Friday 29th April 2016

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 or http://stream.bcfmradio.com:7017/live.mp3

BCfm audio files usually available 2 hours after TX
Any probs mp3s should be on alternative links below by then

First hour: News review: party leaders Green: Ani Stafford-Townsend, Labour: Helen Holland & Conservative: councillor Alasdair Watson. Helen Holland, Leader of Labour; Ani Stafford-Townsend, Leader of Greens;  Alistair Watson in place of Mark Watson, Leader of Conservatives;  absent: Gary Hopkins, Leader of Lib Dems & Michael Frost, UKIP Councillor – didn’t come. 70 Councillors in 34 wards up for election in Bristol; Is politics a stitch up, as anarchists think? –  rich don’t pay enough tax and poor not looked after, people should participate in politics;  Bristol Arena – how long will it take to pay off £93m debt with interest? – jobs, Local Enterprise Partnership; Bristol £200m MetroBus project – compromise, only 3 an hour;  Metro Mayor – Bristol will be given £1bn bribe (over 10 years) if agree, West of England Partnership, strategic planning, referendum for Mayor and Metro Mayor;  Do councillors have any power, after the introduction of the Mayor?;  Have we got enough council houses? – interview with Anthony Palmer, ex-army, who is squatting one of council houses with son that was sold at auction by council – Pip n Jay’s Sleep Out with homeless, Paul Saville argues with Mayor Ferguson and lady who works in Broadmead interjects – condition and cost of private rented housing, Tory plan of Right to Buy; EU Referendum – In or Out?;  Labour Party and anti-Semitism.
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BCfm audio file
Radio4All audio file

Second hour: investigative reports: Labour Anti-Semitism row – and international news round up: The recent result of the inquiry into Hillsborough – clip of investigative journalist Roger Cook (from Cook Report) saying was a ‘large scale heavy duty cover-up’. Port Talbot Steel Plant closure – public ownership, key part of national defence, Thyssen-Krupp, clip from BBC 5Live of Jonathan Aylen from Manchester Business School on Port Talbot steel works whose order book is already going to Ijmuiden Dutch Steel Works near Amsterdam. Bank crash.  Is there any anti-Semitism in Labour Party? “Hitler was supporting Zionism” Ken Livingstone suspended – clip of what he said; Nazi deal with Zionists in 1933, The Transfer Agreement – clip of news report about this and Edwin Blacks book; Zionist movement and Israel staying within it’s 1948 borders decided in UN; Marek Edelman, leader of Warsaw ghetto uprising; John Mann MP having a go at Ken Livingstone in front of BBC Millbank studios – was Livingstone set up?; Sanctions on Israel? Five most shocking quotes of Oliver Letwin – e.g. you can’t trust black people with money and white people don’t riot. UK industrial output slides, trade deficit widens on darker global outlook – banks insolvent, Britain most vulnerable to crash. DWP could be forced to publish secret details of benefit claimant suicides. Russia signs contracts worth $950m for Syria reconstruction – oil pipelines across Syria. 7,420 Egyptian civilians tried in Military courts martial under President Sisi – mostly Muslim Brotherhood, Muslim Brotherhood in Syria. Will Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff, be impeached – Olympics. Hillsborough and connections with Freemasonry – P2 Lodge, Operation Tiberius. Operation Market Garden during WWII at Arnhem during the liberation of Holland: Interview with Barry Wynne, former executive at one of first ITV 1950s franchises ABC TV, discussing his meeting with Colonel Oreste Pinto who told him about Dutch ‘resistance fighter’ King Kong or Christian Lindemanns – a German Abwehr spy and the Traitor of Arnhem.
Radio4All download pages
BCfm audio file
Radio4All audio file
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3we8Sg9oOs&w=420&h=315]

Friday 22nd April 2016

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 or http://stream.bcfmradio.com:7017/live.mp3

BCfm audio files usually available 2 hours after TX
Any probs mp3s should be on alternative links below by then

