand that's the background that you're talking about. So, yeah, fascinating. And I think we should also give your cameraman a special mention because he's, he's pretty unique in that he's, he was Royal Navy and he achieved a Green Beret at that time doing some, you know, special training and work. So credit where it's due. Oh, yeah.
I mean, it's just like, yeah, you know, he was in the in the military and then fire service. And he's done a lot of interviews himself. So all this is out there in the public domain. And then 2020 came and he could see through it straight away, especially in the fire service. And and he'd seen agendas creeping in, I think to the fire service. He didn't put words in his mouth. But as I say, he has spoken out
about this before. And then 2020 came and he just thought, right, I can't, I can't live like this. Can't live while everyone's telling me Liv and went off and did his own thing. And he's he's doing really well with it. And just goes to show, you know, out of trauma and tribulations and all the stuff we went through, how many people are now leading different lives? Yeah. Absolutely true.
Well, let's share your video production with the audience and then we'll come back on screen and we'll have a little chat. In a field in Dorset, the Freedom Community gathered truth seekers from all over the UK at the stunning Gaunts Estate all together for a weekend of revelry and relaxation with like minded people. While the mainstream juggernaut of Glastonbury Festival was going on 50 miles up the road, here was an entirely different celebration.
People defying the establishment, not bowing to it. People living in the moment, not on social media. After the tremendous success of Sounds Beautiful last year, organisers Wendy and Steve rolled up their sleeves and decided to do it all again. You don't think you're going to be able to do it, but then you, the festival births itself and then you, you forget. So after the festival, you relax and go. Wow.
We did it and then you forget for another year and you need that year in between, really, believe me, to be able to do it all again well. I was about to say, will you do it all again? Well, we'll wait and. See. I'm I'm up for it. Some of the biggest performers and activists in the alternative community were here. And many who were here showed it's possible to build systems outside the matrix. And of course, there was UK Column.
People came in to meet the team, talk about the state of our world and what we can do to fix it. The highlight of the weekend was the recording of UK Column News in front of the live festival audience. It wasn't a word so an idiot can understand, yet they're geniuses in my opinion. I'm a devotee. Very good presentation. I mean they always speak utter sense as far as I'm concerned. So and things that we need to hear in a very kind of straightforward down to earth
way because we can get. Tied up in all the little bits and we need to understand the real problem. And they do just brilliant job planning. Made me feel I've got a community, I've got a group that I can be part of and we're not, we're not sort of totally on different lines, we all. We all understand that, which is so difficult sometimes that even in what we created in the last five years, there's there's sections of them that have reverted back to the establishment when it comes to
that. And so you feel like, is it just a few of us to see through that? And instead here you feel with UK column, especially stepping out like this, you feel that we're kind of all on the same page. I was very impressed with the level of knowledge that they all had and it's certainly given me food from, I thought, especially regarding the techniques that the government use to publicise
crap about everything. I felt it was an excellent presentation, in fact I'm going to be watching UK column because I've only seen snippets of it before but it's very well researched and I liked all the research they did but they made it user friendly. 11:00 The first, first act on in the tent, I was like, that's a bum deal. That should be like a bit further on in the afternoon when everyone's around, but it's
rammed, isn't it? So I think, I think the UK column crowd are very loyal and they're very, they're very passionate and I think they they support you don't they like with a lot of love, they could feel a lot of that. You know, a lot of support. It was packed, I couldn't get a seat. I was on the outside looking in as usual. I, I, I've always supported UK column for many years. They've been warriors for 20 years. Maybe you sit down, I don't
know. It's about, it feels a long time, always relevant, which I like. And they always show evidence. They go into depth. They they raise questions that you don't think about. The UK column team did not stop the whole weekend. New friends were made and old ones greeted. Events like this important for connection and camaraderie. Everybody here so far has been very friendly and curious. They want to know what's going on in the world.
So to see that marquee full of people who come see UK column news was utterly brilliant. And it was obvious, it was just obvious by their demeanour that they were engaging with us as we delivered the news. So yeah, it's been, it's been wonderful. It says, it says that we're reaching people and they, they really appreciate coming to see us, you know, for real instead of, you know, on a, on a screen.
And I think that's really important that the, the column come out and do these events because it's, it's lovely. I've had loads of people come up to me today and ask me questions and have a chat and it's, it's really nice that people are, you know, we did have a pack tent 11:00 on a Sunday morning. It's really it's, it's really good sign. There's a new audience has come as well, which has got to be, you know, so some people that were here last year have given
this year a miss. They'll come back next year, but there's new people here this year as well. So you know, this has got to be an indication of of the growing numbers. I think any opportunity to get out and talk to people wherever you are is is fantastic. And I think this place is I'm, I'm slightly biassed being a countryside lover, but but to be somewhere that's surrounded by such beautiful woodland and pasture.
