From Benny Peiser's Global Warming Policy Foundation

BBC In Deep Water Over Climate Change Censorship Row
The BBC Is Scared Of Nigel Lawson – And It’s Right To Be

 

The BBC is getting itself in a huge hole over its coverage of climate change – and it does not seem to see the need to stop digging. The danger comes from self-censorship. Which editor now is going to invite Lord Lawson or even Prof Bob Carter on to their programmes in the certain knowledge that they are likely to be criticised and perhaps have time-consuming complaints upheld against them? As Lord Lawson argues, surely correctly, he has, in effect, been banned by the BBC. It is an easy thing to judge. Let’s see when he next appears in the climate change context. --Raymond Snoddy, MediaTel, 9 July 2014

The fact is that, on the climate change issue, the BBC has its own party line (indistinguishable from that of the Green Party) which it imposes with quasi-Stalinist thoroughness. It is hard to imagine a more blatant breach of its charter, which commits it to political balance, or a more blatant betrayal of the people’s trust, on which the continuation of its licence fee depends. --Nigel Lawson, Daily Mail, 9 July 2014

It is only a matter of time before Nigel Lawson — if he is allowed on the BBC at all — has to have his words spoken by an actor in the manner of Gerry Adams at the height of the IRA’s bombing campaign during the 1980s. In the case of Mr Adams, whose voice was banned from the airwaves by the government, the BBC stood up for free speech. But it is quite a different story with Lord Lawson. The BBC has effectively banned the former chancellor (and former editor of this magazine) from appearing on its programmes to debate climate change, unless he is introduced with a statement discrediting his views. When people try to close down debate rather than engage with it, there is a pretty clear conclusion to be drawn: they lack confidence in their own case. --Editorial, The Spectator, 12 July 2014

More active than many peers half his age, Lord Lawson is busier than ever. And from shale gas to wind farms, from tax cuts to EU reform, the former Chancellor’s views are taken seriously in both the Treasury and No 10. Energy policy is one of his chief passions, not least since the creation of his own Global Warming Policy Foundation in 2009. But his keen interest in the issue stretches back to the early 1980s, when he was Margaret Thatcher’s energy secretary. With the coal strike looming, Lawson sought to redefine the way the UK bought and sold energy. “A sensible energy policy should be part and parcel of our economic policy,” Lawson says. “And just as our economic policy was to give the state a reduced role and to give market forces a greater role, so that should apply to energy as well.” Crucially, he prepared the ground for the gas and electricity privatisations to come. --The House Magazine, 11 July 2014

The problem with the climate debate lies not with sceptics asking the wrong questions but with the inflexible and dogmatic way that some commentators and indeed some scientists regard climate science. --David Whitehouse, The Spectator, 9 July 2014