The involvement of the National Domestic Extremism team in the Climategate investigation was the subject of both concern and ridicule a few months back. Those who are on the "concerned" side of the argument might be interested in this article at the indispensable (for civil libertarians anyway) Spy Blog.
The article takes a look at the plethora of unaccountable police forces that have been set up by the current (and soon to be former) government. It isn't pretty reading.
My conclusion reading the article is that the Association of Chief Police Officers, the private company that runs policing in the UK (overseas readers: yes you read that right) and who are responsible for this nonsense, are fundamentally dishonest. Read this:
The units will have less interest in those who choose to sit down in the road or fasten themselves to gates to protest - we are mainly concerned with those who commit more serious offences. However, police forces will always need to deal with such incidents.
More serious offences will include activity that has ranged from blackmail and serious intimidation in the name of animal rights; bombing campaigns by violent and racist individuals associated with far right wing groups; violent disorder from left wing or anarchist individuals, to large scale criminal damage against scientific GM crops studies and mass aggravated trespass or unlawful obstruction of lawful businesses associated with the national infrastructure of our country, such as power stations and airports by those who's [sic] stated aim is to stop any business perceived to harm the environment.
The attention directed at climate sceptics by NDET concerned at worst at case of hacking, which was in fact far more likely to be a leak. In what way was this a "more serious" offence?