I am deeply concerned by all of the Tory hype about nationalism and it is even more concerning now that Keir Starmer has jumped on the patriotism and flag-waving bandwagon it does not end well. It’s the vacuous populist rhetoric of idiot politicians like Donald Trump, with no solid policy agenda, just empty rabble-rousing to stir a moronic crowd. Trump’s speech stirred his followers to march on the Capitol in a violent insurrection that led to five deaths; we do not need a similar uprising here in the UK. In a well governed democracy Trump would have faced serious criminal charges, but in a truly phenomenal display of democratic deficit and appalling factionalist weakness there was no accountability for his shameful efforts to incite violence and he remains free to run for office once again in 2024! We must dial down the rhetoric and change the narrative. I’m a ‘Peaceful Patriot of the Planet,’ campaigning for the establishment of a collaborative, mutually beneficial, ethnically and culturally diverse and inclusive global identity.
In the Byline Times Article entitled, “Plastic Patriotism GB News’ Foreign Funders,” Sam Bright reports on, “Andrew Neil’s Union-Jack-branded platform is backed by a range of foreign and right-wing interests, reports. As though the country hasn’t suffered enough over the past 12 months, two well-funded right-wing broadcast operations are now set to launch in the coming months. News UK TV, funded by Australian-American media baron Rupert Murdoch, is vying with GB News to be the first to launch this spring, heralding an ominous new TV ecosystem in Britain. GB News is chaired by former BBC presenter Andrew Neil, who also previously worked for Murdoch as editor of The Sunday Times for 11 years. Yesterday, the Evening Standard carried more information about the imminent launch of the platform and its attempts to lure right-wing presenters from their present habitats, including Julia Hartley-Brewer of talkRADIO, and Nick Ferrari of LBC.”
Bright reports that, “GB News claims that it will challenge the current monopoly of Britain’s broadcasters, namely the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky, by creating a news service that is more representative of the wider population. Judging by the statements made by the company and its executives to date, it will attempt to be considerably more conservative in outlook than the established broadcasters, and less London-centric, though it remains to be seen how the latter will work in practice. There is also a deep hypocrisy embedded in the branding and ethos of the channel. For while it seeks to represent the British people, and wears their flag, it is actually funded and operated by a range of foreign groups and individuals. In terms of funding, GB News has successfully secured £60 million in initial start-up cash, which has come largely it seems from two foreign sources.”
The point is, do we really want US billionaires or any foreign entity warping UK politics in a way that is not in the best interests of our population, but instead fulfils an overseas agenda? So who is invested? Bright reveals that, “The first is Discovery Inc., the $11 billion mass media company that operates the Discovery and Science channels, based in New York City. The second is Legatum Limited, a private investment firm headquartered in Dubai. Legatum funds projects that promote ‘entrepreneurship and free enterprise’ and established a UK-based think tank under its name in 2007. Following the 2016 EU Referendum, the Legatum Institute had an influential role in promoting Brexit and the Vote Leave campaign’s CEO, Matthew Elliott, was a fellow at the institute for a year. Legatum and Discovery are the ‘lead’ investors in the media start-up, but they are joined by other parties.”
Indeed, Byline Times can reveal that GB News is also backed by a New York-based private investment firm called Kibble Holdings. Posting on LinkedIn, the firm’s managing partner Matthew Kibble said that the investment was ‘a little different’ to the firm’s typical approach, ‘but never more important for the world’. Kibble, who appears to have been an early investor in the controversial US big data platform Palantir via his family’s investment firm, also claims to have operations in Dallas and Hong Kong. GB News is also backed by pro-Brexit hedge fund manager Sir Paul Marshall. And as for the management of GB News, the story isn’t radically different. One of the co-founders of the platform is Andrew Cole, a director and board member at multinational telecommunications company Liberty Global. Cole’s LinkedIn profile states that he is currently based in Boston, Massachusetts. Cole has publicly called for the break-up of the BBC.” Palantir have also scored lucrative contracts that will facilitate gaining unfettered access to UK patient data!
