implications for the breakup of the united kingdom this week he said he wants a customs a range but i mean we could negotiate a new trade deals well that's the government's position so what he wanted to let down the country or agree with the government the leader of your of the largest socialist movement jeremy corbyn referenced a league letter from foreign secretary boris johnson just as the leader of the s.n.p. in westminster did the formal circuitries lete letter on the irish board to shows he can't get to grips with one of the most fundamental issues of breaks or the foreign secretary compared crossing the irish border to doing between camden and westminster like when you could not meet the stuff thought this is a u.k. government that is prepared to put at jeopardy the good friday agreement does the prime minister's likely work that probably want to thank you for making the good night you can do well mark thanks not to raise a may only prime minister because of our alliance to

a previously paramilitary link protestant political party appeared to say she didn't want bombs in british cities that commitment to the belfast agreement stands and we are committed to belfast agreement and the institutions under the belfast agreement those institutions are not working incidentally but the belfast agreement to end u.k. army slaughter of catholics and ira bombs in london are arguably not in the spirit of u.k. foreign policy today britain de facto supports what damascus calls terrorism it supports saudi bombing of yemen even inviting a saudi prince to london next week when it comes to oil interests not arguably allied to the pentagon it seeks the overthrow of governments one in particular venezuela the nation with the world's largest known resources of oil a march in support of president maduro is shed ewald in london for ten days time with or as foreign minister or he joins me now thank you so much foreign minister for coming again on going underground first of all the news that. general elections

have been delayed one way since last year we've been talking with the opposition we had the day other protests in dominican republic it was working very well we had very important that vance's and finally when the opposition and the government had to saying we traveled to santo domingo the president maybe you know was there former presidents about that are from spain was there as well and when the opposition arrived they said they were not going to saying there was no agreement that the date was to close the twenty second of april so we kept on having conversations and finally it was they said it to move the date to the second part of may the last two weeks of may we don't have the precise they are ready but it has been announced we have been as a government and the electoral institutions as well they are independent but we are thinking about the country about democracy about the future and we want all the parties to take part in the election and that's the reason why we have press him

a dude who has agreed and press the mother who is already the candidate of the revolutionary forces so our candidate will wait for the candidates of the opposition and we will have the elections in last may of course the british foreign secretary boris johnson merely says that your president is a dictator who imprisons thousands of people i believe mr barr is younger than i or his making fake news or he's receiving fake news there is not such thing as a ted recipient venezuela this is one of the most deep profound democracies in this whole world where we have had elections three elections last year and now we're going for the presidential election this year i mean no where in the world this happens and we will demonstrate as we have for over one thousand years that the venezuelan or leave aryan revolution is a real democracy and it can be envied by other democracies even. the old you

americans appeared to be very interested certainly american journalists in your country the new york times made a ten thousand word piece comparing opposition leader mr leopoldo lopez to martin luther king jr what do you think of that and have intelligence agents go into his home we have too much natural resources i have seen we have oil we have guys we have gold and of course the u.s. government and elite want the government that facilitates all these resources to go to the usa and that's absolutely absurd you know mr lopez is responsible for more than forty three people dying in twenty fourteen calling the people to the streets to do violent demonstrations and riots he has been a right wing opposition not the leader and we believe. we have done a lot to keep peace remember last year we had violent months four months of

violence and presume a do or did not resolve this did not solve the issue with repression what he did was to call the people for elections he convened elections for a national constituent assembly and peace came the next day after the election and it has kept this way very smoothly very quiet and that's what's going to happen after the presidential elections as well boris johnson and the european union says that your president and your government violates human rights what have you been saying at the u.n. human rights council this week about the sanctions against your country by the european union these sanctions against venezuela violate not only international law but our human rights today it's difficult for us to get to our oil paid back you know we deliver ships with oil and then the companies either in the us or in other parts of the world cannot pay back the money and we. we have more than one thousand

million dollars in european you are clear which are blocked and banks are blocking and we have to buy in to import made scenes and food and raw material for our people and it doesn't it's difficult today because of these sanctions do you discussed sanctions with your russian counterpart sergey lavrov in geneva this week yes i must say that the russian government president putin and all the government have been very helpful with us we are trying to build different routes different paths to avoid to bypass the sanctions with russia with china with thirty and with other allies in the world they are worried about the venezuelan people you know that. the secretary of state of the u.s. tillerson he said he was happy because in north korea enough korea there were people dying because of the sanctions those are the figures they look for to say that their politics their policies are well directed this is not going to happen in

