From the GWPF and Dr. Benny Peiser
Green Lobby Concerned
The UK Independence Party has overtaken the Liberal Democrats as the third party of British politics, Nigel Farage declared today as he made major gains in local elections. As senior Conservatives scrambled to justify haemorrhaging support to the anti-EU party, Mr Farage said he was at the head of a ‘wave of protest’ which would permanently change the political landscape. —Daily Mail, 3 May 2013
Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, has declared his party is on course to change the face of British politics in the wake of its strongest performance in local elections, making a series of gains across England. In the biggest surge by a fourth party in England since the second world war, Ukip averaged 26% of the vote in council wards where it stood, according to a BBC estimate. Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat president, said his party had been “obliterated” in the South Shields byelection, where it came seventh and lost its deposit. –Nicholas Watt, The Guardian, 3 May 2013
Concerns are mounting among green groups that the UKIP surge could have a knock-on impact on energy and environmental policy, given that David Cameron is now under mounting pressure to tack to the right. UKIP leader Nigel Farage has taken a vocally anti-green stance, slamming wind farm developments and questioning whether manmade climate change is happening. Westminster observers are convinced that the growing popularity of UKIP is one of the main reasons some Conservative MPs have become more openly hostile to environmental policies. –James Murray, Business Green, 3 May 2013
The UK Independence Party’s unique selling point – the policy it is best known for – is Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union. But as the party has sought to broaden its appeal beyond that single issue, it has developed a full range of policies in all areas…. UKIP is sceptical about the existence of man-made climate change and would scrap all subsidies for renewable energy. It would also cancel all wind farm developments. Instead, it backs the expansion of shale gas extraction, or fracking, and a mass programme of nuclear power stations. —BBC News, 3 May 2013
Environmentalists, businesses and carbon market investors were watching last week’s conclave of environment and energy ministers in Dublin closely, hoping to see a plume of white smoke emerging to signal that the ministers had agreed to step in with bold support for the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). But no such signal of support came. […] Analysts as well as MEPs on the committee say that the proposal is unlikely to pass a second vote in the Parliament unless the Council comes out in favour. Even if the proposal were passed by the end of the year, that would probably be too late. –Dave Keating, European Voice, 2 May 2013
“For the first time in 10 years, Europe is no longer willing to pursue the green agenda,” said Dr. Benny Peiser of the Global Warming Policy Foundation in a recent telephone interview with Friends of Science. Dr. Peiser was commenting on the continuing fallout from the April 16, 2013 vote in the EU parliament where a proposal to delay the issuance of carbon credits (or allowances) was voted down. “We face a new situation where the green lobby is being increasingly isolated and in a minority,” said Dr. Peiser. “They are still there but they no longer dominate the agenda nor do they have political majority in Europe.” —Environmental Expert, 2 May 2013
On April 16th the European Parliament voted against attempts to shore up Europe’s emissions trading system against collapse. The system is the EU’s flagship environmental policy and the world’s largest carbon market. Putting it at risk suggests that Europeans have lost their will to endure short-term pain for long-term environmental gain. Nor is this the only such sign. Several cash-strapped EU countries are cutting subsidies for renewable energy. And governments around the world have failed to make progress towards a new global climate-change treaty. Betting against tough climate policies seems almost prudent. –The Economist, 4 May 2013
“Shown above, Drs. Bridger and Clements test the flammability of the book.” Sad but true, mock book burnings appear to be acceptable behavior of professors at San Jose State University. In this case, Dr. Alison Bridger is doing the honors. She is proudly assisted by SJSU assistant professor Dr. Craig Clements. They disagree with the text’s content. Lousy texts get tossed in the trash every day at universities around the world. But when you make a public statement of it, as San Jose State did, you cross a line. You tarnish any legitimate climate research that institution ever does. Unfortunately, all they proved is how politics has stained the pristine world of science. —Inform the Pundits, 2 May 2013
Where they burn books, so too will they in the end burn human beings. –Heinrich Heine, 1821
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See also Delingpole: The old order is dying. We are living in the age of Farage
He writes: And as to why this nearly wasn’t allowed to happen, I recommend this equally incisive analysis of the hard-Left propaganda techniques which have recently been deployed against Ukip. As Margaret Thatcher (not her real name, I suspect) notes in her article, the cheap shot smear techniques which have been used in this election campaign, are straight out of Saul Alinsky’s Rules For Radicals.
I have seen members of UKIP isolated this way on Twitter. The Attack Dogs cut off the support network by throwing standard accusations out, other members, frightened to be tarred with the non-existent brush remove themselves from debate. The attack dogs have then isolated their target.
The attackers go after people and not the party; people hurt faster than institutions. Direct, personalised criticism and ridicule works. It is cruel, but very effective.
