UK Column News - 23rd July 2025

Good afternoon. It's Wednesday the 23rd of July, just after, well, 1:00. Welcome to UK column news from your host, Mike Robinson. Mike Hulk host. Today in the studio is Charles Mallett. Welcome to the program, Charles. Thank you, Mike. And joining us via Live Link, our researcher and activist Sandy Adams and journalists and peace campaigner Vanessa Bailey.

Now, later in the programme, we'll have a report on the inquest of the passing of Kit Shamarani's daughter, uh, used so cynically by the BBC's Mariana Spring to push her agenda. Uh, Vanessa will be reporting on Trump's forced removal of people in prison to prisons in South America. And Sandy will be reporting on more success against the green agenda at council level.

But we'll begin today with Charles and the ongoing migrant crisis and its use in the promotion of one policy agenda, at least Charles. That's right, one very particular policy agenda. And there are a number of apparently loosely related Home Affairs stories that have been inserted into the new cycle in the past week.

And I would suggest that if you've been following UK column news for a period of time, you will know what the destination is. But the start point, suffice it to say, is illegal migration, and in particular the various responses to it. We have reports of agreements with France, new policies concerning small boat crossings, all of which steadfastly ignore the unstaunched flow of legal

migration. Now the Office for National Statistics reports that net migration has dropped to 431,000 for the year to end 2024. This is still double what it was a decade ago and the government wants you to look exclusively at the people smuggling gangs, which is, statistically speaking, at least a small percentage of the problem.

Now the Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth and Development Office have issued a joint statement about sanctions to be imposed on the gangs in order to, quote, disrupt the flow of money and materials, including freezing property, bank accounts and other assets which allow organised criminal gangs to facilitate irregular migration to the UK.

End Quote. The recently lifted super injunction on the Afghan data breach, which is reported to have cost the taxpayer billions, has been neatly slotted into this narrative. The breach went unnoticed for 18 months, so it's hard to argue that there was a genuine threat to the lives of those that the government has subsequently

claimed to protect. All of which makes it look like the court action was designed to hide the failure and the cost, but also to enable the airing of the story at exactly the right time. Which turns out to be now. There's no doubt that large groups of young male foreign nationals being corralled in the same place within small communities is a terrible idea. And this is precisely the issue that's being confronted by the people of Epping and of Dis

among many others. The catalyst in Epping appears to be the charging of a migrant with the sexual assault of a local girl. And the police are reported as having acted in such a way as to inflamed the situation by, in particular, transporting counter protesters from the station to the Bell Hotel. We've a report from Will Coleshill which will play to you in News Extra, so if you're not yet Auk column member then you'll need to join us to be

able to view that. Today's Daily Mail rites of fears of riots akin to those stoked in the wake of the Southport events last August and due to the ongoing protests. Epping in particular has attracted the mainstream media racist hunters who are desperate to find people to conform to their image of a far right fascist. Well, the BBC at least hasn't had much luck, and Victoria Derbyshire was openly surprised by what this man had to say.

I've just been talking to the council leader and he said that Tommy Robinson is expected here. What do you think of that? I look, I'm mixed race, OK? I'm going to stay that. I'm mixed race. I'm I'm old enough to remember the BNP. Tommy Robinson is not racist. As far as you're concerned, he is welcome here. I think he for me personally, I don't mean he's a good idea.

Oh. Because of the amount of people he'll bring outside the area at the moment, it's a local thing for local people who want to voice their opinion and want the government to do something about it. You bring Tommy Robinson here with all the good intentions in the world. I don't think he's going to. So there's a final word missed there, which was end well. He said he didn't think it was going to end well.

And I'd say the final comments on whether or not an influx of outsiders headed up by Tommy Robinson or others are extremely astute. Now, as pointed out at the time, the riots of 2024 were almost exclusively driven by those from outside the communities which were affected, and thus the desired result was gifted to the government. Suddenly everyone was an extremist and the full force of the law was to be felt then as it is now. The way was paved for new police powers and new legislative

measures. And now 20 years since the 77 events in London, the BBC is running a series called State of Terror. And the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has featured on a recent programme talking about the new laws she is to create which will concern what she calls mass attacks, which was which are specifically not conducted by terrorists. Essentially what she's talking about is a pre crime interference which is already possible under terrorism legislation and Cooper wants to

push the edge of the envelope. At this point it's worth reminding you that the actions of criminal damage for which the Palestine Action Group was prescribed as terrorist were to put paint on 2 aeroplanes. Returning to the specifics of housing migrants, this is what the Prime Minister said when asked by the Chair of the Liaison Committee, Meg Hillier, how he would manage the problem. What other accommodation precisely are you planning to take over to provide temporary

accommodation for for families? Oh, there's lots of housing and many local authorities that can be used, and we're identifying where it can be used. But I mean look. Sorry, can you give us have? You got any examples you can give us because? No, but I'll I'll, I'll write in and give you details. I could say certainly the number of our local authorities are are already picking up from around the table. There isn't a lot of spare

housing available. If there were, councils would be able to be dealing with it by now. Well, exactly. Completely out of touch as always, the truth is very hard to get to and quite what he meant by exactly at the end is anyone's guess. At least. Housing though was mentioned in the Labour manifesto, but digital identity was not. However, there can be no doubt at all that these strands are leading to one point of focus and that is digital identity.

