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.
from the UK Tele article anthony linked to, we have a freudian slip in Corbyn’s quote, which i don’t believe is by accident. “Met Office has got it repeatedly” when obviously Corbyn said “has got it wrong repeatedly”.
(excerpt)Piers Corbyn, the owner of WeatherAction, an independent forecaster, said: “This is a step in the right direction. The Met Office has got it repeatedly and yet it remains the public service forecaster…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/8237397/Met-Office-kept-winter-forecast-secret-from-public.html
also, the Tele article is in the “Weather” section, not a Swinford specialty, and has no comment section.
the latest Swinford piece concerns the English cricket team’s dance!
29 Dec: UK Tele: Cricket: The Sprinkler Dance – from locker room to dance floor
By Richard Alleyne and Steven Swinford
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8230385/The-Sprinkler-Dance-from-locker-room-to-dance-floor.html
the Swinford Met Office article does not show concern for those who truly rely on the longer-term forecasts, such as farmers and dare i say airports, but mentions motorists and “passenger groups”. guess airlines might be included in “passenger groups”!
btw it was Swinford who did the Tele piece about the absurdity of the UK Govt planning to fine airports for not being prepared for snow!! if the Govt privately knew from the Met Office what was to come, why didn’t it inform the airports?
27 Dec: UK Tele: By Steven Swinford: Theresa Villiers: government knew Heathrow was not prepared for snow
The aviation minister admitted that the government knew about Heathrow’s inadequate preparations for winter as she confirmed that airports could face fines when passengers have their travel disrupted.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/8225790/Theresa-Villiers-government-knew-Heathrow-was-not-prepared-for-snow.html
Myt e-mail to the Met Office
Mets,
It has been reported by a professional journalist http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/8237397/Met-Office-kept-winter-forecast-secret-from-public.html and professional propagandistas such as Harrabin at the BBC, that the Met advised the government back in October that the winter would be cold and nasty, yet, despite removal of web pages, the Met was telling the public it would be warm and nice this winter.
Apparently, this was a secret between the Met and the Government.
Pray tell, why is a public body deliberately lying to its public benefactors?
I do not believe you Met. I want to see the correspondance between you and The Government before I can believe a word you say; because, generally, whatever you say is false. It will be warm – it’s cold. It will be dry – it’s wet.
I am prepared to launch an FOIU for these communications between the Met and HM’s government.
There is one simple fix for all the Met’s woes: admit that climate is complex and that they really don’t know. Of course, such an admission would essentially be used to destroy AGW theory. And so the best fix and easiest fix is the one that cannot be used.
It seems obvious to me that the forecast was withheld for political reasons. If the Met were to produce a forecast of a cold winter, it would possibly contrast with other longer term messages they are disseminating about global warming.
But one thing doesn’t make sense. If they intentionally put out a forecast they *knew* was inaccurate because they were afraid of ridicule from previous forecasts yet *knew* this forecast would also be wrong and only increase that ridicule, then it throws that reasoning completely out the window. So they reduce criticism by publicly forecasting exactly the opposite of what they really thought would happen? That makes no sense.
They could have toned down the forecast in magnitude but at least got the sign correct (cold rather than warm) and at least had people on the right track.
No, they simply did not want to deal with the psychological impact of having to tell people they were in for a third consecutive colder than normal winter while at the same time trying to convince people it was actually getting warmer. This decision must have come from farther up the chain than the meteorologists. This came from a political office or someone afraid of ruffling the feathers of a political office.
If that is not true, then the only two logical alternative is that the met office no longer believes its own forecasts. No, I think they believe their own forecasts but for political reasons, do not want people accustomed to the notion that it might not be getting warmer.
I sincerely hope the Met Office continues to play the game this way. Baghdad Bob would be proud of them.
The True Believer can’t be educated because he knows it all. The UK and most of Europe is slipping into the Cesspool of history because Real Men are afraid of showing some guts. Where are the Crusaders of today who will risk their lives and fortunes to defend their heritage and stand up for the truth? Belief in the GW Hoax is but one symptom of the plague that has descended upon a once great people. Is there none but Daniel Hannan who will stand and fight for what’s right?!
latitude says: January 4, 2011 at 2:43 pm
hindcasting – hindpredicting
How about HINDCOVERING?
The Met Office in the UK, is really two completely different organizations. There are the short term forecasters, and then there are those who study climate. My guess is that they hate each other. If anyone has heard the UK shipping forecast, then it is clearly produced, several times a day, by professionals who really know what they are doing. On the other hand, that part of the Met. that is associated with the CRU are simply supporters of CAGW, with no regard for the science. They toe the official line that CAGW is real, and this is the official position of the senior management at the Met.
My guess is that the short term forecasters found that the cold weather was coming, and this disagreed with the party line of senior management. This is why it was not made public. Short-sighted, maybe, but understandable.
So my guess is that this is a continuing disagreement between the two parts of the Met. The short term forecasters just want to be left to do what they do very well, and people like Vicky Pope and the CRU want to just spout the warmaholic religious beliefs.
Being caught in one heinous lie already, possibly two, why should we believe anything they say? What possible justification can they offer to ask for any more public tax money when they betrayed the trust of the tax payers, issued false information to the public, and caused wrongful deaths? Shut them down and hire Piers Corbyn.
The whole schmear sounds like a “snow job” to me.
We have to remember in this astonishing story that the head of the Met Office – one Napier – has just been awarded the CBE for services to the nation. I understand that he is an ardent AGW activist and his role in this event must have been interesting!
latitude says:
January 4, 2011 at 5:55 pm
“”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………….
