UK Column News - 21st May 2025

Hello IT. Hello. It's Wednesday the 21st of May 2025, just after 1:00. Welcome to UK column News. I'm your host, Mike Robinson. Joining me in the studio today is Charles Mallett. By video link, we have Vanessa Bailey and Sandy Adams. Welcome to the programme, everyone. Now, later in the programme, we're going to be covering the Lucy Connelly case, health and AI and the Middle East. But we'll begin with Brexit without the exit because The

Dirty deal is done. And here are the three Stooges. Keir Starmer, our illustrious Prime Minister, is flanked by two of the E US 3 presidents, because who needs only one? So we've got Ursula von der Lehm, President of the European Commission on the left, and Antonio Costa, President of the European Council on the right. Uh, now the, the, the deal will, according to Starmer, deliver on his core mission to grow the economy, back British jobs and put more money in people's

pockets. That's so exciting. Except there was never this, that was never the core mission. Its core mission was, as we've been talking about European defence, all the rhetoric about goods to flow freely again, including between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, is just that, rhetoric. So the sheer propaganda from 10 Downing St, however, is off the charts.

This is just one example of it. So on the top there you can see what happens before the UKEU deal and on the bottom after the UKEU deal and everybody's happy in the sunshine. It's unbelievable. So Starmer said yesterday there's no impediment to Egit at EU airports and his regime is working on it is basically what he was saying. We've now cleared the barrier and we're getting on with it. So we should be particularly excited about that.

So he went on to say that ladies and gentlemen, the Britain is back on the world stage and well, actually, according to the facts for EU website, what he meant was that Britain is back in the EU cage and I suspect that's probably pretty accurate. Starmer's triumphalism was, as we've said, off the charts. In the last two weeks alone, he said we've delivered trade deals with India and the United States.

That means jobs saved, jobs created more growth and a huge vote of confidence in this country leading the way internationally made Britain a place where people wanted to do business once again. That's that's his narrative. And well, why was he looking so glum then? He was looking so glum in all the all the photographs and except when people were making the jokes. I don't, I don't know whether anybody was talking about fires

or anything like that. But anyway, as usual with the EU, with the EU related matters, nothing of substance was included in the British regime's press release. Instead, uh, we had nonsense like, uh, like this. So let's have a look at this, uh, U, uh, sorry. UK secures new agreement with the European Union to support British businesses, back British jobs and put more money in

people's pockets. Uh, in the UK press release also was package will help make food cheaper slash red tape, open up access to EU to the EU market and add nearly 9 billion pounds, £9 billion to the UK economy by 2040, as if that's a lot of money over that period of time. And the Prime Minister hails the agreement is good for jobs, good for bills and good for our

borders. If you're still not throwing up at this point, let's have a look at what the EU, what their position was, because they produced this joint statement and we had to go to this to get the detail of the whole thing. And strangely enough, this joint statement doesn't seem to be on the UK government website. And if we compare the language from both sides, here's what the EU said, then EU will be overfishing in British waters until 2030.

They will effective. We will effectively be rejoining the single market for Food and Agriculture. It's going to tie the food sector and the UK to EU regulation. We're effectively rejoining the single market for energy and carbon pricing. And we're going to see the return of legislative parity. We never really saw that disappear. So the EU themselves said, well, I'm going to put Ursula on this because although she didn't actually said it's coming out of the EU and out of her declaration.

So I'm putting the quote against her name. We note the political agreements leading to full reciprocal access to waters to fish until 30th of June 2038. Actually Starmer for his part, lied by saying this. We've reached the deal today on fish protecting our access rights in fishing areas with no increase in the amount of EU vessels that the amount that EU vessels can catch in British waters. Anyway, the deal was done on that was done on Monday is only the start.

Ursula let the cat out of the bag during the Q&A session in the press conference. Let's have a listen to what she said. Your second question was on safe for the UK. Indeed it's a 2 step approach towards SAFE. The first precondition is a security and defence partnership that has been concluded today and it opens the door for the UK to participate in the joint

procurement and the SAFE. Then there comes the second step that is necessary to negotiate a second agreement and here we detail out, it's again a process of detailing out budget contribution, reciprocal market access and rules on security of supply. And this will give that's important in the end the UK industrial participation. This is the goal that we have together. Well, on Gibraltar, the Commission and the.

So what we have there is the first step of the U KS partition, participation in CF as they call it now, CF being EU Defence union. The second part, which is coming soon, will require Britain to make budget contributions, give contracts to EU companies, except the EU rules and defence industry, foreign policy convergence and EU supervision of defence projects, which is all exactly what we've been

warning about. And it, you know, if we were ever really out in the first place, it certainly takes us right back in. But then the question is what of Nigel Farage? Well, he's away. Sorry, let's go back one. He's away to France for a holiday. Where else would he go at this time other than the EU? The man, in my opinion, is a fraud and always has been. And, you know, he is not interested in this issue anymore. As far as I can see. He's only interested in echoing

what Donald Trump has to say. And as Brian Monteith says in The Scotsman, this is not a not even a retreat, it's a capitulation, an unconditional surrender that changes the relationship beyond recognition. Well, I understand that sent a bit, but I don't think it's any of those because I think this was the plan from the beginning. There never was an intention to make Brexit work from any political leader or from any

section of the UNI party. And if you think that this is probably not the best idea that has ever been thought up, then you might like to sign the petition which Veterans for Britain is set up on thegov.uk petition site. The link will be in the show notes. And you know, many may many watching this may feel like a referendum on the EU is the last thing they want to see. But I think this has to be resisted. And doing nothing is not resistance.

