Bishop Hill The great eco-cesspit
Dec 15, 2013 Bureaucrats Ethics Greens The big climate and energy story this morning is David Rose's splash on the eco-policy cesspit - the mob of greedy politicians, greedy lobbyists, greedy civil servants and greedy greens who are all enriching themselves at public expense.
Four of nine-person Climate Change Committee, official watchdog that dictates green energy policy, are, or were until recently, being paid by firms that benefit from committee decisions.
A new breed of lucrative green investment funds, which were set up to expand windfarm energy, are in practice a means of taking green levies paid by hard-pressed consumers and handing them to City investors and financiers.
£3.8 billion of taxpayers’ money funds the new Green Investment Bank, set up by the Department of Business and Skills. One of its biggest deals involved energy giant SSE selling windfarms to one of the new green funds, Greencoat Wind. The Green Investment Bank’s chairman, Lord Smith of Kelvin, is also chairman of SSE. The bank says it ‘provided expertise’ to enable BIS to take a £50 million stake in Greencoat, which helped fund the SSE sale.
The same bank’s chief executive, Shaun Kingsbury, is one of the UK’s highest-paid public sector employees. His £325,000 salary is more than twice the Prime Minister’s.
Firms lobbying for renewables can virtually guarantee access to key Government policy-makers, because they are staffed by former very senior officials – a striking example of Whitehall’s ‘revolving door’.
Standards in public life. Don't make me laugh.
Reader Comments (91)
People in both Houses have been raking in the Green Energy subsidies for a long time and completely unconcerned how it looks to the public.
Talk about the Eco-Fatcats, they get richer while fuel poverty gets worse because of their greed.
Far worse than our Fatcat bankers.
There is one comment on the DM site from someone calling himself 'VisceralRage'. I know that feeling.
Unfortunately there's nothing really new in the David Rose article; we've been discussing this for a long time. I don't expect this to appear on the BBC any time soon. They are too busy covering Nelson Mandela and Nigella Lawson to worry about £multi-billion corruption in the UK establishment.
Can you magine any other issue where this level of... oilyness wouldn't be front page news in all the papers? The first rule of Green Club - don't talk about Green Club.
1. Claim moral high ground.
2. Recruit acolytes.
3. Prophet. Oops, sorry. Profit.
David Rose and the Daily Mail are becoming .... difficult.
Something will have to be done about them.
(signed)
The Green Mafia
SSE sells off wind farms to Greencoat Wind and guarantees to buy output at a profitable price index linked until end of life of turbines.
Turbines fail or end of life arrives, Greencoat goes into liquidation with no money left to pay for the removal of wind farm.
SSE are off the hook as they no longer own the farm and the farm rots away over several years of argument until finally the taxpayer picks up the tab.
A simple and transparent projection of governmental and utility intent with those who fabricated the scam promised well paid sinecures as and when they need them.
What's not to like?
roger: Very prophetic (profitic). More and more wind developments are being sold by the original developer to some other gullible organisation (such as investment banks, investment trusts, pension plans etc) which will be left picking up the tab or will go bust to avoid having to remove the rusting monsters.
The "big lie" is a well known concept. Less so is its mirror image the "big truth". The "Big lie", spoken by authority succeeds because it is intrinsically too implausible to be made up and has to be believed. The big truth is that the corruption and mendacity of these people is so blatant and obvious that its perpetration is not believable, and therefore propriety is assumed. How can anybody still credit and quote the Stern Report knowing of his interests?
Routinely active "sceptics" are impuned to have hidden interests when the obvious agenda of the green troughers is ignored.
Harold Shipman remained hidden for so long because those suspecting something amiss assured themselves that "the Doctor would have to know". When the obvious logical conclusion eventually occurred he was blown immediately.
Articles such as this can precipitate a new "meme", that a "great deception" is taking place. Lord knows there is material enough - all it would take is for a few more on the bandwagon of Rose and Booker. To quote George Smiley "when a cover runs - it runs like an old sock".
I notice at time of writing that there have been no comments on the MoS Rose posting for around 7 hours. Now I know it is a Sunday and people in the main probably have other things to do but I find this a bit strange. I trust that Downing Street has not had a quiet word in somebody's ear at MoS to quietly suspend comments because they are all unfavourable to the shysters.
