Story submitted by D.McNeil
I’d like to bring some points to the attention of your readers that were raised in an article in the Independent published on 11th May 2013 It would appear to indicate a major shift in the UK’s government attitude to climate change.
“The Government is facing an exodus of senior energy and climate change advisers amid growing concerns that decisive action to tackle global warming is falling victim to Treasury intransigence.”
…
“A Government offshore energy industrial strategy document, due to have been published this month, is understood to have been delayed after Treasury objections. At the same time as proponents of renewable energy are leaving, Mr Cameron appears to be surrounding himself with climate change sceptics who are warning him that Britain cannot afford the cost of new renewables.”
….
“Mr Cameron has also appointed the former Tory minister Peter Lilley to his advisory board. Writing in The Spectator this week, Mr Lilley warned that the “green lobby” was “in control of the Department for Energy” and suggested that the case for global warming was far from clear-cut. “Global temperatures have failed to rise for 16 years,” he wrote. “Recent measures of how much global temperature rises as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases are far lower than is built into climate models.”
I find it very surprising that there has been so little reaction to a member of the Prime Minister’s Parliamentary Advisory Board using the phrases “the case for global warming was far from clear-cut.” and “built into climate models.” in the UK national press.
Independent article
Spectator article
http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/8905731/the-only-way-is-shale/
tonyb says:
May 11, 2013 at 3:24 pm
This graph and a number of other relevant graphics have now been sent to a few MP’s following a meeting with my own last week
http://climatereason.com/Graphs/Graph11.png
Is that the next UK flag?
Kelvin
It will be flown at half mast to the sound of the funeral dirge as the UK steadily goes bankrupt
tonyb
richard verney says:
May 12, 2013 at 1:09 am
Richard,
You are correct, we all need to give serious thought to having a back-up home electricity supply. One way to do this (discussed on WUWT) is to fit a gas central heating boiler with a built in Stirling Engine
Also note that modern gas cookers use electricity from the mains to create the ignition spark. Fortunately if like me you remember the UK power cuts of the early 1970s, you will know to keep a box of matches in the kitchen so you can light your gas hob during electricity power cuts.
@ur momisugly johnofenfield
Agree with what you say – but i would suggest that the reason he is now in jail is not an “unrelated issue” – it is because he is a lying sh!t.
He and his ilk lie because they are arrogance is far greater than their lack of knowledge. They lie because it is what they “DO”.
Reality bites.
Thankfully the Truth (usually) will out.
johnofenfield says:
May 11, 2013 at 2:51 pm
PS The only joyous thing in this sorry story is that the Marxist idiot who implemented most of these stupid ideas has been put in jail for 8? Months on an unrelated issue. The Lord works in mysterious ways.
…………………
Nicely put!
Richard Verney 12’56
Thank You, very much for your answer.
The problem with our government is that despite being a great majority in the Congress,, big enough to allow them the power to do what must be done, they don’t dare do it, because they are afraid of asserting authority. Afraid of the riots, and the strikes and all sorts of actions that the anti-system, the communists, the secessionists, and the “progres” warned they would organize in case of the Right ( la Derechona, they call it ) being elected. The Right was elected, by a vast majority of the people, too, and the riots, demonstrations and strikes came, but the government should have been ready for them, having been warned beforehand…
What made me very happy was your saying that our energy bills in Spain were more transparent about the amount charged as taxes, than the bills in the UK. That felt great.
Thank you . Again.
Huhne, estranged from both his sons, one of whom described him as ” ‘fat’, ‘ghastly’ and an ‘autistic piece of s***’ ” in text messages read out during the court case.
I guess you reap what you sow, and the sons would probably qualify as having the inside knowledge.
Richard Verney………well thanks Richard, thanks for being a pedant who drones on about the obvious that anyone who has the wit to notice irony would assume the person making the joke already presupposes everyone who cares to understand already. Your a real bundle of fun.
Viejicita……….Thanks Spanish Guy for caring to pay attention to our onerous situation here in the UK. Regulars may have noticed how often I speak my mind on what it actually feels like to cope with that 25% surcharge.Moreover, dont forget that its been officially stated that over the last decade power prices have increased 60% in addition to any other increases as a specific result of Green Taxes.
But theres one factor youve missed. Because these costs apply to everyone, it means that everyones remaining spending ability is reduced, which negatively affects all businesses, especially smaller ones, which increases their failure rate and decreases their capacity to invest, which in turn causes my client base (as a supplier to said businesses) to shrink almost exponentially. Indeed, I now have almost none. They’ve one way or another been bankrupted or their budgets shrunk out of contention. Some I had have joined thousands of derelict baorded up buildings. I do not speak figuratively but most literally. My experience in 2010-2012 represents that of untold numbers of others. We are in effect hit from both sides, by the 25% you identify, and by a much higher rate of losses that is cumulatively a reflection of that 25% distributed across the entire client base.
Im not an economist, I dont know how you calculate that. But I do know Greens are fond of whining about “externalised costs” and thats one they are silent on.
…BTW apropos your piece Richard….I do often post comments that contain things to which I anticipate obvious responses…that way I have more fun responding to the anticipated responses 😉
Wamron 7’31
Of course I pay attention to the onerous situation in the UK, and the harm many of those “pretendedly green policies ” have done to private business . Especially to medium and small businesses.
