Ukip MEP Jane Collins on BBC Any Questions, this week, was without doubt a perfect microcosm of everything we know about Ukip. Denial of Expert Scientific Knowledge, Obfuscation, Irrelevant Facts, Diversion and Idiocy.
Yes, I know we *expect* it. I mean, Jane Collins was a nobody. Now, she's a nobody with a purple rosette getting paid quite a lot to do very little. But Jane, you excelled yourself. You reached depths of Climate Change Denial unheard of since Godfrey Bloom.
You can listen to the whole program via BBC iPlayer at this link - the Climate Change question starts at 36m, 22s.
Collins 'scientific credentials' are of course, that she was once a 'horse physiotherapist' - although there is no record of her actually having any qualifications in this line. We've searched, a lot, and can find nothing. So it appears that Jane Collins has absolutely no qualifications, achievements or credentials at all, in any field. In fact, up to the age of 33, she seems to have had no job or career that we can see.
Oh, we stand corrected. She has an 'A Level' in Art, and a whole year of non-appearances at the EU Parliament.
To be fair to Jane Collins she was out-gunned on the panel from the start - surrounded as she was by persons of actual intellect. The other panelists were :
- Dame Margaret Beckett MP, 37 years in Parliament, longest serving female MP, alumni of University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.
- George Monbiot, Writer, Environmental and Political Activist. MA in Zoology from Oxford. Recipient of the UN Global 500 Award for Outstanding Environmental Achievement. and
- Lord David Willetts, 1st at Oxford in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
Here's a transcript, just the relevant parts ...
Audience Question: "What outcome to the Climate Change talks in Paris are you hoping for?"
Jonathan Dimbleby : "Jane Collins ... ?"
Jane Collins : "Well, er ... (laughs) ... No, no, I'm not particularly that hopeful ... I think that ... we have to look, are we talking about Climate Change, or we talking about Man-Made Climate Change, because I have to say that, um, I, I slightly, I, I, I slightly ..."
(laughs and 'snores' from the audience)
Jane Collins : "... What? What? What is the difference between Cli- there's Cli- Climate Change has been since Time began ... Climate has always changed, right? ..."
(laughs from audience)
(3 people applaud)
Jane Collins : "... Man-Made, Man-Made Climate Change is, is totally ...it, it, it, if it exists, is totally different ..."
(laughs of derision from audience)
Jane Collins : "... and I have to say, Margaret, that I actually, I actually quite agree with your leader's brother, who was on the Television the other evening, well, last night actually, and, um, and he, he suggests that the, the, the Earth is cooling, it's not warming, and he is actually a meteorologist, so he is, he, he is qualified to pass an opinion where probably I ..."
George Monbiot : "He's a 'weather forecaster' ... and a very bad one.."
(huge laughs and applause from audience)
Jane Collins : "Okay, George, well ... Right, George, tell, tell me this, tell me this, right, if this is, if this is, if this ... (laughs) ... If this is, if, right, so if, okay, so, he's a meteorologist, and you're saying he's got it all wrong, but that's fine, um, what I'm saying to you is, the, the North Pole is supposed to be melting, yes? But then the South Pole is, em, increasing in size? So there's two conflicting stories there, the other thing is we're told about these different emissions, the CO2, and all the different gases, and we've had Mount Etna erupt today, well actually, what does that do to our Climate Change? So it's all ..."
(laughs from audience)
"... It's all very, very, very mixed up!"
George Monbiot : "Well ... !"
(Edited at this point, as Margaret Beckett replies, and comes to the end of her comments)
Dame Margaret Beckett : "... so I'm hoping, I am more optimistic, because all of those big countries [USA, India and China] are gradually, very grudgingly in many cases, coming to accept, that it is their responsibility, too."
(applause from audience)
Jane Collins : "China, list-, Barbara, I, I, I, your, your knowledge, your knowledge of Climate, Climate Change, and it'll be something you've studied, it's not something I am au fait with, but what I can tell you, for certain ..."
(huge laughs from audience)
George Monbiot : "You have made that abundantly clear ... !"
(laughs from audience)
Jane Collins : "Yes, listen! I don't pretend to be something I aren't. What I am, what I am saying to you is this: China ... China's party, in power, will not, jeopardise their ec- economic growth, at the cost of energy prices, no matter what they've committed to, they won't, because they know ... they will stay in power, if they can guarantee industry ... and they can guarantee jobs. And we can't do that here, we are exporting industry, and we are exporting jobs.
(edited at this point, as Margaret Beckett replied and debunked Jane Collins unrelated comments on China, to audience applause.)
