Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Tommy Robinson set to be released after contempt of court hearing

00:00:00.000 Tonight, Tommy Robinson purges his contempt of court, and he'll be let out of prison this week.

00:00:06.360 It's May 20th, and this is The S from Avant Show. 0.81

00:00:10.160 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:00:16.220 As you can see by those double-decker buses speeding by me, I'm back in London, England.

00:00:30.960 I came because this morning at the first instance in the Royal Courts of Justice, there was a hearing by Tommy Robinson to purge his contempt of court.

00:00:41.960 And that's the legal term for when you say to a judge, Judge, I'm sorry, I want to come back in conformity with the law.

00:00:48.680 I don't want to be a dissident or defiant anymore.

00:00:51.960 If I follow the rules, will you let me out of prison?

00:00:55.200 And the judge obviously has to be persuaded that you really mean it.

00:00:58.860 Here, I'll tell you the story of how it went.

00:01:01.420 Hi, everybody. Ezra Levant here outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, England.

00:01:06.420 What a gorgeous, unseasonably warm spring day.

00:01:10.020 Moments ago, inside that building in courtroom 15, Justice Jeremy Johnson ruled that Tommy Robinson can go free.

00:01:19.760 He's been in prison for seven months in solitary confinement in a maximum security facility full of murderers and terrorists called His Majesty's Prison Wood Hill.

00:01:30.860 Not just that, but to keep him in solitary confinement, the prison has released 24 other violent prisoners so that Tommy can have a wing to himself because the prison is so chaotic and so out of control that the prison governor doesn't control it.

00:01:51.080 The prison gangs do.

00:01:52.880 So they literally opened out 24 cells.

00:01:57.200 Let those prisoners go just to hold Tommy.

00:02:00.960 Talk about a bizarre justice system. 0.99

00:02:04.260 Tommy was set to serve several more months in prison, but he purged his contempt, is what they call it in the law, by taking down the video finally in the last few days.

00:02:17.260 That's what the judge said, who sentenced him some seven months ago.

00:02:21.760 Part of the sentence was punitive.

00:02:24.440 That is, to punish Tommy for publishing the video.

00:02:28.280 But part of it was to force or coerce Tommy to actually take the video down.

00:02:34.520 So by doing that, Tommy shortens his sentence by several months.

00:02:38.640 He'll be released later this week, unless the prison has some last-minute spasm of authoritarianism, which can't be ruled out, given their sadistic governor, Nicola Marfly.

00:02:50.360 It was an interesting hearing.

00:02:52.660 Tommy's lawyer made the case that Tommy did everything he could to take down copies of the video, deleting it from his own account, writing to allies who had posted it.

00:03:03.480 What was interesting is there were several accounts, including in Denmark, that simply refused to take it down, saying that they would never comply with a judge's order to censor.

00:03:16.100 And the judge heard that and saw that Tommy tried to get them to take it down and accepted that Tommy did everything he could.

00:03:24.760 It's interesting to me that people around the world published that video, including in France, the court was told.

00:03:31.200 Besides Tommy's lawyer making the case that Tommy had purged his contempt, there was a lawyer here for the Solicitor General, that is, for the government of Keir Starmer.

00:03:42.800 Realize how censorious this government is.

00:03:47.040 Every single day, according to the Times of London, 30 people in the UK are arrested every day for a social media hurt feelings crime.

00:03:58.640 30 per day, that is more than arrested for the same thing in Russia.

00:04:03.980 Now, I'm not saying that the UK is an authoritarian regime in some of the ways that Russia is, but my God, it's going in that direction, wouldn't you say? 0.98

00:04:13.360 Tommy joined today's proceedings by a video link from the prison, and he'll soon be released.

00:04:20.620 What's astonishing is that he was in prison at all.

00:04:24.620 If I'm not mistaken, there has been no other journalist who has served time in prison for contempt of court in nearly 100 years,

00:04:34.520 let alone spending seven months in solitary confinement.

00:04:39.180 I think, again, that goes to Tommy's status as an enemy of the state.

00:04:43.880 But I'm worried that Tommy simply cannot get a fair hearing in the United Kingdom.

00:04:48.900 He's become a pariah, and there's such peer pressure, even amongst the judges, to put him in prison.

00:04:55.700 Let me give you an example.

00:04:57.220 Although Tommy will be getting a fair hearing in the United Kingdom, he's become a pariah, and there's such peer pressure, even amongst the judges, to put him in prison.

00:04:59.600 In a number of days, this is another charge.

00:05:02.860 Now, that sounds terrifying.

00:05:05.000 It sounds like he's done anus, doesn't it? 0.99

00:05:07.160 Well, no, in fact, all he did was, when he was picked up by police without warrant and held under the Terrorism Act, that's an astonishing law.

00:05:15.880 It's like their version of the Patriot Act over here.

00:05:18.520 They can arrest anyone coming or going from the country and hold them for up to six hours and question them.

00:05:25.140 And you do not have the right to remain silent, if you can believe it.

00:05:27.900 So they arrested Tommy on no charges, on no warrant, and they asked him questions about his politics and his journalism for six hours.

00:05:34.980 And he answered them, as you must, but they asked him for the passcode on his phone.

00:05:40.540 Now, of course, as you know, if you've got a smartphone, which most of us do, your phone doesn't just have phone numbers.

00:05:46.620 It has your emails.

00:05:47.640 It has your documents.

00:05:48.620 It has your photos.

00:05:49.660 It has voice and video recordings.

00:05:51.820 It's got everything.

00:05:53.200 And for the police to say, give us the passkey to your phone without a search warrant or any probable cause, simply offended Tommy's dignity as a Brit.

00:06:02.480 It has the rule of law, the privacy that people in this country ought to have.

00:06:08.100 So he declined.

00:06:09.560 Now, I think the police cracked his password anyways, but nonetheless, they are charging him under the Terrorism Act for the offense of not giving him their passcode.

00:06:19.640 Of course they are.

00:06:21.100 They throw everything at this guy.

00:06:22.720 It's like Lavrenti Beria, the Soviet secret policeman who said to Stalin, show me the man and I'll find you, or find me the man and I'll show you the crime.

00:06:32.340 As in, I'll find something on anybody.

00:06:35.020 Just tell me who.

00:06:36.340 That's Tommy Robinson.

00:06:37.360 So although he's out of prison in the next few days now, I don't know what will happen to him if he's prosecuted again under the Terrorism Act.

00:06:49.580 The hearing was about half an hour, and it was a small attendance.

00:06:53.120 I don't think a lot of people knew about it in advance.

00:06:55.880 There were two other journalists in the room besides myself.

00:06:59.040 The public gallery only had a half a dozen people in it, including close friends of Tommy.

00:07:05.220 I think he wanted it low-key for some reason.

00:07:07.480 I don't know.

00:07:08.480 But I heard about it, and I live-tweeted it.

00:07:11.100 You can follow my live-tweets on the subject at TommyReports.com.

00:07:15.360 And I feel it's important for me to be here for all these hearings to document them.

00:07:20.520 I try and type as fast as I can.

00:07:22.560 I don't get everything.

00:07:23.500 It's not quite stenography.

00:07:25.120 But I try and reflect what it was like in the courtroom.

00:07:30.300 Besides Tommy's lawyer, there was a lawyer for the Solicitor General, the cabinet minister in the Starmer government.

00:07:38.280 And he didn't particularly oppose Tommy's release.

00:07:41.720 I think he realized that Tommy Robinson had done everything he could to get the film down.

00:07:46.720 But it was astonishing to me that the Solicitor General of the UK sent a lawyer, an expensive private practice lawyer, into court.

00:07:57.300 And the Solicitor General did all sorts of online research about this video, too.

00:08:02.820 I mean, talk about misplaced law enforcement priorities.

00:08:06.840 This country is awash in crimes, both petty and serious.

00:08:11.760 London itself has got to be one of the most violent cities, certainly in the United Kingdom, whether it's knife crime or just property crime.

00:08:20.140 And yet they're going after Tommy Robinson.

00:08:23.020 It shows you the political nature of the war against him.

00:08:28.400 But he will be let out.

00:08:32.660 I just don't know if he can ever expect a fair hearing in this country.

00:08:36.680 I just, I mean, the title of Tommy's autobiography is Enemy of the State, and I really think he has become that.

00:08:44.540 But other things have changed.

00:08:48.000 Tommy Robinson is now a household name around the world.

00:08:51.540 That video that was banned, and now it's taken down, well, before it was deleted, it had over 160 million views.

00:09:00.800 That's more than double the population of the United Kingdom.

00:09:04.920 The issues that Tommy Robinson would shine a light on, mass immigration, Islamification, terrorism, rape gangs, 0.78

00:09:15.200 these are things that you weren't supposed to talk about.

00:09:17.780 And the establishment sort of had a pact of silence, a cone of silence over them.

00:09:23.960 Well, now everyone's talking about it.

00:09:27.160 Even Keir Starmer, the Labour government, is now talking tough about reducing immigration, requiring English from immigration.

00:09:36.280 I don't believe Keir Starmer, but Tommy Robinson was an early voice when everyone else was telling him to shut up.

00:09:44.440 That's sort of how it is in politics, isn't it?

00:09:46.600 A prophet is not recognized in his own time.

00:09:50.020 Now even Nigel Farage is talking about mass deportations.

00:09:56.160 It's almost like they're trying to catch up to where Tommy Robinson himself was.

00:10:00.200 I think that's the difficult thing about being the leading edge, is you have the toughest fight and you never get any respect.

00:10:06.660 I'm going to continue covering Tommy Robinson because I have a personal friendship with him, but also because I see his important place in the battle of ideas in this country.

00:10:18.620 And I see how the war against him exposes flaws in the United Kingdom's own policing, prosecutions, certainly the prison system, the politics, the media.

00:10:32.260 Tommy Robinson forces things to happen.

00:10:35.160 And he's a disruptor in his own way.

00:10:38.080 And even the way he was punished, that turned him into a kind of martyr.