The Brit card here seen on screen has been proposed by the Labour Together think tank with impeccable timing as the entire scan is predicated on the battle against illegal migration. Now from the proposal document, we see that they say 1,000,000 people live in the UK without permission to do so, undermining Britain's social contract and sense of Fair play. And it goes on to advocate for a mandatory universal national

identity credential. Brit Card can help Britain control illegal migration and secure its borders. And with that, I'll draw to a close as Mike's got more on this specific issue. Well, indeed. And so the Home Affairs Select Committee has a cross. Sorry. They describe themselves as a cross party committee of MPs responsible for scrutinising the work of the Home Office and its associated bodies.

It says that it examines government policy spending and the law in areas including immigration, security and policing. But just like the Intelligence and Security Committee which we were discussing on this program last week, they are more about, or at least I would argue they're more about creating justifications for government policy. So let's take their latest consultation for example, which is all about harnessing the potential of new digital forms of identification.

And I'm going to say thanks to Andrew for the tip off for this. Now, digital ID can refer to many different aspects of a person's identity, they say, which can be recorded and stored digitally, including names and demographic information, digital versions of government issued documents such as visas, or even biometric information like fingerprint or face scan.

And they say that in an increasingly digital world, several countries have begun to develop digital ID systems in support of functions like identification, proof of residence and facilitating access to government services. They go on to say that they've been calls for the UK to adopt digital ID, with those arguing for its introduction saying it would have benefits in like improving citizens access to services and supporting more effective enforcement of

immigration rules. Just by coincidence they happen to be banging on with exactly the same narrative that Charles been talking about just a few seconds ago. So they are running a consultation on digital ID and the closing date for that is the 21st of August. The call for evidence is asking several questions. How effectively is data relating to individuals currently being used and shared by Home Office and it's agencies?

What potential benefits could be could the use of new forms of government issued digital ID have for the government's ambition to reduce crime and manage migration? What different categories of information about individuals could most usefully be included in government issued digital identification? Another question is what potential risks does the adoption of new forms of digital identification have for individuals, including risks to privacy and security of personal data?

And another final question is what capabilities could the Home Office and and its agencies need to develop efficiently, Sorry, introduce to efficiently introduce and take advantage of new forms of digital identification? Sorry, there is one more How could the adoption of new forms of identification improve efficiency and interactions between the Home Office or law enforcement agencies and other government departments? And so they go on.

So this is very much about justification, not scrutiny, in my opinion. My Big Brother Watch is running an active campaign on this issue, and they provide a template for responses to the Home Affairs Committee. But as they themselves acknowledge, it's a bad idea just to use a templated response, so they recommend you take the time to write your own, because otherwise responses can

be dismissed out of hand. And I would say that for all the naysayers out there who refuse to take the time to make this kind of effort, just remember that everyone who is silent is taken to agree. And really, that is the point, Charles. I think it's absolutely the point and I think in a way last summer was a sort of warm up exercise. I mean, cynical as that may sound, with exploiting the events in and around Southport.

And this year there's a there's a, in effect, a change of tack, but it should really be regarded as a development of the same thing. And of course, the other thing that I would point out is that the statement issued by Yvette Cooper and David Lammy talking about controlling and freezing assets belonging to the migrant gangs.

Of course, what they're not going to say, but you should absolutely be aware of is at the moment there's any advance in the move towards digital identity and the digital currency, That's exactly what can happen to you and indeed

anybody else. But the key point of this segment is to really reinforce the idea and recommend people that pay attention to the possibility that this irregular migration issue is being stocked up in order to drive forward this digital identity policy amongst with others. Absolutely yes. Vanessa, let's let me welcome you to the program and, well, let's have a look at Donald

Trump's removal of people from the United States into prisons in South America. Yeah, I mean, we reported on this with some pretty disturbing videos if you're a member of Donald Trump, illegally deporting immigrants of all nationalities. But in particular, 200 Venezuelans that were claimed to be gang members or in some media reported as being terrorists, but of course, they were deported without any due legal process whatsoever.

And recently, for example, this is an article in Politico, there has been recent moves for actually the repatriation of many of the Venezuelan deportees in return for 10 American citizens to be sent back eventually to the US by the

Venezuelan government. But I just want to remind people of what the San Salvador Centre that one of the toughest prisons in Latin America, a pioneer project for Buchele the the president of San Salvador. This was a Reuters report back then which shows the conditions for the prisoners. The US has sent. Hundreds of mostly Venezuelan migrants to be held without trial at this mega prison in El Salvador. It's known as SECOT, an acronym for Terrorism Confinement Center in Spanish.

The prison opened in February 2023 as part of Salvadoran President Naive Buchelli's highly popular hardline security policy, which has resulted in a sharp drop in homicides. El Salvador claims it is Latin America's biggest, with capacity for 40,000 inmates. It stretches across 57 acres and is located in an isolated rural region east of the capital, San Salvador. Blue Calais has said the prison cost $115 million to develop and equip.

Video taken from inside the facility often shows prisoners tightly packed together. Sorry, extraordinary horrendous conditions that these probably majority innocent detainees were being held in. And this basically was something that happened back in May where Venezuela's government has launched a campaign demanding the return of two year old Michael Espinosa Bernal, who remains in US custody after both her parents were deported without her.

