UK Column News — 12th January 2026

0:00Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing. Another checkered flag for the books. Time to celebrate with Jamba. Jump in at JambaCasino.com. Let's Jamba. No purchase necessary, BTW Group. Boy, we're prohibited by law. CCNC, 21 Plus, sponsored by JambaCasino. Good afternoon, today is Monday, the 12th of January, 2026, just after 1 o'clock. Welcome to UK Column News, I'm your host, Brian Garrish. To always have Ben Rubin with me in the studio. And we'll also be joined by Mike Robinson, who is in studio 2. Now, a lot happening in the world so much so that many people say, my goodness, what is actually going on, so we've got the wars, we've got America seeming to be able to claim any country in the world it wants. If it dislikes the incumbent regime, we can stop oil tankers on the high seas.

1:01It almost appears as though the world so-called rules-based international order is out of control and not a truth in that. But I wanted to just bring people's minds back on a case, which has just produced a result, a lot of reporting UK press. And this is about the Guantanabe torture prisoner, who's just won a case and substantial sum from the UK government. And the reason this case appears to me, at least, to be so important, is it really lifts the stone on the conduct of the UK government. At the time when the UK is strutting the world stage and telling other countries how they should conduct their affairs. So let's just delve into this article a little bit. And this is the headline here, UK piece of substantial sum to torture Guantanabe detainee.

2:03And we've chosen the guard in as this main headline. But it says that lawyers for Abu Zabadaya accuse British intelligence services of providing questions to his CIA interrogators. Well, that sub headline is a very small part of the story. This is what I want to pick up on, that the excellent legal team this man has had have highlighted, I think, some really important points that everybody in UK should be paying attention to. They say that the case has relevant lessons for the UK. Today highlighting the legal and moral risks involved in cooperation with the US at a time it is violating international law. And I think Ben, that's really on the button that we've got the US now, more or less, appearing to be out of control on the world stage. And this judgment is telling people they should be very, very cautious about

3:03not only what America is doing, but also what the UK government is doing alongside America, particularly with regard to the so-called war on terror and the use of intelligent services. Just to give a bit of substance to this report, I brought up here the press summary from the 20th of December 2023, which was talking about the case, Zubei, Zubei, versus the foreign Commonwealth and development office and others. And the key thing to remember is that this man, tragically, has been held in Guantanamo Bay since March 2002, not only without charge, we also need to recognize that the US no longer claims he was even a member of Al Qaeda, let alone a senior member of that so-called terrorist organization. So if we delve into the document a little bit,

4:06with a little bit more detail here, we can see that we got a background to the appeal, concern with the law applicable to tort civil wrongs, alleged were being committed by the UK security service and the UK secret intelligence service. And it goes on to say the claimants of Palestinian national who's been detained without trial by the United States authorities since 2012. And he was also moved around CIA so-called black torture sites in a number of cases. Now, the key part of the case hinged on whether he had the right to seek justice at law in the countries in which he was held or he could come back to the UK or he could seek redress from the UK. And the key bit to remember here is that six countries were actually involved

5:08in his trail of torture. And that was Thailand, Poland, Morocco, Lithuania. Let's highlight those, Afghanistan, and Cuba there with Grantanamo Bay, the so-called six countries. And he bought his claim naming the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office and the Home Office and the Attorney General in UK as defendants. And so this is the meat of it. And finally, judgment by the Supreme Court dismissed it and appealed against the man on the basis that the law which should apply to his case is the law of England and Wales. So that itself was very a very important decision. And that has then gone on to mean that effectively the government has settled out of court with a substantial payment. Now, I think it's important for UK society as a whole

6:12to realize that the UK government is now making a substantial payment. They're not declaring how much money that is, although his legal team says, well, of course, on the basis of the length of time that he's been held without trial and the appalling torture that he suffered, this money is insufficient as well it may be. But also, we're not getting any formal statement from the UK government as to the background of the torture, all the UK government's involvement in that torture. So everything's now focused on the money and it's interesting, Ben, isn't it? We often see this with the, with people who are survivors of abuse in UK that once the compensation comes in the fact that crimes took place against them disappears into the long grass. Yeah. So, and they actually admitted any culpability? It was not that I am seeing in the reports.

7:14And I think this is about many people would say, well, if you're going to pay money, surely that admits your culpability or reliability, but at the moment, to my knowledge today, we haven't got any reports about more detail. Now, his, his legal counsel, a lady called Helen Duffy, I think made some really important statement. She said it's important symbolically and practically that UK pays for its role in our client's torture. And I think she's talking in a financial sense here, although that's slightly ambiguous. And she goes on to say, the settlement provides a measure of retress and implicit recognition of our clients in tolerable suffering at the hands of the CIA enabled by the United Kingdom. So there's lots to be asked about those words and also lots to be asked about what the UK government has and has not admitted.

