Rebel News Podcast - Tommy Robinson goes on trial AGAIN tomorrow. Can we call him a political prisoner now？

00:00:00.000 Tonight, one more time, Tommy Robinson goes on trial.

00:00:03.640 How long until we can call him a political prisoner?

00:00:06.700 It's October 22nd, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.

00:00:15.200 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:00:18.960 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:00:22.680 You come here once a year with a sign, and you feel morally superior.

00:00:25.660 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it,

00:00:30.000 is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:00:36.260 I usually stay close to home because I do my show every weekday out of the studio here,

00:00:40.720 but as you know, I've gone to the United Kingdom half a dozen times in recent months

00:00:44.180 for the endless trials of Tommy Robinson.

00:00:46.960 They really are endless.

00:00:47.860 I think this is his fifth court appearance on the same matter,

00:00:50.960 and I fully expect there to be a sixth.

00:00:52.680 Just a recap for those who haven't been following.

00:00:55.060 On May 25th, Tommy Robinson was live streaming political comments outside a courthouse in Leeds,

00:01:02.020 the United Kingdom, where inside a Muslim rape gang was on trial.

00:01:07.280 And the chance would happen, actually, the verdict in that trial was actually just released three days ago.

00:01:15.560 Huddersfield grooming 20 guilty of campaign of rape and abuse.

00:01:20.200 Let me read a bit about this to show you how shocking it was and why Tommy was outside the court.

00:01:26.600 Twenty men have been found guilty of being part of a grooming gang

00:01:29.440 that raped and abused girls as young as 11 in Huddersfield.

00:01:33.900 The men were convicted of more than 120 offenses against 15 girls.

00:01:39.700 Victims were plied with drink and drugs and then used and abused at will

00:01:43.820 in a seven-year campaign of rape and abuse between 2004 and 2011.

00:01:51.420 So please understand what this is.

00:01:52.920 It is not an opportunistic rape in a back alley, a smash-and-grab-style crime.

00:01:57.640 This is a systemic, perpetual, slow-motion crime

00:02:00.260 done hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times over seven years.

00:02:04.820 As in, these girls were entrapped. 0.99

00:02:06.960 They were tricked.

00:02:07.580 They were blackmailed.

00:02:08.420 And then they were constantly exploited and raped.

00:02:10.860 They were turning into slaves.

00:02:11.860 These are children, by the way.

00:02:13.220 These are not adult women.

00:02:14.500 These were kids.

00:02:15.860 And these were men.

00:02:17.380 And all but two of the convicts are Pakistani Muslim men.

00:02:21.340 They would approach these girls.

00:02:22.500 Remember, these are 11-year-old girls.

00:02:24.420 And offer them, in some cases, a candy.

00:02:27.200 Or a cigarette.

00:02:28.360 Or a drink of liquor.

00:02:29.480 Or even just a ride in a fancy car.

00:02:32.320 And then they would get these girls to do something to show their gratitude

00:02:35.640 or show that they wanted a real boyfriend.

00:02:39.260 Like send the men a naked selfie, maybe.

00:02:41.880 And then they were trapped.

00:02:43.640 Maybe they were trapped in other ways, such as becoming a drug addict at such a young age.

00:02:47.380 And so the men would say, ah, you've sent me a naked selfie.

00:02:50.660 And if you don't have sex with me now, I will send this picture to your mother and shame you and put it on the Internet. 1.00

00:02:56.800 And so the child would comply.

00:02:58.160 And then the men would say, well, now what you've done.

00:03:01.340 If you don't let my friends rape you, too, we'll do the same. 0.84

00:03:05.480 And then they were trapped.

00:03:06.200 And they were exploited.

00:03:06.900 And these girls were raped and raped endlessly, night after night, by this gang of men for seven years.

00:03:11.200 And there were threats of violence.

00:03:14.300 And there was violence.

00:03:16.400 And police and the press and social workers are all shy about speaking out because they don't want to be called racist.

