spectator london

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</div><div>first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph newspaper, via <g-bubble jscontroller="QVaUhf" data-ci="" data-du="200" data-tp="5" jsaction="R9S7w:VqIRre;" jsshadow=""><span jsname="d6wfac" class="c5aZPb" data-enable-toggle-animation="true" data-extra-container-classes="ZLo7Eb" data-hover-hide-delay="1000" data-hover-open-delay="500" data-send-open-event="true" data-theme="0" data-width="250" role="button" tabindex="0" jsaction="vQLyHf" jsslot="" data-ved="2ahUKEwji59GPrMj_AhVUlWoFHY5gAQkQmpgGegQIGhAD" style="cursor: pointer; outline: 0px;">Press Holdings</g-bubble>. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture. It is politically conservative.</div><div>=</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator">https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator</a></div><div>
</div><div>The Spectator is a <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/British" class="mw-redirect" title="British" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">British</a> <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Right-wing" class="mw-redirect" title="Right-wing" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">right-wing</a> magazine currently edited by Fraser Nelson. In 2004 it was bought by David and Frederick Barclay, who also own the <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Daily_Telegraph" title="Daily Telegraph" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Daily Telegraph</a> and Sunday Telegraph (David died in January 2021).<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[1]</a>Although early in its history it supported the <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Liberal_Party#British_Liberal_Party" title="Liberal Party" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Liberal Party</a>, since the 1950s it has been closely linked to the British <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Conservative_Party(UK)" title="Conservative Party (UK)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Conservative Party</a>, initially on the moderate wing, but more recently moving much further right.In recent years it has featured controversial journalists including <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Boris_Johnson" title="Boris Johnson" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Boris Johnson</a> (later prime minister), <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Taki" title="Taki" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Taki</a>, and <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Toby_Young" title="Toby Young" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Toby Young</a>.It shouldn't be confused with The American Spectator, a conservative American magazine.<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a><div id="toc" class="toc" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="mw-toc-heading" style="border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); padding: 7px; display: table;"><input type="checkbox" role="button" id="toctogglecheckbox" class="toctogglecheckbox" style="direction: ltr; position: absolute; opacity: 0; z-index: -1; display: none;" /><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr" style="text-align: center; direction: ltr;">
</div><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#History" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">1History</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#Controversies" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2Controversies</a><ul style="list-style-image: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-type: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#Taki" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.1Taki</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#Charles_Moore" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.2Charles Moore</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#Boris_Johnson" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.3Boris Johnson</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#Rod_Little" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.4Rod Little</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#Alt-right" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.5Alt-right</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#Islamophobia" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2.6Islamophobia</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#Down_Under" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">3Down Under</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#See_also" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">4See also</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#External_links" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">5External links</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-12" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">6References</a></li></ul></div><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">History[</h2>Although it is unconnected with the historic <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Enlightenment" class="mw-redirect" title="Enlightenment" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Enlightenment</a> daily <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spectator(1711)" class="extiw" title="wp:The Spectator (1711)" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The Spectator</a><img alt="Wikipedia" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px;" /> founded by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele in 1711, The Spectator still has a very long history. It dates back to 1828 and Scottish publisher Robert Stephen Rintoul; initially he intended it to be a "family paper", free from polemic, but it soon got involved in the campaign that led to the 1832 Great Reform Act, and it opposed the First <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Opium" class="mw-redirect" title="Opium" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Opium</a> War.<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a>In 1858 it was bought by James McHenry and Benjamin Moran, two Americans, who redirected it in support of then-<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States" title="President of the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">President of the United States</a> <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/James_Buchanan" title="James Buchanan" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">James Buchanan</a>, the <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Democratic_Party" title="Democratic Party" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Democratic Party</a> who had attempted to fudge over the issue of <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Slavery" title="Slavery" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">slavery</a>, cheerleading him in the run up to the 1860 election won by <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln" title="Abraham Lincoln" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Abraham Lincoln</a>.