8:17Now, just to make sure that people understand the severity of what's gone on here, this is not a very good picture, but at least a picture of Abu Zabadaya. And what actually took part, what took place around this man? What was he subjected to? Well, if we bring a bit of this on screen, he was water-borted at least 83 times. Now, water-bording is just a nice term for the fact that you're subjected effectively to controlled drowning. He was locked for days in a coffin-sized box. He was left in his own urine and feces. He was stripped naked and beaten. He was suspended from hooks. And he was kept to wait for days. And if he passed out at any stage during this treatment, he was doused with cold water in order to bring him back conscious so that he could be subject to do further torture. All of this known by the UK government

9:19and condoned by the UK government because they were encouraging our special intelligence services to submit questions for him via the CIA. So truly, truly shocking what went on here. Now, if we just investigate Helen, the legal counsel a little bit further, we can find that previously she's done some very good talks about her concerns about what's been going on with regard to the so-called global war on terror. So she, in a lecture hosted by the University of Manitoba, talked about the dubious but tenacious legal claim of by the US of the global war on terror with extremely serious implications. So dubious but tenacious. She's also talking about confusion and conflation of conflict and counterterrorism,

10:20which I think is something we are all seeing more and more. We're not sure whether things are being done under the law or whether they are being done by agencies running out of control. And also she's talking about the global militarization of counterterrorism. So very, very important questions. And I think this lady absolutely on the button. And here under the headline of the war, the war, the enemy and the other, it's all become very gray. She talks about a war on what? What are we actually fighting? This is not always well defined. And so she says that it's got scope, which is questionable and an insidious spread. And how are we going to look back on the forward reparation and accountability? And maybe that was a little bit of a look into the future for her when she, with regard to the case, which we've just discussed. Now, if we set all of that horrible case,

11:23those terrible tortures and the UK government's complicity in it, we can say, well, it appears the UK government has been out of control. And if you're thinking that you'd be absolutely right, except now, in 2026, we can say with certainty that the government in UK has given itself the ability under law to break the law in order to carry out these sorts of crimes under the label of keeping us safe. Let's have a look at a report that, White Robinson gave on the UK column news a couple of years ago. On Monday, we had the second reading of the covert human intelligence sources criminal conduct bill 2019-2021. And Julian Lewis, so we've just been talking about it as chair of the ISC, was giving it all the support that he could. So clearly, the intelligence and security committee is not concerned in any way about this.

12:25Now, let's just remind ourselves what this bill is about. It is a bill to make provision for and connection with the authorization of criminal conduct and in the course of or otherwise in connection with the conduct of covert human intelligence sources. So this is all about the criminality allowed by agents of the government, various government departments. And we'll remind you what the government departments are in a moment. But James Brokenshar was the minister of state who was giving the information there where they're from. I'm not quite sure, originally, but anyway, he was the relevant minister giving the statement in the House. This legislation he said is being introduced to keep our country safe to ensure that our operational agencies and public authorities have access to the tools and intelligence they need to keep us safe. So Mike, let's just bring you on screen because of course, as a package,

13:27the evidence to me is irrefutable. We've got a UK government that's not only out of control, it has been breaking the law, these terrors of torture, but it will continue to break the law because it's given itself permission to do that. At every level, Brian. So last week on Friday, we were talking about the killing of the Lidian in the United States by ICE officers. We've got covert human intelligence act there because that was a bill when we were talking about it with the SNIEN Act, so that is the law. And a couple of dozen government departments allowed authorize criminality. This completely undermines the constitutional arrangements we have in the UK and in the United States, where which are based on the principle that no one is above the law, but we are apparently as members of the public happy because we're not complaining about it, but on a general basis, we seem to be happy

14:27that the government in the United States and in the United Kingdom are quite happy to set themselves up above the law when it suits them, whether that's in a domestic scene or internationally. Indeed, and the thing for us to be saying to the audience is keep your eye on what's happening and challenge this and particularly challenge it with your MP at every opportunity. And many people say MPs are not doing anything while they get away with it because not enough of their constituents are actually challenging them face to face, but we'll come onto that more in a UK column extra after today's news. And let's bring you in because if that's the reality of America on the world stage and torture at work together with the UK government, we've got the remains of the Epstein saga under the surface. Absolutely, yeah. Apparently, Mendelssohn is squeaky clean, nothing to see.

15:28Well, I'm not sure that I'd say that. What did you say the remains of the Epstein saga and the remains of the war on terror? That's a blarey of a throwback, isn't it? And of course, another blarey of a throwback appeared on the BBC. Unbelievably, over the weekend, Mendelssohn was back. Let's have a little listen to the opening section of his interview with Lisa Kuntberg. Lord Mendelssohn, thank you for speaking to us today. You left your position in Washington for reasons we'll come to in a few minutes, but you have a unique perspective from having been Britain's ambassador and dealing with Donald Trump in the White House. How should governments, including the UK, react to this incredibly turbulent beginning to 2026, his strikes on Venezuela and his threat to grab a NATO ally in Greenland? I know people will sometimes be taken aback by his language and his approach to things.

16:29And I had a ringside seat in a sense. And so I saw how the truth social posts would come out and how some people used language and took positions that were to our mind in Europe, quite undiplomatic. But from his point of view, you need to understand that he feels that we live in a world that's full of conflicts, of hard power, of growing rivalry, and particularly between the United States and China, and that sometimes nettles have to be grasped, and that requires deterency. If you want peace, you get peace through strength, but also sometimes you'll have to use force as well. And I think we've got to understand that and not simply react the whole time to the language he uses. So what do you think it will actually take for Peter Mandelson to exit public life, Brian?

