Prat watch #6: My coup runneth over

Courtesy of the ever-helpful NZ Climate “Science” Coalition — you know, the guys who take money from American think tanks and found “charities” to sue scientists — I stumble on a remarkable exposition of the world view to which they subscribe. Apparently, “Climate criminals almost took control of the whole world by deception, a grand fraud. Money has changed hands on a vast scale due to a bunch of easily-dispelled untruths.” Really? Here’s another sample:

The supporters of the theory of manmade global warming are […] an intellectual upper class of wordsmiths, who regulate and pontificate rather than produce real stuff. There is little demand in the economy for their skills, so they would command only modest rewards for their labor in the marketplace. Arguably they are a class of parasites enriching themselves at the expense of producers, because they are rewarded out of proportion to the value they create—value as determined not by themselves, but by voluntary transactions in the marketplace.

Yes folks, those of us who would like some meaningful action on climate change are the “regulating class” according to a penetrating new analysis by Australian denialist Dr David Evans. And we’re bent on world domination…

Evans’ report, Climate Coup – The Politics, is a follow-up to his earlier Climate Coup – The Science [PDF], which purports to destroy the scientific case for action to reduce carbon emissions. It does no such thing, of course1, but it sets the stage for Evans’ political argument2. And what an argument! Here’s Evans on the UN climate conference in Copenhagen in 2009:

Never in the field of human administration would so much power have been transferred by so many to so few. This was a narrowly averted global coup, an attempt to seize a great deal of power by stealth without the knowledge or explicit consent of the world’s people. It can only have been kept silent with the active support of the world’s media.

Positively Moncktonian, that analysis, and just as barmy. Here’s his array of the forces lined up in the argument:

Believers: UN (including the IPCC), Western governments, major banks and finance houses, NGO’s and Greenies, totalitarian leftists, government-funded scientists, academia, renewables corporations, mainstream news media

Doubters: Independently-funded scientists, private sector middle class, amateurs (from amore , the Latin for love)

How strange that he couldn’t find room in his list of doubters for the big oil companies that did so much to kick start the campaign against action on climate change, or the mining companies that funded so much of the opposition to Australia’s emissions legislation. He finds no place to mention the Murdoch media, always keen to present the “doubters” views3, or to ruminate on Fox News in the USA.

In the end, Evans assures us, everything’s going to be all right:

While there will be warming due to our emissions of CO2, the climate models exaggerate and the warming will only be mild. In the tropics it will have almost no effect, while elsewhere it will be equivalent to moving a few tens of kilometers closer to the equator. There are much larger natural forces on our climate at play, and it is they and not our puny CO2 that drives the planet’s temperature.

There’s no danger from warming, only from “the grab for absolute power by those who already govern [and] have grown tired of democracy and would like to do away with it.”

The whole thing is, of course, risible4, but I think it should be taken at least slightly seriously as an example of a worldview common amongst those who do not believe in the need for action on climate change. Worldview is an important determinant of attitudes and how facts are evaluated, but when it is as extreme and as divorced from reality as that portrayed by Evans, then there can be little hope of any constructive dialogue. There is no “debate” to be had with a propagandising ideologue, however much they might clamour for one.

[Perry Como]

  1. It’s composed mainly of misdirection, misrepresentation and cherry-picking: I leave it as an exercise for the reader to spot the flaws. [↩]
  2. One wonders if they would not be better presented the other way round, because it would seem likely that politics is driving his view of the science. [↩]
  3. For a recent example, see this piece by Neil Perry at The Conversation. But then what else would Evans expect from “academia”… [↩]
  4. Which is exactly what Evans would suggest I would say. [↩]

53 thoughts on “Prat watch #6: My coup runneth over”

  1. “risible” is indeed the word to describe that sort of garbage.

    That last quote is just so much hogwash it would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious. Ultimately, these people will have the blood of millions of people on their hands, and they will be seen as the quislings and charlatans that they are, but by then it will be too late; if it is not already.

