Month: August 2012

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: Pupil premium and student loans, LibDem education policy. News review with Liberal Democrat Councillor John Kiely. Should LibDem leader Nick Clegg be replaced by Business Secretary Vince Cable? LibDems are the only democratic political party, Labour is run by the trade unions and the Conservatives run by rich donors. Control by Germany on September 12th which is D-Day for latest Euro bailout scheme as German court decides on legality. Germany, with new globetrotting military, also take over presidency of UN Security Council for September tonight! Prospects for a financial crash and collapse and can bought politicians do anything to get us out of the debt spiral? Crisis of leadership as Western world is run by lightweights. UN & aid agencies criticise Glencore boss who claims ‘world food crisis is good for business.’ Deregulation of commodities futures markets by Wall Street has turned essential world markets such as food and energy into a giant casino. Cargill decided long ago to destroy agriculture in the developing world. Wall Street Pentagon Complex use control of food markets to intimidate smaller countries when making geostrategic decisions at the UN. Charitable giving, Volunteering, Quality of Life, Indifference and is Britain de-politicised? Britain makes homeless squatters into criminals for the first time in history tonight. Police will now be doing private landlords’ jobs, saving them money in the civil courts. Bristol has 15,000 official plus another 5,000 unofficial homeless people and this will only add to the housing crisis with people likely, as in the US, to be forced to live in tents. Criminalising squatting with hundreds of thousands of homeless people and similar number of empty properties could lead to a serious social crisis and even civil war. Class War from the top down: Jobless young will have to work for three months unpaid to get their benefits as government accused of ‘slave labour’. North Somerset Conservative MP Liam Fox is advising far-right US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s team.
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Second hour: The Tax Justice Network Roadshow comes to Bristol. But will Prime Minister David Cameron do anything to close tax haven loopholes when his father Ian Cameron was a pinoneer of them when Margaret Thatcher’s government abolished Exchange Controls in the 1980s? However, Britain is in a unique position to do so as many are British protectorates or ex colonies such as The Cayman Islands and Bermuda. Current economic policy is taking us back to the Victorian age of ‘them and us’. Are British forces already in Syria as William Hague makes statement at the UN in New York? RAF personnel told not to book leave, on standby for an air attack in Syria. Who is responsible for this conflict and where is it heading? US Soldiers form anarchist Maryland Militia with $90k worth of assault rifles. Richard Cottrell on his new book ‘Gladio, NATO’s Dagger at the Heart of Europe, The Pentagon-Nazi-Mafia Terror Axis’. “Journalism is dead” he says, in the UK, as the mainstream press parrots the government line on mass deception without criticism, classic Orwellian ‘groupthink’. Old Labour Oxford Economist Martin Summers returns after his August break.
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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: £600m more borrowing in July but Chancellor George Osborne is nowhere to be seen so we hear from Treasury Minister Chloe Smith. Bank of England’s own report says their Quantitative Easing (QE) is benefitting the super-rich 240 times more than everybody else. Banks to use LIBOR probe to bring an end to free banking. New Barclays Chairman says Financial Crisis was caused by banks not charging for bank accounts. Lord Jacob Rothschild tales £130m bet on the failure of the Euro. All eyes on September 12th when German court decides on legality of European bailout plan. Tory Central Office continuing control of North Somerset Conservative Association criticised by Tory Councillor and Balloon maker Don Cameron. Don’s Evidence published on UK Indymedia. Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) won’t get mailshots. Masonic Filton & Bradley Stoke MP Jack Lopresti & Park Street Temple’s Provincial Grand Secretary Steve Rawlings both promise to, then both fail to, send me the Bristol Freemasons’ Provincial Yearbook with the names of Bristol’s 2000 or so Freemasons in 50 or so Lodges. Author of Inside The Brotherhood, Martin Short: is Freemasonry a miasma of lies or pyramid selling scheme? Another Freemason, far right Norwegian Zio-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik is declared sane, found guilty, and sentenced in Norway for killing 77 young members of the Labour party. We look at his close ties to the formation of the UK English Defence League (EDL) and European ‘Knights Templar’ anti-Muslim network in London in 2002 and explore the possibility that one of the founder members of the EDL, Paul Ray, screenname ‘Lionheart’, was his mentor. Paul Ray has now ‘renounced’ the EDL and moved to the Medieval Knights Templars’ final HQ, Malta. The Pursuit of Julian Assange Is An Attack On Freedom And A Mockery Of Journalism as the Wikileaks founder ontinues to be incarcerated at the Ecuadorian embassy in Knightsbridge, London. News review with Conservative Councillor for Avonmouth, Siobhan Kennedy-Hall.
