Veterans In Politics by CampaignForce

This week we are back with our 'Behind the Politics' segment, speaking to those behind the scenes, turning our attention to the world of journalism. Our guest is from The University of Northampton, Kate Ironside.Kate is a former political journalist, with 26 years experience in industry. She worked for the Reading Evening Post, Central Press, the Daily Express, Western Morning News and BBC Westminster. She spent two years reporting local government, 13 years at Westminster and 17 years writing an award-winning column on the European Union. Today she combines teaching, with regular contributions to the BBC, commentating on national politics. Kate sits on the executive board of the Broadcast Journalism Training Council, which accredits our journalism courses, and organised the nationwide reporting of the general election results by BJTC students across the UK in 2015, 2017 and 2019.Kate teaches public affairs, law, media regulation and practical reporting. She has won awards for her university teaching. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.Kate’s research centres on public affairs and media regulation. She is the author of Reporting Power, the official textbook on public affairs of the Broadcast Journalism Training Council, now on its third edition.We refer to the amazing work Kate does with students running election counts coverage.  You can view the work here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzttiNQSq4s&feature=youtu.beAnd to follow Kate on X, find her @IronsideKateSupport the show✅Support The Show Help Us Grow! Help us reach more veterans by donating the cost of a cup of coffee today... 💳A small donation helps us pay our publishing fees & expenses and enables us to reach even more people, by creating the content you love! Every supporter will get a shout out on our show too!CLICK HERE 👉https://www.buzzsprout.com/1394725/support

Tom Blenkinsop was born  in Middlesbrough, brought-up in Marton and graduated from Teesside University with a BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and the University of Warwick with an MA in Continental philosophy.Tom joined  the Army Reserve in 2017 in the Royal Military Police in which he still serves today, and was an MP whilst training to be an RMP, something we explore in this episode.Tom worked as a constituency researcher for Ashok Kumar, Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, from 2002 to 2008. He became a campaign manager for the Community Trade Union in 2008 and continued in the role until his election to Parliament in 2010.Tom was selected as the Labour candidate for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland in April 2010, following Ashok Kumar's unexpected death the previous month. He was elected at the May 2010 general election. In his first Parliamentary term, he was a member of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee from 2010 to 2012, the Standards and Privileges Committee from 2010 to 2011 and the Treasury Select Committee in 2011. He joined the opposition front bench under the leadership of Ed Miliband, serving as a whip from 2011 to 2015.He was re-elected at the 2015 general election. During his second Parliamentary term, he was a member of the Energy and Climate Change Committee from 2015 to 2016, the Privileges Committee from 2015 to 2017, the Standards Committee from 2015 to 2017, and the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee from 2016 to 2017.After the calling of the 2017 general election, Blenkinsop announced that we would not seek re-election as an MP as he could not campaign for Labour whilst Corbyn served as party leader.  Again, this is something we discuss at length in the podcast.Blenkinsop returned to the Community union as a London-based project manager after leaving Parliament, and became a public affairs advisor for the Federation of Small Business in 2020. We thank Tom for sharing his story with us!Support the show✅Support The Show Help Us Grow! Help us reach more veterans by donating the cost of a cup of coffee today... 💳A small donation helps us pay our publishing fees & expenses and enables us to reach even more people, by creating the content you love! Every supporter will get a shout out on our show too!CLICK HERE 👉https://www.buzzsprout.com/1394725/support