Her parents were accused of being gang members without any evidence or criminal charges. Her mother was deported to Venezuela, while her father was sent to El Salvador and imprisoned indefinitely without charge in the notorious secret prison. So let's just have a look at the photo of the family prior to the the deportation of the parents.

Now, since then, I'm happy to report that the Venezuelan government has campaigned and the baby has been returned to her parents, with the father having been released in the latest deal with the United States from the Secot prison in San Salvador. And now, of course, what is happening is that Venezuela is accusing El Salvador of torturing the migrants under their control in the Secot

prison. The attorney general, Tarek Saab, said Monday that his office will investigate President Naive Bokele and two officials over alleged abuse of Venezuelans detained in El Salvador. And let's see what he actually said in In the report, which is on France, 24 detainees suffered human rights abuses ranging from sexual abuse to beatings, were denied medical care or treated without anesthesia, and given food and water. That made them I'll, Saab said at a press conference.

Some detainees showed obvious signs of torture and injuries, including missing teeth, bruising and scars, which were said to be as a result of the abuse they suffered in what appears to be like nothing more than another CIA black site. And I just want to show this video of the return of the American prisoners from Venezuela to San Salvador. And then it will be followed by images of the Venezuelan detainees returning to Caracas and, and you can see the

difference between the between the two. 10US detainees held in Venezuela waved American flags as they touched down in El Salvador on Friday. The group on route to the US is part of a coordinated prisoner exchange. Over 200 Venezuelans who were deported from the US on allegations of gang membership earlier this year and detained in an El Salvador jail arrived home to Caracas. U.S. President Donald Trump had invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to swiftly deport them to El

Salvador's notorious sea. Caught. Maximum security prison. The deportations drew fierce criticism from human rights groups and a legal battle with the Trump administration over allegations that due process was not followed. Family members and lawyers representing many of the detained Venezuelans deny they had gang ties, and lawyers say they were not given a chance to contest the Trump administration's allegations in

court. And of course, there are benefits for San Salvador and Naive Buchello as a result of him providing the prison area for for these deportees to be kept and clearly tortured. And so this was an article in the last few days from the New York Times how El Salvador is reaping rewards from Trump's deportation agenda. And let's have a look at what it actually says.

So in part of the article, they say that an investigation led by The New York Times found that the US government not only paid Mr. Buchelli's government around 5 million to incarcerate more than 200 Venezuelan deportees, but added a bonus at his request. The return to El Salvador of several top MS13 leaders in American custody. MS13 are basically a San Salvador gang that originated in Los Angeles to ostensibly protect refugees from San

Salvador during the civil war. And then basically, if if we consider that what might happen with this project that has been launched by Bokele and profited from by Trump, of course, this could lead to the replication of these kind of prisons and detention centres across Latin America, just as we saw previously in the Middle East to act as detention centres for deportees and torture centres for anyone that that the US deems to be ready for deportation.

But then I also wanted to show this is actually an article in the Telegraph that was published today. Inside Alligator Alcatraz, prisoners describe nightmare conditions. And if we have a look at the content of the article itself, cooped up like chickens in cages, eaten alive by bloodthirsty mosquitoes, and living in cells said to be awash with human waste and filth.

They're just some of the appalling conditions described at Alligator Alcatraz, the Florida prison which has become the latest symbol of the Trump administration's uncompromising attitude on immigration enforcement. Built on the site of an abandoned airstrip deep in Florida's Everglades, set in a mosquito ridden swamp infested with pythons and crawling with alligators, the mega jail can house up to 3000 migrants. There's only one Rd.

The only way is out through a one way flight, declared Caroline Leavitt, the White House press secretary. Last month, and I think one of the more frightening aspects of this, which is where I bring in the comparison to what is happening in Gaza and effectively across the Middle East, this was a statement from a Venezuelan detainee in this Alcatraz. The conditions in which we are living are inhuman. My main concern is the psychological pressure they're putting on people to sign their

own self deportation. Well, that reminds me very much of the situation in Gaza, where people are being put forced to go through such horrific conditions that they will be forced to leave of their own volition. Thank you for that, Vanessa. Thank you. Quite grim. And as you say, there'll be, we'll be sort of linking that to what's going on in Gaza later on

in the programme. Before we get there though, we'd just like to say thank you once again to anybody and everybody that is supporting the UK column. We do need your ongoing financial support. So if you can possibly do that, please click on the button on the front page of the UK column website and you can see the various ways that you can support us. If you can't support us financially, then please at least share our material and that helps greatly as well.

Now tonight on Germ Warfare, Germ will be speaking to Austrian Scott and he's going to be talking about debunking myths about China. Tomorrow at 1:00 PM on the live stream. Brian will be speaking to Lynn Lopez Salzedo who is Israeli but former Zionist becoming an anti Zionist and she'll be talking about that journey. I saw a few other advertisements here on Friday. This Friday evening, Andrew Bridging will be speaking in the Seven Stars Hotel in Totnes. Tickets are going fast for that.

I urge everybody that would like to go that anybody that's in the Southwest, please do consider going to it and grab your ticket on Eventbrite if you possibly can. Tickets are available on the door but as I say tickets are going fast so probably best if you possibly can to book in advance. And then on Saturday the a Glasgow Peace rally. Stanford Peace is hosting the latest Glasgow Peace Rally in Glasgow.

