Friday Drivetime
22nd Feb: 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: BBC Strike on Monday, Father of the Chapel at BBC Bristol Matthew Hill explains why the National Union of Journalists have withdrawn their labour. BBC have a history of blacklisting employees in collaboration with MI5 in the 1980s ‘Christmas Tree Files’ episode. Deadlier than 7/7? Officers swoop on three Islamic extremists Irfan Naseer, Irfan Khalid, and Ashik Ali who are supposed to have masterminded a suicide bomb plot “bigger than 7/7”, but were there plea bargains in this case and was there an element of entrapment as in so-called US terror plots set up by the FBI? ‘Helping MI5 ruined my life’: Man whose house was used as spy base in airliner ‘liquid bomb plot’ sues Met for wrongful arrest. Constantinos Alexandrou gave up his home to MI5 – a move he claims cost him his relationship. The justice and security bill is ‘a chilling affront to British justice’. Secret courts being pushed by Ken Clarke, should have no place within our judicial system. Mayor’s plea for Bristolians to come together to save money on electricity bills. Bristol Switch and Save is a new not-for-profit collective buying scheme where residents and small businesses on a domestic tariff can join together to get a better deal: visit www.bristolswitchandsave.org.uk Families can be better off on benefits than in work, says Bristol City Council-run advice line. The Family Information Service, based in Easton, is designed to provide statutory advice to parents on everything from child minding regulation to finding play groups, but manager Wendy Jackson said that most of the advice given now relates to the affordability of child care provision. Advisor Jessica Kelly, who specialises in giving young mums this sort of sensitive financial advice, said the team never directly encourage parents not return to work. But she added: “There can be situations where, if a person took a job for just a few hours per week they could end up being financially worse-off than being on benefits. Bristol has highest child poverty figures in south west. A quarter of all children in live in poverty, a new report claims. When given by constituency Bristol South has an even higher level of deprivation, with 29 per cent of children living in poverty. UN official alarmed by rise of food banks in UK. Britons’ reliance on handouts could represent human rights abuse says Olivier de Schutter, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. “The right to an adequate diet is required under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (IESCR),” Mr de Schutter told The Independent. “Governments have a responsibility in ensuring adequate diets.” Nottingham Costa Worker picked from 1,700 applicants for just eight jobs at new coffee shop Just 3 of the jobs – with wages from £5.40 to £10-an-hour – were full-time Some rejected applicants had more than 15 years experience in retail More than 1,700 job hunters applied for just eight vacancies at a new cafe it emerged today – highlighting the extent of the employment crisis across Britain. So where did it come from? The answer is simple. The bill is the idea of the very people it will most benefit – the intelligence services, civil servants and government ministers – which is why they are lobbying like hell for it. Amnesty International, JUSTICE, Liberty and Reprieve say Secret courts threat graver than ever after government overturns Lords amendments to Justice & Security Bill Tory MP Andrew Tyrie warns that government is in danger of ‘closing down access to the truth’ Ken Clarke, the minister without portfolio in charge of the legislation. Anger over £1m pay deals for rail bosses as fares keep going up Information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showed executives at Go-Ahead, FirstGroup and Network Rail were getting deals worth more than £1m when assorted bonuses and other benefits were taken into account. Meanwhile, a passenger satisfaction survey published today by consumer magazine Which? shows that more than half of the companies running Britain’s train network were given scores of less than 50 per cent. The research showed that only 22 per cent of train users felt the service they received was improving, despite rising ticket prices. It was revealed last month that ScotRail boss Stephen Montgomery received a £54,000 pay rise, taking his salary up to £333,000 in 2012. The company is owned by FirstGroup, where chief executive Tim O’Toole was paid £846,000 last year, plus a £134,000 pension contribution and £75,000 as benefits in kind. Accounts showed that, in the year ending March 2012, FirstGroup made an operating profit of £110.5m on its UK rail business. The FirstGroup chief executive’s remuneration package was worth more than £1m last year. The American executive left a lucrative job with London Underground – where he earned the CBE for his response to the London 7/7 bombings – to join FirstGroup.
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Second hour: Forget Oscar Pistorious – 9/11 and Philip Marshall Murder/Suicide? A Trip To Murphys Philip Marshall allegedly shot his two teenage children Alex Marshall (17) and Macaila Marshall (14), his dog, and then himself inside his home in Murphys, California, while his “estranged” wife was out of the country. A former guest on Coast to Coast with George Noory, Marshall’s bio for that site states “Marshall has researched 30 years of covert government activities, a revolving door of Wall Street tricksters, media moguls and their well funded politicians into every branch of our government. Post 9/11, Marshall has led a comprehensive, ten year study into the tactical plan used by the 9/11 hijackers and is the leading aviation expert on the September 11th attack.” The same biography also describes Marshall as a “former government special activities contract pilot.” Bilderberg attendee Amazon ‘used neo-Nazi guards to keep immigrant workforce under control’ in Germany Amazon is at the centre of a deepening scandal in Germany as the on-line shopping giant faced claims that it employed security guards with neo-Nazi connections to intimidate its foreign workers. ARD television channel made the allegations in a documentary about Amazon’s treatment of more than 5,000 temporary staff from across to work at its German packing and distribution centres. The film showed omnipresent guards from a company named HESS Security wearing black uniforms, boots and with military haircuts. They were employed to keep order at hostels and budget hotels where foreign workers stayed. “Many of the workers are afraid,” the programme-makers said. The Brussels Business documentary is shown on English Language channel Russia Today which looks at Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) in Brussels. Revealed: UK sells arms to Sri Lanka’s brutal regime despite litany of rights abuses The sales indicate how far President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government has been welcomed back into the international fold by Britain, despite the behaviour of his armed forces during the brutal last few months of the 2009 civil war. The conflict was the culmination of a 30-year conflict with violent Tamil Tiger separatists and resulted in the deaths of between 60,000 and 100,000 people over a four-month period, most of whom were civilians. Sen. Lindsey Graham says US drones have killed nearly 5,000 people. For the first time ever, a senior US senator has publicly announced the number of victims of America’s ever expanding drone war – and apparently it’s even bigger than some independent researchers have suggested. “We’ve killed 4,700,” the Council for Foreign Relations says Senator Graham told the crowd. “Sometimes you hit innocent people, and I hate that, but we’re at war, and we’ve taken out some very senior members of Al-Qaeda.” International financial consultant and former member of staff at the Bank of England Muhammad Rafeeq (part 2) (part 3) on his experience doing Data Processing (DP) at the bank in the 1980s converting the old paper system of guarantees to a new electronic version. He believes our core understanding of banking is deliberately misleading, misunderstanding to the core. The City of London is like a cult, now a criminal cult, with positions on the banking boards going only to Old Etonians. Banking slavery, he says, is the norm, with a tiny financial elite keeping the population in bondage. We just had a brief respite since the second world war. Most people prefer to wait for the train crash to happen rather than work to stop the crash happening. Criminal elite defrauding the public through figures of of £70-80 trillion in the Libor scandal yet not a single person has gone to court. There is no longer any moral hazard to fraud in the City of London. Martin Summers describes Britain as having become a ‘Mafia State.
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