Friday
Sep182015
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Naughty Slingo
Sep 18, 2015 Climate: MetOffice ;)
The Mail reports that the Met Office created a post for the daughter of its chief scientist Julia Slingo. It seems that the position was not advertised but was merely handed over to Dame Julia's sprog, a newly qualified graduate.
What is it with senior civil servants and integrity?
Reader Comments (41)
This should be investigated. Surely the Met Office works under the civil service rule of open *completion.
[* competition? BH]
Senna the Soothsayer strikes again.
Sounds like a definite case of nepotism to me, plain & simple. Sadly, the ability to strip employees/former employees of their pension rights evades the taxpayers, who foot the bill in the end! Appalling display & the civil service, & the Wet Office in particular, should hang its head in shame, but they couldn't give a fig!
As Alan says, this looks very like nepotism.
The Met Orifice needs to prove that it is not.
The Met Office denies Dame Julia was involved in the hiring of her daughter but admits it can find no record of the role ever being advertised.
Does anyone find the above slightly contradictory?
I'm sure the dame wasn't 'involved' in the hiring process but I'm sure as hell sure she knew about it and I'm sure as hell sure those employing her daughter knew who she was.
Their contempt for you is total. Never forget that.
'Chief Scientist' ?
'Head political animal' would be a more descriptive title of her function
Non of this stuff ever hits the main controlled TV media ,,, wonder why
What is it with senior civil servants and integrity?
They have none?
When Kinnock was head honcho of the British Council the young Kinnockio was made Director of Russia. A pure co-incidence that he was the youngest ever director the British Council appointed?
Thinking of our grandchildren has been one of the most important lines of emotional blackmail used by the Green Blob.
Dame Julia is demonstrating how putting her own children's self interest first, is the best way of providing for her grandchildren. At least it is only taxpayer's money that she is using, to wreck the future's of every other taxpayer's grandchildren. What could be fairer in Green Blob fantasy?
This is another good reason why the Met Office should be sold off. Then the taxpayer won't be directly funding nepotism and corruption.
Slingo + Hook = the new Abu Hamza?
Off to Jordan then?
But when it comes to nepotism, she's not even at the races compared to Margaret Thatcher:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/the-mark-thatcher-affair-arms-deal-triumph-for-batting-for-britain-steve-boggan-examines-the-history-of-the-biggest-weapons-agreement-ever-struck-between-two-countries-1441987.html
"It was the biggest arms deal ever struck between two nations. Al-Yamamah, or Dove of Peace, was to cost £20bn and keep 40,000 people in work until the end of the century. Britain would supply Saudi Arabia with 48 British Aerospace Tornado fighters, 60 Hawk trainer jets, 88 helicopters, mine-hunters and naval and air bases. For Margaret Thatcher it was a triumph for her policy of 'Batting for Britain'. For the middlemen, the fixers behind the deal, it meant vast commissions. For Mark Thatcher, it allegedly meant a £12m windfall at the age of 31."
Of course now 'Sir' Mark is banned from the USA thanks to several other criminal activities.
Curiously the more 'professional' organisations, activities become, the more they seem to lose sight of ethics - the City, MPs, now the civil service. Bring back amateurism! perhaps Mr Gladstone was taking it a bit far, bringing his own ink to the office because he didn't see why the taxpayer should bear the costs of his corresponding, but his heart was right. The current crop of turds would look at correspondence essentially in terms of what it might offer them in allowances, assistants, and days off. How and why have standards fallen so far?
I think you're all being really horrid to Julia.
I bet she didn't even know her daughter worked there 'til they bumped into one another in the car park "Hello Mummy"…"Hello dear - what are you doing here?".
I mean Slingo's a really common name…… isn't it?
...The Met Office denies Dame Julia was involved in the hiring of her daughter but admits it can find no record of the role ever being advertised....
It would be VERY easy to set up an inquiry and require evidence from Met Office middle management about the creation of this post. Even a simple FOIA request would shine light on the process that was followed...
