Osborne’s regressive budget – Is Britain sleepwalking into a police state?
Friday 10th July 2015
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
Listen live http://www.bcfmradio.com/player
Apologies – there have been problems with the BCfm website ‘listen again’ facility since before Christmas 2014. Any probs mp3s should be on alternative links below by about 9 pm on tx date
First hour: News review: with LibDem Councillor for Cotham Anthony Negus. How has the transition to Mayor gone? – scrutiny committees, unaccountable Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP); Metrobus and Arena; Libraries under threat; Bristol Energy Company. Osborne’s Budget: housing – clip of Abigail Davies from Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) discussing government’s plans for social housing, reducing security of tenure, private rented versus social housing, First Past Post versus PR voting system; Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) picks budget apart for the BBC says 13 million of Britain’s poorer families to be worse off after this week’s budget – taking more from the poor than the rich: regressive taxation, working tax credits, Tory lies on balancing deficit, the economy and banking system are bust. Will Greece do a deal with the Eurogroup, IMF and ECB? – Chinese stock market down, restructuring of debt, more independence with own currency. Christine Townsend discusses Bristol’s Academy schools and unlawful admission arrangements – Cathedral School, fragmentation of school system, council should prioritise ‘free school meal’ & poorer children. PMQs Teresa Pearce MP – 1m elderly not washed, dressed or fed properly; Ofwat says Bristol Water must cut it’s bills – Scottish Water nationalised; Nick Gargan, Chief Constable, has got his job back after sexual harassment case – Police and Crime Commissioner Sue Mountstevens.
download pages
BCfm audio file
Radio4All audio file
Second hour: Investigative reports: Britain sleepwalking toward a police state with Basil Valentine from 21st. Century Wire. Interview with Basil Valentine, from 21st Century Wire – he discusses a creeping police state and cuts to civil liberties: Inquiries Act 2005; Civil Contingencies Act 2004; Tory government suggesting extremism or dissent could be criminalised; total surveillance; abolishing Human Rights Act 1998 would mean lowering protection for sexually abused children; western intelligence agencies behind terror attacks; cuts to Police but not intelligence services; new para-military SAS rapid reaction forces; TTIP in secret European court; cuts to legal aid; social engineering; the press – battle for people’s minds; PMQs with Harriet Harman – the Human Rights Act 1998 is being watered down; the permanent government; BBC – government carving up BBC budget to cut corporation 20%; interview, by C4 News, with Rona Fairhead – head of BBC and Risk Director at HSBC; she hasn’t made a fuss about BBC budget cuts so is she being blackmailed or just dim? Free country? Access to law and freedom of expression. Basil Valentine can be seen and heard at www.21stCenturyWire.com Interview with Kevin Cahill, author of ‘Who Owns the World’ and journalist at Exaro News: Hillsborough; Met Chief Constable Bernard Hogan-Howe prosecuting journalists and gagging the press at public expense; establishment in crisis; PRISM and the USA spying on us being a criminal offence – Kevin is taking several corporations that are part of PRISM to court e.g. Microsoft, Google, Facebook; The companies, revealed by NSA’s whistleblower Edward Snowden to be using Prism to steal data are Apple, Microsoft (including Hotmail) Google, Facebook, Yahoo, YouTube, PalTalk, AOL and Skype. The CIA, NSA, GCHQ. Iran nuclear deal nearing a conclusion but US and Israel trying to scupper it. Remote Gordonstoun School in the Scottish Highlands – where various male royals have been sent – papers to do with allegations of child sex abuse have disappeared and teacher Derek Jones who was sexually abusing pupils has died in a car accident. The West is losing twitter battle so the British Army should use social media to spread lies. Hacks and spooks – 50% of media are working for NATO intelligence agencies.
download pages
BCfm audio file
Radio4All audio file
Kudos to Martin Summers. Your prognosticated the Greeks would vote no on last weeks show, 7.3.15, 3 days before the vote. All of the talking heads on tv and radio were all saying Greece would cave in. Bravo to the Greeks. I hope and pray the no to austerity and neoliberalism from the birthplace of democracy spreads all the way to the UK and US. Already one candidate for president here Bernie Sanders is campaigning on closing the wealth gap and get back on the road to social democracy that was stopped and pushed back by the masters of the universe(e.g. the bilderberg club)in the late 1970’s here in the US.
dahszil
male
usa
beware “happiness psychology” and “fun morality”. it is brainwashing for the well healed to compartmentalize out of their conscience the nasty and exploitative things they do to fleece, exploit, make miserable kill the common people here and abroad. cognitive dissonance, which makes us angry about things our amalgamated corporate and government(Mussollini defined this as his fascism) does to innocent people(e.g. the millions who have died for oil) or feel guilt about the bad things we do to others. True happiness comes from doing good for people and to fight and protest that which does harm to our fellow fellow humans. Of course we all are mere humans and we have to derive happiness from humor and enjoying life when it does not keep others in misery for our pleasure(like low paid workers and the poor child scavengers in e.g. the Congo for the coltan for our smartphones)
the reply is to my declaration above. it may sound idealistic and simplistic and non sequiter., and lousy grammar… it is a mere draft in the middle of the night…i will try to revise, extend or edit later…the comment was inspired what tony started talking about 5.22.15, but i wasn’t.
really listening to the specific issue.. thanks for letting all of us make comments.
Marxian economics is a totally different thing than tyrannical and psychological and literal terror-Stalinism. there are all sorts of communism including Christian communism, like their are many variations in all “isms”. One can make a legitimate case that the US and UK have become totalitarian, fascist capitalism states. Singapore is a good example on a small scale of authoritarian capitalism.