You have respected short to mid range forecasters such as Will Hand,
Paul
Bartlett to name but two

Paul Bartlett is "short to mid range" forecasting?:-o He wrote the
winter of 2005 - this current one - off in February, 2004!:-o

and I personally think expecting apologies off
anyone for a forecast based on their own opinions through model
interpretations, is asking a bit much. An acknowledgement of error
yes

This would suffice, but, and again I am sorry if he is reading this,
this did not happen on The Weather Outlook after the "winter" of 2002,
although Tom Presutti and Gavin Partridge *did*, I recall, emit *some*
kind of "acknowledgement of error" on the website forum. However, I can
never recall this appearing on certainly Tom Presutti's website.:-o :-(
Tom says that he has issued BOTH "an acknowledgement of error" AND an
apology, and I now, KINDLY, of course:-), call on him to help me to
verify this, but so far there is no sign of him and his co-operation.
Gavin though remains as stubborn as a mule about absolutely
everything.:-(

, but
not an apology.

Compare the forecasted:
-"a repeat of 1947",
with the eventual, poignant reality:
-the mildest winter since 1998!:-o :-(

The MetO would be aplogising on a weekly basis if their countryfile
forecast
were taken as gospel

LOL!

You do have a point there. However, note my comments just about the
winter of 2002.

D.