We are close to having the most unethical and corrupt governance from MPs to civil servants I can remember in my long life. I would not trust any of them!
Dodgy Geezer, there are probably a few other Met Office employees who were rather surprised, and now disgruntled, to find out about this vacancy that they or someone in their immediate family might have been more suitable for.
No arguments here, JamesG - the relatives of powerful people always seem to get a leg up, but how much of Mark Thatcher's 12m came from the taxpayer and how much did the Saudi deal bring in?
Furthermore, the fact that it has happened before does not excuse this instance. The whole reason for investigations and inquiries is to highlight these cases (as was done extensively in the Mark Thatcher case) so that they don't happen again and it isn't as though there are not procedures in place to prevent this happening. I have worked in organizations where every year I had to complete a conflicting interest statement that listed not just my external interests, but also those of my immediate family. My wife was prevented from bidding for any contracts with the organization I worked for (sometimes frustrating, but understandable) and I had to delcare a conflict if there were any submissions from people I had previously worked with. This is standard in any private sector organization, but not apparently the Met Office. It would have been bad enough to have had the daughter apply for an advertised job where the mother was - effectively - the senior manager, but for the job itself to be a new position (implying it was created for the person) and not even advertised is dreadful in today's world. No amount of finger pointing at other - historical - cases can excuse this.
The Met Office mole strikes yet again.
Pointman
With great regret, I suspect that the answer to your question is Human Nature. It always has been thus and, for the foreseeable future (genetic tinkering aside), will remain so!
I reckon all of the Met Office employees reckoned that this was fair game. After all they are all clambering up the same greasy pole. So - best of luck to the winners, eh? Our turn next, eh, old chap? Pass the Port...
An ethics question related to the "climate establishment"?
Paging Peter Gleick - clearly we need input from a (former?) member of an important task force on scientific ethics before we can draw any conclusions about this incident.
JamesG - and let's compare the level of media interest in the two events, shall we. By no means do I excuse Mark Thatcher - the argument that his commission came out of the Saudi's pocket is bogus: if he hadn't collected it, the proceeds to the sellers would've been 12M pounds higher; I doubt that he was a critical deal-arranger and other than his Mum's position he wouldn't have been at the table.
Sack Slingo. No more need be said.
Ah: hold on. Make that Sack Both Slingos.
It must be a very fine contempt that they hold us in, I mean, apart from the lofty edicts they hand down, and at that all based on schoolboy statistics. All the while they speak to you in tongues, administering their noxious poison, a hand reaches round and filches your wallet......pickpocketing, will there ever be an end to it?
There has always been a whiff of something very rotten at the core of the UK public sector. It's no mystery, for we know its root, that, power corrupts all those who seek its malignant caress.
Time was, when you entered the civil service and though it is now a very outdated notion, the original idea was to hold yourself to some superior moral code.
Alas, probity and honest endeavour devoted primarily to the nation and its people, a duty to serve the country are, habits long ago resigned to the past. If anything, these days the very opposite appears to be the case, in that, robbing the taxpayer blind in order to feather the nest and then, the devil takes the hindmost! ....... who cares, certainly not our political elite nor indeed, anyone working in the public sector - particularly the Creamery aka those lolling around at the top.
Though even I was agog, at the latest revelations emanating from the pages of the Daily Mail and pertaining to one, Dame Slingo.. What takes the breath away, is this example of egregious nepotism was so conspicuously done and in that same moment, outrageously cocking a snook at the British taxpayer.
Gawd and this quote has to take the biscuit:
If you'll excuse the cynicism.
"working freelance in the region"
Gadzooks and by all the larks! What happy circumstance was that?
'The Met Office denies Dame Julia was involved in the hiring of her daughter but admits it can find no record of the role ever being advertised.'
'Hiring' is the key word hear has much can hide under it depending on what they define has 'hiring' , it may well be true that Slingo never personally appointed her , she may howver has 'suggested her and find out if any positions 'where vacant ' without ever actually getting involved with the hiring process .
