Friday 27th July 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: with LibDem councillor for Brislington Jos Clarke: We Care and Repair Jos Clark WE Care & Repair helps people over 60 and disabled people of all ages in B&NES, Bristol, Gloucestershire and North Somerset. Sisters of the Church in St Paul’s Providing food packages and other support to those in need in and around St Pauls. Food is distributed in the Malcolm X Community Centre three times a week and food vouchers are not needed to receive help. Prime Minister’s Questions: Schools are being financially penalised for supporting children with additional needs, David Drew MP tells Theresa May. Schools are being left out-of-pocket if they provide extra support for children with additional needs says Stroud MP David Drew. He’s so concerned about the impact of the National Funding Formula on schools which aim to be inclusive that he raised the issue directly with the Prime Minister on Wednesday. Jos explains that children being assessed for special needs education are being ignored by Bristol City Council’s Education department by not opening the emails so the time limit for processing the claims is not triggered! “Don’t cut my future”, “Hey Marvin, hands off SEND funds” and “I have a right to learn” were just some of the messages angry parents had for Bristol City Council. The Bristol mums have taken the council to court over the authority’s £5million cuts to funding for children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND). They said they did not want other parents to go through what they did, calling the cuts “unlawful” and that it would have a detrimental effect on all children. The court case is the first of its kind in England, with parents all over the country waiting to launch a similar case against their own council. Ahead of the judicial review hearing on Tuesday, July 24, several parents stood outside and chanted for change from the council. Sally Kent, who has a child with special needs, said: “I’ve been through the process of getting an Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP), and we were refused an assessment. The Conservative group is warning Marvin Rees against bringing in a blanket “congestion charge” for Bristol. Tory leader Mark Weston has publicly “put down” his group’s opposition to any future prospect of a congestion charge in the city. Bristol is in the process of creating a ‘clean air zone’ plan which may involve charging private drivers of older or highly polluting cars to enter certain parts of the city. In contrast congestion zones involve charging all cars to enter set parts of the city regardless of their efficiency. Mayor of Bristol’s annual statement to Full Council and responses from political group leaders. Leaders of Bristol’s opposition parties are calling for clarity on the future of the city’s arena. The Green Party’s Eleanor Combley, the Conservative’s Mark Weston and the Liberal Democrat’s Anthony Negus have penned an open letter to Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees asking him to answer key questions about the timeline and decision making process for the project. It comes after the Labour Mayor postponed making a decision on whether the arena should be built in the city centre or Filton Airfield last month to consider new information. Mr Rees claimed Buckingham Group – the contractors for the city centre Temple Island project – and operators Arena Island Ltd had come forward with new offers for the project during a week-long session of scrutiny meetings in to a ‘value for money’ report on the two sites. Both companies claim the Mayor knew about the offers in December. Mr Rees has said a decision on the use of the land at Temple Island will be made before the middle of August, but has remained tight lipped about his current preference. This secrecy has irritated the opposition groups who believe the gravity of the decision warrants the need for “transparent” and “open” discussions. A Labour councillor is calling for Marvin Rees to be deselected if he chooses to move Bristol’s arena project out of the city centre. Councillor for St George Troopers Hill Fabian Breckels also said the Labour Mayor could “kiss goodbye” to his political career if the long-awaited concert venue is not built on Temple Island. The comments were made on social media shortly after Mr Rees gave his annual address to council on Tuesday, July 17. During the speech the 46-year-old gave his strongest hint to date the venue would be moving out of the city centre. Taking to Twitter Mr Breckles said: “If he puts the arena in Filton Marvin Rees can kiss goodbye to his political career, the moves to deselect him would begin immediately. Not joking.” Changes to Bristol City Council’s constitution have been branded a “shameless power grab” that will “effectively neuter local democracy”. The Labour administration insists that the move will make the democratic process fairer and more transparent, as it effectively gives elected councillors from the ruling party more opportunity to make their voices heard on behalf of their constituents. Under the changes, Labour will increase the number of its backbench councillors taking chair roles in committees and decrease opportunities for opposition parties to put forward ‘golden’ motions for debate – which will reflect the proportionality of the chamber instead of working on rotation. All three opposition groups slammed the “constitutional power grab” as an affront to democracy at a full council meeting on Tuesday, with Tory John Goulandris, councillor for Stoke Bishop, likening the administration to a totalitarian regime. “Bristol is not and never should be a one-party dictatorship,” he argued. ‘It’s the lying and the triviality I object to.’ Interview between John Cleese and Emily Maitlis where the Monty Python star explains why newspapers have driven him to the Caribbean. Kevin Cahill: A BBC Spotlight investigation into the man behind the DUP’s record £435,000 donation during the EU referendum has uncovered a trail of illegal activity and foreign money. Richard Cook shipped illegal tyre waste to India in 2009. He presented fake documents to the authorities and left a shipping company with a bill of more than £1m. Prince Charles rued ‘monstrous wrongs’ against bishop later convicted of abuse. Child abuse inquiry hears prince told Peter Ball in 1995: ‘I wish I could do more’. Prince Charles told the inquiry he had been deceived about Ball’s activities. Prince Charles told Peter Ball “monstrous wrongs” had been done to the disgraced bishop and that he wished he could do more to help, the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse has heard. The comments came in a letter sent by the Prince of Wales to Ball in February 1995, two years after the former bishop of Gloucester accepted a police caution for gross indecency and resigned his position in the church. The prince also told the inquiry in a six-page statement that he had been deceived over a long period of time “about the true nature” of Ball’s activities, but denied that he had sought to influence the outcome of police investigations. He said he was unsure whether he was told about Ball’s caution until 2009. In 2015, Ball was convicted of sexual offences against 18 young men and sentenced to 32 months in prison. An independent inquiry last year found that senior figures in the Church of England had engaged in collusion and cover-up over the case. Kevin Cahill has discovered the child sexual abuse files but they’re closed for 100 years. Whitehall child sex inquiry: the 114 files ‘lost’. Home Office admits that it destroyed, lost or could not find ‘potentially relevant files’ between 1979 and 1999. Kevin found 127 childrens home child sexual abuse files just for the London area. Child sex abuse Wanless report: Files concerning Westminster paedophile ring believed destroyed in last few years. Labour campaign: The next Labour government will build things in Britain that for too long have been built abroad because we have failed to invest. Build it in Britain.
