Not in a bad way...

Not in a bad way...: "We finally got a discussion about the CRU emails on the BBC with Lord Lawson and UEA Professor Robert Watson appearing on the Today programme this morning. Listen here.

I, like Cassandra in the comments, was struck by the little qualifying statements made by Professor Watson:

'These scientists at the University of East Anglia are both honourable and world class. Their data is not being manipulated in any bad way whatsoever… these scientists are not manipulating or hiding anything… UEA work with the British Met Office and they're absolutely beyond doubt that they have not manipulated the data in any negative sense…'

Depends what you mean by 'bad' and 'negative', I guess. Fiddling the code, changing results, deleting emails, claiming to have lost data and threatening to destroy it rather than release it through FOI requests, getting those who disagree removed from prominent positions, refusing to include contradictory research in the IPCC report - just a brief list of the things done by these 'honourable and world class' scientists. But not in a bad way.

Here's a neat little quiz highlighting some of the honourable activities revealed by the emails.

I'm reminded of the words of comedian Dom Irrera:

'When people say to me, 'Can I be honest with you?' No, please be as misleading and deceitful as possible, that's all I'd expect from a lowlife scumbag like you. And I don't mean that in a bad way.'

(Update - sorry, didn't notice that David had already posted on this.)

Update 13.15. Tonight's edition of Newsnight:

Susan Watts will be bringing us the latest on the story that the e-mail system of one of the world's leading climate research units has been breached by hackers.

Watts, you may recall, is no stranger to the manipulation of information where climate change is concerned.

[Newsnight also has a film on 'controversial' Polish MEP Michal Kaminski. How many BBC reports have there been on this one man? Where are the equivalent investigations into senior European politicians with 'controversial' left-wing backgrounds (the new unelected European foreign minister, for example)?]

Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

"