<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-butterfield-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a> Around this time it hired <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Hunt" class="extiw" title="wp:Leigh Hunt" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Leigh Hunt</a><img alt="Wikipedia" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px;" /> as a celebrity columnist. There are rumours it was also funded or secretly owned by then-Emperor of France <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_III" class="extiw" title="wp:Napoleon III" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Napoleon III</a>,<img alt="Wikipedia" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px;" /> publishing a lot of pro-<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/France" title="France" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">France</a> material around 1860.<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-butterfield-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a> However it supported the Union in the <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/American_Civil_War" title="American Civil War" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">American Civil War</a>, contrary to the British upper classes' support for the <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Confederate_States_of_America" title="Confederate States of America" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Confederacy</a>. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the magazine was radically <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Liberal_Party" title="Liberal Party" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Liberal</a> and pro-<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Free_trade" title="Free trade" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">free trade</a>. In 1924 it was sold to Evelyn Wrench, and in the 1930s although it opposed <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Fascism" title="Fascism" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">fascism</a>, it supported <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Neville_Chamberlain" title="Neville Chamberlain" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Neville Chamberlain</a>'s policy of <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Appeasement" title="Appeasement" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">appeasement</a>.Ownership and editorship in 1954 passed to Ian Gilmour, later a moderate Conservative politician known for his opposition to <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher" title="Margaret Thatcher" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Margaret Thatcher</a>; it opposed <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Capital_punishment" title="Capital punishment" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">capital punishment</a> and the Suez invasion and supported legalisation of <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Homosexuality" title="Homosexuality" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">homosexuality</a> while generally being aligned to the liberal wing of the Conservative Party, with politicians such as Iain Macleod contributing.In 1975, it was bought by Henry Keswick, a businessman whose family had a long history of trading in <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Hong_Kong" class="mw-redirect" title="Hong Kong" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Hong Kong</a>. With Alexander Chancellor as editor, it engaged famous writers including fogeyish humorist Auberon Waugh, distinguished war correspondent Richard West, notorious drunkard Jeffrey Bernard, and the even more notorious <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Racist" class="mw-redirect" title="Racist" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">racist</a> <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Taki" title="Taki" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Taki Theodoracopulos</a>.<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[5]</a> Editorship then passed to Charles Moore (later of the Sunday Telegraph) and then Dominic Lawson, son of Tory Chancellor Nigel. In 1994 it published a controversial article "Kings of the Deal" by William Cash which claimed that Jews ran Hollywood, attracting allegations of <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Antisemitism" title="Antisemitism" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">antisemitism</a>.<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[6]</a>In the era of <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Tony_Blair" title="Tony Blair" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Tony Blair</a> it tilted briefly towards New Labour under the editorship of Frank Johnson, but his replacement in 1999 was a more controversial figure: <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Boris_Johnson" title="Boris Johnson" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Boris Johnson</a> (no relation). Boris left in 2005 to further his political career, and was replaced by Matthew d'Ancona, who in 2009 was succeeded by Fraser Nelson, who remains editor as of 2021. Fraser launched an American edition digitally in 2018 and on paper in 2019.<h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Controversies[</h2>While the magazine has long been right-wing, and has had a certain amount of racist shock material (mostly from Taki) since the 1970s, it has since around 2000 gone in pursuit of political <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Extremism" class="mw-redirect" title="Extremism" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">extremism</a>, rejecting its old conservative values in favour of <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Identitarian" class="mw-redirect" title="Identitarian" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">identitarian</a> politics and an embrace of <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Alt-right" title="Alt-right" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">alt-right</a> values in a <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Culture_war" title="Culture war" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">culture war</a> against immigrants, Europeans, and liberals. As Panjak Mishra wrote in 2017:<blockquote class="letter" style="width: auto; background: rgb(248, 248, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(201, 201, 207); margin: 1em 20px; padding: 10px;">The Spectator, once suavely edited, now serves as a <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Fraternity" class="mw-redirect" title="Fraternity" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">fraternity</a> house for Douglas Murray, Toby Young, James Delingpole and Rod Liddle; <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Islamophobia" title="Islamophobia" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">pummelling Muslims</a> and high-fiving on <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Brexit" title="Brexit" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Brexit</a>, these right-wing bros are to the posh periodicals what Jeremy Clarkson was to the <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/BBC" title="BBC" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">BBC</a>.