We all know they are caught up in the warming meme, but the Met Office in the UK is now trying to spin the idea that they had truly forecasted a cold and snowy winter, but they just didn’t tell anyone. The rationale? We skeptics here (and elsewhere) are a bunch of meanies for making fun of the BBQ summer that never happened, so we’ll keep it to ourselves.
The spin you are about to witness is Maytag quality spin. It is shameless, stupid, and beyond anything I’ve ever seen. Both James Delingpole and Autonomous Mind take the Met Office out for a spin cycle that ends up in a full stop. The propaganda is shameless, the smell odious, and the public relations disaster is even worse than before. They apparently just don’t know when to stop talking.
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From Autonomous Mind:
This is a potentially huge story with a nasty smell of conspiracy about it. There appears to be a concerted effort to whitewash serious failings at the Met Office, with the assistance of a senior climate change propagandist at the BBC who is fully bought in to the Met Office’s warmist agenda.
The Telegraph reports today that: ‘The Met Office knew that Britain was facing an early and exceptionally cold winter but failed to warn the public, hampering preparations for some of the coldest weather on record.’ The article goes on to say:
In October the forecaster privately warned the Government – with whom it has a contract – that Britain was likely to face an extremely cold winter.
It kept the prediction secret, however, after facing severe criticism over the accuracy of its long-term forecasts.
October? That is the same month that this temperature probability map was published – for public consumption:
There is absolutely no logical or rational basis for the Met Office publishing the probability map above, yet ‘secretly’ telling the government a completely different story. The Met Office not only published the map, it had meterologists speaking publicly about the map and setting an expectation of a very high probability of warmer than average winter, as I will explain…
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The stench of deceit surrounding the Met Office, it’s disgraceful self serving effort to mislead the public and apparent attempt by a publicly funded BBC journalist to distort the facts is overpowering. There now needs to be an independent inquiry into this whole matter. A Freedom of Information request is being submitted to ask for this secret October forecast.
Read the whole post here at: Autonomous Mind
From James Delingpole at the Telegraph:
So apparently the Met Office isn’t useless after all. Just cruelly misunderstood.
It seems that the reason it didn’t provide an accurate forecast of this winter was not because it didn’t know bad weather was coming. It was because we were all so horrid last time it made a boo boo over the infamous “barbecue summer” that it decided it wouldn’t make its forecasts public any more.
Which means the real victim of this sorry story is not us (for having been misled about the extremity of cold we could expect this winter) but the poor old, much-put-upon, much-maligned, but basically splendid and well worth the £170 million it costs us every year Met Office.
Hurrah, Hurrah and Thrice Hurrah for those magnificent men (and women: let’s not forget the great Julia Slingo) at the Met Office!
Hmm. Is anyone else as unpersuaded as I am by this extravagantly implausible piece of spin? There’s a big clue in the identity of the fellow from whom it originated: Roger Harrabin. Yes, Roger Harrabin as in the BBC’s High Priest of Gaian Worship and Climate Alarmism.
Read the whole post by James Delingpole at the Telegraph.
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Surely the good people of the UK have to be sick of this by now?
If you are, here’s my advice: picket the Met Office.
Borrow the tactics shown by the greens at Ratcliffe and Kingsnorth and show the burea-weasels what it’s like to feel the brunt of public scorn. A few protestors with a banner outside the Met Office (shown below) would be all it takes to make the news.
Demand accountability, not GIGO spin.
I deduced the MetOffice had become a complete sham when I found out that CRU were closely involved with them! Enough said!
If this story is true, it illustrates the lamentable state of investigitive journalism in the UK.
Potentially, the fall out from this disclosure would be huge. To which Government department/Ministers did the Met give this forecast? What did that Department/the Ministers do with the forecast? To what extent was it passed onto the Highways agency, Local Authorities, the Airport Authorities, Rail Authorities so that they could order sufficient grit and prepare for the bad weather to keep the UK running? If it was passed onto these authoritories, what did they do to act on the forecast to keep the UK running etc?
Given that the UK came to a halt for lengthy periods, heads somewhere should roll so there is much for a journalist to get his/her teeth into.
