BBC's climate change maverick Justin Webb strikes again on Radio 4

After an unquestioning interview with Ian Plimer, radio presenter now queries 'dissent among scientists' with David King
Justin Webb has only been in his new job as a presenter of Radio 4's flagship Today programme for a few months and he's already building himself a reputation for being something of a climate change maverick.
First came Webb's now-notorious interview with Ian Plimer last month in which he failed to adequately challenge any of the feted climate sceptic's claims. Had Webb just not done his homework, one wondered, or did he simply accept Plimer's now widely debunked views at face value?
But this morning Webb moved it up a gear during his interview with Sir David King, the government's former chief scientific adviser who is currently the director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at Oxford University. King was on the programme arguing that a climate scientist should be given a seat on the Bank of England's monetary policy committee (MPC). King said he believes that the Bank of England and Treasury display "no or little attention on the business of lowering our carbon footprint", and that it's a "massive disappoint" that "very little" of the stimulus packages have been used to promote a low-carbon economy.
And then Webb interjected…
Webb: So, it's someone being there constantly lobbying? King: Well, it's rather like the fact that there is a labour market economist on the MPC itself designed to stop monetarists ridding roughshod over the jobless people. In other words, that person has a particular hat to wear and I'm saying what about putting somebody on there who understands energy, energy technology, low carbon moves, and wears that hat and can express it right there when policies are being decided on… Webb: …you look at the University of East Anglia emails, though, and you do wonder actually whether [laughs] putting someone there would make them a target, quite apart from anyone else, from their own colleagues. It's not settled enough, is it, to have someone doing the job and everyone accepting that they were doing the right job? King: Good heavens! What are you saying is not settled enough? The science of climate change? Webb: No, not the science, but the arguments, the flurries of discussion and dissent among the scientists themselves and to have someone there… King: …there is very little discussion and dissent among the scientists. That is a total misreading of the theft of the UEA emails. Webb: Well, you can see it in the emails, can't you? King: I'm sorry, that is an interpretation of the emails. The scientific community is at one voice on the issue. Is the planet warming up at the moment? That was the issue around the emails and our Met Office, not involved in the issue, has published its own set of data this week demonstrating that, of course, we know that icebergs are melting, we're losing ice around the planet. Every single piece of evidence from satellites, from temperature measurements is showing that the temperature has risen by 0.75C… Webb: OK, and you want that information to be there at the top table in the Treasury and the Bank of England. Sir David, thank you very much.
(You can hear the whole interview on iPlayer. Go to 1:53.30.)
It's a pity really that the Today Programme editors didn't get Justin Webb to interview Peter Hill, the editor of the Daily Express, this morning and ask him to explain the paper's frontpage story: Climate Change is Natural: 100 reasons why.