Friday 15th May 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 – BCfm website ‘listen again’ facility has been faulty since before Christmas

First hour: news review with Green councillor Daniella Radice. Sixth form teenagers behind this week’s Bristol Against Austerity protest on Wednesday 13th May: Greens did well in local Bristol elections; Mayor Ferguson and how councillors don’t have much power; Bristol Green Capital – £1m spent on eviction which could have been spent on a short adjustment in the route of the £200m Metrobus project; mainstream media deliberately confuse the public. Sixth form teenagers Hannah Patterson and Megan Flaherty discuss why they began Wednesday’s anti-austerity protest in Bristol using Facebook and Twitter, and how it snowballed with about 5000 people turning up Bristol Against Austerity Facebook page; clip of people at the protest discussing why they are there – the austerity agenda is targeting the poorest and most vulnerable in society – the richest ought to be taking the brunt – cuts and privatisation of public services – austerity doesn’t work economically; austerity only survives because of QE; the right wing media bias; how can the Greens help? Theresa May’s ‘anti-extremist’ bill she wants to bring in – banning orders for media and groups – Al Qaeda franchise created by western intelligence services – Charlie Wilson, NATO – schools – entryism; Labour didn’t overspend in last government before international banking crisis (link to graph)  eye-watering clip of Labour MP Tristram Hunt on Question Time saying they did; Prince Charles’s ‘black spider letters’ published, Prince Charles was lobbying hard for years for the badger cull which ended up happening in Gloucestershire and Somerset, close by his Highgrove home near Tetbury, Gloucestershire; Bristol has new powers ‘thanks’ to Mayor Ferguson – will he end up being mayor of the ‘Bristol City region’? Devolution of city regions.
download pages
BCfm audio file
Radio4all audio file

Second hour: Investigative reports: Economics researcher for Friends of the Earth David Powell and former Psychological warfare officer Scott Bennett on power of the energy industry. Interview with David Powell from South West Friends of the Earth: what are the Conservatives energy policies like? Renewable energy, how fragile is the fracking industry? Lower oil prices and European law affecting fracking decisions. Interview with Scott Bennett, former psychological warfare officer, who worked for Booz Allen Hamilton: energy companies influence on government policies; Libya; media narrative and scare tactics; use of fear to control the way people think through psychological warfare; shady US intelligence money in Swiss bank account funding ISIS; Scott was fitted up and put into prison; comic book devised to change the minds of Muslim extremists over the period of a decade developed but it was never used; working with MI6 in Britain. Clip from documentary, ‘Maidan Massacre’ (2014), about sniper attacks in Maidan Square in Ukraine. Secret warfare expert and author of NATO’s Secret Armies, Daniele Ganser, on Julian Charles’s ‘The Mind Renewed’ explains what he thinks happened at the February 2014 Maidan coup in Ukraine. Hollywood documentary not shown on UK TV: Maidan Massacre.
download pages
BCfm audio file
Radio4all audio file

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ary_l4vn5ZA]