00:03:22.440 And these girls, well, they're obviously, they must be bad girls. 1.00

00:03:24.720 They must be runaways.

00:03:25.740 They must have low morals.

00:03:26.860 And where are their parents, by the way?

00:03:28.300 Because they were white, working class girls. 1.00

00:03:30.360 And the men were mainly Pakistani Muslim.

00:03:32.680 And what are you, Islamophobe?

00:03:34.460 You bigot.

00:03:35.100 Shut up about this.

00:03:36.920 Let me read some more from the BBC story.

00:03:39.020 The men, all from Yorkshire, went by nicknames, including Dracula, which Naman Mohammed was known as.

00:03:47.560 Mohammed Imran Ibrar was known as Bully.

00:03:51.440 Abdul Raymond was nicknamed Beastie.

00:03:53.440 Imagine how cruel they must have been, raping 11-year-old girls to begin with, night after night, and then to have those nicknames on top of it.

00:04:01.600 One more quote.

00:04:03.580 Such was the man's hold over the girls.

00:04:05.420 One mother said her child cracked her head, jumping from a first-floor balcony at their home in order to get out, after they ordered her to meet them.

00:04:16.700 The girl later told police,

00:04:18.040 Every time I went out, something bad happened.

00:04:19.960 I risked my life every time.

00:04:21.220 I was a mess.

00:04:22.140 Another victim who only escaped the abuse when her family had to move following a house fire said,

00:04:29.920 It was the best thing I ever did, and that's bad, saying that burning your house down is the best thing you ever did.

00:04:35.400 So this horror, this seven-year nightmare, is what Tommy was protesting, and he was the only journalist outside the court.

00:04:45.480 He was protesting, and he had protested a year before at another rape trial in Canterbury.

00:04:50.420 And as he has done again and again, these trials are constant in the UK.

00:04:54.120 There's never a moment where there isn't such a trial.

00:04:56.120 This verdict last week was one of actually three connected trials of a huge Huddersfield rape gang.

00:05:01.880 It was broken into three parts.

00:05:03.120 It was so large.

00:05:05.320 Tommy was outside the court talking about the phenomenon.

00:05:07.380 Not talking about the particulars of the case of these 20 men, but talking about the nationwide phenomenon.

00:05:13.400 Here's the Daily Mirror reporting on the Rotherham rape gang.

00:05:18.000 1,400 girls.

00:05:22.260 16 years.

00:05:26.060 And as the mirror says, because people in authority were scared of being labeled racist if they tackled it.

00:05:32.380 1,400 girls.

00:05:34.220 Not 1,400 rapes.

00:05:36.760 1,400 girls raped for years.

00:05:40.300 Again and again and again.

00:05:41.500 Rotherham is a city of just a quarter million people.

00:05:44.760 Not a single white family would have been untouched by this. 0.99

00:05:48.000 White and the Muslim rape gangs, they target Sikh girls too.

00:05:51.860 Never Muslim girls. 1.00

00:05:53.120 Just white girls and Sikh girls. 1.00

00:05:55.420 Sometimes the Muslim rapists actually cite the Quran as justification for what they do. 1.00

00:05:59.420 Islam permits rape slaves, of course. 1.00

00:06:00.960 It's what ISIS did. 0.66

00:06:02.480 It's what Mohammed, the prophet himself, did. 0.65

00:06:05.420 So why can't they?

00:06:06.760 This book called Easy Meat tries to document it, tries to calculate it, suggests the actual number,

00:06:13.180 the total number of girls raped in the United Kingdom by Muslim rape gangs is well over 100,000.

00:06:17.280 100,000.

00:06:17.780 100,000.

00:06:18.780 Are you shocked?

00:06:19.960 Good, because it's shocking.

00:06:22.860 Which is why Tommy was swept off the streets, taken to a police station, charged with contempt of court for talking about the case,

00:06:28.640 prosecuted, convicted, sentenced, and jailed in just a few hours.

