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No-confidence vote puts Wilson under pressure

By Noel McAdam
Thursday, 12 February 2009

Sammy Wilson

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Sammy Wilson’s future as Environment Minister came under further pressure today after a ‘no confidence’ motion against him was passed at Stormont.

The Environment Committee which monitors Mr Wilson and his department passed the SDLP motion by six to four, with one abstention. It is believed to be the first time a scrutiny committee has gone as far as a formal ‘no confidence’ move against an Executive minister.

The SDLP’s environment spokesman Tommy Gallagher, who proposed the motion, said: “If Mr Wilson and his party do not take this seriously they are not taking the structures of Stormont seriously. This is not something they can ignore. It is the first time I am aware of that a committee has gone this far.

“I have been concerned for some time but the ministers’ comments this week on climate change fly in the face of science and are not accepted by the majority of people.”

The move comes as Mr Wilson blocked government TV adverts — warning of the effects of global warning and advising how families can save money — from being screened on UTV.

The DUP minister, who was not immediately available for comment, dismissed the adverts as “insidious New Labour propaganda” — although they can still be viewed on Channels Four and Five and Sky.

Sinn Fein and UUP members of the environment committee today supported the SDLP motion but the four DUP members voted against and Alliance leader David Ford abstained. Mr Ford was also not immediately available. An online petition launched by the Green Party, which is also proposing an Assembly motion calling on DUP leader Peter Robinson to remove Mr Wilson, gained more than 400 signatures over the last few days.

The petition accuses Mr Wilson of “bringing the people and government of Northern Ireland into international disrepute and threatening to damage our ability to attract inward investment.”

Earlier this week Mr Robinson defended the right of Mr Wilson to hold his own views.

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67 Comments

silly you indeed fred, thats not global warming you mug, thats pollution. its the global impact of that pollution that is up for debate, not the impact on the purity of air in big industrial cities

Posted by marty | 17.02.09, 14:40 GMT

i see the lemmings are out in force,well done sammy for taking a stand, i wish our politicians had some guts and yes we will unearth the biggest scam in history.

Posted by bilbo | 16.02.09, 09:16 GMT

Sammy Wilson did the right thing, and time will tell how right he was in refusing to send out such silly material. MR wilson the green rep as usual had nothing but a few comments that he had heard from his cronnies .
the sooner we have a debate on so called globel warming the better.

Posted by james brown | 14.02.09, 20:52 GMT

Time to go Sammy - and to the comment with regards him getting a job at Tescos - I some how think he cut his bridges there by blocking the development of a much wanted Tescos superstore in Banbridge - time he started to listen to the people.

Posted by Anon | 14.02.09, 11:12 GMT

Sammy: You should come to Victoria in Australia where you can see first hand the effects of Global warming and silly green policies that have resulted in the devastating bush fire here in the last week:

Posted by Des | 14.02.09, 02:51 GMT

With 'professors' Wilson and Story postulating on climate change and origin of species perhaps the DUP should be renamed the Dinosaur U P.....until recently.

Posted by james | 14.02.09, 02:48 GMT

Karyn,

it's the view of all the major scientific professional organisations that man-made climate change is happening. That is scientific consensus.

Now there are groups opposed to this, notably the Heartland Institute in America. However, when you consider that parts of their 'anti climate change' conference in 2008 were funded by the Creationist Discovery Institute - indications are that they are not very scientific at all.

Their output is very changeable too. In 2007 Dennis Avery of the Heartland Institute, together with Fred Singer, produced a book called 'Unstoppable Global Warming'. The main point of this book was that Global Warming was natural and unstoppable (funnily enough). However, in January this year Dennis Avery is on Lou Dobbs's CNN Show claiming there's an ice age around the corner...

Posted by Eamon | 14.02.09, 00:58 GMT

This is about politics..its a benchmark of political correctness, its more big government, more taxes and more control of our lives. Well done Sammy

Posted by david gibson | 13.02.09, 23:23 GMT

So maybe Sammy can explain why the Chinese shut down all industry in the Beijing area to reduce air pollution for the Olympics and why it worked.

Anyone who has opened the door of his/her car while stopped on a traffic jammed city highway in 40 degree heat will attest that the air is practically unbreathable. I wonder how many times Sammy has experienced that.

Has Sammy ever been in LA where on a smoggy day one cannot see the hills at the city’s edge or in Mexico City where the traffic police have to wear masks just to breathe?

Silly me, according to Sammy, all of those are natural occurrences which have nothing to do with man.

Posted by Fred | 13.02.09, 21:28 GMT

Oh Hetero, so NOW people CANNOT have an OPINION unless they are EXPERTS? Whatever happened to 'free speech'? These environmenrtalists keep on yaking about keeping the environment green YET, look at all the JUNK they have floating in space causing havoc up there. Double standards if you ask me.

Posted by Stuart | 13.02.09, 19:33 GMT

The DUP seriously need to reform their views- I hope that all of this will make people think seriously about the DUP come the next local elections!

Posted by BT | 13.02.09, 18:40 GMT

Hetero, Is there a scientific consensus? Depends on which science journal you read and on who funds it.

Posted by T J McClean | 13.02.09, 16:31 GMT

Friends of mine were over from England when this news broke. They were highly amused at the antics of Minister Sammy. They chortled and sniggered at his antics. They will no doubt be regaling their friends and acquaintances in Manchester about the Minister for Denial in Norn Iron. Really Sammy needs to stop reading the Beano and start reading books about global climate change and rising sea levels. Maybe he could ask Minister Ruane for easy reader versions with no big words to confuse poor Sammy.

Posted by William T | 13.02.09, 16:19 GMT

Hetero - there is no scientific consensus for us to follow (despite what this government would have us believe). That's precisely the point that Sammy is making.

Posted by Karyn | 13.02.09, 16:06 GMT

If you repeat a big lie often enough, people will believe it. The big lie here is that the majority of the world's scientists believe in man-made global warming! Even if they did consensus is definitely not good science - it is political science.

Posted by WHCM | 13.02.09, 15:35 GMT

Here, Here, Here Amy!

Posted by Majella | 13.02.09, 14:45 GMT

Tseems to be a lot of world class climate change scientists on the BT news forum so perhaps he consults some of you?

Posted by soarer | 13.02.09, 07:51 GMT

Don, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory states that Volcanoes put out 200 Million Tonnes of CO2 every year. Now in 2003 fossil fuels put out 26.8 Billion Tonnes of CO2 - so Volcanoes put out less than 1%!

Posted by Eamon | 12.02.09, 22:31 GMT

There is no question, not only has Sammy Wilson put Northern Ireland out of step with world opinion he is also wrong in his assertions that the global warming we are now experiencing is not man made. The weight of of scientific evidence and facts indicate we are to blame.

To the many deniers I noted made comments here I say this:- There is an army of sceptics out there pushing forward half truths, un-substantiated data and even downright lies. If you really want to get to the truth go and look at their sources of information and their sources, you'll find flawed and misleading information every time. Sure there is not a consensus on climate change but then there never was a consensus on the harm caused by tobacco smoking and there still isn't as evidenced by the Tobacco companies still operating and making profits. So too those multinational fossil fuel companies have a vested interest in keeping you confused so they can continue to make their large profits. Think about it!

Posted by Patrick Jones | 12.02.09, 22:31 GMT