The Telegraph | 9 May 2015
Green activists, aided by the state broadcaster, are whipping up support for a new climate treaty
The BBC’s relentless efforts to promote the need for that treaty to “decarbonise” the world’s economies they so desperately want to see agreed in December are getting way beyond a joke. On Monday’s Today programme, for instance, they yet again wheeled on that joke figure Lord Stern to tell us that renewable energy now enjoys “very little subsidy or none at all” (don’t tell the owners of offshore wind farms, who imagine they are getting subsidies of more than 200 per cent). Most energy from fossil fuels, Stern went on, is “heavily subsidised”, to the tune of “$500 billion a year”. Even John Humphrys sounded faintly disbelieving when Stern explained that most of this “subsidy” was the taxation not imposed on fossil-fuel companies for “polluting” the planet.
An hour later, we had the BBC’s science editor, David Shukman, telling us how he had gone up to the Arctic (presumably with the aid of fossil fuels), to join a bunch of Norwegian scientists (also presumably there with the aid of fossil fuels), who were discovering that the ice had got thinner than ever, and that this was causing irreparable damage to the “biodiversity” of the poor little creatures which live under that vanishing ice.
Not a shred of scientific evidence was offered to support this scare story, let alone the latest data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center, which show that the thickness of multi-year ice across the Arctic has been making a dramatic recovery from its low point seven years ago (for details see Paul Homewood’s Notalotofpeopleknowthat blog),
All this drearily make-believe propaganda is designed to whip up support for a treaty which, as the Indian government yet again confirmed last week, is never going to happen, because India and China – still building enough coal-fired stations to add more CO2 to the air every year than the total emitted by the UK – are simply giving two fingers to a treaty they regard as an even bigger joke than Lord Stern.
Tories go to war with the BBC
The Telegraph | 11 May 2015
David Cameron, infuriated by the corporation’s election coverage, appoints BBC critic John Whittingdale to “sort out the BBC” ahead of the royal charter review next year
The future of the licence fee is in doubt after David Cameron appointed one of the BBC’s biggest critics as Culture Secretary in a move that will be seen as an effective declaration of war on the corporation.
John Whittingdale, who has been chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport select committee since 2005, has previously said that the licence fee is “worse than a poll tax” and ultimately “unsustainable”.
Downing Street sources said that Mr Whittingdale will “sort out the BBC” ahead of the corporation’s royal charter review next year, which will set out the future of the £145.50-a-year licence fee.
Senior Conservatives said they were “furious at the BBC’s coverage” of the election campaign and accused the corporation of an “unforgivable pro-Labour bias”.
There are now concerns that the corporation’s coverage of the EU referendum in 2017 could betray a pro-EU bias.
Friends of Mr Whittingdale said he is at the very least likely to freeze the licence fee and could implement significant cuts.
He is also expected to scrap the BBC Trust, the body that oversees the corporation, after a series of scandals over its coverage and executive pay-offs.
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His appointment will enable the Conservatives to push ahead with the decriminalisation of the licence fee, which was blocked in the last Parliament in the House of Lords.
Senior Tories repeatedly clashed with the BBC during the election campaign and were particularly infuriated by the corporation’s attempts to force David Cameron to take part in a head-to-head leadership debate.
Speaking ahead of Mr Whittingdale’s appointment, a senior Tory source said: “It’s increasingly clear the BBC is governed by ideology. The way they handled the negotiations over the debates was appalling. There were times during the campaign when the coverage did seem skewed in Labour’s favour.”
Philip Davies, a member of the culture select committee in the last Parliament and ally of Mr Whittingdale, accused the corporation of “dancing to Labour’s tune” during the run up to the election.
He said: “During the election campaign the presenters barely even had the courtesy to hide their allegiances.
Ed Miliband apprearing on BBC Question Time (PA)
“Because the Labour Party had nothing positive to offer they tried to make it a referendum on the NHS. If you look at how much it gave to the NHS it’s pretty clear they were dancing the Labour Party’s tune for the long time.”
Mr Davies said that Mr Whittingdale, who he spoke to within 10 minutes of his appointment, is likely to at the very least freeze the £145.50 a year cost of the licence fee.
He said: “I have got very high hopes for John as secretary of state. I think he is the best appointment David Cameron has made in this new cabinet.