Download/listen to complete PCC hustings – in one 1hr 30min  mp3

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfBlcvZrbmE]
Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner hustings
BCfm Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioers hustings
00:01 Introduction no law for elite white collar and war criminals or paedophiles
02:54 Independent – Sue Mountstevens
05:29 An un-democratic election: prohibitive cost of £5,000 deposit to stand as a Police and Crime Commissioner. Only election with no mailshot to Avon & Somerset’s 1.6m electorate.
06:20 LibDem – Paul Crossley
10:14 Green party – Chris Briton
14:08 Independent former chair of Avon and Somerset Police Federation – Kevin Phillips
54:37 Labour Party – Kerry Barker
17:06 Mark Weston and Aaron Warren-Foote excused
17:45 Rise in police having to deal with the mentally ill particularly out of hours
26:08 Predictive policing, how successful is the ‘Prevent Strategy’ and does it unnecessarily target Muslims?
34:38 Austerity: since David Cameron became Prime Minister in 2010 Avon and Somerset have lost 20%, thats 700 officers. Can the police continue to prioritise neighbourhood policing and police by consent?
40:51 Too big to jail? Are white collar criminals above the law selling public assets to their friends for far less than their real value? Bristol General Hospital sold for only £6m and Bristol Port sold for roughly £45m.
42:25 Ian Fraser on 1992 Blue Arrow trial and 2000 Financial Service and Markets act section 166 giving green light to Fraud, False Accounting and Money Laundering.
44:30 Perception that police work on easier crimes and not so much on the difficult ones. Has Avon and Somerset got an establishment that is above the law?
54:37 Labour party candidate Kerry Barker
56:14 Sue Mountstevens responts to Kerry Barker’s criticism of disbanding police ‘specialist teams’
57:25 Child sexual abuse and allegations of sexual abuse of young police cadets by force medical officer Dr Reginald Bunting
1:05:49 Is it true police officers have to be freemasons to gain promotion above the level of Inspector
1:10:43 Police Officers infiltrating environmental groups have formed relationships with individuals and even had children with them before disappearing over the horizon – the Pitchford enquiry is looking into this should those behind these decisions be prosecuted? Also XLW
1:17:45 50,000 volt Tasers are becoming more common in use by the police. As a potentially lethal weapon is their se appropriate by the police and if so how?
1:24:48 Criminal damage or Street Art? Bristol is Graffiti capital of Britain but is it going too far?
Studio Engineer – Bruce Williamson
Conservative – Mark Weston (not present – sore throat);
UKIP – Aaron Warren-Foote (not present – milking cows)

First hour: Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner hustings part 1: Discussion with PCC candidates:
Independent – incumbent – Sue Mountstevens;
Labour – Kerry Barker;
Lib Dem – Paul Crossley;
Green party – Chris Briton;
Independent, former chair of Avon and Somerset Police Federation – Kevin Phillips;
Conservative – Mark Weston (not present – sore throat);
UKIP – Aaron Warren-Foote (not present – milking cows)
What has Sue achieved in the last four years? £5,000 is anti-democratic, way too expensive a deposit to stand for PCC; Why should people vote for each candidate? £60m of cuts – 700 officers gone; Police are dealing with mentally ill more and more, especially out of hours – how will PCCs improve this situation? Austerity and ideological cuts by Tories; Unfortunately Mark Weston could not be here to explain the wisdom or otherwise. Does the ‘Prevent Strategy’ work? Predictive policing, clip of Nahella Ashraf from ‘Manchester Stand Up To Racism’ discussing Muslims feeling targeted, freedom of speech, body cams; What will candidates do about erosion of ‘neighbourhood policing’ or ‘policing by consent’? Police stations closing, cyber crime, drug gangs, neighbourhood watch; Will candidates deal with white collar crime? Clip of Ian Fraser discussing impunity of bankers, Blue Arrow trial in 1993 followed by Section 166 of the The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 formally put bankers and the establishment above the law?
Radio4All download pages
BCfm audio file
Radio4All audio file

