UK Column News Podcast 26th March 2025

Good afternoon. It's just gone 1:00 on Wednesday the 26th of March 2025. Welcome to UK Column News. I'm your host, Charles Mallett, and joining me in the studio today is Mike Robinson. Welcome to the programme, Mike. I've also got Vanessa Beeley and Carl Zarr joining by videolink. Now, later in the programme we'll be looking at the Israel Turkey situation, kicking China out of Panama and also

Palantir's latest adventures. But we're going to begin with what I would describe perhaps as an attack on both sea and air. And this is because the Department for Transport published yesterday the latest assault on systems which work relatively well. This time seafaring is the victim with the release of the Maritime Decarbonisation Strategy. It sets off on the same foot as the majority of such government output by creating a solution to a problem for which there is scant or no evidence.

The strategy grandly claims to be setting out. Quote the best evidence and pathways towards maritime emission reduction goal of 0. Fuel, lifestyle, sorry, life cycle, greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 with at least a 30% reduction by 20-30 and an 80% reduction by 2040 relative to 2008 levels. So a lot of jargon gobbledygook and rather confusing language there. Now they're fairly thin on commitment.

Indeed, they belie the fact that the entire premise of the document and its proposed outcomes rest on modelling, which may need to be updated on a regular basis. Among the subjects raised, and this really is not an early April Fool, is the assistance that wind may give to a vessel at sea. Indeed, here is the BBC apparently reinventing the sale just last year.

Now the document does concede that the maritime contribution to transport emissions is just 5%, but this is considered enough to completely destroy the system based, as I say, on modelling. Now, given the pregarious position position in which we find ourselves with regard to food security, and the fact that over 90% of imported food comes by sea, tinkering with the delivery mechanism would appear to be reckless in the extreme. Or deliberately destructive.

Now other points to note are the relationship with the rebranded Infrastructure Bank, now referred to as the National Wealth Fund, and the tie in with the nascent and seemingly pointless GB Energy which I spoke about last week. GB Energy reckons on delivering a possible 5% contribution of grid energy, but only if the sun shines and the wind blows, and with an 8.3 billion ticket attached to it.

So it's no surprise to see it enmeshed with this scheme to dismantle the effectiveness of the sea lines of communication. On that note, there's no reference to the Royal Navy yet, but presumably it can only be a matter of time. Now to illustrate the absurdity of the strategy, this graph shows the projected decline of the use of so called fossil fuels to almost 0 by 2050. But as usual, the devil is to be

found in the detail. Now. This fancy diagram shows all the many convoluted ways in which technology and innovation will deliver some sort of magic outcome. But I suspect we're not meant to look too closely, for if we do, we will see that it does not quite stack up in the attempt to remove carbon dioxide from maritime activity. The strategy is unequivocal that there will be a massive increase in dangerous pollutants such as nitrous oxide and some sulphur oxides.

The document states that nitrous oxide and ammonia are particularly harmful for human and animal health and we may require policies that ensure solutions are implemented. End Quote. Before going on to state that quote. These processes could have further harmful effects on health and the environment. For example, ammonia can cause eutrophication, acidification, and stratospheric ozone depletion.

End Quote. Added to this of course is the ever present caveat that carbon may be offset either by paying more or by involvement in some sort of auction process, which would appear to undermine the entire pretext of the scheme. So we should expect considerable pushback and I would say if you are involved in maritime trade then this is a heads up for you, but it would be excellent to hear your views.

So please do get in touch. Now aligned with this and as reported back in November, is the increase in air passenger duty slated to change next month. And we can see that costs for the passenger will go up across the board. And it must not be forgotten that it's the government which says that we expect the measure to have a negligible impact on the environment. So this is really the agenda being delivered in plain sight. And as always, the taxpayer is set to pick up the tab.

There's been plenty of focus on 15 minute cities and low traffic neighbourhoods. But the reality I think is that this will go far further. And certainly something we can talk about more in Extra will also become relevant, I think in in the next report, although I won't go on to talk about that now. Mike, you're going to be flying next month. Have you got any thoughts on on this and indeed sort of see travel and the threat to it?

It is incredible that we are seriously in the 21st century looking at sticking sale and appreciate they're not cloth sales, but nonetheless effectively sales on on cargo vessels replacing diesel with biofuel. Well, you're talking about food security, the using food product to produce fuel to transport food seems like. I mean, I don't even know where to go with that.

It's absolutely unbelievable. Yeah, I mean, I suppose there's a little bit of efficiency in that the that that photograph shown of the BBC with the with the new vessel enhanced with its sails. It turns out those sails are in fact made from wind turbine materials. So not a not a total waste perhaps. But otherwise, they'll be going into landfill, right? Yeah. Well, exactly. And and we'll presumably at some point now as I say, we'll, we'll

talk about this more next year. You've run a couple of

interviews with Carl Zar recently and it's no time to introduce Carl to the programme, but might you've got a few words to say first. Well, over the last few weeks, Mark Anderson has been reporting Donald Trump's comments about the Panama Canal. So let's just bring this on screen and just so that everybody knows where Panama is, of course he's been talking about making the point that Panama, he said he did not sell to China. He had sold the Panama Canal to Panama, not to China.