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Second hour: By-election taking place in Bradley Stoke on Thursday 6th September.
UK Independence party candidate Caroline Sullivan introduces herself and explains her party’s position on Europe & immigration. The other two candidates, Paul Hardwick for the Conservative party and Robin Horsfall for Labour, were invited tonight but their party offices did not return phone calls. Syria’s civil disturbances appear to be spreading to Lebanon, we introduce Judith Brown from Arab Media Watch to discuss developments across the Muslim world in Pakistan, Yemen, Egypt and Syria, as well as UK media coverage of the Arab spring. We look too at the reporting & propaganda from Western & Arab mainstream media such as BBC, ITN, Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, all pro-NATO. I advise Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) & Lebanon’s LBCI & Information ministry for some balance. Sex, Lies and Julian Assange: Australian ABC TV Documentary series ‘Four Corners’ finds out really happened two years ago in Stockholm. Mark Cambridge joins us from Bristol Remploy survivors to explain how disabled workers there are being kept in the dark with an uncertain future and morale dropping. Remploy Workers & Facebook page. 
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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: Britain’s years of lead? Relying on each other more but trusting each other les in a dog eat dog society. Empty offices, Redcliffe Wharf development and the old brewery. Whose to blame for the austerity and cuts, the previous Labour government or the bailed out banks? Closure of the city’s elderly people’s care homes and privatisation of home care. London Metropolitan University’s £500m budget is being privatised, contract winners to be announced by the end of August. Wikileaks reveals US government contracted private security company Abraxas to run TrapWire spy camera software, linking national CCTV and secretly spying on everyone. Wikileaks is immediately hit with world’s biggest ever Distributed Denial Of Service (DDoS) attack taking the site down for ten days. Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange granted asylum in Ecuador but still stuck inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Foreign Secretary William Hague doesn’t want to do a deal, he is running the country this week as Clegg and Cameron are away. Recent case of blind Chinese dissident lawyer Chen Guangcheng who took refuge in China’s US Embassy, after escaping house arrest, and was allowed passage to the USA. Plans to close Bristol’s City Centre BRI Accident and Emergency in order to cut £17m over five years. General Medical Council (GMC) considers 68 ‘mistakes’ by Home Office pathologist Freddy Patel in the case of Ian Tomlinson who died after the G8 protests in London in 2009. National news coverage for alternative currency, good for the payment of local taxes, the Bristol pound to be launched in September. News review with retired policeman, Liberal Democrat Councillor for Knowle & former Lord Mayor, Chris Davies.
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Second hour: PFI consultant Dexter Whitfield from European Services Strategy Unit which examined the Tower Of London Royal Armories PFI failure looks at the economics of Private Finance Initiatives generally and Southmead NHS Hospital in particular. How much more do we pay when a hospital or school is built in this way? Branson cries foul as US owned First Group win West Coast main line rail franchise. Steve Sa’tan of Rail Futures joins us to discuss. The princess who took on the Land Mines industry, and lost. Simone Simmons describes telephone threat allegedly from Tory Armed Forces Minister Nicholas Soames telling Diana, ‘You never know when an accident is going to happen’. 14 months previously, on national TV, Soames had said Diana was in ‘the advanced stages of paranoia’. Extract from new book Paris-London Connection: The Assassination of Princess Diana by Australian author John Morgan.
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BCfm’s weekly politics show with 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: Jack Lopresti still has not got me that Bristol Freemasons’ Yearbook he promised me back in March. Nor have the Provincial Masonic Office at the bottom of Park Street. News review with Conservative councillor for Henbury Mark Weston. Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King announces economic growth forcecast has been reduced to zero, and record trade deficit. Care home workers torturing and encouraging residents to commit suicide. Privatised Winterbourne View care home in Bristol run by Castlebeck Care was exposed inflicting torture and cruelty on residents who were encouraged to commit suicide, 11 workers plead guilty to cruelty offences under the Mental Health act. Italian newspaper accuses German Chancellor Angela Merkl of creating a financial ‘Fourth Reich’ in the Eurozone and using it to bully poor countries such as Greece, Spain and Italy. Cracks appear in coalition government as LibDem leader Nick Clegg says Lords reform is being blocked by Conservatives against the Coalition agreement and Labour Police & Crime Commissioner candidate Bob Ashford is forced to step down to be replaced by Business West (Chamber of Commerce) chief John Savage. Neil Maggs takes over from Paulette North as Respect Party mayoral candidate.