  2. Isn’t this buffoon Mr. Jo Nova?

    It shows.

    Here’s some unmitigated tosh from one of her recent ‘posts’ – since technically I suppose we must call them that –

    Scoff scoff scoff. There is no global conspiracy to get One World Government. If there was, the leaders would have sent a memo to Bob Brown to be quiet, to Scientific American to rephrase the agenda, and to Richard Black to stay out of group photos at socialist events. So there is no central command, no invisible patriarch who pulls all the strings. But clearly there is a whole class of people who “know” what you need better than you do, and they know you need more governing. The regulating class. Shhhh.

    In yet another highly reasonable piece entitled ‘The new world order – Black, Brown, and Soviet-red all over.’

    Comment number 1:

    I don’t agree with your argument that, because people are allowed to talk about a conspiracy, it doesn’t exist. I think the agents of the New World Order have become so arrogant and sure of themselves they don’t even care if people know. Remember that the NWO use to suppress people who talked about One World Government now they don’t even bother because it’s all over the internet. I think stage 1 (secrecy) is finished now it’s stage 2 (open advocacy). Just my two cents

    If you believe any of this crap you are, quite simply, an idiot. There is no reasoning with you, as there is no reason in you.

    These ludicrous claims are becoming more and more histrionic, hyperbolic and simply bizarre as time goes on as these meringues whip themselves into a veritable frenzy of paranoiac ideation, particularly as the planet has a nasty habit of not subscribing to their pet theories.

    And these are actually the ‘ideas’ of a very substantial segment of Denial. If not the majority.

    God knows what we’re going to do with you all…

  3. It’s interesting to draw parallels between the UNs plans at Copenhagen (laid out in the treaty for those that care to read it) and those of the EU, a project that has been in conception since the 1920s

    1. Betraying your inner Monckton, Andy? Happy to misrepresent governance as government…

      No-one can know what the final shape of a Copenhagen Treaty might have been, because there are so many unfinalised/open elements in the docs, and no telling where negotiations might have led.

      1. I’ve heard an analogy that the difference between global governance and global government is like the difference between rape and date rape.

        We may all start with good intentions, but things don’t always work out the way you want them to.

        Hayek covered most of the points years ago in The Road to Serfdom

        1. ‘Rape and ‘date rape’? What the? What would Dr. Freud make of you, Andy?

          Yes, I remember well the absolute socialist tyranny the British Labour Party established, as Saint Friedrich predicted, don’t you?

          Oh, that’s right, in looking glass world that actually happened, didn’t it? Just like the EU is currently disappearing dissidents to secret Hungarian prisons and torturing them by feeding them pork fat 3 times a day (Monckton).

          The Wind Lobby is a major player in global politics. The Regulating Class has an agenda to establish a global Marxist dictatorship, and Obama is willing to sign on to this. The world’s gold bars have been found to be impregnated with tungsten, and this is part of the conspiracy (Jo Nova). The very term ‘conspiracy theory’ is a ploy utilised to prevent the masses from understanding the depths of the conspiracy (Jo Nova).

          Oh, and Obama’s birth certificate is a fake.

          You really are a card carrying Libertarian loon, aren’t you, Andy?

          And, dear lurker reader, this is exactly who these people are.

          (Cue ‘I never said Obama’s birth certificate is a fake’ in 10, 9, 8. 7… )

          2. If you’ve been keeping up with the news Bill, you’ll know that the UK is introducing a law that allows it to monitor every single phone call, text message and email that every person in the country makes.

            This is actually part of an EU directive.

            Furthermore, the UK recently sent someone to jail for 8 weeks for making a “racist” comment on Twitter

            1. and in Athens, a 77 year old retired pharmacist has just blown his brains out in front of the Greek Parliament.
              I’ll spare you the links, but this is what the glorious EU superstate has brought us to.

