How the Free Market Friendship Between Julian Morris and Roger Bate Came to an End

authordefault
on

This DeSmog UK epic history post recalls the falling out between long-term friends and free marketeers Julian Morris and Rogerย Bate.

The free market International Policy Network (IPN) was launched amid much fanfare in 2001 with Julian Morris and Roger Bate at the helm. Almost immediately John Blundell, the director of the Institute of Economic Affairs and IPN board member closed down the Environmentย Unit.

The war against climate science was about to embark on a new journey, with a purpose built think tank ready to take to the front line. The IPN would try and convince the world that free market economics – and climate denial – were in the interests of the poorest people and the most impoverishedย countries.

The IPN tried at first to keep its funding from ExxonMobil and British American Tobacco secret, fearing journalists would not take them seriously if the vested interests of their financial backers were known. And it was only a few years before Morris and Bate apparently fell out – with Bate being the first of the three men to leave for the Unitedย States.

Morris and Bate were long-term friends and started a company together, and were known to most people in the sceptic community as a brilliant doubleย act.ย 

Intense andย Obsessive

Professor James Tooley, a member of the IEA advisory council, worked closely with the two men at the IEA. He said: โ€œRoger was definitely the boss at the time Julian tookย over.

โ€œRoger came across as the most sophisticated, Julian was more sort of the person who pushed, who got things going, more solid, cerebral I think the wordย is.โ€

Roger Scruton, the popular philosopher once paid as a consultant to tobacco, describes his friend, Bate, as โ€œa more serious intellectualโ€, โ€œintenseโ€ andย โ€œobsessiveโ€.

Bate, however, retained very close ties with climate denier Fred Smith at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) in the US โ€“ funded by Philip Morris, Dow Chemicals and ExxonMobil โ€“ and his work at the environment unit appears to have been less than fullย time.

He described himself in 2000 as a fellow in International Policy at the CEI in Washington. Soon after, colleagues began to suspect that the close friendship between Bate and Morris was underย strain.

Internalย Dispute

Dr Pennington, an academic advisor to the early environment unit, told me that there had been an โ€œinternal disputeโ€ and the two men had โ€œfallen out with eachย otherโ€.

He added: โ€œIt just was dysfunctionalโ€ฆ Roger was concerned about Julian Morrisโ€™s partner. They had different approaches, they just fell out like people in officesย do.โ€

The relationships among the think tank staff were certainly intimate, which would have increased the potential for personalย disputes.

Bate was, around this time, registered as living in Cambridge with his lover, Lorraine Mooney, the company secretary at his charity: the European Science and Environmentย Forum.

Workplaceย Gossip

But, whispered gossip began to circulate around the office that Bate was concerned about the quality of work delivered by Morrisโ€™s wife and IPN employee, Kendra Okonski. The accounts for the IPN show that, in 2005, the IPN was paying Okonski ยฃ28,000 and that she claimed ยฃ4,448 in expenses.ย Another member of the IPN staff said: โ€œThis is rumourโ€ฆ but Bate had disagreements with Julian overย Kendra.โ€

Then, in 2003, the dispute appears to have reached an impasse as Bate resigned as a director of the IPN and moved to the United States. The following year, he was earning $100,000 a year for a 30-hour week as chairman of Africa Fighting Malaria (AFM), which was receiving $30,000 from ExxonMobil for โ€œclimate changeย outreachโ€.

He was also hired as a fellow by the American Enterprise Institute, which enjoyed funding from Koch, Exxon and major tobacco companies, although he drifted away from the subject of climateย change.

Julian Morris told DeSmog UKย  at the weekend: โ€œAs usual, you get most of your facts wrong and make claims based on alleged hearsay that strike me asย implausible.

โ€œIPN was founded in 2001 with Roger and I as co-directors and John Blundell, Linda Whetstone and Mike Fisher as board members. As I recall, the IEA terminated the environment and technology programme when I moved over to IPN because the programme no longer had a director, not the other way round. Roger and I remained research fellows at the IEA for a while afterย that.

โ€œSalaries at International Policy Network were determined by the organizationโ€™s board, not by me. I was not on the board in 2005. Kendraโ€™s expenses were approved by the chairman, Linda Whetstone. We were very diligent to avoid such conflicts ofย interest.โ€

Next time in the epic history series we recall how Dr Benny Peiser transformed from Marxist radical to director of Lord Lawsonโ€™s climate denial charity, the Global Warming Policyย Foundation.

@brendanmontague

Related Posts

on

The new leader of the opposition has regularly criticised the UKโ€™s green ambitions.

The new leader of the opposition has regularly criticised the UKโ€™s green ambitions.
on

Lucy von Sturmer and Duncan Meisel are building communities of creatives dedicated to preventing the advertising and public relations industry from casting polluters as climate saviours.

Lucy von Sturmer and Duncan Meisel are building communities of creatives dedicated to preventing the advertising and public relations industry from casting polluters as climate saviours.
Opinion
on

It's time to come together to collectively work through the anxiety, grief and overwhelm so many of us are experiencing.

It's time to come together to collectively work through the anxiety, grief and overwhelm so many of us are experiencing.
on

UCP pledges to abandon the provinceโ€™s net zero targets, and remove the designation of CO2 as a pollutant.

UCP pledges to abandon the provinceโ€™s net zero targets, and remove the designation of CO2 as a pollutant.