Any scientist concerned about the relevance of what they do in the
lab to the nitty-gritty of everyday life will have one memory that
rivals in vividness John Kennedy’s assassination or the death of
Diana. It is the image of John Gummer, then Minister of Agriculture,
in May 1990, attempting to force-feed a hamburger to his daughter
Cordelia. He was, of course, making a statement about the safety of
British beef.
Labour came in with a promise to develop policy on the basis of
evidence rather than ministerial whim or political expediency. I was
in the audience at the Royal Society on 10 April 2002 when Tony Blair
gave his now-famous ’science matters’ speech. The scientific
establishment was there in force. The portraits of Newton and Hooke
looked down at the throng - more like a children’s Christmas party
than a gathering of the white-coated great and good. And we were
rewarded with a treat as jolly as any panto. Tony was Aladdin,
rubbing his lamp over GM food, nuclear power, embryonic stem cells,
nanotechnology and the use of animals in research. His vision was of
science at the heart of the future of this country, not just a driver
of the economy, but a source of rational decision-making.
But if Tony Blair was Aladdin, Gordon Brown was the Genie. Mr Brown,
the paymaster, transformed ideology into action. From the first
comprehensive spending review in 1999 to his last Budget in 2007,
Gordon Brown has consistently championed science. Now Brown as Prime
Minister faces what could be a pivotal test of his personal
commitment to evidence-based government - the question of whether the
classification of cannabis should be shifted back from C to B.