by Robert Henderson
Judged by that clip, I regret to say Delingpole didn’t do himself any favours in the interview. He was palpably nervous – far too much hand waving and looking about him – while Nurse was very relaxed, although he did maintain a preternaturally patronising grin on his face which was amazingly irritating. However, the grin was born of the fact that Nurse knew, just knew, Delingpole was going to struggle with the science. Having met the man* I would also say Nurse is considerably Delingpole’s intellectual superior. Nor is it true that someone with a scientific background in one science will not have an advantage over a non-scientist when they go into another scientific field. They will have the culture of science within them, its general procedures, its general arguments.
The worst moment in the clip was when Nurse gave Delingpole the analogy of whether he would accept a consensus on his treatment if he had cancer. Instead of picking the weak analogy apart – all he needed to do was point out that having cancer would be a certainty while global warming is not – he came to a dead halt for several seconds before feebly saying “Let’s return to climate change”.
* How have I met the man? Well, there is a truly mad scheme by UKCMRI to put a gigantic research laboratory dealing in Pirbright standard toxins a few yards from the Eurostar Terminal, the British Library and a great deal of residential housing. Paul Nurse is the front man for the consortium proposing the plan. Far from being concerned about the environment, he is only too happy to take risks with it when it suits his purpose.
There is a big political story here, far more than the Standard article below discloses. You will find full details at http://www.ukcmri.wordpress.com/
Spread the story around. I will make my documents relating to Gordon Brown’s involvement avaialble to anyone who wants them.
If anyone has an email for Richard D North please let me have it.
Robert Henderson
