Friday Fun With Mister Ed

From Ed Miliband's article in today's Evening Standard:

The people who want to deny or cast doubt on whether climate change is happening are the most dangerous. They want to tell people that we can stick our heads in the sand and the problem will go away.

Scientifically, they are the flat-earth brigade of the modern era. The scientific evidence from across the world shows we need to act. Here in the UK, the Met Office, the Natural Environment Research Council and the Royal Society are just some of the world-renowned scientific bodies who are united in their view...

*ahem*

Ed Miliband is part of the government.

The Met Office, formerly known as The Meteorological Office, is funded by the government.

The Natural Environment Research Council is a fairly new quango (new to me, at any rate), funded by the government (more specifically by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, see page 51 to their last accounts).

UPDATE: As Neil points out in the comments, it burns its way through over £400 million of taxpayers' finest every year, see page 39 of the accounts.

The Royal Society is funded by the government.

*/ahem*

PS Mr Ed is right on two things though: disposable nappies (especially Pampers) beat the old-fashioned terry ones hands down, you'd have to be certifiably insane to say otherwise, and it would be really good if other countries signed up to some agreement to reduce their CO2 emissions, because then the UK could steal a march on them by pressing on regardless.

PPS The photo that accompanied the article looked like this, and had the caption "Warning: the recent flooding in Cumbria could be a foretaste of what climate change could bring". It looks to me more like:
a) a miserable failure of town planning and/or
b) what happens if you don't dredge your rivers properly.