Month: October 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

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

First Hour: News review with Councillor for Cotham & Libdem Cabinet member for housing & development Anthony Negus. Bristol General Hospital decision means only luxury flats will be built on the site, no affordable or social housing. Changing rules for planning deals, how is the city going to get developers to build affordable and social housing in the future. Change in the rules with regard to planning agreements. Jimmy Savile scandal let off 7 times by the police with 300 victims of rape and abuse, some below puberty, still no resignations by the BBC after Newsnight editor Peter Rippon spiked Liz MacKean’s ‘Non Story’ in December 2011 to make way for Savile tributes. Comparing with Prince Charles’ Princes Trust ‘Ambassador’ & former GWR, ITV & BBC presenter Peter Rowell jailed for 6 years for molesting young girls here in Bristol. Police and Crime Commissioner candidates announced: Independent: Sue Mountstevens, LibDem: Pete Levy, Labour: John Savage and Conservative: Ken Maddox. Compares poorly with the current Police Authority system. Lowest turnout ever expected for this election on Thursday 15th November at same time as mayoral election. Ford closes last vechicle factory in Britain after making cars here for over 100 years. 500 jobs to go in Southampton as well as knock-on effect of another 1,500. Discussion about structural unemployment, whether we can continue to sack people like this when there are not enough jobs to go round, comparing the ‘Basic Income’ policy to the coalition’s ‘Universal Credit’ in the pipeline. Work Programme delivery firm A4E being paid £46m by government but delivering worse ‘outcomes’ than when Job Centres when they performed this job guidance ‘in house’. Hopes that tolls on Severn Bridges will be reduced to £1 per car in 2018 dashed by transport minister Peter Hammond. He’s decided the Treasury rather likes the annual £80m that’s coming in even though it only costs £18m a year to maintain. Severn Crossing Ltd a government approved racket fleecing motorists. Anthony Negus is against the proposed Severn Barrage.
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Second hour: Spoof announcement about the resignation of the chancellor. Halloween PsyOp: Orson Welles’ 1938 War Of The Worlds psychological warfare on the public with reactions of AT&T telephone operators. Mack White’s ‘Television and the Hive Mind’ article; BBC caused panic in 1926 with hoax of revolution taking place in London with Savoy Hotel, House of Commons & Buckingham Palace under attack. Broadcasting the Barricades. Executive Board Member of Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) & Business West James Durie discusses City Deal signed by Nick Clegg, Colin Skellett, Nick Clark & Simon Cook earlier this year and Public Property Board which looks set to take over management of vast areas of Bristol’s public land. LEP meets in private & public were always allowed to see how public land was being run when council managed it. Roundup of last fortnight’s world news US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney makes hopeless errors in final TV debate saying that Iran is land locked and has a border with Syria, neither of which is true. Martin believes there will be a war whoever wins the US election. Assassination of Exxon Mobil executive in Belgium but news blackout instituted. My Twitter feed @TonyGosling, Cryptogon and Blaclisted News all covered this two weeks ago. PsyOp Now! 19 satellite channels taken down by private company EUTELSAT. Ordered by Baroness Ashton the EU Foreign Minister who has never been elected. 
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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

Housing Hustings – for Bristol City Council Mayoral election Thursday 15th November 2012

This week we invite the six top mayoral candidates: George Ferguson (Independent – Merchant Venturer); Geoff Gollop (Conservative); Neil Maggs (Respect); Daniella Radice (Green); Marvin Rees (Labour) & Jon Rogers (Liberal Democrat) to answer questions about planning, development and housing in Bristol. What will they do to solve the property gap in the city with 14,500 people, or 4% of the city’s population, on the housing list and 1.75 million square feet of empty office space? Greater Bristol site with links to campaigns

Other candidates include Tom Baldwin, Trade Union and Socialist Coalition; Tim Collins, Save Filton Airfield; Spud Murphy, Former Conservative Councillor and Philip Pover, Access To Green Space. Definitive list out at Bristol City Council election pages on Tuesday 23rd October.