Second hour: Global news review – Saudi – US – Turkey – followed by Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner hustings  part 2: Martin Summers and Tony Gosling cover some international stories:  Obama to let victims of 9/11  prosecute Saudi Arabia – but Saudi Arabia says if this happens will withdraw assets from USA – 28 pages of 9/11 report not declassified, Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, invasion of Yemen;  Andriy Parubiy, a Neo-Nazi, is made speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament – Turkey their allies;  Charlotte Leslie, local Tory MP, in PMQs asking about Turkey and border agreements – Turkish government unstable, Kurds;  clip of Cuban, Jackie Cannon, discussing Obama coming to Cuba and her book ‘Cuba: One Moment in Time’;  US election;  Bilderberg conference in Dresden – two weeks before Brexit vote – Deutsche Bank shaky.
Back to PCC candidates:  Introduction to Kerry Barker, who arrived late from working at court in Hampshire – he is a barrister for abuse cases – system not good enough in police to deal with abuse cases; IPCC investigating complaints about abuse by A&S Police Force Doctor, Reginald Bunting under Chief Constable David Shattock for alleged abuse of cadets of both sexes and others, under David Shattock, Chief Constable at the time – dealing with abuse, Independent Residents Panel for Police Complaints; Do police still have to be Freemasons to be promoted above the level of Inspector? Kerry Barker says this was a serious problem in some areas such as Portsmouth where masons were infiltrating the magistrates too. Police, Magistrates and Freemasonry in past – register of Freemasons in A&S Police but it’s only voluntary; Should undercover cops behaving irresponsibly be prosecuted? – Spy Cops Pitchford Inquiry and undercover cops in Green activist groups, more training and supervision needed; Use of Tasers – is it better than firearms or truncheons? – investigation into Tasers by A&S Police, body cams;  Bristol’s proliferation of graffiti – is it a criminal offence?
Radio4All download pages
BCfm audio file
Radio4All audio file

COMPLETE TWO HOUR SHOW video & mp3 audio download file

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IecvP4czU8s&w=420&h=315]

INTRODUCTIONS
03:36 George Ferguson (Bristol First)
05:03 Charles Lucas (Conservative)
05:47 Marvin Rees (Labour)
06:45 Kay Barnard (Liberal Democrat)
07:43 Tony Dyer (Green)
08:37 Paul Turner (UK Independence Party)
10:03 Christine Townsend (Independents For Bristol)
11:21 Paul Saville (Independent)

QUESTIONS
12:38 Would the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) be good for Bristol or spell the end of democracy?
19:00 Does spiritual belief have a role in politics?
24:38 Panama Papers, what is candidates’ personal wealth and how much do they have in tax havens?
29:27 What differences with Westminster will you speak out about?
36:35 Is austerity a good policy and is it working for Bristol?
43:22 Bristol’s Merchant Venturers were involved in the genocide of 12 million native Americans and the deaths of 1.5 million slaves who were being transported across the Atlantic but they still have closed accounts because they are governed by a Royal Charter. Can we believe them when they say they put more into the city than they take out? (Charles Lucas is a Merchant Venturer and George Ferguson resigned when he became mayor, Charles does not believe being Mayor and a Merchant Venturer presents any conflict of interest)
49:52 Sell-off of Bristol Port freehold for £10m – ‘Former’ Merchant Venturer Mayor George Ferguson gives his version of 2,600 acre Bristol Port sell off to Bristol Port Company run by Merchant Venturers Terrance Mordaunt and David Ord explaining why the people of Bristol got good value for money: The council sold a 150 year lease on the 2,600 acre port to Bristol Port Company for £35m in 1991 and have just sold the residual freehold for £10m, a total of £45m or about £17,000 an acre. In June 2015 the 12 acre Walon site at Bristol Port was sold for £6m, or £500k/acre suggesting the 2,600 acres of Bristol Port could actually be worth up to £1.3 billion which is about 25 times the £45m Bristol City Council was paid for the land. So did the people of Bristol only get 4% of what the Bristol Port land was really worth? George didn’t remember how much the Labour council, led by George Micklewright, was paid for the 150 year Bristol Port lease (it was £35m)
55:45 Candidate Tom Baldwin from Trades Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) drops by to set out his stall
58:23 Questions for George Ferguson on the City’s annual accounts for 2015 and 2014 as well as a look at those from 1947 brought up to today’s values
01:07:05 The homelessness epidemic: more rough sleepers in Bristol than any other British city outside London, what will candidates do about it?
01:17:37 Widening poverty with hundreds more needing free meals at the Wild Goose cafe on Stapleton Road, we hear from Johnny Angel who runs it and they hear the views of the candidates
01:28:54 Is the mayor a ‘dictator’ and do the candidates approve of the recently announced ‘Metro Mayor’ overseeing Bristol and the surrounding region
01:32:31 Central government is about to force all state schools to become academies, will this improve our education?
01:48:14 Will you be voting in or out in June’s EU Referendum?

