Defence

2026-10-27

Kim Jong Un has been swirled by rumours, yet is reported to have visited China across a newly opened bridge.

He didn't seem to spend very long there before returning home. Nor did he meet President Xi.

Nor were there any official announcements, other than a visit to an automobile factory.

But apparently the swirling rumours are not abating...

(43 minutes)

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2026-10-26

With the mid-term elections upon us early next month, election fever in the US is high, with various reports indicating that efforts to fix the ballot continue, however diminished they may be.

Reports elsewhere indicate that global financial stresses are mounting just about everywhere.

And Ben's reading of the runes indicates that the wars in "West Asia" are still mutating, with plenty of unfinished business to be concluded...

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2026-10-25

Well, I've no idea, but there's a lot of water between there and here, even if our government is seemingly doing its best to import the French problems over it as fast as it can.

But certainly one needs an historical understanding far in excess of mine to even attempt an answer.

Fortunately we have just the man for the job.

David Starkey talks to Steven Edginton:

(67 minutes)

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2026-10-25

Latest update from ZeroHedge...  and it's not just France.

Ukraine Is Becoming Another Verdun

Except that it has been going for far longer than WW1...

2026-10-24

(20 minutes)

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2026-10-24

We have been assailed by various articles of late (and not so late) along the lines of the existential threat that AI may pose to humanity.

It's a fair question. At what point could AI pose such a threat? What are the prerequisites?

Well, as of now, most AI systems are configured to answer our enquiries. They seem to be pretty good at being "search engines with some intelligence" that can pick their way through (a) what datasets do I need to enquire upon in order to answer the question? (b) which items in those datasets are relevant to the question? (c) how should those items be logically linked together to derive an answer to the question? and (d) performing that linkage and presenting a comprehensible analysis as end result.

The better ones might realise that there's more than one route through that process, would traverse each in turn and cross-check the results to identify any inconsistencies. How it might pick the appropriate answer given

2026-10-23

It's been a while since we covered this topic, but this update does seem to indicate that Chairman Xi is no longer the preferred flavour of the Chinese leadership...   at least not within the PLA.

Make of this what you will.

(47 minutes)

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2026-10-23

Latest scuttlebutt on the Ukraine's prospects for peace.

A good brief review on how we got here as well.

"What's happening is the stabilisation of the entire world... "

(2 hrs 6 mins)

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2026-10-23

Probably nobody realises the significance of the Crown Estates.

Rich Does Politics reviews the state of play with EM Burlngame...

"If you took those assets and put them into a Sovereign Wealth Fund for the people... they would be of immense value to the people... "

So who actually controls these assets? And who wants to get control?

"The last thing the British people should want is the breaking up of the Crown Estates because that is their inheritance... the Royal Family as the executors need to be physically secure"

(32 minutes)

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2026-10-19

I guess this only ends when nobody can figure out who they are supposed to be fighting any more 🙃.With governments all around in serious trouble, how to read the tea leaves?

As always Ben makes a good fist of it, and he's probably better informed than most, but I wouldn't bet the house on his infallibility. Probably the only certainty is that things will get worse before they get better...

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2026-10-19

The police are (as always) the people who have to sweep up when other people foul up.

And when the Ministry of Justice fouls up, they find themselves at odds with the system.

When they start to complain, maybe matters are on the turn...

And who can blame them? Joined-up government is now a very bad joke.

(20 minutes)

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(2026-10-20)

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2026-10-18

Most people by now have noticed that the influx of illegal migrants appears to to be every bit as much government policy as legal immigration - it's just not admitted in so many words.

Indeed, governments of both hues have made electoral promises to "stop the boats" whilst deploying the police, life boats, coastguard, and even Border Force, (who one might assume should be tasked with turning them back mid-channel) to ensure that they are safely landed and transported to specially prepared accommodation. And we pay the French to "prevent them from coming" - or do we really pay them to escort them half-way across the Channel so that Border Force can finally escort them in? 

Actions speak louder than words...

Hence the old joke about "How do we know when a politician is lying?".

"A UN migration worker admits... "   in effect that the UN is promoting this process,

2026-10-17

Just when we thought the Ukraine conflict couldn't take any more extraordinary turns, along comes Rich Does Politics and "Burning Bright" to bend our minds around... 

(36 minutes)

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2026-10-15

Alex Thomson (Eastern Approaches) addressed UK Column's 20th Anniversary Event in Plymouth on 20th September.

His oratory makes for sobering reading, capturing as it does many aspects of our current situation (and our likely prospects).

Make of it what you will.

2026-10-15

Javier Milei of Argentina now wants the Falklands... again.

And does Britain have any navy left to defend them?

In 1982 we had working aircraft carriers loaded with working Harrier jets, and even so we weren't decisive about defending the islands until the Navy top brass presented a plan to the Prime Minister for scraping the Task Force together. 

Could that same feat really be repeated today?

And is Andy Burnham made of the same stuff as Margaret Thatcher, or will he be too wrapped up in "realigning" with the EU to notice that even Ed Miliband has signed off on exploration for oil in the adjacent British waters?

And even if he does rise to the occasion, could we still actually scrape another military operation together? Perhaps with assistance from our current "allies" in

2026-10-15

Boris Johnson may be gone as prime minister, but like buses there's always another along in a minute, even if nowadays they may be spymasters rather than Routemasters.

(2 hours 5 minutes)

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2026-10-15

Metropolitan underground railways are familiar to us all.

The are considered to be a modern development, with London claiming the first to be dug.

And yet... as far back as the Vietnam war I remember reports that claimed that the Viet Cong would emerge from underground tunnels to attack the South Vietnamese / American troops. Were these tunnels that they themselves laboriously dug out mile by mile, or were they already there... ? 

There are catacombs under at least Paris and Rome, and many more underground workings elsewhere and seemingly on all continents!

So what do we really know about "the underworld", is the river Styx only a myth, and what did Orpheus of ancient "mythology" really get down to?

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