17:30Because it is, the third time that he's been fired, this time for something particularly egregious. And within three months, he's back on the BBC? Well, that's the nature of the BBC, because the BBC is going to keep promoting people, whatever they've done, whatever the implications are. But I've found that fantastic that he's brought on screen to talk about his experiences. And allowed to speak for 18 minutes before she brings up the Epstein issue. So he gets to set out his stall on a whole bunch of geopolitical issues, before she finally gets round to the question, and essentially allows him to say that he believed him, and then he didn't, Mandelson didn't really do anything wrong. He didn't remember sending those emails. He cringes every time that he sees them, and actually found them mentally. Those young women were failed by the system. It was the system that failed them. It wasn't Epstein and it wasn't Mandelson. It was everybody. It was all of us. Nicely spun. Very beautifully spun.

18:32Absolutely. By the classic politician on the British side, I don't say. Yeah, quite. And they're ultimately to apologise for Trump, right? Because he was, you know, you saw that opening clip there. He's basically saying, oh, well, you know, Trump, Trump's not to everyone's taste, but actually you have to understand that he's doing these things for a reason. We need peace through strength. We need American heft. He used that term a couple of times in the interview to sort out problems around the world. He went on to say that we mustn't ignore international law. Of course, unless we decide to ignore international law. He talks about the Arctic needing securing against Russia and China. And it's obviously in reference to the noises being made around Greenland at the moment. The fact that we'll be dependent on the US to do that. UK finances are in a parlour state. Interestingly, he called out the servicing of our national debt as a major problem, which I thought was remarkably honest for someone, particularly coming from the Labour Party.

19:32And then, of course, positioning the inevitability of a conflict with Iran under the auspices of freedom and democracy, which is what I think the war and terror was all about as well, isn't it? Supposedly. Supposedly. Yes. So, Mendelssohn, maybe we'll be seeing more of him. Who knows? Thank you for that, Ben. Well, Mike, let's bring you back on because the subject clearly on the world stage aside from Ukraine and Russia is Iran. And everything seems to be being ramped up now to create that internal division inside Iran because ultimately what does the West, what's the US and the West want, which is regime change over to you? Absolutely. No, we'll be talking about Iran more on Wednesday. But obviously over the weekend, then the Israeli backed several unrest as has escalated Iran with claims of deaths as a result of an Iranian government crackdown.

20:33And that, of course, is giving Donald Trump the excuse he needs to prepare for military intervention. So, let's just have a quick look at what he said on Air Force One. These are violent. If you call them leaders, I don't know if their leaders are just they rule through violence. But we're looking at it very seriously. The military is looking at it. And we're looking at some very strong options. Iran called to negotiate. Yes, the leaders of Iran called they want to negotiate. I think they're tired of being beat up by the United States. Iran wants to negotiate, yes. We may meet with them. I mean, it's a meeting is being set up. But we may have to act because of what's happening before the meeting. So, they may have to act before the meeting.

21:33Well, of course, we just heard Mondelson trying to justify that potential action. And well, if we have a look at this particular item, this is from the European Union here. And, you know, as far as the West clearly is concerned, the main concern should be for human rights defenders. Because, of course, that's human rights defenders that are at least organizing around the streets of Iran. These are defined as people critical of government in the case of the Iranian government. And so, the EU pushed aside the European Union expressed a serious concern over the widespread use of arbitrary detention by Iranian authorities to suppress critical voices within the country in violation of Iran's obligations on the international convention on civil and political rights. And then on Friday, the UK published the guiding principles on supporting human rights defenders. And in their words, saying it reaffirms the government's commitment to promoting and protecting those who work

22:34uphold fundamental rights worldwide. It says human rights defenders play an essential role in promoting and protecting democracy human rights in the rule of law. They say that with a straight face apparently and without any irony at all, they say that the UK has committed to supporting the rights of HRDs to conduct their activities, continue with their professions and voice their opinions effectively, peacefully and safely. In other words, we want to protect the right of people to continue to create civil unrest in other countries so that we can then use that as justification for intervention. That's how it looks to me and be interested in your thoughts. Well, Michael, I just sit here listening to your report against the backdrop of the UK complicit in torture. And of course, the torture, which has come into the spotlight to the press is all around Antanima Bay. But if we go back in history, UK, UK governments fully involved in torture,

23:35including prior to the end of the Second World War and supposedly we were fighting an Nazi regime which had indulged in torture. So the hypocrisy is absolutely outrageous and really the government showing why the public in this country should not be trusting the UK government for its duplicity and its willingness to get involved in unlawful military action overseas and indeed in torture. It's quite incredible. Let's move on. And as we always do, a huge thank you to those of you that are supporting the UK column as paid up members or donators or you're making purchases through the UK column online shop. We can only do what we do with your support. If you're with us today for today's news and you're not a member, you'd like to become part of the team helping to make this happen.

24:36And just click the boot, the blue button on the website here to get the details of how you can sign up. Now we've got a germ warfare edition tonight resisting mass surveillance by embracing linux with her key manwa. Mike, I don't know whether you'd like to say anything about this one. Obviously linux has been an interesting subject over a great many years. No, other than just to recommend everybody watches. And of course, it's going to be an interesting conversation. I'll just run through the rest of these. Brian, if you don't mind. So tonight at nine o'clock then is the US pushing the world to the brink. The Karl is speaking about that on Silicon steel podcast tonight. Tomorrow, Sandy is talking to Dr. Anthony McCarthy about ethical sex. This is a wide-ranging conversation. It's extremely interesting conversation. And so please join us for that tomorrow at 1pm.