About this week's guest: Dr. Sebastian Gorka is a Talk Show Host on the Salem Radio Network Platform, and began his show AMERICA FIRST on New Years Day, 2019. With parents who had lived as children under fascism and then escaped Communist Hungary, Sebastian was raised to love freedom. And his love of talk-radio developed early. As a child he would listen late into the night to the shows of the London Broadcasting Company with a small transistor radio under his pillow. It was with this special family background, and growing up under the influence of Margaret Thatcher, that Sebastian learned how to fight totalitarian ideologies, be they Fascism, Communism, or Global Jihadism.He would end up serving in the British Army reserve in a Military Intelligence unit, then after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in the first freely-elected Conservative administration in Hungary. The after the 9/11 attacks he became a professor on a Pentagon-funded counter-terrorism program run out of Germany.In 2008 he moved to America with his family where he continued to work for the Defense Department and become a proud American citizen in 2012. He obtained his doctorate in Political Science from Corvinus University in Budapest and was a fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In Washington, he served as Associate Dean for Congressional Affairs and Relations to the Special Operations Community at National Defense University and has also taught on the Masters program at Georgetown University.In 2020, President Donald Trump named Gorka to the National Security Education Board. This board provides strategic consultation and was established by congressional act in 1991.Dr. Gorka has briefed the CIA, the DIA, the US Navy Seals, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, served as an expert for the DoJ during the Boston Bombing trial, and testified before Congress on the threat of Global Jihadism. He remains a guest instructor at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, at Fort Bragg, the home of the Green Berets.Gorka writes for The Hill and has written two books for Regnery Publishing. His first “Defeating Jihad,” was a national best-seller and his latest, released in October, is called “Why We Fight…Defeating America’s Enemies with No Apologies.” Before launching his SALEM show, “AMERICA FIRST with Sebastian Gorka,” he was an advisor to candidate Donald J. Trump and served on the staff of the White House in 2017 as Deputy Assistant to the President for Strategy.Support the show✅Support The Show Help Us Grow! Help us reach more veterans by donating the cost of a cup of coffee today... 💳A small donation helps us pay our publishing fees & expenses and enables us to reach even more people, by creating the content you love! Every supporter will get a shout out on our show too!CLICK HERE 👉https://www.buzzsprout.com/1394725/support

The Rt Hon Dr Andrew Murrison MP is a Minister at the MOD and we were excited to record this episode in the heart of our nation's Defence HQ at MOD Main Building.  We talk about the Invictus Games, Ukraine, his service in the Royal Navy as a doctor, both regular and reserve, his family, Defence and the various ministerial roles he has served in.We also share a special message this Christmas time to all those from the Armed Forces serving over the break.Big thanks to the MOD for their help in delivery this episode.About the MinisterDr Andrew Murrison was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence on 30 October 2022.He was previously Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development from 9 May 2019 to 13 February 2020.He was elected Conservative MP for South West Wiltshire in May 2010, and was first elected as the Conservative MP for Westbury in June 2001.In November 2003 he was appointed to the Conservative front bench as a health spokesman, transferring in July 2007 to defence. In May 2010 Andrew became Parliamentary Private Secretary to Secretary of State for Health and was asked by the Prime Minister to review and make recommendations on health care for members of the services community. The principal recommendations in the subsequent reports, ‘Fighting Fit’ and ‘A Better Deal for Military Amputees’, are being rolled out by the government.In November 2011 Prime Minister David Cameron appointed him as his special representative for the centenary commemoration of the First World War, a post he was re-appointed to by Theresa May.Andrew previously served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence and Minister for International Security Strategy from September 2012 until July 2014. He then served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office from July 2014 to March 2015. He chaired the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee from July 2017 to May 2019.Career outside politicsAndrew served for 18 years as a medical officer in the Royal Navy, leaving in October 2000 as a Surgeon Commander. In 2003 he was recalled to serve in Iraq.In 2021 was mobilised to lead vaccination teams as part of Operation Rescript. He remains an active reservist.Personal lifeAndrew and his wife live near Warminster. They have 5 daughters, 2 of whom serve in the Armed Forces.Useful links:OP Courage: Mental health support for veterans, service leavers and reservists - NHS (www.nhs.uk)Combat Stress is the UK’s leading mental health charity for veterans  Call them on 0800 138 1619, text them on 07537 404 719 or email [email protected] assistance for veterans in:England: NHS 111 service or call 111 when you need medical help fast but it’s not a 999 emergency, or contact NHSScotland: Scotland’s Health on the Web or call 111Wales: NHS Direct Wales or call 0845 46 47Northern Ireland: nidirect government services - telephone contact details are available from the websiteSamaritans Call 116 123 to speak to a Samaritan.Support the show✅Support The Show Help Us Grow! Help us reach more veterans by donating the cost of a cup of coffee today... 💳A small donation helps us pay our publishing fees & expenses and enables us to reach even more people, by creating the content you love! Every supporter will get a shout out on our show too!CLICK HERE 👉https://www.buzzsprout.com/1394725/support