And I would say to see an environment that looks like it should and then to stick people in the middle of it who are certainly not of the same mind, because that would be fairly dull. But people who share values and all the rest of it, it's just, it's lovely. And I think it's gone very well for us. A lot of people would say, even people here have said to me, oh, well, this is great. But it's an echo chamber.
You know, it's just the, it's the truth community or the freedom community or whatever getting together. So I would, I would reframe that to do reframing exercise. It's more like a team. This is like a team meeting. Soon it will be back to the studio and office for the UK Column team, but the memories of this weekend will be with us for a very long time. Gemma Cooper with Steve James, cameraman for UK Column in Dorset.
There we are wonderful little clip and I'm going to say Gemma, a huge thank you for you putting that together, not only as a an advert and a a promotion for Sounds Beautiful itself, but also for the UK column. And before it goes out of my head, I want to say I I really love those opening drone shots because I think that was fairly early in the in the event and you you the tents are starting to arrive.
The cars are there some people there, but just that beautiful, peaceful scenery and that's what captured people. I think it is. It's not like driving into a big flat field and that's all there is there. You've got this slightly rolling countryside and then the main arena is is set down in a very slight valley. Valley isn't it? The foot of a valley.
Yeah, and I think it's I, there's a couple of factors because the atmosphere of the place is quite unique and I'd never heard of Gaunt's house, which is where it was at Wimborne, Wimborne, St. Giles, I think it was in Dorset. And so I did a bit of background research on Gaunt's House and it's run by this amazing man. I didn't meet him on the weekend, but I thought it's it just shows how somebody's energy
goes into a place. And they only rent out to people that they kind of agree with the philosophy of what they're doing because they could hire out to corporates and make millions, but they don't do that. They only hire it to people whose philosophy they agree with and they run all these alternative workshops and events at other times of the year just at Gordon's house, all on the theme of personal inner
development. So whoever this man is, whoever the team are there, they're clearly really switched on and that energy has permeated into the grounds. I, I really could feel there's something special about this
place. And then you've got the other thing, which is just sheer natural beauty, the way that the the grounds have been created and curated and, and it's we need that more than ever now because we are glued, glued to technology when the irony is we're now in a studio and we're going to be broadcasting how wonderful the festival was from a screen to you at home. But it's really about being
there. And so the double whammy of the feeling of the energy of the team behind Gaunts Estate and feeling their intention and then just being with nature away from the screens. I didn't see anybody holding up mobile phones to film the band. People were just watching the bands, you know, and. They they very relaxed, but this is a very good point. You can watch this video.
We're very pleased if you do. But but actually the whole thing is being there in the open in that country environment with the people. That was spectacular and I also want to say it really tremendous for the UK column team to be able to meet people who've given us support over many years. Some we've met before at other events and some absolutely new. So people come and introduce themselves and say they're supporters and it's yeah, it's a lovely experience.
And I always find it particularly good talking to people and understanding a little bit about who they are, where they've come from. In particular how they found the UK column. And, and it was lovely in your clip to hear the complimentary comments from people who'd sat in the little marquee and heard our delivery of UK column news at that festival of events that that was fun.
It was, and what I thought, and I think it was reflected in what the, the video we've just seen is how many people at the, at the festival were there to see the column. And they all turned out, bearing in mind it's on the last day of the festival, it's 11:00 in the morning, you know, so a lot of people nursing, you know, possibly a few saw heads. And the tent was packed. And that to me spoke, spoke volumes. You know, the acts of the facts. Look how people behave, not what they say.
And everybody flocked to to the tent. It was a packed house. And that is indicative of the support that the column has got and the strength of loyalty that people have for for us and what we are doing. Because I think sometimes, you know, it's easy for us sometimes to think, are people still getting it? Do they do they like what we do? And, and clearly the answer is yes, which is great. And that's, I think, as you rightly say, the column has been to other festivals.
That was before my time. But I I understand you get the same reaction wherever you've been over the last few years. Yeah. It's true. And occasionally when you're at a service station or you're driving somewhere and somebody comes up to you and says I think you are Brian Garish, Mike Robinson.
