By John O’ Sullivan
The BBC serves Freedom of Information request (FOIA) on UK Government over weather forecast failures secrecy in worst winter for 100 years.
In an almighty battle to salvage credibility three British government institutions are embroiled in a new global warming scandal with the BBC mounting a legal challenge to force ministers to admit the truth. Sceptics ask: Is the UK government’s climate propaganda machine finally falling apart?
Last week the weather service caused a sensation by making the startling claim that it was gagged by government ministers from issuing a cold winter forecast. Instead, a milder than average prediction was made that has been resoundingly ridiculed in one of the worst winters in a century.
With the BBC appearing to take the side of the Met Office by seeking to force the government to give honest answers, untold harm will likely befall Prime Minister Cameron’s global warming policies on energy, taxation and the environment.
Rift between BBC, Met Office and UK Government Grows
Speculation in newspapers and the blogosphere has festered for the past week as Chris Huhne, minister in charge of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) stubbornly remain silent. I contacted the BBC’s Environment Analyst Roger Harrabin, one of the world’s senior journalists on such matters to ascertain if the Beeb had a better handle on the story.
Harrabin advised me, “I phoned the Met Office about this statement and the Met Office press office told me they’d given information to the Cabinet Office that we were facing an early cold winter.”
Mention of the ‘secret’ cold winter forecast appears in the Quarmby Report (Section 2.4) which states, “The Met Office gave ‘early indications of the onset of a cold spell from late November’ at the end of October.”
Giving a strong hint that a major rift appears to have opened up between Met Office chief executive, John Hirst and Climate Minister, Huhne, Harrabin further revealed, “The Beeb now has an FoI [freedom of information request] to Cabinet Office requesting verbatim info from [the] Met Office.”
In what may well be an orchestrated manoeuvre between the Met Office and Mark Thompson, Director-General of the BBC the freedom of information demand will heap huge embarrassment on David Cameron’s gaffe-prone coalition government.
Ministers Facing Accusations of Malfeasance of Public Office
If the Beeb succeeds in forcing Cameron’s government to come clean it looks probable hat government ministers intentionally conspired to withhold vital severe weather forecast information placing both lives and jobs at risk. So far losses to the UK economy linked to this year’s severe winter weather are estimated to be above £10 billion.
MP’s Call for Official Parliamentary Probe
Dr. Benny Peiser of Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF ) reports (January 10, 2011) that Liverpool MP Louise Ellman, chairman of the Transport Select committee, is angling to be appointed to head such an official parliamentary probe.
“The current winter fiasco is no longer a joke as the economic damage to the British economy as a result of the country’s ill-preparedness is running at £1bn a day and could reach more than £15 billion,” said Dr Peiser, the GWPF’s Director.
But if the coalition government gives in to demands for a full inquiry, which is as likely as turkeys voting for Christmas, then no doubt heads will roll in high places.
While the media seems to want to hang this on Cameron, I am not convinced that the problem isn’t the other half of the coalition govt.
This sort of manipulation seems much more in line with the policy of Labor than of the Conservatives.
“He said, She said, is not that good of a method of understanding weather.”
Looks like the fear of truth and fear of a clear vote to raise taxes has them all some feet out from the cliff and in free fall.
It is easy, cut spending or tell the truth of the lust to spend and raise taxes.
sad little men these
Watch the villagers
Light the torches for some fun.
Frankenstein stalks streets.
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“it looks probable hat government ministers intentionally conspired to withhold vital severe weather forecast information placing both lives and jobs at risk”
“The Met Office gave ‘early indications of the onset of a cold spell from late November’ at the end of October.”
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This is just more complete and total BS…………
The MET, at best, predicted a cold spell, not record breaking, life threatening, once in a hundred years cold.
The MET didn’t predict anything. If they could have, there’s no way they could have missed this record breaking weather. What they are saying is the equivalent of predicting cloudy with light showers and have it turn into a once in a century flood.
The BBC is trying to turn this into a political slam fest and trying to blame the party in power, when it’s obviously the MET.
@crosspatch
I think you meant Liberal, not Labour. The Labour party is now in opposition, and the coalition is between the Conservatives and the Liberals.
British Conservatives pride themselves to be very green. Not much difference from Labour.
I’ve just been reading about the £100million cost of repairing potholes in Scotland alone (and as an aside I’ve got a bruised elbow where I came off my bike on an icy pavement)
But the question that I really want answered is this: “if the UK government were given a forecast of a severe did they provide this forecast to the Scottish (devolved) government and if so why not.”
And, if they did provide the forecast, why was the Scottish government so caught out by the bad weather and claim that it was a poor Met Office forecast?
The same question also applies to Northern Ireland as both Northern Ireland and Scotland have had ministers resign due to the severe winter … which if a forecast were kept from them by the UK government results in quite a serious constitutional problem because it looks like the UK government are denying information which could have helped saved lives!
Isn’t Roger Harrabin impressed by the Met Office’s ability to predict milder than normal and colder than normal winters at the same time?
I’m not sure that such presciently varied ‘visions of the future’ can be deemed to be Cameron’s fault. (Excepting the fact that he over funds both the Met Office and the BBC).
“But if the coalition government gives in to demands for a full inquiry, which is as likely as turkeys voting for Christmas….”
The turkeys already have voted for Christmas in the form of the Climate Change Act. This passed through the House of Commons, during unseasonably early snowfall, in October 2008 with all but three MPs present voting for the bill which, if implemented in full, will cost the UK £18 Billion per year.