To be honest guys the only real question one must ask themselves is how does one get on the gravy train?!?!??
Mailman
To think of the moral grandstanding that emanates from all-things liberal lefty. Where's their moral indignation on these multiple conflicts of issue, multiple examples of self-enrichment at the publics expense, and multiple lie-driven policies where it's perfectly clear all 3 parties aren't reducing energy prices, but are instead wholly committed to deliberately driving energy prices higher?
As for the consensus amongst policy-makers and 'climate science', their careers depend on there being a 'consensus'.
thespecialone: the moderation policy at the Mail is very slow. It often takes several hours for comments to appear. I posted a comment at about 7am, so well over 4hours now.
The WORST rated comment ( with only 42 PLUS ticks) is;
"SELF SERVING LYING SCUMBAGS THE LOT OF THEM!!!!.."
No comment has more than 3 MINUS ticks - as far as my quick scan shows.
The tone is very definitely along the lines of outrage and "string 'em up" so I would not be suprised is someone wanted the comments moderated.
The interesting thing is go into the comments at the mail and look at the best and worst rated comments. Even the worst rated comments, ie those who disagree with the article are green. That is nobody as far as I can see disagrees.
I hope there is some sort of fall out over all this, but I suspect it will just be business as usual and nothing much will change. Our politicians and establishment types are now so corrupt and self serving that they shame banana republics everywhere. Lying, cheating scum bags are the new normal.
Looking back at previous articles in the Mail by David Rose, it appears that they often stop the comments after a very short period. His article on the !st of Dec "A £50 green energy tax cut is good news. The bad news? Britain will have to foot a £300BILLION eco-bill by 2030" had only one comment allowed. I remember commenting on that article and it never appeared. So the Mail is censoring comments.
The next United Kingdom general election will be the election to the 56th parliament of the United Kingdom. The terms of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 mandate that the election will be held on 7 May 2015 (except in the event of a collapse of government or a two-thirds majority of MPs voting for an early election).
I already know where I'd like to put my carbon footprint.
For some unaccountable reason. the term 'Stern Gang' comes to mind........:0)
I have just scrolled all the way through the Mail online and there is no mention of the above article, seems a bit strange.
http://blogs.shell.com/climatechange/2013/12/spectrum/
THAT DAVID HONE BLOG
I know we've moved on, but it seems that all (?) your comments can now be viewed there.
Assuming that David Hone (unlike his 'man' at the DT, Geoffrey Lean) reads them, will he henceforth question his past utterances and the line his company has been taking ?
He usually blogs weekly - his NEXT one will be fascinating.
It's still there, John Lyon...
Black Dog: Though you are said to have plagued Winston all his life the chosen phrase that surely best describes how he achieved what he finally did is KBO, or Keep Buggering On. This is what the great David Rose is evidently doing - and the Bish for that matter, who I've never seen more trenchant, for good reason. Eco-cesspit indeed. Ask yourself: would it have improved the Mail on Sunday article for the author to end "I suspect there was no point having written this - it will just be business as usual, nothing will ever change." Of course not. When we cannot be certain of victory and cannot be certain of defeat the only reasonable public response is to KBO. Sure, Black Dog will come to all of us at times, often at dead of night, there's no avoiding that. But in this culture we have been given a superb example of a man very weak in that area who nevertheless did, at one point, virtually single-handedly, defy all the odds and lead the world out of the darkest evil. So, KBO and be away, Black Dog. (Which phrase please don't take personally. An inspired choice of nym.)
For what it's worth I read the Rose piece before there were many comments showing (censored or not) and thought at once "They cannot come back from this." It's a superb effort, hitting the mass market more than any other web news publication on the planet, let's not forget. (The Mail has cracked the Net, more than any other English-speaking news outlet, according to all the stats.) I've never felt that Rose has taken better advantage of this mass audience. Team Cameron and every other shade of political hue in the UK will be keenly aware of it.
David Rose has another article published two minutes later - with 0 comments
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2523758/MPs-Lords-lobbyists-advise-Ministers-eco-policies--cash-in.html
Dec 15, 2013 at 11:11 AM | diogenese2
A counter-narrative is one strategy, but a dangerous one. Narratives can slip the leash.
For the 'self-sustaining narrative' = memetic perspective on CAGW, see:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/11/02/the-catastrophic-agw-memeplex-a-cultural-creature/
I made a contribution to David Rose's article.
