Bishop Hill DECC in chaos
May 3, 2013 Climate: Parliament DECC A week ago DECC's director of energy strategy and futures resigned, a story reported in the Guardian:
Brearley did not turn up to a renewable energy conference in Scotland, where he was meant to be speaking on the EMR on Monday.
Delegates to the event, organised by the Infrastructure Journal, were told the civil servant was not coming because he had left the department.
But a spokesman for DECC said Brearley was not formally leaving until the summer, having completed the main policy work on the EMR.
Today, one of his colleagues Ravi Gurumurthy, director of strategy, has gone too - he's off to work with David Miliband in New York.
One could be forgiven for thinking that the ship is sinking and that all manner of livestock is heading for safer ground.
Thanks for everything you have done for us, gentlemen.
Reader Comments (78)
Perhaps it'll now be known as the Department of Energy, Climate & Change.
We all know what happened to the boy who stood on the burning DECC. One might remember Spike Milligan's version.
Ravi is younger brother of Krishnan, the Channel 4 News presenter, it would appear:
www.telegraph.co.uk/property/3290606/My-childhood-home-Krishnan-Guru-Murthy.html
"One could be forgiven for thinking that the ship is sinking and that all manner of livestock is heading for safer ground."
I'll be plagiarising that. (If I can find out how to spell plagiarise)
As long as the places where they seek refuge have extradition treaties with the UK.
Don't you mean "Thanks for everything you have done TO us, gentlemen."
Unfortunately there are plenty of green nutters in DECC to keep filling the gaps. Well paid posts, with great conditions, excellent holiday leave, plenty of time off for sickness and a super inflation-proof pension (oh and big annual bonuses). It's another super gravy train.
Let's not beat around the bush.
The RATS are leaving the sinking ship.
Having done their damnest to sink it in the first place.
I have been a follower of this thread for quite some time, and have been impressed by the many diverse views expressed and allowed. However, it seems to me that you are the People’s Republic for the Freedom of Palestine: you hold your secret meetings, and discuss the downfall of the Romans… and do little else. Have any of you bothered to contact your own MP regarding your concerns?
Below is an e-mail that I have sent to mine (slightly amended for anonymity); can I suggest that you all write a similar missive to your own MP/Senator/Governor (improving on my copy will not be a difficult task). Encourage your friends and family to do the same; it is the only way that we can make these people aware of the depth of our concerns.
QUOTE
Please can you try to inject a modicum of common sense into the present government’s lamentable energy policy?
When will they realise or accept that the present global warming / climate change is nothing but a huge confidence trick exercised by people who ignore any morals in their desire for recognition, fame, wealth, control, or a mixture of any or all of those.
For the past 4.5 BILLION years, the Earth has gone through cycles of warm and cold. The last major change was the end of the last ice-age; the evidence is that we are slowly declining into yet another ice-age (probably a few centuries hence). However, there is sound historical evidence that, over shorter periods of just a few centuries, there is a cycle of warming and cooling. The Roman period was about 2°C warmer than present; the Dark Ages were a cool period; the Mediaeval period was about 1°C warmer than now; in the Little Ice Age, the Thames froze. The rate of increase of temperature since then has NOT been alarming, other than being noticeably below average.
This government is driving this country into a poverty of energy that will destroy us; there are already many elderly dying of hypothermia during the winter because they are unable to afford the ever-rising cost of fuel. How soon before this government’s policies expand those numbers of the dying into the lower-paid? How soon before the lights start going out, and even the better-paid are driven into penury?
You have to raise this NOW! Stop the senseless subsidies on “wind farms”, where already-rich people are being given enormous sums of money from the generally far poorer tax-payer. We now have four turning (or not) over […insert your own locale here – you know there will be at least one!...]; what subsidies are they draining out of the tax-payer? The efficiency of wind turbines is lamentable; the energy spent in construction will always exceed the energy gained from them – how does that make any kind of sense? Existing coal-fired power stations are being converted to less efficient woodchip-burning; the wood chips are being shipped over from America. How on Earth can this be considered to be reducing emissions?
