Month: November 2012

BCfm’s weekly politics show presented by Tony Gosling

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

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

First hour: Daphne Havercroft from South West Whistleblowers’ Health Action Group SWWHAG: Bristol Childrens’ Hospital, Care Quality Commission (CQC) intervene over low staffing levels on Ward 32 and patient deaths. Private healthcare operators Circle rewarded for failure at Hinchingbrooke hospital in Cambridge. London based Tamil Ram Selva brings us up to date with human rights struggles in former British Indian Ocean colonies: mainly Sri-Lanka and India. Channel 4 documentaries Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields. Hunger strike enters its second week on the island of Nauru, near Australia, as asylum seekers from Iran, Afghanistan & Sri-Lanka protest against right-wing Australian government re-opening remote refugee camps & using asylum-seekers as political pawns. Website recommended www.tamilsolidarity.org Merkel in London, Chinese political congress & US elections. Hugh Trevor-Roper’s myth: Peter Levenda’s book ‘Ratline, Soviet Spies, Nazi Priests and the Disappearance of Adolf Hitler’. Did Hitler really die in 1945 or did he survive until the 1970s in Indonesia? Why would anyone question the story behind the death of Adolf Hitler? Evidence for Martin Boorman covert military and banking/corporate Fourth Reich thriving after World War Two.
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Second hour: Bristol General Hospital: Bristol Central Planning Committee decide developers, City & Country, need build no affordable or social housing, only luxury flats. Invited: Mandy Soames, Public Relations Officer for City & Country developers; Bristol City Council LibDem Central Planning Committee councillors: Christian Martin, Alf Havvock, Alex Woodman (chair); LibDem Council leader Simon Cook, none of which were available; Labour housing spokesperson Cllr. Ron Stone. www.thegeneralbristol.co.uk Jimmy Savile BBC & police scandal rolls on with revelations about how close Savile was to Prince Charles, employed to invite television executives to royal events and helped introduce Charles to his Private Secretary Sir Christopher Airy in 1990. Old HTV documentary about North Wales child sexual abuse & murder. Channel 4 News discover Freemasons religious cult involved in Bryn Estyn sexual abuse scandal. Masonic MP for Filton & Bradley Stoke Jack Lopresti promises to supply this show with Bristol Provincial Yearbook which names Bristol’s freemasons but Jack is overruled by Bristol Grand Master Alan Vaughan and Provincial Grand Secretary Steve Rawlings. Ron Stone tels off deep-rooted masonic corruption where farmers had their estates stolen with no action by masonic police, disposessing smallholders and market-gardeners, with criminal collusion by banks. Culture of masonic criminality and impunity in Somerset. Public Accounts Committee chair Margaret Hodge questions Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) Chief Executive Lin Homer over non payment of tax by multinational corporations Starbucks, Google, Amazon, Asda,  Facebook, Intel, Kraft (who lied, closing Cadbury’s in Keynsham) & Coca Cola, who seem able pick and choose which country they wish to pay tax in.
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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.

This week we invite all four Avon & Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) candidates to explain how they will oversee the force in this newly created US style role as Police Authorities are abolished across the UK. BCfm Police & Crime Commissioner candidates’ discussion – with Peter Levy (Liberal Democrat), Ken Maddock (Conservative), Sue Mountstevens (Independent) and John Savage (Labour).

First Hour: Introduction of candidates and their vision for the role of PCC. Peter Levy is a former Ministry of Defence policeman, Ken Maddock questioned about Conservative minister Lord Green’s responsibility for money laundering, Sue Mountstevens bakery business failed, so will she succeed? John Savage a member of the Merchant Venturers who financed the transatlantic slave trade. Question from Gus Hoyt, Green Party councillor for Stokes Croft & St. Paul’s, Ashley Ward, on Easter 2011 riots in Stokes Croft – how would they have policed it? Riot found to have cost £465,000 and employed resources from 12 different police forces including 160 riot police. Should the police use firearms in potential riot situations? What would policing priorities of the four candidates be: drugs; more police on the street; antisocial behaviour; rural policing or equipment? London police in Stephen Lawrence case were taking two salaries, one from organised criminals and one from public purse, how would the candidates deal with that kind of corruption within the force – most agree root it out. Marina Morris out on the streets of Bristol to ask what you think about the election of Police & Crime Commissioners and how you will be voting. General lack of knowledge of, interest in and enthusiasm for the vote or the process. Could be the lowest turnout ever. Gus raises the question, do we actually need a PCC? Police increasingly using high-voltage Tasers but do candidates think they are ethical?
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Second hour: Tony Gosling and Martin Summers run through this weeks news: Conservative backbenchers and Labour MPs line up together to vote saying UK should pay less to the EU, Northern Ireland prison officer David Black shot dead yesterday, the first prison officer killed for 13 years in the province. Japanese Hitachi firm buying into UK Nuclear Power stations at Oldbury and North Wales, Tunisia – state of emergency extended into the new year, democratic failings in the first state to move in the so-called ‘Arab Spring’. US presidential election next week discussed, Attorney General Dominic Grieve decides it is unlawful for the US to use their UK air bases in any pre-emptive attack they wish to conduct on Iran. Is the UK a ‘soft touch’ when it comes to Serious Organised Crime? Author of ‘Shadow World, Inside the Global Arms Trade, Andrew Feinstein introduces a London based, German owned firm, Marine Force International (MFI) which the German parent firms MAN Ferrostaal AG and Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) plan to use to pay arms deal bribes out of the jurisdiction of German courts. PCC candidates return to a question about declaration of senior police officers’ interests and freemasonry, commenting that masons are attracted to senior police roles and that the characteristic police chequerboard is also found on the carpet of Masonic temples. Tony asks a question on crime and poverty, including the issues of cuts, the closure of mental health facilities, the criminalisation of squatting and how the police are forced to pick up the pieces. Tony asks the candidates on how they would deal with the other end of the scale, rich people’s white collar crime and complex frauds, for example selling public property at lower than market prices. John Savage takes exception to the question wondering whether the question is being asked about the sale of Bristol General Hospital which he oversaw as chairman of UHB NHS Trust. Rural versus urban policing, will the candidates be able to balance the two properly? Whistleblowing, do the candidates they take the issue seriously and how will they ensure whistleblowers are not sacked.
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