            2. Is this the same andyS who got in a huff when I described NIMBYs as NIMBYs
              http://hot-topic.co.nz/well-surpass-government-forecast-says-wind-energy-association/#comment-29108
              but now affronted that some one has a custodial sentence for racist tweets?
              And why the quotes round racist andyS, do you not regard repeated race based hate speech (directed at someone having a heart attack in the middle of a football stadium with a live TV audience for good measure) as racist?
              As for the “UK is introducing a law”, well about to start debating a bill – with one coalition party adamantly against, and the monitoring would be the communication taking place not the content, metadata if you like. andyS are you getting your news and opinion from the Mail again.
              I think you are a Twit.

            3. Beaker April 6, 2012 at 7:03 pm

              It is always such a delight to receive content-free abuse from the terminally talentless Beaker, a resident subsidy farmer of the good old UK.
              A representative of the wind “industry” who chooses to use an internet handle named after a muppet

              Such a perfect specimen you are Beaker.

            4. I wasn’t going to bother since I assume no-one takes him seriously, but since he’s going to go on at others about their lack of credibility again, here goes –

              The actual EU directive regarding such matters was in 2009.

              I’ll let the BBC explain –

              Internet service providers (ISPs) are obliged to keep details of users’ web access, email and internet phone calls for 12 months, under an EU directive from 2009.

              Although the content of the calls is not kept, the sender, recipient, time of communication and geographical location does have to be recorded.

              The proposed new law – which the Home Office says will be brought in “as soon as parliamentary time allows” – would extend those requirements to social networking sites and internet phone services such as Skype.

              It would also reportedly allow intelligence officers to access emails, calls and texts as they happen, without a warrant, rather than retrospectively – and would tighten up the rules around exactly what data ISPs must keep.

              I.e. ‘Call Me Dave’, very much the Rightist, last time I checked, has come up with this proposal to allow extended record-keeping and warrantless snooping on the contents of private emails all by himself.

              So the score reads, yet again: Reality 1, andyS 0.

              As for exploiting the desperation of some poor bastard in Greece for the purposes of advancing an agenda of paranoiac drivel I make no further comment,

          3. I really must apologise – how could I have failed to mention Agenda 21? And the Nazis were left wing! The recent Planet Under Pressure conference was just like a Nuremberg rally but minus the air force flood lights. The WWF runs just about everything, including Prince Charles. Greens are killing more people than Hitler! (This is so patently ridiculous and distasteful I’m going to put in the link yet again – guess who to? – just so you don’t think I’m making it up.) Greenpeace is an active collaborator with the UN in establishing a New World Order.

            And George Soros!!!!!!!

            There really is nothing so mind-numbingly stupid or offensive that this bunch will not cling desperately to it like deranged political bag-ladies.

            2. We agree on something, andy.

              By the time Agenda 21, or Local Agenda 21 (‘LA21’) as it is known here in SA, made it through to my local-government it was as dull, as innocuous, and as inoffensive as every other ‘let’s all be nice to each other and do nice things (WARNING: Not a Guarantee)’ initiative.

              Christ, in the US, W’s dad signed on to it. Is he part of the conspiracy?

              Hence it’s pretty hard to understand this. And this. And this.

              I could go on.

            3. Watts’ World:

              Well, the rent-seekers, money-hungry NGOs, grifters, post-normal “scientists”, con-men, Eurotrash, Ameritrash, and the usual camp followers are gearing up again for another monumental waste of money. This time, it’s for the upcoming extravagarbonza, the new Rio+20 Climate Carnival.

              That’s from the last link. While most of this language is par for the course at both The Weatherman’s and in Denial in general, you may not be so familiar with ‘Ameritrash’ as standard WingNut abuse.

              Well, there’s a story to that, and you might be interested to know that this is how it got in there:

              comment #3

              Alex says:
              February 26, 2012 at 7:26 am

              Eurotrash? Please clean up your rants a bit next time, nobody likes the un or the eu except those who get their money from them but there is no need to call people eurotrash.

              [Reply: Corrected to add “Ameritrash”. It refers to a totalitarian subset, not to the entire population of either the EU or the U.S. ~dbs, mod.]