But you know, don't worry if Starburst holiday propaganda that I showed you at the beginning of this report isn't enough for you. Yesterday he was visiting supermarkets to make sure we all believe that food prices will fall because of this fantastic deal. So we can go go back to sleep now. What do you think? Well. I was a lot to say. I mean, Hotel California springs to mind and I think anybody that voted in sincerity to get out of the European Union will be scratching their head today.

But the promises of more money at the same time as complaining about a 22 billion black hole and saying that only 9 billion will be returned to the economy in 15 years seems like a pretty poor return. So I think there's a lot more to talk about on it, but it doesn't doesn't sound good. Right. And so let's continue with sort of international things with the British flavour and, and what's

the latest on the special forces killings that we were talking about a week or two ago? Yeah, indeed.

Well, as I said last week, the report on extrajudicial killings by special forces, a decision on the appeal of the former Australian special forces soldier, was to be announced on Friday. And this related to a civil defamation case he brought against the journalist Nick McKenzie. Now McKenzie had concluded from his protracted investigations that Robert Smith had committed murder while serving in Afghanistan, and Robert Smith therefore alleged defamation against Mackenzie.

Now the appeal was thrown out, which creates the bizarre legal situation of the Federal Court agreeing on the balance of probability that multiple murder has been committed. But because this is only a civil affair, Robert Smith faces no criminal sanction. For now. At least this is what Nick Mackenzie had to say about the decision. Massive relief.

It's an emphatic result and I want to express my deepest gratitude to the brave SASR soldiers have not only fought for their country in Afghanistan, but fought for the Australian public to know the truth that Ben Robert Smith is a war criminal. It was always the story of these brave SASR truth tellers. They saw Ben Robert Smith commit war crimes and they were not prepared to have that covered up. It's a terrifying experience to be put before the full bench of the Federal court.

But ultimately. The full bench of the Federal Court has scrutinised. Our journalism and more importantly to scrutinise the testimony of SASR soldiers who said what they saw. And the full bench of the Federal Court has found the truth that Ben Robert Smith is a war criminal. You can't ask for a more comprehensive process than the full bench of the Federal Court to have our journalism scrutinised fully, thoroughly, to have the testimony of our witnesses, those brave SASR

soldiers scrutinised. Yet again and yet again. The finding is utterly compelling. Ben Robert Smith did do these things. Ben Robert Smith is a war criminal and I want to acknowledge his victims. There are Afghan women and children who've lost husbands, fathers, because they were murdered on the orders of Ben Robert Smith. They should not be forgotten in all this.

By the recent BBC Panorama programme called I saw War Crimes claims to have taken the testimony of special forces veterans, though none has been named and actors were used for the filming. Reporting on this has been very limited and there's been extremely little attention on the long running independent inquiry relating to Afghanistan.

But in late January, Lord Justice Hadden Cave, who's charged with running the inquiry, requested that witness N1141 provided a statement which should have been due within 42 days, which would detail, among other things, an overview of the witness's career, his role as an OC, relationships with individuals and partner forces, serious incident reviews and an alleged confrontation with another witness.

Now reference to this witness being an OC should mean that he was a Squadron Leader, which means that he's one of a very small number of people who were in that role. And given the situation with the Australian Special Forces, the reference to partner forces should be considered as

particularly significant. In response to the request, the MOD witness legal team wrote to inform the inquiry that N1141 will quote will be relying on his privilege against self incrimination and will therefore not be providing a witness statement in response. No further explanation was provided. End Quote. So the so called privilege against self incrimination is a

theme. In March of this year Hadden Cave released a statement about the obstruction to Opsesto which is the military police investigation into the extrajudicial killings in the 1st place, which described how soldiers see refused to give oral evidence despite having complied with a request for a written statement.

Such refusals to give evidence or a bad look for UK Special forces as they would appear to reinforce the point that they believed themselves to be above the law, not just in relation to killing non combatants but also with regard to acting in support of an apparently legitimate judicial process. And the reason for making that point is that the privilege referred to relates to a civil or a criminal case, but not to an inquiry which is by nature inquisitorial rather than

adversarial. So as a consequence, Lord Justice Haddon Cave has now mandated a response from N1141 and I'll provide updates on this as and when. Now not only has there been very limited coverage of this issue in the mainstream, but the armed forces hierarchy refused to touch it with a barge pole. And this is a point brought out in a piece in the Telegraph by ex army journalist James Jeffrey, who asks why no general will take responsibility.

And the answer, as always, is that it's not politically expedient for them to do so. And to reinforce the point I refer to the appointment of General Gwyn Jenkins as First Sea Lord, the probability of which I mentioned last week. Now this is important because when he he was director of Special Forces, Jenkins is believed to have ordered special forces personnel to lean on civil servants in order to block Afghans from coming to the UK to give evidence in the Afghan

inquiry. And again, as to be expected, the counter narrative is being bolstered continually. And here we see the omnipresent Hamish to Bretton Gordon writing for the British Forces Broadcasting Services that we should not rush to judgement on the allegation against Special forces. Which indeed may be the case, though it's quite clear that he's preparing the ground for public opinion to be such that a criminal trial, were it to go ahead, may well end up being prejudice.