00:06:31.740 And sentenced to 13 months in prison for live streaming his political comments outside the court.

00:06:36.320 The hearing was so fast, mere minutes, Tommy himself didn't have a chance to say a word.

00:06:40.120 The judge who threw Tommy in prison, that was the same judge who presided over this rape gang trial,

00:06:44.400 didn't even watch Tommy's video commentary.

00:06:46.180 He just threw him in prison for talking about what rape crimes, what rape gangs do.

00:06:49.940 That's how they roll in the UK.

00:06:51.400 The trials are secret until they're over, which means the excruciating details of the evil committed by these gangs

00:06:57.880 is hidden from the public until one day of coverage in the media, and then it's over.

00:07:02.700 It's not pretty to listen to the details of these crimes.

00:07:05.260 I remember as a young man hearing the trial of Carla Homolka and Paul Bernardo reported daily.

00:07:11.600 It was scarring, actually.

00:07:13.220 It was more than 20 years ago, and I'm still disturbed by what I read at the time.

00:07:16.820 Good, good, good.

00:07:17.880 Let people know evil.

00:07:19.100 And in the case of Muslim rape gangs, let little girls and their parents be warned. 0.99

00:07:22.640 Let politicians and police and prosecutors and social workers and the media be shamed about their silence.

00:07:27.400 Let the truth come out.

00:07:29.040 That's why Tommy Robinson was jailed.

00:07:31.320 Well, we crowdfunded his legal bills, even though he no longer works for us.

00:07:34.420 We got him out of prison, the lawyers did, and after they made him serve 10 weeks in solitary confinement,

00:07:41.060 they starved him in there because a Muslim prison gang cooked the food, 0.99

00:07:45.200 and they made it clear to Tommy that they were poisoning him, so he starved.

00:07:48.780 He had to buy cans of tuna.

00:07:50.940 One can a day, the prison warden wouldn't let him buy more.

00:07:53.920 Even with his own money, he lost 40 pounds in 10 weeks.

00:07:58.020 The UK Court of Affiliate finally released him, threw out the outrageous ruling from the Leeds judge,

00:08:03.080 and gave a devastating condemnation of the conduct of the case against Tommy.

00:08:06.460 But bizarrely, they ordered a second trial of the same matter, and that's what tomorrow's hearing is about.

00:08:12.480 Same thing.

00:08:13.520 Tommy already served 10 weeks in solitary confinement court,

00:08:16.000 first journalist in 70 years to be jailed for contempt,

00:08:18.320 and the Court of Appeal wants it done again.

00:08:20.920 Second time.

00:08:21.880 Of course they do.

00:08:22.420 Because which is the easier problem to solve?

00:08:26.160 Massive, countless, relentless, evil Muslim rape gangs. 1.00

00:08:31.220 With perhaps hundreds of thousands of victims.

00:08:33.960 And tens of thousands of perpetrators.

00:08:35.560 Is that an easier problem to solve for the state?

00:08:40.340 Or is the easier problem this one mouthy man, the soccer hooligan, as they call him,

00:08:44.480 with his cell phone reports outside the courts?

00:08:46.360 Which is easier?

00:08:47.760 Which is more politically expedient to deal with?

00:08:49.620 Just to remind you, Tommy was originally put in a relatively safe prison called Her Majesty's Prison, Hull.

00:08:56.240 Where he was fine, actually.

00:08:57.420 But then, after about a week, he was transferred to one of the highest Muslim population prisons in the UK, 1.00

00:09:02.660 HMP only, that's dominated by Muslim prison gangs. 1.00

00:09:05.860 Don't tell me that move wasn't done.

00:09:08.000 Not to kill him.

00:09:08.820 It was done to kill him, or to break him, by forcing him into solitary confinement,

00:09:12.340 claiming it was for his own protection.

00:09:14.240 That's a political prisoner.

00:09:15.380 The Court of Appeal itself says he ought not to have been imprisoned.