venezuela because we are taking decisions we have allies in the world and we're going to protect our people from the sanctions and from any other attack from the u.s. you've seen how u.s. backed agencies have brought down a government in brazil in that in america moscow and beijing did very little to help stop the rise of a cia asset michel tema a former cia asset becoming president why do you think that beijing in moscow is going to help you because we have built a very close relationship with beijing and with and with moscow and we are more than. you know associates we are friends we are brothers and this was built by come on down to chavez and it has been also protected by press and i do so i believe that russia and china will. we would do much more for venezuela than anyone

can imagine in the world why do you think no one here in britain certainly for the government believes you an expert alfred desire claims there is presently no humanitarian crisis in venezuela because what they want the world to believe is that there is a humanitarian crisis when the when there are he military reasons you know that armies from other countries can intervene these were guarding the principles of international law that's the objective it's the old trick but of course you can't you can come to venezuela and you can just look around and you can see that there was no such thing as a humanitarian crisis of course we have trouble with some pro the with the some made the scenes but we it's been solved we have a better idea this year than last year and twenty seventeen was better than twenty sixteen and with democratic decisions and with our allies we're going to solve

everything it does for sure what did you tell british ambassador andrew and other e.u. ambassadors i understand understood by the british man in caracas i was once based in washington and in brazil we had a dinner with all the european ambassador. of the e.u. and they had a lot of questions for do it was likely for i was being questioned by a. the inquisition and tribunals and i had to defend the truth in venezuela i had to defend my people i had to tell them that they were not in the right path but i must say that the british ambassador had a good attitude he understood what i was saying and i told him that we have to improve our relationships we have relations very good ones since the venezuelan independence where the english army helped to liberate their people so we have to get back to the path of cooperation. which you respect and avoid these attacks and

respect for the venezuelans over n.t. i believe that the european union is going to rethink their view about venezuela and specially the united kingdom but must do so because we have always been friends and that's the way it has to be is it your understanding that some of these powers are now backing and refiled call on. to the roth of the democratic unity opposition seems to have decided to run against him a duro at the elections presumably in may i am not sure what's going to happen in the opposition at hand who vote going as one of the opposition leaders he has by himself he has a good party he has a lot of. people who support him and i believe that the other part of the opposition if he's the only candidate from the from the mood i must say there are twenty four other candidates that have the resistor and only one is from the government which is press in the little so i believe that most of the part of the

opposition will supports and reflect on and people will vote for him and the venezuelan people will decide their future freely and without any kind of interference from the international community and the international community has to help venezuela to help the dialogue in venezuela and they can come on a company the days of the elections we have invited the secretary general of the u.n. we have invited the people of kerry come of the african union and other international observers that will be with us during the week of the elections just finally i know donald trump is now threatening insurance types of sanctions against oil shipments he has of course threatened military action against venezuela i understand seven hundred thirty five million dollars in one day was the applications for the oil based venezuelan cryptocurrency how do you think they're going to try and sabotage go or oil based cryptocurrency. petter they have already said that the people who

views who use the pads are also violating these. these the query about these sanctions against venezuela but you know that crypto currency is a different world they don't go through the traditional banking system financial system so it's going to be really difficult for them petro has had a very good answer not only in venezuela and latin america but also in the us in europe in russia so it's going to be a very useful tool for us to help our economy to comply with our compromises abroad and do we want to have the payment capacity again and again granted in spite of the sanctions and all of the attacks from the u.s. foreign minister thank you thank you very much i stream my pleasure after the break . the u.k. could be easy on exiting the use huell williams on jelly crisp sound almost looks

and the end of the united kingdom as we know it and forgive tomorrows off because we don't do legendary iraq war with the look out for and gong to be played by keira knightley in the upcoming film with matt smith official secrets all of them all coming up on true of going underground. and there are some boys so much all of them mama. i don't mama the little bit of a little. longer. you know read a little frisky neutral i'm not critical of a lot of what if they're going to be chilcote for you know ya know. sort of.

what i mean and you come with a nice kind of itself for us to do with the question as to yes but no yes. here for everyone that is for you. but. join me every thursday on the alec simon show and i'll be speaking to us from the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then. welcome back in the past twenty four hours you gave minority government leader tourism a has tried to remain britain's leader instead of jacob reese morg the bookies tory favorite let alone jeremy corbyn the overall favorite comes after