Bright reports that, “Cole’s accomplice is fellow media mogul Mark Schneider. Though now apparently based in London, Schneider is American and was educated at the University of Denver. He is a member of Republicans Overseas, the support group for party supporters living abroad. The CEO of GB News, meanwhile, is Australian Angelos Frangopoulos, the former CEO of Sky News Australia. Frangopoulos’ LinkedIn profile indicates that he hadn’t held a role in the UK before joining Cole and Schneider on the board of All Perspectives Limited, the holding company for GB News, in November 2019. This management team is now deploying its bulging bank account to hire 120 journalists, all in the hope of fundamentally altering the make-up of British journalism.” They say, “If you are concerned about the infiltration of right-wing foreign money and influence through GB News, we would recommend subscribing instead to Byline Times and its sister platform Byline TV, a progressive rival to billionaire-backed corporate media machines.”
In the London Economic Article entitled, “#DontFundGBNews trends to persuade advertisers not to spend with any ‘Fox News style’ channel,” Joe Mellor says, “’Morals matter and I won’t fund hate’. Two news channels coming to UK screens are stoking the debate about the future direction of broadcast journalism. GB News is chaired by former newspaper editor and BBC presenter Andrew Neil, and funded by a range of investors including Discovery Inc. News UK TV is backed by Rupert Murdoch, whose Fox News channel has long been a partisan broadcaster in US politics. The channel plans to shake up the TV news landscape, currently dominated by Sky News and BBC News. Bosses of GB News have confirmed two new backers for its 24-hour TV and online service set to launch in the UK later this year.”
Mellor reports that, “In the latest funding round, Dubai-based investment group Legatum and one of the UK’s most prominent hedge fund managers, Sir Paul Marshall, have added their names alongside US broadcasting giant Discovery Inc. Don’t fund Now a group have started a social media campaign to try and get mobile phone companies not to spend on advertising with the new channels. Stop Funding Hate Tweeted: ‘If you want to help stop ‘Fox News style’ TV in Britain: *Tweet your mobile phone company using the hashtag #DontFundGBNews *Urge them not to advertise with GB News or any ‘Fox News style’ channel, & explain why this matters to you.’ They then Tweeted: ‘We’ll share info about GB News advertisers as soon as we have it. In the meantime we think it’s worth engaging now because ad contracts tend to be agreed a way in advance. The more brands are contacted now, the clearer it will be that Brits reject ‘Fox style’ media standards!”
In the Byline Times Article entitled, “Exclusive: GB News Founder in Business With Two Top Priti Patel Appointees,” Nafeez Ahmed, “reveals how Sir Robbie Gibb, who helped found the new ‘anti-woke’ media channel, is tied to the Government’s bid to attack Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion.” He says, “A key original founder and fundraiser for the new right-wing news channel GB News is in a business partnership with two Home Office political appointees who are conducting the Government’s strategic reviews into extremism and political violence. Sir Robbie Gibb, the former Downing Street spin doctor, reportedly led the fundraising drive for the so-called ‘anti-woke’ channel GB News in late 2020. The Mail on Sunday cited a GB News source confirming that Gibb was the driving force behind it, including ‘leading efforts to raise money’ for the group. In September 2020, Guido Fawkes corroborated the story, reporting that Gibb had ‘set up’ GB News.”
Ahmed reports that, “A GB News source told Byline Times that, since then, Gibb has left the venture and is no longer associated with it. However, at the time he founded GB News, Gibb was in a business partnership with John Zak Woodcock, who sits in the House of Lords as Lord Walney; and William Shawcross, the former Charity Commission chairman. In April 2020, both Woodcock and Shawcross were part of a successful bid by the JC Acquisition Ltd consortium led by Gibb to take over the Jewish Chronicle. Four months later, news surfaced that Gibb was setting up another media project, GB News. He had secured the involvement of Andrew Cole, who serves on the board of Liberty Global, which runs Virgin Media and owns 10% of ITV.” That is the same hate filled Jewish Chronicle who have weaponized fantisemitism slurs to discredit Jeremy Corbyn and the progressive Left of the Labour Party in defence of their Zionist agenda. They have also had to pay out on Libel cases as a result of their toxic defamatory fake news.