More efficient power stations are fuelled by natural gas; the emissions from these are the lowest of all but one energy source. This country has been found to be sitting on top of natural gas reserves – HUGE natural gas reserves – trillions of cubic metres of natural gas reserves – enough for several centuries. Yet, what is this government doing about it? Nothing but obfuscation. They fret about a few drilling units, each 100 feet high and will only be required for setting up the field then they will go, yet are happy with square miles of bird-chopping turbines 300 feet high, staying up for 25 years; they talk about studies, but these studies are not to test the viability of fracking, nor about the environmental impacts of fracking, but about the public concern about environmental impacts of fracking.
You may consider this to be mere rantings, but please note: scientists sceptical about the alarm over AGW / ACC have requested an open, televised debate on the matter. Those who are adamant that “the science is settled” have not responded by accepting the debate and defending their science, nor by attacking the argument, but by attacking the reputation and livelihood of the sceptics. Now ask yourself this: is this a reasonable, scientific response if the science is truly settled?
I hope that this will inspire you to act, or at least encourage you to investigate.
Yours sincerely,
Oddnojob
UNQUOTE
Livestock usually wait until they have a ticket for another ship before they jump, whilst Brearley's precipitate departure sees him on gardening leave until his notice period expires in July and then planning a 'career break'. Looks almost like 'clear your desk, hand in your passes and a security man will escort you off the premises'.
I think there's more to this than meets the eye.
However tempting it may be to assume that when such obvious time-servers jump ship it's because they recognise said vessel has been holed below the waterline, the actual reason may simply be that an even more lucrative sinecure has become available.
That said, if the DECC's own press office is giving out muddled messages, it at least suggests an encouraging degree of squabbling, perhaps even panic, on the bridge.
Still, what a hoot that the DECC that the DECC has (had?) a Director of Strategy and Futures. Leaving aside the obvious question of what 'Futures' are – something to do with crystals balls, perhaps?– the only 'strategies' these bozos understand is milking money from the sorry suckers who have the misfortune to be forced to guarantee their inflation-proof pensions, as Bratby points out, and their over-weening self-importance.
@Oddnojob
Have any of you bothered to contact your own MP regarding your concerns?
I have and I am nursing one mighty sore head from its persistent and repetitive contact with the brick wall!
Oddnojob
I posted a couple of weeks ago on the reponse to the last of several letters sent by me to my MP. The gist of his reply was" I do not agree with you", the implication was "PFO and don't bother me again".
@ oddnojob
Up to a point. The thing is, since all three parties have the same agenda, writing to your MP objecting to climate policy is like writing to him to demand the return of the death penalty. If he says No, who else are you going to vote for? So it's an empty threat.
No party is going to dismantle the gravy train because sky-management as a state activity is now Too Big To Fail. Instead what will happen is that the sceptics will be proven right by continuing non-warming, the ecofascists will deny they wanted any of the colossal tax rises they've contrived and nobody will admit there was ever a sceptic view because wrecking the economy was agreed on by everybody.
Oddnojob:
Nice try but a waste of time. It is the easiest thing in the world for the average MP to fob you off. Refers letter to Met. Office/DECC, quotes 'overwhelming scientific consensus', position of Royal Society, authority of IPCC, 'imperatives of tackling gravest problem humanity has ever faced', etc.
The sad truth is that the average MP today is a party hack anxious only for his/her own advancement within the party hierarchy and with not the slightest understanding of the vast scam he/she is promoting.
Short of bashing them round the head with a blunt instrument – and even that is no guarantee – there is not the slightest prospect of your changing the mind of these dullards.
Peter Lilley excepted, what you must never lose sight of is not just that these people are very stupid but that you will never prise their mouths from the tax-payer funded teats they cannot help but suck on.
Put simply, 'global warming' equals more power to the State, equals more power to hangers-on such as today's average MP, nonentities to a man and woman.