If more of those expressing outrage here (and rightly so) would actually spend some time raking through our "representatives" interests, hypocrisy and naked greed and making written complaints to Parliament, the press (and even the Police- as I intend to in the near future) then we could actually make a difference.
So less hand-wringing and more action.
Wretchard has 'From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed'.
H/t DrJ
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The absolute worst of this is that all of our three main political parties claim, taking their lead from the Labour Party and the BBC, to be concerned for and to stand up for the poor, weak, vulnerable and dispossessed.
Now, I am not a religious person, but Matthew nailed this a couple of thousand years ago:
"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them."
Every age of humanity has had its share of false prophets (profits) enriching themselves at the expense of ordinary people. From time to time there needs to be a clear-out.
Time for a bonfire weeds.
It's been known for years now that the renewables industry is rife with corruption, but it's also equally clear that this government is quite happy to let that situation continue. I'm not a natural UKIP voter, in fact far from it, but my vote will certainly be going there this time simply as a protest.
Our elites impoverish us, screwing us with fantasy taxes to "save the planet" from imagined terrors of "global warming".
Meanwhile, in the real world, snow has fallen on the pyramids for the first time in over 100 years:
https://twitter.com/PicturesEarth/status/412009067469496320/photo/1
Richard Drake at 12:15 PM
Sir, you are correct and your comments are most welcome. I am grateful that Rose and the Bishop do what they do and I am confident that sense will prevail in the long run, in part due to them buggering on. They are the people exposing the corruption in our ruling class and this Global Warming nonsense, or whatever it is called this week. I hope in years to come we will look back on the whole eco-green movement thingy as a failed concept in much the same way we view the former Soviet Union. Of course there will be a few remaining zealots in Brighton or somewhere but they will be about as relevant as the British Communist Party.
KBO, thanks for the reminder, a good way of getting through most things and dealing with life's pooh.
We all know these things have been going on, but seeing the issue in print again, still stirs my anger. And this on top of the Yeo whitewash. One has to wonder if this nest feathering was not in Cameron's mind when he urged us to: vote blue go green.
Black Dog: Thank you in turn.
@ Peter:
it would have been more honest of Cameron to say "Vote Green [policies], go Blue [from cold]"
AP: Shouldn't that be "Vote Green [from gullibility], go Blue [from cold]"
From the Ecclesiastical Uncle, an old retired bureaucrat in a field only remotely related to climate with minimal qualifications and only half a mind.
Beware, there is, of course, a defence.
These appointments were made to the climate change committee - it being accepted that the climate was changing as a result of things that could be dealt with.
So HMG went out and bought expertise, the best they could get which, perforce, came from the few who populated the golden triangle where alarmist climate science, business and government meet. Government wanted action, and only people with practical experience, probably current, of the way things ran in the three territories could help.
So conflicts of interest were unavoidable if government was get the people it wanted, but hey! it was all in a good cause so how could any right minded person object?
All substantial stuff that will be used to justify what Rose now brings to public notice. But it will be very easy for those who want to believe in man-made global warming to dismiss it as nit picking. After all, you cannot blame the business man for making the best of the opportunities that government provides, the bureaucrat for advancing the policy he was appointed to further, the alarmist scientist for seeking to save ourselves from ourselves, and all these things will be said or muttered, sotto voce, in the committee and the corridors of power. So the article will increase argument and cause loss of temper and may make a contribution to our sceptic cause. But it will probably not prove decisive.
The drum that Rose should bang, whether he has already done so or not, is the perversity of the current government for continuing to follow the green religion now that the easy assumptions that it was a harmless fad are now no longer tenable.
Moralising narcissists turn out to be lying hypocrites on the take. Credulous idiots crestfallen. Again.
Ecclesiastical Uncle: I agree with a lot of what you say. There was something inevitable in the way this played out, given widespread, if irrational, belief in the purity of the unlikely goals and disregard for the certain costs. And, for me, there's something inevitable in the way it falls apart, in part because of hard-hitting, mass market articles like Rose's. That's perhaps where I differ. Whatever may be muttered in the corridors of power the voters cannot be sniffed at forever. This looks bad because it is bad - bad for the country and for 'standards in public life' as the Bish laughingly puts it. Rose isn't far off an end run here (whatever that is - I sometimes wish I could cleanse myself of half-understood American sporting metaphors).