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Second hour: Free Syrian Army give up their fight for control of Syria’s largest city Aleppo after attacking the TV & radio broadcasting centre but attack the airport instead. Foreign Secretary William Hague pledges £5m of British taxpayers’ money to help the Syrian terrorists without actually supplying them with weapons or ammunition. Rupert Murdoch appears at the Olympics as a guest of Conservative mayor of London Boris Johnson and meets up with controversial pro-Murdoch Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt. David Parkes from the BS3 Campus group talks about his visionary bid for South Bristol College on Marksbury Road, Bedminster, which includes plans for affordable housing, a school, doctors’ surgery and spaces for arts and small businesses. While it is presently thriving with local community groups and businesses Bristol City Council want to mothball the site when they terminate Artspace Lifespace’s lease in February next year and there are fears that the college will quickly be vandalised and turn into a derelict, unusable site as have so many old council and government sites. Operation Market Garden Arnhem veteran Major Tony Hibbert, now in his 90’s, appeals for reinstatement of a courageous but sacked Polish commander, General Stanislaw Sosabowski. Hibbert suggests he was scapegoated for the failure of the Arnhem operation and should, posthumously, have his rank and honour restored by the British Army.
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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: Former Mayor of Bristol, Libdem Councillor for Knowle Chris Davies did not arrive as arranged for this week’s news review. However Robin Clapp from Bristol And District Anti Cuts Alliance (BADACA) did, and he explains how he has been involved in social struggles in Bristol including the miners’ strike in the 1980s and the anti poll tax campaign in the 1990s. Big companies sitting on £750bn of potential tax. Is the private sector really able to take over & run public services? Do we have a Coalition government or have the Tory government entirely sidelined the Liberal Democrats? The new Bristol mayor will be able to run the city with only 20% of elected councillors supporting them but what will the various mayoral candidates do about the closure of Bristol’s care homes? Bristol has a higher proportion of drug addicts, over 1400, claiming benefits that any other city in the UK. Bristol City Slackers, councillors representing thousands of people that do not return emails or phone calls including, worryingly, the LibDem candidate for Avon & Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner and Horfield councillor Pete Levy. Naomi fowler presents an extract from July Taxcast, a monthly podcast from the Tax Justice Network. Emergency Homelessness is up 25% in the last three years. Bristol City Council to close all its eight elderly care homes over the next three years while keeping one dementia home open, Bristol’s mayoral candidates disagree on the solution.
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Second hour: Syria and Iran latest. Free Syrian Army (FSA) get surface to air missiles. We hear two extracts from the Iranian English language channel Press TV which is now banned in Britain by broadcasting regulator Ofcom. We hear that US corporations buy elected politicians by spending $15bn on lobbying in the run-up to the US Presidential election later this year and Gordon Duff from Veterans Today’s view that the Patriot Act has echoes of Nazi Germany and that Republican candidate Mitt Romney represents war profiteers, not just the Republican party. Daphne Havercroft – from South West Whistleblowers’ Health Action Group (SWWHAG) – consolidation and commercialisation of the NHS as plans are revealed to merge the 2 NHS trusts to one that. This time it was the UHB NHS Trust managers and board who failed to appear on the show to discuss reasons for the merger and the future of their £500m annual budget of public money. David Powell from Friends of the Earth (FOE) discusses Fracking, the extraction of gas by pouring toxic chemicals deep into the water table which energy companies are planning to do in the Mendip Hills. This has been going on in the US for a decade where they have produced a film: Gasland. Forthcoming protest on Saturday 22nd September called Global Frackdown, Frack Free Somerset and the national Frack Off campaign as well as the film: Fracking Hell. Wind farms and fossil fuel vs. alternative energy policy. Joanne Baker, author of Uranium in Iraq: The Poisonous Legacy of the Iraq Wars talks about Hiroshima Day on Monday as well as Britain’s use of radioactive waste to pollute countries in foreign wars. Fran Anderson from Reinvestigate 911 reflects on the 9/11 Commission report, Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission by Thomas Keane, BBC coverage of the 9/11 attacks and the thoughts of US author of Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace and writer Gore Vidal who died this week, aged 86.
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