And so he was pretty upset with the the fact at least that was his rhetoric that China had so much influence in the area. So apparently then out of nowhere, out of out of the blue, at the beginning of March, CK Hutchinson Holdings, which is based in Hong Kong, announced that it had agreed to sell control of a unit operating ports associated with the Panama Canal to a consortium including BlackRock Global Infrastructure Partners and Terminal Investment Limited.

So let me say hello to Carl and welcome you to the programme. What's, what's the detail on this, Carl? And how has how has China responded to it? Yeah, Mike, this is good to see you. And right now this is a big deal. CK Hutchinson is one of the biggest multinational company based in Hong Kong and since 1997, it has controlled both ports at both ends of Panama Canal. This is has been a talking point by many in the United States national security circles as China's influence in Panama.

Now Chinese government is actually very upset at this surprising deal that was announced the the pro Beijing newspaper Da Gongbao based in Hong Kong has lashed out at the steel and calling the Kaixin. The Hong Kong billionaire who owns CK Hutchinson has been has been spinelessly grovelling to the Trump administration. But in in a way this also show that China in fact do not control CK Hutchinson as a

company. Because if they do, they could have just told them no deal or the deal is off, that the the current deal is structure. CK Hutchinson is going to sell 43 ports in 23 countries, including two ports in Panama, but also their ports on Suez Canal.

Various strategic vital geopolitical strangleholds to a BlackRock group consort LED consortium and the deal is brokered by Goldman Sachs. So this is a big great PR victory for the Trump administration because Trump claimed that he has reclaimed Panama Canal from China and in doing so he's handing a very sweet deal sweetheart deal to his buddies in the Wall Street to the Goldman people in the Goldman Sachs and BlackRock. Now China is upset because this

would set a bad precedence for Chinese companies bending under pressure by from U.S. government decree especially coming up in April, there is a for sale of TikTok. U.S. Congress passed a law that TikTok must sell to American company by April or cease to operate on American soil. So if with the CK Hutchinson deal goes through, this set a very bad example for other

Chinese companies to follow. You know, especially with TikTok for sale date that's coming up. This is why, you know, Chinese government is voicing its displeasure at CK Hutchinson, probably for not informing them of the deal beforehand and but also structure the deal in such a way it does not allow enough time for a third party to come in with a bid. So Chinese government actually don't have the time to organise a counter bid to this right now. And and This is why they're

understandably upset. But for Trump, this shows demonstrate another one of his great victory. You know, to reclaim American greatness. The South China Morning Post here is saying that China has now sent a delegation to Panama after the the port deal and the in the headline here it's saying Belton Rd exit. And Mike, I suppose my next question is what is the likely outcome of this for the Belton Roads initiative?

That's a great question. Well, another Trump claim victory is that you force Panama government to withdraw from the Belgian Rd initiative with China. Again, this is a PR victory because Panama, since its last president, has cancelled all the Belt and Road Initiative project with China, most importantly a $4 billion high speed rail project. So currently there's actually no Belt and Road Initiative project in Panama.

So it's very easy for Panamanian government to claim that they are withdrawing from Bri when in fact there's nothing going on. And it's a, it's a easy PR victory for, for the Trump administration also because they can claim another victory over China, another victory of America reclaiming the Panama Canal and for the Panamanian government to Curry favour with the Trump administration saying, OK, we're doing as you're, we're doing as we have been told. We we are telling your line.

Some of the coverage that I saw in Chinese language media and the translation services do a very good job of translating it. The language that was being used was really aggressive. I mean, you know, betrayal, treason, this kind of thing. What, what are the are there going to be any repercussions for Hutchison and and it's chief executive?

Well, this is interesting part because Hutchinson sold all its oversea ports except, but they're retaining all the ports that they operate in China and Hong Kong. So they're actually, what they're doing is from purely business standpoint, they're reducing their geopolitical

risk. They didn't want to get caught in between a geopolitical competition between China and United States and all its oversea ports both in Suez Canal and Panama Canal could be subject to possible U.S. sanctions and, and and, and, and. China has chose to not publicly attack CK Hutchinson through his official state media. I'm talking about Xinhua. I'm talking about People's Daily or CCTV. Instead it use a kind of the proxy media.

It's a pro Beijing newspaper in Hong Kong by voicing its concerns and then having China's top liaison office in Hong Kong reposting this article. While the Chinese government itself have framed from publicly naming the the owner of CK Hutchinson, which is the Hong Kong billionaire Li Kai Shin.

And the Kai Shin's youngest son actually is recently in Hong in Beijing, attending a business forum that tended by many global leaders, including American Tim Cook, who get to meet with Xi Jinping. So I'm sure there's some kind of backroom deal that's being worked out. And so far, a lot of the blame that the the Beijing official media had placed on the Trump administration for unilaterally pressuring private business to conform to unreasonable American

demands. Carl, obviously I've just given a report on shipping, or at least the effect that this ridiculous strategy that the UK Government's proposing, but of course not just the UK, that the whole of Europe is very much dependent upon freight coming into it from other parts of the world. The Panama Canal will be therefore very strategically important. But the but Western governments and indeed their media are predisposed to be in opposition to both Donald Trump and China.

