PEOPLE’S ENEMY

I have reported before that the PR outfit Futerra is a BBC-linked organisation that trains BBC people on how to spread climate change propaganda. Here, Richard Black, bemoaning the scrapping of the useless quango the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), fantasises that it might wash its hands of dirty government funding and transmute instead into a body that becomes “a people’s watchdog” on green government. He spouts with enthusiastic glee:

The new body would use techniques such as crowdsourcing and social media to dissect data and lobby government. There is no funding for the new group, although conversations are underway…The proposed body would monitor all government departments and follow all relevant issues, providing a running audit of the coalition’s pledge to be the “greenest ever government”.

I haven’t the faintest idea what the jargon he deploys actually means (have you?) but no doubt it chimes loudly with the messages that Futerra have been spreading amongst the BBC climate-zealot community; it’s clear that this is the case, because he goes on to quote the Futerra boss as saying that this people’s SDC would become a pressure group like the Taxpayers’ Alliance. Laying aside that the Taxpayers’ Alliance actually condemns the spending of our money on green scams, the messages involved certainly fit neatly also with what Mr Black has been doing for years, that is, rammming climate change propaganda down our throats under the totally misnomer of “news”.

What’s even more chilling is that among the senior staff of the SDC is a lady whom Mr Black also adoringly quotes, one Rebecca Willis. Her credentials for this role as high-priestess of global warming and higher energy bills and fuel tax surchages?

Rebecca is a regular speaker at conferences and seminars, and has written for The Guardian, New Statesman and the journal Renewal. She is an Associate of Green Alliance, the leading environmental think tank, and from 2001-4 was the organisation’s Director. Before joining Green Alliance in 1998, Rebecca spent two years as a policy adviser at the European Parliament in Brussels, specialising in international environmental issues. Rebecca has a first class degree in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge, and a masters degree in Environment, Development and Policy from the University of Sussex.

I rest my case. Mr Black is in bed with, and unquestioningly and uncritically recycles, the nonsense of Guardian-loving activists whose mission in life is to send us back to the stone age, and to make misery – through higher taxes – the lives of millions.

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19 Responses to PEOPLE’S ENEMY

  1. john in cheshire says:

    It seems these people always have qualifications in useless subjects. If Universities want to do us all a favour, they would stop offering them; and the government would stop providing grants for them. Hopefully, the proposed changes to funding of University courses will see the demise of – Social and Political Sciences. I doubt a normal company would entertain employing anyone who had such a qualification.

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    • John Horne Tooke says:

      You are quite right John – but if you have seen Johnny Ball the other day, you will see that even once highly regarded qualifications such as Chemistry have been so politicised that they too are useless.
      I’m just glad I did all my science  AB (ante Blair).

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  2. Natsman says:

    I wish Mr. Black was in bed with something potentially fatal…

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Please rethink that comment.  It’s not so different from what got Martin chased away.

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      • Guest Who says:

        Seconded. (I was going to simply ‘like’ but that didn’t seem appropriate).

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        • John Horne Tooke says:

          I agree we should not wish ill on anyone.  Even if they do wish it on us.

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    • Natsman says:

      Well, all right – I can’t edit it, and if I delete it, it throws the replies out of context, Replace, if you will, “fatal” with “uncomfortable” – will that suffice as a compromise?  i do hope so…

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  3. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Keep it up, Robin. Just more proof that everything David Gregory (BBC Midlands Science Correspondent) denied to us.

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  4. Guest Who says:

    All things considered, ‘keeping the UK green’ at best doesn’t really say anything sensible, but at worst, considering history, alludes to a lot more that’s sinister.

    As Mr. Black’s body of work, and especially blog, attests, while he evidently recycles, the quality of recyclate is so dire that it merely represents ways of expending vastly more energy to look like stuff is going on but is in fact making things worse (and earning a bonus).

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  5. Craig says:

    Robin’s last post Spot the Difference sharply contrasted the way articles by Black & Co fall into two camps – those that promote the views of someone or some group in favour of the Narrative, which feature wall-to-wall supporters of those people, and those that start by weakly propounding an alternative view (one which departs from the Narrative) which is then shouted down by a long line of Narrative-supporting critics.

