What’s the link between Queen Elizabeth II and sun spots? The production company RDF, according to Tony Juniper:

I was more than a little interested to learn that both ITV and the BBC have decided to suspend the commission of programmes from independent programme-maker RDF Television. I came across this outfit back in 1997, when I was invited to appear in a programme about “the history of the environment movement”.

In good faith I answered questions put to me by the programme maker, Martin Durkin…

…I was staggered when Channel 4 commissioned and broadcast another programme from this very same anti-environmentalist film-maker earlier this year (by then working for Wag TV, but the programme was distributed via RDF).

It’s an interesting connection that casts new light on the aforementioned documentary. One wonders why, however, an unflattering edit of a film about an old lady can bring a TV channel on its knees, while a misleading documentary thoroughly discredited by the science continues to spread its poison around the world. I wonder how many reactionary old sods out there are baying for RDF’s blood at the moment for how they treated the queen while simultaneously praising them to the hilt for helping to spread the claim that anthropogenic climate change is a myth?

Incidentally, Durkin’s website is still suggesting that the heat of the Sun is responsible for why the winter is warmer than summer.

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Having read Polly Toynbee’s spiteful article attacking the Lib Dems and Tories for opposing Home Information Packs, I took no small amount of pleasure to find Ruth Kelly capitulating and putting the scheme back.

What annoyed me most about Toynbee’s article was that it stuck religiously to the rote of “something must be done, this is something, therefore it must be done”. In short, if you oppose HIPs, you oppose tackling climate change. The truth is though, while the energy reports are a step in the right direction, they will only scratch the surface in terms of promoting the energy efficiency of homes.

Unreported by Polly, Chris Huhne and Andrew Stunell have published their own details proposals for what to do about greening the existing housing stock (pdf). If she thinks these are terrible plans, she should say so. Instead she has simply attacked them for failing to back the government’s woefully inadequate proposals. Whatever you might have thought about her in the past, she used to be an independent thinker: now she’s become a polemical government speak-your-weight machine. It’s sad.

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I have to admit that, when I first read that scientists had written to Mark Durkin to ask him, out of the goodness of his heart, not to make DVDs of the Great Global Warming Swindle available for sale (credit: Rob), I blanched. I could more or less have predicted what a drama queen like Durkin’s response would be:

“I don’t believe they are interested in ‘adequate quality control’ when it comes to the reporting of science, or in a ‘balanced debate’ about the issues. Too many scientists have staked their reputations ­and built their careers on global warming.

“There’s a hell of a lot riding on this ridiculous theory.”

I hope, at least, he’s grateful to them for all the extra free publicity.

Having blogged today about the political genius of John Sentamu, I do wish my own ‘team’ would sort itself out sometimes. In my view, the proper response would have been to ask Durkin, since he’s so keen on opposing ‘censorship’, to allow a group of scientists to record an alternative commentary to the film and distribute it on the DVD. It is no a moot point as to whether he would have let them or not: either way, it would have been a win. Either he refused, and we could all point fingers at him and make him look silly, or he’d capitulate, in which case the DVD would be more balanced.

Meanwhile, I do recommend a read of this rebuttal of the Swindle film by the same group of scientists.

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