What's your sense of the response from Europe, the governments of Europe, the European Union and the media? I mean, right now with the new Trump administration, the European foreign policy is in shambles. It's a lot of the European leaders are kind of running

around like headless chickens. They're, they're talking about, you know, continuing the proxy war in Ukraine without United States. They're, they're, they're talking about, you know, possibly forming a security pact without us. I mean, this is very ridiculous

talk. And the fact that they are now being placed under tariffs by the Trump administration on one hand, on other, on other hand, they want to continue the the the same policy they follow under the Biden administration, which is to be aggressive toward China in terms of trade. It just does not make sense. I mean, Europe is not really piloting a, a third way here. There's a real opportunity for you for Europe to form have its own independent foreign policy

that serves European interests. Yet for for some odd reasons that European leaders decide not to do that but follow the same failed neoliberal foreign policy that was under the Biden administration. Even though the tune has changed in Washington. You know I, I this is something maybe you can help me to understand why is the European leader persist in in such self defeating ways? Because they're off their heads, Carl.

But we'll talk about that and. Try to get to the bottom of that extra if we perhaps extend it somewhat. Carl, thanks very much indeed. And Vanessa will now move across

to the Middle East and to Yemen. Yes, well, of course, Yemen and Iran, where Trump has reignited the war against Yemen in defence of the security of Israel, while it's committing recommitting a slightly paused genocide against Palestinians and Gaza and the West Bank. And effectively, you know, under the first Trump administration, Trump scuppered the nuclear deal. He's now threatening Iran.

With war. Effectively, if they don't rejoin negotiations for the nuclear deal that he effectively got rid of under his first administration. And of course, the supreme leadership in Iran is is pushing back very hard and saying that they don't agree to negotiations with what is effectively a bully in the United States, particularly under President Trump.

So what's actually happening? We're seeing a massive build up of U.S. military assets both in West Asia or the Middle East, but also in Diego Garcia base, which I'll talk about more and explain exactly where it is. So first of all, we've got second aircraft carrier to the Middle East. Basically there's already the USS Harry Truman, which will extend its deployment in the Red Sea for the war against Yemen. Now the USS Carl Vinson and accompanying destroyers will

join in the coming weeks. But not only this, there are F35 fighters heading towards Israel. The Gold Refuelling Group has confirmed that they're trying a pair of F35 fighters into Israel and further deployments in the Middle East continue. That's being reported across the board from the various open source intelligence agencies on social media. But then in particular, we've seen USC 17 cargo carriers. We can just have a look at that cargo planes flying into the

Diego Garcia bases. Now the C7 teams are troop carriers and will be used to carry cargo to operating bases. Then finally, and this is probably the most sinister move by the United States, which is the bringing in of B2 spirit or stealth bombers. If we can just have a look at that. Again, these are coming into Diego Garcia and we're hearing numbers between 4:00 to 7:00, B2

Spirit bombers. Now, what's interesting, these bombers in particular have been used to deploy bunker Buster bombs that, of course, are designed to target the underground weapon facilities, potentially in this case in Iran, but they also have the capability to carry nuclear weapons. So this is where this becomes extremely dangerous. As regards escalation, where is

Diego Garcia? Well, it's in the middle of the Indiana Ocean. It's actually a British base that has been leased to the United States for 99 years. It's it's a base which is shrouded in secrecy.

I'll come on to that at the end. But if we have a quick look at the tag, so the Indian Ocean island was notably used as a primary launchpad for bomber strikes in the opening phases of Operation Enduring Freedom Afghanistan 2001, Operation Iraqi Freedom. I love this use of the word freedom by the United States in 2003 and actually against Serbia by NATO in 1999. It's very important to note here, this is from the article that Diego Garcia, unlike bases

in the Middle East or aircraft carriers operating in the region, is largely out of the reach of the missiles and drones available now to either and Shruba or Iran. Iran's current longest range ballistic missiles are generally assessed to have maximum ranges around 1242 miles.

However, I have to say in the last 48 hours, Iran has unveiled missiles that have a range of 1700 miles, and they've also unveiled new underground military development centres and bases and missile launch centres and the three disputed islands. At the mouth. Of the Strait of Hormuz, which directly threaten actually the Gulf state. So. So clearly Iran is responding to Trump's military escalation with their own version of a military escalation against what Trump is progressing with.

This is actually back in 2015, April 2015, a bombing of the fat mountain in Yemen using the B2 bombers, just to give people an idea of the bombs that will be deployed by these bombers and the bomber itself. The B2 bomber costs $1 billion to make. So the fact that seven of those bombers, I think there's only 22 in existence and now being moved to Diego Garcia is is a, is a strong signal from Trump.

Now coming on to ABBC article that I that I found this morning, which was kind of interesting. This was what I found on the secretive tropical island. They don't want you to see now why I say this is interesting.