              Classy.

              And this is ‘the best science site on the internet’, according to many of its camp followers. 2 times winner of the ‘Best Science Blog’. While you can’t vote for the Laws of Physics, you sure can turn the world on its head with an internet poll…

        2. I thought humanities success on the ladder of the grand evolution game came from our ability to act for the greater good of the clan (which in times of a 7 billion people clan means the planetary tribe) instead of focusing on the enrichment of the individual.

          But perhaps during the blissful exuberance of the exponential growth curve during the last century, when individual riches and power grew to unfathomable scales for some and when our economic theories turned into cornucopian wetdreameries the social gene has become recessive in many. AndyS and his libertarian compadres are likely on the slippery devolutionary slide towards our anarchic pre-civilatory distant past….

  4. Another of Evans’ contributions examined.

    I’ve said it before; I’ll say it again: you can tell a lot about a movement by examining the calibre of persons it raises to prominence.

    And it’s also a sad reflection on the state of scientific awareness in our supposedly post-Enlightenment society that anyone needs to devote any time at all to refuting such patent tosh. Let alone having to debunk the same old zombie memes over and over and over…

  5. So, Monckton is not just a pathological liar, but a rabble-rousing demagogic liar to boot.

    :Monckton; “Now we are met on the great battlefield of a new civil war, and the greatest part of that battlefield is the global warming battle. Now I know that in American-speak you have a word for global warming. Can someone tell me what it is?”

    Crowd: “Bullshit!”

    Monckton: “Now look here. Barack Hussein Obama has just flown over in Marine One and landed on the White House lawn. He is now hiding behind the drapes in the Oval Office. He cannot hear you. Global warming is..?”

    Crowd: “BULLSHIT!”

    Monckton: “That’s better. I think he heard that one.”

    This is from the 2011 BBC film “Meet the Climate Sceptics”; also quoted in Otto, “Fool Me Twice”

      1. Thomas
        Perhaps you’d like to share you thoughts on the Greek man who blew his brains out on the steps of the Greek parliament this week.
        Was this a failure of “capitalism”, or perhaps something to do with the austerity measures being forced in the Greek people by the authoritarian EU who have managed to stuff the Greek economy by flooding it with cheap German credit?

        Perhaps the pictures of Angela Merkel in the Greek papers, photoshopped to wear an SS uniform, might give you a clue about how the Greeks feel about it.

        This isn’t an outlier of course. The suicide rates in Greece are up over 20% in the last year.

        Not only Greece, but in Italy last week, a professional man set himself alight outside a tax office.

        This is of course all bad enough, but the parasite classes continue to gorge themselves by paying themselves out massive bonuses and benefits. Oh and supporting their crony capitalism friends through generous government subsidies.

        1. Bill above said pretty much all that you AndyS need to consider.

          Capitalism is a Ponzi scheme as soon as it runs into natural bounds for further growth. At this point the “cake” is no longer growing and just like the proverbial Ponzi schemes its musical chairs for the players… Meanwhile the Uberclass of the super rich are wallowing in riches that are simply incomprehensible to the poor man on the street. Take a walk down the super yacht lane…
          https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=superyachts&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=65OAT7LBD6eZiQfu7MDPBA&sqi=2&ved=0CFIQsAQ&biw=1128&bih=524

      2. Of course it was a failure of Capitalism!

        Get it through your head; the GFC was a failure of Capitalism. Not of the EU, not of WarmoMarxism, not of the Hadley Centre, or Al Gore or Jim Hansen, or The Greens, or Welfare Mothers, or some housing law Jimmy Carter passed, or whichever other contempt fetish you wish to hold surreally responsible – the Free Enterprise™ System overheated and then exploded, as it always does and always will, though within months the WSJ will doubtlessly be proclaiming uninterrupted prosperity for all forever again and pooh-poohing the notion that the bubble du jour could ever burst.

        And instead of immediately donning your tinfoil hat try googling ‘Greek crisis Goldman Sachs’ some time. Then calculate how Goldman is doing now compared to all the poor buggers in Greece.