However, the winter forecast issue will probably not take off in the House of Commons. The Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Labour parties, along with most or, maybe, all of the smaller parties represented at Westminster have swallowed the AGW panic – hook, line and sinker. They will be very reluctant to admit they have been “sold a pup.”
You couldn’t make this stuff up; or if you did, it would make a pretty good soap opera (if results were not so serious; i.e.: Potentially 15+ billion in economic losses).
If the Met Office prediction was somewhat vague, it means trouble for the Met Office
If the Met Office did give a high probability of a harsh winter, in secret, to the cabinet office, then it means trouble for the coalition government (Conservative/lib dem coalition ~ 5/1 ratio of MP’s)
I wonder if the BBC read Watts Up With That, I wrote this yesterday,
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/01/09/the-met-office-secret-prediction-and-the-political-implications/
“Bishop Hill and other blogs report that Freedom of Information request are being sent off for these ‘ so called ‘secret’ Met Office predictions made to the government.
After all it must be true, the BBC’s Roger Harrabin reported it?
I wonder if the BBC have thought to send any FOI requests in themselves, just to check the facts of this story. The BBC just renewed a 5 year contract with the Met Office to provide all the weather forecasting for the BBC. The BBC surely does not want to look as if it is being lax in its investigative journalism? If only to check that the service provided to the BBC by the Met Office is competent and can be trusted, as it is taxpayers money paying for this service.”
I wonder if the BBC see the irony of pestering people doing serious work, the UK government, with FoI requests.
I would guess this has Chris Huhne’s [Minister for Climate Change (sic!)] finger prints on it. I agree. If true, it feels like a Left-Lib type ploy.
There must be an enquiry, headed by an “unimpeachable” High Court Judge……….
I hear that HMG has just ordered another tanker of whitewash.
As a UK citizen I am tempted to submit an FOIA request to the Cabinet Office enquiring if they have received an FOIA request on this matter from the BBC.
Crosspatch. The sad truth is that all the evidence suggests that Cameron is signed up as sincerely to AGW as the leaders of the other parties. He is on record as saying that his government will be the “greenest ever”. He is just another out of touch, never had a proper job, politician.
Hey, the BBC re-appointed the Met Office last year for its weather forecasting service. Quite apart from its ‘news’ interest and the political anti-government angle that the BBC might like to put on this, and the discomfiture it would seek to apply to the Conservatives, what about its own interest in being sold a pup just after renewing its contract with the Met Office? If the Met Office was secretly briefing the Cabinet Office differently from what it was telling its paying subscribers, I would think that those subscribers, particularly those that have a statutory public service responsibility, such as the BBC, could sue the Met Office.
Alternatively, since withholding the important information has resulted in serious loss of life, I would think that the Health and Safety Executive should be interested in taking out a corporate manslaughter case against the Cabinet Office and/or the Met Office. Actions for corporate manslaughter are possible against both the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Defence (which owns the Met Office) under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. Both are specifically mentioned as Crown agencies against which proceedings may be taken.
Are we to believe the MET changed it stripes and really predicted a cold winter? That would be out of character for them.
Of course, at this point either the MET or the Government is in trouble. I don’t see how both of them can escape.
Better buy more popcorn.
I’m pleased the BBC has thrown the challenge into the open as the public will be even further persuaded AGW is a contrived emergency meant to pick their pockets in order to line the pockets of others. The question now is whether the government comes clean and admits they had the severe winter warnings in advance. If so, then the follow-up question is why they failed to warn local governments so that preparations could be made. If not, then perhaps the BBC will keep up its harangue for release of the information. Any way the answers flow, it will do serious damage to the AGW movement which is already reeling.
There surely must be an award we could hand out to the UK government for the best and longest running sitcom. They’ve been the most enthusiastic supporter of AGW among all western countries and are showing they’re not above manipulating the ratings to keep the series going.
crosspatch says:
January 11, 2011 at 8:36 am
While the media seems to want to hang this on Cameron, I am not convinced that the problem isn’t the other half of the coalition govt.
This sort of manipulation seems much more in line with the policy of Labor than of the Conservatives.
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That would be a wonderful theory, if labour actually was in the coalition government…..
If the government is lying about the weather, it’s because they’re lying about the climate.
untold harm will likely befall Prime Minister Cameron’s global warming policies on energy, taxation and the environment.
Oh, please, pretty please!
Cameron’s been pimping the warmist line for a long time; he and his breed of Tory may not be the most vocal of the carbon-haters in the Coalition but he’s not an unwilling accomplice.
Huhne is the archetypal water melon and one of the least impressive Liberal members of the government. Quite why he was given the role as minister to DECC is unclear unless he was being set up for a fall. It’s quite likely the Met Office’s warnings didn’t get past his Department which is stuffed with dyed in the wool AGW believers. If so, he has a lot of explaining to do.
The BBC would only do this is they knew and liked what the results would be. I think there is more than meets the eye here and I have trouble believing that the BBC suddenly grew a journalistic spine. If there is no followup on this story then the Met Office lied – the BBC will only follow through if they can dig up dirt on the conservative party.
I don’t get it. The Met Office gave the Government a severe weather warning (apparently). The Government didn’t do anything about it. But the Met Office were still themselves, telling us something completely opposite.
I fail to see how it’s the Governments problem if the Met Office are giving out contradictory forecasts, except insofar as they should privatise or otherwise throw the entire organisation into the dustbin.