Ahmed says tha, “At the time, Gibb’s business partner in JC Acquisition Ltd, Woodcock, had already been appointed by Home Secretary Priti Patel as the Government’s Special Envoy on Countering Violent Extremism. He has held the role since November 2019, although it was paused due to the Coronavirus pandemic. It was revitalised in November 2020, when he was appointed as the Government’s Independent Advisor on Political Violence and Disruption. According to the GB News source, Gibb left GB News shortly after setting it up. Gibb did not respond directly to Byline Times. Instead, this newspaper received a statement from a lawyer representing GB News and one of its funders, the private investment firm Legatum, which said that Sir Robbie Gibb was no longer associated with the media group and had left the operation in September 2020. However, his involvement as a founder of GB News was not denied: ‘Robbie Gibb was only involved in the fundraising in the very early stages’.”
Ahmed reports that, “This month, the Telegraph revealed that John Woodcock would be conducting a new Government review into political extremism in Britain, reporting that it would look into how ‘far-left’ groups might ‘hijack’ anti-racist and environmental movements. His review is due to report its findings on the ‘extreme fringes’ of both the right and left to Boris Johnson and Priti Patel next May. A month earlier, William Shawcross was appointed by Priti Patel to the role of the Government’s Independent Reviewer of the controversial counter-terrorism ‘Prevent’ strategy, in a process which former regional chief crown prosecutor Nazir Afzal described as ‘rigged’. In this capacity, Shawcross will review the Government’s policy to prevent people becoming radicalised and supporting or carrying out terrorism. Critics claim that Prevent has had a disproportionate, and in some cases discriminatory, impact on Muslim communities.”
Ahmed reveals that, “Woodcock’s connection with Shawcross through their partnership with the founder of GB News raises its own potential conflict of interest questions. Shawcross was a director at the Henry Jackson Society (HJS), a lobby group with close ties to Steve Bannon and Mike Pompeo, from 2011 to 2012. The group has worked closely with the anti-black movement in the US. Through the last decade, HJS staff regularly attended the annual ‘alt-right’ gathering organised by the David Horowitz Freedom Centre, the founder of which was described by the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC) as the ‘driving force’ of the ‘anti-black movement’. Despite this, Priti Patel has had close associations with the group. She sat on the HJS’ political council until 2016 and had a trip to Washington DC paid for by the group in 2013.”
Ahmed reports that, “The Government’s most pivotal appointments on reviewing its policies on political extremism have ties to the man who first set-up GB News, and both appointees will provide findings and recommendations that will feed into the Prime Minister’s policies on extremism, activism, free speech and protest for years to come. A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘The role is entirely independent of the Government and Lord Walney will be free to consider groups across the political spectrum and make recommendations accordingly’. John Woodcock, known as Lord Walney, did not respond to a request for comment. Sir Robbie Gibb did not respond to Byline Times when contacted for a second time for a request for comment after it received a reply from GB News.”
In the Canary Article entitled, “Head of the government’s politically-charged ‘extremism’ review met with antisemitic neo-fascists,” they uncover a remarkable example of Tory Government hypocrisy. They say that, “It’s claimed that the man the government has charged with the task of conducting a review into political ‘extremism’ in the UK met with members of an ‘extremist anti-Semitic’ party. This revelation exposes a ‘Government offensive against left. In November 2019, home secretary Priti Patel appointed lord Walney (former Labour MP John Woodcock) as the government’s envoy on countering violent extremism. According to the Telegraph, Woodcock will be looking at ‘progressive extremism’ in Britain. That includes how ‘far-left’ groups could infiltrate or hijack environmental movements and anti-racism campaigns. The obvious candidates, presumably, from the government’s perspective, would be Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion. Indeed, Patel has already described the latter as ‘criminals’.”
But according to the Canary, Woodcock himself can be credibly accused of being an extremist! The Canary explain why by pointing out thatt, “On 10 February 2021, the pro-Kurdish ANF News ran an article showing that during a visit to Turkey, Woodcock met with members of the ‘anti-Semitic’ and ‘neo-fascist’ Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The article added that Woodcock was hosted by the Bosphorus Centre for Global Affairs (BCGA). The BCGA is a company run by Berat Albayrak, the son-in-law of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. ANF News regards the BCGA as a government propaganda organisation. Moreover, in 2016, WikiLeaks published thousands of Albayrak’s emails, which appeared to show that Powertrans, a company with which Albayrak is linked, was involved in the import of Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) controlled oil to Turkey.”