Yes, well, that will continue to rumble on. I'm not sure. And with massive attempts to sweep it under the rug, I. Think very desperate attempts, and I think the the appointment of Gwyn Jenkins amidst this controversy absolutely telegraphs that precise intent. Yes, OK. Well, Vanessa, let's come to you now and welcome to the programme. And what's the latest that's going on in Syria if we move

there? Actually, we keep on the theme of British interference abroad and talking about the unelected alleged president of Syria, Jolani, now known as Ahmed Al Shara. Of course, we can say that his grooming began in Camp Buka, one of the CIA black sites in Iraq, after which he joined ISIS and he then formed Al Qaeda or Nusra Front in Syria, which was rebranded then as HTS, but is still adhering to the ideology of Al Qaeda.

So let's go back to 2021 and this was Apbs frontline documentary called The Jihadists, which set the wheels in motion for the grooming of Jelani as political opposition. He waged jihad in Iraq and Syria. Accused of terror and torture. You're a wanted man. There's a $10 million price tag on your head. The former al Qaeda commander says he's changed, speaking to a Western reporter for the first time. How is it that somebody is going to want to trust you?

Now on Frontline, correspondent Martin Smith investigates the jihadist. And so now let's Fast forward to 2025, May the 1st and the former U.S. ambassador to Syria from 2011 to 2014, who spoke before the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs. So let's have a listen to what he had to say. So starting in 2023 a British non government organisation. Which specialises in conflict resolution, invited me to help them bring this guy. Out of the terrorist world and into regular politics.

And at first, I have to tell you it was. Very leery of going. I sort of had images of me in an orange jumpsuit with a knife to my throat. He never apologised. Never apologised for the terrorist attacks in Iraq or in Syria, although there were many fewer in Syria. Never apologised.

And just a very quick reminder with this image taken from an article that I wrote back in, I think, 2017, here is Ambassador Ford in Syria with the Free Syrian Army, the alleged moderates, Colonel O Qaidi in 2013. And on the right is the same Colonel with a leader of ISIS, part of Omar, the Chechen's group of fighters who led many of the attacks against the Syrian Arab Army.

Ford, in fact, was unceremoniously flung out of Syria when it became very apparent that he was there to incite the uprising against the then Syrian government. And I just want to have a look at another section from his talk in Baltimore. So let's have a look at this quick video. It's not. I went to Syria in January. I met Ahmed Shah, the president. Then when I saw him in the presidential palace, I said never in a million years did I expect to see you here.

And he kind of grinned and he said. Well, I like to. Keep surprising you, Mr Ambassador. He has a sense of humour. I don't normally think of Al Qaeda as having a sense of humour, but anyway, so. Now what I found quite interesting there is that he did say Al Qaeda he didn't consider had a sense of humour. So he still obviously considers Jolani to be al Qaeda. So let's have a look. There were a number of articles outlining Robert Ford's visit to Syria, and this is just one of them.

My Syria visit, rays of hope and fears for the future. But he also mentions in the article this section, which if we can just have a look at the quote, I was delighted to accept an invitation from a British NGO to join them in a visit to a free Syria in the middle of January. So clearly he mentioned back in 2023 that it was a British unnamed NGO that organised his talks with Jolani and then he went with them in January of this year to Damascus.

And then I just want to bring up the visit of the military attache, Lieutenant Colonel Smith, that Brian mentioned on Monday. This was the visit to Damascus of the Lieutenant Colonel Charles Smith, military attache, and where he met with the defence minister, alleged Defence Minister Mahaf Abu Qashra. And just a reminder, of course, that Mahaf Abu Qasra, his roots lie in al Qaeda. He was an Al Qaeda commander

before he became. A suited and booted member of the AL Qaeda government that has been put into power in Syria by an international coup. And then I just want to focus a little bit on this. Lieutenant Colonel Charles Smith, in November of 2024, he was in Lebanon with a military attache group. We can just bring that up. UK Defence senior adviser reaffirms Lebanese Armed Forces as the sole legitimate defender of Lebanon.

So bear in mind, this was just before the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, which then precipitated us into the international coup that toppled the the Syrian government. So very interesting timing. And Charles actually pointed out to me yesterday that there was a government report on a later visit to Damascus by Lieutenant Colonel Charles Smith. Sorry to Lebanon in March of this year also. So he's obviously very active between Lebanon and Syria.

And let's have a look at what was said in that meeting. This isn't actually what he said, but it's what was reported from the meeting. The meeting addressed opportunities for technical and military cooperation and mechanisms for developing the army structure to meet modern challenges. So British military getting involved in the so called development of Syria post coup, which of course the British were very much involved in.

It was published and very few outlets, mostly Lebanese, Syrian and this in the Jerusalem Post. So Israeli media, the source who works in the ministry's public relations department, added that the British visit may serve as a prelude to normalisation with the current Syrian government. I would certainly agree with

that. And then a reminder that a couple of weeks ago we talked about the fact that there are British private military mercenaries basically on the ground inside Syria and that they, the Syrian director of the Emerald Group was actually appointed again in November 2024. So at the same time as Lieutenant Colonel Charles Smith was conducting meetings with his colleagues in Lebanon. So interesting timing.

I mean, that's pure speculation. I obviously don't have anything to tie them together except the timing itself. So let's have a quick look at a summary of what I've been talking about. So in 2021 we had the PBS interview with Jolani the jihadist, where they definitely sort of trimmed his beard and put him in a suit and tried to legitimise him as political opposition.