00:09:18.620 Contemptive court isn't even a crime, by the way.

00:09:21.520 It's akin to a speeding ticket.

00:09:23.060 They threw him in a dungeon.

00:09:25.520 What irks me about this isn't just that this obscures the real crisis.

00:09:29.300 It's the rape of a generation of bridge girls and the underlying problem of culturally unsuited migration, 1.00

00:09:34.960 bringing rape culture with it. 0.92

00:09:36.540 Sorry to say it.

00:09:37.620 Do you want me to hide it, too?

00:09:40.120 But what also troubles me is the establishment is a party to it,

00:09:43.140 thinking perhaps that their young women and their lives will be immune to this.

00:09:47.300 But what just dumbfounds me is that the media in the United Kingdom is so complicit.

00:09:51.360 I've seen them at Tommy's trials.

00:09:53.000 They love to stick the dagger in.

00:09:54.460 They have a vendetta.

00:09:55.340 They hate him.

00:09:55.840 And he is a flawed man, as we all are.

00:09:57.960 But I have never seen such malice in the media, ever, and never such uniformity in the coverage.

00:10:01.980 Even countries like China, with a state domination of the media,

00:10:06.760 have more variety in their various state-run media than the UK media has in relation to Tommy Robinson.

00:10:12.660 They all hate him.

00:10:14.040 So I'm going back over there.

00:10:16.220 In fact, I pre-taped this episode, and I'm en route right now to London,

00:10:19.300 and I'm bringing with me a group of other reporters from around the world

00:10:22.440 who are not necessarily Tommy Robinson fans, but at least they are neutral enough

00:10:25.900 and honest enough to report from the court.

00:10:28.740 We're crowdfunding their journeys, economy-class airfare, economy-class hotels.

00:10:34.200 You can see the details at realreporters.uk if you're interested.

00:10:39.280 Well, come back after the break, and you'll meet one of those real reporters next.

00:10:42.380 Welcome back.

00:10:59.920 Well, I am recording this late last week, because today, as we air it,

00:11:06.200 I am actually en route to the United Kingdom to cover the case of Tommy Robinson,

00:11:12.320 our former employee, who, when he was independent, did a live stream broadcast

00:11:17.020 outside the court of a rape gang trial.

00:11:22.060 Almost 30 men charged with horrific crimes against young girls.

00:11:26.980 Tommy was outside the courts giving his political opinions when he was swooped up

00:11:30.740 by seven police put in the back of a police truck,

00:11:34.460 taken to the police station shortly to court, and within hours,

00:11:37.820 he was sent off to prison for a 13-month prison sentence.

00:11:42.220 I later interviewed him after he got out of prison,

00:11:44.260 when the Court of Appeal threw out his improper conviction.

00:11:47.240 He spent 10 weeks in solitary confinement.

00:11:51.300 I learned from Tommy that it is against the rules in British prisons

00:11:54.460 to serve more than 14 days in solitary confinement

00:11:57.660 because it causes psychological damage, being in isolation like that.

00:12:03.060 Well, the Court of Appeal did free Tommy from the prison,

00:12:06.340 but it sent the matter back to another trial.

00:12:09.580 There have been some fits and starts, but the trial will be held in earnest

00:12:12.640 on Tuesday, October 23rd, at the Old Bailey.

00:12:17.560 I'll be there, and I thought, you know, I need some allies.

00:12:21.120 I need some real reporters, because, oh my God,

00:12:23.880 the mainstream media in the United Kingdom is so bad.

00:12:26.860 You think it's bad in Canada.

00:12:28.200 It is bad over there.

00:12:29.180 So I came up with an idea.

00:12:30.100 I crowdfund my trips over there.

00:12:32.420 Why don't we crowdfund trips for other journalists, too?

00:12:35.320 Real reporters.

00:12:37.020 Subject to no editorial oversight by me.

00:12:38.900 They don't have to vet anything by me.