I suspect that the truth of the matter is that the Met gave no such early forecast. Indeed, there is some evidence to suggest that it was forecasting the overwhelming probability for a milder/warmer winter. If that is the case, then there is agood story to be had as to why the Met office are now seeking to mislead.
Either way, this is a brilliant story for an investigative journalist to cover in depth. Regretably, the MSM is so controlled this will not happen.
The UK government left,right and centre is still committed to action on AGW.The raising of VAT to 20% is all wrong, I think it is time we became more involved with politics in the UK.I feel that the Met Office should be privatised they may or may not have predicted this harsh winter but we had no evidence of that.
Just a minute. Just a minute. Where is this “the UK Met office didn’t tell us” coming from. According to the Daily Express October 28, the Met Office DID tell us and they said it was going to be a mild winter:
http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2010/12/16/winter-to-be-mild-predicts-met-office/
Now they tell us “well we knew it was going to be severe and told Parliament in October”. So they just flat out lied to the public with the mild winter forecast.
And trying to now say “we didn’t tell the public” is another flat out lie. They did say. They said it was going to be mild.
If they did warn Cabinet — as claimed — and they have now made that advise public, I would have thought they had no reason to withhold the original advice under the FOI Act.
So a nice letter asking for the confidential advice to Cabinet in October might seem to be in order — and might prove quite illuminating.
Margaret
http://www.historyteacher.net/images/Bastille.JPG
Maybe I did say publicly what you thought I said but I said it because because you always make fun of me for saying what I do say but in this case I said the exact opposite silently to myself and I was right that time but you still make fun of me because you didn’t hear what I said silently to myself for exactly that reason. So there. Tera flop flop flop flop…
There are also one or two of us who would like to know what is going on with HadCRUT3?
No sign of a November number yet, now 5th Jan?
http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/hadcrut3gl.txt
HadSST2, which I understand is 75% of HadCRUT3 was posted at +0.237C on 5th Dec
http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/hadsst2gl.txt
Cold got into the super chips? I wonder if we might see a “joint” announcement about 2010 from both side of the pond?
Saturday Night Live scripts
“Pathological Liars Anonymous —
Tommy Flanagan…..(Jon Lovitz)
Announcer: And now, a message from Pathological Liars Anonymous.
Tommy Flanagan: Hello, my name is Tommy Flanagan, and I’m a member of Pathological Liars Anonymous. In fact.. I’m the president of the organization!
I didn’t always lie. No, when I was a kid, I told the truth. But then one day, I got caught stealing money out of my mother’s purse. I lied. I told her it was homework – that my teacher told me to do it. And she got fired! Yeah, that’s what happened!
After that, lying was easy for me. I lied about my age and joined the army. I was thirteen at the time. Yeah.. I went to Vietnam, and I was injured catching a mortar shell in my teeth. And they made me a three-star general! And then I got a job in journalism, writing for the National Enquire.. er, Geographic! Yeah.. I was making twenty thousand a ye.. month! In fact, I won the Pulitzer Prize that year! Yeah, that’s the ticket.
And then my cousin died – Joe Louis – and I took it hard. Maybe too hard – I tried to kill myself. Yeahh.. I did kill myself! Sure! I was medically dead for a week and a half! It was a woman that brought me out of it – Indira Gandhi! Yeah, right.. And she told me about Pathological Liars Anonymous.
Oh, you’d be surprised how many famous people belong. In fact.. at one of the meetings I met my wife – Morgan Fairchild! Yes, I’m a change man now, and all because of Pathological Liars Anonymous. Why, I – I even have my picture on the cover of Newsweek magazine. Yeah. Every day! Yeah.. that’s the ticket! Yeah, you betcha!
[ fade ] ”
I’ve often wondered where ‘Tommy’ ended up…
Love=Hate
War=Peace
Winston Smith, call your office.
“This story IS huge. UK residents…….please stand up and scream.”
What? And miss East Enders!
Far more important things to do!
Jmac.
richard verney says:
January 4, 2011 at 3:56 pm
“If this story is true, it illustrates the lamentable state of investigitive journalism in the UK.