The Big Three political parties are worried about UKIP. If they weren’t they wouldn’t set their attack dogs to savage the aspiring politicians and the yet to mature new boy on the party political scene.
I’ve seen it too. Experienced it as well. It’s horrible and frightening and can all too easily sap your will to go on.
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Sound familiar?
Hip hip — HOOORAY!
Hip hip — HOORAY!
Hip hip — HOORAY!
Praise the Lord.
That is one heck of a shot there in the very heart of the AGW movement. I think the vampire hunters have that wooden stake poised over the chest of the green vampire. Despite all the political parties and their liberal media dumping on Ukip the people have spoke in a very loud voice.
What Janice said and some more.
People are beginning to look at their utility bills, as well as look out the window, and see that reality does not match what the greens and scientists have been telling us. Some are even beginning to realize that climate science, and how it has been conducted, is the number one cause of global warming. On a related note, it has been proven that scientists are the number one cause of cancer in laboratory rats.
regarless?!?!? The north pole is open water for the first time in 200 million years!
go figure!
jim
2,000 elderly UK citizens died of cold in the first two weeks in March. Maybe the rest are starting to get alarmed about the carbon taxes that make heating your home unaffordable. The reason I now live in the Bahamas for 7 moths of the year is that I am not willing to die for the greenies. Let them die of cold.
Friends:
Please don’t get too elated yet.
This was only England local elections: people vote differently in General Elections.
The Green Party increased its small share of the vote.
The ‘major’ UK political parties parties will adjust to react to UKIP for the 2015 General Election.
The AGW-scare has been a zombie since the Copenhagen CoP in 2009. But its political effects continue. In the immediate term one possible UK political response to UKIP’s success in the local elections is to bolster some mistaken energy policies as a method to further marginalise UKIP.
Also, UKIP’s main policy is withdrawal from the EU. The governing coalition parties intend to promise a referendum on EU withdrawal in their manifestos and the Labour Party seems likely to do make the same manifesto promise. This could assist collapse of UKIP vote in the General Election.
At present, the situation of UKIP in the UK is similar to that of the US Tea Party prior to the last US elections. If that is any guide (and it probably is not) then UKIP may be a ‘flash in the pan’.
Of additional note, and purely for interest, Lord Monckton is allied to UKIP.
Richard
Jim? Which planet are you on?
The age of Farage? Try the age of Abe. The Japanese showed the way last year and keep showing it. Just a few days ago was a by-election for the upper house where the AGW-screaming, anti-nuclear-moaning, pro-“renewable”-praising DPJ was murdered in the polls. Upper house elections in a few weeks currently look like they’ll be another massacre for the DPJ.
Seems the Brits are finally waking up as well. About time.
From Janice Moore on May 3, 2013 at 11:19 am:
Lord Monckton?
A recent piece of his that may have been missed:
http://www.wnd.com/2013/04/obama-climate-video-stars-gop-truthsayers/
Good reading, although more political than the expected WUWT fare.
For our American and other friends who are not familiar with Mr. Farage here is taste of the man:
– Farage proclaimed that ‘Belgium is pretty much a non-country’, and indeed he should know, his ancestors emigrated to England from Ardennes on Franco-Belgian border.
– Farage said that president of EU has ‘charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk’, and then he promptly apologized to bank clerks.
– And finally, Farage is an ultra-sceptic.
This man can’t do wrong.
A short taste of Nigel Farage.
I like him!
Thanks to all international commenters (especially UK in this string). You keep us (US) up on views we can not get from MSM.
I, for one, greatly appreciate your input.
German Liberals (FDP) do not want Schellnhuber as government advisor anymore.
Wind of change.
What richardscourtney says:
May 3, 2013 at 11:46 am
And. Just wait until Rupert Murdoch gets to work on these guys.
The Rupertocracy will not fall – we in the UK will get the party of government that the newspapers make most attractive. Inversely, we in the UK will not get a government made up of members that the newspapers tear into.
/supposition and personal opinion
The only time I remember this failing was when, after thatcher, the tories would have liked labour to ‘win’ an election to cover for the financial difficulties ahead. The floating voter spotted what was happening and, because of/despite John Major standing on a soap-box in Hyde Park the morning before the election, let the tories keep the country. It was a bad 4 years and labour won a landslide next time out. If it hadn’t been for Murdoch in the last election those shock figures could have carried (historically) labour through 3 more polls.
/end supposition and personal opinion
From Eve Stevens on May 3, 2013 at 11:41 am:
Ah good, the government scheme to reduce NHS obligations by “redundancies” among the seniors is continuing apace. A few more years of this, after it becomes expected as normal and the reduction rate can ecalate, and they might free up enough funding for another offshore turbine.
dbstealey says:
May 3, 2013 at 12:00 pm
They fear him.