What does the BBC talk about? It talks about the fact that, of course, Mauritius, which won independence from the UK in 68, maintains that the islands are its own and the UN's highest court has ruled in an advisory opinion that the UK's administration of the territory is unlawful and must end. It is said that the Chagos island should be handed over to Mauritius in order to complete the UK's decolonization by Baldwin's senior legal advisory Humans.

White Watch says the forced displacement of the Tragossians by the UK and US, the persecution on the grounds of race and the ongoing prevention of their return to their homeland amounts to crimes against humanity. So while explaining that this island is shrouded in secrecy, media is forbidden entry, the BBC apparently had to go through a huge number of hoops to be able to actually get onto the island and be given a very much guided tour around.

Interesting that the security company G4S was sent to accompany them and all they mentioned are this basically colonisation issue which is a major issue. But they also talk about the fact that potentially the CIA has black sites on a Diego Garcia. But for me, this doesn't explain the extreme secrecy over the military bases on this island, and one wonders what else is being developed there. Some good questions, thank you,

Vanessa. OK, well, it's sticking with defence then. The Treasury was tweeting out this message today that national security is the first responsibility of any government and through boosting our defence sector, we can protect the UK and help grow the economy. Now Rachel Reeves, of course, today is giving her a spring statement and many, many cuts expected. But let's have a listen to what Rachel Reeves had to say about

defence and war this morning. I'm going to set out in the Spring statement increases in defence spending for next year worth £2.2 billion as we take defence spending as a share of our economy to 2 1/2 percent. The world is changing, we can see that before our eyes. But we're not a passive government, we're an active one, stepping up our defence capability to keep our country safe and secure because a strong economy depends on strong defence.

But as we invest in our defence, we can also bring more good quality jobs, paying decent wages to communities across our country. Now, so as Rachel Reeves is busy cutting the heart out of government budgets, and I'm not suggesting that that isn't a good thing in it in and of itself, but the question is we can be pretty well assured that the money saved is going straight into bullets and bombs. So maybe that's not such a great thing.

In the meantime, King Charles was welcoming British and French war chiefs to Windsor Castle on Monday. And this was all about continuing efforts to build the coalition of the willing. Here's another delightful image with Radican meeting his French counterpart.

So they were discussing UK and French efforts to build a European defence union, as we've talked about over the last number of weeks and in fact over the last number of years, as well as the growing defence partnership between Britain and France. They're desperate to keep momentum in this EU defence union process at the moment. And I just sort of get the feeling that momentum's come out a little bit in the last couple of weeks.

But nonetheless, if you remember last week following the so called high level meetings in London and Paris, there was an operational planning meeting held at the UK's permanent joint headquarters at Northwood. Now there's going to be more of these joint planning meetings at Northwood this week where intensive discussions will continue over several days. And just as an aside, an aside here, the the Svanska contract of £196 million, you can see on this graphic here, it was

initially £196 million. That contract's now been extended to 2031. So I'm not quite sure what the total value of that contract is. Skanska Swedish company provides, although it's the UK arm of the Swedish company provides all the non military facilities management at Northwood, which we would remind you contains UK military headquarters, NATO maritime headquarters and until 2019 EU operations headquarters for EU NAV for and, and other EU projects that we were involved with.

Maybe because that was maybe until 2019, because we all know Brexit's not really real in any practical sense. And I don't know whether you've got any thoughts on whether they've actually pulled the infrastructure out of Northwood or whether we still have hotlines and encryption to Brussels. I think, I think it would be hard to see that it would be destroyed altogether.

That would seem reckless, I think, even if it would be the appropriate thing to do. And actually that yesterday, Mike Martin MP, who is Exxon, he was asking Luke Pollard, Armed Forces minister in the Defence committee, about not not specifically about this, but concerning government policy around operational security, specifically with regard to the leak in the United States. And it was just interesting to note that Pollard was very, he was very vague on exactly what

government would do. Mike Martin was talking about a staff Sergeant of his in Afghanistan who was sacked for incorrectly changing something from being top secret to secret. And he he was just making the analogy and just with with this in mind and this capability, it was, it was just interesting to note that Pollard was very, very evasive on the issue of what exactly would the government policy be.

And he was effectively suggesting that, well, it would just be taken on its own merits depending on who it was and what sort of information. So when you when you consider that in, in light of of this, I would say, yeah, that very opaque. Yes, indeed. So look, these meetings will also provide an opportunity, the government says, ahead of the UK France summit later in 2025 for

further discussion. And this summit is going to enhance the 2010 Lancaster House Treaties on security and defence, which the Ministry of Defence says already provide the UK and France with quote, a firm foundation of in depth military cooperation unmatched between European partner partners.

It's unclear how the Lancaster House treaties could be enhanced because then Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy signed 2 so called defence treaties at 10 Downing St Following the summit held at Lancaster House. No debate was held in parliament. And these treaties took us into a 50 year defence pact with France. Now why is this important?

