Tram Town
Monday, February 01, 2010
| Category: Climate I saw Lord Monckton talking in the Grand Ballroom of the Sofitel this evening. The room was nearly full, I'd guess at about 900 attendees so the organisers did a good job of picking the venue. Here's the thing, though, I was quite disappointed. The man is quite a showman but you're always going to lose me right up front when you start with a prayer from a preacher. After that there was at least one more mention of "our lord". Blecchhh! I do think his presentation is quite sound in its goal to show "the truth" and I certainly remain a sceptic myself but I seriously doubt that he would would convert any fence sitters let alone the Green-leaning. He is, almost literally, preaching to the choir (many of whom gaily recited the Lord's Prayer in unison with the preacher man). He did some gags as well, very cheap gags, worth every cent he spent on them. As an example, when quoting Al Gore he used a very poor southern accent and had slides with the word "Lahs" in place of "Lies". Yes, really! Rajendra Pachauri got a bit of a beating with some silly attempt at an Indian accent in the mix. I'm not at all sure the claims about Pachauri were entirely relevant or necessary, however. His final "routine" seemed to have been plucked straight from a US presentation where he listed a bunch of crises of the last one hundred years or so and asked who the world comes to for help. Where he would have said the US while there, here he said Australia. Patronising, trashy, and way off the point. Just for the record, I'm guessing I was well into the bottom quartile age-wise and I'm fifty. I'm glad to have seen him but I came away thinking less of him. |