The Canary report that, “Kurdistan Solidarity Campaign spokesperson Rosa Gilbert commented: During a trip to Turkey funded by Bosphorus Global, an organisation with links to the President’s son-in-law who has been accused of profiteering from ISIS oil deals, Woodcock met with members of the far-right anti-semitic MHP party with proven links to the fascist paramilitary grouping the Grey Wolves. … Given Woodcock’s links to the Turkish regime which aids and abets extremists in Syria who kill Kurds, how can Kurds in Britain have any confidence in his ability to adjudicate fairly on the concept of ‘extremism’? Any study of ‘extremism’ worth its salt would surely include Woodcock himself in its research.”
The Canary claim that, “Anti-ISIS volunteers under threat. ANF News also reports that in 2017 Woodcock described the Kurdish-led anti-ISIS militia the YPG (Peoples Protection Units) as being linked to terrorism. One former YPG volunteer stated that Woodcock, whom the volunteer described as ‘Jihadi John’: ‘thinks we are all terrorists and I fully expect this review [by him] will lead to more of us being pulled in by intelligence services and more raids on those of us that fought against Isis’. Presumably Woodcock was unaware that the RAF launched attacks in support of the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Also, reportedly reportedly not just the UK but also US military provided support to Kurdish-led anti-terrorist forces in Syria and Iraq. In March 2017, another report suggested US special forces were working alongside the YPG.”
The Canary report that, “An Agence France Presse report even described how some US troops wore: ‘the patch of a Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). Still others of a women’s unit within the YPG. An SDF commander tells us that the men are US special forces and are there to provide training. Later, a Pentagon spokesman said that American commandos often wear insignia of the units that they train. Embarrassing, being photographed with alleged antisemitic neo-fascists is not particularly good for Woodcock. Especially given his April 2020 co-purchase of the anti-socialist Jewish Chronicle. Woodcock’s partners in that venture included William Shawcross (who’s set to head a review into the government’s anti-terrorism Prevent strategy), John Ware (who fronted the controversial Panorama programme on antisemitism and the Labour Party), and Robbie Gibb (who helped set up the ‘right-leaning’ GB News).”
While the Jewish Chronicle has a notoriously poor track record for lack of journalistic integrity, having been forced to settle several defamation claims due to printing concocted fantisemitism lies, this disgraceful conduct is just fine with Woodcock who was one of the Labour MPs most eager to rant about Jeremy Corbyn in the same vein. It’s only a matter of time before John Ware’s hack job is discredited in court exposing defamation and the willingness to offer perjured testimony in Court. I am not a legal eagle ,but I would have thought Ware’s Court submissions, Pre-Action Protocol, would qualify as perjury, certainly extorting money from the Labour Party on the basis of false information is fraud. Shame on Keir Starmer for settling a corrupt SLAPP Lawsuit, that probably would not have gone to Court, but if it had done would have revealed the true scale of the deception. Most SLAPP suits cannot be won in Court, they rely on character assasination, intimidation and relentless harassment; they must be robustly contested.
The Forde Inquiry has the potential to expose the saboteurs within the Labour Party which is why Sir Keir is so eager to sweep it under the rug as he too might well be discredited, most specifically for his haste in making a unilateral decision to pay-off the SLAPP Suit con artists. Starmer has used the EHRC Report and fantisemitism as a crutch to facilitate gutting the progressive Socialist Left of the Labour Party, but his agenda is coming unravelled fast. The Canary are right to say that, “As for antisemitism, it is vile, as also is its weaponisation by people like lord John Mann to attack those of the progressive left who wish for more justice in the world.” The sad part is that what I now refer to as ‘fantisemitism’ not only ruins the careers and lives of those wrongly accused, it makes the Jewish community a far more vulnerable target of prejudice. This injustice is being perpetrated in oorder to protect the Apartide Zionist agenda and destroy the progressive Socialist politics of the Labour Left to enable the Tory Sovereign Dictatorsjip. DO NOT MOVE ON!