With the UK election now officially declared, politicians of all shades are hitting the campaign trails to glad-hand voters. Science is still sneaking onto Britain’s political agenda in places though.

Political expediency has claimed its first casualty too, with the Conservative party abandoning their opposition to government attempts to retain the DNA of innocent people for six years. With fear of crime set to once again occupy much of the pre-election debate, the Conservatives were apparently scared of handing Labour the ‘tough on crime’ high ground.

The retention of DNA from innocent people by police has already been condemned by European courts and government (see: DNA database must be reformed…). Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling said his party would not attempt to block a crime bill being voted on today in Parliament that would allow retention for six years. But he insisted that, should they come to power, his party will “make sure that our DNA database will only include permanent records of people who are guilty instead of those who are innocent”. (Times, Guardian.)

Yesterday in Parliament, Prime Minister Gordon Brown was again touting Labour’s support for science, telling the House of Commons, “Record investment in education, record investment in universities, record investment in science in our country, record investment in new innovation in our country: that is the record of our Labour Government.”

The issue of the government’s treatment of scientific advice also appeared again, as Parliament discussed making synthetic drug mephedrone illegal, a move backed by all three main parties. Long running concerns over the independence of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and the treatment of its former head David Nutt were all thrown at the Labour party.

Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrats science spokesman, joined in the government bashing, saying that the handling of the ACMD’s mephedrone advice made “a travesty of the advisory process”.

He added, “Although the Liberal Democrats are happy to support the order [making mephedrone illegal], it is with sadness that we do so at a time when the advisory system on which we rely for proper policy is in crisis. It is not just the Government who suffer if they do not get good advice; we all suffer, because we end up with bad policy.”

James Brokenshire, Conservative shadow minister for home affairs, asked “Will the Minister accept that the fracturing of the relationship, breakdown of trust and deep trouble lies entirely at the door of the Home Secretary?”

Meanwhile, David Cameron promised to back those who wish to lower the time limit on abortion, saying, “My own view is that we do need to review the abortion limit. I think that the way medical science and technology have developed in the past few decades does mean that an upper limit of 20 or 22 weeks would be sensible.” (The Catholic Herald, via The Daily Telegraph.)

Finally, the Times Higher Education newspaper has been asking academics how they’re going to vote. The Liberal Democrats have taken the lead, with 40%, ahead of Labour on 33% and the Conservatives on 15%. This is almost an exact mirror image of polls of the country as a whole, which put the Tories on around 40%, Labour on 30% and the Lib Dems down on 20%.