00:10:42.980 I'm not sure if the state knew what they were doing by coming down on him so hard, because I think it only increased the size of his following.

00:10:52.740 I understand that they're going to have a big public rally later this year when Tommy is out, a free speech rally.

00:11:01.060 It'll be interesting to see how that goes and if the government tries something to arrest him before that rally.

00:11:06.780 They did that the last time they arrested him.

00:11:09.480 They arrested him just a day before one of his big rallies.

00:11:12.420 You couldn't declare him that this is political.

00:11:14.640 Every time I come to the United Kingdom, I myself, by the way, I'm slightly surprised that I'm not detained under that same Terrorism Act and ask questions.

00:11:24.620 Because I know five other people who have been detained under that rule, under that Terrorism Act.

00:11:31.800 Anyways, those are my thoughts from being outside the courthouse.

00:11:36.720 There's just one more thing I want to say.

00:11:38.320 And it was interesting.

00:11:39.520 The judge went through the guidelines, sort of the list of the rules for someone purging their contempt.

00:11:47.000 Did you take all steps to remedy the contempt?

00:11:51.300 Did you agree not to do it again?

00:11:54.980 I mean, the judge said that Tommy Robinson had promised that if he disagrees with the court ruling in the future, he'll appeal it.

00:12:01.800 But there was one thing the judge noted, that Tommy Robinson did not show remorse or contrition.

00:12:08.580 He did not say he regretted doing what he did.

00:12:12.240 He said he'll change his ways in the future, but he doesn't regret doing what he did.

00:12:16.360 Now, that was not reason enough to be kept in prison, said the judge.

00:12:20.020 But that's the nature of Tommy Robinson.

00:12:23.940 There's a principled stubbornness to him.

00:12:27.740 Some people might call it irrational. 0.99

00:12:31.840 Some people might call it foolish.

00:12:36.180 But it's that nature, that essence of him, that has made him so effective.

00:12:41.540 I think most people would have deleted their video months ago to get out of prison much sooner.

00:12:50.400 But Tommy Robinson endured the punishment and his video racked up 100 million extra views.

00:12:55.720 The law doesn't know what to do with principled conscientious objectives.

00:13:00.380 I spoke to another journalist today, and I said, you know what?

00:13:04.120 It might be a bit disproportionate, but there is something about Tommy Robinson

00:13:09.060 that's similar to what Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela had with them in.

00:13:14.840 A willingness to suffer unfair laws and to personally take on physical and mental pain and suffering in the service of a larger goal.

00:13:25.460 Now, I'm not comparing the scope or the scale of Tommy Robinson to Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi.

00:13:32.900 I'm not.

00:13:33.720 But I'm saying that that trait of civil disobedience, that willingness to sacrifice oneself,

00:13:42.200 knowing that in the long term the battle could be won,

00:13:45.680 and acting as a non-violent symbol for a movement,

00:13:49.980 that's one of my favorite things about Tommy.

00:13:51.860 I like the man as a friend, and I also feel like the issues he's fighting in the U.K. today

00:13:59.100 are the issues that we're going to fight in Canada and other places around the world.

00:14:04.560 Well, those are my thoughts on the steps of the Royal Courts of Justice.

00:14:09.640 I think Tommy should be out of jail in the next few days.

00:14:12.300 I'm going to stick around London and try to find out when he's being released.

00:14:16.960 And through the family, I've spoken to them,

00:14:19.780 and I believe I'll be able to interview him when he's out of prison.

00:14:24.700 I'll have a one-on-one conversation privately with him,

00:14:27.620 but I'll also catch up with him for his public thoughts

00:14:30.840 and for the details of his prison that I was forbidden to find out

00:14:34.420 because I myself was banned from visiting him by the sadistic Governor Nicola Montfleet.

00:14:39.940 Well, that's my report for the day.

00:14:42.140 Feel free to follow all of our reports on Tommy's prevails at TommyReports.com.

00:14:49.000 Well, Tommy is still in prison tonight.

00:14:53.000 He will be let out later this week.

00:14:54.920 I'm going to stick around London for a couple of days and do other work here.

00:14:58.840 I can still do my Canadian work from the streets of London.

00:15:02.400 I just won't be in the field. I'll do, you know, monologues on my phone.

00:15:08.520 But the reason I want to stay out here is because I want to be there

00:15:11.800 when Tommy is released in a couple of days.

00:15:14.580 I want to interview him. I want to see how he's doing.

00:15:17.440 I haven't been able to talk to him because the prison has barred me from visiting him.

00:15:23.360 Anyways, it was exciting to be back in London

00:15:25.160 and to be surrounded by a growing number of citizen journalists.

00:15:30.180 Some of them I spoke to on the street right outside the court

00:15:34.060 and they actually appeared on GB News,

00:15:37.400 one of my favourite mainstream media outlets here.

00:15:40.360 Take a look at a smattering of those.

00:15:43.040 So we're outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London

00:15:45.420 with Ezra Levant, who's just flown in from Canada

00:15:48.260 to report on what just took place in court

00:15:52.100 where Tommy Robinson has had his contempt of court conviction purged.

00:15:56.000 So, using the report on it, tell me what you saw and how it made you feel.

00:16:00.940 Sure. Well, relief that Tommy will be out of prison.

00:16:05.960 He has been treated in an abusive manner by a sadistic prison governor

00:16:11.380 who has taken every advantage to turn the screws on him

00:16:16.180 in large and small ways.

00:16:18.300 Let me give you one example.

00:16:19.300 Tommy has telephone privileges beyond what a normal prisoner gets

00:16:24.240 because, remember, Tommy was convicted of no crime.

00:16:27.320 But the judge said, you're only allowed to use the phone during the day.

00:16:30.520 Well, Tommy's teenage kids are at school during the day.

00:16:33.420 So what use is it if you can make a phone call but can't talk to your family?

00:16:36.920 They would listen in on the phone calls, including to the lawyers.

00:16:40.180 They would hang up on phone calls so they disapproved of the discussion.

00:16:43.540 Petty things like turning off GB News,

00:16:46.020 it's the only TV station that Tommy wanted to watch.

00:16:48.340 It's a small thing.

00:16:49.760 But outrageously, putting him in solitary confinement for seven months,

00:16:54.280 it is a form of torture.

00:16:56.320 It is not meant to hold people in a long-term basis.

00:17:00.120 That DEI quota affirmative action governor, Nicola Marpley, 0.80

00:17:05.120 who has no business running any prison,

00:17:07.060 let alone a maximum security prison full of terrorists and murderers,

00:17:12.280 the prison's totally out of control.

00:17:14.340 The gangs run that prison.

00:17:16.360 They do run that prison. 0.96

00:17:17.320 They also prevented you from any further visits after your first prison visit.

00:17:21.300 Why do you think they've done that?

00:17:22.460 And how did you find out that you could no longer visit your friend?

00:17:25.640 You know, when Tommy was in HMP Belmarsh,

00:17:28.320 which is sort of like the Guantanamo Bay of the UK,

00:17:30.800 I visited him as often as I could

00:17:32.880 because I wanted to make sure of his physical and mental health.

00:17:36.040 I wanted to make sure he was eating properly

00:17:37.760 and getting exercise and things like that

00:17:40.100 because I know he has been tortured before by throwing him in the hole.

00:17:44.980 I had one visit with Tommy this time

00:17:46.660 and then the prison governor, Nicola Marpley, simply refused.

00:17:50.100 No reason given other than I'm a journalist.

00:17:52.420 Well, what's a journalist these days?

00:17:54.020 Every single person who met with Tommy has a social media account.

00:17:56.860 I offered to give a lawyer's undertaking.

00:17:59.520 I'm a former lawyer myself.

00:18:01.120 I offered to give a binding undertaking

00:18:03.060 and to sign a non-disclosure agreement

00:18:04.880 if there was something she didn't want me.

00:18:06.920 I'm not going there to do a news story.

00:18:08.840 I'm going in there to check up on the lad. 0.98

00:18:10.800 But the prison governor is an abusive, sadistic woman. 1.00

00:18:15.220 I want to tell you something that's so astonishing. 0.95

00:18:17.240 As you know, they cleared out 16 cells in a wing to hold him in solitary.

00:18:22.040 And then they cleared out another eight cells for him to paint as a prison job.

00:18:26.740 That's 24 hardened criminals who were released back onto the street

00:18:31.740 just to hold Tommy Robinson.

00:18:34.120 Can you imagine the misdirection of resources?

00:18:39.680 Even today, to learn that the Solicitor General

00:18:43.120 was hiring staff to Google

00:18:45.580 to check where Tommy's video might have popped up.

00:18:49.340 The amount of resources targeting Tommy Robinson,

00:18:53.160 a peaceful political activist and journalist,

00:18:56.460 compared to the actual crimes, including terrorism in this country,

00:19:00.980 it's so astonishing.

00:19:02.240 And by the way, you can't put it all on Keir Starmer

00:19:04.420 because it was this way under the predecessor government, the Conservatives.

00:19:09.260 And if you bear in mind that the British prison system is so full,

00:19:14.120 they're having to release prisoners early

00:19:16.460 so they can re-cage other prisoners for far lesser crimes.

00:19:19.760 But yet they cleared wings of cells just for Tommy.

00:19:22.620 Tommy didn't even need to be in prison.

00:19:24.340 Like I say, he was not a criminal.

00:19:26.140 It was a civil offence.

00:19:27.840 He could have been handled in other ways.

00:19:30.040 Tommy really has been treated like an enemy of the state.

00:19:33.580 I fear that he cannot expect any justice in the UK.

00:19:37.180 I still have a regard for the British justice system.

00:19:40.560 Part of that is hope.

00:19:42.080 Part of it is I want to.

00:19:43.280 I believe that increasingly you can see the two-year justice in this country.

00:19:49.100 And I fear that there's no way he can get a fair trial.

00:19:52.720 He's not done yet.

00:19:53.780 He'll be out in prison in a few days because he purged his contempt.