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BCfm audio file
Radio4All audio file

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm3axA1AoXE

Second hour: Investigative reports: Charlie Rowley exclusive ‘novichok’ interview with ITV. ITV News exclusive: Where did Charlie Rowley find the ‘packaged bottle of Novichok perfume’? The mainstream media are making almost no effort today to fit Charlie Rowley’s account of his poisoning into the already ludicrous conspiracy theory being peddled by the government and intelligence agencies. ITV News gamely inserted the phrase “poisoned by a Russian nerve agent” into their exclusive interview with Charlie Rowley, an interview in which they managed to ask no penetrating questions whatsoever, and of which they only broadcast heavily edited parts. Their own website contains this comment by their journalist Rupert Evelyn: He said it was unopened, the box it was in was sealed, and that they had to use a knife in order to cut through it. “That raises the question: if it wasn’t used, is this the only Novichok that exists in this city? And was it the same Novichok used to attack Sergei and Yulia Skripal? But the information about opening the packet with a knife is not in the linked interview. What Rowley does say in the interview is that the box was still sealed in its cellophane. Presumably it was the cellophane he slit open with a knife. Wiltshire Advertiser: Doctors warn of super-strength synthetic heroin on the streets of Wiltshire. Dawn’s two sons, Aidan, 23, and Ewan, 19, live with their father Andrew Hope, 46, a senior systems engineer also with high-level security clearance who works at Boscombe Down.  How Russia could attack Britain’s infrastructure: targeting power grid, cutting internet cables and fake news. Russia could kill thousands with an attack crippling infrastructure in Britain, the Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has warned. Gavin Williamson warned of the potential damage from attacks on the power grid and communications cables. His comments have attracted accusations he is being alarmist and the Russian government has dismissed his comments as “like something out of a children’s comic or the show ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus”. But Mr Williamson’s comments on the potential for attacks on UK infrastructure echo earlier warnings from military leaders and security officials. Dr Igor Sutyagin, a Russia expert at the Royal United Services Institute, said “It’s not scare mongering. Technically…  Rosenstein: Russian attack on 2016 election ‘one tree in a growing forest’ of cyber activity – (CNN) Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein called Russian interference in the 2016 US election “one tree in a growing forest” of malign cyber activity when he unveiled the Justice Department’s Cyber-Digital Task Force report in his speech at the Aspen Security Forum on Thursday in Colorado. Rosenstein unveils report that gets tough on cyber security. Children are being used to spy on terrorists, drug dealers and grooming gangs by police and security services in Britain. The government admitted that the use of children as “covert human intelligence sources” could rise as teenagers are increasingly drawn into extremism, gang violence and “county lines” drug running. A report by a House of Lords committee raised concern about proposals to extend the period – from one to four months – that police and the intelligence services use underage informants. Lord Trefgarne, chairman of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, said the change appeared to be founded on “administrative convenience” without sufficient protections in place. Song Guantanamera, The Sandpipers 1966. Guantánamo Bay is the oldest US military base outside of the United States. It is the only foreign military base maintained against the wishes of the host government and the only US military base with an indefinite lease. The United States seized control of Guantánamo Bay at the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898 as it was of huge strategic importance for access to the Caribbean and Latin America. The infamous Platt Amendment in 1901 fortified the United States’ control allowing the US to retain its military presence. To Guantanamo Bay or the electric chair? The Home Office has bowed to pressure over two British-raised jihadis facing the possibility of execution in the US by temporarily suspending cooperation with the American authorities over the case, lawyers have said. El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey after their capture in eastern Syria in January. Although it is only a temporary concession, it marks the first breach in the UK government position. The Home Office could be forced to extend the suspension pending the outcome of a judicial review. Gangs and countergangs: More history than counterinsurgency theory, this book highlights the circumstances in Kenya on which Kitson later based his theories of counter subversion and insurgency. Some of the techniques he utilized include mass detentions, population relocation, food control collection of background information, pseudo-gangs (both double agents and false flag), and tactical patience during intelligence collection. Syria’s Assad says White Helmets are terrorists, will be killed if they don’t surrender. Erdogan says new Israeli law fascist, Hitler’s spirit re-emerging. Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday an Israeli law declaring that only Jews have the right of self-determination legitimises oppression and shows that Israel is a fascist and racist country where the spirit of Adolf Hitler has re-emerged. Israel storms Al-Aqsa compound during Friday prayers, shots fired. Piers Corbyn, an Astro-physicist, is also the founder and Managing Director of Weather Action; highly regarded as providing the most consistently accurate long-range weather forecasts in the UK. Weather Action provides an important service to the business community. Piers has strong views on the ‘Climate Change’ Agenda, observing ‘WeatherAction defends evidence-based science and policy making as the ONLY science. WeatherAction completely supports campaigns for GeoEthical accountability and CLEXIT – Exit from UN Climate Change Deals and against data fraud and political manipulation of data and so-called scientific claims now dominating climate and environmental sciences. Evidence shows that man-made climate change does not exist and the arguments for it are not based on science but on data fraud and a conspiracy theory of nature.’
Radio4All download pages
BCfm audio file
Radio4All audio file