And, and it turns out that somebody who watches the UK column news is recognised as that happens quite frequently now to an extent that it gives us, it gives us some idea of our reaching audience because a lot of people say to us how big is the UK column audience? And it's very difficult for us to tell because we've been so heavily censored, YouTube in particular, when we were easily getting 100,000, well close to because we would do 100,000 YouTube silver disc isn't it?
I think you'd get for 100,000. And we were very, very close to that. And then all of a sudden we were censored. But if you travel around the country and somebody stranger you think approaches you and says I know who you are, and I watch the UK column, that is, that's really quite something. Unless it's 77th Brigade, I know who you are and I watch the column. Well, we, we try not to get, we try not to get dragged into the
deep stuff. Yeah. Now I was lucky enough to be able to do a couple of interviews with people, more than a couple actually with people who were at the at the event. And we decided that if we did some interviews, we try and make it very casual, very relaxed. And so we had a very simple set up of a camera and a microphone and a couple of camping chairs
in the UK column tent. And we've just chosen 2 because these are two people who were particularly focused on the UK column and why they're supporters of the UK column. And you and I, we're going to have a look at those clips and again, we'll comment on them, but just absolutely lovely to sit and have those large, well, impromptu sort of interviews, conversations and learn what makes people tick.
Absolutely. And and learn, as we'll see in the first clip we're about to watch, you know, what brought people to the column and I think that will resonate with a lot of people. If you're watching at home this I think the first interview will resonate with many people of how they found the column. Indeed. So we'll show the first one, which is my interview with a lady called Mary. And I'm smiling as I do this because I found A very amusing. But also incredibly astute.
So let's see Mary in action. Mary, thank you very much for joining me. Here we are in the UK content, as I'm sure everybody can see from our backdrop and the banners that are around us today, we're all made by a very keen supporter, Jenny, who we're very grateful to. Mary, you wandered in a few minutes ago and we were having a little bit of a chat about what was going on in the country and things, and then I had the opportunity to speak to you.
So you're Mary? Mary. How long have you supported the common? Since the lockdown, actually I was going quite insane. A girlfriend, a friend of a friend actually phoned me and said how's it going? And I said not terribly well. I resigned from my post with Cranston. I hope they don't mind me mentioning that. But big or huge organisation? And what sort of organisation was that? Drug and alcohol treatment.
They, they had a detox in city roads, which is quite famous really, that sadly that's closed. In fact, there isn't a detox in London anymore. Brian. Yeah, and they had dry houses, supporting houses, rehabs, you know, it was a very big organisation, which baffles me as something can be charitable organisation and profit making. That never makes any sense to me, but mine isn't the reason why.
Anyway, I resigned at the end of 2019 with a plan and I was going to have Christmas with my son and then I was going to go out to Southern Asia to visit my daughter, who's in Thailand. She was in Chiang Mai. I've been to Thailand, but I haven't seen Chiang Mai. She was working in a rehab. I started hearing about this COVID-19, didn't take much notice. I did have a concern. Supposedly it started in China. She's in, she's in Thailand. She's surrounded by it if it exists.
But yeah, I, I kind of ignored the situation. All of a sudden they started closing boulders and grounding flights and etcetera, etcetera. So I thought, OK, that's that plan out the window. I'm really quite highly qualified 20 years in in that game and I'll do some volunteering. And there was absolutely nothing, just absolutely nothing. There was no support for people that were in recovery. It was a very, very sad situation. A lot of people died from the lockdown.
I've got first hand experience of that. Anyway, time's going on. I'm trying to violence anything, anything, food banks, absolutely anything. St Mango's, you know, Turning Point, absolutely anything. Nothing was happening and I just felt more and more isolated. Nothing made sense. You know, they say that it's a very small thing that triggers and it and it is. My brother and I were trying to play tennis to stay sane and they locked the tennis courts. So we took the padlocks off.
So they took away the Nets. You know as well as I do, Brian, you can't play tennis without social distancing. Even if you're playing mixed up always, you've got one on the net and one on the base. Similar. Everything that they was telling us to do was absolutely contrary to staying healthy. No sunshine, no vitamin D, no exercise, no no mixing with it was just crazy. A friend of a friend, I was very lucky, phoned me. How you doing? Not terribly well, she said.
You've got to go on one of the marches, you've got to speak to like minded people or you will go and sing you. You've got to come on one of the marches and that's and I went on the March and then I got the Light newspaper. From The Light newspaper I discovered UK Column Radio. That's lovely, yeah. Yeah, and that was, that was how it went on. I, I then fortunately A fellow phoned me and and said how's it going?