Well, one reason is that the Franco British access has been access has been driving this EU defence union policy since 19, 1884. And we can imagine an EU nuclear button or well, can we imagine an EU nuclear button in the hands of Ursula von der Leyen? We can probably, if we can, we can probably appreciate the problem that that might cause. Now The Wall Street Journal, and thanks to Vanessa for popping this through to me, published this article yesterday.

Trump prompts European calls for a homegrown nuclear umbrella and they're pointing out that Macron has, you know, held already held a nuclear drill on under the streets of Paris in 2022, which is supposed to send a message to Moscow. They're highlighting the Trump's alleged cooling on NATO is the excuse for driving this a European deterrent.

Nuclear deterrent they're talking about led by France and the UK could be problematic because of legal, political and technical difficulties that Germany, Poland and Denmark are already showing interest. But that sharing nuclear weapons means sharing sovereignty. Well, that's the sovereignty issue is something we've highlighted with European Defence Union for for a long time.

And that they're pointing out again that Britain's arsenal and nuclear arsenal failed tests, the dependence on the United States for maintenance and even for the missiles in the 1st place and so on. So, you know, the the huge cost of this to provide this so called nuclear blanket over Europe is is nuts. And the other the final point was compliance with the non prolifer non proliferation

treaty. Well, at the moment they're already setting us up for that because they're accusing Russia of being in breach to the non proliferation treaty already. So, so maybe they don't need to worry about that, but we'll keep you posted on this. But you know, it is it is a developing story. We'll see whether the momentum momentum has actually come out of it or whether they can keep it going for the foreseeable future. Yeah, just quickly on Russia, I think it does Telegraph a couple

of things. First of all, that there is a high state of unreadiness for war. And secondly, if there really is a threat, then what on earth is Putin waiting for? I mean, if he really is to invade the entirety of Western Europe, then surely we would have done it by now, before there has been a chance to put all this in place. Indeed. Good, good point. OK, let's move on.

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absolutely help us greatly. Tickets almost gone now for UK column on location, which is on Saturday the 5th of April in Cheltenham. Catherine Gunn, Alex Thompson, Patrick Hennigson, Raja Maya and Brian Gerrish all speaking at that UK column. Q&A will be part of that, I'm quite sure as well. If you want to get a ticket, you need to get it very, very soon. But if you can't join us in person, you can at least join us on the live stream.

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Yesterday's interview with On Moral Courage and what is required stopping sexual indoctrination in School with Hugh McCarthy is available on the UK Column website. And tomorrow at 1:00 PM Ben is speaking to Rajamaya and he is of course against near overwhelming opposition for Goldham Council is galvanising local support and local community to disrupt the local party machinery. And Raja will be speaking at the conference as well.

So he'll be talking about how they are unseating Labour councillors in particular in that part of the world. And so join Ben and Raja at 1:00 PM tomorrow, if you can.

Now let's move on then to Palantir. Well, just before we get to that, let's just talk about the Data Use and Access Bill because this is continues its way through Parliament at the moment. It's gone through the committee stage and it's about to go for to the report stage, although there's no firm date for that

just yet. In the meantime, the COVID inquiry also rumbles on. And just over a week ago, it entered into evidence a statement, a written statement made by Lewis Mosley, who's executive vice president of Palantir. And he wrote this statement in January, But it's been published this, as I say, about a week ago on the on the website and in this statement mostly had this

to say, common operating system. The UK Government needs to invest in a common operating system solution that would sit on top of and be able to integrate with the multitude of source systems across government, in fact across local and central government, healthcare and bodies of national strategic importance In peacetime, he said. The system will be used to improve collaboration between these organisations and to optimise procurement, amongst

other things. But in an emergency, the common operating system would be rapidly reconfigured to respond to the crisis at hand, he said. HM Government must be able to respond to the Black Swan events. COVID-19 was an airborne disease pandemic, he claimed, but the next national emergency could take a different form. For example, a contact disease, a widespread energy outage, a global supply chain disruption, a nuclear disaster or a war, for example. What does he know?

So this so called evidence was basically a sale sales pitch for Palantir, a company which is already way too embedded in the UK national infrastructure and our personal data. So particularly because they're trying very hard to worm their way into the Stargate project in the United States and will be with the equivalent AI project here in the UKI think this is something that we need to be very much aware of and I think we should be absolutely calling to get Palantir out of the UK

completely. I think that would be my advice. So look, this is the kind of data sharing which the Data Use and Access Bill enables. This piece of legislation is a critical part of the technocracy infrastructure that's being built at the moment, and it needs to be resisted. So I think I would urge that anyone who's not speaking out on this topic really needs to start very, very soon. Yeah, I would quite agree and I think the sort of kicking out process should not be limited to Palantir.

There are a number of organisations now which presumably in a fairly short space of time, will have to start competing with one another for control of the data that the government is prepared to hand over to them. You know, I think we can talk about that more in extra but, but obviously we've covered many, many organisations that are now very much integrated with government and our data and therefore de facto control over our lives.

But but it's interesting to see how he will weaponise the the emergency be whatever type of emergency it needs to be to to to push his particular product over the line, exactly like the government and indeed the media might do. Yeah, and the problem is that government civil servants, they're not technically literate actually in most cases, and so they can be drawn into contracts and perhaps the British taxpayer doesn't need to be paying for. Absolutely.

