WATCH THE BIRDIE, ROGER!

It’s becoming increasingly clear, thanks to a series of posts from Autonomous Mind, The Register and Katabasis, that the Met Office is not only seriously incompetent but also full of viperous spin doctor “spokesmen”, whose sole aim is to dissemble and obfuscate. The facts are emerging piece by piece through persistent FoI requests. Thanks to these latest FoI revelations, it now seems that our £100m-plus-a- year Met Office weather service did not see the severe cold of December coming, unlike numerous lesser-funded services who actually are in the business of forecasting rather than politics. Not only that, when it saw its mistake, it then set out to create a massive smokescreen to suggest that it did actually see it coming, but could not communicate the message publicly because –bizarrely – people could not really be trusted to understand and deal properly with such information. It defies belief and common sense that the Met Office should act in this way, but that it what happened. It’s confirmation, perhaps, that the Met Office’s main purpose is no longer forecasting – which it patently can’t do competently – but spreading climate propaganda.

One of its chosen messengers to spread this mis/disinformation was, of course, the ever-faithful Roger Harrabin of the BBC. It’s underlined his role yet again as warmist lapdog-in-chief. Mr Harrabin reported emphatically in early January that the Met Office told him that they had briefed the government in October about the coming cold snap, but had kept it secret because of the possible consequences. He – being a very highly paid BBC senior journalist – must have had some inkling of the furore that this would unleash because the unavoidable conclusion of his story was that one way or another, someone was spreading porkies or disinformation. Mr Harrabin seemed to imply at that stage that he thought it was the government.
What has now emerged from the excellent blog work by AM and Katabasis is that the Met Office forecast about December was at best wrong and more likely useless unscientific gibberish.

So why was Mr Harrabin taken in? Over the past couple of days, he has been trying desperately to explain, here and here. The impact on me of his posts has been to create even more confusion. He seems on the one hand to be insisting that, despite the evidence that the Met’s October forecast was at best unsure about December’s weather, someone (unnamed and mysterious, the Deep Throat of the Met Office) did tell him that the secret forecast about severe cold had been delivered to the government in October. On the other hand, he’s deploying the “move-along there, nothing-to-see” argument by drawing attention to a half-baked experiment he claims will make forecasting better. And thirdly, he’s saying that anyway, even if the Met Office had delivered the October forecast, there would not have been enough certainty in it for local authorities to take decisive action by buying more salt or snowploughs. As Autonomous Mind notes, never mind the facts, Watch the Birdie!

Where does all this leave the truth? At best, very seriously compromised. The politicians at the Met Office (for that is what they are) have woven a very, very intricate web that has at its heart quantum physics-style precepts, such as the creation of a new category of non-forecast forecasts. And I await new developments in Mr Harrabin’s textbook presentation in the art of journalistic contortionism with interest. This is fast developing into one of the blogsphere’s most exhilarating moments. The ride’s not over yet.

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16 Responses to WATCH THE BIRDIE, ROGER!

  1. Roland Deschain says:

    So why was Mr Harrabin taken in?

    Aren’t you being a bit generous to Mr Harrabin here.  “Taken in” implies he didn’t know what was going on.

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    • Guest Who says:

      “Taken in” implies he didn’t know what was going on.
      And taking that generous interpretation at its best, hardly a ringing endorsement of someone billed as an ‘analyst’ –  one of around 3 poorly qualified, high profile muppets on this hugely important beat from a £4B media and news organisation more addicted to travel and reprinting press releases than hiring talent and actually investigating stories.
      The BBC and truth now seem hard to reconcile.

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  2. Grant says:

    Harrabin  “lapdog- in-chief “.  Nice one !

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  3. hippiepooter says:

    Any chance, do you suppose RH, that your old employer might offer you a job replacing Harrabin? =-O

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  4. Deborah says:

    Off topic re climate change but on topic re Met Office.  Has anybody else noticed that in an evening 6pm and 10 pm spot for days on end (including the weekend) we have had the same little scot delivering the forecast – have the rest been sacked?  (I had a quick look on the BBC website for the man’s name but in spite of all of our money they spend they couldn’t make forecasters’ names readily available).

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      The same weather body four hours later?  Must be trying to save money.  The News Channel usually changes them up every two hours, like they do with the news readers.

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  5. Natsman says:

    A tangled web of lies, deceit, ideology, common purpose, and ultimately, scam.  
     
    Clearly, they’re all in it, up to their scrawny, moneygrubbing necks – Met Office, Government, BBC and everyone else on the bandwagon of misrepresentation-of-the-facts.  
     
    The trouble with scams of this size, is that the members will be the weakest links, and someone, somewhere will let something slip and give the game away.  
     
    Because this nonsense is so hard to maintain anyway, not only are people slipping up, but the rats are quietly deserting the ship, and the climate is refusing to play ball to such an extent as to make these folk look utterly stupid.  
     
    We all know this, and they know we know.  How much longer before the whole house of cards collapses in a pile of ridicule and busted professions?  
     
    Not too long, I hope…

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  6. Umbongo says:

    After a little bit of surprise and uncertainty the commenters at WUWT http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/02/01/bbcs-roger-harrabin-responds/ (including our very own Cassandra) are tearing Harrabin another one in respect of Harrabin’s cynical non-response concerning his conduct re the Met Office in particular and his role as chief CAGW propagandist at the BBC in general.

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    • Cassandra King says:

      Many thanks for the mention in despatches Umbongo 😀 .

      Some of the best comments I have ever read on WUWT so far, if Harrabins aim was to try and damp down the scandal all he did was add fuel to the flames.

      Niiice!

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    • Umbongo says:

      Cassandra King

      My pleasure!

      I would say that in addition to your comments the one from John V. Wright at 1:50 am is a killer.  Wright comments from the point of view of an experienced journalist and en passant eviscerates the BBC’s concept of “impartiality” when reporting climate change.

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  7. matthew rowe says:

    I hope that this runs and runs! the BBC/met offices own Coulson story !
    We up in Anglesey  can almost hear the anguished yelps of the BBC pension fund as it slowly perishes just like Haribos credentials to be anything  more then the office paper weight,  AM’s  and katabasis  dissection of every twist and turn in this pack of lies and half truths  is a work of genius !!

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  8. Maturecheese says:

    ‘unlike numerous lesser-funded services’ 

    Please point me to these as I would love a more reliable weather forcast 😉

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  9. Orson Cart says:

    Things have not really progressed at the Met Office, since the forecast by Michael ‘Wot fcukin Hurricane’ Fish the evening before the 1987 hurricane, though ‘lesser-funded’ services across the channel predicted it using the UK Met Office Charts!

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  10. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Keep it up Robin.  The more pressure from all corners, the better.  Sadly, I expect the Warmists at the BBC will see only an attack on their beliefs and not on the specific acts of dishonesty and ethical flaws you’re talking about.

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  11. George R says:

    “How the BBC’s Roger Harrabin was ensnared by his own tangled web ”

    (by James Delingpole)

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100074475/how-the-bbcs-roger-harrabin-was-ensnared-by-his-own-tangled-web/

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