<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a></blockquote>Ian Buruma said of the change:<blockquote class="letter" style="width: auto; background: rgb(248, 248, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(201, 201, 207); margin: 1em 20px; padding: 10px;">It used to be <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Libertarian" class="mw-redirect" title="Libertarian" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">libertarian</a>, cheeky. Now it’s like the <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Daily_Mail" title="Daily Mail" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Daily Mail</a>. The difference is, I suppose, that its old spirit came from superiority. Now it comes from resentment and disappointment.<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-jacobson-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a></blockquote>Gavin Jacobson added:<blockquote class="letter" style="width: auto; background: rgb(248, 248, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(201, 201, 207); margin: 1em 20px; padding: 10px;">The Spectator has become a sounding board for resentment, amplifying the catastrophist mentality that has gripped the right in Britain and the US.<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-jacobson-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a></blockquote><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Taki[</h3>Many of its controversies have revolved around Taki. In 2003, under Boris Johnson's editorship, it was investigated by the crown prosecution service to see if an article by Taki violated section 19 of the Public Order Act; Taki complained about "black thugs" who "multiply like flies" and praised <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Enoch_Powell" title="Enoch Powell" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Enoch Powell</a>, and the dispute led to black lawyer and judge <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Herbert(lawyer)" class="extiw" title="wp:Peter Herbert (lawyer)" rel="nofollow" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Peter Herbert</a><img alt="Wikipedia" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px;" /> receiving death threats.<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[9]</a>In 2018, The Spectator published an article by Taki that praised the Wehrmacht (who, in case you're historically oblivious, were the soldiers of <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany" title="Nazi Germany" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Nazi Germany</a>). The original headline/subheadline of the article read: "In praise of Wehrmacht: The real story of D-Day is the heroism of the <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/German" class="mw-redirect" title="German" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">German</a> soldiers who were vastly outnumbered but fought nobly and to the death." This was later swapped out for something less obviously fascistic yet still offering wonderful <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/False_balance" class="mw-redirect" title="False balance" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">false balance</a>: "The other side of D-Day".<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[11]</a> Even <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/RT" title="RT" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">RT</a>, a <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Putin" class="mw-redirect" title="Putin" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Putin</a> asset, <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Stopped_clock" title="Stopped clock" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">wasn't amused</a>, and pointed out that this was a pattern: another article that Taki had written in 2007 for The Spectator read: "In praise of <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Mussolini" class="mw-redirect" title="Mussolini" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Mussolini</a>".<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-13" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[13]</a> Taki has also written multiple articles in defense of <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Golden_Dawn" title="Golden Dawn" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Golden Dawn</a>, a Greek neo-Nazi party that was later declared a criminal organization by the Greek government, in a case that has been compared to the <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Nuremberg_trials" title="Nuremberg trials" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Nuremberg trials</a>.<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-14" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[14]</a><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-15" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[15]</a><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-16" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[16]</a><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Charles Moore[</h3>It was criticised in 2015 when Charles Moore wrote an article questioning whether Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall were pretty enough to lead the <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Labour_Party" title="Labour Party" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Labour Party</a>, which was seen as somewhat <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Sexist" class="mw-redirect" title="Sexist" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">sexist</a> if not <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Misogynistic" class="mw-redirect" title="Misogynistic" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">misogynistic</a>, as it didn't apply similar standards to Andy Burnham and Ed Balls.