Lord Monckton on Tour

Posted by in Politics on March 10, 2012 1:19 pm / 14 comments

Some of you might be aware of the fact that Lord Christopher Monckton currently is in the United States and Canada on a tour. His goal? To expose how flawed the science behind the environmentalists cries for greater regulation really is. I’ve seen several of Lord Monckton’s speeches online, as well as some shorter clips (For example, there are some great clips out there of the Lord confronting protesters outside the Copenhagen Climate meeting). The other day he visited Union College in Schenectady, New York. Justin Pulliam writes:

THE NEWS that Lord Monckton was to give his “Climate of Freedom” lecture at Union College in Schenectady, New York, had thrown the university’s environmentalists into a turmoil. The campus environmentalists set up a Facebook page announcing a counter-meeting of their own immediately following Monckton’s lecture. There is no debate about global warming, they announced. There is a consensus. The science is settled. Their meeting would be addressed by professors and PhDs, the “true” scientists, no less. Sparks, it seemed, were gonna fly.

Traveling with Lord Monckton on the East Coast leg of his current whistle-stop tour of the US and Canada, I was looking forward to documenting the Schenectady showdown. I have had the pleasure of listening to His Lordship at previous campus events. He is at his best when confronted by a hostile audience. The angrier and more indignant they are, the more he seems to like it.

The Union Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) sponsored the lecture, which was video streamed by CampusReform.org (where a video recording is available). The afternoon of the event, Lord Monckton appeared on the CFACT leaders’ hour-long weekly show on the Union College radio station. As a result, that evening 200 people packed a campus lecture theater to hear Lord Monckton speak.

Mr. Pulliam goes on to describe exactly how Lord Monckton handles those blinded by the “consensus” and how he goes toe-to-toe with both students and faculty. Pulliam’s article also mentions that Lord Monckton’s speech should be available at http://www.campusreform.org/. However, I am currently unable to verify that since the site appears to be down.

If you have a chance to go see Lord Monckton in person during his tour, I strongly recommend it. Unlike many others who simply trot talking points of the alarmist environmental movement, Lord Monckton actually presents his audiences with evidence and then asks them to think for themselves.

 
 

14 Comments

  1. Bill Butler says:
    March 10, 2012 at 2:10 pm

    “Lord” Monckton isn’t a “Lord” nor is he a scientist. Also, it appears that his understanding of the word “evidence” is something other that what actually exists. However, he has great qualifications to be a circus side show barker.

  2. Thomas L says:
    March 10, 2012 at 3:46 pm

    I’m not sure why you’re attempting to rewrite centuries of English tradition. Individuals holding the title “Viscount” in England are commonly referred to as “Lord” and adressed as “My Lord”.

    Furthermore, Lord Monckton does not tend to claim to be a “scientist”, as you would have noticed if you would actually have bothered to read the link. From all I gather, he seems to dislike most scientists because they aren’t really out to find the truth, they’re out to further their own agenda. In fact, he does not believe in argumentum ad verecundiam at all. At the Union College talk he effectively dismantled the arguments from a “scientist”, just as he’s done at the Oxford Union in the past.

  3. Andrew Pattullo says:
    March 10, 2012 at 4:36 pm

    Lord or peasant no matter. And as a scientist myself I can confirm that profession doesn’t automatically confer omniscience or honesty. Lord Moncton’s discussion is honest, objective and based on a wealth of data and analysis performed by scientist who are in fact trying to determine truth rather than policy. I find it admirable how wisely he has discerned the problems with the reported science on global warming/climate change and how reasonable his conclusions especially if he comes to this without scientific credentials, but then science isn’t a secret black art, but mearly the power of objective observation and constructive skepticism. Thus science is open to all who care to partake, just as is religious belief and dogma, but I prefer the former. Andy P.

  4. Bill Butler says:
    March 10, 2012 at 6:22 pm

    In the past, Monckton has claimed he was a member of the House of Lords. The Clerk of the Parliament has had to publically post an online open letter to Monckton which states:

    “I must repeat my predecessor’s statement that you are not and have never been a Member of the House of Lords.”
    http://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2011/july/letter-to-viscount-monckton/

    This is another example that Monckton doesn’t understand what reality is, and it is quite possible that he may not be capable of understanding what reality is.

    As for Monckton’s assertions that he understands the science of climatology:
    from ““Response to the Written Testimony of Christopher Monckton”
    “In all cases, Mr. Monckton’s assertions are shown to be without merit – they are based on a thorough misunderstanding of the science of climate change.”
    http://www.skepticalscience.com/Monckton-response.pdf

  5. Larry Logan says:
    March 12, 2012 at 12:41 pm

    Bill, there is a backstory on the Clerk that you’re not familiar with, currently involving legal action as he was stepping out of his authority. You’re just aware of the ad hominems on Monckton. The link to skeptical science is the old Abraham effort, and Michael Mann is a signatory. That in of itself tells you all you need to know.

    In any event, here is Monckton’s position:

    “The House of Lords Act 1999 debarred all but 92 of the 650 Hereditary Peers, including my father, from sitting or voting, and purported to – but did not – remove membership of the Upper House. Letters Patent granting peerages, and consequently membership, are the personal gift of the Monarch. Only a specific law can annul a grant. The 1999 Act was a general law. The then Government, realizing this defect, took three maladroit steps: it wrote asking expelled Peers to return their Letters Patent (though that does not annul them); in 2009 it withdrew the passes admitting expelled Peers to the House (and implying they were members); and it told the enquiry clerks to deny they were members: but a written Parliamentary Answer by the Lord President of the Council admits that general legislation cannot annul Letters Patent, so I am The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley (as my passport shows), a member of the Upper House but without the right to sit or vote, and I have never pretended otherwise.”

