A Place to Stand

I have the lead letter in the Scotsman today which is pleasing, particularly since a shorter letter in the Herald wasn't selected. The major theme of the original letter was that "charities" campaigning for the government decision to ban fire were in fact, significantly government funded. The minor theme was that we don't actually have any warming currently, which hopefully will cause splutterings in reply. However the major theme has been edited out. I have highlighted the bits the paper didn't print:

Once again (Friday then Tuesday) we see the leading letter about the Scottish MSP's literally insane decision to cut Scotland's use of fire by 42% & GNP by a probably greater amount, is supportive. All the others are opposed. Personally I would have thought a letter from Jim Sillars, with its very appropriate description of the MSPs behaviour as a "collapse of reason" would have had greater news value than one from Dr Johnson but that is just my opinion.

Dr Johnson is correct to say that 1998 was warmer than 2000, though I don't see how this strengthens alarmist claims.. He is certainly correct to say that alarmists now contend that this was unusual because of El Nino but they said the exact opposite at the time. In any case he is wrong to say 1998 was the warmest in recent times. Best evidence is that 1933 was. Stephen McIntyre examined the previous American figures which had also said 1998 & found them to be counter-factual in many cases. The US authorities ultimately acknowledged & corrected this. For unknown reasons this got little media coverage. The US figures were the most complete & widespread but for unknown reasons the British Met Office have refused to release details that would allow a similar check of their figures so we must rely on the best available.

So after 76 years of "catastrophic warming" it is cooler. Of course much of history has been warmer than even 1933. HL Mencken once said "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary" & the facts show that "catastrophic warming" is yet another "hobgoblin" being pushed by power drunk politicians with absolutely no interest whatsoever in the wellbeing of their constituents or even in the survival of western civilisation.

Regarding the leading letter on Friday which came from a prominent charity - That charity was, coincidentally, one of 9 I have previously mentioned on my blog as being both major sponsors of the conference of a prominent political party & heavily dependent (between 10% & 100%) on government money. This includes not only direct government grants but also grants from quangos, councils, lottery funding & the purchase of the charity's publications, courses, training & advice. 11 of their other sponsors were government departments, quangos, government employee unions & an industry entirely dependent on government subsidy. Such organisations described, perhaps unkindly, by the conspiracy minded blogsphere as "fakecharities" are exercising an increasing degree of political & social influence. Indeed it seems hardly a day goes by without the government funded BBC highlighting a report from some such organisation. By the most statistically surprising of coincidences I cannot remember a single one of these which has called for less government spending, cutting quangos, fewer government employees or generally less nanny statism.

I suggest to avoid accusations of not being transparent, authors of letters for publication, or indeed press releases for news features, should contain a mention of such financial relationships. Scotland's political culture would be much very much the better for it.

Now fair enough - even edited it is a relatively long letter & I have no reason for complaint. They let me say every MSP is "insane" (even if they edited out "literally"). Also I willingly admit that the editing has left a very hard hitting & effective last line (power-drunk politiciams ... survisval of western civilisation) which is correct & was buried in my longer letter. Nonetheless the subject of government funding of "dissenting" lobbyists calling for bigger government is an important one which the MSM should report. I phrased that part of the letter in as emollient a way as possible making no mention of advertising as a way of government buying influence - for example I am sure the Guardian makes more from government advertising than from readers & thus is, by the fakecharity definition a fakenewspaper*. However the disparity of discussion of this on the blogsphere with the complete failure of the MSM to report it is becoming painfully obvious.

My original blog mentioning the party conference - it was the LudDims naturally.

McIntyre proving 1933 the warmest year & the authorities accepting it

* this word does not appear in the OED or the Library of the British Museum or anywhere else as a single word & trust the OED will send me a small payment when they put it in.

Labels: eco-fascism, global warming, letters