This week we speak to veteran Channel 4 and BBC investigative journalist, Michael Crick as part of our 'Behind the Politics' feature where we interview experts in the field of politics, from campaign managers to pollsters to journalists like Michael... and maybe even the odd Special Advisor!Michael is a TV legend,  broadcaster, journalist and author. He was a founding member of the Channel 4 News team and remained there until joining the BBC in 1990. He started work on the BBC's Newsnight programme in 1992, serving as political editor from 2007 until his departure from the BBC in 2011. Crick then returned to Channel 4 News as political correspondent. In 2014 he was chosen as Specialist Journalist of the Year at the Royal Television Society television journalism awards.  In that same year, he even doorstepped our podcast host Jonny Ball, when Jonny was working for Grant Shapps MP!  Jonny and Michael talk about this rather amusing anecdote as well as Michael's current work unearthing the murky world of political selections via his Twitter/X feed @tomorrowsMPs which you must follow now!Big thanks to Bare Arms Military Support to Film & TV for lending us their podcast studio.  If you'd like to rent it, in the heart of Westminster, London, contacts Bags on: [email protected] 07410 603080Web- https://barearms.co.uk/contact-bare-arms/SHOW LINKS:Join our Facebook Group community here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2314725475490967/Engage with us on LinkedIn here:https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13628154/Insta/Twitter/Facebook: @CampaignForceUKor email the host [email protected] Up and Serve Again!Support the show✅Support The Show Help Us Grow! Help us reach more veterans by donating the cost of a cup of coffee today... 💳A small donation helps us pay our publishing fees & expenses and enables us to reach even more people, by creating the content you love! Every supporter will get a shout out on our show too!CLICK HERE 👉https://www.buzzsprout.com/1394725/support

Veterans In Politics- Andrew Selous MP- Former Army Reservist on a day in the life of an MPOur host first met Andrew Selous MP when he himself was brand new to politics.  UIt was great to sit down in Parliament all these years later and chat through mucvh about the day in life of an MP.  From PMQs to consituency life and casework, this episode is packed full on insight.We also talk about his life in the army reserves, or the TA as it was known back then, through Andrew's service in the HAC and Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.  Off the back of this, we chat about work-life-reservist balance and how much of this helped him campaign.About AndrewAndrew was born in 1962 and married Harriet in 1993 and they have three girls. They live in the South West Bedfordshire constituency in Studham near to Whipsnade Zoo.Andrew is Patron of Leighton-Linslade Homeless Service and Patron of Homestart Central Bedfordshire. He was a Territorial Army officer for twelve years and served in Germany, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United States of America.Andrew qualified as a chartered insurer and worked as a reinsurance underwriter before being elected to Parliament. His firm helped many of the world’s poorest communities recover from natural disasters.Andrew supports local homeless charities by taking part in sponsored sleep-outs. Andrew is Patron of SIFT a development charity working with people in extreme poverty in Nicaragua.  Andrew is also Patron of Reclaim Life in Leighton Buzzard.LINKS:Join our Facebook Group community here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2314725475490967/Engage with us on LinkedIn here:https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13628154/Insta/Twitter/Facebook: @CampaignForceUKor email the host [email protected] Up and Serve Again!Support the show✅Support The Show Help Us Grow! Help us reach more veterans by donating the cost of a cup of coffee today... 💳A small donation helps us pay our publishing fees & expenses and enables us to reach even more people, by creating the content you love! Every supporter will get a shout out on our show too!CLICK HERE 👉https://www.buzzsprout.com/1394725/support