25:38And the Abbey Roberts part one of the 1000 words podcast that went out at 7pm last night is now available on the UK column website. So if you haven't seen that yet, that's quite entertaining. So do go and watch it. Yes, brilliant. A lot of fun. And I think some more of the UK column team are going to get caught up in the in the artist then in due course this year. So we'll see what transpires from that. Now, Mike, I'm going to give it back to you because you've been having a look at what's unfolding now with regard to digital ID. This is clearly one of the main drivers of the government to get this sort of scheme in power. And they're going in all sorts of directions. What have you got? Yes, well, first of all, just a quick reminder. This was the graphics the government was pushing out in September last year. And if you remember at that time, Kirstaarmer had this to say I'm working with people

26:38worried about the level of illegal immigration in the country, secure border, bloody blood. He went on to say digital ID is enormous opportunity for the UK. Not sure who it's an enormous opportunity for. He said it would make tougher to work illegally in this country. And so I'll make the borders more secure and offer ordinary citizens kindness benefits. So let's just have a look at this then. This is the cybersecurity and resilience bill. This was introduced to parliament on the 12th of November last year. And it's supposed to modernize the UK's network and information systems regulations from 2018. So they say that it aims to strengthen protections for critical national infrastructure in response to escalating cyber threats. And they are expanding this to cover data centers, managed service providers, large load controllers, critical suppliers weren't previously regulated. They're saying that it's enhanced and decent, sorry, enhanced incident reporting, requiring organizations to notify regulators

27:39within 24 hours of becoming aware of a cyber institute. Incident, sorry, with full reports due within 72 hours. They're talking about strengthening regulators, enforcement powers, including the ability to impose $100,000 per day for noncompliance. And it says that they will grant the Secretary of State parts to direct organizations to take specific actions when national security is threatened. But here's the thing. The bill excludes both central and local government from its requirements. So they are imposing regulations on third-party service providers to notify whenever there's been some kind of breach in security. But they're not required to notify if there's been some kind of breach in security, except that they published this document, the cyber action plan, in an attempt to sort of divert criticism here. So this promises to hold government departments to equivalent security standards

28:40but without legal obligations. So where does that leave us? Well, if we have a look at this, just to highlight the point, this is the standard, saying UK Digital ID card, everything we know as whistleblowers signed alarm over data security. And of course, this was released the last year. But the point here is that the whistleblowers were reporting 500,000 system vulnerabilities in one login with thousands rated as critical or highly severity. At a whole host of other issues with respect to the government's capability to manage our own data and protect our own data. And of course, this leads absolutely into the whole digital ID question of whether government should be imposing this on people, whether they're even qualified to run such a system. And if we just have a look at this one, then this is Gov.gk1 login loses certification for digital identity trust framework.

29:41So this is also from last year but just to remind everybody that that had happened. And all the while, the Starmer regime is working as a hand, as hard as it can to remove any kind of technical protections that might be available to us. So of course, this is being driven by the recent, the news in the last couple of days of the Deep Fakes being created by GROC, which is X's AI platform. And of course, the fact that people were able to reduce monographic images of celebrities or children is getting a huge amount of coverage. But then what do we have here? The computer generated child sexual abuse material debate was happening in the House of Lords last week. And Lord Hansen of Flint has confirmed that off-com is going to be using powers to require service providers of any kind of encrypted system, encrypted chat and so on,

30:43to scan material before it gets uploaded, either to the chat or to other platforms. And so of course, if service providers are required to scan material before it gets uploaded, then it completes, makes a complete mockery of any kind of encryption that people may be using. So, you know, at the same time that government is pursuing this digital idea agenda, it's clearly on qualified to do that, it's producing legislation which is going to regulate third party companies, but doesn't regulate itself, or at least doesn't provide any kind of legal backstop for that, for whatever reaches of data that they may cause in the coming years. And in the meantime, they continue this effort to completely destroy any people, anybody's ability to protect their own data online. So again, interesting your thoughts, Ben, on this, but this is quite a, again, they say they make these statements without any sense of irony

31:43and their position. Quite yes. I mean, my overriding sense is that they're utterly, utterly shameless and they will use any pretext to manufacture the policy outcomes that they're looking for, you know, including this child sexual exploitation and preventing violence against women and girls, when you look at what we know that they're doing, even just in the last 20 minutes off and they have this show where I was talking about the, the use of torture, extraordinary torture against, against, against, Yes, again, again, wait, other human beings, ultimately, right? In the pursuit of what? It's not entirely clear. And yet they can turn around and say to us, ah, well, we're here to protect you and to insert ourselves into every part of your life for your benefit. And in order to do that, they need to manufacture a democratic consent and mandate in order to achieve that, they need to get their hands around the hearts and minds of the nation's young people,

32:44which is what Keir Starmer has been very much focused on over the past few months and got a little clip now about the national youth strategy and how that was developed. I think there's a real sense that young people have been left out of the conversation. Yeah, which is why this advisory board is so important. The last thing you want is me and Lisa coming up with a youth strategy. There's less thing to young people and having youth votes, but then there's actually impacting and making sure they can fill it with a tangible change. Mental health services child poverty getting me interested to write. And then there's what Lisa was just talking about, which is what people need on a local level. So is it transport? Is it a youth service? It's the biggest answer for a conversation that government is happening in the Philippines. Is that right? That's fantastic. That's really cool. That is really cool. That is really cool. That is really cool. That is really cool. I said it was actually quite scary to see the manipulation of the young people who brought around that table. They have no idea of the techniques being used against them. Absolutely no idea at all.