And you know, when we think about your report last week about the, you know, you called it the UK Doge that the abandonment of the credit cards presumably to either be replaced but by fewer credit cards or some other perhaps the digital method of paying for stuff, who knows. But this all seems to be aligned with that, you know, in in so far as reform will be to create efficiencies, but also that will bring in organisations exactly like Palantir to be able to

claim that very efficiency. Anyway, yes, carry on more an extra, I would think Absolutely. Now we will move on to domestic

and agricultural and land affairs. Now with the news that Angela Rayner put the Planning and Infrastructure bill before Parliament on Monday for its second reading. Now, her rhetoric has not abated since the first reading. And it's the very clearest of indicators that the government gives absolutely no regard to the considerations of the public that they're supposed to serve.

As an example, Rainer stated that EV electric vehicle charge points will have regulations stripped away with just a permit, rather than a licence needed. This is because they count as a critical infrastructure, a term upon which so much has been hung in the past few years. She reinforced the point that any challenges to proposed government infrastructure projects or large developments will be neutered by amendments to the process, giving only one

appeal as opposed to three. In saying that it will slice through the bureaucracy and speed up transport projects, she spoke very dismissively about the meritless cases being dragged through the courts. So there was some pushback, but really only from Conservative MPs.

And that makes it abundantly clear that the requirement to represent the views of constituents has evaporated altogether in the House of Commons It it emerged with the result of 330 votes versus 74 for the bill to progress and not a single Labour vote against. A few contributions are noteworthy, though none was given any consideration by the Deputy Prime Minister. Bradley Thomas.

Conservative MP asked whether 225,000 homes have yet been built because the Labour government pledged that they would construct one and a half million of them during this parliament that went unanswered. Sir Geoffrey Clifton Brown said if we are to override local people, we might just as well have a nationally directed planning system rather than a local planning system. Will she think carefully about that balance? No, of course she did not commit

to thinking about that balance. But the question in itself did indicate that the government can of course just override the wishes of the population. Now as to Rayner herself, I think we would just consider her words here. She said make no mistake, the bill will transform the lives of working people and Britain's prospects for years to come. Yes indeed. But I think we'd be minded to interpret her message in a different manner from the one

she may have intended. Now another contributor to the debate was Ashley Fox and he made an obvious statement, but one that is worth repeating. He said. I'm concerned about the abuse of power, particularly in relation to agricultural land and green spaces. By simplifying land acquisitions and reducing protections for affected land owners, the bill could pave the way for large scale developments that displace communities, damage the environment and undermine agricultural interests.

I think the only thing I'd fall out with is by saying could pave the way. I should think it would be absolutely certain that it will pave the way.

Now, following on from this, we had specific references to compulsory purchase, which brings us on to Natural England, because of course, reported after the first reading of the Bill, it was Natural England that were going to be given power to seize land by compulsory purchase if they Natural England required it. So here we see that Tony Juniper, the chair of Natural England for a very long period of time has just been reappointed, which is

significant, not least because he's presided over the unaccountable land grabbing that's been going on, especially via designation of sites of special scientific interest, which Sandy spoke about recently. But also because of his close friendship and working relationship with the king with whom he has Co authored books and of course actively promoted the drive towards 50% of land and sea to be in nature recovery by 2050 under the terror Carter.

Now from Natural England we moved to the Animal and Plant Health Agency and inevitably Bio security, the marketing of which reaches new bounds every day. Here's a reference to what is being described as an emergency response to reports of foot and mouth in Germany. Now, regardless of what you

think about any diagnosis of such a disease, there is no debate about whether animals recover from it. They do recover and it is well documented. As the government says, foot and mouth disease poses no risk to human or food safety, but is a highly contagious viral disease of cattle, sheep, pigs and other cloven hoofed animals. So we're obviously still supposed to be in fear and we're still supposed to consider it is proportionate to slaughter on suspicion. And that leads us back to bird

flu, but this time in sheep. This is the Australian broadcaster ABC reporting here that the news has sparked bio security warning even in Australia.

And this of course links back to the chief vet, Christine Middlemiss, whose last job was in NSW where she led the charge for a new and very stringent bio security regime which critically preferred responsibility for it onto the population at large, saying it was effectively a community issue and everybody bore some sort of responsibility for it. Now here is Christine Middleness speaking on BBC Farming Today this morning about the peril that we're in.

We don't think there's increased risk if there's not a clear pathway. So I wouldn't be worrying about necessarily being in a poultry farm, but don't leave open sheep feed if you can avoid it. Where wild birds can come along and they have bird droppings in the feed and then the sheep eats them. These sorts of things are important to be be aware of How? Worried are you? That there has been a case in sheep, full stop. Well this is our surveillance working.