James Paul Watson (known as Paul) joined the Irish Guards straight from school and completed 6 operational tours including Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He sustained a spinal injury in Afghanistan, which ultimately led to his medical discharge from the British Army in 2015. He immediately enrolled at Salford University where he graduated in 2018 with a degree in Political Contemporary History before being elected as a local councillor. Whilst at university, Paul began to become disillusioned with society's relationship with the veteran community - specifically how our injured veterans are dependent on charities for support post-service.Paul fundamentally believes that it is the responsibility of local and national government to provide for our veteran's aftercare, as it was the politicians and not the charitable sector that send us to war, hence, the accountability lies solely with them. Paul was diagnosed with complex PTSD in 2017 and uses his platform to promote positive mental health by being honest and open about his own battles with PTSD.In 2021, Paul released his memoirs where he challenges the MoD's policy regarding the mental health of both serving personnel and veterans, and in 2022 founded the Ex-Forces Union to lobby on behalf of our veterans.LINKS:Join our Facebook Group community here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2314725475490967/Engage with us on LinkedIn here:https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13628154/Insta/Twitter/Facebook: @CampaignForceUKor email the host [email protected]://www.exforcesunion.org/OP Courage: Mental health support for veterans, service leavers and reservists - NHS (www.nhs.uk)Combat Stress is the UK’s leading mental health charity for veterans  Call them on 0800 138 1619, text them on 07537 404 719 or email [email protected] the show✅Support The Show Help Us Grow! Help us reach more veterans by donating the cost of a cup of coffee today... 💳A small donation helps us pay our publishing fees & expenses and enables us to reach even more people, by creating the content you love! Every supporter will get a shout out on our show too!CLICK HERE 👉https://www.buzzsprout.com/1394725/support

Tobias Ellwood has always been in the headlines.  This interview covers the reasons why, and comes with a trigger warning as we talk about tricky subjects, including grief and trauma.  For details of supportive organisations, see the bottom of these notes.About our guest:Tobias was elected as Member of Parliament for Bournemouth East in May 2005, and subsequently re-elected in 2010, 2015, 2017 and most recently in December 2019. He was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office with special responsibility for the Middle East and Africa from July 2014, and was made Parliamentary under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defence in the June 2017 reshuffle.Shortly after being first elected to Parliament in 2005, he was appointed Opposition Whip. In July 2007, he was promoted to the post of Shadow Minister for Culture Media and Sport where he was responsible for a portfolio including tourism, gambling and licensing. After the May 2010 General Election, Tobias was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Defence Secretary, the Rt. Hon Liam Fox MP. He was appointed to similar positions for the Minister for Europe, the Rt Hon David Lidington MP, in October 2011, and the Health Secretary, the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, in October 2013. He held this position until he was promoted to the Foreign Office in July 2014, with responsibility for the Middle East and Africa.Tobias was elected Chair of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee in January 2020 and remained in that position until September 2023.Tobias was born in New York, USA due to his parents' overseas posting at the time. He grew up in Bonn, Germany and Vienna, Austria, but returned to the UK to complete his first degree at Loughborough University. Whilst at Loughborough, Tobias was elected President of the Students' Union.He spent six years in the Regular Army with The Royal Green Jackets, head quartered in Winchester, and served in Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Kuwait, Germany, Gibraltar and Bosnia. He now has the rank of Lieutenant Colonel as a reservist in the 77th Brigade. Tobias is married to Hannah and they have two young sons, Alexander and Oscar.  He is a patron of a number of local charities, including Caring Canines, Samaritans, and Boscombe’s Crumbs Café.Outside of politics Tobias is a keen sportsman, an active Army Reservist and a private pilot. He is frequent visitor to the United States and the Middle East. He also enjoys the theatre, military history, and is an Eagle Scout.OP Courage: Mental health support for veterans, service leavers and reservists - NHS (www.nhs.uk)Combat Stress is the UK’s leading mental health charity for veterans  Call them on 0800 138 1619, text them on 07537 404 719 or email [email protected] assistance for veterans in:England: NHS 111 service or call 111 when you need medical help fast but it’s not a 999 emergency, or contact NHSScotland: Scotland’s Health on the Web or call 111Wales: NHS Direct Wales or call 0845 46 47Northern Ireland: nidirect government services - telephone contact details are available from the websiteSamaritans Call 116 123 to speak to a Samaritan.Support the show✅Support The Show Help Us Grow! Help us reach more veterans by donating the cost of a cup of coffee today... 💳A small donation helps us pay our publishing fees & expenses and enables us to reach even more people, by creating the content you love! Every supporter will get a shout out on our show too!CLICK HERE 👉https://www.buzzsprout.com/1394725/support