It starts at 12:00 PM. Details will be in the show notes, but get along to that if you possibly can. And Sandy, very briefly, then well, welcome to the programme. First of all, but very briefly, the the Glastonbury event that's been on and off and on and off is apparently on again. It's finally on and it's on private land in Langport in Somerset, celebrating freedom of speech with Clive de Clark, Richard Vogbes and myself. Arrive at 1:00 PM.

I'll be speaking about all things 2030 as usual and there's a wood fired pizza and a bar open till 11:00 PM and it's the happy end the Windmill Lane TA10 9EP so come along and enjoy freedom of speech. Thank you. And then finally, well, no, not quite finally, almost finally, the Hope Festival. We will all be at the Hope Festival. And we, in fact, we're in charge of a tent for a whole day. Charles for speaking events. Believe it or not, we are. Yeah, I know that would be a

terrific day. All day Saturday UK call them, have the tent. So get to the event 1st and then get to the tent. And then finally, the UK column on location event, the date for the Darius the 18th of October 2025. The topic's going to be health tickets going on sale on Monday the 28th. That's this coming Monday. And we'll have details of speakers and so on for you then. So well, anything else to add?

Well, I think to make the point that tickets both in person and live stream tickets will be going on sale on on Monday. So if you know you're not going to be able to make it in person, don't worry, you will be able to to get your live stream tickets immediately. OK, now, Charles, let's talk

about the ongoing inquest into the daughter of Kate Schemerani. Yes, absolutely. Now, Brian was talking about this, or at least the way it's been treated by elements of the mainstream media on Monday and therefore today what we're going to do is start with a report from Will Coleshill, who's been following the inquest into the death of Pomoma Schemerani.

Hello, my name is Will Coleshill, reporting for UK column and today I'm down at Ken and Midway Coroner's Court reporting on the inquest into the death of Paloma Shamrani and about whom many people would have heard quite a lot considering the recent BBC smears and attacks. Obviously many people will know Paloma as the daughter of Kate, famous freedom activist, but this has been a very interesting

case. It involves the NHS, involves the BBC parano Rama, Mariana Spring and we have had the first day of the inquest today. We've seen a few bombshells being dropped this day, mostly focused around the evidence of a Doctor Mohan, one of the key doctors who's going to be

testifying in this case. Now, most of the claims and most the attacks by the BBC revolved around the concept that Kate was somehow coercing her daughter into dangerous medical treatment and these were put forth by her son Sebastian and Gabriel.

Gabriel was in court today. He attempted to question Doctor Mohan on this as the coercion and Doctor Mohan was quite clear Paloma had competence and there was no coercion was being alleged here by Cake is that her daughter was medicated without her consent which weakened her and moved her down the path to her death. Cake had the opportunity today to question Doctor Mohan and took a substantial amount of time questioning her and her conduct and that of her

colleagues. In particular our concerns with what drugs Gloma was given, when she was given them, how much she was given and whether she was given the correct information and even the correct information as to her diagnosis.

Some of the main contention points were that she was given no wristband by which to identify her, the fact that she did not sign a written consent form as is part of the procedure of the hospital, the fact that she was given a large dose of steroids as admitted by Doctor Mohan.

Despite it being alleged she was only offered a small dose, and being denied her information, including her Histology, in order to make an informed decision which she could pass over to doctors for second opinions. In fact, Paloma was allegedly only able to get her Histology through a subject access report. But I spoke to some of the mainstream media reporters down here today and it was quite interesting that a lot of them weren't aware of the statements.

Her statements couldn't be clearer. They are very, very specific that she said that she wanted to choose the natural path over chemotherapy, which she considered to be dangerous. It seems in this case, her mother's position and her mother's prominence may have factored into how doctors treated Paloma. In fact, after Paloma discharged herself, doctors were still attempting to persuade Paloma to go back into chemotherapy for a

substantial amount of time. There was some contention with the coroner between the coroner and Kate, as Kate continually read out again and again the statements signed by Paloma. At some point Kate was muted, which was particularly interesting in the court. However, it is more relaxed than most courts have been down to now. This is just the first day of this inquest.

This is just the first stage which led to Paloma moving in with her mother to look after her, keep her safe before the eventual incident that led to her death. But this is the start of that road. I'm going to be back down covering more of this and I think there are massive implications with regards to it.

We'll have more from Will in due course about this, but it's perfectly obvious, even if you've had no previous contact with this case, that there are enormous number of issues that come out of it that that bear serious scrutiny and indeed many that concern elements well beyond the remit of the various organisations and medical professionals that were

concerned in this case. On top of which, of course, regardless of your point of view on Kate Shamarani or indeed the the wider family, the fact that the family has been dragged into this in a sort of propagandist, sensationalist sense is, objectively speaking, seemingly completely abhorrent. Now what I'd like to do is point you towards an article published on the UK column website just yesterday by Eugenie Vernie when Marianna met the Shemeranis. How reporting becomes

propaganda. Now you'll remember that Brian has recently spoken to Eugenie for a very interesting interview about her career in journalism and indeed how she's seen the system be subverted in front of her very eyes. It's a very well constructed piece and I really would encourage that you do look at that and also in terms of UK

column content. The other issue that that's brought to the fore is this very problematic area of organ and tissue donation and No Time to Die, an article which is on the website and has been some time by Doctor Mike Williams really gets into all the issues that that presents. So there's there is a lot more to come out in this.