George Monbiot : "Well, while Jane floats into the stratosphere with the flying spaghetti monster ..."
(huge laughs from audience)
George Monbiot : "... there, there are some of us who've been ..."
(Jane Collins interrupts, something about 'squirrels')
George Monbiot : "... There are some of us who see Climate Change as a remarkably mild term for what we're facing. What we're looking at, Ladies and Gentlemen, is Climate Breakdown, unless major action is taken, and major action which involves people all over the world. We can't keep on using China as an excuse for the things which our Government doesn't want to do ..."
Jane Collins (interrupting) : "But you agree with Prince Charles, then, that, that Climate Change has caused ISIS..."
(howls of derision from audience)
Jonathan Dimbleby : "Let- Let- Let George Monbiot finish ..."
Jane Collins : "Come on, we need to get some grip on reality ... "
(huge laughs from audience)
Jonathan Dimbleby : "George Monbiot ... ?"
George Monbiot : "Thank you, Jane, for that, er, very pertinent observation, um ..."
(audience still laughing at this point)
(George Monbiot continues, criticising the core of the Paris Climate Change talks, which still allow, even encourage, extraction of Fossil Fuels instead of actively encouraging reduction and alternative energies)
(extended applause from audience)
(Lord David Willet speaks, agreeing with Margaret Beckett, and continues ...)
Lord David Willets : "I would like to try to persuade Jane that even if she does not accept Man-Made Climate Change, she still has an interest, as we all do, in the success of this Conference ....
(continues to talk about China, urbanisation, efficient design)
Lord David Willets : "... so this is worthwhile even if you're one of that small majority-, small minority, that doesn't accept Climate Change.
(applause from audience)
Jane Collins : "What is the life expectancy of somebody living in Beijing?"
Lord David Willets : "I don't know, but I know it's..."
Jane Collins : "Well, what is the life expectancy of somebody living in Glasgow? Because I can tell you Beijing they live longer. Answer that !"
Well.
After listening to this drivel from Collins we had about 14 data-based and sourced counter-arguments to her ridiculous claims but frankly we couldn't stop laughing for long enough to insert them. Suffice to say, everything she said was either factually incorrect, irrelevant or so incredibly fatuous that we thought we'd just let her own words, and the audience reaction, speak for her.
It was, we're pretty sure, the most embarassing media appearance by a UKIP MEP this year. Lucky for Collins it was Any Questions on Radio. If it was Question Time on TV, she'd be a world-wide meme by now.
We are still speechless that Ukip allow Collins anywhere near a microphone.
As you can imagine, her unscientific rants attracted a fair deal of Twitter laughs ...
- Listening to yesterday's #bbcaq… embarrassing spectacle of 3 people applauding every time UKIP lady speaks gives me hope for the future
— Geeb Riggs (@grb26) December 6, 2015
- If you missed @Jane_CollinsMEP on #bbcaq … listen to this …
https://t.co/0slGkTCPGj
And have a good #ukip giggle
— liberalisland (@LiberalIsland) December 6, 2015
- It's rather scary that people like @Jane_CollinsMEP can be so ignorant about climate change #bbcaq
https://t.co/dRneEuDU5s— Bruce Boughton (@bruceboughton) December 6, 2015
- @WomenDefyUKIP @StevePowellUKIP @AndyCavster @Greg_LW @JasnaBadzak @SLATUKIP did you hear Jane Collins on #bbcaq? It was embarrassing.
— Brett (@599bt) December 6, 2015
- For her bone-headed appearance on #bbcaq, @Jane_CollinsMEP is my latest #MoronOfTheWeek
@SLATUKIP #UKIP https://t.co/SZEPvxc1rQ
— Incorrigible FCA (@ImIncorrigible) December 5, 2015
- @BEACHYBIRDER @Jane_CollinsMEP The question was if global warming was man made. It very clearly isn't as it is cyclical.
— Thomas Evans (@ThomasEvansUKIP) December 5, 2015
No, idiot, the question was "What outcome to the Climate Change talks in Paris are you hoping for?" It's actually quite clear on the recording.
Poor Jane Collins. As if she actually wanted to enlarge the hole she'd made for herself. she later tweeted that she has "a different view on climate change".
Oh, she certainly has.
- It's a shame the left care more about attacking
me for having a different view on climate change than they do on postal
vote fraud @UKIP
-- Jane Collins MEP (@Jane_CollinsMEP) December 5, 2015
But no-one has a right to their own facts.
And when you dispute facts with your intellectual betters, you will lose, every time.
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