00:19:58.020 He showed the judge that he's taken down the video

00:20:01.220 and he has said in the future he won't break a court order.

00:20:05.260 He'll challenge the court order in court.

00:20:07.580 But he's still being charged under the Terrorism Act,

00:20:11.240 a trumped-up charge because he wouldn't give the cops his passcode for his cell phone

00:20:16.360 without a search warrant.

00:20:17.740 So they're charging one of the terrorists.

00:20:19.580 You have actual terrorists in this country who walk free.

00:20:22.480 There's 40,000 jihadis walking the streets under surveillance by the British security services.

00:20:29.200 But they're demanding Tommy give his passcode for his personal phone without a search warrant.

00:20:34.120 Again, misdirection of resources,

00:20:36.760 focusing on a political and journalistic opponent rather than an actual criminal.

00:20:41.940 I should tell you, I come from Canada, as you know.

00:20:45.360 I also travel to the United States.

00:20:47.900 The whole world is now familiar with Tommy Robinson.

00:20:50.480 In fact, they were discussing in court today several French websites that were hosting the video

00:20:56.980 and a Danish website that refuses to take it down.

00:21:00.320 The Danish Free Press Society on a principal basis says they will not bend the knee to this court.

00:21:05.180 So Tommy Robinson, it's sort of, he's become martyred in a way.

00:21:11.900 And I think the reason for that is that there's something Christ-like about a man who will suffer,

00:21:18.300 who will willingly take on physical and mental suffering to save his community.

00:21:26.580 There's something who will sacrifice himself.

00:21:29.980 That's astonishing.

00:21:30.920 I was there seven months ago when he sat in the court and when the judge said,

00:21:35.000 if you take that down now, I'll lock months off your sentence.

00:21:38.320 And Tommy stood firm.

00:21:40.640 Now, you might say that's irrational.

00:21:42.240 You might say that's stubborn.

00:21:44.060 Yeah, it's both of those things.

00:21:45.580 It's also deeply principled.

00:21:47.020 Well, the only reason Tommy removed that documentary, to the best of my knowledge,

00:21:52.080 is because he was pressured by friends and family to do so.

00:21:54.800 He didn't want to do it.

00:21:55.480 And the final question, what your thoughts of what took place in there,

00:22:00.120 the judge made it clear that every target was hit and achieved for him to have his contempt purged.

00:22:05.840 But he did stipulate and made it clear that Tommy Robinson showed no remorse for what he'd done.

00:22:12.460 Was that the final victory?

00:22:16.100 V for victory, should I say, for Tommy in there?

00:22:18.020 How did you feel when you heard the final words that Tommy has shown no remorse for what he'd done?

00:22:23.080 I thought, that's Tommy Robinson.

00:22:24.840 I don't know if you remember, but Tommy used to work.

00:22:27.640 That's rebel news.

00:22:28.940 And I joke, because Tommy is not built to have a boss.

00:22:32.560 And there is something in Tommy that resists submission.

00:22:36.260 And that's what makes him a principled fighter.

00:22:39.220 That stubbornness that his foes despise, his friends adore.

00:22:44.580 And it's that streak of being unwilling to bend the knee or bend the head.

00:22:53.540 He will not bend.

00:22:55.060 And you need men like that. 1.00

00:22:57.100 You know, they say, I think it was Bernard Shaw who said,

00:23:00.920 reasonable people conform to the world.

00:23:04.700 Unreasonable people make the world conform to them.

00:23:07.480 Therefore, all progress depends on unreasonable people.

00:23:11.120 In his own way, Tommy Robinson is stubborn and unreasonable.

00:23:15.100 But in the service of a cause, you cannot say that a man who has willingly taken seven months in solitary confinement is in it for himself.

00:23:24.780 He's in it to serve his community.

00:23:26.880 And that's what I find admirable about the man.

00:23:29.300 When the chips are down, he walks towards the fire.

00:23:33.060 I was with him, and I think you were there too, in Spain, when he made the decision to come back to the United Kingdom to face his fate.

00:23:41.920 He knew he was coming back to a certain jail term.

00:23:44.980 And he came back.

00:23:45.820 He didn't run.

00:23:46.980 He didn't weep or hide or moan.

00:23:49.620 He came back to the UK.

00:23:51.500 And people will hate me for saying it.

00:23:53.820 But there's a little drop of Gandhi in Tommy.

00:23:57.920 There's a little drop of Mandela in him.

00:24:01.100 And people will say, how dare you?

00:24:02.360 You know what?

00:24:03.220 A guy who willingly sacrifices, who willingly submits to an unfair punishment in the service of his country.

00:24:10.740 You're damn straight I'm comparing him to those men. 0.93

00:24:12.820 You're damn straight I am. 0.85

00:24:14.040 And are you going to stick around for a little while until he's released?

00:24:16.780 Yeah.

00:24:17.140 Yeah, I want to, if it's within a few days, instead of slapping home, I'm going to stay out here.

00:24:22.140 I want to see the lad.

00:24:23.220 I haven't been able to see him since that first visit.

00:24:25.620 I want to, I mean, I know you've seen him and others, so I know that eyes have been put on him.

00:24:31.040 But I want to see him.

00:24:31.880 I want to talk to him.

00:24:33.040 I've tried to help him in a few minor ways.

00:24:35.240 I want to interview him on camera so he has a chance to say thanks to some of the many people who assisted him, including, and this is no longer a secret, so I'm not breaking this news, but Elon Musk, who paid for the legal bills in two of Tommy's legal matters.

00:24:53.680 I want Tommy to have a chance to speak to the, not just Elon Musk, but to the people who chipped in to Tommy Robinson's Children's Trust Fund.

00:25:04.540 So a lot of people want to hear from Tommy and what happened to him, I'm one of them.

00:25:10.780 So I want to have a chance to talk to him privately, but also to have him talk to the world.

00:25:16.120 And final thing, where can people find you to follow your work, even support your work, and just get, follow you on your journalism journey, which is independent and it's free thinking and it's free speaking at the best you can.

00:25:29.060 But if you're following the MSM and you want an alternative media source, where can people find you, Ezra?

00:25:35.300 Thanks very much.

00:25:35.900 It's just called rebelnews.com.

00:25:38.020 We have a special page for everything Tommy Robinson.

00:25:40.920 We call it tommyreports.com.

00:25:43.280 But if you just remember Rebel News, you'll be fine.

00:25:45.940 We have, we're interested in the UK, we're interested in free speech, we're interested in mass migration, the Islamification of the public square. 0.94

00:25:54.940 We're interested in the reform movement.

00:25:58.380 I was up there in Runcorn following the by-election a few weeks ago when the reform won in a traditional Labour district.

00:26:08.240 And I think there's a realignment going on in the UK that people in North America should watch.

00:26:13.260 I mean, it's hopeful.

00:26:15.980 I know that there's some differences of opinion between Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson, but I think the trend is improving because of both men.

00:26:24.140 Yeah, there's certainly a lot more to look out for in the future.

00:26:27.260 I don't think the drama will end here.

00:26:28.560 But Ezra, thank you for your time.

00:26:30.200 I appreciate that.

00:26:31.420 And if you're watching this and you like what you see and you want to hear the other side of the argument and interested interviews that the mainstream will never ever publish or consider doing, remember to like and subscribe to my channel.

00:26:41.300 That doesn't mean Liam Tufts.

00:26:42.860 And we'll keep the news coming.

00:26:45.300 Cheers, Ezra.

00:26:45.780 So, one of the stories that I know has got many of you talking over the last few months is, of course, the story of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who most of you will know as Tommy Robinson.

00:27:01.860 We're all familiar with this story.

00:27:03.520 By now, he was sentenced for contempt of court.

00:27:06.320 He got a significant sentence 18 months.

00:27:08.980 Well, today, the high court has essentially reduced that by four months.

00:27:13.960 Joining me now to discuss this is journalist, founder of Rebel News in Canada, Ezra Levant.

00:27:22.020 Welcome to you.

00:27:23.180 Also, I have to say, you are a personal friend of Tommy Robinson.

00:27:26.480 Bring us up to speed with what happened in the court today.

00:27:29.700 Sure.

00:27:30.180 Today, Tommy Robinson did something called purging his contempt.

00:27:34.160 That's a unique phrase in the law.

00:27:35.820 He basically, through his lawyers, said, Your Honour, I was wrong.

00:27:40.800 I'm going to take down the offending video that violated the court order.

00:27:45.380 I'm going to ask everyone else on the Internet who's uploaded it to take it down.

00:27:49.860 And I'm going to promise not to violate court orders again.

00:27:53.020 Really, in a contempt of court case, the judge just wants to know that you're obedient and submissive to the rule of law.

00:28:00.180 And by the way, Tommy Robinson pled guilty when he came back to the U.K.

00:28:05.560 He was in Spain.

00:28:06.720 He flew back to the U.K. to face justice.

00:28:09.780 He didn't try and run.

00:28:11.040 And he said, guilty, Your Honour, he didn't contest it.

00:28:14.760 What I think surprised Tommy Robinson, and I would say surprised a lot of other observers, was the harshness of the sentence.

00:28:21.300 It wasn't just the seven months he's already served.

00:28:24.580 It's that he served that in the form of solitary confinement.

00:28:27.820 And that's just an astonishing punishment for basically a speech crime.

00:28:33.240 And when you look at the other speech crimes being meted out, including the case of Lucy Connelly,

00:28:38.140 I think there is a disturbing trend that the U.K. is moving away from its historic role as the fountain of freedom of speech in the West.

00:28:47.280 Let me ask you this, because this is a point that's being discussed often.

00:28:50.780 So you just said he's in solitary confinement.

00:28:52.900 The prison, they would say it's more like segregation.

00:28:55.700 The prison would also say that that was something that his team requested in order to keep him safe.

00:29:00.280 It's not technically solitary confinement, because he was allowed occasional guests.

00:29:06.440 But there were lots of things done to him that were so unusual, especially for a civil prisoner.

