Lord Deben Repeats Pakistan Floods Lie–BBC Fail To Challenge
By Paul Homewood
h/t frankobaysio
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001glbs
I see Lord Deben has been up to his tricks again. At about 18.30 mins into this series broadcast on Radio 4, he makes the following statement:
“Those terrible floods in Pakistan. The poor Pakistanis have not contributed at all really to climate change, but there there was a third of the nation under water”.
The claims of a third of the country originated from Pakistan’s Climate Minister at the time, as reported by the BBC here.
The claims were quickly rubbished, both by NASA and the UN agency OCHA, which suggested the true figure was about 8%:
Ironically the BBC itself admitted their earlier reports were false, after their radio programme More or Less investigated the matter here. They came to similar conclusions, with an estimate of 10%.
There was no reason therefore why Deben was not challenged in his claim that a third of the country had been under water. The fact that he is a man of authority should have made it even more important that he be challenged.
This is not the first time that Deben has been allowed to get away with outright falsehoods on a BBC programme. In 2018, during an interview with John Humphreys, he was not challenged when he made the palpably false claim that there was a ban on onshore wind farms in England. The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit found that Deben should have been challenged to ensure listeners were not left with a materially misleading impression.
I will be filing another complaint with the BBC!
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Can we please stop calling this know nothing pseudo expert “Lord Deben” . His real name is John Selwyn Gummer and he [as minister for Agriculture] is the guy as a publicity stunt in 1990 had his 4 year old daughter eat beef burgers at the height of the BSE scare. Even inviting camera crews and newspaper reporters to witness the event. He has every appearance of being a publicity junkie
Cordelia, as even the BBC themselves admit (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/16/newsid_2913000/2913807 dot stm), refused to eat the burger. The child being wiser than the adult, not difficult.
I’ve said before but it’s worth repeating: I first ran into Gummer at a Conservative Student conference 60 years ago (how time flies!). I was in the company of a captain in the Army Education Corps on a short course; Gummer was leading a gaggle of adoring acolytes hanging on his every word.
The word that came to my mind (and my colleague’s) was ‘pr*t’ though we both agreed that he was probably destined for high office. We were proved right on both counts though fortunately the Conservative party had enough wit to limit his ambition to a department rather than No 10!
He has made a comfy living out of environmentalism since then carefully side-stepping any actual involvement which might have resulted in accusations of conflict of interest.
He has likely done much more damage in his current role than he ever could have done as a Minister, and he has earned much more money too.
Why is our nation’s economic future in the hands of this silly, uneducated, fool?
Deben was the reactionary who blocked the appointment of women to higher ministry in the CoE. He is just “unfortunate” and should be vigorously ignored.
Since when as the serial liar Gummer/Deben ever told the truth?
No mention of the intense deforestation of Pakistan?
Or the massive overpopulation.
‘What type of leadership does the world need to tackle global warming? Amol Rajan discusses whether people with power are doing enough to solve the climate crisis.’
Why aren’t the people with power changing the weather? What’s wrong with them ?!?!
The programme (Rethink Climate on radio 4) is a disgrace to free speech: he only talks to people who support his meme. I managed about half of one programme before turning to something honest.
Fools succeed while others hide.
Slimy Gummer got his position by building up a reputation as a lying opportunist toad during the Mad Cow fiasco – mainly of his making . Ennobled, – if a loathsome toad can ever be ennobled he now calls himself Deben and runs the economy-sabotaging Climate change Committee where lying is part of the job description as is giving his family lucrative synecures to do research anmd lie about net zero plans. To late to stall his evil plans but there will be a lamppost somewhere to hang him when the SHTF
Oh dear I think my last comment was ad Hominem. Naughty Denier that I am Must wash my mouth out with soap.
Whatever happened to dettol (other antiseptics are available)?!!
Sounds like Anthony Fauci. He was not selected for his high position due to his medical competence – Oh no! – he was selected for the stupid stuff he said about AIDS 35 years ago. Things the Left wanted to hear.
“Things the Left wanted to hear”, whilst managing to avoid hearing about the deaths caused in Africa and the USA by Fauci’s fraudulent ‘clinical trials’ to ‘prove’ his vaccines worked
……and Gummer wouldn’t have any interests in perpetuating this type of thing, would he………?
He is greasy little mercenary.
Deben is an evil little man whose snout is permanently in the green trough. He’s like Al Gore on steroids.
Alarmists are fond of fake news. Lord Climate is no exception.
Napoleon Bonaparte — ‘In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.’
650 MPs and only a handful objected to the Climate Change Act
The World is topsy turvy and won’t right itself for a long time.
True. The Left has seized the moral high ground, and we try to fight them with facts.
We are shooting blanks.
Gummer and his CCC are too financially conflicted to give any advise. Gummer’s elevation to the Lords was political cronyism not scientific abilities.
Since I made an earlier comment I have been looking through the CVs of a local investment group with over a £ billion under management. (VCT, EIS etc)
There’s dozens of well paid people all spouting the ESG save the world mantra.
Even if half a dozen of them had the slightest doubts they would keep quiet because one slip and they would lose their jobs for heresy.