00:12:40.160 They still answer to their own editors and whatnot.

00:12:42.180 All we would do is take away the cost barrier,

00:12:45.480 because depending on where you're flying from,

00:12:47.080 it could be $1,000, $1,500 to get over there.

00:12:49.420 You've got to get a hotel.

00:12:50.060 So we set up a website, realreporters.uk, and I called some colleagues,

00:12:55.980 and I'm delighted to say we've got four, five, six journalists coming,

00:12:59.280 plus three cameramen.

00:13:00.880 We've got a whole crew.

00:13:02.400 And joining me now in studio is one of them, my friend Andrew Lawton.

00:13:06.760 Great to see you again, Andrew.

00:13:07.780 Likewise.

00:13:08.220 Good to be here.

00:13:08.700 Well, it's so nice to see you in person.

00:13:11.740 You used to do some videos with The Rebel.

00:13:13.880 You worked on radio with Chorus.

00:13:15.960 You hosted a talk show there.

00:13:17.900 You did other things with The Sun.

00:13:19.700 You've had a busy journalistic career.

00:13:21.700 Tell us what you're up to now.

00:13:23.200 So now I'm living the independent journalistic life.

00:13:25.520 So I'm working with Candace Malcolm,

00:13:27.080 who I know your viewers will know well,

00:13:28.920 at the True North Initiative as a fellow.

00:13:30.780 I'm writing for Looney Politics.

00:13:32.440 I'm doing a lot of work on my own platform right now,

00:13:35.060 which people can get on my own website.

00:13:36.840 Is that andrewlawton.ca?

00:13:37.720 Andrewlawton.ca, thank you.

00:13:39.120 And really trying to get the story behind the story in a lot of cases,

00:13:43.460 but also a commentary and analysis that you don't often see

00:13:47.020 in the mainstream media.

00:13:48.020 And I say this as someone who for years worked within the mainstream media,

00:13:51.220 albeit in an opinion-driven platform.

00:13:53.300 But that's why this opportunity to go to the UK was a golden one,

00:13:56.480 because here's a story where, as you note,

00:13:58.300 the media is not getting it right.

00:13:59.900 Yeah.

00:14:00.200 You know, I got to say,

00:14:01.620 you did some work for The Rebel in the past,

00:14:04.600 and my favorite video, and I still remember it very clearly,

00:14:07.300 was a woman who was attacked, allegedly,

00:14:11.060 in a store for wearing a hijab.

00:14:15.020 And it was turned into this big Islamophobia story.

00:14:17.440 But you went one level deeper and found out that the accused herself was Muslim.

00:14:23.560 So this was just a quarrel between two people.

00:14:26.380 You told the other side of the story.

00:14:28.080 The mainstream media had their narrative, Islamophobia.

00:14:30.760 You told the other side of the story.

00:14:32.100 But you did it calmly, fairly, nothing incendiary.

00:14:36.260 That was some of the best journalism we've ever published on The Rebel.

00:14:38.720 Well, and I think to this date, it's actually my most viewed video on The Rebel as well.

00:14:42.620 And people still ask me about it, and people have asked me for follow-up.

00:14:45.560 And the case has no follow-up, because nothing was preceded,

00:14:49.100 because the case was not how it was described.

00:14:51.300 And I think that was a great example where editorialization wasn't even required.

00:14:55.340 The facts themselves shattered the media's editorialization of it.

00:14:59.420 But you were the only journalist I saw,

00:15:01.700 maybe someone else has filled in the gap since then,

00:15:04.560 who actually said, well, was this how it was perceived?

00:15:07.680 And I think that's what's going on a little bit with Tommy Robinson,

00:15:11.440 especially in the UK.

00:15:13.180 The media know him so well, and they're all in their rut with him.

00:15:16.200 They hate him.

00:15:17.060 I feel like they have a vendetta against him.

00:15:18.900 I don't think he can get a fair report over there.