33:44And also, some extraordinary kind of expectations at the beginning of the clip there, saying, well, we've been left out of the conversation thus far. The idea that young people should be intimately involved in all areas of policy. I mean, this is a new thing. Right. And also, Starmer, they're saying, well, you don't want me and Lisa coming up with the strategy, even though he's the prime minister of the country, and that's kind of what people are employed to do, right? So anyway, and obviously it's all presented in this really extraordinary and infantilising and selfie-taking manner. And it's all culminated over the past about 12 months now into this document youth matters, your national youth strategy. So this is obviously for you, young people, and you can see that they've got you matter as well as youth matters. So this is just pandering upon pandering is what I'm seeing going on here. A lot of manipulation, a lot of thought gone into this. Well, as it say,

34:44so they have a vision it's very simple. Every young person no matter where they're from should have a safe place to go, someone who can't have a safe place to go, someone who cares for them and a community that they feel part of. Right. So you start from a position of anxiety and fear. Yeah. Any young person is so destabilised. They're fearful and they need to protect themselves. Their first plan in life is to find somewhere safe. They're not going to go out in the world and establish themselves and challenge themselves. They've become a child or a puppy that needs security and a warm corner of the room. Right. Absolutely. And that's going to, and it's the job of the government to do that. Yes. Exactly. This is all implicit here. Right. Government is going to get involved in absolutely every area of your life. And what's the first thing in the opening section that it says about this new world of safety? It's about feeling safe online.

35:45Right. So much has talked about digital IDs and censorship. This is absolutely front and centre of the youth agenda. This is what they're building a case for. They're also talking here about building connections with people of your own age, being part of a wider community building skills, having opportunities, and having support for your health, both physical and mental health. And all of this is going to necessitate a total transformation of the way that government works. Right. So we're going to move from national to local. So this is familiar. Isn't it? This is the devolution agenda, regional assemblies, metro meds, and what have you? We're going to move from fragmented to collaborative, which ultimately means tighter integration between the different component parts of the state, removal of the separation of powers, and then from excluded to empowered, which is about lowering the voting age, introducing these deliberative processes, essentially to force through a preconceived policy agenda under the pretext of supposedly democracy, right? So this is how they've teed it up.

36:46And then they've got these ten recommendations, based on, I think it was 14,000 survey respondents and various interviews. And obviously, the kids are in control. So you said it. Now we're doing it. Right. And I'll just show you a few examples here. So this one, remarkable, actually. Everyone deserves someone that they can trust. One in five of you say you don't have a trusted adult outside of home. We want a half a million more of you to have access to the public. We want a half a million more of you to have access to an adult that you trust outside of your home. A government appointed adult. Absolutely. Yes. A named person that we came across with the intended policy north of the border in Scotland. Right. And obviously these people will be vetted and ideologically aligned. And not part of your family crucially. Right. This is the government going right to the heart of the family unit. These trusted adults will potentially be based

37:46in what they call young futures hubs. So they're going to be 50 inclusive centres around the country, which are going to be led by adults coming out of this program. The government is going to get involved in friendships and relationships. They want to create a safer internet again using digital ID systems that we talked about. Provide support when you feel lonely. Is that what the government's for? How do we get by? How do we get by the UK column? No, I know. When we don't lonely in sad and hurt. We seem somehow to get three things. Maybe we come from a different mold. Yeah. Right. Good work. So highly curated employment opportunities. All of this is feeding into the fourth industrial revolution. Sustainable development gold agenda. It's all coming from that place. I'll come on to that a bit more in a moment. They want to keep young people safe. More help outside of school. They're going to keep people safe by more RSHE relationship sex and health education lessons. So apparently that's about improving safety for young people. And then the big one votes

38:46at 16 and co-creating programs. So these deliberative processes where the government will do just like started in that video. We're watching. Come in. Come sit around the table and we'll talk through a lot of things. We'll pretend that we're listening to you and that you're shaping things. But actually, we've got a pre-packaged set of policy outcomes that we know we're going to do anyway. And actually, this whole thing is just window dressing to make it look like they're going to do some kind of democratic process that's going on. And this is across the whole country. And obviously, we've seen Starmer as well. But who else is behind it? So we can just see here. So I've skipped ahead of myself slightly. The chap taking the selfie. I showed that a minute ago. That's Dan Laws. We talked about him a lot previously because he's the current. Co-C of my life, my say, which is this UK youth organisation, which is very important. Which is this UK youth organisation, which is partnered with amongst many other organisations. The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, the National Citizens Service, which is chaired

39:46by David Cameron. The Mayor of London's office, so to the con and everything that goes with that, UK youth, whose patron is Princess Ann. They also partnered with the US Embassy in London. It's based at Plexal, which is a UK Government Innovation Lab, which has just about 18 months ago announced a strategic partnership with UK Secret Intelligence Services, aka AMI-6, and is also directly linked to R&CO for generations, which is a Rothschild family philanthropic fund based in Paris. And he's also partnered with Tortoise Media. We talk about all the time. I haven't done for a few months now, but they're also partnered with the Rothschild Foundation. So these are the people who are shaping the National Youth Strategy. And the slogan there, my saying, except when it comes to torture and the government is going to torture you anyway. Yes. Just break any existing law in order to do that. Yeah. It's actually already said that's possible. Yes. It's quite incredible.

