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: Bristol rejects ‘party politics’ to choose an ‘independent’ former LibDem councillor as mayor. Merchant Venturer & architect George Ferguson’s mayoral election victory discussed & week’s news reviewed with Stephen Williams, LibDem MP for Bristol West. Was it a fair fight or did the former LibDem councillor become mayor by combining the mystical powers of money and Public Relations? Is his party ‘Bristol First’ primarily about a man, a city, or a brand? How much did the backing of local paper The Post help, who donated how much & what did the millionaire spend on his campaign? Devastating failure by Labour candidate Marvin Rees, a defeat that will ring serious alarm bells with the London Labour party leadership who would normally be expected to win a mid-term contest in a city the party used to control. Independent candidates victorious in both Police and Crime Commissioner and mayor election so are political parties now ‘toxic brands’ in Bristol? Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls in Bristol last Monday but he is not prepared to stand up to the City either. Both Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls attend the same secret Bilderberg conferences, founded by a former SS officer Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. Details were leaked of a secret Bilderberg Group Steering Committee meeting this week in Rome. Did Bilderberg sneaks Osborne and Balls attend? Why are European countries spending precious money propping up bankrupt banks and not doing what businesses and the public want, spending  it into the real economy?  Lower paid half of workers are losing 15% of their disposable income which is leading to situations of zero disposable income. Quote from Dickens’ David Copperfield. Mr Mickawber was modelled on Dickens’ father who did time in a London debtors’ prison: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result: happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result: misery.” Tax avoidance by Starbucks, Amazon, Google & Boots examined by Margaret Hodge and the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee. Starbucks’ Director of Finance Troy Alstead denies any UK tax avoidance saying Starbucks really make no profit in the UK. Gas prices being fixed by private gas suppliers who bamboozle the public with ‘confusion marketing and are effectively one company as they operate their cartel. On BBC Children on need night a report by Shelter on homelessness and poverty say 75,000 children will be homeless this Christmas; Governor of the Bank of England King Mervyn (King) and his zig-zag proclamations, wjhat he really means is he doesn’t know what is going on; and West Somerset Council is going bankrupt, government minister, possibly Eric Pickles, visiting next week.  
[audio: 201211161700]

Second hour: David Powell from Friends of the Earth on ‘Energygate’ and this week’s revelations about Gas price fixing by the privatised UK energy cartels. New film by head of Journalism at the University of the West of England (UWE) Lee Salter called ‘Secret City’ about the unaccountable power of the ‘State within a State’, the City of London. Will the Queen close her tax havens and rein in The City of London when she visits Bristol next Thursday? Writer Dan Glazebrook explains the financial threat Colonel Gaddafi’s Libya represented to the West’s money system, the IMF, World Bank all threatened by Gaddafi’s African Dinar and African Monetary Fund. The African Dinar was backed with gold … but the US dollar is backed with F-16s (fighter jets). Bashar Al Assad’s Syria under attack right now making the Palestinians much more vulnerable to this week’s attack by Israel. Background to Israeli assassination of the Palestinians’ army chief of staff Ahmed Jabari during negotiated ‘ceasefire’ & resulting clashes in Gaza. Former Conservative MEP for the South West and author of ‘ Gladio, NATO’s Dagger At The Heart Of Europe, The Pentagon-Nazi-Mafia Terror Axis‘ Richard Cottrell asks why NATO is trying to take over the world and how Russia and China are likely to react to globalist expansion as anaccountable, totalitarian NATO attempts to build a fascist ‘One World Government’. 
[audio: 201211161800]