In 2023 a British NGO Unnamed and Robert Ford visited Jolani to again continue the grooming project in March and September. 2024 November Lieutenant Colonel Charles Smith in Lebanon just prior to the ceasefire that led to between Israel and Hezbollah that then was led to the coup in Syria. 2024 again Emerald BMC Syria Director was appointed at the same time that Charles Smith was in Lebanon. 2025 January visit by Robert Ford and again

this unnamed British NGO. And in 2025 again, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Smith visits Damascus with a view to securing a British military footprint alongside Al Qaeda. Thank you for that, Vanessa. Well, more Foreign Office related news later on. So thank you for that. Now Sandy, let me welcome you to the programme and of course the

other news that's come out in the last day or two is apparently a deal has been done on the from at the World Health Organisation, which Britain is absolutely part of. Yes. Yesterday, 20th of May, in Geneva, the World Health Organisation Member States quietly adopted the first ever international Pandemic Agreement, a global treaty that would reshape how public health, national law and everyday freedoms operate in the future.

Slovakia's abstention followed a challenge initiated by Prime Minister Robert Fico, who called for a formal vote rather than allowing the treaty to pass by consensus. Fico was known for his vaccine scepticism and concerns over national sovereignty. He instructed Slovakia's delegation to oppose the agreement. The Who is not led by elected officials. You know, the director general, Doctor Tedros Gabrieus, holds office through diplomatic negotiation, not public vote.

His record simply during the early COVID response sparked curious concerns about neutrality and transparency. You know, we have to remember that there was no vote for the from the people on this. No heated debates, no parliamentary oversight, no public referendum. Instead was adopted by consensus, literally the back door method of agreement that allows governments, including the UK, to silently nod their approval without needing to explain themselves to the people they serve.

And this is what we're finding across the board. The foundation of this treaty is the Who's One Health framework, an ideology that links human health to animals, the environment, even agriculture and land use. Under a broad lens, almost anything can be rebranded as a health threat. Climate change, farming practises, land ownership, all potentially within the scope. This fits in obviously with the border, UN 20-30 Seventeen goals

agenda. And while The Who cannot directly overhaul national laws, the treaty even creates binding international obligations. Governments can now use it to justify emergency laws, sweeping powers, social restrictions, all under the shield of international compliance or global coordination, they call it. Even more troubling is who pays for the whose bills. As of 2023, the largest funders weren't Democratic governments.

They were private powerhouses, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, GAVI, and various UN agency. Backed by corporate interests, these donors now help set global health priorities without a single vote cast by the public. Among the treaties more alarming features is the proposed Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing Pabs system. This would give The Who rights to collect pathogen samples from any country and control their distribution under equity rules.

I mean, what could possibly go wrong? The treaty also pushes for digital health certificates, a polite phrase for what could soon become global digital IDs linked to your vaccination status. Not every country was on board. As I mentioned earlier, obviously you know Slovakia, but nations like Poland, Russia, Italy, Iran also were were raising the alarm during the negotiations. Their objections were loss of sovereignty, vague legal language and the growing power

of unelected institutions. In the UK, meanwhile, the silence has been deafening. There's been no real debate in Parliament, no public consultation, no clear explanation from the Prime Minister or the Health secretary. Britain simply slid into the agreement without your voice, without your vote or your knowledge. In some cases, this treaty marks more than a shift in health policy.

It signals A deeper transformation, the move from national government governance to a transnational management system. Decisions that affect your life are increasingly made by technocrats, foundations and global agencies. And people can't elect. You know that these are people that you can't elect and and you can't remove. So when COVID began, rapid emergency powers top down mandates, censorship, surveillance. The Who treaty now locks all those things into place internationally.

Emergency governance is becoming the new normal. So here's a question we all must ask. If governments can sign binding global treaties without asking their people, who's really in charge during the next crisis? And there will be 1. Otherwise they wouldn't be doing all this. And the answer increasingly is that that you know, you didn't vote for these people and you, you know that you and they cannot hold you to account.

I mean, when I read the treaty, the takeaway for me reading it and you can find it online, is the pandemic agreement does not include any provisions that would give the World Health Organisation powers to impose domestic public health decisions in the UK. The sovereignty of states is one of the guiding principles of the agreement. So bearing that in mind, you know, knowing that we're we're getting these consensuses globally, locally that are not representative of the people they serve.

This is all basically relying on our compliance and we have to remember that. What do you think? Sandy, thank you. Thank you for that. I think that's absolutely right. But I mean, the, the, the UK government did release a press release to say that they had joined this, that they had signed and so on.

But they, as you say, there was very little of any real mainstream coverage on it. And certainly the implications haven't been discussed in the mainstream media and there is no national debate or discussion about it. So you know, I don't know, I don't know what your thoughts are. Well, it's nothing to do with health. I mean, I think that's the first thing to point out. And this is exactly what we saw in 2020 and people were blindsided by and large by what

happened in the name of health. And this is just an extension of that. And of course, we mustn't forget that that's where this is traced back to in the, in the immediate term. And I think, you know, we can talk more about this in extra, but but this says an awful lot more about the, the way that wider government of society is, well, I say working. I mean, it's obviously it's not working because Sandy described as completely backed front.

So I think there's that, you know, this, this should absolutely send a shiver down down people's spines if considering that we do live in a in a society where we as the people who pay for and vote for elected representatives are in any way in charge of what happens to us. Yes, thank you. OK, well let's move on.

