Friday 26th October 2018

BCfm’s weekly Politics Show presented by Tony Gosling

At six – discussing the big stories in Bristol, Britain and around the world
After seven – 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 1hr, Radio4All 3-4hrs, after TX
Any probs mp3s should be on alternative links below by then

First hour: news review: UKIPs take on Theresa May’s Brexit negotiations;  Adam Fleming on different Brexit scenarios;  Tommy Robinson – lunch with UKIP top brass: EDL founder Tommy Robinson went straight from court to lunch with UKIP top brass at the House of Lords after being told he faces wait to learn if he will be jailed for contempt. Tommy Robinson enjoyed a three course meal at the House of Lords yesterday. It came after he was released on bail by a judge over his contempt of court case. He drank red and white wine with Ukip’s Lord Pearson and leader Gerard Batten. His case has been referred to the Attorney General because it is ‘too complex’    – Tommy’s world tour;  PMQs Corbyn – lack of nurses in training – end to austerity in budget? PMQs police cuts;  increase in violent crimes in Bristol: Fishponds murder, Easton ‘stabbing’, St Paul’s assault – three weeks of violence in Bristol. Three serious incidents in three weeks have caused concern among communities. Three weeks of violent disorder in Bristol have resulted in the death of a young man, multiple arrests and the launch of a new police operation;  site safer with squatters in – fire: Ex-squatter on boathouse blaze: ‘They should have let us stay there’. During their stay they claim they improved the site’s safety, even installing fire alarms and extinguishers. Former squatters of an old boathouse gutted by a fire have claimed it would have been saved if it had still been occupied by them. The historic building in Redcliffe Wharf, which has been the centre of ambitious redevelopment plans for a number of years, suffered a devastating fire on Sunday. The empty historic building has long been a home to squatters, with a group of eight who occupied it from the summer of 2016 claiming they had in fact been improving the site’s safety. While the group were officially evicted in April 2018, reports had emerged of more rough sleepers taking over the building. But the fire service confirmed this week that nobody was inside when it erupted into flames. However, one of the building’s former residents, Richard Carey, 27, now living in Easton has spoken out about how the previous evicted group in April had spent the year-and-a-half prior improving safety in the building, including installing fire alarms and extinguishers. He said: “It’s incredibly frustrating to see something like this happen after the work we put into it and the warning we gave to Bristol City Council about what could happen if it was left unoccupied for long enough;  interview with Rick Carey, ex squatter, who was living in the building;  Marvin Rees’ State of the City speech – Bundred report on Council deficit and hence Marvin’s cuts;  about 400 rough sleepers in Bristol – homeless have skills to do up empty buildings;  PMQs Jacob Rees Mogg – Brexit;  Nigel Farage should be an MP – fraud: Tory MP ‘overspent on election campaign to end Farage’s political ambitions FOREVER’
CONSERVATIVE MP Craig Mackinlay spent more than double the legal limit on his general election campaign in 2015 in a bid to end Nigel Farage’s political ambitions forever, a court has heard. The MP, along with his election agent Nathan Gray, 29, and Marion Little 63, who is alleged to have run the campaign, are on trial at Southwark Crown Court in London, accused of deliberately submitting “woefully inaccurate” expenditure returns; Euro scepticism rising on the Continent; Euroscepticism is rising across the continent. Austria: The hard-Right Freedom Party (FPO) has previously been accused of xenophobia and racism. Italy: Italy’s populist Five Star Movement wants to ditch the euro and recently elected an ex-waiter, Luigi Di Maio as leader. Germany: Eurosceptic AfD emerged as the country’s third-biggest party, campaigning hard against Merkel’s open-door stance. France: Marine Le Pen advocates abandoning the euro and curbing immigration while endorsing anti-Islamic policies  Hungary: Viktor Orban (R), leader of the anti-immigration Right-wing Fidesz party, which is firmly opposed to further EU integration. Netherlands: Geert Wilders’ far-right Freedom Party wants to LEAVE the EU and BAN Islam. Poland: President Andrzej Duda (R), leader of PiS, was elected in 2015 with policies largely focusing on anti-Islamic and anti-Russian concerns; opportunities and problems with Brexit – general election? global financial meltdown;  Peter Hain MP names Phillip Green as executive with sexual harassment and bullying claims against him.
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BCfm audio file
Radio4All audio file