Here is a bio of Jonathan Brearley from the Industry Forum:
http://www.industry-forum.org/biography.cfm?speakerid=204 - ‘The Industry Forum provides stimulating and productive interaction with Ministers and MPs - with a focus on business rather than politics.’
"Previously, Jonathan set up and ran the Office of Climate Change – a cross departmental strategy/ delivery unit. This took forward strategy projects and delivery arrangements across energy and climate change policy. This work included developing the draft Climate Change Bill, setting up the secretariat for the Committee on Climate Change, modelling international climate finance, and public reviews of carbon trading and of deforestation.
Prior to these roles, Jonathan worked in the Prime Ministers Strategy Unit focussing on domestic policy issues and at (what was) the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, developing the Local Government White Paper."
No doubt one of these eminent sponsors will have offered him a job. He could even join Lord Stern, who is a consultant to HSBC, or Yvo de Boer, who left UNFCCC to join KPMG, both companies on the sponsors list, http://www.industry-forum.org/sponsors.cfm
A little off topic, but well done Nigel Farage, and UKIP. Maybe the tide is about to turn. We can only hope.
Meh.
You may all be right, but it is worth a try, surely. I had similar problems with my MP over an unrelated matter a few years ago – I even admitted that I felt I was bashing my head against a brick wall, a comment that hit… a brick wall. Maybe if we all angrily stamp our feet in unison…? Or collectively hold our breaths until we go blue?
Thank you for your feedback.
Write a letter to my MP? Not sure how much that would bother him. Instead I nipped out on Thursday and voted UKIP. Given the number of us doing so, that should scare the cr*p out of him.
DennisA:
At some point such jobs will disappear, when there's no longer money in it.
I just read the BBC on what UKIP stands for and this from Business Green:
That was before today's results. We need to imagine a new world and then create it.
Oddnojob
I send stuff to my MP, Nick Clegg, all the time, not because I think it will make any difference but just so that he cannot claim ignorance - although ignorance is, somewhat paradoxically, his main disability!
Still all is not lost Nick. Your candidate did get well over 300 votes in South Shields.
I'd say there are the first signs of a general dawning that the game's up for climate alarmism and it wouldn't be a great idea to be left holding the deformed baby it spawned, which is a ruinous energy policy.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/10029144/If-an-energy-crisis-hits-it-will-be-the-companies-that-will-get-shot.html
I have a file several inches thick, full of letters to and from my MP and from Ministers. My letters have had zero effect. I sent individual letters to all the members of the HoC science and technology committee and got not a single reply. I have participated in many consultations and my contributions have been ignored and just resulted in "x people disagreed with what we are proposing". Head bashing against a wall doesn't come close to how bad it is. And yet again, the Westminster bubble tells us they will listen more and they make more empty promises. Just look at what they promised in the Localism Bill and how they have treated people who try to affect things locally.
Well, inspired by Oddnojob, I just sent my MP an email:
Hello,
I just thought I'd let you know why I voted UKIP on Thursday:
The government's energy policy - it's an utter shambles. We need to start building power stations. We need to start fracking. We need to stop subsidising ridiculous windmills.
I would like to be able to afford to heat my home in the winter.
If the government's energy policy doesn't change before the next general election, I will be voting UKIP.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/10029144/If-an-energy-crisis-hits-it-will-be-the-companies-that-will-get-shot.html
Thanks for you attention,
James Evans
Okay already! No need to rub my nose into how much a waste of time my suggestion was! Phillip, I saw how Lord Monckton was blatantly abused and ridiculed by the “impartial” senate(?) meeting, despite him offering the facts and figures of science, much of it from the IPCC, while the “scientists” merely waxed lyrical about the sea butterfly. If a person of his intellect and standing can be so treated, what hope is there for the likes of us?
Don Keiller
too right.
No doubt they'll continue to spout the same garbage wherever they end up.
