TRANSCRIPT 🔗
00:00:00
Speaker 1: Gavin Gray from the UK.
00:00:01
Speaker 2: Hi there, Andrew.
00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hello there. So the guy who was accused of murdering the former UK prisons minister and immigration spokesperson for Reform UK has now been charged with preparing.
00:00:12
Speaker 2: Acts of terror. Yes, quite a shock, really. And the 28-year-old will appear in court on Wednesday. His name is Joshua Kerry, and he was already charged with murdering Anne Widdicombe. Now, Anne Widdicombe, a former prison minister under the Conservatives and was the immigration spokesperson for Reform UK. and she was murdered at her home. It was alleged by Hammer and alleged by 28-year-old Joshua Kerry. Now he too has been charged with one count preparation of terrorist acts. What does that mean? Well, in between the lines, I think we're getting a feeling that he was also alleged to be trying to plot to attack Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK and the architect of Brexit. We don't know any more details. As I said, we'll get those when he appears in court on Wednesday. But it's interesting that Nigel Farage currently under investigating for accepting some 11 million New Zealand dollars worth as a gift before he became an MP. Now, he's under investigation because of claims that perhaps in some way he was given the money in order to do something or vote a particular way. when he became an MP. He said, no, that was a gift. And it was a gift to maintain my security. Now, others in his party are saying, look, he needed that money because his life is being threatened. And look at now what's being happening in this court and exactly the future of security for him and other MPs. So that's the argument.
00:01:43
Speaker 1: Okay. Now to justice, of course, in the UK, you're letting go a whole heap of prisoners because your prisons are too full and you can't afford it. But now we've got Andy Burnham scrapping the controversial plans to curb jury trials that Sir Keir Starmer's government came up with.
00:01:58
Speaker 2: Yes, and that was something that Keir Starmer developed because during the pandemic, basically, the backlog of court cases absolutely rocketed up to 81,000 cases were waiting to be heard. And, you know, justice delayed is no justice at all. This government has tried to really reduce that waiting time down But it is going to be difficult. And one of the ways in which David Lambert, the former justice secretary, said, right, we're going to get this waiting list down, is to reduce the number of trials that would have been heard by a jury. Much quicker to hear it by a judge or a magistrate who can make a decision without having to consult with the others. But being judged by a jury is an 800-year-old right to trial here in the UK. And surprise, surprise, many barristers weren't that amused by those thoughts either. And that has now been scrapped. So another example of where the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, the same political party as his predecessor, Keir Starmer, is making radical changes to the thoughts that were going on earlier in government.
00:03:02
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Gavin Gray.