Any human activity that generates huge amounts of money becomes attractive to criminals. Gambling, retail banking and, of course, any illegal activity involving cash will all attract the eye of nefarious types. And any situation where money is being disproportionately generously distributed will attract the eye of ne’er-do-wells:

When the University of East Anglia decided to investigate itself, they could have chosen from a wide variety of scientific or legal figures. They decided on Lord Oxburgh, despite questions about his independence. As chairman of a windfarm manufacturer, could he really impartially decide on fundamental questions of the probity of climate science?

But of course, dear boy, of course he would be utterly impartial.

Falck Group was in financial difficulties due to the cancellation of the big incinerator deal. Falck Renewables in the UK was developing wind deals in southern Italy that were generating important cash flow.

Just about the last thing they needed was news that wind energy wasn’t crucial to the planet’s survival. Just about the last thing they needed was news that the research unit that told the world that current warming was unprecedented in the past 1,000 years was probably wrong. The recession had hammered stock prices in green technology. The failure of COP15 in Copenhagen, the collapse of carbon pricing and various scandals about trading permits had not helped.

Heaven forfend, my dear chap! It’s a mere bagatelle, it would never stop a man from doing the decent and upright thing!

I’ll repeat here that I have no evidence linking Oxburgh or his company to the mafia–even honest companies in Italy can’t get far away from the mafia and can be surprised when they are linked in an investigation.

Well, I suppose the horse’s head in the bed might persuade one to emphasise things a little differently, old boy…