Friday 12th 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: Conservative councillor for Brislington East Tony Carey – and chief executive of Creative Youth Network – and the Green party’s candidate for mayor Sandy Hoare-Ruthven – Creative Youth Network – what they do; Green Party Conference in Bristol – main issues covered; New figures revealed on news report filmed in Taunton: at least 449 homeless deaths in UK in the last year – homelessness – regulation of letting market; PMQs homelessness – winter hostels, Bristol’s new St. Annes Hostel, new policy of Theresa May’s on social housing, support services cut for complex needs of homeless, austerity, 300,000 migrants a year – where are they living?;  PMQs Universal Credit – Universal Credit: Charities told to sign ‘gagging clauses’ to protect Esther McVey’s reputation via @Welfare_Weekly – Theresa May saying ‘an end to austerity’; Fran Mier, who has cerebral palsy has had her ESA confirmed after assessment, then stopped three days later; bail out of banks in 2008; PMQs why have bankers responsible for 2008 bank crisis not been brought to account? New regulations, fines; Bristol Council run as a business: Plans to make Bristol City Council ‘more business-like’; Piecemeal ideas, such as putting advertising in Bristol parks , will be brought under one banner with the help of Penny Fell, who as of August is the council’s new director of commercialisation. In a report, she said the “council has no widely understood meaning of the term ‘commercialisation’”, before drafting her own definition: “Bristol City Council will achieve efficiency savings and income growth by developing, implementing and evaluating commercial objectives and activities in a more business-like way”. Some of this new approach may have been seen in a deeply unpopular decision by the council not to renew the lease for Ashton Court miniature railway on the grounds the land could make more money turned over to other uses. PMQs Corbyn – Education – pay cuts for teachers; Mervyn King says 2008 financial crisis was not Labours fault: Labour not responsible for crash, says former Bank of England governor. Mervyn King says there was shared intellectual responsibility across political parties for failing to foresee problems – was an international crisis.

