The opinion, over the years, has been hardening in my mind that the Met
Office *don't* care, as long as they get paid. This opinion is shared by a
"source" closer to the Met Office than I am. The evidence is overwhelming,
anyway, whether you talk to anyone or not. No self-respecting institution
would allow its products to be presented by those who do not understand them,
however perfect their teeth.

I have been sent the following email by a Met Office member of staff, who
must remain anonymous: - -

I am not allowed to reply to the newsgroup, but I really
cannot let this pass. So please forgive the personal
reply, and please note that this is my own opinion
and I offer that alone, not corporately.

Firstly, the Met Office cannot care about anything. The
concept is nonsense, because the Met Office is a diverse
group of individuals with their own opinions, not a
single or uniform thing.

Maybe you do mean the individual people who compose the
Met Office. I, for one, care a great deal about the work
I and my colleagues do. I am surrounded by like-minded
people. I know none who are cynical about what we do. I
am refering mainly to my colleagues here in R&D, but also
to forecasters on the Operations side. I know cynicism
when I see it, ditto laziness, lackadaisicalness and so
on. If these are present here, they are in a small minority
of people. We work hard and work well. We want to serve
the public interest, and do so.

I am not in touch with senior management, so I don't know
what they are like. But please also note that the new
CEO, David Rogers, claims to want to push the Met Office
back where it belongs, to a chiefly public-service role.
I know no good reason not to believe him, at this time.

I invite you to quote this rebuttal, anonymously, to
u.s.w.


As for those presenters' putative ignorance, I just don't
know if they know what they are talking about - do you
have evidence that they do not? And do you know if they
work for the Met Office or for the TV channels?

In my opinion, we should save some of our reproach for
the presenters of "Today" on Radio 4 who plainly think
the weather forecast is a waste of their time.


sent to Tudor Hughes.