AngusPangus,
Matthew reported it, but he didn't say it! Credit is due to the author, whose birthday we celebrate on 25th December :-)
The green agenda, a cloth weft with lies.
Charlatans, snake oil pedlars and shyster lawyers - go by collective term - 'politicians' and the green agenda was made up especially by them: to sell to you.
Promise the earth, tomorrow!
A more perfect vehicle to fleece the public was never invented, Bernie Madoff would have loved it and George Soros does. Not only, does it provide endless material to sermonize and preach, it also allows venal, oleaginous clowns [e.g. John Prescott] to pontificate at length on a subject of which he knows squat and credulous audiences did listen, somehow they got away with it because it seemed if not nailed on, it had the ring of plausibility. A shed load of plausibility was manufactured - a lot of statistics, mountains of crappy data and a great deal of mendacity and some dubious scientists - cripes it all added up to a wormcast 'consensus'!
Yes, get away with it they certainly did until the earth stopped it [Anthropomorphic warming] dead in its tracks and the Emperor suddenly had no clothes on........ now the cat is out of the bag, even though the BBC continues to pump out the global warming propaganda - the once boundless enthusiasm for CAGW catastrophism has waned considerably - luke warm at best is what they are now, though still - if you do not believe in the EU project - "you must [still] be mad!"
Rose, his excellent exposé, of the serial peculation, favour and the public-private cronyism and revolving door, the attack on the corrupt fabric and apparatus of big government in the immediate future - will not change a thing. What it does though - is place doubt and disgust which infuriates people to the large scale troughing antics of the political elite in the public's minds - and that's priceless.
It's slow and hard pounding, it's all uphill for us but asymmetric tactics are our forté.
Athelstan: As they say in USA: Way to go!!!! Thanks for that.
Strange thing...I think it was on WUWT today, I read about what it is to be a 'sociopath'. It boiled down to someone committing to an action without any pang of conscience. That being the case, I can see an argument that lists people like Yeo, Deben, Grantham and many, many others as being just such animals.
And, Phil Bratby: the council are changing all our lampposts round here to be higher, brighter, LED lamps (much better than old sodium!). I noticed that the new ones will not entertain the connection of piano wires. B*gger!
PS: My guess is that the council are changing the lamps to LEDs in some faint pretence that it fights AGW....which raises the question: would they have done it anyway, because it surely is more cost effective and produces better lighting? (Ha!)
Inch by inch, row by row,
Going to make the rascals go
All it takes is to look, don't you know
For their claims are so unsound.
Well done, David Rose.
His article will surely bring the stench to the attention of many more people.
And who here supposes that the "science" element of all this is, for the most part, conducted with any less emphasis on financial gain?
Here I am attempting to get a face to face with my local MP. His offices (just opposite the excellent Holyhead Kebabs) are rarely occupied. They certainly aren't picking the phone up today. I will have to try a different tack.
http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/commons/albert-owen/1474
As promised, I will keep you all posted - IF I get some kind of response.
Richard: "Shouldn't that be "Vote Green [from gullibility], go Blue [from cold]"" very good :-)
SNTFM: Thanks for that reminder; I suppose Matthew was sort of a David Rose of his day! :-)
It must be a very helpful expose, mustn't it? I am sure there is a growing scepticism in the public at large, being added to by the increased energy bills, and they can only be fobbed off for so long with the supposed outrageous profiteering by the energy companies (not), but they'll put up with a lot if they believe it's in a genuine cause, with the best scientific evidence, etc. etc. Now there's this which must throw a new light on it for them.
I have given up on my MP – I very quickly get the “We shall agree to disagree” response, which is a sad get-out for a politician. I suspect that any enquiries now would be met with silence.
So now many hours later, there are still only 57 comments on Rose's piece. There are zero comments on his other piece. I will be checking on Monday to see if this has changed. Oh and now I had to go and look for the articles as they are quite well buried.
Athelstan at 3:18
Goodness me
"It's slow and hard pounding."
My boss said these words to a journo in a very hot dusty corner of a foreign field a few years ago. Perfectly summed up our summer that year and in a different way how things are going to be for us realists in this AGW disagreement. The great advice from earlier is KBO.
Regards