a week in which the very identity of the u.k. has come under threat after defacto e.u. threats to tear apart northern ireland from scotland england and wales joining me now is welsh nationalist m.p. hugh williams who is on britain's exiting the european union select committee you're welcome to going underground so aside from the term old your speeches this week theresa may in the past twenty four hours bonnie on wednesday take us back to how your committee's meeting was with michel barnier the use chief negotiator of a breakthrough well he was quite stern interestingly when we've met him before he's spoken in english most of the time but he started out for the twenty minutes telling us off in french about the u.k. position and clearly you know they're the building up to a very hard position as has become apparent over the last few days you know it's interesting for me as a mere backbencher from wales to be there right of the sense that it was all and in civilian people like. the other day was a form of trade commissioner. who was the chief negotiator me either trade

negotiator formally done zero or what in the wake of what he had to say to as somebody said the other day was swapping a three course meal for the promise of a packet of crisps but he told us various other things. not just grist for jelly well anderson i just tell you we only don't let's you know the armless one is god because he said you know trying to negotiate this is like trying to take an egg out of a normal it's but the jelly one was amazing somebody asked. will the deals that we make after we leave will they make up for the trade that we lose with the european union and with a very spiritual. but with a very straight face he said well you know there's not a huge demand for jelly in the european union we produced. more than jerry level but he said you know if you could find the top jelly exporting could see them i swapped marcus with you for the for the fifty million that they have a new it up but you know i mean he was pulling a leg fairly severely with a vertically greatest fears are not going to like the they're going to keep

emphasizing the crucial percentages and proportional trade between britain and the court to that but ireland is no the critical key issue here rules are certainly mean a hard border we told you about ireland going to say you can't have a border without the ball the arrangements on both sides because the black city is now was saying well we'll just open the ball that entirely. let anything in and it's their problem they have to come to us that source of arguments. all british business could just relocate to bell first i mean i'm welsh business and scottish business is a fantasy you only see was do actually entertain racism there there will be no border that's what the government's position is all british business can really look into the north of the island of ireland and we'll be in europe i asked him about thoughts and said you know where do you reckon the border will be even if we don't have one in the north of ireland isn't the case of them have to be in the middle of the sea between. brits and the irish exactly because they have to have

a border somewhere he seem to think it's the brits it's yours of course i don't know i've got to ask you as applied m.p. though how and why does your party and i've got to ask you with the two had to wear one of them bought of the all party parliamentary group in catalonia how and why you want to be part of a european union which you still do and i know the world's population according to the poll did want to be part of european union the jail's politicians of the opacic us alone you could have owned up so that immediately and i was over there for the referendum i actually did see that's a police station the police arriving including people to the ground for daring to vote now the question really is it was for me in that i was. red line for britain why would we want britain want to be part of a living institution are we to deceive or everywhere indoors maybe even they're arguing against them or you don't side them letting them get on with it you know it's the local and the international brother from britain as the fortress britain

because i'm sure. there's that from the bennett wing of labor would always say it was internationalist to be outside the european union anyway but any news about anna gabriel or the spanish politician having to leave the norm european union switzerland because arrest warrant has been put out for the when the leader of the catalans live living in brussels because he dare not move back or he'll be put in jail or britain after breaks it could be a haven of freedom away from the european union which shows he was to be allowing the jailing of its politicians that might be the case i mean what's the european union would probably say is that national policy is the national action is a matter for individual member states the united nations has been criticizing leave for human rights over its treatment of refugees coming over from libya libya of course destroyed by an alliance including many european union nations and also you know the bus been happening in hungary with a big fans there to keep people out and poland why just to be part of an

institution i can see the financial now incentives as you would have it is opposed to what jacob riis more might say surely with time for britain to leave well without going in so he was detail but initially it was a common market it was a matter of selling potatoes to each other better profits i suppose of that sort of thing and then they would be in the union has developed into a body which protects environmental standards working standards you know working time directive as i think up war is there's a war in yugoslavia and you know and you know i'm sure that they want members of the time of course but still it's a war in europe that again as well the european union with us is. i'm pro european and it's a great expense i'm pro use. well they're not entirely divinely is your committee even going to last until twenty nineteen was mostly depends if the government lasts how long you know that i mean the betting of the moments is that either we last saw and this problem until twenty twenty two or possibly the next mayor your

williams thank you thank you. well fifteen years ago today a leaked memo between u.k. and u.s. spy agencies g.h.q. in the n.s.a. was released to the public a detailed collusion between governments to illegally bugged the united nations in an attempt to swing tony blair's vote to invade iraq a war that would go on to kill wound or displace tens of millions of people a decade and a half on u.k. and u.s. bombing of iraq continues and the story of that whistleblower is becoming a hollywood film starring keira knightley and matt smith former g c h q translator and whistleblower katherine graham joins me now i gather that coming on the show in person if anyone doesn't know who you are arguably they're going to know about you shortly do you think keira knightley playing you in a new film official secrets is going to make more people aware of what you did as a whistleblower and what you went through our hope so yeah i think. i think it's