00:15:21.760 So, I mean, I've known your work.

00:15:23.560 I've known your work at The Sun, on the radio, on TV, in print.

00:15:27.900 I know you worked with us in the past.

00:15:29.380 I thought, if we can just get Andrew Lawton over there,

00:15:34.100 just cover the hotel and the flight and £100 walking around money just for lunch or whatever.

00:15:40.200 No fee to you.

00:15:41.640 No payment to you.

00:15:42.700 No editorial oversight to you.

00:15:44.340 I won't even see what you do until it appears in print.

00:15:47.140 I thought, that's a way to get her done. 1.00

00:15:48.640 That's sort of a citizen-journalist approach, isn't it?

00:15:51.100 Well, it is.

00:15:51.660 And, you know, even a lot of the left-wing media outlets have grants and bursaries and all of these funds.

00:15:56.880 The difference between what they're doing and what we're doing is that they've got millions of dollars to distribute,

00:16:01.460 whereas we've got to go to people and get $25 at a time.

00:16:04.580 So, no, I think it was great, actually.

00:16:06.040 I was glad you did the idea, and I was glad to be involved.

00:16:08.260 Our people love doing it, and we go economy class.

00:16:12.540 I mean, we made you sit in the back of the plane in the city.

00:16:16.380 That's okay.

00:16:16.880 I'm a man of the people now.

00:16:17.920 I can do it.

00:16:18.520 And nothing fancier than 300-star hotels in London, but we've got to live that way if we're going to afford it.

00:16:24.220 And I think our viewers appreciate that, and they appreciate you taking the time because you're not getting paid for this.

00:16:30.040 No.

00:16:30.200 We're covering your flight and your hotel in 100-pound spending money.

00:16:32.820 It doesn't go very far in London, I'm sorry.

00:16:34.640 But it'll be great to have you out there.

00:16:36.060 And Candice is also coming.

00:16:37.760 Yes.

00:16:37.880 She's great.

00:16:38.380 I mean, our viewers know her and love her.

00:16:39.940 We've got a young lady from Washington, D.C. named Cassandra Fairbanks. 0.91

00:16:43.760 She's coming.

00:16:44.300 We've got Avi Yamini, who's a boisterous fellow.

00:16:47.920 She's coming all the way from Melbourne, Australia.

00:16:49.980 Can you believe that?

00:16:50.740 Oh, no, and this is what happens when you have people that have a commitment to the truth.

00:16:54.760 And I've got to say, the Kermit Gosnell movie just came out last week, and I see a lot of parallels between the media's treatment of the Gosnell trial and the media's treatment of this issue,

00:17:05.720 whereas they are more outraged by what Tommy Robinson did or is alleged to have done than by what the men on trial did.

00:17:13.020 I mean, the media was absent on that, which is why Tommy was there in the first place.

00:17:17.500 And in a way, this whole thing with Tommy, I think, and not to put Tommy in that position of having to be the sacrificial lamb,

00:17:22.940 but their outrage with him has actually caused more people to pay attention to the initial trial that he was trying to bring attention to.

00:17:29.880 Well, I'm really glad that you're coming, and I think it's going to be collegial.

00:17:34.020 I've never met Avi Yamini before.

00:17:37.180 I've only met Cassandra Fairbanks for 10 seconds in passing, but it'll be very interesting to have a crew of international journalists

00:17:43.840 who don't really know each other other than maybe online to be a counterweight to this little clique.

00:17:49.800 I have to say, you'll find it interesting, I think, Andrew.

00:17:52.740 The Old Bailey is this very old, it's a court and a prison, and it's very high security, and it's got its old rituals and customs.

00:18:01.840 I'd almost say it's like a club, and to see those journalists who were all in there together, those U.K. journalists, they were a club.

00:18:09.020 They were on a mission. It was like a little political party.

00:18:12.820 And just to bring other eyes for another point of view, I'm going to make a prediction, Andrew.

00:18:17.700 You're based in London, Ontario, not London, England.