If you like what the UK does, we do need your support. I want to say a massive thank you to everybody that does support us. But if you go to our support page, you can make a donation there and you can join as a member. And if you do join as a member, you can access to a few members on the content like UK called News Extra and so on. Picking something up at the shop

of course helps us as well. And if you buy something from Clive to Carl using the link on this page, then we do get a small Commission for everything that you buy from them. But if you can't do that, please do share the material you find on the UK column website. Share links are available. And that is massively helpful to get around the censorship regime in this country and around the world now. Christiansen, Cornwall. Yes, indeed. Now this is an interview with an accompanying article.

It's about Truro diocese and it relates to the On the way plan, which through all intents and purposes extends the lockdown policies in an effort to destroy congregations and Christian worship under the forced pretext of the lack of funds. Really diverting money towards the absurd net zero agenda and how to sort of push up push back by via the PCCs.

So worth getting into. And then next, an article about the steel, what's happened with the steel industry and a description of the process by which government may purport to act in support of an entity or industry whilst actually doing everything in its power to subvert it. So, a cautionary tale from a legislative and policy perspective. And we shouldn't pass by the fact that you wrote it. I did write it. Yes, OK, And German tonight is going to be talking about the

Titanic conspiracy. I'm going to be very interested in watching this because my uncle was the man who project managed the building of the massive cranes in Harland Wolf Shipyard where of course the Titanic was built. And while he was there in the 60s and 70's the stories of the so called Titanic conspiracy were absolutely right for then. Of course this is well before the Internet ever happened.

So watch Germs interview tonight at 7:00 PM live at with John Hammer. If you can possibly join, I'm sure the discussion will be interesting. Now a reminder of Standing the Light is taking place this weekend in Gagarin and Cumbria. So a last chance to get tickets and to go for that. So if you possibly can get along to it, a reminder of the Sounds Beautiful festival taking place

in Wimborne and Dorset. 26th the 29th of June and just to say that the tickets, the ticket competition is now over and the winner is Gongster Joe on Facebook. And so well done if you if you for Gongster Joe for winning those two free tickets, look forward to seeing you on the at the sounds Beautiful festival in June. Great. OK, let's move on then to the

situation with Lucy Connolly. Now Lucy Connolly was gaoled for 31 months back in October as a victim of the British regime's attack on free speech. And yesterday she had her appeal against her sentence turned down. Now Connolly's tweets at the time were pretty reprehensible for sure, but the punishment way overboard in my opinion, particularly when considered against the punishment given for other offences. And we'll come on to that in a

second. The appeal judges considered that the final the the trial judge, sorry, had acted correctly. And in a sense, it's hard to disagree with that. But before you jump down my throat for saying that, just hear me out for a second because what we have here, I think is a perfect example of why juries are important, because the trial judge could only act based on the letter of the legislation. And it's in the legislation that we have to look for the injustice in this case.

Connolly pled guilty, but if she'd been in front of a jury, she may well have been felt able to challenge the charge. And remember that a jury has the power to overturn bad legislation, which a judge does not, other than in very exceptional circumstances like incompatibility with the Human Rights Act. But the bottom line here is that the legislation, it's the legislation which is the

problem. And therefore, if there's going to be resistance to what happened to her and to others, including, for example, Peter Lynch, who was imprisoned under the same kinds of circumstances and hanged himself in prison, then resistance has to be political. Now, the reaction on Twitter last night was predictable.

Perhaps all the tweets were the same or at least mostly the same, mentioning Hugh Edwards who got a suspended sentence for his crimes, and Mike Amsbury, former MP who punched the constituent and who ended up with a suspended sentence on appeal and the requirement to do some voluntary work and an anger

management course. So these comparisons that everybody was tweeting and retweeting last night came from Lucy's husband Ray, who's the Tory councillor in Northampton Town Council. And so to the end, to the end this segment, I just want to mention the BBC coverage of all this On this morning's Today programme, presenter Anna Foster made these comments. I note comments by Lucy Connolly's husband Ray in this case and I wanted your your take

on a couple of those. He said that he thought the system wanted to make an example of her so other people would be scared to say things about immigration. And he also said Lucy got more time in gaol for one tweet than some paedophiles and domestic abusers get. Is that the case here? So she couldn't, as ABBC presenter couldn't even acknowledge the fact that the paedophiles, that was only one paedophile being talked about on the on all the Twitter, Twitter comments that I saw.

And that was Hugh Edwards. And because of course he was BBC himself, they didn't want to to discuss that at all. I just thought that was pretty pathetic effort by the BBC there. I wanted to mention that in passing. Let's come on to Charles to

state threats. Yeah, indeed. Now the Counterterrorism Division of the Crown Prosecution Service have charged 3 Iranian men under the newish National Security Act, saying that they sorry, we'll just animate that, saying it's extremely important that there should be no sorry, wrong. We have authorised the Metropolitan Police Service to charge 3 Iranian men with offences under the National Security Act.

And they go on to say that it is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.

Now, this prompted the Home Secretary to give a statement with an update on national security, in which he continued to push the point that Iran presents an existential threat to the UK. OK, citing the meaningless statistic that MI 5 has conducted more and more investigations into Iranians, she went on though to say this. But we need to go further in strengthening our powers to address national security threats.