He was on a politics program last night. When asked ‘what are your political ambitions?’ and answering ‘None’ the politicians, and the host, the former editor of Murdoch’s Sun, all gasped or guffawed. They just could not accept that the guy doesn’t want to be a politician – he is a businessman that is as pissed off as we are that the political class, on all sides of ‘the house’ are made up of easily bought, privileged buffoons with little wit and no experience of the real world . They are, mostly, public schoolboys who have ‘worked’ in the house of commons since graduating with soft degrees.
Peter Lilley – the only physicist in Parliament when the climate change act was passed (as it snowed in London, in October for the first time in 80 years) was told to ‘shut up’ when he asked a couple of difficult questions.
Just to add to the confusion… these were predominately English local elections.
Not British elections.
UKIP has not made progress in the whole UK. Notably they have not made progress in Scotland where there is already 4-party politics. The SNP (Scottish Nationalists) are in power up there.
This means that Labour (the other big part in Scotland) do not need to adapt to UKIP, except perhaps on immigration.
And it means that the Scotland Independence vote will be a very interesting test for energy policy.
The SNP believes that Scotland can live off its oil but also be nuclear free and windfarm friendly. Their energy policy is nonsense and will be attacked as such by those who want to preserve the UK.
That means energy policy will have a high profile in our isles before the next UK (or maybe England, Wales and NI) general election.
Exciting times ahead.
I am all in favour of the UKIP and I would like very much to see them form a government but the sad truth about the UK voting system is that the UKIP would have to get the majority of the votes cast in more than half of the constituencies ; to do that would be a monumental task indeed as the voting system is skewed in favour of the two major parties: the conservaties and the labourites.
The success today of Nigel Farage and his party UKIP through the ballot box has made all of Westminster sit up and take notice, although they are attempting to cover their shagrin with bravado as they attack the victorious messenger, whilst waiting for instruction from the same old policy wonks that got them into trouble in the first place.
Next year it will be the EU elections when the electorate will be smarting from further increased energy bills and UKIP can be given another lift in the polls and consolidation in popularity.
Then we shall see in 2015 whether the protest vote was just that, or whether indeed the mould has been broken.
Just as today when the complacent hubristic Establishment expected 50 seats at most to go to UKIP rather than the 144 that eventuated, so might it be in 2015 at the General Election if they continue their contemptuous disregard for the electorate.
What has been said previously is true, unfortunately. We Brits tend to vote differently in local elections (for town hall councillors), than we do for members of parliament (MPs). This is probably due in part to our first-past-the-post electoral system. If you vote for a UKIP candidate at a parliamentary election, you may inadvertently draw votes away from your second preference. UKIP is on the right of the political spectrum, and if your second preference is the Conservative party (mainstream, and also right-wing, but less so), then you may effectively be increasing the chances that a left-wing party, such as the Labour party, wins. Most defectors to UKIP are right-rather than left-wing.
It’s one thing to defect in local elections, and quite another to defect in parliamentary elections, where the winners end up in charge of spending the country’s budget. Although local councillors have some say in the level of council taxes, they can’t have as much effect on your back pocket.
Maybe UKIP is different: the mainstream parties are increasingly coming to be seen to offer very little policy difference: they’re mostly centrist, pro-AGW, and often pro-EU (moreso on the left than the right). Only UKIP is vocal about their opposition, and these are two are big issues with many, especially the EU. Maybe there’s a sea-change on the horizon, but there have been past precedents in the short-term rise of voting for minority parties that fizzled out. It may be that if the flagship issues of UKIP are adopted by the Conservative party, UKIP will go away as a potential threat. I for one would vote for any party that is genuinely sceptical of AGW and anti-EU and isn’t racist (whether left or right). UKIP is currently my only option. Of course, we have to watch out for the Conservatives only pretending to adopt popular stances on AGW and the EU, and reneging on electoral promises if they win. There’s plenty of precedent for that, too.
“Nigel Farage has taken a vocally anti-green stance, slamming wind farm developments and questioning whether manmade climate change is happening.”
“Instead, it backs the expansion of shale gas extraction, or fracking, and a mass programme of nuclear power stations.”
On the contrary, the UKIP policy is the Green policy. It intends to stop the destruction of much of the beautiful British countryside and seascapes and instead develop clean natural gas and nuclear energy and ironically produce a real and large reduction in CO2 generation.
I voted UKIP and I now have a UKIP representative on the council. Not quite what you expect from a protest vote, I don’t think you are supposed to win if you vote whacky. Hope I don’t have to wear armbands and do special salutes.
jim says:
May 3, 2013 at 11:39 am
regarless?!?!? The north pole is open water for the first time in 200 million years!
go figure!
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Good to know ole’ Jim has been around 200 Million years and kept track of this set of data…even though he sems to have missed a couple seasons in the 20th century.
@Janice Moore:
And pass the ammunition!