I don't know, Mike, if you've got a few words to say on this or whether it's something that we look into more in in extra, but nonetheless, I really would encourage you to go into those articles on the website. Now, we'll, we'll cover this more in extra, but in a related topic, you know, another day,

another the platform has decided to leave the UK because of the Online Safety Act. And what we're talking about here in many ways is related to freedom of speech and the ability to make your own decisions and these kinds of things. Now, in this case, it is an organization called or a company called Janitor AI, which very few will be sad to see them gone perhaps, but it's the principle which is of importance here. In their statement, Janitor AI

said quotes. We have to block UK access to Janitor AI starting July 24th and just so that's just four days notice, they said the in the blog post they said, I know this is a terrible, this is terrible timing and I'm genuinely sorry about that. We've been trying to wrap our heads around the UK Online Safety Act and honestly a completely botched understanding what this thing actually requires. When it first passed, they said in the blog post I thought, OK, some new content moderation

rules, we can handle that. Turns out I was dead wrong. This is not just a content moderation, this is a complete regulatory framework that assumes every platform is a tech giant. And this is the problem and very much the point that we at the UK column have been making since the beginning of this. And in the blog post, they go on to say that the requirements are insane. They talk about legal risk assessments that cost more than our entire monthly budget. They talk about biometric ID

verification systems, brackets. Reddit is implementing Persona for It's for this, which costs 1 1/2 dollars, $1.50 per person. Constant legal review of thousands of pages of guidelines that keep changing. And they talk about the penalties, which include fines of up to £18 million plus personal criminal liability for the chief executive and their team. Actual jail time if Ofcom decides that they screwed up. Well, the janitor AI statement mentioned that Reddit will be using Persona for age

verification. Now they say that Persona, sorry, this is Persona. They say at Persona, we're humanizing online identity by helping companies verify that their users are who they say they are. Now this is really ironic because there's literally 0 information about the Persona team or its board on their website. And bearing in mind that they're collecting their collection is all collecting data is all about what is what their company is all about.

So they're collecting highly sensitive personal information, ostensibly for Know your customer purposes, and their privacy policies and disclosures provide exactly no information about limitations and how data that they collect is kept. So, you know, it's pretty ironic that they refuse to comment on who they are. But in the meantime, then Ofcom has published its guidelines for yet another layer of compliance administration which every platform will have to carry out,

and that's transparency reports. Now this requirement will apply to all categorized services, So larger companies, or at least companies with more than 3,000,000 UK users. This might seem like a great thing. Platforms will have to publish reports detailing how they've kept children safe. But this is again cover for censorship, as the fact checkers are well aware of, because they're banged to be part of the regime.

They demand to be given access to data related to so-called misinformation so that that data becomes part of the transparency reporting. It is still unclear to what degree that will take place, but one of the bodies which Ofcom is still required to set up as part of the Online Safety Act is called the Advisory Committee on Disinformation and Misinformation and the fact checkers expect to be part of

that. So since the Online Safety Act has moved on a pace and with each new development we see a greater and greater chilling effect on freedom of speech. Now I'll just end by pointing out this repeal the Online Safety Act petition, which has around 30,000 signatures

including mine. I would urge everyone, no matter what we might think about petitions to sign it because as just make the point yet again, who is silent has taken to agree and so on. So it's, you know, it doesn't really matter what we think about the effectiveness of these things. We should be taking, in my opinion at least, every opportunity to make our opinions known. Quite right. Yeah, absolutely. Sandy, let's welcome you back to the program. And recently you were at the

Dissident Southwest event. Yes, indeed, and it was a it was a brilliant weekend and reporting back on this meeting distant Southwest, we held it in Exeter this weekend. It was 3 days focused on alternative health and regional sovereignty, attending reform, former Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen and David Curtin from the Heritage Party. We had a speaker, David Leighty who addressed the banking fraud and he's setting up alternative people's councils which is a

very interesting thing. I mean these these events are so important because people come, they exchange ideas and get empowered and the hope is that they just won't go home and watch TV but they'll galvanise themselves. We had Glynn Owen who collaborated with the the original 7 concerned citizens of Torbay, Devon and Cornwall.

The seven concerned citizens have issued default notices and contacted clerks from over 450 councils requiring them to declare a food and farming emergency and this is really gaining traction. Town and city councils are being forced to listen to the people. Do visit their website sevenconcernedcitizens.co.uk. We had Chris Coverdale, he ran a workshop on the Freedom Co-op Southwest and Tax Rebellion

which was well attended. I delivered a presentation reviewing the three key government papers on devolution. Now Ben and I have focused on devolution in the past few weeks to really ensure that people understand the pitfalls of devolution. And it's important because once democracy is lost, there's no going back, you know it'll be

lost forever. And to summarise, a total of approximately 360 town councils and city councils in the UK will be drilled down, boiled down to about 7 or 8 regions, reflecting Tony Blair's original plan in the 1990s to align with the EU federal England. Each of these regions will appoint a mayor for energy and climate, whose responsibilities will be centred exclusively on on matters related to net zero.

