This is a guest post by Andrew K.
There is a piece on the Guardian's Comment is Free today by one George Marshall.
The heading and strapline say it all really:
Leaked email climate smear was a PR disaster for UEA
There was no evidence of conspiracy among climate scientists in the leaked emails – so why was the University of East Anglia's response so pathetic?
According to the profile on CiF, "George Marshall is the founder and director of projects at the Climate Outreach and Information Network. He posts regularly to the blog climatedenial.org"
This set me digging.I discovered that COIN was a registered charity, so my next port of call was the Charity Commission, to have a look at their accounts.
None have yet been filed, as the organisation is newly registered: Mem and Arts were incorporated on 21st December 2007 and they were registered with the Charity Commission on 26th March 2008 (though according to their own website they were founded in 2004).
Its charitable objects are listed on the Charity Commission website as "to promote any charitable purposes at the discretion of the trustees concerning climate change and its impact".
Their objects look rather more political on their "about us" page. The contact was listed as a Mr Tim Baster of Oxford. Additionally there are two trustees.
Googling Mr Baster's name came up trumps. The buggers are getting close on £700,000 from DEFRA over two years.
According to DEFRA's press release this is to "profoundly change the attitude of rank and file union members; generating visible collective reduction action, establishing a social norm for personal action, and creating a persuasive synergy and cross over between personal action, work-placed programmes such as 'Greening the workplace', and the emissions reduction targets of employers."