        That’s Capitalism!

        The EU is now doing exactly what the IMF has always done. Propping up Capitalism. Because the number one function of every nation-state in the world, inside or outside the EU, is to pay its debts to the global financial system.

        That’s Capitalism. It’s the rules.

        You may remember that the Social!st Prime Minister of Greece tried to organise a referendum on whether they should actually pay the debt, and guess what happened to him? And the proposed referendum?

        1. Nothing to do with the fiscal structure of the EU single currency then? Nothing to do with the flood of cheap German credit?
          Nothing to do with the fact that Greece is full of corrupt politicians and a public sector that is over 50% of the economy?

          It’s all “capitalisms” fault

          Simple. Just wave the flag, sing the song, have a group hug.
          .
          The free trade of services and goods is to blame for everything.
          Replacing it with a top-heavy authoritarian government, full of overfed parasites who jet around the world to “climate change” conferences, whilst the productive sector shoot themselves in broad daylight.

          1. So you are saying: We should not allow the free trade of financial services such as credits, have tight political controls on the credit expansion and the actions of the mega wealthy and powerful finance houses such as Goldman Sachs et.al. Plus tight political controls on corrupt officials? I actually agree with you!

            Meanwhile I suggest you scold the Germans for (1) lending money to Greece when they asked for it in the past and (2) now bailing them out for it at taxpayers expense while you call them Nazis and stand on a box somewhere in an East Berlin suburb waving a Greek flag…. Perhaps the public reaction you might get will readjust your neurons a tad.

            1. The Goldman guys you refer to are actually in control of Europe right now. The puppet governments of Greece and Italy are actually both run by Goldman guys.
              Maybe you are right, we actually might have more in common than you think.

              My view is that the left/right paradigms are old school. What we have now is a socialist/corporatist model where the big government/big corporate model are feeding off each other. If you are in with this crowd, you are “above the line”. Those not are “below the line”.

            2. It’s like the whole Tea Party thing; they’ve got so far as to have worked out there’s a world full of institutionalised, structural injustice out there, but somehow it’s not the people who are – literally – making out like bandits who are responsible for this!

              No, it’s all the fault of the black guy down the road. He got suckered into a sub-prime mortgage (on a ludicrously over-priced house, but one whose value could never decline again, no sirree!) by a commissioned loan-shark; that loan was then, along with a million similar loans, sliced and diced ad-infinitum by more self-serving hucksters and the resulting festering pile of poo was rated Triple A by yet more.

              And on the strength of this it was accordingly sold on to the likes of superannuation funds and local-governments that had been encouraged to buy up this gloop by the vary same hucksters who were actually simultaneously betting against their own products!

              But it’s still all the guy with the underwater mortgage’s fault! Because caveat emptor is the core of our philosophy.

              So we all sat on our hands while the govt. handed out $14 trillion to the finance houses that were too big to fail – and boy, did they know it and use it – but just you try putting any small change towards paying off some of those insane mortgages. Now, that’s unjust!

              And what do you end up with? Pity the bloody Billionaire! And 15 million turkeys who aren’t just voting for Christmas, they’re basting themselves for it!

              Is it any surprise so many of these people are also AGW deniers? The absurd inability to actually perceive real-life power relationships is identical: The guy down the road is the problem. He’s conspiring against me. An obscure 30 year old housing law is the problem. It conspires against me. The scientists are the problem. They’re conspiring against me. That wind farm over there is the problem. They’re part of it, too, and they want to make money, which is wrong if someone I don’t like is doing it! That kid on the corner in the koala suit collecting change in a bucket is the problem. He tries to look benign, but that’s part of the trick they’re all trying to play on me; really, he’s the Hitler Youth!

              To the paranoiac, authoritarian imagination they’re all possessed of a kind of demonic capacity and intent to injure, while real power is somehow simultaneously both invisible and reassuring.

