Will Anne Glover reveal her mystery defender?

We recently put out a piece on Anne Glover's unconvincing performance on the BBC's Hardtalk programme. When someone on Twitter asked if others had seen the interview and what they'd made of it, they got a sharp response from someone called "Ian George" – @tighbuie.

We thought the references to "dishonesty" and "anti-science stunts" might just be aimed at GMWatch, as we were among the NGOs who'd highlighted the criticism of the former EU science chief. And we were intrigued by the fact that more than half of @tighbuie's tweets to his 3 followers – one of whom was Anne Glover herself – were about Anne Glover.

A quick search threw up something else odd. There was a director of Remedios, the biotech firm Glover had founded, called "Ian George" and this "Ian George" lived in a place called... Tighbuie!

We didn't think Tighbuie seemed a large enough place to boast many Ian Georges, so we asked @tighbuie if he had any interests to declare.

This drew a sharp denial.

But this denial didn't resolve anything, because the "Ian George" from Tighbuie that we'd asked about had resigned as a Remedios director after 5 years on its board. So @tighbuie claiming to have "no company interests" now didn't clarify whether or not he had been a director of Glover's firm. When we asked him about this point we again failed to get a direct answer.

So we pressed @tighbuie to answer with a straightforward 'Yes' or 'No' as to whether he had any past or present Glover connections.

But we still didn't get anywhere and when we continued to ask, he cut off all communication while threatening us with "further action".

There, barring any solicitors' letters, the matter might have rested if it weren't for a profile of Glover in last weekend's Sunday Times. This noted that she'd founded a biotech company that used GM bacteria "with her husband, Ian George".

So we went back and looked at Anne Glover's Remedios directorship and this showed that she too lived in Tighbuie.

Of course, this doesn't prove that the "Ian George" aka @tighbuie on Twitter who says we're paranoid fundamentalists, is the co-founder of her GM firm. But perhaps Anne Glover could clarify the point because as one of @tighbuie's small band of followers, and so someone who's presumably seen his various Twitter denials, she is in the perfect position to do so.