a good. choice and she's going to do a fantastic job out there working with gavin and the producers and hopefully with meeting care very shortly hopefully a film will reach out to people who maybe don't generally look in an alternative direction so i mean this marks fifteen years now since you blew the whistle on g c h q and s a collusion connivance to get us into a war that killed wounded or injured maybe tens of millions of people what does it feel like as i describe it in a press conference it's like. if you see an elderly person struggling with their bags and somebody comes and tries to rob them of their purse or something. what would be your instinct you'd run and try and assist the elderly person if you see

a child crossing the road and those traffic coming you try and leap in and grab them it's an instinctive kind of reaction and when i saw that memo. i just thought this is a red flag you know i had no choice i have to do something it was just immediate response of the interactive reaction to break the official secrets act and possibly harm relations between london and washington and to to expose a memo that talked about the u.n. security council and britain's getting into the iraq war while expose. wrongdoing expose duplicitous behavior. and you know i think anybody looking back now there are very few of the people who initially championed the war who are still holding on to the same position i mean i think virtually everybody who at one point thought it was a good idea have now backtracked i mean it was

a disastrous decision it was an illegal war. and the evil you specifically was you've been all about iraq it was about process was lou well it was about legitimizing the invasion. and no building the u.n. security council. yes intercepting the domestic and office communications of the sixteen nations that was sitting on the un security council at the time in order to bribe them all intimidate more you know embarrass them in however way possible to vote for that second u.n. resolution that would have given the u.s. and the u.k. that legal cover for a preemptive strike and that that does not exist even to this day there is no legal cover there's no justification for a preemptive strike i was aware of the fact that iraq was not a threat to the u.s. and the u.k. you know it was a country that had suffered years of war years of sanction and they were

struggling to pull themselves together again and just finally advice to anyone watching who will be working military installation or any government in the world to go out into the country living here in britain. if they're thinking about it right now what should they be focusing on as to whether to go public it's obviously it's a very personal decision and it's a very difficult decision but i was speaking to matthew hoh who is a former u.s. regrettable if you're yeah and you know that he will tell you that. a lot of evidence pointing at the fact that. a suicide levels the rates of suicide amongst veterans for example is extremely high it's about six percent higher than the. not all the way should be paid if you're being opposed to work at the pentagon as in the levels yeah afghanistan yes and you know and and they now know that some

people don't commit suicide from p.t.s.d. they commit suicide from guilt. it's the guilt eating up inside which causes them to take their own lives and we also have the example of larry welk wilkerson who was the senior aide to colin powell and he's told me personally that he is eaten up by guilt because he prepared colin powells brief that went in front of the u.n. . which persuaded vast numbers of people that the invasion was necessary and he is consumed by guilt so now his way of appeasing this is is to shout as loud as he can about the abuses so don't wait till you yourself are suffering from this. position this malady of being mentally tortured by go out if you know something if you think it is in the public interest

to know please bring it forward and you are not alone because and at the time that i blew the whistle you know there wasn't the trend of whistle blowing as it was and it was for me after i found it very isolating but now there's a community of people that has all kinds of organizations that will help support to defend you and support your family and so on so it's it's growing. thank you. hope you enjoyed that episode of going underground for my latest season we'll be back on the eleventh of april for a brand new season of going underground but you can still keep in touch with us while we're away on facebook twitter and instagram so use it. for a world cup twenty eight team coverage we've signed one of the greatest goalkeepers

of alternative but there was one more question and by the way it's going to be our coach. guys i know you were on there was a huge star among us and the huge amount of pressure to come out you have to go i mean eighty percent of the beach will probably with you and you'll see all the great game the greatest game you are the rock at the back nobody gets past you we need you to get down going let's go. along and does that worry you and i'm really happy to join that for the two thousand and three and world cup in russia meet this special one it was also appreciate me to just take the reader p.r.t. teams latest edition to go up as we go. to jersey look. it's the craig. live jazz. is the america we have. to

mold this jazz feel the. city of climatic. alligators on the loose the poverty and crime are used by the police told members of my close most. of street racing in the heat of the night this is new orleans. the best place in the world. please . the.

british scientists admit they are unable to identify the source of the nerve agent used to poison a formidable agent in the u.k. this comes off the weeks of the u.k. and its allies squarely blaming russia. we know verify the precise source but we provided the scientific information to the government. the international chemical weapons wash tokyo p.c. w is expected to shed more light on the case if it meets in the hague. and american photo journalist who was once held by al-qaeda in syria says he was betrayed by the f.b.i. he claims the intelligence service used him to try.