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You give them too much credit….
The first snowfall in Scotland occurred on the 27th. September :
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1315636/First-snowmen-2010-spotted-shivering-Scotland.html
Hey,, Julia Slingo,,, How did you get those holes in your foot ???
A Met Office that absorbs 200M quid a year to make predictions that are not to be told to anyone.
Reminds me of the WOMs (Write Only Memory sticks) you can buy…
I would think this would have broader political implications, because now the Met office is putting government politicians in the position of proving to their own constituents that they weren’t lying to the public, and that it’s not their own criminally negligent fault that the UK was unprepared for winter weather.
What the Met office has done is lay a “Downing Street Memo” at the feet of a bunch of powerful politicians. It might be a fatal mistake, because when falsely accused of lying to the public, politicians greatly prefer to keep their own jobs and can get more than a bit vindictive.
Similar drivel appeared over at the Daily Mail yesterday but upper links disappeared rather too quickly when commentators were obviously having none of it.
Stating the obvious,
If the MET is allowed to claim “backsies” on any prediction,
it stands to reason that any prediction they make is worthless.
Instead of Global Climate Disruption,
it’s a bit more like Global Climate Model Disruption.
And finally, as readers of this blog all know, there’s a decent chance the globe may get pretty damn cold over the next few years, for a variety of reasons. While this cold won’t negate the Global Warming alarmists efforts all by itself, it will have a horrific effect on the global food supply. Should this cold spell come to pass, will the MET and NASA claim they knew the growing areas will suffer significant decreased yields due to lower temperatures and shortened growing seasons? (“Remember that one guy that said we might have a short cold spell before temperatures went through the roof? Yeah, our models predicted that cold. What, you weren’t listening? Wasn’t it obvious that you were going to have to deal with global food shortages?”)
Oh? The only thing that comes to mind is double-secret probation as used by the Dean in Animal House:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0cF2piwjYQ&fs=1&hl=en_US]
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Palin Smith says:
January 4, 2011 at 6:15 pm
“Is there none but Daniel Hannan who will stand and fight for what’s right?!”
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Thank you for embedding that damn inspiring video. I just watched it three times and emailed it my family and friends.
I see the fire in his eyes and I know there are many on here who share the same fire (but not necessarily the eloquence).
Truly, the world needs more actual REAL leaders…. like this guy.
It is time for all of us who are sick of the governmental “monstocracy” strangling the free world to stand up and be counted.
Time to light the torches.
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
… but they still raise VAT to 20% to pay for this sh!t.
As they say in England “mustn’t grumble”.
Unfortunately, the stupid lemming sheeple with one vote (if they can be bothered), are not reading this ….
Correction: Upon re-reading….I did not mean to imply in my post that there was lack of eloquence on here. There is plenty of it. I was just remarking on Mr. Hannan’s Churchillian delivery…
Ric Werme says: “Homeopathy was a good idea back in the day when ‘the cure was worse than the disease’.”
Probably so. It should be noted, however, that despite its total lack of established scientific underpinning, homeopathy gave many people relief from a wide variety of conditions. During the cholera outbreak of 1854, the London Homœopathic Hospital treated 61 cases of cholera. Of those, 10 died, a percentage of 16.4; The neighbouring (allopathic) Middlesex Hospital received 231 cases of cholera, of whom 123 died, a fatality rate of 53.2 per cent. Homeopathy has fallen on hard times recently. For an excellent history of London Homeopathic Hospital*, see:
http://homeoint.org/morrell/londonhh/index.htm
* lately renamed “the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine”
A hedged forecast perhaps?
From October 1, 2010…“The Met Office don’t issue their seasonal forecast to the general public anymore, using them for internal research purposes only, but as I understand it, their forecast also suggests that the probability of a cold winter is higher than normal.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/paulhudson/2010/10/
Whoever is doing this spinning in the MO is just terrible at it – they have now in effect told everyone that they knew yet didn’t share. This is good legal grounds to sue for compensation on a bias of a failure of inform. It’s one thing to get it wrong and say so, it’s another to say we said we got it wrong but really we didn’t.. This opens the doors it in effect a class action from any loss that could have been reasonably prevented if this information had been shared.
The great thing about this is that they cannot hide behind the normal ‘its nature doing it’s thing’ disclaimer – they have stated that they knew..
Maybe that picture of the MO needs a ‘For Sale’ sign putting in front of it to fund all the claims?
Is the met office getting a little touchy about this. I got this replahyjust an hour or so after ;osting my Q. Perhaps they have an excellent e-mail answering service. This e-mail was sent by them at 2.20 in the morning. Perhaps a follow up[ telephone call will help 🙂
Dear Robert,
Thank you for your enquiry.
We have forwarded this on to our Customer Feedback manager and she will get back to you as soon as possible.
If you have any further questions or need additional information please contact the Weather Desk on 0870 9000 100 where one of our advisors will be happy to help you. The number is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Kind regards
James
Weather Desk Advisor
Met Office, FitzRoy Road, Exeter, Devon, EX1 3PB, United Kingdom.
Tel: 0870 900 0100 or +44 (0)1392 88 5680 Fax: 0870 900 5050
Email: enquiries@metoffice.gov.uk http://www.metoffice.gov.uk
Your personal details will be stored in our database. The information will not be passed to any third parties. Please advise us if you do not wish your details to be stored. The Met Office is an Executive Agency of the UK Ministry of Defence and is registered under the Data Protection Act 1998.