No, not terribly well. And I got a job, I got a job with their Hep C trust and I was seconded to the NHS, which is a whole nother story, Brian. So you saw things, you started to see things from the inside, from the. Unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable. We're we're all working for big pharma. NHS is a logo now and, and it's really sad what's going on. It's just absolutely unbelievable Brian, it's our money. It's just unbelievable.
And I was fed up with driving an ambulance in January of this year. I decided to retire because, you know, you start to get a feeling that you're complicit in this and it's not a very good feeling. You know, the whole situation has been absurd. It's not gone away. You can't speak. You can't say what you think. It's whisper, whisper. If your views get known, it's going to cost you your job.
But I've got colleagues that used to say to me, if these people really know what knew what I really think, Mary, are to lose my job. Yeah, you would definitely. Yeah. He's to say, you know, the only advantage that we have is we've got an S&M situation and we know exactly who they are and they don't know. Yeah, there's a really interesting point, isn't it?
We got to the stage where just for speaking your own mind, not not even being rude or aggressive, but if you speak your own mind on certain policies, you are at risk of losing your job. And that is a major change in, in this in this country. The whole morality of this country has changed dramatically and it's certainly in the last 20 years, I think. So you discover the UK column. I'm keen that we can just put a little bit back to our audience. What? What?
What did the column give you or what did you you've joined US1 Yeah. Why? Why did you decide to support us and become a proper member? Well, you can't listen to the BBC. Well, you can if you don't lose your sense of humour. Yeah, it's, it's most entertaining when you can see right through it. The UK column alleviated some of the isolation. When you think, when you think you're the only person who thinks the way you do. It's a bit like waking up in the Matrix.
It's, it's isolating. It's frightening. You know, I've, I've, I've got children that sometimes listen to them and think, well, how did they get brainwashed? They've got me as a mother. How did they get so brainwashed and. Give you the answer to that. It's news on the hour, every hour, which of course is the BBC mantra. And I can remember when he was alive, my father saying to me one day, why do we need the news
every hour? And of course the answer I should have given him at that time is because Dad, they are drunk trying to brainwash us and they need to drill it in every every hour. They've been extremely successful. Yeah, there's no two ways about that. And you know, I do say to people, I don't watch. I don't, I don't, I try not to read any, you know, mainstream media at all. Although I do like the Daily Mail. He Little John still makes me laugh.
Although there was a time when my sense of humour went, went out with Little John. Richard. Little John's amazing. But, you know, it got to the point where when something so real, it ceases to be funny, although most of the time when you know, this, this couldn't make it up is good. And I think Peter Hitchens is an amazing journalist. So I do, I do, but and and it makes good. I've got a real fire. So it's antsy for the fire. But the BBC just just, it's,
it's absurd, outrageous. I use the word outrageous because every time I'm hearing reports from them, it is so biassed, it's so manufactured. So I, I, I do, I do hear a little bit of BBC, usually the radio, but I can't tolerate that Mike Robinson will listen to it because he says I listen to it and find out what they're saying and doing. But I actually find I'm going to say it makes me feel ill.
I, I go into a hotel now and you know, inevitably in the, in the main room or the bar area, there's a big TV screen and you can't even relax in that sort of environment without the BB CS news appearing on a vast TV screen. It's it's outrageous. And did you know when I first joined UK Column News? Because I was a bit apprehensive. I'm not the most techie savvy person in the world. It's not my generation. And I tried to pay through PayPal, right, and it stopped.
Yeah, they cut off the payment. Well, this is something which does happen to our members and, and it's it can be very frustrating, particularly for Mike who sorts a lot of this stuff out. But yeah, people are having all sorts of problems and it's nothing to do with us. It it just happens. And you say, is it is it accidental or is it is deliberate? We don't know. But you're not the only one that that it happens to is is very strange situation.
Yeah. Just a few minutes ago, you you said to me that we'd kept you sane during that period of the lockdown period. And I said to you that this was something that from time to time people do tell us in the column. And the last time we've been to events like this, camping and and music and socialising, people come into the little UK column shop tent and they often say, can I have a hug? And when they've had their hug, they say, you kept me sane.
And some of them were clearly in a really bad position. Yeah. And we did something during that COVID time that resonated with people. So it's definitely. I'm glad you found us. Me too. Yeah, me so. Last couple, couple of comments just on the event here, which sounds beautiful. So have you been to one of these things before? Never. So what made you come to this one? I wanted to meet you, Brian, to be honest.