You know, we we have a risk based programme and it said well there is risk and we found one sheep and the other sheep are negative. So that actually is quite comforting that we have a programme in place and it's doing what we asked it to do. And they say the risk to general public remains as low. And additionally, Food Standards Agency say the risk to the general public is very low. So at the same time, the risk of the public is low, but we should

be worried. And it cannot affect you, but it can at the same time. Or very confusing. And of course, given what she said, is it in fact just possible that sheep could come into contact with wild bird droppings? They're not necessarily in stocks of feed like those that might be found in the middle of field. So that the whole narrative is of course pregnantly absurd certainly seems to have set Mike

off. But it does illustrate the part that confirmation bias will be allowed to play now that this so called surveillance will moved to species in proximity to poultry, birds. And it's beyond question that if you want to find it, you only need to test for it. And then it's of no consequence at all whether there is any discernible or observable disease. Now, to round off this report, we're going to look at pesticides and the the the way in which language is manipulated

by the government at every turn. So this is the recently announced and much vaunted Pesticides National Action Plan referred to here by the Fresh Produce Journal. Sorry, I've skipped ahead, but we're supposed to take away the message that pesticides, pesticide use will be reduced by 10% by, of course, none other than 20-30. But if you look closely, you'll see that this is not what's

being said at all. And the the text highlighted there in the red box on screen says that UK governments will support farmers to increase their use of sustainable farming practises to reduce the potential harm from pesticides by 10% by 2030. So in fact, it's not a reduction of pesticide use. It is exactly like carbon offsetting. It's a form of stated mitigation based on modelling, no doubt, which doesn't do what we're

supposed to believe it does. Now, of course, the other thing to note is it doesn't make any mention of herbicides or fungicides or of their consequences on the environment and the food chain. And I should point out now for some time today, but I will be dealing specifically with glyphosate herbicide in in the coming weeks. So that takes us back to Vanessa and what's been going on in

Turkey. Well, actually it's more. About the. Potential for Israeli Turkey conflict inside Syria for influence inside Syria So first of all we'll look at what the two countries perceive as their agenda or their rights in Syria First of all, Erdogan Turkey very much a backer of the. If we can just tap the slides of the HTS, Al Qaeda factions inside Syria that have taken control of Damascus since the 8th of December are conducting ethnic cleansing programmes in pretty much all of Syria.

But other one advocates for a unified and stable nation inclusive of all societal groups. Which of course means that he has control of or of Syria because Syria will be controlled by HTTPS and the Syrian National Army, which is the former Free Syrian Army, all under control of Turkey and of course aligned also with Qatar, another controller of the Muslim Brotherhood factions inside Syria. But let's have a look now at what Israel perceives as it's agenda in Syria.

And of course, Israel is very much along the lines of the Clean Break doctrine from 1997, which talks about the fragmentation of the region into smaller states.

And basically Israel is using the persecution of the Alawites, the Druze sects and the Kurds in Syria to create stateless which will effectively still be under the control of Israel acting as proxies of Israel. And of course, we know now that Russia is effectively in discussions with Israel over Russia consolidating its military bases in the coastal area, red area there and potentially taking control of that petition segment which would in commerce give otherwise

that are currently being slaughtered by the tech fairy project. Very much of Turkey, although it's a little bit more complex than that. Now, what has been happening recently, we've talked about the fact that Russia and Israel might align to push back against Turkish expansionism in Syria and in the region. But what's happening more recently is that it's actually escalate beyond that. So we've seen this is a report in my Zionist Syria Turkish. Sorry, in Syria, Turkish.

Presence in military airports and aerial friction with Israel. So what does this actually? Mean yesterday Israel bombed an area of Syria to the east of Hans Palmira and the T4 military base, which were former Syrian Arab Army Air bases and military

bases. But the red line there shows Israel's potential David Corbable, which will extend from the Syria. We've talked about it before, the east border with Jordan and and eventually with the Kurdish settlement in the and the Euphrates in plan certainly on these two military bases. Now, what is more technique to its own bases? All right, Vanessa. Vanessa, I'm really sorry, but your connection is just breaking up so badly that we can't actually just give us a quick sign check. OK.

Can you hear me OK? Yeah, no, we can't. So look, why don't you, why don't you try to restart the connection and we will, we'll cover another topic and then we'll come back to this. Right. Thanks for being with us. We'll see if we can get Vanessa later. Sorry, hold on a second. Let's let's Vanessa say something that. Are you? Better. That is better, yes. OK, so so where? Were we sorry we're back to Internet problems? Yes, sorry about. That.

So no, it's fine. So, yeah, what is interesting is that Turkey has been moving its own military advisors into these bases to develop military capability for HTS for the factions. It IS should have control of a unified Syria. And then if we look at another article that has been published recently, Israel and Turkey on collision course in Syria after Palmyra air strikes. So again, this points out, but that Israel was effectively potentially targeting Turkish military in former Syrian Arab

Army bases in this area. And then from the article, a quote from Nimrods from the Mitvin Institute. Unlike Turkey, which supports a strong, centralised and stable Syria, Israel at the moment appears to prefer Syria fragmented with the belief that it could better bolster Israel's security. So confirmation there. And Netanyahu today put out an announcement that he was to convene a security meeting over Turkish involvement in Syria.

