The folks over at Guido Fawkes have looked at Ed Miliband’s choice of climate SpAd. They are, Guido reveals, long-term advisers Tobias Garnett, Jonty Leibowitz and Eleanor Salter. And they are, as you would likely expect, drawn from political activist circles, not people with expertise in, you know, energy generation, distribution and markets. This news is no great surprise, of course, but it helps to explain an enduring fact of climate politics: why facts don’t matter.
Before becoming Miliband’s spad, Tobias Garnett was a human rights lawyer, and the coordinator of Extinction Rebellion’s legal strategy team. Of note, Guido observes, is a 2019 Guardian article, in which Garnett channels XR’s apocalyptic environmentalism to justify the group’s trademark obstruction of the public. Extinction Rebellion were merely “seeking to draw attention to what scientists have been telling us for decades”, claims Garnett, “the planet is warming, we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction, we are responsible”. But Garret and XR’s understanding of “science” has always left quite a lot to be desired.
Garnett’s link to the sixth mass extinction, for example, takes you to a Guardian article, which itself reports on a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, but which itself is manifestly ideological, rather than scientific. Among many alarming claims, expressed in highly emotional terms, it attempts to prove the existence of the “sixth mass extinction” using population data relating to just 177 species. “As much as 50% of the number of animal
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I just linked this article on the DT and noticed clicking the link is scuppered by the DS paywall, I’m trying to help you here guys but you’re not helping yourself.
It is time once and for all to put a stop to the madness. People who are mad have no place telling others what to do. Stop the madness should be the UK’s new mantra, just like make America great again is for the USA. Admit it britain, clowns are running the show.
‘One of the greatest tricks that the green movement pulled off was convincing the putative ‘Left’ that climate policy was not the regressive agenda of degenerate billionaires to turn the economy into a zero-sum game in their favour.’
I’m not sure this is the right way to look at it. What Hohn has going is a war model, like an arms supplier.
In a war for national existence, the cost doesn’t matter, so arms suppliers can effectively charge what they like, and the longer they keep the shells and bullets flying the fuller their boots get.
If you challenge their profits you open yourself to charges of pettifogging and penny-pinching over strategic imperatives.
Now step back and consider the parallels with what Hohn and his degenerate ilk are doing.
Great article. I had a feeling that it wasn’t just a silly expensive mistake, and I have observed that democracy has been subsumed . This issue is likely to be the way Labour dies, I hope, but the billionares won’t die.
“ ….but the billionaires, won’t die”. But a sensible Right Wing government would be well advised to remove the tax breaks the philanthropic classes and corporations receive for their funding of political activism vehicles (foundations, charities, think tanks etc,). Putin sensibly rid his nation of all these Western perfidious bodies.
Won’t have any effect.
1) billionaires are spending what is less than pocket change – what is no more to them than pocket lint – taking away tax breaks is not even a pin prick to them;
2) can’t tax people and organisations beyond our shores.
It’s little wonder that distrust in the government – in fact in all politicians – has now spread to authority in general.
The powers that be express surprise that riots have broken out like isolated wildfires around the country when general frustration in the population has created a political tinder box!
It shows that many politicians are not just corrupt, but even more stupid than we could ever have imagined!
“In 1968, and emerging from the same school of thought, Ehrlich’s coreligionist, Garrett Hardin, published an essay, ‘The Tragedy of the Commons’, which argued for the abolition of the ‘commons’ – i.e., for the privatisation of everything, including the air and oceans.”
In reality this is what the eco nuttery is all about. A recent WEF video shows a lively discussion on this matter.
Iain Davis has written two in-depth papers on this very topic. The intention behind the Theft of the Commons is heightened control and further immiseration of the useless eaters ie us.
https://iaindavis.com/global-commons-part-1/
https://iaindavis.com/global-commons-part-2/
Thanks for the link HP.
OK, I know I should know! What’s a sPaD?
Stupid & Dumb
Yes I know I am, but what’s a spad?
(Just joking 🤣)
😉
It is what you use to keep on digging the hole we are in.
Special Parliamentary Advisor.
It’s Signal Passed At Danger, whenever rail disasters are discussed
A French biplane from WW1? Société Pour L’Aviation et ses Dérivés
I might be totally wrong, but Tobias, Jonty and Eleanor couldn’t sound more ‘north London bubble’ if they tried…
IF we’re in the midst of the sixth mass extinction, would it not be sensible to look at the causes of the previous five to try to understand what triggered them and so avoid a repeat? I’m certain they weren’t caused by mankind – what with us not having evolved by that stage.
Imagining that mankind is responsible for a mass extinction event is hubris on a grand scale. Arguably the previous mass extinction events set up conditions for mankind to evolve. If you want to reject hubris and stretch your imagination further consider that a sixth mass extinction may clear the way for an ‘improved’ successor species.
Mankind has evolved to survive in Tropical to Arctic climates but thrives in Temperate zones. There are few species that occupy the same vast range except perhaps rats – and they thrive because of us.
I’ve decided that TPTB want to drive us mad so we lose all hope and top ourselves. That’s the only thing that makes sense to me.
You could be right 😳
Or leave, for the “Third World”.
But if there is no hope, then what is there to stop us from taking to the streets to show our displeasure?
We are too exhausted?
We’d be arrested and thrown in prison…
Hey, free heating, electricity and food.
We are already in prison but some have not realised yet.
A prison in which we have to pay for everything and from which some can buy their way out and leave but most cannot.