So now everybody's going to think that this was a, a planned, excuse me, a planned interview. Well, I'm afraid it was on my part. Yeah, OK. It was orchestrated on my part. I just wanted to see the UK column team. I just wanted to to meet the people. People don't look the same on a on a plastic screen and I'm not. At times I've thought I did actually email you and you
emailed me back immediately. It's so impressive because the event was kind of advertised a few months ago and then it went quiet. I didn't hear anything and I was thinking where did they say? I'm sure they said in Dorset. I can't remember the dates. I wonder where it, I don't know where Wimborne is. So I just emailed you and you emailed back the flyer and. You're here, Yeah. And then you said to me, Brian, are you camping? And I said, of course, because this is what it's all about.
And then you said you were staying in at. Don't say where, but you're staying in a farm. Yes, yes, and and very lovely is too. Absolutely delightful. I'm sure that has a proper bed, yes, And carpets. It does indeed. And a shower. I I have a log cabin. Oh, really? I really do. Yeah. It's really delightful. Well, I'm going to say the UK common team are camping. We we've got two big tents we can stand up in, which is great.
And we've got some smaller, some smaller tents, but we're, we're doing the full thing which is camping. So there we are. But you're only a youngster, of course. I do actually have all the equipment. I've got blow up beds and all of the equipment. If my daughter would have been with me then I may have done that because there's two of us doing things. But you know, I thought it's something I've always wanted to do.
I agree that it's Glastonbury for people with a brain, you know, it's and and and why ever not it's you know. It's fun, isn't it? Absolutely. And the fact you can talk to people on serious subjects, you can talk to people on normal innocent family stuff and you can, there's always a lot of laughing and joking and the, the music and it's, it's a nice atmosphere. There has to be the only thing that counteracts fear is is
humour. You know, as soon as you start laughing at things, it it dissipates. When I'm speaking to my daughter Harriet, we were speaking the other day about the, the, the fellow who went around Barnard Castle, what was his name? And I was, I was mimicking the conversation that must have gone on. You know, just go out there and speak to the press, say anything you know, ad Lib, make it up as you got say you was testing your eyesight. Why not?
That's a good. And as soon as she starts laughing, she sees it. Humour tends to cut through. Yeah. Fear, and you know, it just works. What a brilliant place to end. Yeah, what a brilliant place to end. Mary, thank you very much for sitting down and chatting to me. And a huge thank you for your support for the UK column because it's it's really appreciated. It's you guys that keep us going. And next year is 20 years for the UK column.
And we could only have done it with all the support for our members and people who make donations. So that's wonderful. Doing the most amazing job. Brilliant. Thank you. Well, there we are. What did you think of that, Gemma? I thought it was absolutely exceptional and and it was a real reminder, you know, of what we went through, you know, talking about playing tennis. And they put the padlock on the gate. In lockdown. Yeah, in lockdown.
And that so many people found the column in lockdown, desperate at home. Am I the only one that can see that there's something not right with this? Am I the only one who thinks this way? No, there's millions of us, billions probably. And so finding us at such a desperate time. But at what? When Mary was talking there, you know, that they paddled the gate of the tennis court and then
they took the net down. You know, the, the weird cruelty and the brainwashing and the gas lighting and the, and the and the messaging. I thought, yeah, it's really easy for us to forget what we went through. But we went through it. And even now, I think in the alternative movement, freedom movement, there's a kind of willingness to put it all behind us. But we can never forget it. And. And it did. It did bring people to us. And clearly, clearly we were. Yeah.
And clearly we were a help. We were a help to those people. And, and Mary was really great and saying how she was doing badly and how we helped her. And I've heard that a lot since I've been working for the column. I've heard that so much about how the column literally saved people's lives and saved people's sanity. And she's clearly bounced back from the trauma.
Well, I. I, I, well, she was delightful to talk to and, and interview and she did make me smile when she said, well, I, I went out to play tennis and then the found they padlocked the gates and we got rid of the padlocks and then they took the net away. And then she makes that wonderful comment about you can't get more socially distanced than you need to be to play a game of tennis, which I thought was absolutely on the button. An interesting mixture in there, isn't it?
Because there was a lot of humorous stuff, but also some really, you know, serious stuff, not only about the impact of of COVID on on Mary and her her family and friends, but she was also started talking about, you know, what she sees happening in society. And she mentioned that that she had been working for a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre and she'd had enough of that basically and stopped.