<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-17" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[17]</a><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Boris Johnson[</h3><div role="note" class="hatnote" style="padding-left: 2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">See the main article on this topic: <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Boris_Johnson" title="Boris Johnson" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Boris Johnson</a></div>Britain's lovably dishevelled future prime minister edited the Spectator from 1999-2005. There were various controversies in this period. Johnson was known for his womanising, earning the publication the nickname The Sextator, including a relationship with journalist Petronella Wyatt which resulted in one <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Abortion" title="Abortion" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">abortion</a> and one miscarriage. When challenged about this by his bosses at the Conservative Party, he lied; when he was proven to have lied, he was sacked by Tory leader Michael Howard. Toby Young and Lloyd Evans wrote a play called Who's The Daddy? about the scandal, to mixed reviews.<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-18" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[18]</a><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-19" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[19]</a><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-20" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[20]</a>He annoyed the entire population of Liverpool (traditionally of <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Socialist" class="mw-redirect" title="Socialist" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">socialist</a> leanings), when The Spectator accused the city of wallowing in victimhood over incidents such as the deaths of 96 football fans at Hillsborough in Sheffield and the murder of British engineer Ken Bigley by <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Islamist_terrorism" class="mw-redirect" title="Islamist terrorism" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Islamist terrorists</a>. The remarks were in an editorial by Simon Heffer, but Johnson as the editor was forced to apologise after criticism by Michael Howard.<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-21" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[21]</a><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[22]</a>Johnson was involved in a feud with right-wing journalist Andrew Neil, who was appointed over him by the Barclays in 2004 when they bought The Spectator; the feud continued in the 2019 general election campaign where Johnson refused to be interviewed by Neil.<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-23" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[23]</a><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-24" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[24]</a><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Rod Little[</h3>Rod Liddle is another odious columnist. In December 2017 he poked fun at Labour MP Rosie Duffield for speaking out about being a victim of <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Domestic_violence" title="Domestic violence" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">domestic violence</a>.<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-jacobson-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a> Liddle called Duffield "the sobbing and oppressed Rosie '#<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/MeToo" class="mw-redirect" title="MeToo" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">MeToo</a>' Duffield"; she called him "racist and misogynist".He has made frequently insulting or racist remarks about Islam and Muslims. These included in 2018: "If you are an unpleasant person who enjoys macabre entertainment, wander down to Mile End and watch the women in full burka trying to cross the A11. That’s always good for a laugh."<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-cathcart2021-25" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[25]</a> He also suggested in 2019 that the general election be held when students couldn't vote and "Muslims are forbidden from doing anything on pain of <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Hell" title="Hell" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">hell</a>".<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-26" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[26]</a><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Alt-right[<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=The_Spectator&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: Alt-right" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a>]</h3><div role="note" class="hatnote" style="padding-left: 2em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;">See the main article on this topic: <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Alt-right" title="Alt-right" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Alt-right</a></div>In the late 2010s it became increasingly interested in the alt-right, with James Delingpole penning an article headlined "The alt-right isn’t all wrong". Delingpole defended his "friend and colleague" <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Milo_Yiannopoulos" title="Milo Yiannopoulos" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Milo Yiannopoulos</a>, and insisted that the alt-right's antisemitism and racism were ignorable because "most of this stuff is confected and insincere".<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-delingpole2016-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a> He also cited <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Sargon_of_Akkad" title="Sargon of Akkad" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Sargon of Akkad</a> in defence of the <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/White_genocide" title="White genocide" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">white genocide</a> <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory" title="Conspiracy theory" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">conspiracy theory</a>:<blockquote class="letter" style="width: auto; background: rgb(248, 248, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(201, 201, 207); margin: 1em 20px; padding: 10px;">it’s about the idea that white culture (which they identify interchangeably with western civilisation) is under threat and must be preserved for the future of the race. Hence the alt-right’s violent objection to immigration; hence the nationalistic ‘America first’ theme of Trump’s campaigning: it all appeals to that increasingly popular impulse, from northern England to middle America to <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Angela_Merkel" title="Angela Merkel" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Angela Merkel</a>’s immigrant-friendly <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Germany" title="Germany" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Germany</a>, that this represents ordinary white folks’ last chance to preserve their culture and traditions before they’re overwhelmed by the dusky hordes.