The UK’s unique brand of scientifically-related election coverage seems to be coming to a climax ahead of next week’s national vote.

By far the most amusing of the lot is an interview on the Guardian website with Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, the climate change spokesperson of the fringe UK Independence Party, a party that wants to pull England out of Europe and severely curtail immigration, among other things.

We’ve already written that UKIP are climate-change deniers, and the Viscount was more than happy to elaborate by announcing that the party would completely halt climate change research until a Royal Commission had a chance to review the topic.

“In the meantime,” the Viscount continued, “the large sums now squandered on addressing anthropogenic ‘global warming’ will be redeployed partly to increase funding for science in general, which has suffered at the hands of rapacious climate extremists, and partly to diminish the dangerously unsustainable national debt.”

Not many researchers will be voting UKIP in the general election, according to an informal Nature poll out today. Our e-mail survey of 262 scientists found that the vast majority thought the Liberal Democrats were the most science-friendly party, with a significant portion of the vote still undecided. You can read our full analysis here.

We’re not the only ones doing science-related election coverage. Over on the Engineer’s website they’re asking which party will have the best policy for science, engineering, and technology policy? Interestingly enough the Conservatives appear to be leading the pack at the moment with about 39%, compared with 34% for the Lib Dems and 17% for Labour, according to the poll. Today the Times rolled out a lovely election graphic that includes details of where the MPs with science backgrounds reside. And, in addition to UKIP, the Guardian has also has interviews on science with the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats (with Labour, presumably, soon to come?).

Finally, the parties themselves continue to elaborate on their science platforms. The latest to do so is Labour, which unveiled its plan for science today. There’s some clarifications to the party’s policies (they’re not planning to roll back R&D tax credits for large business, for example), but overall I didn’t see anything too revolutionary.

With just a week left to go, there’s still undoubtedly more to come, so stay tuned!