Tuesday
Feb012011
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Harrabin posting at WUWT
Feb 1, 2011 BBC Climate: MetOffice Roger Harrabin is currently at WUWT in a guest post discussing the Met Office affair.
Feb 1, 2011 BBC Climate: MetOffice
Reader Comments (19)
RH has a letter in todays Daily Mail, denying that he caved in under pressure from Jo Abess.
That's somewhat different from my recolection of the blog traffic concerned.
Well, having read Harrabin’s post as well as the BBC article he links to, he is obviously not answering any questions at all. He is only trying to deflect and divert them. How odd. Facts of the matter is he either:
1. Conspired to mislead the public
2. Was misled and as a result misled the public
3. Both of the above
Either his false statements in the November 26 article is due to really bad journalism or an intent to mislead. Both alternatives requires Mr. Harrabin to:
1. Immediately issue a clear correction and take other measures as reasonably necessary to correct the erroneous public perception his misleading and false statements created.
2. Unconditionally apologize to the public as well as the Cabinet Office for any harm caused by his failure as a journalist.
In Harrabin’s comments, purporting to address the issues, we see none of the above. Come on Mr. Harrabin, own up! You are caught out one way or the other…
@Neil
Autonomous Mind has the clipping and some exchanges between RH and Jo Abess.
Harrabin the Untrustworthy
http://autonomousmind.wordpress.com/2011/02/01/harrabin-the-untrustworthy/
Scroll to Ross McKitrick's comment, which is on point.
=================
Roger Harrabin's piece is a waste of time in all honesty. It was just a grand plug for his Weather Test project.
http://autonomousmind.wordpress.com/2011/02/01/roger-harrabin-plays-watch-the-birdie-on-wuwt/
I've covered both angles in my post.
Mr. Harrabin's "response" at WUWT is hardly that at all, more of a non-response that attempts to deflect attention from the important questions. The whole affair reeks of the "never let a good crisis go to waste" mentality.... but the question is just what use was the crisis being put to? The Cameron government is green, green, green so I would suggest that the "secret forecast" was not about the green agenda per se, but rather was a convenient club to beat a conservative government by the unelected mandarins of at least one government department. Roger Harrabin was in the middle of it. Rather than using the forum at WUWT to answer questions about the affair, he chose to treat the WUWT readers as a bunch of dumb hicks who only had sex with farm animals. I don't believe he was duped or made into some kind of fall guy... he fancies himself a player.
On WUWT Harrabin proposes some kind of future "beauty contest" to determine the most accurate weather forecasts from the various current sources, over a period of years.
As one commenter, Brandon Caswell suggested "Better yet, why wait. We already have a history of predictions . . ."
To quote M Caine in the closing moments of 'The Italian Job' -
"Hang on a minute lads, I've gotta great idea"
I read Mr. Harrabin's post, what a self-serving piece it was. Here are the facts:
1. Someone in the Met Office asked him to post a piece saying the Met Office had warned the Cabinet Office about the upcoming severe winter;
2. He duly printed the piece without checking the facts;
3. He, and his editor, ignored the big story for any journalist and didn't follow it up immediately. The big story being the Cabinet Office had been told of a severe winter and hadn't passed this information on to the British people causing untold chaos, and probably many unnecessary deaths.
4. So why didn't Harrabin and his editor follow their journalistic instincts and pursued the "Cabinet Office Hid Warnings of Severe Winter" headline? Simple really, one of two things: neither believed the Met Office headline but put it in anyway to deflect the public opprobrium of the miserable performance of the Met Office; or both conspired with the Met Office to put the story in print A phone call from the BBC to the Cabinet Office would have elicited the correct information in five minutes, which was that no such report was passed to the Cabinet Office;
5. After publication Harrabin realises the gap in their logic, i.e. they hadn't corroborated the story through the Cabinet Office, so as a piece of showmanship intended to deflect the denialist thickos, Roger ostentatiously puts a FOI request into the Cabinet Office, rather than calling their press office who would, I'm sure given that they, the Cabinet Office, were totally blameless, have refuted the story and given Roger a copy of the forecast (which looked as though it had been prepared by a group of GCSE students doing a project on weather forecasting and getting a D for presentation);
6. Bishop, Autonomous Mind and others follow up, show no such forecast was given and there are nefarious allegations that Roger H is in the pocket of the Met Office and had colluded with them to deflect public attention from their abysmal forecasting record. So Roger the Reasonable replies through WUWT not answering the questions and telling us about some project or other, which amazingly, wow, wants to find out if weather forecasts are reliable from the various sources. In the meantime, Roger still believes unequivocally that weather forecasts from some of these forecasters for 50 to 100 years out are 100% correct. Baffling.
He is not getting any sympathy over there!
I've followed this story since the minute it broke, and Geronimo's summary is spot on. Harrabin's post on Anthony's is just a deflection to cover for poor journalism and bias in favour of his chums in the Met Office.
Geronimo +2
I don't suppose Piers Corbyn's forecasts will be included. Much too accurate!
Tiny CO2's comment at WUWT is a gem:
“The Met Office specialises in predictions that are so vague that they are almost impossible to get wrong… and yet, they manage it.”
A staggering piece of what I believe Tim Worstall would call "cock-waffle".
No attempt to deal with any substantive charges.
1/10. Must try harder.
@ James
"In his essay, he’s proposing a “weather test” of the Met Office, and Piers Corbyn has agreed to be tested as well. – Anthony"
I bet Joe Bastardi would be up for it too!
The outlook is fine, with a >40% chance of bluster ;^)
I wonder if it's occurred to the MO that they might come bottom..?
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