<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-delingpole2016-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></blockquote>Delingpole concluded:<blockquote class="letter" style="width: auto; background: rgb(248, 248, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(201, 201, 207); margin: 1em 20px; padding: 10px;">Should more mainstream conservatives be worried by this? Well yes, of course, but they have largely themselves to blame. It’s why the alt-right refers to them disparagingly as ‘<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Alt-right_glossary#Cuckservative" title="Alt-right glossary" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">cuckservatives</a>’ — that is, <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Cuckold" class="mw-redirect" title="Cuckold" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">cuckolds</a> whose spinelessness, compromise and me-too <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Virtue_signalling" class="mw-redirect" title="Virtue signalling" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">virtue signalling</a> has enabled the <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Social_justice_warriors" class="mw-redirect" title="Social justice warriors" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">social justice warriors</a> of the progressive left to take so much territory.<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-delingpole2016-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></blockquote><h3 style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 1.6; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Islamophobia[</h3>A 2021 study by the Muslim Council of Britain's Centre for Media Monitoring that looked at media coverage of Muslims and <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Islam" title="Islam" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Islam</a> in 34 publications found that The Spectator had the highest percentage of articles judged "antagonistic" to Muslims, 37.3% of all articles which mentioned the religion, and the highest proportion of articles which the study judged misrepresented Muslims and/or Islam, one in four. The Spectator also had the second highest negative bias of any publication studied, with 10.9% of relevant articles "very biased" (only Christian Today with 11.3% "very biased" was worse).<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-28" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[28]</a> Rod Little has published multiple comments mocking or insulting Muslims, and Charles Moore, James Delingpole and Douglas Murray also expressed hostility to Muslims in The Spectator.<a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-cathcart2021-25" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[25]</a><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Down Under[</h2>In 2008 under d'Ancona's editorship the magazine started publishing an Australian edition of the magazine, which its regards as its sister publication. <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-29" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[29]</a> This is basically the same magazine as the British version, but with the first few pages containing Australian commentary by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglosphere" class="extiw" title="wp:Anglosphere" rel="nofollow" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Anglocentric</a><img alt="Wikipedia" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/12px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png" decoding="async" width="12" height="12" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/18px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Wikipedia%27s_W.svg/24px-Wikipedia%27s_W.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="128" data-file-height="128" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px;" /> conservative commentators such as <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Tony_Abbott" title="Tony Abbott" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Tony Abbott</a>, <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-30" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[30]</a> <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Andrew_Bolt" title="Andrew Bolt" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Andrew Bolt</a>, <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-31" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[31]</a> <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/One_Nation" title="One Nation" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">One Nation</a>'s Mark Latham <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-32" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[32]</a> and <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Liberal_Party_of_Australia" title="Liberal Party of Australia" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Liberal</a>'s Matt Caravan. <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Spectator#cite_note-33" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[33]</a> It is currently edited by Rowan Dean, a <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Sky_News_Australia" title="Sky News Australia" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Sky News Australia</a> presenter and <a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Climate_change_denialism" class="mw-redirect" title="Climate change denialism" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">climate change denialist</a> who notably doesn’t believe that Great Barrier Reef is dying.<h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">See also[</h2><ul style="list-style-image: url("/w/skins/Vector/resources/skins.vector.styles/images/bullet-icon.svg?d4515"); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px 1.6em; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/The_Critic" title="The Critic" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The Critic</a></li></ul><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">External links[</h2><ul style="list-style-image: url("/w/skins/Vector/resources/skins.vector.styles/images/bullet-icon.svg?d4515"); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px 1.6em; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent) right center no-repeat, url("/w/skins/Vector/resources/skins.vector.styles/images/external-link-ltr-icon.svg?b4b84"); padding-right: 13px;">The Spectator</a></li></ul></div><div>=
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</div><div>jo nova //</div><div><div>The voice of energy realism</div><div>The transition from coal is limited by the lowest level of renewable energy input to the grid on windless nights…</div><div>.Nov 9, 2022</div><div>
