Friday Drivetime

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: Britain’s years of lead? Relying on each other more but trusting each other les in a dog eat dog society. Empty offices, Redcliffe Wharf development and the old brewery. Whose to blame for the austerity and cuts, the previous Labour government or the bailed out banks? Closure of the city’s elderly people’s care homes and privatisation of home care. London Metropolitan University’s £500m budget is being privatised, contract winners to be announced by the end of August. Wikileaks reveals US government contracted private security company Abraxas to run TrapWire spy camera software, linking national CCTV and secretly spying on everyone. Wikileaks is immediately hit with world’s biggest ever Distributed Denial Of Service (DDoS) attack taking the site down for ten days. Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange granted asylum in Ecuador but still stuck inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Foreign Secretary William Hague doesn’t want to do a deal, he is running the country this week as Clegg and Cameron are away. Recent case of blind Chinese dissident lawyer Chen Guangcheng who took refuge in China’s US Embassy, after escaping house arrest, and was allowed passage to the USA. Plans to close Bristol’s City Centre BRI Accident and Emergency in order to cut £17m over five years. General Medical Council (GMC) considers 68 ‘mistakes’ by Home Office pathologist Freddy Patel in the case of Ian Tomlinson who died after the G8 protests in London in 2009. National news coverage for alternative currency, good for the payment of local taxes, the Bristol pound to be launched in September. News review with retired policeman, Liberal Democrat Councillor for Knowle & former Lord Mayor, Chris Davies.
[audio: 201208171700]

Second hour: PFI consultant Dexter Whitfield from European Services Strategy Unit which examined the Tower Of London Royal Armories PFI failure looks at the economics of Private Finance Initiatives generally and Southmead NHS Hospital in particular. How much more do we pay when a hospital or school is built in this way? Branson cries foul as US owned First Group win West Coast main line rail franchise. Steve Sa’tan of Rail Futures joins us to discuss. The princess who took on the Land Mines industry, and lost. Simone Simmons describes telephone threat allegedly from Tory Armed Forces Minister Nicholas Soames telling Diana, ‘You never know when an accident is going to happen’. 14 months previously, on national TV, Soames had said Diana was in ‘the advanced stages of paranoia’. Extract from new book Paris-London Connection: The Assassination of Princess Diana by Australian author John Morgan.
[audio: 201208171800]