BBC Passes Peak Delingpole

In a rare moment of forthright candour, the Maily Telegraph has told readers of new guidelines being employed by the Beeb: “BBC staff told to stop inviting cranks on to science programmes ... BBC Trust says 200 senior managers trained not to insert 'false balance' into stories when issues were non-contentious”. With such a majority taking the consensual position on climate change, this was inevitable.

"Gay marriage" ... "Global warming" ... "Eco crucifixes" ... "Red-meat conservatism" ... "no more BBC beer money"

Moreover, Sarah Knapton’s article may show that the paper which has, at least at the bear pit that is Telegraph blogs, done more than any other to promote not just climate change scepticism but outright denial, is moving into the mainstream. This progression had been forecast by one pundit for whom the BBC’s revisiting of science presentation brings very bad news.

Yes, brandishing his patented “air quotes”, the unapologetic James “saviour of Western civilisation” Delingpole has taken to his bully pulpit at the batshit collective otherwise known as Breitbart London to pen a furious assault on the idea that public service broadcasting should present a fact-based view of science, especially if it does not meet with the approval of Himself Personally Now.

Under the allegedly impartial and objective headline “BBC on its climate bias: ‘Move Along. Nothing to See Here”, Del Boy tells “The BBC has reaffirmed its commitment to green bias in a new report which promises to make it harder than ever for climate sceptics to get a fair hearing on any of its channels”, thus effortlessly inventing bias and casting himself as a, poor, misunderstood victim.

The Beeb, he protests, “embraces bias, groupthink, the abandonment of journalistic standards and the rejection of the scientific method”. He objects to a briefing by the IPCC, because, he claims, it “is a heavily-politicised organisation with a strong vested interest in promoting an alarmist narrative and a lengthening track record of failed predictions and deeply suspect claims”. Unlike his suspect claims, of course.

The abuse continues with an attack on Steve Jones, who, Delingpole claims, has “no particular expertise or knowledge about the climate change debate - as he went on to demonstrate in a shoddy, ill-researched, intellectually dishonest, but delightfully well-paid report for the BBC Trust”. This from the pundit who Paul Nurse skewered so easily, because he had, er, no particular expertise or knowledge.

The reality of Delingpole’s rant is that the BBC has given him plenty of airtime over the years, and he and his fellow Breitbarts depend on the Corporation’s oxygen of publicity to publicise their increasingly desperate and pisspoor site. But another intemperate stream of invective is not going to counter the reality – the open door for Del Boy at the Beeb is closing, and there is nothing he can do about it.

Yes, at long last, there goes James Delingpole, on his way ... out.