True indeed, though as you probably gathered, I was being flippant…
Although it could be a good way of getting from “A prison in which we have to pay for everything”, to an all costs paid multi gender prison. Simply post a non-conformist ‘opinion’ or a comment that offends some sensitive little wallflower somewhere in the world and ‘plod’ will be knocking on your door offering a free ride to your new fully paid home full of like minded criminals. Whats not to love? [sarc]
“…destroying North Sea oil and gas and subsidising wind and solar creates energy independence and lowers bills.”
And the subsidies will come from where?
In addition, the left/eco ideologues have managed to contrive the narrative that the fossil fuel economy is heavily subsidized, and if so where does that money come from.
The subsidies are organised and mandated by the Government but we, the billpayers, pay for them. Forced to pay for our own impoverishment.
Where do these subsidies for oil come from?
Who raised oil prices in 1973 and who was being subsidised then?
There are no subsidies for oil. The ecofascists – deliberately or because they are stupid – equate tax breaks – ie less of your money stolen by the government – as the same as uneconomic wind and solar being propped up by taxpayers cash.
The reason oil companies have special tax arrangements is that revenue starts long after most of the investment has occurred, in different tax years, so the company cannot do the usual ‘profit = revenue – costs’ for a single tax year.
And ofcourse no one would ever build a wind turbine without the massive subsidy and guaranteed price for the product. Because they are totally uneconomical. They exist purely to farm the subsidy.
Very sensible.
Anyone who wants to impoverish people is not going to pay for it themselves.
That would be stupid.
TAKE YOUR PICK BETWEEN THESE TWO NASTY PIECES OF WORK. Well Reinhard Heydrich is dead so that just leaves us with Miliband.
Mad Miliband? I’ll wager you ain’t seen nothing yet! Just getting started.
Margaret Thatcher’s guru was Sir Keith Joseph who was dubbed ‘the Mad Monk’.
Unlike Milliband Joseph was an intellectual giant and changed the world by laying the foundations for Thatcherism.
Milliband is in comparison the Goony Geek.
The Goony Geek is laying the foundations of the destruction of the British economy and landscape.
Even the IPCC admit that their worst case scenario’s from computer modelling are NOT going to happen. They are basically admitting that this “climate crisis” talk is nonsense. We now have a draconian Labour government with a moron Energy Minister and they are a virtual dictatorship with that huge majority. What happens next is going to be a total disaster. We are going to be coerced into pretending to save the planet. There will be thousands upon thousands of huge turbines everywhere you look, smart meters will become compulsory so our energy use can be controlled and rationed. All of the cost and subsidy will be heaped onto our gas bills so we rush to rip out our radiators and pay 15,000 quid for a heat pump. Our perfectly good petrol and diesel cars will be forced off the road. Miliband insists we will have “cheaper energy bills”. How can he get away with his bare faced lie when it is clear for all to see that the countries that use the most wind (Germany and Denmark) all have the highest prices. We are doing all of this for WHAT? It will have zero effect on global climate but it… Read more »
Very well said.
A government supported by less than 20% of the electorate – what could possibly go wrong.
No. Voted for by less than 20%.
It is unclear how many of the 20% supported Labour and how many were voting for what they thought was the least worst choice.
Many people stopped voting some decades ago because they realised the least worst choice was not a choice.
“least worst choice”———-It turns out it was the worst after all, not that I couldn’t have told them so. It will maybe take them a good bit less than 5 years to realise that. Infact probably when they get their winter energy bills it might dawn on them.
The fake Tories were just as cuckoo as Labour.
Eco socialism for the West not the BRICS nations. The Western nations keep voting for more Eco Socialism via establishment parties so the proles can hardly complain – they do have alternative challenger parties to vote for but they keep clinging to nanny.
I’d be the last to accuse a politician of hypocrisy, but this does seem a little odd…. https://www.edmiliband.org.uk/news/2024/07/30/update-on-doncaster-airport/
Are you saying he might want to fly in by Private Jet to occasionally tend to his proles before speeding back to London asap !
The proles who voted for him like those who voted for the fake Tory Party may deserve servility and impoverishment but those who can see right through their deceits certainly do not.
Who proofread the letter? First sentence “my we congratulate yourself”
Airport landowner Peel never does owt for nowt. They are a very tight fisted and sclerotic private company controlled by one individual on the I o Man,,who has ‘divided to rule’ – internal politicking is rife in my experience
Blatant, deliberate use of the white supremacist hand gesture there… I hope Starmer sacks him immediately, if it’s the rules for some poor sap at the olympics, it has to be the same for our politicians, surely?
Well done for knowing that , I wonder what context he was using it , probably emboldened by the fact his Dad is Romanian ! That’s the thanks we get for giving people the chance of a better life !
The perfect sign for Net Zero ?
Also recognisable as the 666 symbol with its occult associations. Used freely within the celebrity bubble.
The universally recognised hand gesture for ‘OK’ is another part of Western culture misappropriated by the Left and Far Left and converted into something it is not.
We need to recover and reappropriate the ‘OK’ gesture from the Loony Left.
Might some artistically inclined person create a design for a sticker and the like promoting the message ‘OK’ is ‘OK’ and not the Far Left’s Far Right symbol.
These b’stards are stealing every aspect of our culture to manufacture fascists and racists around every corner.
Why is the Left so keen on calling men with penises ‘women’?
Its because they are running out of causes to fight for.
They are scraping the dregs of the Left’s barrels of causes.
Why do they promote illegal immigration?
Same reason.