            3. bill April 8, 2012 at 10:59 pm
              That wind farm over there is the problem. They’re part of it, too, and they want to make money, which is wrong if someone I don’t like is doing it!

              Making money is though honest business is good.

              Making money through government subsidies and crony capitalism that allows rent-seeking vermin to plunder the public purse and transfer wealth from the common person to to rich landowners and their corporate friends is bad.

              The latter model is, of course, ideally suited to the Solyndra’s and the UK wind “industry” etc.

            4. What we have now is a socialist/corporatist model where the big government/big corporate model are feeding off each other.

              So presumably, those oil companies bravely fighting off the myth of global warming are not part of the big corporate model, they’re just poor little 99%ers trying to make their way in the world?

            5. CTG April 10, 2012 at 7:49 am

              So presumably, those oil companies bravely fighting off the myth of global warming are not part of the big corporate model, they’re just poor little 99%ers trying to make their way in the world?

              The last time I checked, the big oil companies were very much part of the corporate world, and also happily funding climate science projects and research into alternative energy.
              They’ll go wherever the money takes them.

            6. Andy, read some history. You just don’t get it.

              ‘Making money through government subsidies’ and ‘crony capitalism’ that allows ‘rent-seeking vermin to plunder the public purse and transfer wealth from the common person to [the] rich… and their corporate friends’ is Capitalism.

              Not some aberration of an otherwise pure entity. The thing itself. How did the rich nations get to be rich? How did the mega-corporations get built?

              The whole ‘Free Enterprise™’ thing is just marketing schtick designed to baffle the suckers into holding relatively still while you empty their pockets.

              Here’s someone who gets it – the daughter of that poor Greek guy who killed himself, rhetorically addressing him at his funeral:

              Emi Christoulas: “You found it unacceptable that they were killing our freedom, our democracy, our dignity. You found it unacceptable as they tightened the harsh noose of economic austerity and apartheid around us, to the unacceptable act of surrendering our independence and the keys to the country. It was unacceptable to you that Greece did not acknowledge its children, and its children did not recognize their own country. You found the bestiality of capitalism unacceptable, that it infiltrated our lives, and no one tried to stop it. Then, you made your decision: to become the fear, the death, the memory, the sorrow of our ruined lives.”

              You, on the other hand, apparently find ‘the bestiality of capitalism’ perfectly acceptable, except, for some reason, when people you don’t like are doing it. This is not consistent.

            7. bill April 10, 2012 at 1:11 pm

              Great, so you agree that subsidising wind energy is capitalism and therefore evil.

              Perhaps you could explain what kind of socialist nirvana you envisage, and give me some examples where this has been successful in the past.

            8. The last time I checked, the big oil companies were very much part of the corporate world

              See, this is where I lose the plot with conspiracy theories. So you are saying that oil companies are part of the secret corporatist plot that invented global warming, which will in turn destroy the oil companies. Eh?

            9. CTG April 10, 2012 at 7:04 pm

              See, this is where I lose the plot with conspiracy theories. So you are saying that oil companies are part of the secret corporatist plot that invented global warming, which will in turn destroy the oil companies. Eh?

              Which conspiracy theories are these CTG? The ones in your fertile imagination where “big oil’ are funding “deniers” to derail “action on climate change”?

              Nope, I never said any of that stuff.

            10. If you are in with this crowd, you are “above the line”. Those not are “below the line”.

              You’re saying that’s not a conspiracy theory? Oh, my mistake. Silly me. Yes, now I see that was a cool, rational explanation of how the world works, not the ravings of some lunatic. That bit about “puppet governments” – yup, more rational analysis. No one could ever mistake andyS for a conspiracy theorist – he just tells it like it is.

            11. CTG April 10, 2012 at 10:00 pm

              If you are in with this crowd, you are “above the line”. Those not are “below the line”.

              You’re saying that’s not a conspiracy theory? Oh, my mistake. Silly me. Yes, now I see that was a cool, rational explanation of how the world works, not the ravings of some lunatic. That bit about “puppet governments” – yup, more rational analysis. No one could ever mistake andyS for a conspiracy theorist – he just tells it like it is.