First hour: Bristol mayoral debate concentrating on housing. Mayoral candidates with their visions for the city and their ideas on housing – Bristol First, Independent: George Ferguson (Merchant Venturer), Conservative: Geoff Gollop, Respect: Neil Maggs, Green: Daniella Radice, Liberal Democrat: Jon Rogers, (Labour’s Marvin Rees pulled out on the afternoon of broadcast). Mike Birkin from South West Friends of the Earth asks how candidates plan to cope with Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles’ policy to have central government deciding on local planning issues? Discussion about Bristol General Hospital Developers, City & Country Group, who have decided not to include any affordable housing in their conversion of the hospital to luxury housing. Saying they will leave the place empty and derelict unless council planners agree. Jenny Allen from The National Housing Federation (NHF) asks how candidates intend to work with other local authorities: South Gloucestershire, North Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset Councils, to integrate housing policy? Discussion on plans for mass house building over Filton airfield once BAe Systems sell it off. Tony Crofts from his Clifton Housing Co-op asks why there are 40 acres of empty office space in the city, why is the construction industry failing to deliver housing and could this empty property be converted to housing? Candidates puzzle over how companies can afford to keep these buildings empty, is it a tax write-off? Contribution via a July recording of absent Labour candidate Marvin Rees who has promised to build 4000 social housing units in Bristol (we were hoping to ask him how he intends to fund this) but realised this afternoon he had double-booked with this Foyles bookshop event which began at 6pm.
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Second hour: Councillor for St George East Ron Stone has a proposal borrowed from Manchester City Council for pension funds to finance social housing built by local authorities and housing associations. As Ron was taken ill last night this question is put by Old Labour Oxford economist Martin Summers. Acceptance that building social housing would be good for employment, for the economy and for social cohesion. Bristol people talk to Marina Morris on the streets of the city giving their opinions including that the council is corrupt or should be dissolved and others saying they did not know an election was taking place. Keith Cowling from the Bristol Community Land Trust asks how candidates are going to help local people with the skills and who want to, to become their own developers? Why are they not using this route to build affordable housing? Explanation from Keith of what a Community Land Trust is and projected deal to provide new affordable homes at Eastville Park off Fishponds Road. Green candidate Daniella Radice points out that a Central Government Treasury proposal called the ‘City Deal’ is taking £1 billion of city council assets and around 180 land and property assets out of local authority management and handing it to a quango to be known as Public Property Board [PDF] run by the business fraternity through the Local Enterprise Partnership. The question being how will the mayor make decisions about public land when it’s being managed by this new quango and out of his or her control? Simon Bale from ISR, Churches for Work and Social Justice, asks how the candidates plan to house homeless people who are mentally ill or addicted to drugs and alcohol? Tony asks candidates to sum up with a question about central government’s new benefit cuts: a benefit cap, bedroom tax, withdrawal of council tax relief and the Universal Credit which will replace housing benefit. It is predicted that 171,000 single parents nationally will be forced out of their homes so how are the city’s most vulnerable going to cope?
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Thursday 11th October: 7-9pm, BCfm John Peel Day 2012 music show – mp3 download

Fri 12th: 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:news review with Conservative group leader & Stoke Bishop Councillor Peter Abrahams.   Mayoral and Police and Crime Commissioner elections. Austerity biting but national debt is increasing. Britain’s debt in 2010: £760bn; in 2012: £1tn; projection for 2015: £1.36tn. Housing benefit is rising, in 2010: £16bn billion to, in 2012, £21.6bn. Buy to let second home owners doing very well – their yield going up from 6.1% to 6.7% since election. Further discussions on debt including the billionaires cabinet and tax havens. Tory Conference: Boris Johnson’s’mop’ speech on cleaning items, old conservatives used to agree with Keynes’ economics. ATOS, Scotland is no longer not using them – lack of jobs, possible solution is the citizen’s income.  Tory conference: finale of Prime Minister David Cameron’s speech about his father Ian who was disabled but pioneered the use of tax havens such as the Cayman Islands and Panama to put savings beyond the reach of the taxman – aspiration nation. Energy and food prices are rising, financial determinism vs. regulation. House of Lords discuss the collapse of First Group West Coast Mainline train franchise and ask about independence of the people conducting enquiry into the fiasco. Council tax changes, Bristol City Council holding consultation including discussion on rates, nobody complained about the system when the council tax was brought in in the 1980s.
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Second hour: Tony and Martin discuss world events including Syria potentially leading to coinciding, the Middle East, EU getting this year’s Nobel Peace Prize formerly awarded to war criminal Henry Kissinger, Bali bombing ten years on. Former Nazi German company who now control BBC transmitters Siemens planting bombs inside heavy engineering equipment destined for Iran, NATO & Western sabotage campaign against Iran. Private firm May Gurney who deal with Bristol’s waste might go bust after they issue a profit warning today, will that mean our bins could go unemptied? General discussion about privatisation. Big Brother Watch – Steve Jolly from ‘No CCTV’ discusses surveillance under the Conservatives, new CCTV Commissioner Andrew Rennison, how regulation may sound better than it is, drone technology, private companies gathering data, secret US TrapWire system revealed by Stratfor & Wikileaks that links surveillance networks together, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras and how to improve the situation of surveillance through campaign site http://www.no-cctv.org.uk. John Scobie from Birmingham took part in last week’s BBC3 show ‘7/7: Conspiracy Road Trip’ but the programme broadcast last week was not the film he took part in. He discusses terms on which independent production company, Renegade TV, engaged him, what the show left out, how explosive facts about 7/7 and key testimony of survivors and victims families was left on the cutting room floor. Interview with Steve Sa’tan from BCfm & Rail Future discussing the Bus Rapid Transit Scheme (BRT2) for Bristol, what Bristol City COuncil should spend their £5m on and what a waste of money he believes it is. Other transport issues including the West coast mainline franchise and rail subsidy costing three times more since the privatisation of the railways.
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BCfm’s weekly politics show presented by Marina Morris

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: news review with Councillor for St George West Ron Stone.
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Second hour: Nuclear Power news: Stop Hinkley demonstration takes place tomorrow; Harbir Bal visits Bristol Science Park to investigate Robotics; Martin Summers & John Morris discuss Eastern European Communism.
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