00:29:12.920 You know, solitary confinement, or segregation, if you like, is typically done to punish a prisoner who's already in prison and then misbehaves in prison, gets into a fight, say.

00:29:22.960 Tommy Robinson was put there, not on his own accord, but by the prison governor, allegedly to protect him.

00:29:29.120 But that's such a harsh way to live, to be put in a hole in his cell 22, 23 hours a day.

00:29:35.540 That's my point. I don't think Tommy Robinson was trying to evade punishment.

00:29:38.620 Like I say, he came back to England, he pled guilty.

00:29:41.500 But to put a man in solitary for seven months, it starts to take its toll on mental health.

00:29:47.200 So let's look at that, because, I mean, there's been an appeal against the sentence.

00:29:50.260 That appeal essentially was rejected.

00:29:52.960 There was an appeal against the conditions that we've been discussing, segregation, call it what you will.

00:29:58.500 That was also rejected.

00:30:00.560 So as far as the state essentially was concerned, the conditions and the duration, absolutely fair.

00:30:09.180 You're right. It's been very frustrating.

00:30:11.260 And I've known Tommy for years.

00:30:12.740 He actually briefly worked for Rebel News.

00:30:14.800 And I learned quickly that Tommy has a lot of interactions with the law.

00:30:20.260 I want to give you my personal opinion, which is I think Tommy Robinson is becoming someone for whom it's difficult to get the same justice as someone who is less famous or infamous would get.

00:30:32.440 And, again, I don't want to judge the entire British judiciary, because it is one of the finest judicial systems in the world.

00:30:40.700 But there is a disparity between the way the law goes after certain people based on their politics.

00:30:47.140 I'm not an expert in the Lucy Connolly case, but 31 months for a tweet that was rude, I grant you.

00:30:53.080 But, holy smokes, 31 months, that's more than some convicted members of grooming gangs get.

00:31:02.080 And when Keir Starmer set up the 24-hour-a-day night court, the around-the-clock court, just a mass-produced justice to jail people who – I mean, you were probably following it along with me.

00:31:14.300 I was on the other side of the Atlantic.

00:31:15.640 I was astonished.

00:31:16.760 People were getting jailed for gesticulating.

00:31:20.120 One guy was jailed for shouting at a dog.

00:31:22.180 I don't believe in shouting at dogs, a police dog.

00:31:24.860 But you don't put someone in jail for two years for that.

00:31:28.320 And it just seemed to me that the justice in the UK, you've got to be – justice has got to be blind.

00:31:35.000 It's got to be the same for a Labour Party person or a Conservative or a Reform or someone on the right or someone on the left or a Christian or a Muslim.

00:31:43.560 Justice – that's why the symbol of justice is the lady with the blindfold on her eyes. 1.00

00:31:48.220 But I fear that it's getting to the point where Tommy Robinson may not be able to get fair justice in the UK because there's such – he's become such a legal pariah.

00:31:59.220 And all of what he's done, he would say, is journalism and activism, not moral turpitude, not crimes of violence or fraud or anything.

00:32:09.880 He would say he's just a crusading journalist.

00:32:13.360 You can disagree with that.

00:32:14.440 But seriously, seven months in solitary confinement, don't let it be normalized because first they come for Tommy Robinson.

00:32:22.500 Then they go for Nigel Farage.

00:32:24.480 Then they go for Lucy Connolly.

00:32:26.500 And who's next?

00:32:28.100 It's easier to fight censorship in the first ditch than in the last ditch, even if you don't like Tommy Robinson, even if you think he's a hooligan and foul, fine.

00:32:38.100 But remember, the precedent you're setting with him will come back to bite you.

00:32:42.680 That's the nature of the law.

00:32:44.260 You've got to fight for free speech, even for people you don't like.

00:32:48.040 Yeah, I mean, I've got to say, if Keir Starmer was here, he would say – or people in his government, they would push back and say, well, hold on a second, because Tommy Robinson, he pled guilty.

00:32:58.680 He knew that he shouldn't be repeating the claims.

00:33:00.980 They'd lost a libel case there.

00:33:02.900 So they would say there's a difference between free speech and repeating lies would be their pushback.

00:33:08.100 Well, and that's really the most aggressive fact check I've ever seen in my life.

00:33:13.080 It's quite a fact check to be told, delete that or go to jail.

00:33:16.360 I mean, it's one thing for someone to call you out and say that's misinformation or disinformation.

00:33:21.300 I say again, Tommy Robinson did not try and evade justice.

00:33:25.680 He came back to the UK to face his fate.

00:33:28.480 I think he just didn't realize what seven months of solitary does to you, not just physically, but mentally.

00:33:35.220 He was having serious mental health issues that were deteriorating.

00:33:40.880 And an independent psychologist wrote a testimony to the court to that effect.

00:33:46.200 I just want to say this as the biggest Anglophile you'll ever meet, as someone who loves the United Kingdom so very much.

00:33:52.720 You don't want to become known as a place where people get sent to prison for months or years for word crimes, for thought crimes.

00:34:01.300 It was your son of Britain, George Orwell, who wrote about that authoritarian past.

00:34:08.020 Learn from you've got such a history, a legacy, a heritage of free speech.

00:34:12.400 And I just see it slipping away and it comes slowly at first, but then suddenly it gets quickly.

00:34:20.660 I don't know.

00:34:21.380 It just makes me a little bit sad.

00:34:22.860 I'm not here to say that Tommy Robinson is Snow White.

00:34:26.100 He pled guilty.

00:34:27.460 But it should not.

00:34:28.700 It should never be normalized to send someone to prison for 31 months for a tweet.

00:34:33.900 That should not be normal.

00:34:36.500 Interesting stuff.

00:34:37.400 That's Ezra Levant there, the founder of Rebel Media.

00:34:41.020 Thank you for your time and for your thoughts this evening.

00:34:44.860 Thank you.

00:34:47.280 So, Grundvall, your thoughts?

00:34:49.200 Well, I'm not really sure what the issue is here.

00:34:53.340 I mean, Tommy Robinson admitted multiple breaches of an injunction that prevented him from repeating false allegations made against a Syrian refugee who had previously successfully sued him for libel.

00:35:03.700 He continued to make those claims.

00:35:05.800 He went to prison.

00:35:06.480 Now, because he has had a change of attitude and purged his contempt, he's going to be released four months early.

00:35:14.660 I mean, is that not the judicial system working quite well?

00:35:19.720 He admitted he was guilty.

00:35:21.020 He went to prison.

00:35:22.100 He has now had a change of attitude.

00:35:23.980 He's purged his contempt.

00:35:26.220 And now he's going to be released.

00:35:27.520 It's a great thing to see here.

00:35:28.380 Well, I don't understand what the issue is.

00:35:31.320 Stephen, your thoughts?

00:35:31.940 I think the issue really is what Ezra is picking up in his interview with yourself, is that for the vast majority of people now, they've always believed that this nation is about fairness and justice being blind.

00:35:44.520 And there's a barrister who believes in my practice, who believes in the court system in our country, believes in our prosecutorial system, is filled with people who generally want to do the right thing.

00:35:54.980 I think I don't necessarily agree with anybody who says that all our court systems are corrupt and those involved are corrupt at all.

00:36:03.520 But what I do sense is that within the public now, they no longer trust our legal system.

00:36:09.520 They no longer trust our police system.

00:36:11.680 Because in the case of Tommy Robinson, in the case of Lucy Connolly, and in the case of others that you can pick up, is the sentencing.

00:36:19.880 It's the sentencing and what their conditions are in prison.

00:36:22.940 And Lucy Connolly not being able to be released on a scheme that others would do.

00:36:26.860 Tommy Robinson being placed in a situation that some would say is solitary confinement, others would say segregation, that would not apply to someone other than who it was.

00:36:37.400 And that impression, it's that impression that's having a negative impact on our judicial system.

00:36:45.420 I talked to my legal friends about it.

00:36:47.200 Everyone thinks we're corrupt now.

00:36:48.960 I mean, we used to be the old joke.

00:36:50.140 I mean, how many lawyers would you prefer to see, you know, how many lawyers in the sand would you prefer to see up to their necks in sand?

00:36:58.380 And they'd say everyone, you know, because that's where we are.

00:37:01.640 But that was a joke then.

00:37:03.040 But now we're facing this all the time.

00:37:05.020 But, you know, I am a journalist.

00:37:06.780 If I was successfully sued for libel and I continue to repeat those false allegations, I would expect the arm of the law to come down on me.

00:37:13.560 I would.

00:37:14.160 I don't understand why it would be any different for Tommy Robinson.

00:37:17.080 And he admitted that he had done this as well.

00:37:19.000 He went to prison.

00:37:20.200 He was put in segregation, solitary confinement.

00:37:22.900 But that is because he is a well-known figure who clearly has made a lot of enemies in his time.

00:37:27.900 It's for his own safety as well as everyone else's.

00:37:29.900 See, I found that latter point a really interesting one because I think it is a terrible indictment on our prison system that any individual would need to essentially be segregated for their safety because the prison can't control their prisoners.

00:37:46.560 But we know that happens in a number of cases.

00:37:49.000 It's not just with Tommy Robinson.

00:37:50.280 There are lots of high-profile prisoners who have done terrible crimes are often having to be segregated from other prisoners.

00:37:55.620 We know prison is a horrible place.

00:37:58.020 It is because of their actions.

00:37:58.820 It's the same arguably with Tommy Robinson.

00:38:00.240 No, not because of his actions in the prison.

00:38:01.740 Yeah, you're talking about someone...

00:38:03.340 You're talking about a prisoner that's done something wrong that's therefore segregated.

00:38:06.280 But equally, if you were...

00:38:07.320 What I'm talking about here, in this case of Tommy Robinson, is the fact that a prisoner, whatever anyone thinks to him, if you need to segregate him because your other...

00:38:14.940 And it's predominantly the Muslim groups that they can't control. 1.00

00:38:18.240 These guys that are...

