The message
from Terry Fields contains these words:

So? Polar ice has been shrinking for decades but Monckton would have it
that during the last arctic and antarctic winters both poles saw a
record extent of ice.

Perhaps the growth in sea-ice of nine percent was a record *increase*,
while the *total extent* (absolute value) of the sea-ice coverage
remained lower than previously.

I go into more detail in my other response but I don't think that washes
as there has been very little increase in the Antarctic.

The growth of arctic sea ice may well have been a record coming as it
did off a record summer low but the situation was very different at the
other end.

--
Roger Chapman