Security Minister and I both warned of the increasing complexity of the threats we face. Threats from extremist and terrorist groups and individuals, including Islamist extremism and far right extremism, continue, and vigilance and action against those remains crucial. But malign activities against us by or on behalf of foreign states have grown and the threats we face have become more complex and intertwined. MI 5 State threats investigations have increased by

nearly 50% in a year. Policing investigations into state threats, led by counterterrorism policing are up fivefold since 2018. And as well as growing, those threats are becoming more interconnected and the old boundaries between state threats, terrorists and organised criminals are being eroded. We have seen malign foreign state organisations seek to exploit any vulnerability from criminal networks to our cybersecurity to our borders to do us harm.

In our manifesto we committed to stronger action on state based security threats and before entering government the Foreign Secretary and I set out plans for the establishment of a joint unit to pursue and Co ordinate action. I can announce that the new State Threats Joint Unit is in place with staff from across Whitehall, driving a broader approach across government, building new partnerships with

industry and academia. She speaks of interconnectedness and it's this message that we're supposed to take away. MI 5 has had ownership of the Joint States, the Joint State Threats Assessment team, since 2017. So here's another example of the plan for change translating as

very much more of the same. Now, since the events in Southport last summer, the conflation of terrorism, extremism and national security has gathered momentum, and not just here in the UK, although there still remains some. Confusion over the current situation. But in Germany, if Afd is conclusively classified as extremist then the authorities may invoke powers to surveil them which would otherwise not be available.

So it can be no coincidence then that this falls at exactly the same time as David Clues of Unity News Network and Mark Collett of Patriotic Alternative, neither of which is a prescribed organisation, are being reported by the BBC as plotting to infiltrate the Reform Party with Neo Nazis. So this must be looked at as the perfect springboard for rolling out similar powers of surveillance for those organisations which are at that halfway house before

prescription. Now by way of context of course, there's no mention of the fact that the Fabian Society has virtual total control of the government, an organisation in pursuit of smashing the system in order to impose A1 world government. Now ever since Michael Gove cooked up the new version of extremism which bore a very striking resemblance to the Criminal Code of the Soviet Union of 1924, this has been the telegraphed progression.

And as to the National Security Act, I think it must be noted that making the all important link between UK activity and another state is at the heart of it. Which is why there've been several references to the Swedish group Foxtrot Network, which is always being reported as being controlled by, of course, Iran. So I think there's no doubt that this event agenda will develop and we'll keep you up to speed with exactly how that works out.

Vanessa, let's welcome you back to the programme and what's the

FCD you've been up to? What, you mean more than normal? And I love how they're they're they're prescribing someone as neo Nazis while supporting neo Nazis in Ukraine. But that's another subject altogether. Well, no, I think my, my curiosity was piqued by this unnamed British NGO that was basically helping, I'm quite sure at the behest of the UK Foreign Office helping groom Jolani to be legitimate political opposition.

So while I was searching for who this NGO might be, and of course we're probably going to be trying to raise an FOI on, on that subject, or at least contact the UK Foreign Office, I discovered this document, the UK Syria Development Partnership Summary, July 2023. And of course this was published under the 22 to 24 Sunak Conservative government.

But two items in that document again rose up and and sort of presented themselves to me. First of all, is this novel idea of building local resilience in Syria, having basically destabilised, destroyed and devastated Syria since 2011 on purpose. So allegedly the programme objective to address the economic stress drivers of violence alongside social norms, et cetera, et cetera. You can freeze frame it and and read, I would say the nonsense

therein. But what's interesting is the programme partners, the Food and Agricultural Organisation and undisclosed NGO partners. How often do we see that?

And also that programme is running through to 2027, which is interesting because that means basically it's of course under the auspices of the Al Qaeda government, in place since December 2024. Then I came across this programme which is Syria Independent monitoring too and people might remember that to some degree the the largest with arguably non non NGO operating in Idlib in particular alongside Al Qaeda is the CI AM I6 created White Helmets started by a

former British military intelligence officer in Turkey and Jordan in 2013, James Lemejure, who allegedly fell to his death from a from a roof in November. Oh gosh, 2019 OK. Can I just have that back on the screen for a second please Mike? So here we have to provide independent third party monitoring of FDO funded projects in Syria, which of course include the White Helmets and to verify results reported by implementing partners. So the programme partners are Co water and land, old Mills.

The programme date was the 16th of April 2020 to 15th July 2023, Budget 16 to 18,000,000. And as you and I, Mike, were discussing passing, where are these reports now? These reports are mentioned on the cold water website. So this is the Syria independent monitoring.

And according to their website, they should be producing reports on independent project monitoring, assessment of SDO, implementing partners, monitoring and evaluation systems, thematic studies, inclusion and accountability to affected populations, reports and lessons learned. Now, as far as I can see, I cannot find hide nor hair of this report in any of the UK Foreign Office documents.

I've written to Co Water and Landell Mills to ask them where I might be able to find such reports that are funded by British taxpayer money. And presumably they would have investigated the White Helmet activities in Edlib in particular, because these organisations won't be operating anywhere else in Syria until after the coup of December 2024. So far no reply. What a surprise. And of course, Foreign Office doesn't like to give replies to anything, but we'll keep you posted on that.

Keep everybody posted on that. Sandy, let me welcome you back and now this report is we're coming back to the UK now and to

local so called local democracy. Anyway, this report takes the column right back to the very beginning, because what's been going on at Somerset Town Council or County Council? Well, it it would appear that some money has a lot of money has disappeared into a big black hole. The Life Factory, which was supposed to be a community. Harbin Glastonbury was meant to be a vibrant space uniting music, arts, youth, work and small businesses under one roof.