40:46Ben, how obvious these policies are becoming now. They're coming into the light. We've lifted enough stones. It's getting very easy to see the traditional democracy that people have lived over the past. Whatever it is, hundreds of years in the UK. This is going out the door very quickly. And then there's a very insidious government based control, which is actually molded in with the community. Communitarianism or participatory democracy. Yes. And another name for it. That's certainly a term that they use a lot, actually. And without wanting to labor the point too much. If there are any younger people watching this, or actually anyone watching this, they run out of the community. They're going to have a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a

41:46little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a which was founded back in 2013 by this lovely bunch, Craig Cameron, Ed Miller banned over there on the right-hand side, currently destroying the energy industry in the UK. And of course Charles, as he was Prince Charles, back in the day. Surrounded by youngsters, very vulnerable youngsters. Very vulnerable youngsters. And the current, the politician of choice for these people, interestingly, nothing to do with Labour, nothing to do with the Tories, is this guy, Jack Polansky. So he was the keynote speaker at the most recent My Life might say, next generation conference back in November, or actually, no October, it was last year. This is the guy that they're pushing, right? So when you see young people getting excited about Polansky and his policy positions,

42:48understand that this is where he and those policies are coming from. OK, Ben, thank you very much for that. This leads nicely into an article that I saw a couple of days ago. And I thought there was a lot more significance to it, than maybe the guardian reader would pick up on. So what was the headline here? It was this government lacks emotional link with voters and the cabinet. Now, the important thing to pick up on here is the fact that it's going for emotions, not cognizant rational thought, in order to make very clear assessments as to what's happening in the world, what's happening around you, and what you are going to do to correct the situation or drive good policies for the benefit of mankind. No, this is about bringing emotion in. What is the key part of that? Well, of course, emotion and the capturing of emotions is very, very important to the behavioral insight team,

43:51because it can capture people's emotions. You can control the way they think and the way they behave. Now, of course, all of this was sold, that it was going to just come into the Labour Party, who actually is talking about that. I've had to clear Starmer on screen, because of course, he's the boss, as it were. But the deputy leader, Lucy Powell, has also been making comments about this, as has Keir Starmer's policy advisor, Morgan McSweeney. But the main statement here is that the government needs to gain back voters' trust with three ease, emotion, empathy, and evidence. So they've lost voters, because voters are seeing into the criminality of the main parties and the way they do politics on the international stage. And what is Starmer talking about in this very gentle language he's talking about using applied political psychology

44:52in order to grab voters and lock them into his policy agenda? The Labour Party went on to say, MPs will be offered workshops by organizers in Labour HQ on how to take credit for improvements in the local area, or for policies directly helping constituencies, constituents that have been implemented by the Labour government, including frozen rail fares, local community, high street funding, and the warm home discount extension. Now, think this through. What he's actually saying is that even though somebody's been chosen and elected as an MP, that person is not mature enough or doesn't have the mental acumen to make appropriate decisions as to what their actions should be, so that their own constituents engage with them. This is almost like the Labour Party becoming the parents of the MPs and holding their hands so that they know how to deal

45:52with their own constituents is very, very devious this and a lot more sinister than it may appear at first glance. Now, an admission by the deputy leader of Labour Party Lucy Powell was that it's a big switch organizationally and politically. So there's truth here in this short sentence. They go and say there's tools and training the party is providing, but Lucy and Anna Turley, the Labour Party chair, leading some political work about what else is needed and how MPs can support and share back their practice. Now, we're going to say to our audience today, be under no illusions. The reality of this is that it is more targeted, applied behavioural psychology and what the Labour Party is absolutely doing here is reframing not only its own MPs, but also society, because if you can get them to emotionally engage with the Labour Party,

46:52well, it doesn't really need to worry about policy because the emotions will take people anywhere, including to war with Russia or perhaps Iran. And having mentioned war, Mike, let's bring you back in again because of course, the horrors in Ukraine go on. Yes, and on Friday then, Russia used the Arashnik missiles for the second time, as we can see on screen at the moment, heading live this time. And of course, this is in amongst broader activity with respect to energy infrastructure and drone manufacturing and so on. This Russia said was a direct retaliation for the drone attack on Putin's residents in Novgorod in December. So this is his action. Now, of course, if we just remind ourselves what this missile is,

47:54we just put this on screen here, and we'll see this Russia post article here was asking Will Russia's new Arashnik missile changed the course of the war. Well, this was published at the time of the first use of Arashnik. It hasn't been used since, so it hasn't really changed the course of the war, but it's clearly something that Russia has and is willing to use when it suits them. Now, it is nuclear-capable medium-range ballistic missiles. So although they have not, I mean, as far as I am aware, Brian, the original use, and I'm not sure about this one, but certainly the original use dummy warheads. They were really showing the demonstrating the capability rather than wanting to do massive damage. What are your thoughts on that? I think that was certainly true the first time it was used, and the key point about this missile is there is no defense in the West against it, so the Russians have been careful to make sure

48:55that particularly the US has been in before when there's going to be a launch. This is where the drive towards conflicts in Ukraine gets so dangerous because both sides can take actions that may appear innocent to the person taking the action, but to the person monitoring, that can be an absolute red flag that an attack has been launched. So the use of these sort of weapons is inherently dangerous, it's particularly dangerous for the West because they have no real means to detect and track launches, and there's certainly no defense against this missile system. So the Russians didn't need to put full warheads on, obviously, it would be a nuclear warhead because they were making such a statement by the existence of the missile itself. Well, in response then, Zelensky made a statement. Let's bring him on screen.

