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 Councillor for Westbury-On-Trym and Deputy Mayor of Bristol Geoff Gollop. Geoff’s recent visit to Cuba and Geoff explores the pros and cons of life under communist Fidel Castro. After Libor, Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) fraud and Interest Rate Swap fraud this week we have ‘mis-sold’ fraudulent credit card insurance (CPP), more fraud from the banks; July 2013 figures out and deficit is going up, even with all the cuts, and an in-depth clear discussion on how this has impacted the bottom line, the national debt approaches £1.2tn and how all this impacts the real rather than the casino economy; Soldier ‘N’s letter at former soldier Danny Nightingale’s court Marshal claiming the SAS were involved in the assassination of Princess Diana in 1997. Danny Nightingale was keeping a firearm and ammunition but has has his former housemate ‘Soldier N’ simply lost the plot? Petition launched, aimed at Bristol Mayor George Ferguson, to close all strip clubs and lapdancing clubs in Bristol;  Guardian: NSA pays £100m in secret funding for GCHQ. Secret payments revealed in leaks by Edward Snowden. GCHQ expected to ‘pull its weight’ for Americans. Weaker regulation of British spies ‘a selling point’ for NSA. Investigative journalist Duncan Campbell on his prosecution by the secret state and GCHQ in the 1980s and his BBC Zircon film which showed GCHQ had been hiding expenditure from parliament. He suggests too that Michael Miranda’s arrest under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act was nothing whatever to do with terrorism, that GCHQ are afraid of public and parliamentary scrutiny, they might be caught out bluffing and deceiving parliament that they needed £1bn of public money when they didn’t at all, so is history repeating itself?
[audio: 201308231700]
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb50-ouA-IA&w=480&h=360]

Second hour: Former SAS soldier from UK Veterans For Peace Ben Griffin has just returned with former Royal Navy medic Mike Lyons from a speaking tour of the United States. After an MoD injunction in 2008 Ben is not allowed to speak about any of his experiences while in the British Army but you can watch or read his pre-injunction speech to Stop The War here. They also attended the national convention of their sister Veterans For Peace organisation in the US. Ben and Tony discuss former SAS soldier Danny Nightingale, now having his second court martial for illegal posession of ammunition and a firearm, who says he did a tour of duty in Syria but Britain has not declared war on Syria or vice-versa and is not allowed to have troops there…  Round up of international stories with Martin Summers: William Hague Is “Going To Nuremberg” If He Attacks Syria: This week’s apparent chemical weapons (sarin?) attack on the outskirts of Damascus in Syria – who did this? UK Foreign Secretary William Hague has been a member of Conservative Friends of Israel since he was 15 years of age. In an interview with the French TV station LCP, former French minister for Foreign Affairs Roland Dumas said: ’ I’m going to tell you something. I was in England two years before the violence in Syria on other business. I met with top British officials, who confessed to me that they were preparing something in Syria. This was in Britain not in America. Britain was organizing an invasion of rebels into Syria. They even asked me, although I was no longer minister for foreign affairs, if I would like to participate”. Press TV banned in Britain, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) appear to have simply told YouTube to disable Press TV’s YouTube account and they have done it! Former dictator Mubarak freed in Egypt;  protests against drone strikes in Yemen;  clip of former US intelligence linguist Scott Ricard on ‘banned in Britain’ Iranian channel Press TV about Israel attacking Syria being multiple unprovoked war crimes; clip of Oliver Stone’s son Sean Stone on Russia Today. Richest 1000 in Britain have each made an average of £35m out of ‘financial crisis’ in the last year. Remploy sacking and Bedroom Tax ConDem Coalition vindictive financial mismanagement: George Millman from ‘Bristol Against the Bedroom Tax’  promoting a protest on Saturday 24th August on College Green.  A petition is also being collected against this tax, go to this website to sign:  http://epetition.bristol.public-i.tv/epetition_core/view/NoBedroomTax  This unfair tax is discussed and how it’s not even going to save the government any money.  A clip of Mark Steel talking at The Peoples Assembly Against Austerity at London’s Westminster Hall… Who’s got all the money? It’s the poor! Let’s get the poor to pay off the debt caused by the bankers!
[audio: 201308231800]
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