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BCfm audio file

Radio4All audio file

Second hour: Investigative reports: Bellingcat and Skripal affair:  government says of Bellingcats investigation – no conclusive evidence; MH17 and Bellingcat; interview with Eliot Higgins on BBC World at One – how did he find out Petrov was Dr Alexander Mishkin? Is Skripal working with Western secret services? The two Russian men suspected by British intelligence of poisoning Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in England in March shadowed the former double agent in Prague in 2014, Czech Radio (CR) has cited sources as saying. In an October 10 report, CR cited unnamed Czech intelligence sources as saying that the Russians — whom cybersleuthing group Bellingcat says it has unmasked as military intelligence officers Anatoly Chepiga and Aleksandr Mishkin — visited Prague in 2014 and that Skripal was there at the same time. Were Skripals poisoned with Novichok? – not deadly enough; anomalies of Skripal affair; nurse and doctor who initially cleared Skripal airways as they were foaming at the mouth on the bench were not affected by the ‘Novichok’ but detective who just happened upon the scene was poisoned – Wiltshire coroners office in Endless Street Salisbury were clearing the decks for the inquests – expecting two bodies because HUNDREDS would normally die if Novichok were really used, they were supposed to be dead — third Russian possibly involved – Hospital consultant said NOBODY was poisoned with nerve agents: Once we posted a tweet about the seemingly anomalous statements made in a letter to the Times by a senior doctor at Salisbury hospital we’ve seen the issue being raised in many places, most recently on Moon of Alabama. To recap: On March 16 Steven Davies, “Consultant in Emergency Medicine” at Salisbury hospital, wrote the following letter to the Times in response to an article that had appeared there two days earlier.This is the text of the letter: “Sir, Further to your report (“Poison Exposure Leaves Almost 40 Needing Treatment”, Mar 14), may I clarify that no patients have experienced symptoms of nerve-agent poisoning in Salisbury and there have only ever been three patients with significant poisoning. Several people have attended the emergency department concerned that they may have been exposed. None had symptoms of poisoning and none has needed treatment. Any blood tests performed have shown no abnormality. No member of the public has been contaminated by the agent involved. STEPHEN DAVIES, Consultant in Emergency Medicine, Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust” Sergey Fedetov.  Julian Assange – Guardian story. As his isolation intensifies, WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange faces possible threat of eviction, extradition. Wikileaks – Amazon data centres – DNC leaked emails to Wikileaks. Robert S Muller III – key evidence – Skripal came up with stuff to discredit Trump – pee in bed. Back then I did not realise what I now know, that the person being protected was Pablo Miller, colleague in both MI6 then Orbis Intelligence of Christopher Steele, author of the fabrications of the Trump/Russia golden shower dossier. That the government’s very first act on the poisoning was to ban all media mention of Pablo Miller makes it extremely probable that this whole incident is related to the Trump dossier and that Skripal had worked on it, as I immediately suspected. The most probable cause is that Skripal – who you should remember had traded the names of Russian agents to Britain for cash – had worked on the dossier with Miller but was threatening to expose its lies for cash. Army investigates Tommy Robinson photo with soldiers: Tommy Robinson with army. Ben Walker block Tommy joining UKIP story.  Jo Glenton Guardian story – PMQs  British Army – supporting families. Jamal Kashoggi – killed in Istanbul story….Trump discussing killing – will he cut off arms sales to Saudis? – Audio, video recordings prove Khashoggi killed inside consulate: report US and Turkish officials told The Washington Post there are audio and video recordings proving Khashoggi was tortured and murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Video recordings show a Saudi assassination team seizing the journalist after he walked in on October 2. He was then killed and his body dismembered, the officials told the Post – the newspaper that Khashoggi wrote for as a columnist. The audio was particularly gruesome, the sources said. “The voice recording from inside the embassy lays out what happened to Jamal after he entered,” said one official speaking anonymously because the intelligence is classified. “You can hear his voice and the voices of men speaking Arabic. You can hear how he was interrogated, tortured, and then murdered.” Another unnamed official confirmed men could be heard beating Khashoggi on the recording. It was unclear how the Turkish and American officials obtained the recordings.  Why did US Ambass ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley resign? Presidential pressure? Political ambitions to be more warmongering and Zionist than Trump? Ron Unz 9/11 story – false flag attacks by Mossad: Certainly no other nation in the world can remotely match Israel’s track-record of remarkably bold high-level assassinations and false-flag attacks, terrorist and otherwise, against other countries, even including America and its military. Furthermore, the enormous dominance of Jewish and pro-Israel elements in the American establishment media and increasingly that of many other major countries in the West has long ensured that even when the solid evidence of such attacks was discovered, very few ordinary Americans would ever hear those facts. The pattern of behavior is really quite remarkable. Even prior to the establishment of the State of Israel, the various Zionist factions assassinated Lord Moyne, the British Minister for the Middle East, and Count Folke Bernadotte, the UN Peace Negotiator, and made unsuccessful attempts to kill President Harry S. Truman and British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin, while even discussing the possible assassination of Prime Minister Winston Churchill.  The history of military and terrorist attacks is even more striking. One of history’s largest terrorist attacks prior to 9/11 was the 1946 bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem by Zionist militants dressed as Arabs, which killed 91 people and largely destroyed the structure. In the famous Lavon Affair of 1954, Israeli agents launched a wave of terrorist attacks against Western targets in Egypt, intending to have those blamed on anti-Western Arab groups. There are strong claims that in 1950 Israeli Mossad agents launched a wave of false-flag terrorist bombings against Jewish targets in Baghdad, successfully using those violent methods to help persuade Iraq’s thousand-year Jewish community to emigrate to the Jewish state. In 1967, Israel launched a deliberate air and sea attack against the U.S.S. Liberty, intending to leave no survivors, and ultimately killing or wounding over 200 American servicemen before word of the attack reached our Sixth Fleet and it was called off. Interview with Manfred Petritsch from All Smoke and Mirrors Blog about NATO warfare economy and murder of leader of Donbass Ukraine separatists Alexander Zakharchenko: Washington is upping the ante in Ukraine. Kurt Volker, US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations, said in an interview with the Guardian published on September 1 that “Washington is ready to expand arms supplies to Ukraine in order to build up the country’s naval and air defense forces in the face of continuing Russian support for eastern separatists.” According to him, the Trump administration was “absolutely” prepared to go further in supplying lethal weaponry to Ukrainian forces than the anti-tank missiles it delivered in April. “They need lethal assistance,” he emphasized. Mr. Volker explained that “[t]hey need to rebuild a navy and they have very limited air capability as well. I think we’ll have to look at air defense.” The diplomat believes Ukraine needs unmanned aerial vehicles, counter-battery radar systems, and anti-sniper systems. The issue of lethal arms purchases has been discussed at the highest level. The move is provocative and it may have consequences. For instance, Russia could supply the self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine with up-to-date weapons systems in quantities sufficient to deter any military action on the part of Kiev. Once the Minsk accords are no longer functional and cannot command obediance, Moscow could recognize those republics as independent states that are eligible for military cooperation agreements, which would include stationing military bases on their soil. If their governments invited the Russian armed forces to be deployed inside their borders, it would be quite natural to agree to those requests. No international law would be breached. In a nutshell, if the US crosses that red line, Russia will act accordingly. Nobody seems to want a war raging in Ukraine, but that’s what the US weapons supplies would promote, egging the Ukrainian government on to seek a military solution. And what if it loses? Washington would be to blame for such a scenario. By the way, is it a coincidence that Mr. Volker’s interview appeared just as Alexander Zakharchenko, the leader of the Donetsk self-proclaimed republic, was assassinated? Just asking.

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BCfm audio file

Radio4All audio file