Bishop Hill Hague's chosen fruitloop
Mar 19, 2015 Conservatives Greens While he was in post as Special Adviser on Climate Change at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, John Ashton kept a relatively low profile. For someone of such (how to put this politely?) eccentric views, this was probably a wise move, and helpful to his boss, William Hague.
However, Ashton has now moved on, and is positively flaunting his intellectual weirdness. Just take a look at the diatribe he launched at the head of Shell recently:
There is a touch of narcissism in the story of your face.
The paranoiac fears conspiracies that do not exist. You fear a non-existent conspiracy to bring about your sudden death.
There is a touch of paranoia in the story of your face.
The psychopath displays inflated self-appraisal, lack of empathy, and a tendency to squash those who block the way.
...
The high carbon, resource-profligate modernity you helped build is a new Babylon. Every bite from its fruit poisons the tree from which we pluck it.
King Belshazzar of Babylon plundered goblets of gold from the Temple of Solomon. We take our plunder from an ecological fabric we no longer recognize as our first Temple. But if it crumbles we die both in body and in spirit.
I could go on; there's much more in the same vein. It's actually rather scary.
How on earth did the Conservative party end up thinking that this man should be a top adviser to the government?
Reader Comments (57)
Ashton,s looking around for another cosy position as his benefactor William Hague is standing down at the next election.
Even the US State Department are aware of William Hague and friends
from the link -
"For a leader in the oil and gas industry to call for continued dependence on oil and gas will sound to most like special pleading. Unless you acknowledge this, what you say won’t be truly heard."
to be polite - what is this man drinking !! the rest is not even worth calling doggerel.
another example of how deep this maddness/obssesion has taken root & the roots are rotten.
I read his speech, It is a rant. I am sure Ben van Beurden could reasonably be accused of being 2 faced ... but seriously ... this diatribe from a UK government advisor !!!! It's embarassing.
Often, some have to go over the cliff for the rest of the herd to pause. The Fat Lady hasn't even put on weight yet, let alone her clothes or her pipes.
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"How on earth did the Conservative party end up thinking that this man should be a top adviser to the government?" No doubt for similar reasons to the Labour Party who first appointed him under the dreadful Margaret Beckett. William Hague, (Cameron), decided to keep him on.
The FCO and climate change: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmfaff/665/66507.htm
"Tackling climate change became an official FCO priority in 2006, when Rt Hon Margaret Beckett MP moved from the Department of the Environment to become Foreign Secretary. She appointed John Ashton as her Special Representative for the issue. Mr Ashton was originally an FCO official, who was granted leave of absence from the department in 2002 to found the environmental NGO E3G, and was then seconded back into the FCO to take up the Special Representative role. Mr Ashton has been retained in post by both of Mrs Beckett's successors as Foreign Secretary, David Miliband and—following the 2010 change of Government—William Hague. Mr Ashton has the personal title of Ambassador, and has direct access to the Foreign Secretary and is able to speak for him with interlocutors across Whitehall and overseas."
Ashton was a founding member of the Climate Care offsetting group, used in the past by David Cameron. It was later sold to JP Morgan. http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/printable/3788/
"Is carbon-offsetting just eco-enslavement?" Spiked-online 2007
"In offsetting his flights by sponsoring ‘eco-friendly’ hard labour in India, David Cameron has exposed the essence of environmentalism. Welcome to the era of eco-enslavement. The details of this carbon-offsetting scheme are disturbing. Cameron offsets his flights by donating to Climate Care."
At that time, the steering committee of Climate Care was:
Sir Crispin Tickell (Chair) (Yes, him again)
David Aeron-Thomas (Forum for the Future)
Kirsty Clough (WWF)
John Ashton (Foreign Secretary's Special Representative for Climate Change) Govt. "Climate Change Czar" and UK envoy to UN on Climate Change/Global Warming.
Dr. Steve Cobb (Climate Care Ltd and Environment and Development Group)
As Hilary mentions, (and has covered on her site, https://hro001.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/the-unsustainability-of-all-climate-all-the-time/), Ashton was a major player at E3G, the QGO (Quasi-Governmental Organisation) he founded with Tom Burke and Nick Mabey, (WWF). Note this sentence from the parliament report above: "Mr Ashton was originally an FCO official, who was granted leave of absence from the department in 2002 to found the environmental NGO E3G, and was then seconded back into the FCO to take up the Special Representative role"
The classic revolving door.
Tom Burke is an Associate Director at Gummer/Deben's Sancroft International and was a previous adviser to Gummer when he was Environment Secretary. http://sancroft.com/who-we-are/associate-directors/tom-burke-cbe/
Ashton is another Grantham team member, as "Distinguished Policy Fellow at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College", http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/profile/john-ashton/
He has a long government history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ashton_%28diplomat%29
"From 1993-7, John Ashton was seconded to the Hong Kong Government as Deputy Political Adviser to Governor Chris Patten, dealing with matters relating to Hong Kong's transition to Chinese sovereignty. He was closely involved in all major dealings between the UK and China concerning Hong Kong. During this period, his interest in the environment drew him towards the diplomacy of global climate change. In 1998 he became Head of Environment, Science and Energy Department (ESED) in the FCO; which he then took the initiative in 2000 to restructure as Environment Policy Department (EPD) in 2000."
Don't dismiss him lightly, he has lots of influence and has been on the UK negotiating team for several COPS, including Copenhagen and Cancun. He will undoubtedly be at Paris.
Dennis, thanks for that.
Perhaps things are different in the UK, but at least recently when I worked for the Australian Public Service (APS), the notion that you would be granted leave without pay (ensuring continuity of service for superannuation and other benefits) to found an NGO with the express purpose of lobbying your agency's portfolio would have been dismissed out of hand as completely unethical.
I'm not saying the APS is perfect, or anything like it. Plenty of skeletons in closets. But, this would have been a bridge too far. It would have been raised in Senate Estimates and publicised in the remaining serious media for sure.
What has happened to the Civil Service, once a role model, even in the Sir Humphrey sense?