But then she makes that little remark and there isn't one now in London. And you think, you think massive city, super city, London with a lot of problems, a lot of poor people, a lot of people with really serious issues, and this sort of facility is no longer available. This is an increasingly cruel world, isn't it? I, I, I couldn't believe that fact, you know, you know, no drug and alcohol detox. There was a detox centre she specifically referred to, wasn't it, if I'm not mistaken?
And I, my immediately thought was, you know, you just said it's a cruel world. I thought, is that deliberate? Is that a deliberate, you know, taking money away from mental health taking, which is definitely happening, and taking money away from addiction treatment. And addiction has a very spiritual dimension to it. You know, people call it a spiritual illness.
So instead of rehabilitating people and their souls and their spirits, let's just take all that away and let them suffer, you know, and look at 2020, how they made us suffer. And you do rather wonder. Whether a malicious mind thought up the policy to take it away, Well, I I don't have any trouble with this because I do believe we're facing policies created by
malicious people. I think this is the reality, but it's interesting, isn't it, Gemma, because we're we're meandering around in our reminiscences of of the sounds beautiful festival. But look where the conversation is is gone. So we've we've gone from humorous things and the beauty of the setting through to quite, quite a serious topic here. And this is really a little snapshot, isn't it, of what happens at the festival.
The people are there. They're there to listen to music, to relax, to be there a lot of children, you know, just people relaxing and having a good time. And then in amongst it you've got conversations which could be just normal social conversations or much deeper subjects.
And I can't remember who said it, but I definitely overheard somebody talking about the fact that these sorts of festivals where there's also speakers alongside the music and the shops are, are the thinking persons Glastonbury. And I thought that's a pretty accurate description, isn't it? So, and we've reflected that we're we're thinking back to a music camping festival. But out of that came some pretty serious and important topics. Oh, very much so, yeah.
Because you know that the tent was thought on the first day as soon as people saw our tent, not the talk tent we were in on the Sunday, but the UK column tent went up and the UK column flags went up. We were just inundated with people coming in wanting to tell, you know, tell you especially about things and corruption and but for their own lives, you know, lived experience, not some crazy out there theory, but lived experience.
And they would flocking in and and wanting to speak and but I think it's because people were relaxed and felt safe. They were an environment where they felt safe to do that without fear of like who's listening or is this conversation on online being recorded or anything like that. It was a safe environment and they trusted us. They trusted the column and our longevity. So yeah, that's what being an outside I think and with like minded people does You you can become authentic and the
festivals and. Moe sounds beautiful and of course we're off to hope in a few weeks. Hope Sussex. And you know, we're going to, we plan on being out and about as much as we can to just try and reassure people and, and hear them, listen to their. Stories and to get out there and and mix with people. This this is absolutely true. I did 3 of the serious interviews which will be available on the festival page
on the UK column website. So one was on the topic of agraphonics, which is basically people have heard about growing in in a water based medium. This is this is growing crops together in a specialised way but with very high yield. So I had a very interesting discussion about that. I also talked to another gentleman who's intermediary himself and that was very interesting to be able to chat and find out what somebody else has been doing.
And then out of the blue, I also had a conversation with a guy which was about the the true child abuse saga in in Belgium. And that was a fascinating interview. But I'm going to say I was slightly taken aback that that subject came into the UK column tent. And and it came into the tent because we had another person that had found the UK column wanted to come and meet us and wanted to tell us about the amazing research work they've done around that very, very dark story.
So whole mix of things going on at this event and we've we've done our best to capture those. But we thought today the way to end was to do the short clip with Jenny, who's been a supporter of the UK column for a very long time. She's very lively, very bouncy, done lots of good work for us in producing banners and helping in a whole heap of other ways. So it was lovely to to see Jenny there and also to be able to sit down and do a little interview with her.
I think you'll enjoy it. I had a lot of fun. Let's have a look, Jenny or Jennifer. Jenny, you've got to be really careful with shortening people's names or lengthening them because it can go either way against you. So I know, I know a certain lady who's been Jillian, but that was always how she was addressed by her parents, possibly in a little bit of a stern way. So then there's Jill and then there's people who are called Michael, but then call them Mike.
But you're Jenny, I'm Jenny. Brilliant. So let's just let's describe the scene. We are here in the remnants of the UK column, Marquis. The walls have all been taken down. So hence the backdrop is is the fields or the H into the next field? A lot of stuff being packed up, a lot of conversations going on and I promised you we'd do a little interview about you. We know you as the sign lady. Tell tell us about the signs you have created from UK column.