              That is my world view, at least one heavily influenced by the blogs I read. It is not a conspiracy theory, it is a way of viewing the world through a particular lens.

              Puppet governments in Europe. Yes of course the ousted Presidents of Greece and Italy were placed there by the EU in order to implement the austerity measures on their behalf.
              This is a simple rational explanation ,and the term “puppet government” seems reasonable to me, when it is clearly not in the best wishes of the people there, who are shooting themselves, burning themselves to death, and bombing government offices.

              If my rational view of the world, based on my observations of the news, is the ramblings of a rabid conspiracy theorist, then I’d be delighted to hear your interpretation of this glorious mess.

  6. Since we’re on Monckton, rabbles and demagoguery:

    Wendy Carlisle: The day Julia Gillard secured the support of the independents and the Greens for the carbon tax, Lord Monckton fronted another rally in Sydney’s Hyde Park. Someone had hoisted an Australian flag and the banners read, ‘No Carbon Tax’. There was the ‘Ditch the Witch’ image: Julia Gillard on a broomstick. The rally had been organised by a group called nocarbontax.com. The Galileo Movement’s Malcolm Roberts told the crowd that the ABC was out to silence Lord Monckton.

    Malcolm Roberts [sound from the rally]: Why is the ABC avoiding him? And that’s your money going to spend on the ABC.

    Man in crowd [sound from the rally]: Sell the bloody thing!

    Malcolm Roberts [sound from the rally]: Why are they afraid? Because it’s controlled and underneath control there is fear; fear that you will think.

    Lord Christopher Monckton [sound from the rally]: So they thought that they could silence me by trying to pull the plug.

    Wendy Carlisle: Lord Monckton said his treatment by protest groups like GetUp!, the clubs that had cancelled his appearances, and the ABC, were an attack on his free speech.

    Lord Christopher Monckton [sound from the rally]: Will we let them?

    Crowd [sound from the rally]: No!

    Lord Christopher Monckton [sound from the rally]: Will we let them?

    Crowd [sound from the rally]: No!

    Lord Christopher Monckton [sound from the rally]: Will we let them?

    Crowd [sound from the rally]: No! Mongrels!

    Lord Christopher Monckton [sound from the rally]: What we have here is naked, left-wing, political interference in the right of somebody who is invited to your country to speak freely at various venues all round the country. Now when you get that sort of behaviour, let us remember where that sort of behaviour last happened. It happened in the 1930s in Central and Western Europe in a country called Germany. [Crowd applauds and cheers]

    That kind of breaking up of meetings, silencing of opponents, for prevention of free speech, that is a hallmark of — and I am proud to use the word loud and clear — fascism! [Crowd applauds and cheers]

    And that is what your ABC now represents. [Crowd applauds and cheers]

    Let me tell you how they have treated me since I came here. First of all, you may have heard the interview with somebody who I believe is called Adam Spencer. [Crowd boos] He was not very polite, was he?

    Crowd: No!

    Lord Christopher Monckton: He did at least have the courtesy to apologise the following afternoon and I’m grateful for that. And yesterday, for the second time, an appalling woman called Wendy Carlisle appeared and she started asking deliberately offensive questions until in the end I said, ‘Madam, if you’re going to be deliberately offensive, you can go and ask your questions to somebody else. [Crowd applauds and cheers]

    And on top of that, a TV crew who first of all said they were from ABC and then they said they were making a program for ABC, turned up in my hotel room to interview me. And it became clear after a bit that the interview was a spoof and I believe this is for some program called The Chaser…

    Woman in the crowd [sound from the rally]: Are you from the ABC, dear?

    Wendy Carlisle: Yes I am.

    Woman in the crowd: Yes, I saw your … You’ll just … from this. Yeah, enjoy.

    Lord Christopher Monckton: …and that is just four incidents in less than a week in which the ABC has shown its credentials as supporters of utilitarianism, socialism and of fascism.