Well, as we all know, though BBC chooses to ignore it, dear old Gummer has long had a very sizeable financial vested interest in telling enormous porkies to aid his rapidly escalating electricity bill – and he doesn’t intend letting a few facts get in the way!
And remember Paul’s piece on the corrupt Baroness Brown, chair of adaptation sub committee in the CCC (eh?} while non exec director of Oersted Energy etc Danish windmill builders and other lucrative ‘renewables’ posts. We are governed by corruption
And remember Paul’s piece on the corrupt Baroness Brown, chair of adaptation sub committee in the CCC (eh?} while non exec director of Oersted Energy etc Danish windmill builders and other lucrative ‘renewables’ posts. We are governed by corruption
I thought his name was John Seldom Glummer. 🙂
Seldom Dumber??
Or the silting of the Indus which, as I understand means the riverbed is, in places, higher than the surrounding land and is restricted by built-up river-banks.
It’s about time someone called for an official investigation into just how many fake statements this gravy trainer makes and how much he and his family earn from promoting the Climate Change propaganda- the investigation should include everyone, including the BBC, the media and the Met Office and any other organisation or individual who receives cash for promoting the Climate Change propaganda.
My feeling is that the BBC is more culpable than Gummer. Without the BBC’s betrayal of the country by the ignoring of its Charter, there would be much less chance of our civilisation being on the road to the cliff edge. The programme should have focussed on the real reasons for the disaster and emphasised measures to mitigate future events that would help the affected people. The number one measure would seem to be a massive re-forestation programme.
“Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no experience is thought necessary.” R.L. Stevenson.
There are no interviewers on the BBC these days. As far as I can tell no statement no matter how outrageous is challenged.
Robin Day and John Nott a here today gone tomorrow politician walking out because of questions he didn’t like. Nott used that as the title of his memoirs
I submitted a complaint to the BBC about Justin Rowlatt who repeated the ‘a third of Pakistan under floodwater’ claim AFTER it had been scrutinized and corrected on the radio 4 programme ‘More or Less’. They eventually replied with an apology for not attributing the statement to the Pakistani official who originally made it. Just getting it right didn’t occur to them.
The trick is they editorialize by what they choose to put on. Even choices of stories is editorializing.
In their mind, attributing it to a Paki official is plausible deniability, a side step from the fact they chose to publish it. Should they quote the Devil, it’s not their fault! “The Devil said it, we didn’t!” But, yes, yes you did.
It would be interesting to see a list of how many Green troughs Gummer had his snout in and how much he is paid for them.
Why not prod the BBC to investigate this Paul . It would appear that Lord Deben had his snout in the Gulf state hydrocarbon trough just as Al Gore did when he sold his cable TV channel to Qatar for a tidy profit running into the millions . Debens ostensibly ethical consultancy firm Sancroft International was contracted to service Qatari government ministers invested in Qatars lucrative gas industry that provides just under 50% of the United Kingdoms gas imports . Guido noted that after ‘revelations of Debens history of dubious business links , the Climate Change Committee tightened its declaration protocols .Despite this , Deben has yet to declare his Qatari connection to the committee as he does on the Lords register , only mentioning his role for Sancroft broadly ” Now why would Lord Deben be so shady about Sancrofts Qatari clients mindful that Qatar is a state sponsor of Islamist terrorism
Who would suspect any conflict of interest in the Climate Change Committees communication to business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng encouraging ministers to support constraints on domestic oil and shale gas extraction and Debens overt warning to short lived Prime Minister Liz Truss not to permit fracking to assert Britains energy independence ?
Hows that again Lord Deben . In your own words : ” You have to set an example ” ?
Talking of Lord Deben, how many people are aware of his utterances in the BBC radio interview he gave a couple of months ago, and which I transcribed (and commented on)? Even Evan Davis seemed flabbergasted.
Thanks!
Good man, Mark!
I went to Twitter to check, and searched pakistan “third “”under water”
to see who is still pushing the FakeNews
An awful lot of people are tweeting the old 19 second rushing river clip originating out of the account of @Taj_Ali1 “Journalist covering trade unionism and industrial disputes. Bylines: @Independent @MetroUK @HuffPost @theipaper @tribunemagazine
The reality is that no experience is thought to be desirable.
Why is even still here?
https://publicappointments.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/appointment/urn503-climate-change-committee-chair/
They seem to have halted the process.
The metal and other mineral requirements for the UNFCC/IPCC/IEA/OECD “consensus net zero pollicy” have recently been calculated by Finland’s Geological Survey and published at https://www.gtk.fi/en/current/there-are-bottlenecks-in-raw-materials-supply-chain-a-glimpse-of-the-systemic-overview-is-here-discussion-and-the-development-of-the-solutions-have-started/ .
It takes a while to read but highlights the massive quantities that must be extracted, refined and turned into wind turbines, solar cells, nuclear power stations etc.
I have demanded that the CCC MUST explain itself in the light of this now, peer reviewed publication.
Paul, I would be most grateful for your assistance in ringing a reply our from the detestably self-righteous, bl**dy lying Gummer!