00:38:19.540 Robert Jenrick speaks frequently about this.

00:38:22.160 I would say that actually there's something terrible going on in our prison systems if you can't actually control the people that are in it.

00:38:28.240 But anyway, look, he knows.

00:38:29.720 Tommy Robinson, very divisive man.

00:38:32.240 He will admit that, I'm sure, his self.

00:38:35.040 And you'll all have, I'm sure, your own opinions and your strong opinions about that.

00:38:38.980 But look, that's all we have got time for.

00:38:41.260 Many of you, by the way, are talking about Lucy Connolly saying, whatever happened to that fella from Herp Not Hate?

00:38:45.280 The one that was going around talking about people being acid attacks when actually it wasn't true?

00:38:50.140 Good question.

00:38:51.120 Anyway, that's all I've got time for.

00:38:52.640 Thanks, guys.

00:38:53.840 Ezra Levant, great to see you.

00:38:56.100 Thank you, you too.

00:38:57.000 And you in London means one thing.

00:38:59.480 We're here at the High Court, your favourite spot in London.

00:39:02.560 I know you don't go anywhere else in London but the High Court.

00:39:05.240 Tommy, Tommy Robinson, there was a case today.

00:39:08.980 You've just flown in.

00:39:10.320 John, let us know what it was about, overturning something, and then the positive decision that we've just heard.

00:39:15.840 Sure.

00:39:16.420 You know, I flew seven hours.

00:39:18.860 It was a two-hour cab ride to get into the city.

00:39:21.760 It was an hour on the Toronto side, so that's ten hours I've journeyed for a half-hour court hearing.

00:39:27.880 But I'm happy for it because it's good news.

00:39:31.380 Tommy was in prison for contempt of court.

00:39:34.120 That's not a crime.

00:39:35.160 It's a very unusual kind of law where you sort of offend the judge himself.

00:39:39.260 So to get out of the pickle, you've got to fix things with that judge.

00:39:43.140 It's not even a neutral judge.

00:39:44.720 It's a weird kind of law.

00:39:46.520 It's called purging your contempt.

00:39:49.060 And you've got to basically show the court that you're governable, that you submit to their authority.

00:39:55.060 Tommy submit?

00:39:55.640 Well, that's the thing.

00:39:56.860 You know, as you know, years ago, Tommy worked for Rebel News.

00:40:00.620 And I like to say Tommy didn't work for Rebel News.

00:40:03.940 Tommy worked at Rebel News.

00:40:05.600 Tommy is not good at having bosses.

00:40:07.860 I'm joking around.

00:40:08.920 That's one of the characteristics about him that makes him so effective is his stubbornness to the point that other people would call it irrational.

00:40:17.860 But it's not irrational.

00:40:18.980 It's just a deeply principled man.

00:40:21.240 The rules of contempt and the rules in general are not built for conscientious objectors.

00:40:27.440 The punitive elements of our law are enough to guide most people.

00:40:32.860 But there are some unique people in the sweep of time who you can punish them and they take it as a badge of honor.

00:40:38.940 Tommy Robinson is such a man.

00:40:40.320 And I was there seven months ago when the judge basically, the same judge, said, if you take that video, Tommy posted a video to the Internet, a documentary called Silenced.

00:40:52.220 And a judge said, don't do that.

00:40:54.380 Don't do that.

00:40:54.980 I'm going to order you not to do that.

00:40:56.140 Tommy did it anyways.

00:40:57.940 And Judge Jeremy Johnson, seven months ago, said, Mr. Yaxley-Lennon, if you take that down, I will lop months off your sentence.

00:41:08.760 And he would not.

00:41:10.320 And how many people do you know would take, and not just, this is not just any old prison.

00:41:17.920 This is a maximum security prison full of murderers.

00:41:21.560 And it's even worse than that.

00:41:23.000 Tommy was kept in solitary confinement.

00:41:26.080 They, you're going to find this hard to believe.

00:41:29.980 They emptied out 16 cells to make a whole wing of the prison empty.

00:41:36.420 And then when Tommy said he wanted to get out of his cell to work painting, he actually wanted to interact with people because he was in solitary.

00:41:43.780 They emptied out another eight cells for him to paint those cells, solitary.

00:41:49.240 And one thing, our prisons are overflowing.

00:41:52.120 And yet, there's spare space.

00:41:54.220 They sent 24 criminals out of, they released 24 violent criminals to hold Tommy Robinson.

00:42:03.760 Can you just stop and think about that?

00:42:06.280 Tommy Robinson made a thought crime.

00:42:08.000 It was a words crime.

00:42:09.260 It was not a, it wasn't a crime at all.

00:42:11.900 24 actual criminals were set free to hold him.

00:42:18.660 That's the state of the UK.

00:42:19.760 But you know that.

00:42:20.780 According to the Times of London, every day, 30 people are arrested for non-crime hate incidents on social media.

00:42:29.720 And Tommy's just the most spectacular case and the most stubborn.

00:42:33.660 Anyhow, here's the news.

00:42:35.040 Tommy has purged his contempt by taking down the tweet in question and by demonstrating to the judge that he was trying to get other people to take it down and in all but a handful of cases was successful.

00:42:47.320 The judge noted that Tommy was not contrite and did not apologize, but that Tommy did make it clear that in the future, if he disagrees with the court order, he'll appeal it rather than defying it.

00:42:59.900 And I think that's wise anyways.

00:43:03.800 Tommy's a tough guy, physically tough, mentally tough.

00:43:07.200 But solitary confinement is generally regarded as a form of torture.

00:43:13.620 It's used typically for someone who's already in prison, who engages in misconduct, again in prison.

00:43:20.600 What do you do with someone in prison who misbehaves in prison?

00:43:23.060 You can't imprison him.

00:43:23.960 He's already in prison.

00:43:25.040 You put him in the hole.

00:43:26.220 You put him in a box.

00:43:27.620 It's a short-term form of torture that will break a man's spirit.

00:43:34.540 That's why you do it.

00:43:36.080 No human is meant to be in that condition for seven months.

00:43:39.540 I think it was actually a grave mark on the British prison system and the prison governor at HMP Woodhill, Nicola Marfleet.

00:43:51.420 Lord Pearson has written to her numerous times and she just says, well, I can do what I like because the law lets me do what I like.

00:43:57.620 She is a DEI hire and the prison is completely out of control.

00:44:05.180 It's run by the gangs.

00:44:06.440 That's my point.

00:44:07.580 That's why they had to let 24 violent criminals free to hold Tommy because Nicola Marfleet does not actually control the prison. 0.97

00:44:15.280 And to appear butch, to appear in control, she takes out her vengeance on Tommy Robinson. 1.00

00:44:21.780 Let me give you one tiny example.

00:44:24.020 Tommy's got three teenage kids.

00:44:26.340 So he had certain telephone privileges, but Marfleet said only during the day.

00:44:33.060 Well, the kids are at school.

00:44:35.400 Oh, well, he has his phone privileges, doesn't he?

00:44:37.460 Yeah, when the kids are at school.

00:44:38.600 And constantly breaking visitor appointments, including myself.

00:44:44.660 I had one scheduled.

00:44:46.160 I was coming over.

00:44:46.960 Oh, sorry, you're not allowed.

00:44:48.580 Whimsical, capricious, the less little things like banning GB News from the prison TV.

00:44:55.300 I mean, how petty. 0.59

00:44:56.500 This spiteful, sadistic woman, Nicola Marfleet, whose prison is completely out of control. 0.99

00:45:02.240 But, boy, she shows how butch she is by taking on Tommy. 1.00

00:45:05.780 Anyways, long story short, Tommy Robinson will be out in the next few days.

00:45:11.200 And, you know, 165 million people did watch that documentary before Tommy took it down.

00:45:20.080 That's more than the population.

00:45:21.180 That's more than double the population of the UK, more than double the population of the UK.

00:45:26.180 That's astonishing.

00:45:27.620 And, of course, Elon Musk has reposted it.

00:45:29.720 And Elon Musk made Tommy probably the most famous political prisoner in the world from the beginning of this year.

00:45:34.260 And that suddenly put Tommy in a different position where the world now knows, instead of this being a UK problem, it's a world issue.

00:45:41.700 You know what?

00:45:43.540 On New Year's Day, Elon Musk tweeted, free Tommy Robinson.

00:45:48.660 You looked at your phone and thought, what's happening?

00:45:51.040 Oh, yeah.

00:45:51.700 And, you know what?

00:45:52.260 I wrote a public note back to Elon Musk, and he retweeted that, got 41 million views.

00:45:56.800 I mean, it's astonishing to engage with such a prominent and powerful man, and for him to raise the issue of freedom of speech.

00:46:08.400 And I should note that when Keir Starmer visited the White House, President Trump, Vice President Vance, they raised the issue of freedom of speech with the PM.

00:46:23.260 Now, they made specific reference to a case of Brits who peacefully pray in an abortion setting and are arrested for that.

00:46:32.480 Where it's illegal to pray within 500 feet of an abortion clinic.

00:46:35.580 And where the cops ask you what you're praying in your mind.

00:46:38.520 Absolutely astonishing.

00:46:39.820 That statistic I mentioned earlier about the 30-year arrested day.

00:46:43.160 You know, it was Konstantin Kissen who said, how many do you think are arrested per day in Russia?

00:46:49.860 Now, I wouldn't want to be in Russia.

00:46:51.540 I would be probably arrested because I prickle back against the government.

00:46:56.100 And I'm not a fan of Vladimir Putin.

00:46:58.720 He's a former KGB agent.

00:47:00.900 I would not do well in Russia.

00:47:03.180 But what would we say if 30 people a day were arrested in Russia for social media?

00:47:08.040 We would call that what it is, which is an authoritarian police state.

00:47:12.100 Well, that's the UK for you today.

00:47:14.880 And especially on issues where Keir Starmer has a sensitive spot.

00:47:19.120 Issues about Islam, migration, terrorism, grooming gangs, rape gangs.