OK, right. I I've had my own business since I was 19 and I first started, I went to clubs and I noticed there was no backdrops. So when I was 19, I started painting them and I started hiring them out and then I put on nights and I also did my own backdrops for nights and I did weddings as well because that was quite well paid. And then about 3-2 years ago, I went to the first Freedom Festival. I loved it.
So I now do the backdrops for the Freedom Festival and some other festivals as. Well, right and you should have a backdrop of Jenny's banners. They were here. They've now disappeared. But when our viewers listeners have a look at some of the other interviews that we've done over this weekend, I am sat against the back problem, some of Jenny's banners. So that's lovely. As we've already said it to you all say again, thank you very much for doing that it. Was a pleasure doing them.
Good. How long have you known the UK column? Quite a few years since 2019. So yeah, quite a few years. How did you first come into contact? With my friend, I went to India with a good friend of mine called Nick, and he was talking about you guys all the time. So I spent about six months in India. Then as soon as I got back to the UKI Googled you and, and ever since I've been watching you and I kind of knew about you anyway because you do a lot of
YouTube videos years ago. So I was watching them as well. And and then I'll make you face to face at the Freedom Freedom Festivals. Yeah, well, you were really nice because I you came up and you wanted a selfie. That's right, yes. In fact, if I remember correctly, because the weather wasn't as nice as it is here and you had an umbrella on my head. I did. That wasn't me, yes. Maybe we'll have to.
We'll be able to look for that little photograph again actually, because it I'll put it on there instead of usually, yeah. It was a good photo. I've actually got it on my Facebook page as well. OK, so what's your take on the Sounds Beautiful Festival?
I. Went last year and I was so impressed with it. I just went as a friend, you know, and just went with a couple of friends and I was so impressed with it. When I got back to my house I ordered some more tickets straight away and then I rang up the lady called Wendy who organises it and I said to you what you decor and I'll do it as one and one and three and she says yes, please come down. So I came down on the Tuesday and I've been here ever since. And it's been fantastic.
We would like to see more people at the Sounds Beautiful event. And I think the, the way to do this is, is everybody needs to be upping the promotion because if you didn't come, you just don't know what you missed. It's been absolutely lovely.
So I'd, I'd like to see more of these events because the young lady I talked to just now was 23 and she said, you know, more or less I can't talk to my age group because they just don't understand what's going on. But I've been here and it's just been, it's been lovely to talk to people. And that's, I think that's a really powerful thing. Yeah, I was getting that actually last year, a lot of people coming up to me and they were saying exactly the same
thing. And they've got their friends left and they're really lonely and they come up here and they've got new friends and and we're like family now. So we come here every year and there's quite a few freedom festivals. So we meet each other there and it's like a tribe now, now of people. And they were very lonely, a lot of people really lonely, which upset me last year because everyone was saying, oh, how
lonely they were. And I thought these events are really important just to connect to the right people and that you're not on your own and to come to these events. And that's how we win this fight is if we actually meet each other face to face. And then you meet all these people contacts. I met a lady with land, She's got 4 acres of land in France and she wants people to go over and help her after it. And I said, yeah, come here.
She has actually come. She's spent hours trying to get in because the signs aren't any good. But the signs will be better next year because I'm going to go and do them. So I will do the signs. But yeah. Yeah, OK. Driving around for hours trying to get in. Yeah, this is absolutely. True, you know, don't be, don't be at home lonely, come out and meet people and have fun. And also, yeah, discuss how you we stop all these horrible things. Here comes the low question
right at the end. You've been here for a few days. Have you been good? I've been very good actually, Yes, yes. And I've met so many new friends and I've got, we've got another evening and the evenings will be good because they have fire and they have a couple of fires on and we're all sitting by the fire. Once the music goes out, it has to go out about 1:00 because a
bit sound complaints. But in the evening we all get together and go around the fire, and we all like singing and dancing and drumming, and then it carries on. And I've got to bed about 4:30 last night. And I was actually up this morning for yoga at 7:00. Yeah. So I think I've been very good.
You've been very good. And, and I will also say that early this morning, I think it's about 6:10, I've just to the fire pit just to see what, what it was like, because I always know it's the fire's still a light, but it's mainly ashes and some members that were glowing. What really impressed me was that there was a plastic, big plastic container and all the beer bottles and everything had all been neatly stacked in there. So it's all clean and tidy. And I thought that's wonderful. Very.