49:56And what he said was the Russians are exploiting the cold snap, trying to hit as many of our energy facilities as possible, so much for the respect for America and all diplomacy. The main Russian tactic is to try to completely shut cities down. A Russian egg was used once again, this time against the Lviv region. Once again, it was pointedly close to borders of the European Union. In terms of using medium-range ballistic missiles, this poses a same challenge for a soul, Warsaw book arrest, Budapest, and for many other capitals as well. So he was busy trying to put forward the suggestion that this was effectively an attack on a soul. And this is something that, of course, Ukraine is very, very keen to push forward. And so they've done that by, in fact, moving, apparently, some production of drones to Poland. So here's Radosław Sokorski, the Polish foreign minister. We've contributed to the purchase of American weapons for Ukraine, where now I'm losing kind on what seems

50:57like the 48th transfer of equipment to Ukraine. He went on to say, but Ukraine is reciprocating by moving part of its drone and missile production to Poland. And Brian just very briefly, I mean, this is clearly yet another attempt to put Russia in this situation where they may want to target assets in the West, which, of course, the West would be delighted, because that would allow them to pursue Article V. Indeed. And when we spoke about this briefly earlier this morning, I didn't pick up on your statement on Poland, but the big problem for the West is that Russia is now capable of targeting any drone factory or other munitions factory wherever it is in Ukraine. And so you can see what's happening here, what's the West trying to do? Well, we're going to move into Poland to get as close as possible to the conflict. But we've got to stay within the NATO area

51:59so that we still have the protection of that Article V. But the reality is that nowhere is safe in Ukraine. When we've seen recently indications that German munitions companies were going to be opening joint factories in Ukraine with Ukrainians, this is complete nonsense, because at any stage of the development and build, Russia is capable of taking these out. So in one way, it makes sense that the drone production is brought into Poland. But of course, what this really means is that you are bringing the possibility of actual conflict between NATO and Russia ever closer, because those drones are ultimately going to be used to attack Russia. Yes, indeed. But the narrative gets more ridiculous. So here we have John Haley, announcing that the U.K. has going to develop new tactical ballistic missiles

52:59that boost Ukraine's fire parts of deploy. Sorry, to defend itself from Putin's war machine. This is their language. This is under project Nightfall, they say. The U.K. has launched a competition to rapidly develop ground-launched ballistic missiles with a range of more than 500 kilometers. And it's going to be able to carry, where it needs to carry a payload of 200 kilograms. So there you go, with maximum cost of 800,000 pounds. Hermesile, that's that bit. And then, of course, as we know, the coalition of the willing took place last weekend. We reported at that meeting, there was announced that a multinational force for Ukraine would be set up. Well, the Starmer government has now announced that it's allocated 200 million pounds of funding to prepare the U.K. armed forces to deploy as part of the multinational force for Ukraine. And well, that's 200 million pounds at a time when apparently senior military are suggesting a 28 billion pound shortfall

53:59in the budget. So this is the Times and air chief Marcel Srichuk Knight and the Chiefs of Defense staff warning that the Ministry of Defense is 28 billion pounds short over the next four years, despite the fact that Starmer is claiming that he's going to up the defense spending. So again, they keep pushing the war buttons, but they've really Ryan got nothing to support it with. Nothing to support it with in the West, certainly not in U.K., but they're going to continue to use those Ukrainian troops to fight and dial the front for their own objectives. So to the last Ukrainian becomes ever more obvious as the war now moves into 2026. Well, lots more to be discussed on that. But if we're worried about a shortfall in money for U.K.'s armed forces, then perhaps we should be looking to the NHS because the BBC reporting here that the NHS is wasting billions on patients

55:01who don't need to be in hospital. So maybe those two departments, the running the NHS and the Ministry of Defense should get together and see whether they can iron things out. But this is just a very quick report from me. I'm always, of course, suspicious and cynical of what the BBC reports, but sometimes there's a message comes through their reporting. So if we get into this article here, so it's saying that every day there are more than 13,000 people whose treatment has been completed and they're still in hospitals. And so they're talking about the cost, the average hospital bed takes 562 pounds a day to start from maintained. And the health service in England is losing 225 million a month supporting patients who could be elsewhere. And the line throughout this report is that many are older. So if I come on to this one here, it says,

56:01and because the population is getting older and frailer, there are more complex cases ending up in hospital. The system is having to run faster just to stand still. Old people come up in the spotlight. And then we get towards where I think the BBC is trying to lead the minds of UK's population time to rethink end of life care. So they're talking about price, one of the professionals and reports about a third of people who are admitted for medical reasons are in their last years of life. We admit them and end up over-treating them with interventions, scans and pills argue price. So very interesting that those elderly people are such a nuisance and they come into the system. We have to over-treat them. We have to give them those pills, but it's all costing us money and really the unsaid words in my mind