The government is selling it to us as a democracy for the people, but it's the exact opposite. You know, authority from count, you know, will be, will move from councils and Whitehall and to mayors, reducing your influence really on opportunities to, to challenge any decisions made. It's crucial to understand that this distance, this distances you from decision making and your democracy will be lost. And that's what Agenda 2030

needs. The plan allows for relaxed planning rules on surveillance and 5G infrastructure, making opposition impossible. As the mayors will have increased powers over planning applications, there'll be more restrictions on cars, meat, dairy consumption and possible possible future kind of lockdowns, geofencing lockdowns or or health lockdowns. So here's a clip of my talk on Sunday what devolution means for the UK.

It means net 0 restrict restrictions such as more Eulers, more healthy ends, 15 minute cities, 20 mile an hour zones, increased surveillance, bans on gas and wood burning stoves, higher carbon taxation, forced retrofitting of our home.

And they're going to use the climate change and the power they're called the Global Covenant of Mayors for Energy and Climate. Now these a bit like what Sadiq Khan is in, in, in London. If you imagine a Sadiq Khan in every region, that is what we're looking at. So This is why all these restrictions and, and things will, if they get their way will be happening because they, they're selling it as a benefit to us. Oh, let's get rid of the power of Parliament.

Let's transfer it all over to these local mayors. And they're going to be so much better. These guys have got your interests at heart. That is not true. You will lose all your, you know, every bit of the last vestment of democracy that we have will be gone. So yes, there's plenty of information out there. We, we can and we must oppose this. I mean, so subscribe to ukcitizen.org and look at their legal pack packs. They've got loads of downloadable stuff.

So you can, you can oppose this and challenge your councils on other issues as well. Join your local residents association. We had Cassie Langford speaking about their successes and I'll be speaking about the National that the National Residents Association later in the show. Write to your MPs on mass, Make a noise. Intelligent strategic dissent really does work. I've put in information in the show notes to help you to oppose this with templates for councils and MPs.

So you know, we've really got to get get this going because if once we've lost, our democracy is gone forever. Back to you, Mike. Thank you, Sandy and I just once again would say urge people that if you are using a template, it's fantastic the templates are made available and thank you for that Sandy and also Big Brother Watch providing templates.

Please make sure you take, make the effort to make it your own because if it's perceived by people as being, you know, an organized Internet campaign, they'll, it just, it loses its effect. And so you make the effort to to make it personal. OK, let's come back on to the war agenda then. And well, as we forecast in

October last year, it looks like United States nuclear weapons are back on British soil. USB-601-12 nuclear bombs seem to have been transferred to RAF Lake and Heath, the US base in eastern England that's home to F35 stealth fighters and F15 Strike Eagles. Now these are this is AUS base even though it's got a an RAF label on it.

But now this article here from the Aviationist reports on the arrival into Lake and Heath of AUS Air Force C-17 cargo plane which flew non-stop supported by mid air refuelling from Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico to Lake and Heath.

It arrived at Lake and Heath on the 17th of July, coinciding with airspace restrictions over the base which are going to last until this coming Saturday. The particular C-17 used on this flight is assigned to the 62nd Vision Airlift Wing at Joint Base Lewis McCord in Washington state, and the 62nd is the only unit in the United States Air Force certified for what are called Prime Nuclear Airlift Force missions.

This is all coincidental with Starmer's announcement of the NATO summit a few weeks ago of the plan to buy a nuclear capable F35A's, although they're supposed to be based at RAF Maram, which is about 20 miles away, and also to join NATO's

joint sharing plan. So, I mean, I don't know very briefly if you've got any thoughts on that, but you know, the last time the there were nuclear weapons based, US nuclear weapons based in the United Kingdom, there was quite a lot of protest about it. And one would expect the same now, if that were to to, to be founded on, on fact. Absolutely. But I wonder if that will be the case. I mean, this is this is exactly

what we're talking about. You know, at what point are people going to agree that prosecuting a war somewhere else is actually the right thing to be doing? We just we keep looking out for some event that's going to tip people into that that belief. But umm, but absolutely be. I mean the the direction of travel is very much to suggest that this could well turn out to be the case.

Indeed, and the, as I say, you know, you're right to point this out, the, the evidence for it is circumstantial at the moment, but you know, we did report last year that uh, the, the developments, the building work that was going on at, uh, Aiken Heath in order to support this kind of thing. So it would not be surprising, Uh, now further to the Kensington treaty then signed last week, uh, which formalised the so-called E3 as the key war mongers of Europe.

Chatham House has published an article on this very topic. Uh, they point out that the Kensington treaty quotes also anchors the bilateral relationship into the white. This is the relationship between the UK and Germany into the wider European framework framework of the E3 format.

Unusual for a bilateral treaty. It expli, it explicitly mentions the aim to intensify trilateral cooperation between the UK, Germany and France. Going to say the E3 group coordinated a European position on the Middle East and the Iran Israel war. While the framework expanded the Weimar Plus format, which is France, Germany, Poland, Italy, the United Kingdom plus the EU and sometimes NATO on supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression.