A shining sort of symbol of their regeneration project. And that was the promise of the Life Factory project at the red brick building in Glastonbury. But that promise has collapsed into scandal. Instead of a finished community centre, what we've got is 1/2 built Shell, angry unpaid local contractors and a serious question, where has the money

gone? The Life Factory was part of Glastonbury's 23.6 million town deal, a central government scheme to level up communities and nearly 2.85, sorry 2.89 million of public money was awarded to transform this red brick building Building C into a creative hub with radio studios, Youth Services, therapy rooms and more. Now looking at those pictures, does it really look as though there's, you know, that there's that amount of money being spent

on, on those buildings? I mean, nothing has been done on this building and yet 2.89 million has literally disappeared. So in early 2004, Somerset Council, the body responsible for managing the town Deal funds, froze all payments to the red brick project because serious concerns were raised over financial governance, poor invoicing practises and a total lack of transparency about where

the money was going. That triggered an urgent audit by the Southwest Audit Partnership Swap, a group that investigates how public money is spent. And what they found was damning. The audit uncovered complete collapse in governance in, you know, if you break it down, there was no match. Funding was ever secured despite being a core condition of the grant. There was no fully costed project plan, no clear timeline. Invoices couldn't be matched to work.

Financial records were missing, procurement rules were ignored in formal staffing arrangements and no evidence of competitive quotes for even basic cheques. The red brick building and its spin off company Becky Reconstruction failed every standard of good financial management, but Somerset Council didn't escape the blame either. They kept signing off payments even when the red flags were already raised. Meanwhile, the contractors were left unpaid.

And this is this is the the sad human story. One firm, R4 Scaffolding, said they worked for months in good faith and they never got paid. 1 subcontractor said around 40 people are owed money, a lot of money. And heartbreakingly, a local man named Jonathan Wilkins told the town council he lost his wife to suicide in part due to the financial stress this project caused him. Now this is just awful. This isn't just about paperwork, it's about real people's lives being torn apart by

institutional incompetence. You know, Building C still stands half built, it's derelict, it's exposed. Structural engineers now say the wooden frame could soon deteriorate beyond repair if action isn't taken. There's still no roof, no planning permission, no bat licence, no contractor, nothing in place to finish the job now, Conservative councillor Lily Osborne said.

They have drawn down a huge amount of money with, with very little scrutiny, this public money and the public have a right to know what's going on with it. The chair of the red brick building, ex mayor and Green councillor XR member Indra Don Francesco is accountable for this project, she said. We are concerned that there was not enough funding left in the budget to get the roof on. Well that's kind of the first thing you do isn't it?

We did our own internal audit and paused a lot of things. Yeah, like finishing the building and made a lot of changes and made a lot of savings. Well, for who? This is not just a failed project, it's a public embarrassment. So who's to blame? The audit makes it clear both the Red Brick Building Centre and Somerset Council should share the responsibility. The Red Brick team ran an operation with no proper financial procedures, no governance between the main organisation and no match

funding. The body is supposed to safeguard the public money approved the payments. I mean, it was a total incompetence. Now, interestingly, they've they've they've admitted, you know, failures. It was the taxpayers money, your money, my money spent to regenerate this building. Instead it's vanished into this back black hole of bad management and buck passing. The question is now simple. I mean, who is actually going to be accountable for all this?

Now I want to take a good look at the Town Deal Chairman, Doctor Lynn Sedgmore CBE. Lynn is a qualified teacher and has an MSC in Change Agent Skills Strategies. Well, no common purpose training there. She was awarded the CBE in 2004. She's a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Institute of Directors and is a Chartered Marketeer headed up the Anne Frank Trust UK.

Interesting. She she's married to John Capper, who was the director of the Beckery Construction Company that was employed to finish the job from May 20 to 22 to November 2023. So, you know, it sounds like a bit of nepotism going on there or some sort of vested interest. Lynn Sedgmore CBE is executive director also of the 157 Group of Further Education Colleges and has has advised Whitehall on a range of projects including leadership, innovation, community and interfaith cohesion.

The 157 Groups exists to serve its members and to be at the leading edge of sector more widely on three levels. Thought leadership, setting out visionary challenges and radical agendas for how things might be done. Practise improvement and policy influence. Using the experience of our members to directly inform the views of government and policy makers, government bodies and agencies, academics and other influencers. So the people of Glastonbury are not going to let this one rest.

You know, we will find justice for the people who've been devastated by this fiasco. It's it's absolutely dreadful. Thank you, Sandy, thank you. Now let's move on to back to

health matters in fact and well, first of all, bio N tech. Well, first it was Starmer's. Well, let's put it this way. It was Starmer's announcement of personalised medicine for cancer treatments that was announced at the beginning of the year enabled by AI driven data centres. Then it was Operation Stargate, announced by Larry Ellison at Trump's inauguration for exactly the same reason.

Well now COVID-19 vaccine pioneers bio N tech, and I say that with deep sarcasm for the avoidance of doubt, has been has have announced A commitment to A10 year up to £1 billion investment in the UK. And this is for new research and AI centres to be established in London as well as Cambridge. And Starmer's government claims that this demonstrates the benefits of the Oxford Cambridge Growth Corridor.

Right Bio N Tech says they will develop the next generation of life changing medicines, underpinned by up to 129,000,000 lbs of government support. And this agreement underscores the government's commitment to life sciences as a key part of the plan for changes as their language that they use driving improvements in healthcare and delivering economic growth.

