In the week that Vice-President Al Gore received a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in educating the world about climate change, the global warming doubters have been getting all giddy about a British court calling Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth partisan and saying it should be kept out of schools.
Apart from the fact it’s not really true. What actually happened is that a school governor, Stewart Dimmock, had been trying to get the film taken off the curriculum, alleging it was “brainwashing” pupils, by suing the government. Last Thursday, High Court judge Mr Justice Barton said that, while he thought there were some scientific inaccuracies or issues on which there were rival interpretations, the film was “broadly accurate” and it could be shown in schools as part of a wider discussion. This was actually redundant: In February, U.K. Environment Secretary David Miliband ordered the film be sent to all state secondary schools as part of a package of climate change educational material, and said it was to be discussed in context.
But who is Stewart Dimmock? As a professional truck driver, he’s part of an industry that has continually lobbied against any form of carbon tax. But there’s another component. The Manchester Observer reports Dimmock is a member of and backed by obscure political group The New Party. According to the report, the party’s main funder is mining-firm Cloburn Quarry Ltd. Firm owner Robert Durward previously funded professional climate change debunkers the Scientific Alliance, which worked with the Exxon-funded George C. Marshall Institute to attack the Kyoto Protocols.
The New Party describes itself in vague terms on its website as favoring “economic liberalism, political reform and internationalism.” But buried in the manifesto are the mantras of deregulation and free marketeering. It also proposes withdrawing from the UN and the International Criminal Court, chillingly adding “A sentimental attachment to ‘international law’ is no substitute for effective action.”
So that will be “New Party,” as in “Neo-Con.”
This article appears in October 12 • 2007.
