Friday Drivetime

BCfm’s weekly politics show presented by Tony Gosling

At five: discussing the big stories in Bristol, Britain and around the world
After six: straight talking and investigative reports with Martin Summers and Marina Morris

For all the shows back to Easter 2009 visit the Friday Drivetime archive page.

First hour: The biggest cuts programme in British history. Chinese government announces privatisation of state banks (we hear later how this may be linked to last week’s ‘coup attempt’). Serious Fraud Office (SFO)’s outgoing director Richard Alderman criticises lack of funding while the SFO brings in more money (£50m) than it costs to fund (£32m), he also wants prosecution of bankers for reckless running of Britain’s financial institutions. Director of Public Prosecutions Kier Starmer appears at the Leveson enquiry and explains how former Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates resisted investigating the News Of The World phone hacking enquiry. Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA)’s secret Project Riverside exposes corrupt Metropolitan police detectives who helped private investigators delete evidence in live cases, reveal names of witnesses to criminals and delete criminal records on the police national computer. Tax Credit changes which take effect today mean over 200,000 low-paid families will be up to £4,500 worse off anually, plus another 800,000 will lose all their child tax credits forcing them into poverty and conducting a cynical form of social engineering by setting the low-paid against the unemployed. Proposals for a UK citizen’s income from the Green Party. Royal British Legion call Ken Clarke’s secret inquest plan ‘monstrous’ and our guest calls them ‘grotesque’. How deep does government treachery go? Is Conservative Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Ken Clarke a secret Bilderberg quisling himself? As May’s referendum to decide on an elected Bristol mayor approaches we hear views from the newly launched campaigns both for (yes campaign) and against (no campaign). But is this a distraction? Are we going through a crisis in political representation? Do voters feel as if everything they say is ignored anyway and that the three main parties are really wings of a one-party-state controlled by the City? Doctors in Bath dismiss concerns about private health links despite also running a private healthcare firm that stands to directly benefit. NHS ‘Fairness Tsar’ Lord Carter of Coles urged by doctors to quit over ‘conflict of interest’ following his £800k payment from U.S. private health giant & his connections with criminals. Local newspaper The Clevedon Mercury closes after 150 years of publication despite Northcliffe newspapers making annual profit of £17m. Northcliffe has a monopoly owning virtually all news publications in the region so is closing local papers in the hope that people will buy their regional Western Daily Press. News review with Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union’s National Vice Chair John McInally.
[audio: 201204061700]

Second hour: Campaign Against the Arms Trade & local activists disrupt international drone conference being held in Bristol this week. Assassinated ‘Spy In A Bag’ Gareth Williams linked to Chinese Coup plot and Chinese ‘twitter’ equivalent is censored by the government to the people discussing a possible coup related to privatisation of Chinese state banks. US Republican candidate Rick Santorum puts his foot in it & Peter Levenda on origins of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism from his book Sinister Forces, A Grimoire Of American Political Witchcraft. Peter Dale Scott, author of American War Machine: Deep Politics, the CIA Global Drug Connection, and the Road to Afghanistan, on the origins of Al Qaeda in ‘The Safari Club’ an unofficial group of serving and retired Western intelligence officers, also JSOC and the recent feature film Charlie Wilson’s War. Involvement of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International in unofficial covert operations. Somerset businessman Julian Parry on disgraced Coalition Defence Secretary Liam Fox, his chum Adam Werritty and his cavalier attitude to national security through his deal to sell Harriers to the US for £120m just after the British taxpayer refurbished them for £600m. Was Werritty simply an Israeli intelligence agent as Craig Murray suggests? Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa exposed as a racist, ordering his army to murder hundreds of thousands of innocent Tamils in Channel 4 film The Sri Lankan Killing Fields, War Crimes Go Unpunished. F. William Engdahl’s book ‘Gods of Money’. City of London is the money laundering capital of the world, two tiers of Mafia at this Summer’s London Olympics with David Southwell and how to become a ‘people’s spy’. Somerset engineer Julian Parry proposes his ‘rolling referendum‘ (RR) for political renewal through every individual deciding on party funding rather than just voting once every four years. Martin Bormann Nazi In Exile 1981 book by former CBS radio news correspondent Paul Manning. Jonathan Meades’ 1994 film Jerry Building: Unholy Relics Of Nazi Germany about Nazi Architect Albert Speer, Heinrich Himmler and the roots of the Nazi philosophy. Prince Charles’ architectural adviser and designer of the Prince of Wales’ Poundbury estate Leon Krier’s worrying admiration for Nazi architecture. Were the Nazis really defeated in 1945 or did they just take off their uniforms and saunter into civvy street? Richard Heinberg’s 2011 book The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economics Reality
[audio: 201204061800]