    This latest article by Black falls squarely into the first camp. First Becky Willis of the SDC, then Solitaire Townsend of Futerra, then former SDC boss Jonathon Porritt, then Labour MP Joan Walley, who praises the SDC . Wall-to-wall criticism of the government’s decision to scrap the SDC and wall-to-wall support for the old SDC and for the new ‘Peoples SDC’. And on top of all those supporters we get Black himself spinning in favour of the SDC right to the bitter end:

    The commission maintains that for an annual cost of £3m, the green measures it has championed have saved the government £60-70m through reducing expenditure on items such as fuel.

    So, not a single voice critical of the SDC or this new idea of a ‘Peoples SPC’. Not a single line of reporting from Black as to the government’s reasons for scrapping the SDC.

    Pure Black propaganda from start to finish. Please keep at him Robin!

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    • Craig says:

      There’s an article by Roger Harrabin from January that follows an uncannily similar strategy.

      There’s Labour MP Joan Walley again, worrying about the withdrawal of the SDC’s funding. Her views are outlined over a few paragraphs. Even greater length is given to Jonathan Porritt’s criticisms. The remaining comments go to Halina Ward, Director of the Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development (FDSD), and Carol Hatton from the WWF, both also attacking the decision.

      At least, unlike Black, Harrabin does give some space to the other side. DEFRA gets one paragraph – out of 25!!!

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    • Grant says:

      Craig,
      “Solitaire Townsend” ?   You’re taking the mickey aren’t you ?

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  6. John Horne Tooke says:

    I understand that Black is supposedly covering enviromental issues at the BBC. So I presume he only listens to climate scientists and environmentalists.  Except these two (to quote just a couple who go against the BBCs prevailing “consensus”)  
     
    Dr. Stefan Gorzula (Gorzula has 36 years of experience in river basin management, wildlife conservation, environmental and social impacts of development projects and environmental legislation.)  
    http://climaterealists.com/index.php?id=7320&linkbox=true&position=1  
     
    Terri Jackson Msc MPhil MInstP MISCS  
    http://climaterealists.com/index.php?id=7296  
     
    “Incidently the latest poll of public opinion involving thousands of participants in the Scientific American reveals that 77 percent of respondents said climate change is driven by natural causes and 83 percent said the IPCC was corrupt.”  
     
    How can Black with his finger on the pulse of all that is evironmental never mention other opinions?  
     
    Well we know why. Because he is biased. Or does he (as Craig says above) only report on what environmetal presssure groups feed him? I suspect there is something in that, for as we know by their total reliance on “Tweets” the BBC “journalist” is a lazy one. Why waste time researching and writing original work when you can get paid the same for releasing regurgetated press releases from eco-facists.

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  7. Deborah says:

    Slightly OT.

    Yesterday Alex Deacon reported that the Dec-Feb average temperatures were only -1.3 degrees Celsius below average.  Bearing in mind the amazingly low temperatures that we had in December does anyone know how this figure has been calcualted?  (I have been looking around the blogosphere and have found no comments – I may just be looking in the wrong sort of places).

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  8. Frederick Bloggs says:

    Social and Political science – an oxymoron or more precisely a cambridge moron ! Boom boom. 

    I’ll get my coat.

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  9. OWEN MORGAN says:

    An “environmentla think-tank”?   Well, there’s a contradiction in terms, but I suppose the “mental” bit makes sense.

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  10. Natsman says:

    I think that all these people are verging on the desperate to get as much committed legislation passed, and as much publicity for their meme, as soon as is humanly possible, before the next 12 – 24 months utterly refutes the AGW myth, and the temperatures continue to fall away.  It’s becoming abundantly clear that the swings between warm and cool are a direct manifestation of the cyclical nature of the climate, and influenced by far greater criteria than an insignificant (though vital) trace gas.  They need this to get done and dusted BEFORE they’re discredited, then it’ll be that much harder to undo.  We’re stuck with windmills, and although we all know that they’re practically useles, and prohibitively expensive, there’ll be far more before they become fewer.  Mission accomplished, in their eyes

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  11. Grant says:

    What the four x  is “crowdsourcing”  ?   These people are well and truly mad !

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