Friday 8th April 2016

BCfm’s weekly Politics Show presented by Tony Gosling

Download the complete show as a HiBand mp3 [right click and ‘save file as’]

Listen live http://www.bcfmradio.com/player or http://stream.bcfmradio.com:7017/live.mp3

BCfm audio files usually available 2 hours after TX
Any probs mp3s should be on alternative links below by then

First hour: Mayor hustings 2016 part 1: What are the priorities of each candidate if become Mayor? What do candidates think of TTIP trade deal, is it a further threat to democracy? What are candidates’ spiritual beliefs, and should spirituality play a role in politics?  What is candidate’s personal wealth and do any have money in tax havens or tax avoidance schemes? – this week’s leaked Panama papers. What would candidates challenge central government on? – transport, referendum for Mayor, austerity ideological agenda, devolution, disabled payments.  UK productivity plummets in fourth quarter at fastest rate since financial crisis. Has the economic policy of austerity worked? Works for the rich, tax avoidance, right wing ideology, bail out of the banks. Do the Merchant Venturers give back more to the city than they take? – no open accounts, Royal Charter, slave trading history, involved in schools, an unelected power base, selling off of Bristol docks to two Merchant Venturers
– George gives his version of 2,600 acre Bristol Port sell off to Bristol Port Company run by Merchant Venturers Terrance Mordaunt and David Ord explaining the people of Bristol got good value for money: The council sold a 150 year lease on the 2,600 acre port to Bristol Port Company for £35m in 1991 and have just sold the residual freehold for £10m, a total of £45m or about £17,000 an acre. In June 2015 the 12 acre Walon site at Bristol Port was sold for £6m, or £500k/acre suggesting the 2,600 acres of Bristol Port could actually be worth up to £1.3 billion which is about 25 times the £45m Bristol City Council was paid for the land. So did the people of Bristol only get 4% of what the Bristol Port land was really worth? George didn’t remember how much the council was paid for the 150 year Bristol Port lease (it was £35m)
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BCfm audio file
Radio4All audio file

Second hour: Mayor hustings part 2: Tom Baldwin from Trades Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) explains what he wants to achieve as Mayor. Current mayor George Ferguson explains how Bristol’s £1bn yearly budget is spent – £345m left after regular payments – selling off of 15 council houses and a demonstration beginning tomorrow morning at the Malcolm X centre in St Paul’s, 100 council houses built a year, Bristol’s 1947 accounts compared to today’s accounts, banging on Westminster’s door. More rough sleepers in Bristol than anywhere else in England, outside of London. Carl Mann from ‘Homeless Pay it Forward’ explains why he thinks homelessness is unnecessary in Bristol. Bristol has second largest homeless number after London – how would candidates help them? – drug use, empty buildings, housing crisis. Johnny Angel from the Wild Goose Drop-In Centre discusses how hunger and poverty has increased – living wage, tackling inequality, local income tax, Fair Share food distributors. Is the Mayor’s role a dictatorship, and do candidates want an ‘Ubergruppen’ Metro Mayor? – clip of George from a few years ago, democracy, £1bn Metro Mayor deal – bribery? Should all schools be made Academies?  EU referendum – are candidates in or out?
Candidates on this show: Bristol First – George Ferguson; Conservative – Charles Lucas;  Green party – Tony Dyer;  Labour – Marvin Rees; Lib Dem – Kay Barnard; UKIP – Paul Turner; Trade Union and Socialist Coalition – Tom Baldwin;  Independent – Paul Saville;  Independent – Christine Townsend; Other independent candidates standing: Stoney Garnett, Tony Britt, Mayor Festus Kudehinbu and John Langley. Studio Manager: Bruce Williamson.
Radio4All download pages
BCfm audio file
Radio4All audio file