Prince Charles ‘Consorted With Labour’ To Change Climate Policy

The Prince of Wales “consorted” with Labour ministers to get tougher Government policies on climate change, it has been claimed. The claims were made in a BBC programme that sheds new light on how far the Prince is said to have gone to lobby ministers to adopt his pet policies on health and the environment. [Former environment minister] Michael Meacher said the Prince helped him push Tony Blair for more radical action on climate change and to block GM foods. “We would consort together quietly in order to try and ensure that we increased our influence within government. There were always tensions within government. And I knew that he largely agreed with me and he knew that I largely agreed with him,” Mr Meacher told BBC Radio 4’s The Royal Activist. “I know he spoke to Tony Blair, obviously he would regularly speak to the Prime Minister, and I’m sure he told him his views, so we were together in trying to persuade Tony Blair to change course.” --Matthew Holehouse, The Daily Telegraph, 29 June 2014

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As future king, Prince Charles must take care not to let his passion for such vital issues turn into political campaigning, which could lay him open to accusations of abusing his constitutional position. Most worryingly, former environment minister Michael Meacher revealed how he and the Prince would ‘consort quietly' to affect policy on GM crops and climate change and ‘try to ensure we increased our influence within government'. Engaging in secret plots to change government policy surely endangers the political neutrality of the monarchy and will give ammunition to those who believe the institution is past its sell-by date. --Editorial, Daily Mail, 30 June 2014 The BBC has ruled that a radio debate about climate change involving former Chancellor of the Exchequer Lord Lawson should have been censored – as he did not agree with flawed global warming computer predictions. Fraser Steel, head of the BBC complaints unit, said a Radio 4 Today programme about the causes of last winter’s storms should never have been broadcast. The move has huge implications for future coverage, implying that ‘sceptics’ will be gagged. The former Chancellor often appears on Radio 4 to talk about economics, but this was the first time he had been allowed to discuss climate change. --David Rose, Mail on Sunday, 29 June 2014

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When you think about it, the BBC's new position is going to put them in an utterly hilarious position. It will be possible for true things said by people like Lawson, to be preceded by a formal statement that they have "views that are not supported by the evidence [sic] from computer modelling and scientific research". At the same time incorrect things can be said by people like Julia Slingo, who will be introduced as those who have those evidence-supported views. This is, not to put too fine a point on it, utterly preposterous. Looking on the bright side though, it is another nail in the coffin of the BBC. –Andrew Montford, Bishop Hill, 26 June 2014 The BBC has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money asking 33,000 people in Asian countries how climate change is affecting them. The £519,000 campaigning survey by little-known BBC Media Action is designed to persuade the world to adopt more hard-line policies to combat global warming. It was immediately condemned yesterday as a flagrant abuse of the Corporation’s rules on impartiality and ‘a spectacular waste of money’ by a top academic expert. --David Rose, Mail on Sunday 29 June 2014 John Whittingdale, chairman of the Commons Select Committee on Media and Culture, said last night he was ‘astonished’ to see the BBC involved with a survey of this kind. He added: ‘The BBC brand carries with it a huge reputation for impartiality and objectivity. Even though this is not a mainstream, licence-fee-funded activity, for the BBC to attach its label to something which is so politically controversial is unwise. The BBC has already been attacked for paying too little attention to climate change sceptics, and this bears those criticisms out.’ Dr Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which argues that the threat from climate change is overblown, said it seemed Media Action was ‘the campaigning arm of the BBC, [its] propaganda bureau’ and the survey is ‘a blatant abuse of the BBC charter’. --David Rose, Mail on Sunday 29 June 2014 While Prince Charles is always accorded the reputation of being a 'progressive', in fact, he is a spectacularly reactionary figure, whose ideal vision of Britain is a kind of pre-industrial paradise — which never existed. Of course, there is nothing in the least wrong with the heir to the throne being a very wealthy man, who has never for a single second of his life had to worry about the cost of the food on his table. But I can't believe it is a complete coincidence that the Prince's own patented policies — renewable energy only, no pesticides, no industrial-scale farming — would lead to a crippling increase in the prices of everything from home heating to the cereal we feed our children. --Dominic Lawson, Daily Mail, 30 June 2014 Prince Charles is the mirror image of the very climate change deniers he attacks. He talks about vested interests but he should be very careful his words don’t backfire on him. The Crown Estate, for example, is making huge profits from the very offshore wind-farms that have angered so many of his future subjects. And for many people the issue of rising energy bills now is more important than what may or may not happen 100 years down the line. I fear he is ill advised to make such aggressive and contentious speeches. One of the reasons the Queen and the Royal Family are so loved is that they steer clear of such issues. His aggressive words indicate a certain insecurity and intransigence that will not go down well with the public. –Benny Peiser, Daily Mail, 31 January 2014 Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation sharply criticised the prince. "He doesn't make himself popular by attacking half the British public, who are known to be sceptical." Dr Peiser said the heir to the throne should "have a conversation with his father", who he said had a different view. --BBC News, 9 May 2013

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