Having lost the BBC contract , and so a great deal of funding , perhaps people at the MET Office now may start to ask if Slingo obsession with promoting CAGW is actually a good thing for this office ?
"Anna had the skills we required and was working freelance"...
Met Office lacks skills! Do not publish the need or requirement.
Anna Slingo wakes up, walks in, applies and just happens to fill the void? Miraculous!?
Anna Slingo is the Met Office's first telepathic!
Given the dense fact resistant brain material of her Mater, is that truly likely?
The UK has many inherited positions. Perhaps Met Office chief is one of these, although not well known?
Good luck to the girl. It's not easy starting out. If you have an influential parent with a name in a field it makes sense to go into that field too.
It's happened for centuries. The names Carpenter, Potter and Smith show that fact.
I tried it myself when starting out.
I got an interview with the CRU at the UEA. They were seemingly impressed with my technical knowledge and depth of background understanding. They seemed to like my eloquence.
All of that came from what I learned as the son of Richard S Courtney.
But strangely they never got back to me. Even just to say "No. Thank you."
and without the kabuki of "due diligence" and "considering others, you know, as well" ??
the marxists get cheekier and cheekier
these "services" should make use of EXTERNAL recruitment bureaus, from the top down.
external, with lots of control nobody can interfere, and with imposed priority to recruit people who never worked before on the tax dime.
@Venus. 10:04: "these "services" should make use of EXTERNAL recruitment bureaus,"
The Civil Service, and its devolved Directorates/Agencies have flip-flopped between internal and external provision for recruitment for at least a decade now. Whichever was 'responsible' for the employment of Ms Slingo Jr by the Met Off, I am 100% certain that it was instigated and approved by the 'management'.
Slingo's daughter is now in the "social media department" (no doubt an essential part of weather studies by the Met Office ). She is presumably part of the group responsible for thinking up the cunning wheeze to get the public to name storms. How much do we pay out (including bonuses) to the MO's social media employees, I wonder?
Think the Met Office might have a job for Emma Thompson,s hippy daughter.
Messenger said:
Indeed.
With acknowledgement of the above point, why does the Wet Office feel it is SO necessary to have an offshoot purely devoted to
'social media'propagandizing the twitterati?And therein, quite apart from the undisguised empire building.....oh no! not another 'department' but "hey! it ain't our money"......she smiled.
Just one more in a long list - of flagrant abuse of taxpayers money, why does the WET OFFICE...... feel so vulnerable? Is it because, all they pump out, the majority of it is total tosh and that, they feel the ache, an incessant need, of justification and thus to spin the message?
What say ye, Dame 'Edna' - Slingo?
I know what I think.
parliamentary questions in order..until she clears the deck together with her dottie
opportunity for corbyn? nah he believes in totalitarian nepotism
I forecast this would happen. Added bonus: nepotism is consistent with global warming.
IMO why not sell off the Met Office?
is just a trait in the family that the wimmin are very interested, and good!, climate worming.
that you guys do not understand this, mishoshinnists arghh
If one of my children needed a start in life, and there was a possibility of giving them job, I would have no crisis of conscience to start them in the postroom. Would that be wrong?
Nicholas if that was a job paid by taxes it should be a crime.
Start in life? wait a minute, working on the taxpurse should be that moment in life where you give not take.
The Slinoges rake with 4 tentacles now it seems.
Good job she does such a stirling service to the public peddling catastrophy theories
this should nnot be let go, leftist scum is too good at shuffling their greed under the rug when it is e posed. they have. all the public media and degenerated infiltrated instittues who have their back for that.
people get prison and fines when they dodge taxes.
on the other side of thar mdal we have madam slingo who earna millions dor a nonsense service and hires her daughters at tax EXPENSE.
both should be fired, prosecuted, and thrown in jail.
AND all their wealth appropriated.