I have always liked Ann Widdecombe [pictured], the Conservative Member of Parliament for Maidstone and The Weald, and a Privy Counsellor. She is unquestionably a character, and she is undoubtedly her own woman. How we need such people in our lemming-like PC politics of today, in which the Ministry of Truth can so dangerously hold sway. Ann is also a thoughtful Christian, and she is often politically brave. I was thus not surprised to read her splendid article in yesterday’s Daily Express challenging the political orthodoxy on ‘global warming [‘Yes, I am a heretic on global warming’, Daily Express, June 18]:

“Much has been made of my voting with the Government to allow the police to detain terror suspects for 42 days, rather than 28, in special cases.

Yet there was a more important vote last week, in which I was one of only three Members of Parliament to vote against the might of all parties and defy the Climate Change Bill which will cost Britain hundreds of billions of pounds, will not mean any other country has to follow suit and, as we are responsible for only two per cent of the world’s carbon emissions, will make no difference to the climate or to global warming.”

Just so.

‘Thought-Police’

But, it is what Ann records next in her article that should send an Orwellian shiver down the spine:

“Climate change has become a religion, with anyone who dares to throw out a question or two instantly accused of heresy.

I have had my doubts for some time, and certainly about major unilateral action on the part of the UK, but these have crystalised since reading Nigel Lawson’s book An Appeal To Reason, subtitled A Cool Look At Global Warming.

Appallingly, this gem could not find a British publisher because none was brave enough. One wrote: ‘My fear with this cogently argued book is that it flies so much in the face of prevailing orthodoxy that it would be very difficult to find a wide market.’”

Grief! I am surprised that someone didn’t recommend Nigel Lawson be taken away for ‘re-education’ following his ‘thoughtcrimes’. You can just sense the two-way television-surveillance society. But it is all too correct. Until recently, the ‘thought-police’ in the UK have worked especially hard to silence critics of ‘global warming’, exactly as Ann exemplifies. It is precisely why I believe that ‘Global Warming Politics’ is a vital site to host.

Moreover, worldwide, the efforts to drown out such important critics as Bjørn Lomborg have been some of the most disgraceful I have ever witnessed. And, even I have experienced, if to a much lesser degree, attempts to close down debate, one group of engineers, for example, receiving e-mails stating that I should not be allowed to speak to their society. Needless to say, the engineers in question were encouragingly robust in their response. Unfortunately, the resort to ad hominem abuse has been a particular speciality of the ‘thought-police’.

Thus, in the UK, ‘global warming’ was allowed to burgeon into an authoritarian and intolerant monster, one threatening freedom of thought and debate, and undermining critical journalism and politics.

Better Sense Of Proportion

Luckily, however, over the last year or so, this has begun to alter as climate change has failed to play ball with the ‘global warming’ gamers; as economic and political realities have started to bite; as the public have grown wary of the political abuse of ‘global warming’ to raise taxes and costs; and, as the often breathtaking hypocrisy of the ‘global warming’ zealots, from the UN via the EU to individual politicians, celebrities, and journalists, has been revealed in all its tawdry double standards.

Yet, thank goodness, there have been strong people out there, folk like Ann Widdecombe and Nigel Lawson, who strive to tell it as it is:

“I am most certainly not prepared to vote to commit Britain to a course of action which will make not a jot of difference to global temperatures but which could change our way of life and leave us unable to compete with those countries that keep a better sense of proportion.”

And, although Ann is currently in a minority, I think I can detect that her stance will be increasingly vindicated. I happen to know that there are vast swaths of Conservative supporters, including MPs and Lords, who believe exactly what Ann argues, but who are holding their tongues until David Cameron is elected.

I also believe that economic and political realities will prove remarkably powerful in focusing minds afresh.

But, we should never forget that Ann was one of the few souls in public life bold enough to speak out well before the Party time-servers start to jump ship from the SS ‘Global Warming’. So it is:

“3 Cheers for Ann!

(For Who?)

For Ann -

(Why what did she do?)

I thought you knew;

She voted GW down the pan!”

[See also: ‘Twenty Twenty-Four’, October 28, 2007]