00:18:20.620 I'm going to make a prediction that you will have an enormous number of British viewers

00:18:26.700 because they just want to hear another point of view.

00:18:29.640 That's why they've been watching me, but it can't just be me.

00:18:33.020 Let's get other journalists around the world, and I don't know what you're going to write.

00:18:35.980 You don't know what you're going to write. You're going to write what you see.

00:18:38.060 It's not determined yet, unlike that pack of media clique that I saw at the Old Bailey.

00:18:44.400 Yeah, and one point that I would stress to people is that I don't know Tommy at all.

00:18:48.120 I've had a couple of correspondences with him.

00:18:50.700 I've never interviewed him.

00:18:51.820 And look, there are things that he's said that when I see snippets and extras, I'm like,

00:18:55.300 I don't know if I'm on board with that, but I'm unequivocally for due process.

00:18:59.080 And I'm going in here not as a cheerleader.

00:19:01.240 I'm going in here as someone who actually wants to see what's happening.

00:19:04.260 And yeah, if there are people in the media that are telling a version of the story that I'm like,

00:19:08.400 I was there and I didn't see that, I won't hesitate to call that out.

00:19:12.040 My hope is that honesty will prevail.

00:19:14.420 I'm skeptical, as I think everyone has a right to be and an obligation to be.

00:19:18.260 But this case is going to be interesting, not just for what happens as part of the official proceedings,

00:19:23.280 but what happens in the broader cultural bubble around it.

00:19:27.420 Yeah, you know, that's a very important point you make.

00:19:29.540 I mean, I knew Tommy, I would interview him and then I liked him.

00:19:33.560 And so we hired him.

00:19:34.340 He worked for us for about a year.

00:19:35.900 And then when he was thrown in prison, I became an advocate for him.

00:19:38.620 I still think my reporting is accurate, but I confess I'm a fan and I'm a friend

00:19:43.320 and I'm a supporter.

00:19:44.180 So I've moved.

00:19:44.980 I'm an advocacy journalist.

00:19:46.320 The fact that you're coming with no preconceptions, with no personal ties,

00:19:51.280 I think adds to your credibility when you call it like you see it.

00:19:56.380 Same with Cassandra, same with Candace, same.

00:19:58.620 Abby's a little bit more like me.

00:19:59.940 He's a cheerleader for Tommy.

00:20:01.160 I think your neutral, fair journalism will be critically important

00:20:07.320 and it will be a reason why you are trusted because you have no skin in this game.

00:20:13.320 The British media, they've got this feud with them and it shows.

00:20:18.180 In a way, I think, and that's why we got the website.

00:20:20.580 We call it realreporters.uk.

00:20:22.160 And folks, by the way, if you haven't chipped in yet, we've got five reporters,

00:20:26.280 three cameramen and me.

00:20:28.080 What's that?

00:20:28.480 Nine people.

00:20:30.380 So I think our total budget is about $17,000.

00:20:33.400 If you can help chip in, if you haven't yet, please go to realreporters.uk.

00:20:37.000 But I think that this is going to be maybe even a template for future journalism.

00:20:43.380 I feel good about it.

00:20:44.020 Last word to you, Andrew.

00:20:45.380 Look, I think that, first off, I have to say thank you to you and your viewers for this.

00:20:48.080 Oh, it's our viewers.

00:20:48.900 It's our viewers.

00:20:49.420 Well, it's both of you.

00:20:50.400 It's you for having the idea to say this is important to do

00:20:52.700 because the rebel in the past when you've covered Tommy is still ultimately one voice.

00:20:57.200 And I think that when you mentioned that term counterbalance, it's great

00:21:00.060 because now there are going to be five, six different outlets that are offering a narrative

00:21:04.080 that might well compete with the mainstream medias.

00:21:06.600 And when I go in here, I'm looking not just at the Tommy Robinson case, but just in the UK.