00:47:27.600 These are the things that Keir Starmer doesn't want to be talked about.

00:47:32.680 And it's not just Keir Starmer.

00:47:33.940 I can't put it on him.

00:47:34.960 14 years of conservatives.

00:47:37.160 Conservatives.

00:47:37.680 Yeah.

00:47:38.640 Anyways, I'm blabbing too much.

00:47:40.080 Forgive me.

00:47:40.700 It's the second wind.

00:47:43.160 I haven't slept in a day.

00:47:45.860 But I'm glad to be here for some happy news.

00:47:49.000 The headline is Tommy Robinson will go free in a matter of days.

00:47:52.980 You see the way Ezra has dressed up.

00:47:55.160 And I haven't.

00:47:55.860 And I've come from around the corner.

00:47:57.880 It's just my jacket.

00:47:59.480 It's just his jacket.

00:48:00.360 I'm wearing blue jeans.

00:48:01.440 So, Ezra, just last thing.

00:48:02.520 You've flown in.

00:48:03.720 You were probably expecting this to last all day.

00:48:05.980 It's been 30 minutes.

00:48:06.920 You flew all night for 30 minutes.

00:48:08.940 But we've had a huge result.

00:48:11.040 And you posted.

00:48:11.920 You said that you believe it's going to be released.

00:48:14.080 And I thought, that's Ezra just being eternally optimistic.

00:48:17.140 But actually, your view and your perspective on this was bang on correct.

00:48:22.580 You know, I've read probably 50 contempt of court cases in the UK.

00:48:27.660 Because, Tommy, this is his third contempt case going from memory.

00:48:32.700 And I've read most of them.

00:48:38.220 Not most.

00:48:38.920 I've read a great number.

00:48:40.240 And in almost every case, the judge is simply looking for the contemner, that's the person who's in trouble, to say, I submit.

00:48:48.860 And when you think about it, that is necessary for the rule of law.

00:48:53.340 If we all defied judgments that we disagreed with, then the courts would have no power.

00:48:58.880 And there was a moment in there where the judge said, Tommy has recognized that if there's a court order he doesn't like, the right thing to do is to appeal it rather than break it.

00:49:10.980 And who could argue with that?

00:49:12.540 Now, some might say Tommy Robinson can't get a fair trial in the United Kingdom, that the judges are not neutral arbiters, that he is treated as an enemy of the state.

00:49:23.400 And there's a lot to that.

00:49:24.620 I think there is a two-tier justice system in this country.

00:49:29.280 I don't think anyone can deny that.

00:49:30.980 When you look at how social media posts during some of the Southport riots, sent people to prison for two, three years for hurdy words and actual violence.

00:49:43.320 I mean, I think of the by-election up in Runcorn, where Iron Mike, the Labour MP, beat the tar out of a constituent.

00:49:53.080 What did he serve, two days in jail for that?

00:49:55.400 Because he's one of the righteous people, one of the, you know, one of our betters.

00:50:01.140 Whereas, I don't need to tell you that, you know that better than me.

00:50:05.700 But today was a good day.

00:50:07.480 Tommy will be out.

00:50:08.940 And he still faces other legal matters.

00:50:11.040 He still faces a charge under the Terrorism Act for not giving the police the passcode to his phone.

00:50:17.580 But we'll slowly fight these fights.

00:50:20.080 And I can tell you that Tommy is known around the world and, of course, across the UK, but around the world.

00:50:30.680 And he has supporters around the world.

00:50:33.060 And that's why I came in today.

00:50:34.420 I knew it would be brief.

00:50:35.400 I didn't think it would be half an hour.

00:50:36.680 I thought it would be an hour.

00:50:37.600 But, really, as soon as the judge was shown that Tommy had purged his contempt, after seven months in solitary confinement, there was no way he could keep him in.

00:50:47.820 And Tommy is certainly that verse, a prophet without honour in his own town.

00:50:53.180 That's certainly for Tommy.

00:50:54.280 You're hanging around, are you, in London for a few days?

00:50:56.660 Yeah, I'll be here.

00:50:58.260 I want to be here for when Tommy is released.

00:51:00.500 And we don't know for certain when that's going to be.

00:51:02.980 So, instead of flying home tonight, which I normally come and go in the same day, I'm going to putter around London for a couple of days.

00:51:09.440 I'm going to have a nice snooze to catch up.

00:51:11.740 And, you know what, this weather is unseasonably lovely.

00:51:15.240 And I don't mind a little bit of the gloomy overcast.

00:51:17.940 To me, that's London.

00:51:19.260 But it's a wonderful city.

00:51:21.680 It's got its problems.

00:51:22.840 But it really is the greatest city in the world.

00:51:25.240 While Britain has been shamed on the world stage today because of the ongoing incarceration of Lucy Connolly,

00:51:34.360 Tommy Robinson, Britain's other most famous political prisoner, was freed.

00:51:41.940 He's not out of HMP Woodhill yet, after seven months of truly barbaric solitary confinement as they try and destroy this man physically and mentally.

00:51:54.040 But he will be within a week.

00:51:57.960 Tommy Robinson's team posted a picture of him hugging his children, writing,

00:52:03.320 We're happy to announce Tommy Robinson will be freed from prison within the week and coming home to his children.

00:52:09.520 Thank you all for the continued support.

00:52:12.500 It's kept him going in the darkest days.

00:52:16.380 And, of course, as is always the case, the mainstream media, they only mention Tommy Robinson when there's a court case.

00:52:23.160 That's it.

00:52:24.580 So I don't trust at all they're reporting their version of events, which is why we have Ezra Levent of Rebel News, who was in court today,

00:52:32.800 and Cathy Gingell, editor of Conservative Women, who has followed this case for many, many months.

00:52:39.320 But this is how the news did break in the past few hours.

00:52:43.960 Very important breaking news.

00:52:49.240 Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yatsi-Lennon, is due to be released from prison within the next week

00:52:53.400 after his 18-month sentence for the civil offence of contempt of court was cut by four months at the High Court.

00:53:00.240 That's a turn-up.

00:53:01.580 Interesting.

00:53:02.640 Just to remind you the details of that story, there was a film made by Tommy Robinson, which included, I think he voiced,

00:53:11.180 was a part of this film, which made allegations about a schoolboy in this country.

00:53:16.300 And that film was banned for being untrue in relation to that story about that young boy.

00:53:23.700 Tommy Robinson played it at a rally and he put it online and he was told by the court that he must not show this movie

00:53:30.720 because of the defamatory allegations that it drew about this particular child.

00:53:36.880 He did.

00:53:37.720 He kept playing it, he kept playing it, he got put away for that.

00:53:40.320 Now, some people say the sentence was far too punitive because Tommy Robinson is a political figure

00:53:46.560 and it was seen to be lawfare, justice that wasn't being served fairly

00:53:52.500 because of who Tommy Robinson is and what he represents.

00:53:55.680 So that is a very interesting turn of events this morning.

00:53:58.460 And, of course, he was kept in solitary confinement.

00:54:02.220 The authorities argued for his own safety because he would have been targeted by some other prisoners

00:54:08.780 and there were serious concerns about his mental health.

00:54:11.880 That's right.

00:54:12.580 But Tommy Robinson's spokespeople have said consistently that they do not believe that he was in solitary confinement

00:54:18.780 for his own safety, that he was really struggling in prison and that he wants to come out.

00:54:24.320 Well, he will be out within the next week now after his 18-month sentence was reduced by four months at the High Court.

00:54:33.180 Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is due to be released from prison within the next week.

00:54:38.660 He was jailed for 18 months for the civil offence of contempt of court

00:54:41.640 and the sentence has been reduced by four months at the High Court.

00:54:46.840 I want to bring you breaking news that's come into us concerning Stephen Yaxley-Lennon,

00:54:52.000 who goes by the name of Tommy Robinson.

00:54:53.580 He is due to be released from prison within the next week

00:54:58.300 after his 18-month sentence for a contempt of court was reduced by four months at the High Court.

00:55:06.860 Tom Robinson, who is a far-right activist, was jailed for 18 months in October of last year

00:55:13.200 after admitting to 10 breaches of a High Court order for contempt.

00:55:18.780 He's 42 and will be released from prison within the next week after the High Court.

00:55:23.840 But one man who I do trust to deliver the truth about what really happened in court

00:55:31.400 is Ezra Levant, the boss of Rebel News, who flew from Canada to be at the High Court today.

00:55:38.360 Ezra, thank you so much for being here on Outspoken.

00:55:40.560 I know it's been a really long day, but so important you can tell our audience what really happened today.

00:55:47.160 Sure. Tommy was present by a video link from the prison.

00:55:50.840 It was a smallish courtroom, only about half a dozen members in the public gallery,

00:55:55.300 and a ton of lawyers, as there always are.

00:55:58.440 The Solicitor General, that is the government, sent a lawyer,

00:56:01.500 but he didn't really argue against Tommy's release.

00:56:04.060 I'm not sure exactly why they were there,

00:56:06.180 other than the government is obviously obsessed with Tommy Robinson.

00:56:09.820 Here's the thing. Remember, Tommy Robinson did not claim he didn't do the wrong thing.

00:56:15.780 He pled guilty. He flew back from overseas to the UK to face his fate.

00:56:22.160 What I think was shocking to him and so many others is how punitive the sentence was.

00:56:29.000 Solitary confinement, confined to a cell 22 or 23 hours a day,

00:56:34.240 no human interaction with other prisoners,

00:56:36.380 just a treatment that goes beyond any norm.

00:56:42.400 As you know, solitary confinement is used as a punishment for prisoners who are already in prison

00:56:47.880 but committed another offense while in jail.

00:56:50.280 How do you punish someone already in jail?

00:56:51.840 You put them in a box.

00:56:52.840 You don't put a man in a box for seven months because, why? 0.99

00:56:57.940 Because the prison authorities do not run Woodhill Prison.

