Influential think tank appoints climate sceptic

Mark Littlewood has been appointed as the new Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs, which has been described by Andrew Marr as “undoubtedly the most influential think tank in modern British history”.

Littlewood previously established Progressive Vision, a ‘think tank’ which runs the ‘Green Monitor’ campaign, proclaiming to “track and analyse” environment groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. Or from another point of view, pushing extreme anti-environmental propaganda and denying climate change.

On his website he makes statements such as:

“The lights are off across Africa, and they shall not come on in our lifetime – if the environmentalists have anything to do with it!”

Just last week Littlewood was interviewed by the BBC (The Record Europe, 15/10/2009) who presented him as the ‘communications director’ for Green Monitor and described his group as “a campaign questioning the science behind climate change warnings.”

In 1999, Mark was Communications Director for the Pro-Euro Conservative Party, a breakaway from the Conservative Party. Littlewood will probably be at home at the IEA on this subject since it has a history of disputing climate scientists.

But it remains to be seen whether the ‘think tank’ will be as influential under his leadership over David Cameron’s Conservatives as it proved to be over Margaret Thatcher’s. We can only hope not, but according to Guido Fawkes, the IEA is, “enjoying a burst of increased funding and activity as the expectation that their ideas will be sympathetically received in government increases.”

1. Caroline Sick Of The Lies says:

   October 27, 2009 at 11:21 am

   Hi Luke,

   I know you guys are London Centric but just got some stats from Wales.

   I know you like to be balanced…

   snip>>

   EMBARGO: 11.30pm Monday, 26 October 2009

   Results of the first YouGov poll in Wales

   Tomorrow (Tuesday) morning the results of the first Welsh poll by YouGov – one the UK’s leading polling organisations – will be made public in a specially organised breakfast seminar in the Norwegian Church in Cardiff Bay. The results will be presented and analysed by Wales’s leading political analysts, Richard Wyn Jones Director of the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University, and Prof. Roger Scully, Director of Aberystwyth University Institute of Welsh Politics.

   Among the results……

   Westminster voting intentions in Wales (change since 2005 general
   election)
   %
   Labour 34 (-9)
   Conservative 31 (+10)
   Lib-Dems 12 (-2)
   Plaid Cymru 15 (+2)
   Others 7 (+2)
   Q. If a general election were held tomorrow how would you vote?

   If the swings implied by this poll are applied uniformly across Wales, the parties would win following number of MPs (change since 2005 in brackets)

   Labour 20 (-9)
   Conservative 12 (+9)
   Lib-Dems 2 (-2)
   Plaid Cymru 5 (+2)
   Others 1

   The predicted results:
   * Represent the worst Labour vote share in Wales since 1918
   (3.5% worse than in 1983)
   * Would equal Tory vote share in 1983
   * Would be Plaid’s best general election vote share and seat result ever

   Richard Wyn Jones said:
   “This poll serves to underline that the Conservatives are continuing to
   make very significant progress in Wales. Having been wiped out
   completely in 1997, they appear on course for one of their best ever
   results at the next UK general election. For Labour, on the other hand, this is more dismal news from what was formerly its most staunch of heartland areas.”

   According to Prof. Roger Scully, “Labour is clearly in very deep trouble in Wales as in the rest of Britain, and the party that is benefiting most from that is the Conservatives. And while Plaid Cymru can be moderately pleased by their showing, there are not making the same impact as their sister party, the SNP, is in Scotland.”

   It’s all been checked by YouGov and by the way as a Labour voter in Wales it’s going to be WAY worse for Labour than this
2. Hannah Lownsbrough says:

   October 27, 2009 at 12:12 pm

   RT @leftfootfwd Influential think tank appoints climate sceptic: http://is.gd/4E8rG
3. National Minimum Wage under attack | Left Foot Forward says:

   October 28, 2009 at 4:59 pm

   [...] Littlewood, the newly appointed Director General of Institute of Economic Affairs, has written a blistering attack on the National [...]
4. Wendi Yates says:

   November 15, 2009 at 4:57 pm

   Influential think tank appoints climate sceptic | Left Foot Forward http://tinyurl.com/yzsqoqh