Thursday
Feb112016
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Talking of comedians
Feb 11, 2016 Climate: Ward Media 
If you thought the antics of the greens at the Cuadrilla inquiry were silly, take a look at Bob the Blether's latest in the Independent, outlining a vast right-wing conspiracy centred on, erm, 55 Tufton Street, Westminster.
And they call us conspiracy theorists!
In related news, the owners of the Independent are considering closing it down.
Reader Comments (56)
Jesus there are some crazies on the left! Is it no wonder the GPWF doesn't want to release its list of donors? Hell...I wouldn't want my name known out there out of fear someone might write something mean in the Indi!
Mailman
Seriously. If the 'In' Campaign wants to win the argument they need to actually make an argument.
Tying together people who share some views does nothing to counter those views.
Some of us are independent, in mind and geography, of the Westminster elite, anyway.
M Courtney
It's almost like the old days of the Court Party and the Country Party.
Well, I never.
Two doses of hypocritically hysterical humour in one day.
Bob Ward's total lack of self-awareness is only exceeded by his ability to rant for England, or maybe even Europe. He'll burst a blood vessel one of these days.
People who work in politics have offices in Westminster. Amazing news.
Isn't there some sort of Godwin's Law that covers anyone quoting Bob Ward? If there isn't, there should be.
@ Uncle Badger
God-Ward's Law?
If Bob Ward is pro EU, then based on his proven track record of being wrong, all financed by somebody else, who is the public to trust? Clearly not The Independent.
The public can be very forgiving, but hypocrisy never gets forgotten.
Tower 3
Clement’s Inn
London WC2A 2AZ
Any of the Qaddafi family still got an office?
If the Independent does turn into a click-baiting PR churner and thinly disguised agitprop sump like HuffPo it'll be a sad end to what was originally a mildly lame but virtuous quest epitomised in the name.
Does anybody know where Blob Ward's office/domicile is situated, and which green blobbies share same site(s)?
Bob is a crackpot? er................. with another rabid outpouring of bile streaked guff, his gold star rating of 'AAA1+++ climativist crackpot'...... is confirmed yet again, how many more times does it have to be affirmed, he jus' don' care don' ole Bob - do ee?
I dunno though,
About the most worrying thing I've read today, Soros has an article in the Gruan, averring that - by comparison to IS, President Putin is by far the greater existential threat to the EU and by extension Britain.
Now, it's true that, there's not much me and Soros could possibly agree upon but once more (how many times?) a bit like Bob - Soros could not be more, dead wrong.
Salopian, I do not remember where in the GoDaffy School of Economics Bob Ward resides, but I seem to remember that his domain is air-conditioned. Urban Heat Islands can be localised around sensitive thermometers, or is it that sensitive thermometers are best located in Urban Heat Islands?
“This small cabal is undermining the democratic process, which should be based on robust and open debate, rather than clandestine meetings between ideological bed-fellows,”
Time to resurrect the Seditious Meetings Acts?
Greenpeace, Canonbury Villas, London N1 2PN
“This small cabal is undermining the democratic process, which should be based on robust and open debate, rather than clandestine meetings between ideological bed-fellows,” this sounds like a perfect description of the CAGW Alarmist Army.
They gave up on open debate years ago as they kept on losing.
55 Tufton Street, Westminster should come under the protection of the National Trust.
@Old Grumpy
Seditious Libel will be resurrected / reinstated first - Jeremy Grantham and chums hope...
There are many other people who are aching for it to make a return - and we know which bunch of heretics would be among the first victims.
One assumes that Jeremy Grantham does not have individual copy approval for Ward (??) - let us not forget Ward is the official, handsomely rewarded mouthpiece for The Grantham Foundation
and there is little evidence that he has ever been restrained for going "off message".
another address:
Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment
40 Rowes Wharf
Boston, MA 02110
617-453-8432
Holy crap!! People have views that aren't left wing, call the police.
So if you are right of centre (not liberal or labour) you are an ideological zealot with an extreme agenda.