</div><div>The Monthly</div><div>Lord Monckton and the Future of Australian Media</div><div>In July 2011, one of the most extreme climate change denialists, Lord Monckton, accepted an invitation to take a trip to Australia – a...</div><div>.Feb 8, 2012</div><div>
</div><div>Washington Times</div><div>Australia bush fires blamed on green forestry policies</div><div>Australia's catastrophic bush fires have been widely blamed on human-caused climate change, but evidence is mounting that the devastation...</div><div>.Jan 20, 2020</div><div>
</div><div></div><div>ny post</div><div>ar has broken out between the nearly 200-year-old, London-based weekly magazine The Spectator, and a younger American conservative magazine titled The American Spectator, which has been publishing under that name for four decades.Until recently, the two publications had quite cordial relations and seemingly separate spheres of influence on their respective continents.That changed in recent years. In October 2019 the British publisher, Press Holdings Media Group, introduced an American print version: The Spectator US Edition. That followed the introduction of a website targeting an American audience a year earlier.The Yanks, who have been publishing under The American Spectator name since 1977, are now furious.“Despite actual knowledge of The American Spectator’s long history in the United States and familiarity with the content of its magazine, other publications and website, Media Group adopted the marks ‘The Spectator US Edition’ for its printed publication … and ‘Spectator USA’ for its website targeting the US market,” claimed the American Spectator Foundation, the non-profit that owns the American magazine, as part of a trademark infringement suit it filed in federal district court in Alexandria VA.The lawsuit complains that “‘The Spectator US Edition’ and ‘Spectator USA’ marks, are similar in sound, meaning, and appearance and create the same commercial impression as the ‘The American Spectator.'”The American Spectator tried on different names earlier in its life, starting out as the Alternative before switching to The Alternative: An American Spectator in the late 1960s. It moved to its current title in 1977.But the British scoffed at its relatively new track record. “The Spectator is the oldest magazine in the world, founded in 1828 and read in America since at least the middle of the 19th century when, alone among influential British publications, it supported the North and the anti-slavery movement in the American Civil War. It has been sold in the US under that name continuously since that time.”The Brits claim that other US publications, from the Columbia Spectator newspaper to Wine Spectator magazine, all use the term “spectator,” making it is hard to claim a proprietary right to the name.“The American Spectator seems to believe it has dominion over the word “spectator” in the United States,” said Andrew Neil, chairman of The Spectator. “Given our distinguished history in Britain and America, our worldwide fame as The Spectator Magazine–the oldest in the world–and the prevalence of other magazines with ‘spectator’ in their titles, we find that claim not only wrong but absurd.”But the Yanks claim that the arrival of The Spectator US edition as a separate print magazine and its accompanying website targeted at a US audience interested in politics and world affairs has created “confusion” in the marketplace and caused “irreparable harm” to its brand. It seeks a jury trial and damages to be determined by the a jury.And the Brits concede that relations between the two spectators were cordial until it’s recent US launch.“Until this lawsuit, The Spectator has friendly relationship with the American Spectator and its founding editor Robert Emmett Tyrrell Jr. who clearly aped The Spectator’s layout, masthead and editorial style when he changed the name from the Alternative to Alternative The American Spectator in 1967 and about a decade later to just the American Spectator.”</div><div>=</div><div><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif">Koch Ties Among Bjorn Lomborg's Fan Network</h2>So what is the <a href="https://www.taxpayers.org.au/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Australian Taxpayers' Alliance</a> and who is Tim Andrews?Andrews is a graduate of the Koch Associate Program in the US – an effort by the billionaire Republican activist Koch brothers to train activists to push their free market libertarian ideals.The Koch’s and the foundations they control have pushed millions into organisation that push climate science denial and campaign to block laws cutting greenhouse gas emissions.Andrews also spent time as an intern at the Koch-linked Cato Institute. In a 2011 article in the right-wing <a href="http://www.spectator.co.uk/australia/7243323/meet-the-man-behind-the-anticarbon-tax-lobby/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">The Spectator</a> magazine, Andrews was described as one of the “masterminds” of Australia’s anti-carbon tax protests of that year.When Andrews created the stopgillardscarbontax.com website to help drive the 2011 protests, he recruited Cato Institute climate science denialist Patrick Michaels as an advisor.Michaels, who once admitted that about 40 per cent of the funding for his work came from the fossil fuel industry, is now a member of an <a href="https://www.taxpayers.org.au/academic-fellows/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; line-height: 1.1em;">academic advisory board at the ATA</a>.</div><div>
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</div><div><h1 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.4em; line-height: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Climate deniers are going all in with disinfo for COP26 (Sorry, Teslas really do produce fewer emissions)</h1><ul class="meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; list-style: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block;">TAGGED: <a href="http://redgreenandblue.org/tag/cop26/" rel="tag" style="text-transform: uppercase; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">COP26</a>, <a href="http://redgreenandblue.org/tag/denial/" rel="tag" style="text-transform: uppercase; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">DENIAL</a>, <a href="http://redgreenandblue.org/tag/tesla/" rel="tag" style="text-transform: uppercase; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">TESLA</a> October 27th, 2021</li></ul><div class="entry" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="at-above-post addthis_tool" data-url="http://redgreenandblue.org/2021/10/27/climate-deniers-going-disinfo-cop26-sorry-teslas-really-produce-fewer-emissions/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;">As the world gears up for the COP26 climate negotiations in Glasgow next week, deniers are already laying the groundwork for the disinformation they’ll peddle in a hopefully-vain attempt to recreate their success in using Climategate disinformation to disrupt the Copenhagen COP.
