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

APOLOGIES: due to an internal BCfm tech error only the first half of the first hour of this show is available
LISTENER APPEAL: if you have a copy of the show please let us know and we will share a link here
UPDATE: after 2.5 days these shows have now appeared on the BCfm website – thanks Michael 🙂

First hour: News review with Birthday Party candidate who stood for mayor of Bristol and in the recent local elections Dave Dobbs. Dave is author of the book ‘Laughing Gas’. We hear about the falling membership in political parties since World War Two and ask what proportion of people are in Trades Unions compared to Political Parties? Membership of trades unions is 15 times greater than UK political parties. The politicians don’t control the game any more, if they ever did, the private bankers do. Money is not a finite commodity: How banks create money out of thin air then lend it out at interest. Fractional Reserve Banking a form of legalised counterfeiting, the economy, party politics, voxpop by Marina Morris on party leaders and party politics.  Mayor Ferguson today announced his new multi-party cabinet as follows: Cllr Mark Bradshaw (Lab) – Transport, Planning, Strategic Housing and Regeneration; ‘Bristol City Slacker’ Cllr Simon Cook (Lib Dem) – Leisure, Tourism, Licensing and Community Safety (policing); Cllr Geoff Gollop (Cons) – Finance and Corporate Services; Cllr Gus Hoyt (Green) – Neighbourhoods, Environment and Council Housing; Cllr Barbara Janke (Lib Dem) – Health and Social Care; Cllr Brenda Massey (Lab) – Children, Young People and Education. Labour’s demand for voting rights in cabinet over the mayor’s decisions has been agreed, but the mayor will still have overall decision-making powers – meaning he can override the wishes of a majority in cabinet if he wishes. Stories covered: night shelters closing because not classed as a dwelling so cannot get housing benefit; European Commission raids Shell and BP offices investigating evidence that petrol prices have been rigged for a decade – rigged to keep the rich wealthy, there is no free market. In the House of Commons Tory MP for Harlow, Robert Halfon and Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Caroline Flint on petrol price fixing;  All four Bristol MPs come out against mayor George Ferguson’s possible congestion charge; Stephanie Bottrill from Solihull committed suicide because she couldn’t pay the bedroom tax. In the House of Lords architect of this benefit reform Lord Freud tries to explain; German water cannons set to be approved for possible summer riots across the UK; Prince Charles supporting a despotic dictatorship in Bahrain with lucrative ‘Poundbury’ style eco-development deal.
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Second hour: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Moscow to try to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to his plans to get his friends in the US and the EU to invade Syria and Iran but gets a frosty response. Meanwhile another Russian fleet moves into the Eastern Mediterranean and Syria and Iran get a Russian upgrade to their anti ship missile systems. NORML conference at the Malcolm X Centre in Bristol this weekend on legalisation of soft drugs. Former MI5 officer Annie Machon is speaking on Saturday afternoon and former Scotland Yard Fraud Squad detective Rowan Bosworth-Davies is speaking about money laundering on Sunday. Drug cartels are now propping up the banking system. ‘Impunity for the UK ‘super-elite’ like in a ‘Banana Republic’. Former MI5 officer Annie Machon removed from UN discussion panel by Jewish organisation B’nai B’rith. Drugs, CIA, South America and corruption; US military’s ‘Unified Command Plan’ (see map above) which shows the Pentagon consider it their job to control the entire world; NATO zone banking system could be about to collapse. Bomb attack on the Turkish border this week but was it really the Syrian army who planted the bombs? The media say one thing so one is tempted to believe the opposite since NATO zone MSM is being used for pro-war propaganda. We heard from Chris Bollyn a couple of weeks ago about the Terry Gilliam Film ‘Brazil’ where terrorism is a ‘normal’ everyday occurrence and nobody ever knows who is really planting the bombs, this has become the daily reality in Iraq and a lesser extent Pakistan today. Are Iraqi people reminiscing about the pre 2003 days of ‘Evil Dictator’ Saddam Hussein when so-called terrorist bombs didn’t go off every day? Who is really planting these bombs? NATO? Israelis? Terrible and horrificly regular bomb attacks on Mosques in Pakistan and Iraq this week which mirror attacks two generations ago on Synagogues in Nazi Germany. Is this the old ‘divide and rule’ with a warmongering elite trying to set one religious community against another? Comparison with the former Catholic versus Protestant conflict in Northern Ireland. Malcolm Shabazz’s Suspicious Death… A grandson of Malcolm X, who was also a political activist, is killed in suspicious circumstances in Mexico. Independent journalist website Athens Indymedia exposing links between the far right Golden Dawn party and police – attempts to close it by Greek government. Julie Boston joins us from Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways (FOSBR) to discuss everything from the Portishead and Severn Beach lines to the projected electrification of the Bristol to Paddington line and the high speed HS2 link to Leeds via Birmingham. Excerpt from ‘straight to YouTube’ internet film The Road To World War Three  – next week Al Jazeera’s ‘The Secret Of The Seven Sisters‘
[audio: 201305171800]
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