"So if you are right of centre (not liberal or labour) you are an ideological zealot with an extreme agenda."
When you stand so far to the extreme left, everyone else - has to be a "right winger".
When did being pro-Europe become a lefty issue anyway? I remember Michael Foot standing on a platform for coming out of Europe and Ted Heath took us into Europe.
What jumps out of that Indo story, is that the only quote provided comes from your friend and mine, Bob Ward.
Nothing from the subjects of the story; why wouldn't a diligent journalist actually go down to 55 Tufton Street in person and speak with the residents? That is a rhetorical question, BTW.
No, what this reeks of is a story conceived, "researched" and probably even mostly written by on Bob Ward and handed to Mr Baldwin, a domesticated journalist a a rag rapidly going down the gurgler.
Presenting the research on his website, the head of the European Foundation, the Tory MP Bill Cash, thanked “the work and insights” of the renowned climate sceptic Viscount Monckton of Brenchley
Now THAT is funny.
@Athelstan
morelike - if you disagree - or worse - actually challenge anything I say then I'll find a name to call you - and preferably a suitable diffuse moniker that devotees can project onto. (and never mind any evidence eh?)
Such is the low art of the political PR goon who does not care for mirrors.
What really rankles is the PR contrivance that "science" unequivocally supports his blatherings. That's what BW is - a PR goon.... - and one who occasionally gets traction with an increasingly lazy + awful + content hungry MSM between the "reality" stars.
@Phil Clarke 8:33 AM - care to elaborate ? - or is this a drive-by?
At least Monckton has put some work and insight into his attack on the pseudo-science of global warming.
All Phil Clarke has ever done is regurgitate other people's tedious tripe on the subject.
@MJ - indeed - linking to a raving wingnut like Joe Romm is particularly low-grade trollery - but actually, in this context -quite appropriate.
Bob Ward inviting Lord Lawson and Graham Stringer to “robust and open debate”? That's a new one. What are the rules of engagement? Multi-million pound hedgefund subsidies at forty paces?
@geoffchambers
well - no doubt that "robust and open debate" would only be entered into if Bob gets to define what's "robust and open" - but in the meantime the words simply serve PR purpose to try and dignify / drape his drivel with reasonableness.
Bob - you're not really very good at this ... there must be a McDonalds somewhere that could use a litter picker surely?
Well that is an own goal by Bob.
If these groups all have to share the same, not very big, premises- they can't be "well-funded".
If only there was a group of psychology or sociology researchers worth the name. Conspiracy ideation, projection, attribution of motives, deception all in one inflammatory, reactionary article. Talking about low hanging fruit....
I always thought that Graham Stringer was a member of a “zealous ideological clique.”
tomo & Mike ... A book needs to be written about the Viscount of Benchley's general looniness and shonky science; Monckton's 'work' has been serially, repeatedly, authoritatively debunked. He continues to repeat false claims long after they have shown to be so and gets the science wrong time after time after time.
An embarassment. But he seems to be the best these people have got.
LOL.
Phil, I believe this article is about Bob Ward's right wing conspiracy theory and not the Viscount of Benchley.
If you want a thread about him then start one in discussion.
Talking of comedians, for the first time ever (possibly) Monbiot and Miliband come together to discuss global warming. Book early.
https://membership.theguardian.com/event/guardian-live-ed-miliband-and-george-monbiot-in-conversation-21057821511
Phil Clarke
Your first link goes to a site which does very little except quibble.
Your second link leads nowhere (at least for me, and I've tried two different machines)
Your third link leads to 'hotwhopper'— and you call that 'authoritative'?? Sheesh!
Nobody has yet successfully debunked Monckton to any meaningful extent. What pisses off the "community" is that he keeps challenging their conclusions which is something that in a true scientific community they should be doing themselves. And most of the time he is right, or at the very least provides quite reasonable alternative interpretations for the same data.
