Just when you think the Tories can’t get any worse you hear that they want to stop scientists from lobbying against them if they get government funding ????????????. Because you know fuck the facts..
People don’t realise how serious this is, the large majority of science funding in universities and other institutions (ie DIAMOND, the singly most expensive scientific project in the UK) are funded by government funding bodies. If they do this, and do it int he way the law is written up. No scientist currently funded from any of these bodies (ie all active academic researchers outside of companies) will be unable to critise any aspect of the government’s legislation related to their research – you know the thing they are EXPERTS IN.
Not to mention that this was published days after Theresa May was reported trying to edit a scientific report about Drugs and their classification.
This is a genuinely terrifying policy for people like me and Saffy who will work in science in academia. They are literally censuring scientists from speaking the truth!
There’s a petition going round on the government website to change this, here’s the link: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/122957
If you can sign please do, it is vital that scientists are not silenced by the government
For an idea of the gravity and reach that this potentially has, all seven UK research councils receive funding from the government. I alone have been funded, supported or done work funded/supported by five of these seven research councils. Most research done in the UK is funded by these research councils; for ones research to be stifled on the whim of a political agenda cannot be allowed to happen. So please, sign the petition and please don’t let the government get any more of a grip on research – they are scummy and underhanded enough as it is.
I and many other young academics didn’t go through so much pain to succeed in a field which may just become another vehicle for political malice and misinformation.
Comments Off on
