Russell panel minutes 25th Feb

Another set of minutes of Sir Muir Russell's panel has been published. Not much has happened.

• They are going to give £1500 to the Science Media Centre
• They are going to appoint a project manager
• Peter Clark says BP has not funded CRU in recent years
• Evidence to be published
• Norton and Clark to meet Jones and Osborn 

Comments

[Phillip Bratby]

I think you are exaggerating when you say not much has happened! I guess this is the pace of things in public life, but my experience was in the real world where timescales and urgency prevail.

[martyn]

Wow these guys are really taking the bull by the horns they still haven’t appointed a catering manager though, perhaps they will have packed lunches.

[Phillip Bratby]

Martyn: How could you be so cynical? When the project manager is appointed, then he will no doubt be able to appoint a catering manager, office manager, human relations manager, media relations manager, sustainablility manager, admin manager, photcopying manager, archiving manager, equal opportunities manager, clerks, typists etc (have I forgotten anyone?). Then the real work will be able to begin.

[Sir DigbyCS]

From their perspective they're in a bit of a bind;

- If they do the work and say nothing untoward happened, they're going to get negative feedback and for good reason.
- If they do the work and say something bad did occur, then they will have failed in their mission to absolve their compatriots of blame.

Either way they lose.

Much better to obfuscate/delay and MR is a master at this i.e. Fraser Enquiry. So nothing is going to much happen due to:- complicated process, general election, other enquiries going on which need to be resolved, etc. etc.

SDCS

[martyn]

Sorry Phillip, silly me. But I think you have forgotten someone from finance, all those expenses to tot up, must keep within budget you know. I guess the £1500 to the SMC was the maximum they were able to pass on without approval from someone. Cynical, me, never… well maybe sometimes, I think it just happens with age.

[Atomic Hairdryer]

Philip: Don't forget the all important Change Manager. If I get in power, I'm going to counter them with an 'If It's Not Broke, Don't Fix It Manager'.

[Phillip Bratby]

Sorry about the missing managers. I too am getting forgetful with age, or just not keeping up with the new management techniques.

[Don Pablo de la Sierra]

Sorry about the missing managers. I too am getting forgetful with age, or just not keeping up with the new management techniques.

I know how you feel, Phillip. I got an iPhone for Christmas and still haven't used it. Which brings me to the Communications Manager, who will have several assistants, a staff of techies to make sure all the pretty toys work, and off course, they will all have to have a shiny new comms device for consultations, etc. If done right, they could make a serious dent in the unemployment rate.

[DaveS]

Has anyone managed to get a response from Kate Moffatt, the contact person for the enquiry team? Back in February I sent her a short, and polite, list of questions relating to Prof Boulton's background and have had no reply, not even a brush-off. I've re-sent the questions every week or so (currently on the fourth request). There's been a couple of 'Out of office' messages, so they being delivered.

[Martin A]

Sir DigbyCS said
From their perspective they're in a bit of a bind;
(...)
Either way they lose.

I wonder if that explains why Nature editor Philip Campbell jumped ship so quickly. Maybe he had (finally) a quick read of the emails, realised what he had let himself in for and was pleased that an escape route presented itself...

[hro001]

This is interesting - and I'm sure it's pure coincidence, but it just so happens that after a disappointing tour of the icce site (where I had hoped to find the submissions posted), I sent off an E-mail to those listed on the contacts page:

The CCE Review website indicates:
Transparency

The Team will operate as openly and transparently as possible. It is establishing a website which will eventually display all of the submissions received, correspondence, analyses and conclusions. The aim will be to publish all received submissions quickly, unless there are wholly exceptional reasons to delay, for example legal issues.

[...]

Timescale

The Review team issued a call for submissions on 11 February 2010, and expects to receive submissions from UEA and the public by the end of February.

[...] The team expect to have at least preliminary conclusions by Spring 2010 [emphasis added -hro]

Source: http://www.cce-review.org/Workplan.php

The Evidence page on the website indicates that:

All Evidence and submissions to the Review will be published on this page [...]

Source: http://www.cce-review.org/Evidence.php

As I'm sure you are aware, Parliament's Science & Technology Committee long ago made available the submissions received pertaining to their inquiry into "The disclosure of climate data from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia". So I was wondering when the submissions received by the CCE Review team will be published at http://www.cce-review.org/Evidence.php - in accordance with the above commitments.

I would also note that as of today's date (Mar. 23, 2010) the Meetings page [ http://www.cce-review.org/Meetings.php ] does not seem to have been updated since March 1 - when a link was posted to the "note of actions agreed" at the Feb. 4 meeting. Is one to infer that there have been no meetings of the team since Feb. 4?

Thank you,

Didn't hear back [except for an auto-response, and a read-receipt], but now I see what was "March 1, 2010" has been changed to "February 4, 2010" - and someone's topped it up with the second entry that links to topic of this post (can't swear to the date format, though - they seem to vary on the site). Damn! I knew I should have taken a screen capture!

[martyn]

ho001
I am not sure where your March 1st date comes from I can’t say I noticed anything other than February 4th,.

As for the submissions they were anticipated at the end of February and would have been discussed presumably at the Edinburgh meeting on March 20th therefore should have been published shortly afterwards. So don’t hold your breath but all things being equal uummmm my guess is sometime in the next few days. But then the published minutes are a meeting behind, I guess because the committee are incapable of agreeing them electronically prior to the next meeting, old fuddy-duddies. Obviously the longer they delay publishing any information the less questions or objections they are likely to face because everything would have been done and dusted, over and out as is were. But they are being transparent…..almost…eventually…when it suits. Bit rude not to have a reply to your mail though, be interesting to read the response when it arrives.