Wednesday
Nov252015
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Yeoful fail
Tim Yeo's libel action against the Sunday Times has failed. You will recall that this was over the newspaper's sting operation, in which Yeo was caught on camera offering to be a paid advocate for what he thought were a group of green lobbyists.
According to Guido the Sunday Times has said that Yeo's evidence was dismissed by the judge as:
“implausible”, “unreliable”, “not honest”,”dishonest”, “untruthful”, “untrue” and “unworthy of belief”.
Oh dear. :-)
Reader Comments (89)
"Marvellous"
OK. I'm going to make a prediction here.
If this is reported at all in the BBC (or Guardian), but probably in most of the mainstream media, just watch for the overuse of the word CONSERVATIVE.
Yeo's status will not be an environmentalist or green activist it will as a CONSERVATIVE who has lost a libel case. The issues will be downplayed and the take-away will be that a Conservative has been shown to be a liar.
No mention of anything related to GREEN
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-34921715
Well, it was libel to happen sooner or later.
It says a lot about the house of commons standards committee....and about self-policing in general.
Stern - Yeo - so who's next? Nurse? Walport?
Stern humiliated.... Yeo humiliated....
Aren't these things meant to go in threes?
Stuck-Record, he is a Conservative.
The scaremongering over AGW isn't a Left / Right issue.
It's an honest / dishonest issue.
Oh happy day. He has to pay over £400000 as a down payment for costs within 28 days.
Phil D
Deben surely the prime candidate? Odious character.
Re Costs, as he will now have to sell up and F*ck off, perhaps he can style himself as a "climate refugee"
If he has been told to pay £400,000 down payment for the Times costs, then the total along with his own is likely to be north of £1,000,000, and his prospects for troughing will be greatly limited because his reputation is in tatters.
Yeo is the most honest politician of the Green movement. It is remarkable that he has wasted his own ill-gotten money on proving it.
I am sure he will be welcomed in Paris, at the cash for dishonour celebrations.
Trebles all round!!! :-D
Ex-MP Tim Yeo gave 'untruthful' evidence in High Court libel action, says judge
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/12014863/Ex-MP-Tim-Yeo-loses-High-Court-libel-action-over-lobbying-claims.html
Former Tory MP Tim Yeo must pay Sunday Times £411,000 after losing libel bid over lobbying sting
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/former-tory-mp-tim-yeo-must-pay-sunday-times-%C2%A3411000-after-losing-libel-bid-over-lobbying-sting
Former MP Tim Yeo loses Sunday Times cash claim libel bid
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-34921715
If he'd kept his egotistical gob shut and his fat head down after being deservedly stung it would've likely vanished into the mists of time long ago. But no, ego rules, only proving once again the Streisand Effect is alive and well.
Splendid stuff.
Excellent news. One for Josh I think.
@Stuck Record.
Good call:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-34921715
A former Conservative MP has lost his libel case against The Sunday Times over a "cash for advocacy" claim.
Stuck-Record: The takeaway for me would be that Yeo is a politico of no true character, and is no true Conservative (or anything else) at all. That is how I judge Obama too (and so many other politicians today), based upon the evidence of his words and actions going all the way back to the 2008 Presidential campaign, before he was President.
For me, it is, foremost and always, a matter of, is this one or that one communicating the truth, consistently over time, or not (everyone makes mistakes, but they should be quickly found out and mended). If not, he/she doesn't belong in his/her position of influence (whether he/she is an outright liar, or "merely" ignorant and thus incompetent).
That Yeo is a Conservative in name (I have only just absorbed that fact, from your comment) reminds me that, while the climate alarmism is on the political surface being driven by the Insane Left--radical Liberals--the underlying rot in thinking encompasses the incompetents and fraudsters--in short, the unquestioning dogmatists--of every stripe. The system is literally broken, wherever such dogmatic incompetents are in power now. I know many armchair intellectuals will all too likely take this as a weak statement, a puerile rant against "dogmatism" in general, but the sorry fact of it should not be lost sight of by anyone. I do not use the descriptive "insane", in "The Insane Left", lightly, nor with political or ideological bias. The scientists with their "settled science", the environmentalists with their "concern for living things", the governments with their "climate policies", the media with their eagerness to hawk the "consensus" and lead the parade over the cliff--it is all broken by widespread incompetence, brought on by near-universal addiction to false dogmas, that divide us and weaken our common strivings, our civilization itself.