I think they should be hauled back and humiliated at a bare minimum when (to use another zoological metaphor) their effin mutant chickens come home to roost
Don't give up, Oddnojob, the pols equate silence with acquiescence. These days they're all MUCH younger than me, so I can (and do) write and highlight their stupidity from the lofty and condescending heights of been there / done it / seen it / got the T-shirt old age.
Someone in this House once said that humour and ridicule were our most effective weapons.
They were right.
Having joyfully promoted the industrialisation of the landscape in my county and rebuffed my letters that attempted to acquaint him with the facts, my MP now agrees with me, at least to the extent that the county has more than it's fair share of wind turbines and can take no more.
My last communication to him was a copy of the UKIP energy policy paper to which, unsurprisingly,so far I have had no reply.
The success today of Farage and his party through the ballot box has made all of Westminster sit up and take notice, although they are attempting to cover their shagrin with bravado as they attack the messenger, whilst waiting for instruction from the same old policy wonks that got them into trouble in the first place.
Next year it will be the EU elections when the electorate will be smarting from further increased energy bills and UKIP can be given another lift in the polls and consolidation in popularity.
Then we shall see in 2015 whether the protest vote was just that, or whether indeed the mould has been broken.
One thing is for sure - my useful idiot will certainly not be returned, and i will be pleased at that.
Oddnojob- I have written to my MP. Dr. Julian Huppert on at least 5 occasions.
The man is a blinkered muppet.
I have written to my MP Jeremy Browne (ld) with a list of questions and had a reply which did not answer any of the questions but raised several red herrings as i told him in a subsequent letter! I also told him that while I did not expect a reply but i did hope that he would consider the facts and not the green propaganda
I only expect yet another anodyne letter probably with an enclosure from the DECC again
There comes a point when you get tired of the squIshy noise of banging your head against a wall!
I have written my MP, a totally useless Labour man called Alan Whitehead (Southampton Test). He just sent a standard reply proclaiming how he was going to urge for even more extreme carbon taxes, presumably in the vain hope that this would have an impact on "global warming". He even ranted on about an 'economic study' by Cambridge Econometrics (specialists in promoting the levelised energy cot lie). Whitehead seems only interested in his consulting fees to renewable energy lobbyists and his fat retirement pension.
I took a slightly different approach with my MP when I had the opportunity of an hours one-to-one with him. I had one issue that needed a fair bit of time to discuss, so only had a few minutes to cover climate and energy issues. I asked him to promise me that he'd look up Peter Lilley, buy him a pint and ask him view on energy policy. Still waiting to hear if he kept his promise.
Oddnojob
I often write to myMP about our farcical energy policy. Usually I get a cut and paste letter back from some junior minister at DECC. Despite my MP being a minister in the Business Dept, she doesn't seem to get why expensive energy will be a problem. As a LibDem MP she also claims to know little about energy policy, despite it being a core part of their manifesto.
Indeed, writing to my MP is quite depressing as it reveals a complete lack of awareness of the issues. It still has to be done though.
" thanks for everything you have done" and i hope the door gives you an almighty whack on the ass as you leave.
@oddnojob
My MP - a cabinet minister - just sends me back standard DECC waffle. I accept that he has other responsibilities as well as representing his constituents,,,,but it should be 'as well as', not 'instead of'.
PS Where are the BH secret meetings held? The ones I've been to have been widely advertised and open to all.
They have got out before vermin exterminator turns up.
The good news , there are plenty left whose feet should be held to the fire when that day comes.
Oddnojob:
I have three parliamentary representatives: an MP (LibDem), an MSP (SNP) and an MEP (Con). I have written to them numerous times over the years but they take no notice. To be fair to my MEP, he campaigns against wind turbines but he still sticks to the party line on the Tory/EU emissions reduction targets. The other two are stuck in their man-made global warming hypothesis. It is strange how the more left-leaning politicians are the most supportive of the most socially damaging energy policies. I have saved all my correspondence with them and hope to call them to account on this eventually.