  6. Archie Angel says:
    March 12, 2012 at 1:01 pm

    @Larry Logan: Thanks for setting the record straight. Disinformation flows freely from the Left, like all this hogwash masquerading as “settled” science. Global Warming, which has been relabeled Climate Change due to its erstwhile wholly unsupportable moniker, is merely veiled policy designed to enrich the elites (such as Al Gore and his cronies through “Cap and Trade”) and diminish the liberty of productive nations.

    Andrew Pattullo is insightful and succinct, and Bill Butler is characteristically disingenuous and/or misinformed.

  7. DHM says:
    March 12, 2012 at 1:53 pm

    Bill,

    Once the clerk took that politically motivated, and unprecedented, action to smear Monckton:
    Monckton, on returning from Australia from his tour this autumn, consulted Hugh O’Donoghue, a leading constitutional lawyer at Carmelite Chambers, overlooking the River Thames just a mile downstream from the Houses of Parliament. His question: “Am I or am I not a member of the House of Lords?”

    O’Donoghue, who specializes in difficult human-rights cases and Peerage law, spent months carefully researching Monckton’s question. He says Lord Monckton “was and is correct at all points”. The conclusion of his 11-page opinion (see PDF at bottom of this article) , reviewing 1000 years of Peerage law, is clear on the issue:

    “Lord Monckton’s statement that he is a member of the House of Lords, albeit without the right to sit or vote, is unobjectionable. His claim is not a false or misleading claim. It is legitimate, proportionate, and reasonable. Likewise, Lord Monckton was correct when he wrote to the US Congress that ‘Letters Patent granting Peerages, and consequently membership [of the House of Lords], are the personal gift of the Monarch. Only a specific law can annul a grant. The 1999 Act was a general law.’ He legitimately drew attention to a parliamentary answer by no less a personage than the Leader of the House, making it plain that the Act was a general law and not a particular law that might have had the effect of revoking Letters Patent. We now have the recent authority of the High Court, in the Mereworth case, for Lord Monckton’s assertion that the 1999 Act did not revoke or annul his Letters Patent. Unless and until such revocation takes place, Lord Monckton remains a member of the House of Lords, and he is fully entitled to say so.”

    Lord Monckton has sent copies of the Opinion by registered mail to the Lord Speaker (Baroness d’Souza) and to the chairman of the Privileges Committee (Lord Brabazon of Tara)…..

  8. Joe Veragio says:
    March 17, 2012 at 3:14 pm

    While unforgiveably impertinent it is sadly symptomatic of such beaureaucrats to exceed their authority.
    Or ‘Clerk to the Parliaments’ as this one calls himself.

    Indeed the The Lord Monckton’s Father & Grandfather, must be turning in their respective graves, at the calibre of sycophants and cronies (many of them ‘Tony’s cronies’) that now occupy that place.

    It is indeed unworthy of the administration of the House to behave in such a manner and their Lordships really should know better than to be caught abusing their members so publicly.

  9. Jose Veragio says:
    March 17, 2012 at 3:36 pm

    Sadly it is all too symptomatic of such beaureaucrats, as this Clerk to the Parliaments, elevated beyond their competence, to exceed their authority. Such grossly impertinent behaviour is most unworthy of, or on behalf of, the House or its members.

    The Lord Monckton’s honourable Father & his esteeemed Grandfather, must be turning in their respective graves, at the calibre of sycophants and cronies (including most recently Tony’s cronies) that now occupy that place.

    Indeed their Lordships should know better, than to be caught so publicly abusing their members.

  10. Bob Ashworth says:
    March 19, 2012 at 1:48 pm

    @Jose Veragio et al.

    Looks like he hasn’t had much luck with his appeal: http://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2011/july/letter-to-viscount-monckton/

    How are his court cases against Al Gore and John Abraham getting along.

    Monckton just loves to threaten when anybody challenges him, but he is all wind and BS!

  11. DHM says:
    March 19, 2012 at 5:28 pm

    Bob, the link is interesting, primarily because it proves that Monckton is right and Bill Butler wrong. The clerk assures Monckton that he is indeed a peer and even goes so far as to say that nobody disputes that- something undeniably false. Bill Butler and Skeptical Science have indeed disputed that very thing.
    As for whether or not he is a nonvoting member of the House of Lords, or whether such a thing exists, really, I don’t care. It’s a legal point of no interest to me and seems to be an issue of semantics. It does amuse me to see how badly Monckton’s opponents would prefer to discuss such red herrings.

  12. Archie Angel says:
    August 8, 2012 at 9:24 am

    @Bob Ashworth et nullus:

    Looks like argumentum ad hominem is your only hand.

    How much money are Al Gore and John Abraham amassing through their spread of lies and distortions?

    Monckton’s detractors build strawmen and raise red herrings when anyone challenges their incessant wind and BS. Count yourself among them.

  13. serge deb says:
    October 10, 2012 at 8:31 pm

    you know gentlemen that lord monckton cannot be proven wrong because he presents the same data the pseudo scientists present? these so called scientists who started the global warming myth are actually politicians. then some dishonest or disingenuous scientists jumped on the money wagon. have you checked facts for yourself? it doesn’t take a genious to see that the temperature in the last 10 years with some exceptions has been colder that usual:-) just go outside to find out for yourself. It’s there a way you could possibly change your mind? Just watch all of the videos of lord monckton especially the 2010 “lord monckton in sydney” with a real scientist, then decide, but monckton is a real amiable man. By the way, it’s snowing in summer in some part of south australia, i know cause i am here. bye for now

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