Potentially, the fall out from this disclosure would be huge.”
Now we have a conspiracy regarding the snow, that’s means it’s got to be called:-
SNOW – GATE!!!
Or as Wikipedia will call it: ” Forecasting statistical aberration of MANMADE GLOBAL WARMING INDUCED detemperaturefied water”
TonyK says:
January 4, 2011 at 3:07 pm
However, the Coalition government here in the UK is having to make all manner of financial cuts (VAT – a tax on most everything apart from essentials like food – just went up from 17 1/2 to 20% today and there’s talk of public sector workers losing their jobs by the thousands) so HOPEFULLY they might start looking at the value for money they’re getting from these people.
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Unfortunately, the coalition government in the UK are big drinkers of the AGW Kool Aid, so they will let the Met Office and their media pimps at the BBC keep trucking right along with their fraudulent statements and forecasts without fear of economic consequences for their intentionally misleading the public. I prefer the UK’s tort laws to those here in the U.S., but I tell you what: if a government agency charged with protecting the public here had engaged in the fraud the Met Office perpetrated that led to the deaths of citizens, there would be a long line forming at the courthouse…
However, the Coalition government here in the UK is having to make all manner of financial cuts (VAT – a tax on most everything apart from essentials like food – just went up from 17 1/2 to 20% today and there’s talk of public sector workers losing their jobs by the thousands) so HOPEFULLY they might start looking at the value for money they’re getting from these people.
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Unfortunately, the coalition government are all big drinkers of the AGW Kool Aid and won’t hold the Met Office–or their propagandists at the BBC–accountable for this huge abuse of the public trust. I actually prefer the tort laws in the UK to those here in the U.S., but I tell you what, if a government agency here had done what the Met Office did and as a result killed people with their neglect and deceit, a long line would be forming at the courthouse door…
Maybe the Met Office can provide us with the email they sent to those dubious government officials back in October, explaining not only the “correct” forecast, but their rationale for duping the lowly peasant masses? Once they reset the time on the computers sending and receiving said email that is.
With a casual glance, this episode as all the hallmarks of a bunch of 5 year olds playing some school yard game, and they have been found out. Typical of 5 year olds being caught out, they have just resorted to lies and spin and thus painted themselves into a corner. From here there is no escape, too many conflicting lies have been told, no one even knows what the truth is now, checkmate !
My Dad told me 50 years ago, “some people grow up, the others just grow old”.
Second, the Met Office badly needs a reality check. Maybe one of the international airlines needs to take this mob to task in the way of a damages suit. I’m dam sure that if I were an airline executive with several $100 million jets sitting on the ground unable to fly because the Met Office didn’t tell me Heathrow was going to be snowed in for 6 days, and after I was told it was going to be a mild winter, I would want their heads on a stake !
The Met Office has to go, along with the CRU, they have caused too much damage to innocent lives all around the planet.
This reminds me of the old con game. Give half of a group one prediction and the other half another. When the prediction takes place, take the correct group and repeat till you have true believers on your hand. You then offer to take their money and invest it.
It seems the Met is not very good at implementing it.
I thought that a re-read of the recently released Resilience of England’s Transport System in December 2010 report was in order in the light of this new post. I have taken relevant random quotes from the Executive Summary and Recommendations. I have added my comments after each quote.
“On 1st December, I was asked by the Transport Secretary to carry out an urgent audit of how well the highway authorities and transport operators in England have been coping with the unexpectedly early and severe spell of winter weather, “
Unexpectly ? really to who?
“I can sympathise with those whose first reaction is “why does this country come to a standstill at the first signs of snow?”, as well as those who think that every other country manages these things better than we do. And inevitably the cry goes up “where are the gritters?”.
Perhaps other countries make a point of warning the general public especially in case anticipated extreme emergencies?
“The Met Office gave ‘early indications of the onset of a cold spell from late November’ at the end of October, but detailed forecasts of snow were not possible until a few days before the first precipitation.
Early indication? Not to those who ultimately suffered the most.