People joke about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. It looks as if the DECC chairs in Whitehall are also being rearranged!
James Evans, as a UKIP party member with a keen interest in Energy, I would like to thank you and everyone else for voting for the party.
I hope we can do enough to merit that support.
PS. Just read all the comments from people writing to MPs and getting cut and paste relies. And yes, I've had exactly the same problem myself. Apart from getting into government, I would welcome any ideas of how UKIP could help.
Oddnojob
It appears the best way to write to your MP is on the voting paper. When done to the UKIP !
I have written to my MP, made two personal presentations to him, and made submissions to government. But all in New Zealand of course, which is where I live. I think I even managed to help keep incandescent lamps on the shop shelves.
Forget about letters to your MPs, MEPs local councillors or, if you live in Scotland.. MSPs. With all but a few exceptions they'll duck the questions that you ask.
They'll claim that they were acting under orders and, when the fecal matter invokes the public anger, they'll point the finger of blame at anyone but themselves with the most likely miscreants being Scientific Consensualists.
That most of them will retain their tenure of pension despite their faux democratic posturings and gross dereliction of duty is a near certainty that will indelibly stain and polllute any of the good that has been fought for in the past.
History is written by the Victors but when the Victory is pyrrhic with a price of mass-industrialisation, national-poverty and an overwhelming sense of despair from our young then where is the Victory?
'We will save the Planet from the failure called mankind' is admirable.
To avoid the debate that the Planet is not under threat from Mankind is disgusting
Pretending that Ya-Boo juvenile catcalling in Parliament merits a reward from the public purse is delusional bordering on the fraudulent
Accepting the deaths, family break-ups, bankruptcy, increased unemployment and national impoverishment as being a reasonable price of one 'doing the right thing' is, at best, a form of smug psychopathy!
Get an effing grip and grow some balls!
oddjob: I wrote to DECC a few weeks ago, I like to think my note might have triggered the rush for the door:
"Dear Mr. Davey,
Please excuse me writing to you directly, but I can’t find the answer to my question anywhere. As background, recent statements of impending energy shortfalls emanating from people within the energy generating community led me to take a look at the Climate Change Act. During the course of my investigations I discovered that the drafting of the act had been led by, a Ms. Byrony Worthington, who I discovered was an English Graduate and climate change activist, which, at first blush, made her singularly under qualified to put such an important and far reaching act together. So I assumed that she had been helped by industry experts who had underwritten the feasibility of what was proposed in the Act. (After decades planning and running engineering projects I can tell you with 100% certainty that any project that isn’t costed and planned by engineers responsible for delivering it will be wildly optimistic in both costs and timescales).
With this in mind I read the CCA (which, oddly, makes a special mention of non-reusable plastic bags) and wrote to DECC and asked for the names of the engineers who had contributed to the development of the CCA and helped, the then, Ms. Worthington, put together an act that could feasibly be implemented.
DECC responded that over 17,000 people had contributed to the discussion. Which, given that by her own admission, Ms. Worthington had put the Act together with the help of seven others in 12 weeks, I suspect very few of the contributions were considered. I still couldn’t believe that this act, with its swingeing targets for the reduction of CO2 output in the UK had gone into the statute books without engineering sign off. So I took another punt and asked DECC who was responsible for the plans to get from where we are now, to where the Act wants us to be in 2020. The response was that this was the responsibility of the energy generation companies.
I can’t find anyone who actually has built the route map, done the detailed engineering plans and produced engineering costs and timescales. There should be a programme office working with the various energy generation companies co-ordinating their activities, building project plans and putting delivery dates together working now if there is any hope for delivery of the Act’s targets without sustained power cuts.
My question to you Mr. Davey is there anyone pulling all this together with the energy generation companies who will deliver these stringent targets by 2020? There must be mustn’t there?