So as I said, we seem to be heading to at least some degree of contestation over Syrian territory between Israel and Turkey. And I'm quite sure that the destabilisation currently ongoing in Turkey is no coincidence on that basis also. And then in the South, what has Israel been doing again? It's been expanding and advancing. This is a headline in the Jerusalem Post today. The IDF engages in firefight with so called terrorists in southern Syria.

In reality, Israel is trying to expand its land grab in the South, and it was pushed back by local fighters in the areas where it's trying to advance. They are now, of course, termed terrorists. And if we have a quick look at the map, you can see the two areas that I'm talking about that were under attack. First of all, in the South, there in a village called Zawiya's, West of Dada, That is where Israel is advancing and entrenching and the bombing of those bases, as I said. In.

Central Syria, which again also demonstrates the extent to which Turkey is also trying to expand into central Syria and at the same time in Haimamim, Russia is moving greater numbers of troops into Haimamim under the pretext of protecting its own convoys. There are more than 7000 Syrian Alawites that have gathered in the Haimamim base for protection. And in fact the the the military hardware is being built up around the base now. Yes, it could be protection for

Russian convoys. It could also be the start of that consolidation of Russian military presence in the coastal area and the providing of that pretext of protection for the Alawites and the Christians and even the Sunnis that are opposed to the Takferi project. So very fluid, a lot of swapping and changing of alliances in order to consolidate power inside Syria. Within my opinion. Very little regard for the actual Syrian people, which I

guess is pretty normal. And do you think Israel will have been involved in some way in this destabilisation within Turkey itself? I, I think it's too much of A coincidence that it's been kicked off.

Now. I do also think that there's potential that Erdogan is playing a part in this because by creating the instability, he can bring in emergency law, which then potentially would allow him to make changes in the constitution to extend his presidency beyond the next three years, which he's currently not able to do. And also it scuppers the deal with the PKK, the Kurdish so called terrorist factions that he was in the process of

negotiating. He may well not want that to go through because of course it's the Kurd Kurdish separatist factions that are under the control of Israel and the US and the North East that potentially would become that autonomous region linked with Israel. So it's, it's very messy at the moment and I think a lot of things don't add up. A lot of things are not as they appear initially.

So I do think that destabilisation that is ongoing in Turkey has a lot to do with what is going on in Syria, yes. Thank you. Thank you very much, Vanessa.

Now we'll just move to free speech, or at least something that's being hailed as the case about free speech. And this is the news that the Office for Students has handed down a fine of £585,000 to the University of Sussex for apparently infringing free speech.

Now they said back in 2021 when the investigation began, that the investigation is focused on whether or not the university has met its obligations for academic freedom and freedom of speech within the law for all students and staff, whatever their views. And they go on to say that students are entitled to be taught by academic staff with a wide range of views and who can freely express lawful views no matter how controversial they are, without fear of losing

their jobs or privileges. All students and staff are also entitled to the protections offered by equality legislation and these must extend to all protected characteristics, including philosophical beliefs. Well, the range of interviews that Diane has been running, I think would contradict that statement in in so far as academics who've spoken out are

actually concerned. But at the heart of this is that the University of Sussex was said to have promoted transgender ideology with a policy requirement to quote positively represent trans people, End Quote. And a prohibition on what was described as transphobic

propaganda. Now the this has been effectively rebutted to a certain extent by Sasha Rosnell, the Vice Chancellor, who has written an article here at Politics Home. And her point is that the university in actual fact itself was backing Kathleen Stock, who is the professor at the heart of this. And indeed that there is much more to it than meets the eye. And she's describing it as being a an exercise in political

scapegoating. So I think there's definitely more to come out there with regard to how this has actually affected the the university itself, or indeed what the what the mood is there. This is taken from the student union website and their gender inclusive language policy and they say it's to quote from their policy. Pronouns must be stated at the beginning of every meeting, even if they've been stated at previous meetings.

General, sorry, gender neutral language must be used where an individual's pronouns are not known. So the student body very much minded towards a position that meant that Kathleen Stock and indeed her views and indeed her writings were not going to be tolerated. And Kathleen Stock herself, a tweet or her Twitter account shown on screen there, who's also a contributing editor to Unheard, has said that she will be writing about this in due course, in effect to set the record straight.

But there seems to be much more to it than than meets the eye, not least because the investigation took over three years and a lot of the process that should have been followed wasn't. So this will be one to follow. So whilst on the surface this does appear to be about free speech, that there may well be other issues at play. So it might not be. Or, or rather, it could be a little bit too early to to chalk it up as a victory for free speech. Now that brings us to the end of

the news programme today. So thank you to Vanessa and Carl for joining and of course for Mike Bing studio with me today. Now don't forget the interview with Roger Meir going out tomorrow at 1:00. Also, please do buy a ticket to the live stream for our UK Column on Location event on Saturday the 5th of April and tell your friends and indeed anybody else that you bump into and otherwise we will look forward to seeing you at 1:00 on Friday.

Unless you're a UK column member, in which case please hang around for extra in 10 minutes or so. Thank you very much. Bye. Bye bye.