“The Met Office advice to our main Review earlier this year was that severe winters have only a 1 in 20 chance, that the weather in any one winter is virtually independent (statistically speaking) of weather in preceding winters, and that this incidence is slowly declining due to global warming; however, one important effect of global warming is that more snow is possible when severe weather events do occur.”
Still making excuses, rather than finding out why other professionals can do it and do it better
“With the same issues in mind, the Transport Secretary approached the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Sir John Beddington, who initiated a more general investigation by the Met Office into seasonal and long term forecasting capability. A report was delivered last week; Professor Beddington advises me that the Met Office will shortly be able to make seasonal forecasts (i.e. up to 3 months ahead) with more confidence, and that this will be incorporated into operational forecasting during 2011.”
Has anyone heard of any new seasonal forecasts. Next 3 months are anticipated to be cold again ? who has been warned ? Who will get operational forecasting? Looks like the public in UK do not matter.
“There needs to be a more widespread communication of best practice and encouragement of those authorities for whom the opportunity remains to raise their game. Meanwhile it is up to LHAs and their communities to do the best job they can, given the unpredictability and…“
Wrong again .It was predicted and it was predicatable?
I have nothing but extreme sympathy for the people of UK . This needs to be fixed and fixed quick?
“Maytag Quality Spin “
Beauty. We need Met Office T-shirts with an Earth in spin cycle in a Maytag dryer.
In place of Maytag, there will be MET GAG
Dodgy Geezer.
CSIRO had the CRU team out to Australia to adjust data. They managed to exclude nearly all New South Wales among other cherry picking.
The result was they used the same dodgy analysis as the Met Office in the UK to predict ghost towns from lack of water and severe extended droughts. Then they applied that rotten analysis to the irrigators need for water for growing crops and declared they would have to reduce water availability by a huge amount to save the environment. The irrigation towns along the Murray Darling rivers systems were burning the analysis in the streets.
Despite their confident analysis, the Murray Darling system has been in major flood this year, Queensland is currently under flood conditions greater than France and Germany combined. Lake Eyre is going to fill for the 3rd straight year. The water has to flow through the Simpson Desert and Sturts Stony Desert to reach Lake Eyre.
It is more than time that these people were held to account.
New Zealand has an Emissions Trading Scheme that is causing the cost of electricity to rise faster than old people can pay. Surprise surprise, who “fixed” the data. None other than another clown from CRU. When challenged in court and caught out, they denied New Zealand even had a temperature record. So the ETS was brought in under false pretenses which will not save the people who have already died from cold.
Hmm. Ya know, I’ve never quite understood a lot of British humor, but as all this sounds like a Monty Python skit I’m beginning to see why people would like this if were rewritten a bit so becomes something to laugh at instead of being caught in.
I’m sure Jame Delingpole is thinking “Thank you, thank you, thank you” thoughts toward the Met Office.
I’m won’t guess at what Roger Harrabin is thinking, but he’s not very good at that.
Like the other comments have said, can’t let them whitewash this.this is great cannon fodder too since they’re gone into a typical reactive state of mind after being caught red handed as being swindlers and their soothsayers at the MET being wrong. Time to get the first bus back home lads, the METs going through some extended maintenance (new models in progress).
I forgot to add above, while the Murray River was in high flood, they released and environmental flow on top. The same geniuses let a flow of cold water out for environmental purposes just before the flood. The locals warned them not to release it but they went ahead anyway. They killed thousands of murray cod and other fish when the cold water hit their warm water.
Besides their greed for grants, you have to ask if these AGW people are actually sane.
Dr T G Watkins says:
January 4, 2011 at 3:21 pm
> I’m watching Newsnight, BBC2, a discussion about homeopathy being banned for animals but OK for humans, including malaria and other serious diseases.
More Monty Python humor!
In the US, we do have higher standards for the nutrition content of pet food than human food, but the assumption (I assume) is that humans will combine several foods into a balanced mix.
Seems like a good idea. 🙂
Homeopathy was a good idea back in the day when “the cure was worse than the disease.”
“”A spokesman for the Met Office said: “In late October we informed the Cabinet office that there were early indications of a cold start to winter.””
I guess so…
….it was -6 degrees on October 25 you numbnuts!
What was your first clue………….