The government is crowing about what a great deal this is, citing the Academy of Medical Sciences who report that every 1 LB spent on medical research delivers a return of 25 P every year forever after that. What a business model, Charles. Almost as good as perpetual war, which is the other major business model the current British regime is pursuing.

But that means they've covered their costs in four years and everything for for eternity is is profit, share, profit from then on. Incredible. Absolutely. So they'll be licking their lips at the prospect of going back into the European Union. But sticking with AI. Sticking with AI indeed.

Yes. Now I was reporting on the situation last week of the deliberate policy creating water scarcity and the Labour MP Bell Ribeiro Adi during UK Column News created a rather awkward atmosphere during Prime Minister's Questions last week by asking about the potential impact of AI on the environment. Now the reply from the Permanent Secretary made reference to the long term sustainability and the creation of the AI Energy Council.

The government expects quote the council will also look at clean energy like renewables and nuclear, advising on improving energy efficiency and sustainability in AI and data centre infrastructure such as the use of water. End Quote Now as well as the energy operators, the council includes Google, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.

So I think we can take an educated guess at which version of sustainability that we are going to get now at the same time as insisting that we can harness the power of the sun via solar panels. Government courses funding search into how to block same sun and now, as it tells people to conserve water, the government is desperately pushing to create technology that's projected to use as much as 2/3 of the whole of the UKF water supply.

A recent announcement by AI growth zones has caused some people at last to scratch their heads, and the guidance references the availability of water as being a technical consideration now, specifically, enough water to satisfy 500 megawatts of AI infrastructure. And the issue therefore becomes rather straightforward. It's one of priority. So what form does the written confirmation from a water

supplier take? And if there is a water shortage, does a data centre assume that priority over the people or animals who might need to drink it? So if the data centre is there at all, then presumably there's no point in its existence if it's to be switched off

periodically. So with that in mind, I think the question is why does the burden for the provision of water not fall upon either the government whose bright idea of these growth zones are, or indeed the businesses which intend to build the data centres?

Now, as has been pointed out by the Guardian among others, it's a mighty coincidence that the data centre proposed for Cullum in Oxfordshire will be just a stone's throw from the proposed reservoir at Abingdon. So, as is exactly the case with electricity, the inference here is that AI will only work if you stop using all of its electricity and water.

And finally, it should be noticed, noted rather that Microsoft has trialled successfully and used and undersea storage of data centres for cooling. That's something that the Chinese continue to do. Now on screen here is Project Natick or Natick in Scotland. And despite the abundance of seawater in Scotland, Microsoft have decided that they're not going to go further with it.

And one can only imagine this is because it's easier and cheaper to abstract all of the rest of the water which the taxpayer will be providing for them. So I think an area that we will have to keep people updated on, such as the government's push and push and push for AI being the answer to absolutely everything. Yes, OK. Well, let's move on then to the MHRA because yesterday you'll

all be glad to know it was International Clinical Trials Day. And to celebrate that the new Chief Executive of the MHRA, Lawrence Talon, has been reflecting. And this is how he reflected. He said clinical trials don't just help us determine whether a medicine is safe and effective, they lead to better care outcomes for participants overall. He was reflecting this on some kind of MHRA blog post.

But he said we want to go further in cementing the UK as one of the best places in the world to conduct trials for both patients and researchers. Last month, he said we began implementing the most significant update to UK clinical trials regulation in over 2 decades. These reforms will address the research sectors need for more efficient, streamlined and adaptable regulatory framework

for clinical trials. In other words, to make the regulation as lightweight as possible, all at the same time that other areas of regulation are coming down ever stronger on organisations. But anyway, he went on to say and of course they will help us get cutting edge new treatments to patients and the NHS as quickly as possible and of course keep the profits rolling. And he didn't specify that, but I'm quite sure that's what he was meaning there.

We've also seen some exciting developments in the use of artificial intelligence, which could speed up vital parts of our clinical trial application review from three hours to just 35 seconds. Brilliant. I mean, what more could you wish for? And finally, he said, of course it's not just about getting trials set up quickly. It's important that trials in the UK are innovative and inclusive too.

To support this, we've recently launched a pilot inclusion and diversity plan with the Health Research Authority. The next year will be an exciting one for UK trials as the government pushes forward its life science vision and 10 year health plan. Our reforms could not come at a more important time. The MHRA just gets better and better. Charles. I'm quite sure we'll be talking a little bit about that an extra

as well. I think we absolutely will, and we come to the last part of today's show, which is the news that the Ministry of Defence are pleased to announce that they have created a method of sticking things together underwater. Yes, indeed. Could a new underwater glue give the UK the competitive advantage

in a theatre of conflict? It's scarcely believable, but at a time where billions of pounds are going out the door to fund conflict in Ukraine and we're talking up the state threat with Iran, the Ministry of Defence apparently now believes that the answer to everything could be to be able to stick things to other things underwater. And they are claiming that this

in time might well save lives. Now whether or not that would have prevented or been able to fix the the connection problem we had on the stream earlier and the programme is something we'll just have to leave hanging, but there we go. Yes, OK. Well, look, thank you, Charles. Thank you, Vanessa and Sandy, and thanks to everybody at watch. Sorry for the technical problems earlier. We'll be back in a few minutes for some extra. Join us for that if you can.

There'll be an interview going out at 1:00 PM tomorrow and we'll be back for the news on Friday. See you then. Bye, bye, bye bye.