Lord Monckton climate sceptic on BBC4

Funny that Lord Monckton went to court (unsuccessfully as it turns out) in an attempt to prevent the BBC screening the documentary on him last night. Perhaps it was a publicity stunt.  I'd not heard of the programme until he lost the court case, and then only watched it in the hope of a few predictable laughs at his expense.  But - perhaps I'm a softy - I thought it was the most sympathetic portrayal of him I have ever seen.

It showed him as independent thinking, brave, hard working, committed.  OK, it made it fairly clear that he was also wrong on many key issues.  Being caught out at the end blatantly misrepresenting the conclusions of the International Astronomical Union was a bit awkward, but to be honest it was small beer compared to what they could have pointed out about him.

They were (for example) nice enough not to point out that he once wrote an article saying the only way to deal with AIDS was to test everyone monthly and that those with HIV positive results should "be isolated compulsorily, immediately, and permanently."  He has changed his mind on this, saying this was his view early on and now too many are HIV positive to make this possible (though at the time, testing the entire population monthly, and isolating around  1.5-3 million Americans citizens who had AIDS was presumably not a particular problem). 

They also didn't mention his false claim to be a member of the House of Lords.  Again, for completeness, Monckton is called Lord, because he has a hereditary peerage, but most hereditary peers have of course been removed from the Lords.   As a "transitional" arrangement, Tony Blair's Government allowed nearly 100 hereditary peers to stand for election and indeed Monckton did so.  Sadly he didn't get any votes.

Monckton is hardly a typical sceptic - he really is a one off.  And it would be daft to argue that because sceptics attract the occasional crank, they are all bonkers.  (In fact it wouldn't just be daft, it would be a bit dangerous....I'll admit to meeting a few cranky environmentalists in my time). On climate change I'd recommend that we all look at all the evidence, listen to all view-points, weigh-up the risks and then come to a conclusion.