And they said that the UK and France are also leading the coalition of the willing a reassurance force for potential ceasefire in Ukraine. Well, of course, it's not about a potential ceasefire in Ukraine at all. It's just about the further development of that. So an interesting article and really making the point that the E3 seems to be the main axis for the future war plans that that have been what we've been reporting on for quite a lot of

years now. But Vanessa, let's come back to you and Gaza. Yeah, well, as I said, you know

what the Trump external detention or detention by proxy and sensor and potentially other Latin American countries reminds me, basically make life so unbearable that people will self deport from the United States. This is an image in the last two days from Gaza and there are many flooding social media right

now. I'm not going to show some of the more dramatic or or upsetting, although there was a video published today of Israel bombing a child and A and a woman who was searching or scavenging for food amongst the rubble. I recommend everybody to follow the sub stack of Dennis Kucinich. You will probably know him as the campaign adviser for Robert F Kennedy Junior. He left when Kennedy showed himself to be an Uber Zionist supporter.

And this is just one section from his latest sub stack talking about how the US is complicit in the genocide in Gaza. He says witness Gaza look at the faces of a people stripped bare with the curse of nothingness. For it is our own future unless we change America's direction in the world. And of course, I will add the UK and every other member of the Zionist bloc. 2 other images that I just wanted to share. And how many times have we seen this? Gaza is not starving.

It is being deliberately starved to death, just as Yemen was, just as many countries and in the continent of Africa have been over the years. There is absolutely no need for starvation in this world today. But of course, those in power are ensuring that those they want to eradicate are being starved to death. This is a video that, again, was published on one particular Telegram Palestinian channel. So let's have a look at this. What does it truly mean to be

starved in Gaza? It means a reality where one in three people goes without food for days at a time. It means a terrifying future where 1,000,000 children are at risk of starving to death. Starvation has already claimed the lives of over 86 Palestinians, among them 76 innocent children. The closed border crossings have choked off vital supplies. And in a cruel twist, even seeking aid has become a death trap, with the hungry being targeted at aid distribution points.

Unless urgent action is taken, Gaza is on the verge of an official famine declaration by this coming September. I mean, I would say that we're already at at the most I run out of words to actually describe what's happening in Gaza. But this is the July OCHA humanitarian update. I've just taken 1 section but the full report will be in the

show notes. And again, what they say is while cooked meal provision at community kitchens continue at a limited scale, around 240 to 250,000 daily on average, Of course, there's a population of around 2 million in Gaza. General food distribution remains paused as most humanitarian food cargo collection is paused across the strip because of the attacks on the people going to try and collect aid for their families. Most have been suspended in southern Gaza since the 4th of July.

And I just want to look quickly at this map that was also contained within the report. You're going to have to freeze frame and and zoom in. But basically if you look at all of the colours, what they are the, the orange, the deep purple, the the lavender. They're militarized zones or zones that are under displacement orders since March or combined displacement militarized zones.

So that gives you an indication of the spaces that are actually left for Palestinians to to relocate to that are then being bombed on a regular basis. Just horrendous conditions. But again, I compare it to what's happening globally, not only in Gaza and not only in the region here. Yes. Well, thank you for that report, Vanessa Charles. Yes, coming onto matters in this

country and something of an environmental round up. Steve Reed, the environment secretary, has responded to the publication of Monday's report from the Independent Water Commission authored by Sir John Cunliffe. And I Reid said the government will respond in the autumn, which means that until then this report really counts for little. But on the regulatory side of things, off what's to be abolished. And of course it remains to be seen whether the new system will have any merit.

Climate change, climate change rather, is of course blamed for the water system not working. But the reality is rather different and a differing reality is becoming a more dominant theme. And of course we should keep sight of this now. As reported by Diane on Monday, Durham County Council has decided after all, that there is not a climate emergency. And yet the people of that county are at present currently unaffected by this change now.

So I'll mark this as a 0 emergency, one of a raft of failures in the propaganda war concerning climate change. You may remember that last year Germany's first wind farm, Alpha Ventas, was decommissioned as it no longer made financial sense. We'll call that a wind fail. In the UK, the Public Accounts Committee by and large recognised that carbon capture and storage is extremely expensive, inefficient and a dangerous waste of taxpayers money, delivering no serious

change whatsoever. And back in 2016, NASA research showed that an increase in carbon dioxide has turned out to increase the rate at which vegetation grows. Which of course would have come as a surprise to nobody who understands what carbon dioxide is actually for.

A propaganda fail there. Now, most recently, and the reason for this report, is that the BBC are finally daring to suggest that digging up this bit of ground, as opposed to that bit of ground, might not make in much sense in ecological terms. And here we see a piece on the extraction of lithium in South America, which, as the BBC asks, she sheepishly, is the world's race to decarbonize, unintentionally stocking another

environmental problem. Now, it's this specific area on which there should be so much more debate, the intentional destruction of the environment in order to protect the environment. And these examples just go to show what happens when you try to obscure the truth. Now, of course, this is an area that Sandy has been looking in for into for a long, long time. So, Sandy, I'd be delighted to hear your comments on what I would say is the falling apart

of this particular narrative. Well, you're, you're absolutely right, Charles. The net 0 narrative is falling apart and it's been a propaganda life for many, many years. And I think the more we challenge our, our, our councils to drop the whole net zero climate emergency, the better it will be because they're really under pressure now to listen to us. Because the, you know, if you like the, the cats out of the bag and you know, we, they, they can't, they can't defend this anymore.