Good. Yeah, people here and you can leave stuff out. It never gets. Really. Honest people here and if you've lost anything, if you need any water or food or coffee to start people and they'll give you it. It's a lovely atmosphere and it's a really, really high vibration. Really high vibrations. That's how life should be. Yes, definitely. Yeah. I went to another festival last week now, saying it'd be lovely if life is like this every day. And there's a lot of festivals.
So in theory you can. You can make your life every day like mimic festivals and meet lots of people. Yeah, brilliant, Jenny, Thank you. Thank you very much for everything you've done for us. Thank you very much. That was painless, wasn't it? It was OK actually, but I don't know if it's going to be any good of. Course it's going. To be so. We're going to stream this. Yeah. Are you going to let me see it before it's just going to? No, no, that's.
Seriously, there's people going to get worried, but trust us, it was a good interview and and our viewers and listeners are going to love seeing you and hearing you good well. I'm still smiling because I can still feel myself sat in the UK column tent as it was being dismantled, and it would have been very nice if we'd have maybe had some other clips of the tent being being actually dismantled around us.
But it was great fun and it was probably a wonderful thing to be able to look through that backdrop and to see the into the fields and the tents over the other side. But Jenny's done brilliant work and it's just wonderful that she stayed with us over all that time. And I I I just think as a little CLI to end it it, it was lovely. Well, I think as well, you do get a glimpse of the beauty of
the site there. I mean, it just looks like a bucolic English countryside scene, you know, with the grass wafting and some tents and Marquis in the background and the blue sky. And I'm. It makes you want to go back, You know, it makes me want to go back seeing that shot. And and Jenny is such a bright and sunny person. She embodies, you know, positivity and that shot, the shot, she's a. Doer. She's a doer. Yeah. And she's done so much for us.
And if you come to our events, you'll see the backdrops that she's done for us, which all handcrafted, hand done. And they're just lovely. And we have them up in the tent, as you can see there with the interview with Mary. And yeah, it was, it was a lovely way to end it. And and I just love the stuff that she was saying, you know. Oh, the, the signs on the door weren't very good, but don't worry, I'm doing them next year, you know, and things like that,
you know, full of confidence. And and also again, though, there was that area of seriousness of like, but a lot of people come to these things because they're really lonely. She, you know, that's what Jenny said and she said how much that upset her. And but now these festivals, of which there are a lot of being a lifeline. And I think that's really the key. And if anyone's wavering and thinking, oh, there are too many freedom events and there are too many things going on, we'll try
and you should determine. Do what resonates with you, but at least goes to some. Because I think we've moved away from the marches. You know that Mary talked about going on the marches and that brought back a lot of memories for me and I'm sure for you, the marches. But that was a different energy. That's what was needed then. Now I think as we're moving towards this kind of shift in consciousness, we need to be relaxing and having fun with
each other. Because actually that relaxing, having fun and laughing will beat what we're up against more than marching angrily along London with a banner saying get off your, you know, take your masks off. That was then, this is now. And it is a form of protest to be out in the field with like minded people. And also looking after yourself, yes, and making yourself feel good by, by the environment you you put yourself in. It's a very powerful thing. That's the power of it.
So very powerful. Because the better we feel, not only physically but mentally about ourselves, and the more positive we are, the better place we are to fight the really terrible people that are messing this world up. Absolutely, and it just reminds me of what Mary said.
To go back to Mary's interview, she said you've got to diffuse it with humour and she talked about she couldn't remember Dominic Cummings name, but at the end of her interview talking about who was the man at Barnard Castle, you know, Dominic Cummings and we all remember that story and you know, his ridiculous excuses. But she was like, take the sting out of it, laugh, relax. That that just takes all their power away. Powers with us, powers with us.
And it's how we are now moving forward. Now that we've all had a rude awakening to how the world is run, you know it's up to us to defeat it in the in the most positive way. Yeah, absolutely true. So what a place to end. I think on humour. You and I are both smiling. I think the audience would be smiling a bit more if we were to show some of the outtakes and our little efforts in the studio today. That may be for another time, but.
I thought you were going to say the audience would like it more if they could see what we got. We're getting up to in our tent in the evening, The UK column team. Well, we, we, we should have filmed that. No, maybe not. Well, we did. At a previous event we had had a wonderful evening where it got a bit cold in the evenings a couple of times, but we were in in the tent and we were able to get everybody squeezed round a
little table. We did the real thing because we had a gas lamp going, which of course gives you light and also a bit of heat and possibly we had a drink and we were playing cards and it it was absolutely lovely. So yeah, there we are. Lot of fun. Gemma, thank you very much for joining me. It's been really great. Thank you.