00:57:02.300 And most prisons in the UK have extreme problems with gangs,

00:57:07.220 many of which are Islamic gangs, that would kill Tommy if they could. 1.00

00:57:10.180 Well, they are. 0.99

00:57:10.640 Tommy Robinson.

00:57:11.320 Let's just be honest. 0.99

00:57:12.660 Woodhill is run by Muslim gangs. 0.97

00:57:15.260 Yeah, in fact. 0.98

00:57:15.940 And a prison guard had their throat slashed last week.

00:57:20.020 Exactly right.

00:57:20.920 And to put Tommy there in the first place was absurd.

00:57:24.540 And the prison is out of control.

00:57:27.740 And the governor, who I understand just retired a few days ago,

00:57:31.200 did not run the prison.

00:57:34.060 So she had to clear out a whole wing,

00:57:36.920 letting those prisoners go back into the community

00:57:38.940 so they could hold Tommy there.

00:57:40.860 The whole thing is absurd.

00:57:42.360 I think Tommy Robinson is the first journalist 0.52

00:57:44.760 to be charged with contempt of court in almost a century.

00:57:49.580 And, sorry, the first one to be jailed for that.

00:57:52.120 And no other journalist has spent seven months in solitary

00:57:56.460 for anything like it.

00:57:58.600 I mean, Julian Assange, but he was accused of other violent crimes.

00:58:02.840 It really is of that magnitude.

00:58:04.780 Here's my point.

00:58:05.960 And I listen carefully to the case of Lucy Connelly.

00:58:09.280 And every week I see another case of someone praying peacefully

00:58:15.400 and the police saying, what are you praying about?

00:58:17.460 And it's just, maybe you're numb to it because you're Brits.

00:58:21.100 So you're in the middle of it.

00:58:21.980 It's like that old saying about the frog.

00:58:24.100 If you throw a frog into hot water, it jumps right out.

00:58:26.640 But if you slowly raise the temperature, the frog doesn't notice.

00:58:30.700 Maybe you Brits, because you live here, 1.00

00:58:33.840 you become desensitized to it.

00:58:35.780 Oh, yeah.

00:58:36.260 Another one of that.

00:58:36.980 Another non-blind.

00:58:37.800 I mean, we know.

00:58:39.800 Don't we, Kathy?

00:58:40.740 We know.

00:58:41.940 We know.

00:58:42.580 I guess what's so horrifying, and Kathy, we were obviously in court a few weeks ago

00:58:47.860 on this Tommy Robinson case.

00:58:49.680 What's so horrifying, Kathy?

00:58:50.980 And obviously, we know a lot about the mainstream media, given our histories.

00:58:55.440 It's horrifying to see the dishonest reporting of this case,

00:59:00.260 because that is all designed to keep the public accepting what is going on.

00:59:06.920 I think there are two things.

00:59:08.360 I think the mainstream media is extraordinarily biased, and it's a mouthpiece for the government

00:59:12.720 now, more than it has ever been, even when the Conservatives have been, because there

00:59:17.400 was a nominal thing that the Conservatives might be a little right wing, which, of course,

00:59:21.220 they're not.

00:59:22.260 They're left progressives, too.

00:59:24.480 The MSM had some vestige of criticism left in, but they don't act as the fourth estate.

00:59:30.060 They don't hold government to account.

00:59:31.720 They're absolutely the mouthpiece.

00:59:33.260 You could see it in the report clips that you've just shown on both Tommy and Lucy.

00:59:37.520 Now, compare that with the outside court piece that Esla Roussaint posted this morning.

00:59:45.460 Absolutely brilliant, classy piece of journalism, which none of our journalists seem to be capable

00:59:50.860 of, or if they were, dare do.

00:59:53.840 Not counting you, Dan, but in the mainstream.

00:59:57.120 Now, I'm putting that up on the Conservative woman tomorrow, because that is an example of 1.00

01:00:02.600 what proper court reporting should be.

01:00:05.120 You will not see that tomorrow or tonight on BBC, on Sky, on ITV.

01:00:13.340 It will be nowhere.

01:00:14.860 But as well as that, I am afraid there's an element of truth in what Esla says.

01:00:21.220 Our population has become very compliant.

01:00:24.360 There's silence everywhere.

01:00:26.180 I think partly because they effectively are putting people in the gallows and saying, this

01:00:33.620 is what happens to you if you so much as open your mouth to have any criticism of immigration,

01:00:40.380 let alone you are not allowed to even criticise savagery if it's caused by an immigrant. 1.00

01:00:46.400 Oh, no, you mustn't say it's an immigrant who's caused the savagery. 1.00

01:00:49.200 Yet we know statistically that there's a high, high level of immigrant crimes. 0.96

01:00:54.260 There are a high, high level of people of non-British nationality who've conducted British

01:01:00.200 crimes in our prisons.

01:01:01.560 So the country has been silenced and people are, I'm afraid, a lot weak and compliant.

01:01:09.600 People were appalled to find out that I was going to speak at a Tommy Robinson rally in defence

01:01:14.980 of him.

01:01:15.440 Or the ones who weren't appalled said, oh, you're very brave, Cathy.

01:01:19.640 So, you know, I'm afraid.

01:01:22.420 Sometimes I think whether what's in the band of few, there's some term for it.

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01:03:32.760 But now, back to the show.

01:03:35.480 Well, yeah, because think, think at around the time that Lucy Connolly was arrested, two

01:03:40.520 brilliant Outspoken regulars, Alison Pearson of the Daily Telegraph and the businesswoman

01:03:46.120 Bernie Spofforth, who now runs the media enterprise, if this is true.

01:03:50.960 They were also both visited by the police for tweets.

01:03:55.980 So the message that this government, and trust me, it's the government, this is all coming

01:04:00.900 from our human rights law at the top of this authoritarian regime.

01:04:04.440 The message is zip it, keep it quiet.

01:04:08.100 And it's terrifying.

01:04:09.700 But Ezra, look, I wanted to ask you about the practicalities of Tommy deciding to take down

01:04:17.640 silence, because when I was with him in HMP Woodhill in December, and of course, that's

01:04:22.460 a long time ago now, and he's had visits from people like us banned over many, many weeks.

01:04:27.560 I mean, the treatment, look, we all know how terrible the treatment has been.

01:04:32.000 But he was so clear to me, Ezra.

01:04:35.100 He was like, I ain't taking this down.

01:04:38.700 No way.

01:04:39.500 I don't give a damn that they're not going to let me out early.

01:04:44.020 I am not taking it down.

01:04:46.240 So do you know anything about the negotiations behind the scenes?

01:04:50.580 Did people like you, other close friends, family members really lean on him to say, look,

01:04:56.200 it's just not worth it.

01:04:57.300 You've made your point.

01:04:58.960 Or was this being driven by Tommy himself?

01:05:01.480 Well, first of all, the judge, when he sentenced Tommy seven months ago, said, I'm going to make

01:05:06.100 the sentence two parts.

01:05:07.100 One is to punish you for what you've done.

01:05:09.640 The other is, the judge said, coercive to try and compel you to take down the video.

01:05:15.180 So part one was, no matter what, we're going to punish you.

01:05:18.360 Part two was, if you want out sooner, take it down.

01:05:21.820 So that was the pathway that the judge had sort of telegraphed to Tommy seven months ago.

01:05:28.100 I, like you say, I haven't been able to get into Tommy because the prison governor had barred

01:05:34.260 me after my first visit, even though I didn't do anything wrong.

01:05:37.440 I don't really, to this day, know why I was barred.

01:05:40.080 But I think that Tommy's mental state was declining.

01:05:45.880 And who wouldn't?

01:05:47.180 You put someone in a box 23 hours, 22, 23 hours a day, and then you play games with them.

01:05:53.500 Here's an example of one that just irks me.

01:05:55.680 Tommy has teenage kids.

01:05:57.100 The prison said, sure, you can phone them during the day only.

01:06:02.120 Well, the kids are at school.

01:06:03.740 And they wouldn't let Tommy make phone calls outside of those hours because they needed

01:06:08.340 staff to listen to the calls or whatever.

01:06:10.400 So he was effectively barred from talking to his own kids.

01:06:13.480 They listened in on the calls.

01:06:14.920 They cut off calls.

01:06:15.900 They cut off visitors, as you said.

01:06:20.280 There's a whole host of small things.

01:06:22.140 They banned GB News from the prison TVs.

01:06:25.060 That was the only channel Tommy could stomach.

01:06:27.320 Those are small things, although when you're in a box for 22, 23 hours a day, maybe they're

01:06:32.400 not so small.

01:06:33.700 But I just think that, I don't know.

01:06:38.760 Let me give you a quick anecdote.

01:06:40.240 I had a black cab, like an old school cabbie today, and I told them about the case.

01:06:45.860 And there's some wonderful British traits like stiff upper lip and assume the best about 0.97

01:06:51.020 people, like some of my favorite things about the Brits, how will they manifest themselves?

01:06:56.840 The cabbie today said, oh, well, you know, I'm sure he's done something wrong.

01:07:02.580 Maybe he'll think twice.

01:07:03.620 We don't want speech that incites violence.

01:07:07.180 Okay, he's right.

01:07:08.220 But he's eliding, he's confusing, you know, hurtful words with actually inciting violence,

01:07:14.640 which, of course, we would never.

01:07:15.620 So here's a good guy, a regular cabbie, I'd maybe even call him a touch conservative.

01:07:20.760 And he was, you know, that British, well, you know, I'm sure it's fine. 0.93

01:07:25.300 The system is good.

01:07:26.640 Like, I just, I feel like Brits don't have their guard up, because maybe it's too horrible

01:07:31.400 to contemplate what's happening.

01:07:33.520 If there was a wife of a politician in my country who was sentenced to 31 months in prison

01:07:38.360 for a thoughtless tweet that was up for four hours, I think it would be shocking.

01:07:44.720 Katie Hopkins says the storm is coming.

01:07:48.460 I hope she's right.

01:07:50.040 I certainly sense today real anger.

01:07:53.740 But I guess I also sense that fear.

