The British Council At Lima

By Paul Homewood

 

h/t Greensand & QV 

 

http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2014/cop20/eng/inf02.pdf

 

Amongst the thousands of participants at the Lima Conference were six from the British Council.

 

 

To recap, according to their website, the British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. They are on the ground in six continents and over 100 countries, bringing international opportunity to life, every day.

They are a public corporation, sponsored by the Foreign Office. Last year they received £165 million in government grants, but also earned income by charging people and governments for their services and expertise.

According to their accounts, most of this earned income came from “Developing a wider knowledge of the English language”.

 

 http://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/britishcouncil.uk2/files/d554_annual_report_final.pdf

 

Given this background, it is not clear why the Council wanted to attend the Lima Conference at all, but what was even more perplexing was why they took along four journalists from The Verb, a newswire service, that in their own words has a bias towards the environment. This is how The Verb describe themselves on their website: 

 

 

The Verb is a newswire service telling the stories that matter.

The Verb provides in depth analysis of issues overlooked, misunderstood or overly simplified and underrepresented in traditional media. Issues that matter, and issues that demand a better debate.

We’re disrupting the media cycle on the issues that matter. Articles from The Verb have appeared in Al Jazeera, Reuters, The Huffington Post, Crikey, Jezebel and SciDev. We actively work to form partnerships with media publications. You can syndicate our content.

The Verb’s strength comes from its writers’ varied perspectives and extensive knowledge. With representation across five continents, developed and developing nations, North and South and over 17 countries, The Verb is a globally connected organisation.

Our team are active participants in society, industry, academia, government and non-government organisations; and reflect this experience in their articles. Our writers aren’t often journalists by training. We thrive on a culture of growth and challenge. You can join us.

Our bias is towards the environment.

Our writers interview key stakeholders and provide context for their perspectives in order to give readers a comprehensive and concise account of the competing interests at play. Each writer maintains their unique perspective, with the editorial style favouring the competition of ideas and the advocacy of solutions. We write about the solutions, not just the problem.

Within the UNFCCC process, The Verb’s broader philosophy challenges people to overcome passivity and pessimism and strive for collective and active participation in the world’s global problems. The Verb’s writers focus on solutions to the problems of negotiation. They aim to give the reader a portal into high level negotiations on diverse topics. From climate change to urban planning, women’s health to transport, Verb articles highlight the key interests at play and advocate solutions.

Allowing the reader to understand whose interests are being represented is a core aim of The Verb. We aim to answer the questions: who is asking for what, why, and how can they agree?

 

 

For official use:

The Verb is about telling the stories that matter. Operating as an international newswire on environmental issues, The Verb is a group of emergent professionals bringing their technical expertise of environmental issues into the media and communications space. Reporting from various postings across the globe, The Verb has representation in over 17 countries and media partnerships with the Huffington Post, Reuters Foundation and Al Jazeera.

http://theverb.org/footercontent/our-story/

 

 

 

No doubt, this is all very worthy, (even though they don’t seem too bothered about men’s health!). But what the hell does it have to do with the British Council, who are supposed to devote themselves to cultural relations and educational opportunities, and not to environmental matters? Or, for that matter, why have they jumped into bed with such an overtly political group?

There is also the issue of where the money came from for this trip. If it came from UK Govt funds, it looks to be a clear misuse of taxpayer money. On the other hand, if the money was donated, it raises the question of the donor’s motives, and the Council’s for facilitating the finance.

The whole business stinks of just another attempt by the UK Government to promulgate its global warming propaganda.