Royston Smith GM MP is an RAF veteran, former council leader and George Medal recipient and our latest guest on Veterans In Politics Podcast.He has been the Member of Parliament for Southampton Itchen since 2015 and is the former Leader of Southampton City Council, having served as the Councillor for Harefield Ward – where he was born – from 2000 until 2016.He has worked in both the private and public sectors, which offers useful experience to his approach to the key issues that face Southampton most effectively. His career spans four decades – starting by serving in the Royal Air Force as an aircraft engineer working with the Nimrod aircraft- and he later spent 16 years as a maintenance engineer at British Airways. He has also run local businesses in the city.We talk about the circumstances behind the award of the George Medal for bravery, and in doing so, remember Lt Cdr Ian Molyneux GM.The medal citation reads: "Lt Cdr Molyneux, with complete disregard for his own safety, had deliberately made an effort to tackle the gunman, knowingly putting himself into extreme danger in order to try to safeguard others from personal injury."His actions were incalculably brave and were carried out in the highest possible service traditions of courage and selfless commitment, resulting ultimately in providing just enough disruption to the sentry's intent to enable him to be subsequently overwhelmed and disarmed."We will remember him.LINKS:Spitfire Memorial Campaign-https://www.roystonsmith.co.uk/2020/10/12/a-national-spitfire-memorial/Join our Facebook Group community here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2314725475490967/Engage with us on LinkedIn here:https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13628154/Insta/Twitter/Facebook: @CampaignForceUKor email the host [email protected] Courage: Mental health support for veterans, service leavers and reservists - NHS (www.nhs.uk)Combat Stress is the UK’s leading mental health charity for veterans  Call them on 0800 138 1619, text them on 07537 404 719 or email [email protected] Up and Serve Again!Support the show✅Support The Show Help Us Grow! Help us reach more veterans by donating the cost of a cup of coffee today... 💳A small donation helps us pay our publishing fees & expenses and enables us to reach even more people, by creating the content you love! Every supporter will get a shout out on our show too!CLICK HERE 👉https://www.buzzsprout.com/1394725/support

This week we sit down with HAC Veteran James Gray MP.James was first elected as MP for North Wiltshire in May 1997.  He was educated at Hillhead Primary School and Glasgow High School and later read History at Glasgow University and Christ Church, Oxford. More recently he was a visiting Parliamentary Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford and is a graduate of the Royal College of Defence Studies.Before entering Parliament, James’s career was in business. He worked for P&O, latterly as one of their shipbrokers on the Baltic Exchange, when he was also made a Freeman of the City of London. He helped devise the means for trading bulk shipping as a futures commodity, and wrote several books about it. After 15 years in the City, he became Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for the Environment, Michael Howard, and his successor John Gummer.After his election to Parliament in 1997, James served on the Environment and Transport Select Committees until his shadow ministerial career began with his appointment as a Conservative Whip and then as a Shadow Minister for Defence. He served as Shadow Minister for the Countryside and after the 2005 General Election briefly as Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland. James now serves as a Member of Mr Speaker’s Panel of Chairmen.James’s military interest includes seven years in the Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest regiment in the Army Reserve, on whose Court of Assistants he also served from 2002 to 2007, and of whose Saddle Club he is life Vice-President. He is a graduate of the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme and of the Royal College of Defence Studies. In 2010, James founded the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Armed Forces, which he has chaired since. In 2013, James became founding Chairman of the Armed Forces Parliamentary Trust, which seconds up to 35 Parliamentarians a year to the three services.James has a particular interest in the Polar Regions, having travelled in both. He is Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Poles, and serves on the No 10 Advisory Committee on the environment.James is a member of NATO Parliamentary Assembly,  Patron of Operation Christmas Box, and a Younger Brother of Trinity House. He sat on the Defence Committee and the Committee on Arms Export Controls, and chaired the Defence Sub-Committee on the Arctic from 2016 to 2017. Following the 2017 election, he was appointed by the Prime Minister to the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy.He and his wife Philippa live on a farm in North Wiltshire.LINKS:Operation Christmas Box: https://operationchristmasbox.org/Join our Facebook Group community here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2314725475490967/Engage with us on LinkedIn here:https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13628154/Insta/Twitter/Facebook: @CampaignForceUKor email the host [email protected] Up and Serve Again!Support the show✅Support The Show Help Us Grow! Help us reach more veterans by donating the cost of a cup of coffee today... 💳A small donation helps us pay our publishing fees & expenses and enables us to reach even more people, by creating the content you love! Every supporter will get a shout out on our show too!CLICK HERE 👉https://www.buzzsprout.com/1394725/support