Thanks for reminding me, "Stuck-Record" (hmm...that plenty strange name, Kimosabee...you sure you not Indian).
The insane right has turned up again - this time with a 'no true Scotsman' fallacy.
It says a lot about the house of commons standards committee....and about self-policing in general.
Nov 25, 2015 at 11:15 AM | Unregistered CommenterJamesG
/////////////////////////
I agree. If the Judge really described Yeo's evidence in the terms cited at the foot of the article, in my opinion, he should immediately be kicked out of Parliament without any golden goodbyes/parachutes.
In my opinion (and I expect that I am not alone in holding such opinion) someone like that is not fit for public office, and most certainly not the highest in the land as a direct representative of the people.
Shame the extent to which standards and decency have fallen.
Paul Matthews 11.40am
That BBC report you link to is a disgrace, giving mostly the defence comments and nothing about the reasons the judge gave for the verdict.
The dereliction of duty by the H o C standards committee should also now face an enquiry. Are there no honest MPs left?
Not that this will of course stop him from sitting on committees which review 'renewable policy ' for the UK.
Like this old school troy friend 'Gummer ' it is a wonder how they became heroes of the 'green movement' despite their political standpoint and well known ethical problems . But then again perhaps it's not, given they're a movement that cares nothing for honesty and facts , preferring emotion and unquestioning loyalty above all else.
Surely this is a Commons scandal that calls into questions the oversight, or lack thereof, provided for climate and energy policy in the UK for a number of years.
Surely there must be an inquiry, a review of all work and conclusions/recommendations of that Committee.
I see that Corbyn opened up PMQs with Climate Change/Green Issues. The usual drivel.
Cammeron made the point that it is only right to reduce subsidies on solar given that the price of solar panels has plummeted. However, the major cost of solar, is not the panels but all the other gubbins (particularly the inverter and storage batteries) so total costs of installations have not dropped that much. Further, the EU has placed a trade tariff on the cheap China imports. The EU does not want citizens to be able to install solar as cheaply as possible.
But why can't we face up to the simple and stark facts namely that solar is not efficient given the high latitude of the UK, the low and weak solar irradiance in late autumn/winter/early spring, the cloudy nature of our climate and the fact that peak demand coincides with winter nights when quite simply there is no solar energy at all.
The impact of solar is very regressive since it allows wealthy home owners to install solar reducing their energy bills, at the expense of poor families who do not own their housing or who can only afford to live in a block of flats. One would have thought that labour would be against such a regressive tax which transfers wealth from poor to rich. But I guess that labour can't get its head around the economic implications, nor the wider economic implications that spiralling energy costs brought about the rush to go green as had on heavy industry. .
PS - I hope this means The Times can now permalink the video! :-)
...Yeo's evidence was dismissed by the judge as:
“implausible”, “unreliable”, “not honest”,”dishonest”, “untruthful”, “untrue” and “unworthy of belief”....
I can't understand this. That evidence was perfectly good enough for the IPCC....
A few years ago, Yeo was chosen to represent the Renewable Energy Association.
A Judge has just described Yeo as "unreliable"
“implausible”, “unreliable”, “not honest”,”dishonest”, “untruthful”, “untrue” and “unworthy of belief”.
Imagine if our friend Bob Ward was assessed by a judge ?
“implausible”, “unreliable”, “not honest”,”dishonest”, “untruthful”, “untrue” and “unworthy of belief”.
Perhaps you and any others writing frequently about climate scientists should have this list saved somewhere.
Has Yeo considered the option of Peer Review in the House of Lords?
Some Green con artists have lied on oath about the reliability of Peer Review.
To quote Wilde, 'You would need a heart of stone not to laugh.'
Heh, heh, heh.
There was a hearing in August last year on some preliminary issues (the ST wanted a jury trial which was not granted and Yeo wanted the right to claim additional costs if successful) but it seems he had an after the event insurance to cover his costs liability up to £100,000.