Best regards,
Gerry
PS. I notice that your department has put on line the purported savings in electricity costs for the average consumer should they buy condensing boilers, insulate their lofts, and avail themselves of any number of new appliances that save electricity. Does anyone know how much the increased energy costs to the government departments, local government departments, retail, manufacturing, transport and other sectors of our economy would add to the weekly bills of the voters? As it stands it is a gross misrepresentation of the costs that will have to be borne by the people of this country in a futile attempt to try to shame the Chinese, Indians, Brazilians and other developing countries to drop the use of fossil fuels and leave their people in poverty. They’re not going to do it, and China, alone, puts out the entire annual output of CO2 from the UK every 25 days. We have put in place an act that binds us to raising our energy prices with the full knowledge that it will have not the slightest effect on the level of global emissions of CO2 to show the Chinese and others that we hold the moral high ground? Have we gone mad?"
They have responded, there is no plan and nobody is responsible for delivery of the targets.
"History is written by the Victors but when the Victory is pyrrhic with a price of mass-industrialisation, national-poverty and an overwhelming sense of despair from our young then where is the Victory?"
Not sure of that RoyFOMR
I would have thought that mass-industrialisation would not lead to national poverty. I guess you mean the opposite.
I have been out canvassing recently and virtually no-one I came across believes in CAGW and they all hate wind turbines; they either get extremely angry about it or fall about laughing at the ludicrous idea. I shall pass this info on to my MP and MEPs. UKIP managed to win one seat in Wiltshire, but pulled in a high number of votes considering they did not produce campaign leaflets, nor did they bother going out canvassing, at least in my area.
James Evans,
That is succinct and all that is needed in a letter to your MP.
You don't need to spend hundreds of words trying to convince them that climate alarmism is bunk and energy policy is flawed. You only need to convince them they might lose their seat.
And..........on the road to unilateral industrial suicide.......................
Why do we allow politics to interfere with something as vital as energy security?
Energy and defence, the most vital of government ministries, yet - in the department of energy the morons running it - have completely lost the plot.
Brearley and Ravi Gurumurthy - blumin' eck - just what do they bring to the table - it certainly isn't engineering nor energy expertise is it?
Strewth, in the big departments, particularly energy we are being run by morons and advocates who just haven't the faintest clue - no wonder British energy policy is up the creek without a paddle and with no idea how to navigate.
Where are the engineers?
What has climate change got to do with energy provision and security and on whose orders were they combined - I think we have to look to Blair's administration for the implementation - of that idiocy [energy and climate change].
S##t creek, up it - we are.
Oddnojob posed a question on writing to your MP. The answers commenter gave are the real ones, sadly. It is even more useless writing to your Deputé in france.
A little off topic, but well done Nigel Farage, and UKIP. Maybe the tide is about to turn. We can only hope.
May 3, 2013 at 5:54 PM | Unregistered CommenterOld Goat
The solution may be there for the brits. Vote UKIP. Yes I realise that they are incapable of governing the country BUT could they do more damage than the current 3 parties you have ? I doubt it. As long as someone is prepared to listen and learn they will not remain a fool for too long.
@Latimer
The meetings aren’t secret if you know which door to knock on, and you obviously do know, and this one is clearly labelled.
The best secret meetings are the ones the authorities don’t care about, thinking that they could not be a threat. A bit like the UKIP meetings, I suppose…
Oddnojob
Like others here, I have a huge pile of letters sent to my MP on the CAGW scam and related issues. I do get replies, even including replies from DECC signed by (the late ex MP) Chris Huhne. He has gone so far as to acknowledge that the CAGW hypothesis is "controversial" but his default line of defence is to fall back on the scientific advice offered by the government`s chief scientific advisor. It will be interesting to see what difference the new one will make. I still think it is worth writing considered and well-argued letters to MPs, even if they do not like to receive them. Perhaps the success of UKIP will persuade them to put 2 + 2 together and work out that the answer is 4. There is nothing like the prospect of the loss of office and preferment to concentrate the political mind.
Re DECC personnel moves, I recall that the then Permanent Secretary left somewhat abruptly last year. That was never explained as far as I am aware.