Second hour: Investigative reports: Cesar Sayoc named as perpetrator of this week’s alleged letter bombs in US: Suspected MAGA bomber identified as ‘Native American Trump supporter’ Cesar Sayoc. Psychological war games; ‘Strategy of Tension’ BBC 5 Live report from inexperienced BBC reporter Jennifer Smith reports on where the devices were sent and CNN headquarters being evacuated; all terrorist attacks are by FBI: The FBI is ‘manufacturing terrorism cases’ on a greater scale than ever before: The FBI has ramped up its use of sting operations in terrorism cases, dispatching undercover agents to pose as jihadists and ensnare Americans suspected of backing ISIS, aka the Islamic State, Daesh, or ISIL. On Thursday, roughly 67% of prosecutions involving suspected ISIS supporters include evidence from undercover operations, according to The New York Times. In many cases, agents will seek out people who have somehow demonstrated radical views, and then coax them into plotting an act of terrorism — often providing weapons and money. Before the suspects can carry out their plans, though, they’re arrested. – strategy of tension;  PMQs – SNP leader Ian Blackford –  arms deals with Saudi Arabia and Yemen war;  Brazil elections – Bonsinaro looks set to win – legitimate left wing candidates nobbled – SouthCom; Who is responsible for the rise of the fascistic Bolsonaro in Brazil? With Brazil’s second-round election little more than a week away, the fascistic presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who fell just short of winning an outright majority in the first-round vote, has maintained a wide lead over the candidate of the Workers Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores – PT), Fernando Haddad, with the two polling 49 percent and 36 percent respectively. The advent of a government led by Bolsonaro represents a genuine threat to the Brazilian and Latin American working class. The former army captain has vowed to put an end to all forms of “activism” in Brazil in order to force through the demands of international and Brazilian capital for drastic new attacks on the living standards and basic rights of the working class. In a country that was ruled by a military dictatorship for two decades from the 1960s to the 1980s, this is no empty threat. Trump pulling out of INF nuclear weapons treaty with Russia: Trump says US will withdraw from nuclear arms treaty with Russia  Experts warn of ‘most severe crisis in nuclear arms control since the 1980s’ as Trump confirms US will leave INF agreement: Trump was referring to the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF), which banned ground-launch nuclear missiles with ranges from 500km to 5,500km. Signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, it led to nearly 2,700 short- and medium-range missiles being eliminated, and an end to a dangerous standoff between US Pershing and cruise missiles and Soviet SS-20 missiles in Europe. – due to Russian violations; Americans attacked Russian airbase with drones: Over the past year Russia’s chief military base in Syria, Khmeimim Air Base near Latakia (alternately Hmeimim), has come under sporadic waves of attack by small armed drones, which have appeared increasingly sophisticated. Those attacks were assumed to have been the work of jihadists operating out of Idlib, such as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, who launched the small makeshift drones in an attempt to penetrate Russian defenses, even targeting the Russian naval facility at the Syrian port city of Tartus in addition. The Kremlin now says, based on new intelligence provided by the Russian defense ministry that a major attack on Khmeimim last January was coordinated by a US spy plane. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov presented statements confirming Russian intelligence has produced “undoubtedly a very alarming report” which finds a US P-8 Poseidon surveillance plane was behind the nighttime January 8th attack which involved 13 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in total — 10 approached Khmeimim while 3 attempted an attack on the naval facility in Tartus.  – arms sales;  Denmark – 12 years in prison for pro Russian views: Danish lawmakers have gone on the offensive against interference in public debate, sparking criticism that a new proposal, which could entail criminal liability for expressing opinions similar to those of Moscow, may become a step toward silencing public debate. According to a bill brought forward in local parliament, Danes could face a jail term if they voice dissent over the government’s position on Russia.The proposal, which is said to be meant to “strengthen efforts against illegal influence from foreign intelligence services,” would introduce criminal penalties for perceived “meddling” in public debates and attempts to influence decision-making. Crimes committed during an election campaign would entail a maximum prison term of 12 years. 20 Palestinians injured by Israeli army;  Human Rights Watch condemn Palestinian Authority; China’s ‘education centres’, up to a million interned for non-extremism training – John Sudworth BBC China correspondent; Kangaroo Court: US runs Hague’s International Criminal Court but won’t sign up to it – Christopher Black, lawyer, on war criminals going to jail – Yugoslavia and Milosevic being poisoned in prison – International Criminal Court: The death of Slobodan Milosevic was clearly the only way out of the dilemma the NATO powers had put themselves in by charging him before the Hague tribunal. The propaganda against him was of an unprecedented scale. The trial was played in the press as one of the world’s great dramas, as world theatre in which an evil man would be made to answer for his crimes. But of course, there had been no crimes, except those of the NATO alliance, and the attempt to fabricate a case against him collapsed into farce.
Radio4All download pages
BCfm audio file
Radio4All audio file