57:03are we could really do without the elderly people. But I found this interesting because in the article it also said this, the problem when you start trying to treat everything is that you prescribe more pills. Those pills have side effects and you can actually end up making a person's health worse. So maybe a little bit of truth coming into the BBC report, but of course, if we think it through, if the NHS started to look at the damage actually done to individuals by over-prescribing of pharmaceutical products and the damaging side effects, perhaps we could make millions of people more healthy, save money and that money could be given for defence. And it looks like a win-win situation to me unless you're old. And I think the answer to that is they're coming for you because you, perhaps, I should say, we are becoming a little bit of a nuisance to the state.

58:04So Ben, where does that take us? Well, it takes us to the fact that the NHS is an absolute mess. You know, it's one of the top killers. I think it might even be top five killers in the NHS is over-medication. Well, that is certainly true in the states. The biggest cause of death is pharmaceutical products. Amazing. It's an incredible natural death. But if they're looking for some money and they want to plug some gaps in the budget, maybe they should go to Birmingham because I came across this article in the BMJ over the weekend. You can see here that the trust is the University Hospital Birmingham Trust's 40 million pound overseas doctors training scheme is axed after all it raises red flags. So the article says a 40 million pound programme to train doctors from overseas at Midlands NHS Trust has been discontinued after an independent review raised a host of red flags. These included failures to ensure the doctors were paid fairly, underclared hospitality linked to overseas recruitment trips. That included the two-week jolly

59:05that a bunch of people went on. And evidence that most participants recruited mainly from Pakistan did not return to their home countries as intended. Amazing. It goes on to say one of the most serious issues to emerge was the unusual arrangement under which UHB, University Hospital Birmingham paid a monthly stipend for ITFs through a small UK company operating from a residential addressing Birmingham. In 2025, the last year the scheme operated, the stipend paid for each ITF was nearly four grand a month, equivalent to just under 50 grand a year. And over the scheme's lifetime from 2017 to 2014, 40 million was paid through this scheme to scholar and trainee services limited, which managed the contributions and behalf of colleges in Pakistan and one college in India. However, the trust had no contract or agreement with the company, did not receive invoices and had no oversight of what money was passed on to individual doctors. And if you're involved in fraud and corruption,

1:00:07that's usually how it works, Ben, but surely it can't be the case here. Not in the NHS. Not in the NHS. Oh goodness, no. Anyway, so KPMG, these are the auditors who actually looked at this and uncovered what is it, what a match to fraud, I would say. They also surveyed a group of 80 graduate doctors who had completed this scheme over the past two years. 68% of them were now registered with the GMC and working in the UK. So they weren't supposed to stay in the country, but they've been brought in through this scheme, which has been siphoning off NHS money and they've now decided to stay here. And that's despite Pakistan being on the World Health Organization's health recruitment red list, meaning that they don't have enough doctors in Pakistan. So we aren't really allowed to go to recruit there. So there's about five things wrong with this whole situation, the main one being that this money, I can't believe that they got that money going out and dealt with no paper trail whatsoever. Ben, I'll just come in there and say over many years, I have watched fraud and corruption through city authorities and particularly

1:01:09through regeneration and you've seen some of the documentation with me, fraud on the scale of millions, hundreds of millions of pounds. Yeah, this is just routine now in UK. This is how bad it's got. OK, and this is one hospital. One hospital, right? So this is, it's extraordinary. There was, as we've said, there's been a review into this KPMG had a look at it. This guy initiated that. This is Kira Tel Chief Medical Officer, UHB. And he said there was no suggestion or findings of impropriety or fraud by any trust employee, which seems completely implausible to me. What do I know? Well, maybe the serious fraud office or the police have simply not got involved and what he says is correct. There is no suggestion because there's been no full investigation. Mike, do you want the final few seconds comment on that? It's all getting pretty obvious that this country is not breaking down. It's not broken, Britain. It is being broken and it's getting ever more easy

1:02:12to see the policies and the people who are ripping this country apart. Yeah, I mean, I've got nothing to add. It doesn't surprise me. You know, this is our 20th anniversary. When did we do the in Cornwall and concerned presentation? Brian, 2010 or something? Nothing, nothing really has changed. No, but we could say on a positive note it's clear that many people have woken up since then and are seeing this. So if you're part of that team as the UK column audience keeps spreading the word because exposure is one of the key weapons we've got against these people and their malicious policies. I think we need to end there with a small, pretty remarkable news today and it's clear that 2026 is going to be special for all sorts of reasons. So hang on to your hats. But huge thank you to you Ben and to you, Mike, for joining me today and a very big thank you to our audience

1:03:12wherever you are in the world, UK and overseas and a huge, huge thanks to people making financial support to UK column to keep us going and to help us expand. We'll leave it there. Thanks for joining us. Bye-bye. Tala Redic here from 2311 Racing. Victory Lane? Yeah, it's even better with Chamba by my side. Race to ChambaCasino.com. Let's Chamba. No purchase necessary, VTW Group, voidware prohibited by law, CTNCs, 21 plus, sponsored by ChambaCasino.