While every year brings a new and exciting display of denial, a few recent stories stand out as top candidates for the fossil fueled opposition to latch onto when confronted with the possibility that letting polluters profit our planet to death is a bad idea.By Climate Denier RoundupThough we can expect some totally-unhinged and <a href="https://twitter.com/PeterDClack/status/1452169012171796480" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">unsubstantiated claims about banning beef,</a> one of the biggest recurring arguments is also one of the most misleading, that the Texas blackouts offer a warning of what climate policies will make common.For example, Sean Spicer, who hasn’t quite danced his Trump-stained reputation clean yet, has a new book out, and the Koch-funded RealClear <a href="https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2021/10/22/the_green_raw_deal_800215.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">ran an excerpt</a>. It opens with a heart-tugging story about a 12 year old who died of hypothermia, and then quickly exploits the child’s death to score cheap, and completely false, political points. The 80+ deaths “were caused by political decisions,” Spicer writes, and “the tragedy of the Texas blackout was partially the result of the growth of the green energy industry.”But the majority of the <a title="" href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Which-energy-source-was-to-blame-for-the-Texas-16485932.php" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">responsibility for the blackouts</a> can be laid at the fossil fuel industry’s failure to do the one thing it claims it does best: Be reliable.That reliability claim is also at the core of another strain of disinformation we’re seeing around COP26, which is the suggestion that the Teslas parked at the Gleneagles Hotel that the VIPs will use in Glasgow are going to be charged by diesel generators. “Couldn’t make it up,” <a href="https://twitter.com/DonaldClark/status/1448206273951027203?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1448206273951027203%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fmarkets%2Fun-climate-change-conference-reportedly-using-diesel-generators-charge-teslas-being-used" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">one viral tweet claimed</a>.It was used as <a title="" href="https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/un-climate-change-conference-reportedly-using-diesel-generators-charge-teslas-being-used" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">the basis for a ZeroHedge story</a>, and the same narrative has been picked up by <a title="" href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/electric-cars-shortage-shock-at-cop26" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">the UK’s Spectator</a> magazine, and the climate <a href="https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/10/24/more-embarrassment-cop26-luxury-evs-to-be-recharged-using-diesel-generators/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">denial blog Watts Up With That</a>.The problem? Well, it turns out you could make it up, and they did, as it turns out it’s Jaguar-brand electric vehicles they’re using, not Teslas, and while the COP26 crew may use supplemental generators to charge the vehicles somewhere, Gleneagles Hotel has denied setting up any chargers, while conference organizers <a href="https://www.scotsman.com/news/transport/cop26-world-leaders-electric-cars-could-be-powered-up-by-vegetable-oil-fed-generators-because-of-charger-shortage-3412247" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">told Alastair Dalton for the Scotsman</a> that any spare generators are going to be filled with cooking waste oil, AKA biodiesel, not petroleum-based diesel.Although unreasonable for faux-populist conservatives to attack the rich elite pushing for climate action, it does seem odd that they’re apparently incapable of doing so in an honest way, despite that being so very, very easy to do.For example, <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/10/23/the-1-percent-lecture-about-climate-change-while-making-it-worse/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">a recent New York Post op-ed</a> does a fine job of criticizing the billionaire boy’s club of Bezos, Musk, Gates, and Jobs(‘s widow), but also throws in some fakery for good measure.While Paula Froelich is correct that “the electric cars made by Musk’s Tesla are not emissions free,” she then goes on to claim that the Wall Street Journal showed that “building one of his cars actually generates more emissions because of the metals needed for its lithium-ion batteries.”But when <a href="https://www.wsj.com/graphics/are-electric-cars-really-better-for-the-environment/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">you click through to the WSJ story</a>, the subheadline notes that while “there are caveats”, “EVs produce fewer emissions overall than their gas-powered counterparts.” That’s because while the manufacturing of an electric vehicle requires more materials than a gas-powered car, the pollution from refueling far outweighs that initial difference.Drive a Tesla for more than (at most) 20,000 miles, and you’ve broken even on emissions.Drive it for a car’s average lifespan of 150,000 miles, and not only has the EV cost you less in ownership (because electricity is cheaper than gas) but you’ve also generated less than half as much pollution.So if they had ordered and produced new electric cars for the COP26, and then immediately scrapped them afterwards, then yes, that would be hypocritical and wasteful. But the UK government has already said that the cars “have all been sourced from existing fleets in the UK,” so there’s not even that initial manufacturing pollution to count, dramatically improving the emissions footprint.But, as one local environmental campaigner, Colin Howden, told the Scotsman, what they could’ve done to reduce emissions even further (and avoid this issue all together) is have the dignitaries take advantage of the “fleet of new electric buses” in Glasgow.(Originally appeared at <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/10/26/2060294/-Fake-Meat-Bans-Debunked-Texas-Energy-Claims-And-False-EV-Attacks-Disinfo-To-Expect-at-COP26" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">DailyKos</a>.)</div></div><div>=</div></div><div>==</div></div></div></div>