It's, it's absolutely ridiculous. And you know, the, the, the lithium battery thing, I mean, lithium batteries burst into flames. We've got problems with storage and all sorts of things, so absolutely we have to really fight this tooth and nail. Super Sandy, thanks very much indeed. And you heard her. Get out that and fight it locally, of course. That's the place to start and that's the place to get things done. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, so sorry, Sandy.

Let's move on, then, to the National Residence Association.

Yes, I mean, Cassie Langford spoke about the National Residents Association at the Distant Southwest meeting this weekend. Now, this is how they describe themselves on their website, and they are a really good Action Group. They were founded in 2022 by a group of concerned residents from around the United Kingdom. The aim was to create a national group which can help people protect their national and local communities.

And as you can see there, it's got all sorts of different concerns that people may have and it all fits into this framework of understanding that we can come together with these concerns and and, you know, approach our councils. New members are welcome from anywhere in the UK and more associations that join the more influence we have. So what happens when a group of residents empower themselves and challenge their town council after repeatedly being ignored

at council meetings? On the 10th of July, 40 frustrated people from the Merseyside National Residents Association descended on Sefton Council and had the audacity to ask them a few questions. Now this is a problem up and down our country where ineffectual and uninformed councils are buckling under the strain of dissatisfied residents

who have very genuine concerns. They ask questions about the cost of immigration, serious local safeguarding issues, 5G policies and planning and Net 0 expenditure. Sefton Council's reaction to these questions was really quite shocking. To be fair, one councillor tried to answer, but as questions from the last meeting had been ignored and with 40 annoyed constituents in the room, the council became increasingly defensive. As they had no meaningful means of addressing these answers, the

meeting spiralled into chaos. The mayor, unable to respond, decided to pause the meeting. Which is their way of saying we're going to just pretend this isn't happening. And despite the residents not being aggressive or threatening, but simply asking reasonable questions, the mayor abandoned the meeting and called the police.

There's nothing like calling the police when you've lost control of a situation because somebody's asked why are we spending 1.1 million on immigration related grants when we're in a we're in a a cost of living crisis. So one councillor even uttered the words fascist under his breath. Clearly the definition of fascism is standing in a town hall reading out Freedom of Information requests. That's their idea of fascism.

The positive aspect of this is that the public is becoming more aware and challenging these council. So let's see what happened in Sefton Town Council, starting with this video of a woman very concerned about safeguarding women and children on the streets of Sefton. So I ask again. Will you hold a public meeting to address residents safeguarding concerns face to face and show that you take seriously your duty to protect

all of us? Then we had a gentleman asking about expenditure of net zero, and that seems a reasonable request. How can the Council claim that its net 0? Policy is justified or affordable for. Residents, especially during the cost, cost of living prices with that regard. We we we see that it's. Time to put a force and. Appropriate independent review before pushing the head further. And then finally we have the Council abandoning ship.

This is really quite shocking. If we couldn't get out, did you have to rule out and answer that question? Answer this question to the core. The love here. That's right. Well said. That man. Our children's lives, our young children. New love, new love. Welcome. Dead questions. Well, that that really is quite shocking. Councils up and down the country are taking our money and acting in dishonour. They're no longer fit for purpose.

We pay their salaries. They need reminding of the Nolan Principles and be held to account by them. I doubt if they even know they exist. So let's remind us what the Nolan principles are. They councillors must operate with selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. We're not seeing any of this. We must keep keep asking and keep showing up at council meetings. We must be intelligent and strategic, and we must be empowered.

Sandy, thank you very much for that. I'll just, I'll just end by saying, you know, a lot of years ago there was an organization that existed that called themselves the People's Public Trust and they simply went to their local council meetings in high vis gear and sat and took notes. They sat quietly and took notes and they found very quickly Sandy that agenda items would suddenly that the items that were published in the agenda would suddenly just not be commented on.

And bearing in mind that a lot of these councils have time constraints, they want to get some of these policies done and dusted within a certain amount of time. It seems to me that the easiest way to push back against that is to just prevent them from making their deadlines and just just getting involved in this way Is is the best way to do that.

Yeah, I think, I think if we, if we approach it in a very intelligent way and not an aggressive way and just literally play them at their own game because, you know, they clearly do not know what they're doing. And we do. And we, we, we don't realise our own power. Yes. Yeah, I think this is it. I mean, I think, I think the other aspect is the the way in which councils particularly have sort of been sleepwalking into this.

And first of all, they haven't interrogated the issues that they're supposed to be dealing with, but specifically nor the legislation which binds them toward what either the council above them if if that's if they're sort of lower level. And that in turn leads, of course, as you've articulated so many times, back to upholding the values of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. And I think a lot of people even in those offices do not realise that is actually written into

law. And of course, when they get caught out, they have nowhere to turn because they've never interrogated at the right stage. And and and that presents a massive problem. So the message is get involved and well, we'll have to leave it there on that message. I would say thank you very much Sandy and Vanessa and Charles of course, and thank you to everybody that's been watching today and we'll be back in a few minutes on the UK column live

stream. If you are a member, you can watch some UK column News Extra. Otherwise have a oh great rest of the day. Don't forget Germ at 7:00 PM tonight. Uh, another interview going out at 1:00 PM tomorrow and we'll be back for the news at 1:00 PM on Friday as usual. See you then. Bye bye. Bye bye.