00:21:11.360 I also am keenly aware of the Brexit battle that's going on right now.

00:21:15.980 And I'm actually going to be sitting down with, I don't want to say too, too much yet

00:21:19.060 because we're still firming up details, but one of the lead economists on Brexit

00:21:22.520 and trying to also get a sense of some of the geopolitical issues in the UK separate from this

00:21:27.820 because they're all part of that same thing of what's happening in Western politics right now.

00:21:31.900 I think you're right.

00:21:32.520 There's a lot of little themes in the UK that I, as a Canadian, say,

00:21:36.300 well, we have the same sort of battles here in North America about the elites versus grassroots.

00:21:42.020 And so much of what Tommy rails against is the byproduct of the EU in the first place.

00:21:46.500 So I think it is connected to Brexit.

00:21:48.080 You know, I'm an idiot.

00:21:48.900 I fly in and out same day, seven hours each way.

00:21:52.040 I hope you stick around London.

00:21:53.640 I mean, we're only covering, I think, three nights hotel.

00:21:55.420 Yes, I'm on my own.

00:21:56.280 And I think that's really smarty.

00:21:58.420 I mean, I'm foolish enough to draw it home really quick every time.

00:22:02.320 But I hope you get an affection for the UK.

00:22:04.880 I hope you, like me, see the historical roots of our own country there.

00:22:10.400 And in a way, I've fallen in love with the UK again, even though I see it has a great number of troubles.

00:22:15.720 I enjoy covering it.

00:22:16.880 I hope you do, too.

00:22:17.820 I hope you catch the bug that I've caught.

00:22:19.760 And I hope you find these things worthy of coverage,

00:22:21.960 not only because British news consumers need another voice,

00:22:26.420 but I think Canadians and Americans need a bit of an early warning signal, too.

00:22:32.420 Well, it's going to be fun hanging out with you for a couple of days.

00:22:34.540 Absolutely.

00:22:35.000 We'll see you in London.

00:22:35.660 Cheers.

00:22:36.080 Right on.

00:22:36.520 Same journeys.

00:22:37.380 Well, there you have it.

00:22:38.380 Andrew Lawton, one of about four or five other journalists.

00:22:41.920 We're still pinning down details on one of them.

00:22:44.140 We're going to be bringing in from Canada, the United States, and Australia.

00:22:48.720 For more details, go to realreporters.uk.

00:22:51.800 And if you can help us out, please do.

00:22:53.360 Stay with us.

00:22:54.300 More ahead on The Rebel.

00:23:07.060 Well, that's our show for the day.

00:23:09.180 I am, as you hear this, making my way towards the court.

00:23:15.940 Actually, it's not until Tuesday morning.

00:23:18.960 The court opens at 10 a.m. at the Old Bailey.

00:23:21.340 Last time I was there, there was about 1,500 pro-Tommy Robinson supporters in the streets.

00:23:25.580 I counted, I think it was 16 Antifa-style protesters.

00:23:30.260 There were tons of police.

00:23:31.780 There was a helicopter overhead.

00:23:33.020 I have no idea what's in store, but I'll do my best to give you the details.

00:23:38.920 Not just me, but, of course, Andrew Lawton, Candace Malcolm, Abby Yamini from Australia,

00:23:43.840 and Cassandra Fairbanks from Washington, D.C.

00:23:46.240 We'll have, I think, three cameramen there, too.

00:23:48.520 So we'll have a posse with us, at least as big as the eight U.K. journalists who were there to stick the dagger in.

00:23:55.360 We'll have reports.

00:23:56.160 You'll find them on The Rebel website.

00:23:58.380 I'm not sure if we'll have a specialty site for them, but you'll be able to see that soon enough.

00:24:02.020 So that's where I am tomorrow, and I'll be back in Canada on Wednesday night.

00:24:07.760 Until then, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night, and keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - October 23, 2018

Tommy Robinson goes on trial AGAIN tomorrow. Can we call him a political prisoner now？

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