The same has happened here in Spain. I only hope your Prime Minister is able to reverse the policies, and the trend… And our Prime Minister, too.
Peter Lilley was a prize-winning oil analyst at the stock broker, Greenwells, before he went into Parliament. His research was always thorough and his opinions well-respected. On another point.
johnofenfield says:
” PS The only joyous thing in this sorry story is that the Marxist idiot who implemented most of these stupid ideas has been put in jail for 8? Months on an unrelated issue. The Lord works in mysterious ways”.
Unfortunately in the UK prison sentences do not mean what they say. The “Marxist Idiot” is expected to be released in a few days time after serving only two months. Only if a prisoner is sentenced to “life with a minimum of x years” can he be expected to serve the full x years. Otherwise he will almost invariably be released after x/3 years (rapists and terrorists included).
The millionaire “Marxist Idiot”, who had left his hitherto loyal Lib Dem wife for his lesbian PR assistant, was unlucky to be tried and sentenced. His fellow Lib-Dem millionaire cabinet minister, who fraudulently claimed parliamentary amounting to tens of thousand of pounds (which he paid back), was never indicted and is now back sitting at the Cabinet table, even though he is no longer a full member of the Cabinet.
For those who are unfamiliar with British politicians Peter Lilley is a Conservative Party politician who has been a Member of Parliament since 1983. He has served under Margaret Thatcher and John Major and has held the ministerial post of Trade and Industry Secretary. He went to Cabridge where he studied Economics and Physics. Before entering parliament he was an energy analyst a City of London stockbrokers. He is a Non-Executive Director at Tethys Petroleum.
He is one of the most qualified UK politician voice informed scepticism about the UK’s energy policy. Expect minds to slowly turn as he points out the still missing hotspot and other failed predictions such as NH to expect warmer winters.
To be fair to many members of the Conservative Party, they have always been skeptics, but they weren’t in Government from 1997 to 2010 and they are now in coalition with a party far more green in its tendencies.
They have really had to wait the 15 years of no warming to be able to come above the parapet, which they are now starting to do.
Mervyn says at May 12, 2013 at 12:12 am.
Absolutely. This all just spin, smoke and mirrors, excrement of oxen…
Fickle Cameron is scared of UKIP. He’s performing somersaults over a EU referendum as well. A referendum which he could just call if he wanted. His coalition partners even had an In/Out referendum as a pledge in their manifesto for this parliament. He could do it if he chose.
All this means nothing, for nothing this Government does has any meaning.
Actions without integrity are just flailing with the wind.
Let’s not forget Greenpeace whose activists are working in the very heart of the IPCC.
http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2011/03/14/peer-into-the-heart-of-the-ipcc-find-greenpeace/
http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/06/ipcc-and-greenpeace
Jimbo, ….and Peter Lilley was one of only three MPs to vote against the Climate Change Act 2008.
Here is a great overview of the present state of the climate wars.
To summarise – Warmists are in retreat. 😉
http://thepointman.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/some-thoughts-about-policy-for-the-aftermath-of-the-climate-wars/
[On topic] Quote of the Week from Pointman???
The last sentence is something I’ve been harping on about for ages.
More importantly, Nigel Farage of the UKIP party said that windelecs (wind turbines) are a complete waste of space – and then hoovered up 25% of the vote in local elections.
The government can at last see that large swathes of the electorate are getting very sceptical about Global Warming:
a. because it is costing them an arm and a leg in fuel bills.
b. because it is so darn cold.
.
“…action to tackle global warming is falling victim to Treasury intransigence.”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a turn of phrase. These terrible interlopers are ruining everything by telling the government that we are fast becoming broke with the green energy economy. The “experts” that are abandoning the ship won’t have anywhere to go, but being experts, they can morph into coal and nuclear energy experts.
The costs of running the diesel generator was less than the earnings from the attractive feed in tariffs being paid for green energy production.
They were also plugging floodlights into the mains and shining the lights on the PV panels, I believe.
We will have to see.. After all the tax funded green agenda has greased a great many palms..
There are a lot of favors floating in the air, a lot of tax funded business interests that will not go quietly into the night..
Its all nice to talk about tearing up contracts.. Here in Ontario it cost the tax payer 650 million dollars so Dalton McLyingLips could move two gas power plants, that put his reelection into question..
So dont think for a second that the green small print is any less forgiving than the gas plant small print.. They will bend the tax payer over on the way out the door.. Then turn around and knock again.. That is after all what they do…
This article in today’s Independent however, shows just what an uphill climb we still have here apropos the fundamental arguments. The comments are almost universally in favour of the article, which is utter rubbish; and this by the way is the paper read by many of the ‘bien pensant’ teachers, journalists and other such opinion formers (others read the Guardian which is even more avidly anti CO2 and pro AGW theories.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/life-on-earth-under-threat-from-co2-levels-say-scientists-8612900.html
Some with a grasp of the science and an ability to express that succinctly, please go an comment on the thread…
it’s all about votes
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22396690 note climate change stance
Silver Ralph says:
May 12, 2013 at 11:13 am
More importantly, Nigel Farage of the UKIP party said that windelecs (wind turbines) are a complete waste of space – and then hoovered up 25% of the vote in local elections.
This is an important precedent. In democracies AGW can be kicked out if a skeptical constituency can be empowered by a party articulating opposition to AGW. What is needed is enough people to start thinking over climate issues rationally with access to the true facts.