See this morning's post on Marvel et al. If the likes of Schmidt spent less time defending the indefensible and did his job properly it wouldn't be necessary for amateurs like Monckton to do it for him. The day a "recognised" climate scientist from within the community is prepared to stand up and say — publicly, please — "there are holes in that paper" will be the day that discipline grows up and becomes worth paying attention to.
As far as I can see at the moment it will also be the day that arguments about global warming become irrelevant because hell will have frozen.
Perhaps there is some truth in the old political adage:
Just so we can all remember how many people actually read the Independent (and Guardian) and so presumably are in line with Bob Ward's political and environmental views:
http://www.themediabriefing.com/media/project_tmb/image/cirp-diff-2015-oct.jpg
Of the serious newspapers, the Daily Telegraph beats them all easily, with the Times a close second. The Grauniad and Indie added together don't get close to the Telegraph and there bars on the graph are too small to actually write the numbers in!
Bob Ward, like many greeny-lefties, makes the fatal error of presuming that he is in a majority. Its self-delusion Bob. Almost no-one reads the Independent and if the Grauniad wasn't being propped up by shedloads of private money it would be bust too.
>>Your first link goes to a site which does very little except quibble.
It is a list of 125 errors in an article Monkton managed to get printed on an APS website disputing the IPCC climate sensitivity calculations. Most are fundamental. Take E28, where His Lordship arbitrarily divides delta-T by 2 based on a paper by McKitrick et al on UHI. Even if this were legitimate (and it certainly is not), it would only justify an adjustment to the trend over land, Monckton applied it to the whole globe, rendering the rest of his conclusions invalid. Not a 'quibble'.
>>Your second link leads nowhere (at least for me, and I've tried two different machines)
Works fine for me, it's a presentation by John Abraham, a Professor specialising in Heat Transfer and Fluid Mechanics, 100+ slides of debunk.
http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/jpabraham/global_warming/Monckton/Monckton%20Presentation%20June%2022/index.htm
Naturally Monckton threatened to sue, and equally naturally he did not follow through.
>>Your third link leads to 'hotwhopper'— and you call that 'authoritative'?? Sheesh!
Pure ad hominem. Clearly Sou is correct in what she writes.
>>Nobody has yet successfully debunked Monckton to any meaningful extent.
You're kidding, right? Try this
On May 6, 2010, Mr. Christopher Monckton testified by invitation to the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming of the U.S. House of Representatives. Mr. Monckton, who is not a scientist, gave testimony that was in stark contrast to that of the scientists who were present at the hearing as well as the many official statements produced by the world’s premiere scientific organizations, about the growing dangers of climate change. Here, a number of top climate scientists have thoroughly refuted all of Mr. Monckton’s major assertions, clearly demonstrating a number of obvious and elementary errors.
See also https://bbickmore.wordpress.com/lord-moncktons-rap-sheet/
>>See this morning's post on Marvel et al. If the likes of Schmidt spent less time defending the indefensible and did his job properly it wouldn't be necessary for amateurs like Monckton to do it for him.
I'm not up to speed on that one, do any of Lewis's claims, if true, alter the conclusions of the paper? Or is it, as I suspect, a McIntyresque mountain/molehill situation?
I am detecting gravitational waves. A massive object is disturbing the space-time continuum
It could be a double black hole, more likely a massive space-ego
Looks like it's official - The Indy is closing
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/feb/12/independent-and-independent-on-sunday-closures-confirmed
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35561145
Bob Ward writing
“This zealous ideological clique are trying to imprint their extreme agenda on government policy"
is indeed comedy gold.
Going, going, gone..... goodbye to the Independent.
http://order-order.com/
I'm guessing Bob was the last nail
Independent to cease as print edition
'PPS00009' invalid tran type or mixde tran types on file
But both the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail have now told MPs they believe climate change is happening and humans play a role in it.
Editors at the Telegraph told the science and technology committee that "we believe that the climate is changing, that the reason for that change includes human activity, but that human ingenuity and adaptability should not be ignored in favour of economically damaging prescriptions." But they railed at being too frequently confronted with "impenetrable gobbledygook."
