Rebel News Podcast - October 23, 2018


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


Episode Stats

Length

24 minutes

Words per Minute

194.62247

Word Count

4,717

Sentence Count

381

Misogynist Sentences

10

Hate Speech Sentences

15


Summary

Twenty men were found guilty of being part of a grooming gang that raped and abused girls as young as 11 in Huddersfield, England. The men were convicted of more than 120 offenses against 15 girls in a seven year campaign of rape and abuse between 2004 and 2011.


Transcript

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
00:05:48.000 White and the Muslim rape gangs, they target Sikh girls too.
00:05:51.860 Never Muslim girls.
00:05:53.120 Just white girls and Sikh girls.
00:05:55.420 Sometimes the Muslim rapists actually cite the Quran as justification for what they do.
00:05:59.420 Islam permits rape slaves, of course.
00:06:00.960 It's what ISIS did.
00:06:02.480 It's what Mohammed, the prophet himself, did.
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.
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,
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.
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,
00:09:02.660 HMP only, that's dominated by Muslim prison gangs.
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,
00:09:34.960 bringing rape culture with it.
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.
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.
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.