    [Crowd chants, ‘ABC, ABC’]

    Wendy Carlisle: As Lord Monckton spoke, I stood in the crowd not far from the stage, my microphone held high to catch his words. My ABC ID badge was clearly visible and a young man in the crowd turned and started to point at me and mouth, ‘A-B-C’. It was then that people started to deliberately push me.

    Lord Christopher Monckton: …not interested in giving people a fair go. So I do have a message for your Liberal and National coalition…

    [Sound of crowd jostling and taunting Wendy Carlisle as Lord Monckton continues in the background]

    Wendy Carlisle: I’m now being jostled by members of the crowd.

    Man in crowd: Don’t use force against her. Do not touch her! Excuse me, coercive force is the hallmark of…

    Wendy Carlisle: I’m now being harassed by people in this crowd…

    [Crowd applauds and cheers Lord Monckton]

    Men in crowd: Leave this woman alone… Piss off!… Just leave this woman alone… She’s free to stand here… She’s free to be here…

    Wendy Carlisle: I’ve actually never encountered this in a reporting job ever before.

    Announcer: …Guard our freedom! Our next speaker: come on up, Jo.

    [Crowd noise, including, ‘Sell the ABC’, ‘Ditch the witch!’, and applause]

    Wendy Carlisle: It was a scary few minutes and I decided to leave.

    ABC’s Background Briefing – The Lord Monckton Roadshow.

    Well worth a listen (or read, but only the audio really conveys the full flavour) – several others of the usual suspects appear (Alan Jones, Jo Nova, David Archibald) and the things they say are truly remarkable…

    1. Ah,what a hoot! That was the event at which Monckton claimed publicly to be a scientist…the man is well aware of his audience’s pitiful credulity.

  7. And here’s Monckton, from 2 days ago, claiming, among other things, that California has ‘a frankly Marxist legislature’!

    Seriously, this is one of the chief spokespeople of the Denier movement? What is wrong with you people? Do you really not squirm in humiliation when you read this utter tosh?

    It’s also worth reading the backstory on Monckton’s speech in California over at SkS – Watts is specifically refusing to publish corrections to His “oh, Lord!”ship’s ridiculous claims,

  8. Very pleasing to see that this site, and the comments therein reflect the plain fact that the public simply don’t believe the AGW/climate change hype any more.

    This is now a defensive rather than an offensive organ.

    What do you think Andy ?

  12. I’d like a little consistency please. Posting articles about regional weather adds little to the debate on Climate Change. NZ for example seems to have had a very mild summer. As has been pointed out numerous times on here it is the global trends which are important not if the USA has enjoyed a particular warm March this year.

    1. We don’t experience a global climate, we live in a regional climate. When extreme weather hits, it does so regionally. Climate trains the boxer, but weather throws the punches. But this is not the place for a discussion of extremes…

  13. Now, this is of interest. Especially to those who actually wish to know something about the world, not just spout off about it based on pitifully simplistic preconceptions.

    It’s an interview with Mohamed Nasheed, the former president of the Maldives, in exile after being ousted in a coup two months ago. You know, the guy who held a cabinet meeting underwater to draw attention tom the potential impact of AGW on his country? A man who’s been quite frequently discussed here at HT?

    Interestingly, the glorious homeland of Freedom™ and Free Markets™ – the US – has recognised the coup regime, while the evil Stalinist EU has not. This must mean Nasheed is a bad man, right?

    Watch the video.

    And lest we forget the immortal words of Denier Wrathall, who said of Rasheed and the islands at that very posting linked to above –

    In some ways it’s a pity that catastrophic sea-level rise remains a figment of James Hansen’s fevered imagination, as the submerging of this theocratic hole would almost be a positive outcome.

    Now, one side of this debate is based roughly equally on anger and ignorance, both, to my mind, equally profound. See if you can guess which one.

  14. Pingback: Fairfax and Stuff.co.nz: presenting propaganda as opinion and lies as fact

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