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/apr/01/telegraph-and-mail-concede-on-climate-change
There is no a doubt a conspiracy to change society .
It is neither right nor leftwing in character (the monopoly adopts both positions as a matter of convience)
If you listen to Peter Sutherland it is not even a secret .
Look - just observe Ireland. (Always the most extreme case during capitalist flux periods)
Its a repeat somewhat of the oldest of northern european capitalist stories.
I"Private Credit" ( directed by the CB) has decreased from 400 billion euros to 200billion euros over 8 years. !!!!!!!!!! (A historical and perhaps unique deleverage event)
At the same time foreign vulture funds has maintained the price of assets far beyond the purchasing power of the resident population.
The solution as always is to plant the island with a new population unencumbered with debt.
But this leads to a implosion of society and a consequent dramatic reduction of yield on human assets..............
But what matters most to slave owners is not so much yield , it is control.
Once the conduit system of control can be maintained then nothing else really matters.
There's an excellent account by the cartoonist Nick Garland of the founding of The Independent, called Not Many Dead. It is rather sad that having started out as genuinely trying to be independent it steadily moved to the BBC/Guardian world view and for this rabid right winger at least unreadable.
I see Yahoo have caught up with the demise of yet another left wing mouthpiece. https://uk.news.yahoo.com/uk-independent-no-longer-newspaper-130033662.html
Just another website now.
Politics swings left and swings right. We seem to be on the way back to the right at the moment . There has been a concerted effort to ride the Global Warming gravy train by the communists all the way to control of the UN and EU. As always they have failed, luckily for us, or we might have been subject to a Stalin, Mao, or Pol Pot again. Must be very frustrating being a Communist in an age of mass communication as the key to control is controlling information and solid censorship of opponents. See the Kim Jung IL instruction manual on how to remove a General in one easy lesson.
I thought Cimateman Clarke would have been off confronting Putin, Modi, and Xi Jinping by now, saving the planet for the rest of us. not still pecking at Monktons tail feathers and wasting his time and ours. Too busy telling hotwhoppers and collecting his posting pay I suppose.
@PC are you naturally dense or is some specialist training involved?
Few here would challenge the fact that climate change occurs and has been occurring like - forever - and since we live on the planet we are part of it.
You on the other hand appear to be saying that it's new and dangerous and that it's *all* our fault - which is patently stupid.
Indy closing: Another win for the environment, too - saving on newsprint and all its adjuncts, and on recycling same.
Thinkingscientist,
The Grauniad is propped up with shedloads of BBC licence fee money. Crappy Graun cast-offs are put on pension by BBC with titles like "Newsnight editor."
Same office = conspiracy
OK please explain why the
Grantham funds his Climate institute ...works thru Imperial and the LSE
Then LSE gets together with Leeds U and ESRC funding to create the CCCEP
, but CCCEP and Grantham Climate institute seem to have significant overlap in people
Since it's all done thru unis there must be a fair bit of taxpayer money going in aswell
Yet those 2 orgs seem like Grantham infuenced NGO's
Clealry, yet again, (somewhat boringly), Phil Clarke displays his complete technical ignorance. If the satellaite record shows the warmest whatever, year/day/month, (take your pick), it is merely by a factor of a few hundreths of a degree Celcius. The recent "record" implied that 2014, followed by 2015, that they were the hottest years on record, by two-hundreths of a degree, gleaned, & tortured from data that was measured by a machine with an error margin of +/- nine-hundreths of a degree Celcius! Which demonstrates that those making the claim are engaging in some wool-pulling, & thinking that everyone else is as thick as two short planks! I also find it amusing that those similarly minded fruits cannot see through the arguments the minute they claim that "right-wingers" are trying stifle this or that, clearly denoting without realising it that they have identified themselves as being on the political left by default!
Is it an accident that CCCEP reads almost the same as CCCP?