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UK Election: There can be only one… or possibly two

Yesterday, Gordon Brown paid a visit to Queen Elizabeth II and asked her to dissolve Parliament. For those of you outside the UK, this isn’t quite as dramatic as it sounds; it’s simply the kick-off to the election season.

It’s a tight election year here in Britain. The left-leaning Labour party, which has ruled the roost since 1997, has been losing ground in the polls as the nation struggles with a staggering recession. The Conservatives, the major opposition party, have gained popularity on the promise of putting the nation back on track financially. The Tories (aka. Conservatives) had a solid lead in the polls over the winter months, but Labour has staged a comeback in recent weeks, and things are now a lot closer. That’s raising the prospect of a hung parliament, meaning that no single party controls the country.

Of course the big question from our perspective is what the election will mean for science in Britain? The UK is a major centre of research in Europe. Whether it remains so will likely depend on how the newly elected government decides to steer the country through the ongoing financial crisis.


Although there have been a few debates already, there’s not too much to distinguish the parties thus far on issues related to science. On the all-important funding front, neither the Labour party’s science minister Paul Drayson, nor the Conservative shadow minister Adam Afriyie have managed to commit to preserving funding. Even Evan Harris, the articulate science spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, has stopped short of promising to boost science spending.

And their platforms otherwise are remarkably similar. All sides agree that science will play a critical role in helping the nation out of the current recession. All have pledged to improve the government’s track-record at listening to scientific advice. And all have pledged to provide some form of financial incentive to encourage technological innovation for economic benefit.

Hopefully the party positions will become a little more differentiated as the election progresses. Meanwhile, the Nature Podcast’s own Adam Rutherford is already taking a stand for the Lib Dems (note: Adam’s views are his own, not those of our journal). Mark Henderson of the Times, meanwhile, encourages his readers to break with political parties and vote for the best scientific candidates. And writing on the New Scientist’s “S Word” blog, Nick Dusic of the Campaign for Science and Engineering in the UK (CASE) says that he has asked the various parties to lay out their policies in more detail in advance of election day (6 May).

Plenty more to come, so stay tuned!

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