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It’s a bad day for the Conservative party from a science point of view, with two newspapers publishing letters from researchers attacking the party.
The Times letter is exclusively signed by Fellows of the Royal Society, some 28 in all. The Independent also has some fellows, along with medicine Nobel laureate Paul Nurse and others.
Both letters cite a recent Nature editorial:
This government [Labour] has a strong record of commitment to science and science-based enterprise, recognising the value of basic science and providing support on contentious issues. The international science journal Nature agrees and in contrast recently called the Conservatives a “vision-free zone”. The Conservatives’ continuing failure to address this critique is making us concerned that this lack of vision actually reflects a lack of commitment.
– Independent
While Labour deserves more credit than it often gets for doubling the spending on scientific and medical research, and effectively reversing the damaging cuts of the 1980s and 1990s, a failure to respond to the recent funding stimuli in America, Germany and France could threaten a new brain drain of our best young graduates. Meanwhile, there is very little from the Conservative leadership to suggest they understand what is at stake. Indeed, a recent editorial in the journal Nature described Conservative science policy as “a vision-free zone”.
– Times
Both the Times and the Independent have also seen fit to run prominent articles on their letters:
Britain could face a severe brain drain as young scientists leave for positions in countries where research is better funded, a group of the country’s most eminent scientists warned today.
– Times
Some of Britain’s top scientists have accused the Conservative Party of a ‘lack of vision’ that risks undermining the country’s ability to generate economic growth through innovation.
Pity the poor Lib Dems though; they don’t get a mention in either letter.