01:07:56.260 And on that note, Ezra, can you talk to me at all?

01:08:01.540 I mean, I know, obviously, you haven't seen him because he hasn't been released yet.

01:08:05.460 Oh, to answer your earlier question.

01:08:06.800 Yeah, they did.

01:08:07.500 They did say, Tommy, get out of there.

01:08:09.380 Yeah.

01:08:09.680 You've made your point.

01:08:11.440 And I mean, listen, before he went in, I said to the lad, I said, at that point, the video

01:08:16.960 had been seen 50 million times.

01:08:18.520 It was probably more than any other British documentary.

01:08:20.440 I said, look, how about declare victory?

01:08:23.000 I mean, 50 million.

01:08:24.320 And he was adamant.

01:08:26.020 And that's, let me say one quick thing about Tommy.

01:08:28.980 In some ways, he would be called irrational.

01:08:32.000 Like, it's irrational to voluntarily take so much punishment.

01:08:36.240 The whole system is designed to deter people by saying, if you don't listen to court orders,

01:08:40.980 we're going to punish you harder and harder and harder. 0.60

01:08:42.960 And that works on 99.9% of people.

01:08:45.680 But what about that one in a thousand or maybe one in a million who says, no, I am motivated

01:08:50.460 by principle.

01:08:51.460 And I am going to take this punishment.

01:08:53.840 And some people might even say, in a Christ-like way, I will suffer for the higher purpose and

01:08:59.660 for my countrymen.

01:09:01.320 And so the law doesn't really know what to do with someone like Tommy Robinson, because

01:09:05.660 he's stubborn.

01:09:07.560 And he, you know, and we need stubborn people to make change in the system. 0.92

01:09:12.420 And he was the pointy edge of the spear.

01:09:14.580 Now you have all sorts of other people talking about the issues.

01:09:18.100 There was a long time there were really grooming gangs.

01:09:21.540 You weren't allowed to talk about them.

01:09:23.480 I mean, one or two journalists.

01:09:25.260 And deportation, I was up in Runcorn a couple of weeks ago, you know, the Reform UK platform

01:09:31.200 frees immigration, stop the boats.

01:09:35.060 Oh, my heavens.

01:09:36.220 I remember it wasn't that long ago when Reform wouldn't say that kind of thing out loud.

01:09:40.020 Tony, he shifted the Overton window without any doubt.

01:09:44.360 But the big question, Ezra, is what now?

01:09:49.540 What is the plan?

01:09:51.140 Because, of course, there are all of these other attempts by the British deep state to

01:09:55.780 put Tommy back in jail.

01:09:57.280 Like, he knows that he is going to be targeted.

01:10:01.180 So he...

01:10:01.900 He already is.

01:10:02.800 Yeah, of course.

01:10:03.560 The terrorism act.

01:10:04.120 I mean...

01:10:04.440 Exactly.

01:10:05.100 So what now?

01:10:06.080 How is he going to stay out of jail?

01:10:07.940 What is the plan now?

01:10:09.780 Well, I mean, I think he's got to be extremely careful because the state has an enormous amount

01:10:19.220 of resources hunting him.

01:10:22.040 And sometimes he doesn't even have to do anything wrong for them to hunt them.

01:10:25.260 Remember when he attended the march against anti-Semitism about a year ago, a year and a

01:10:30.360 half ago?

01:10:30.840 I was there, by the way, and I bumped into him by...

01:10:33.540 I didn't know he was going to be there.

01:10:35.160 I literally bumped into him by accident.

01:10:37.240 I was thrilled that he was there because, you know, I'm a Jew myself.

01:10:40.840 I'm sympathetic to Israel.

01:10:41.960 I was delighted to have him there.

01:10:43.680 Just by being there, someone complained about him, and he was banned from London for months.

01:10:48.760 So it's not as if he was doing anything wrong.

01:10:51.940 So many of the things that Tommy does, it's like Lavrenti Beria, the old Soviet secret

01:10:58.060 policeman who says, show me the man, I'll find you the crime.

01:11:00.520 I hate to say it, but I think we're getting to the point where I don't know if Tommy Robinson

01:11:03.720 can even get a fair trial in this country.

01:11:06.100 And if the law doesn't get him, the outlaws might get him.

01:11:10.280 You know, there's something called an Osmond warning.

01:11:12.480 It's the name of a case where, I won't explain where the name comes from, but if police have

01:11:17.300 actionable intelligence that you are about to be attacked, they have to physically come

01:11:22.800 to you and hand you a piece of paper called an Osmond warning detailing the threat to your

01:11:27.640 life.

01:11:28.620 Tommy's received, I think, 11 or 12 of these.

01:11:30.860 Some of these people have been arrested, tried, convicted and jailed, like actual terrorist

01:11:35.680 schemes.

01:11:36.700 That's probably more terrorist schemes to get him than 99% of MPs and cabinet ministers.

01:11:42.640 I would say only the prime minister himself has perhaps had 11 attempts on his life.

01:11:48.140 So if the law doesn't get him, the outlaws will.

01:11:51.060 I don't know if this is a safe country for him.

01:11:54.240 And, you know, it may be.

01:11:56.520 Do you think he will stay or is there the possibility of seeking asylum, for example, in the U.S.?

01:12:03.720 Well, I mean, I'm not that intimately familiar with his personal life.

01:12:08.860 I know he was spending some time in Spain and I think it's dangerous for him in the U.K.

01:12:14.040 And I don't know.

01:12:15.880 I mean, I think that America, many of these problems are not as acute.

01:12:20.520 And I think they're dealing with them.

01:12:23.400 They're dealing with some of these problems of anti-Semitism, radical Islam, mass immigration.

01:12:28.020 So maybe they're a step ahead of the U.K. that way.

01:12:30.700 I don't know.

01:12:31.140 Listen, I haven't had a chance to have a personal heart-to-heart with him in months because the

01:12:35.120 prison won't let me in.

01:12:36.500 Hopefully this week I'll have a chance to catch up with him.

01:12:38.720 And one of the things I'm worried about, as you may know, is his family.

01:12:42.960 I mean, I don't mean to be dark, but there is a chance that Tommy's life will not end naturally.

01:12:49.800 And planning for that and trying to avoid that, but preparing, you know, to take care of the

01:12:57.860 kids, that is something that's on my mind.

01:13:00.680 And I know it's on Tommy's mind as well.

01:13:02.800 It's terrible.

01:13:03.460 It's terrible that a Brit cannot feel safe in his own country, either from the law or

01:13:09.380 from bandits.

01:13:10.120 And that's the state of things right now.

01:13:12.200 I don't mean to say I love the United Kingdom.

01:13:13.840 That's why it's so strange to me these things are happening.

01:13:16.420 It's chilling.

01:13:17.020 And look, I know Kathy will agree with me.

01:13:19.460 We are so grateful, Ezra, for people like you who do care enough about the United Kingdom

01:13:25.820 to raise the alarm.

01:13:27.720 I mean, in some ways, I find it so sad when I see major American commentators who I really

01:13:34.660 respect, for example, even today, like Tim Pool saying, F the United Kingdom.

01:13:41.000 Then I think about what's going on.

01:13:42.840 And it's like, I get it.

01:13:44.280 I understand it.

01:13:45.520 It is so disturbing.

01:13:47.040 And so that's, I guess, where we find ourselves.

01:13:50.060 But it is a very, very worrying state.

01:13:53.840 I think the tide is turning a little bit here in the UK.

01:13:56.320 As you know, I was here a few weeks ago.

01:13:58.280 There was a critical by-election in the North that flipped from 53% for the Labour Party

01:14:04.760 to a win for Nigel Farage's Reform UK.

01:14:08.480 And just yesterday, there was a new poll out in the UK in general with the Reform UK way

01:14:15.100 out in front and the Conservative Party in fourth place, if you can believe it.

01:14:21.320 That shows you that people don't believe the Conservative Party has a chance.

01:14:25.880 I think it's a spent force.

01:14:27.600 And they know that whatever the Conservative Party says these days, both the right and

01:14:32.040 the left will say, you had 14 years to do that, because they had a 14-year term until

01:14:38.080 they were just kicked out last year.

01:14:39.540 And you didn't do it.

01:14:41.000 So it'll be interesting to see how things go.

01:14:43.380 It gives me a little bit of hope what's going on in the UK today.

01:14:46.420 And maybe we can learn from that.

01:14:50.140 Maybe we can be a little bolder in talking about immigration reform and talking about

01:14:54.480 terrorism and talking about multiculturalism in our own country.

01:14:58.140 Anyways, I'll keep you up to date on this important story, which is important because it's about

01:15:04.080 free speech.

01:15:05.200 On that note, I think things are worse.

01:15:07.600 On the immigration front, I think things are getting better here in the UK.

01:15:10.960 But on free speech, in many ways, they're worse.

01:15:13.560 There was a case of the spouse of a Conservative political councillor.

01:15:18.580 And she made a tweet about some terrorist stabbings of some children.

01:15:25.460 She made this tweet a few months ago.

01:15:27.640 And the tweet was up for a few hours.

01:15:29.420 It was a rude tweet, no doubt about it.

01:15:31.420 And she was sentenced to 31 months in prison today, literally the same day Tommy Robinson

01:15:37.020 had his hearing at the court.

01:15:39.360 So did Lucy Donnelly.

01:15:41.480 And she lost her appeal.

01:15:43.000 She was remanded to serve the rest of her 31-month sentence for a tweet, which of course

01:15:51.400 is a longer sentence than many rapists in this country get.

01:15:54.820 So not everything is going well in the UK, but a few things are.

01:15:58.040 And you've got to note them while you can.

01:16:00.140 All right, from Rebel News here in London and everywhere around the world, to you at home,

01:16:05.860 good night and keep fighting for freedom.

01:16:13.000 Good night.

01:16:14.000 Good night.

Rebel News Podcast - May 21, 2025

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Tommy Robinson set to be released after contempt of court hearing

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