A truly wondrous, albeit rare happening. Perhaps the judge didn't appreciate at the time that he was dealing with one of the great and green and therefore not to be held to the same standards as the plebs who are under the eco cosh wielded by his kind. Note that the lying prat had already been "cleared" of wrongdoing by the parliamentary commissioner for standards (hahaha) Kathryn Hudson. Presumably though she was aware of the importance of the Cameroon style planet saving mission he was engaged in (as he troughed), while the judge was not.
Unreliable. Untruthful. Untrue. Unworthy.
Green 4U - has a catchy and trendy feel to it. It could be adopted by the DECC to describe their energy policy. Stern to describe his economics. Climate Scientists to describe their science
@Martin Reed
Apparently he had broken no rules. If true, that's some set of rules they've got there.
Couldn't happen to a more deserving individual, could it..?
@sherlock 1
More deserving? Off the top of my head one or two come to mind. Cameron, Davey, the Huhnatic, Miliband, Gummer, Baroness Worthless, Stern, Jones, Nursey, Horrorbin, et al. Where do you stop?
Will this Unprecedented legal decision, set a legal precedent that others will surely follow? It could be worse than Green Troughers previously thought possible.
His adjacent constituency had a John Selwyn Gummer as MP. He has done alright for himself, with his expertise in Green economics.
This not only demonstrates Yeo was a liar- but that the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner who "exonerated" Yeo is incompetent. Fortunately those outside the Westminster bubble applied rather more objective standards.
This is a letter I received from troffa's office after I emailed him suggesting that he was on the fiddle.
"Tim Yeo has asked me to thank you for your e-mail of 30 November, 2013.
He refers you to the report of the Standards Committee of the House of Commons published last month. This report can be accessed online.
Its concluding paragraphs contain the following statements: “Mr Yeo made no improper commitments, despite the tone of the Sunday Times articles, and the energetic attempts of the journalists concerned to draw him into doing so. We note the severe damage which is done to public trust by journalism which rests on a basis of subterfuge, misrepresentation and selective quotation. We note that in this case Mr Yeo has broken no rules and the only misrepresentation has been that of the journalists themselves.”
Your e-mail contains statements which, if repeated to anyone else, are clearly defamatory. I trust therefore that you will not repeat them.
You may also like to be aware that the Sunday Times is already in receipt of a Letter of Claim from Mr Yeo’s solicitors, Carter Ruck."
Alabicyclette. Politicians always believe they are above the rules that they helped make, and are supposed to defend. It can be very lucrative, allegedly.
Richard Verney, Yeo is no longer an MP.
He was, so the story went, spending so much time gorging at the green trough that his own constituency Conservative Party de-selected him before the election. A fate more often reserved for MPs who may not have been prosecuted, but who have been seen publicly as being guilty of gross moral turpitude.
1994 Yeo first resigned from parliament for having a love child
2014 He's deselected for obvious reasons
I guess the judge must have seen two hysterical old videos ..Guido just repeated on his website
.. "That's an absolutely outrageous allegation, the two events are completely unconnected"
..400K no problem well had millions worth of sharfe in green energy corps. They might be worth a bit less today,
The most delicious part of it, IMO, is that he brought the case himself! Hubris, meet Nemesis.
stewgreen, I don't think Yeo resigned from Parliament after his earlier, ahhh... slip up. He merely resigned from his Ministerial position, if you'll pardon the expression.
Hence my earlier comment. Details available at Wikipedia.
Mr Justice Warby likened part of Tim Yeo's evidence in his case against the Sunday Times as a "fish wriggl[ing] on a hook", describing his "twists and turns in the attempts to escape the obvious".
Paging Josh...
jamesp 3.22, bringing this outcome upon himself, has actually improved the public's impression of him, and has restored the confidence of some of his former constituents.
The Guardian even used to write some kind words in support of some of Yeo's ideas.
Yeo could become a new noun, or even verb, in unofficial references to unofficial business activities, or even more officially in Legal Chambers to describe crass stupidity.
Lawyers love a lucrative Yeo-Yeo spinfest in the run-up to Christmas in Paris
Let's not be too uncharitable. He's put his money where his mouth is
You can get the full judgemetn here.
This has all the transcripts of the sting.
Some extracts: