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I got interested in this question.
There are quite a few listed in the Lords who have "an interest in science or technology but it is a little late by the time it reaches them and governments with 80 seat majorities tell them to go jump. What constitutes "an interest" might be a fondness for Star Trek, I don't know, but there are certainly quite a few bona fide people in there.


In the Commons, for a while it was an apocryphal running joke that they had one MP with a science degree. That was never true.

However, if we look at the Science and Technology Committee, we find the following:

Greg Clarke
Economics

Aaron Bell
PPE

Dawn Butler
No degree?

Chris Clarkson
Law

Katherine Fetcher
BIOLOGY

Andrew Griffith
Law

Darren Jones
HUMAN BIOSCIENCE

Mark Logan
Masters from LSE

Catherine Monaghan
LASER PHYSICS AND OPTOELECTRONICS

Graham Stringer
CHEMISTRY

Zarah Sultana
International Relations and Economics


So, on the committee that scrutinises science and technology policies comprising 11 members, they only manage to populate it with 4 MPs (of 650) with the expertise of a sciencey background.

If you look through the Lords committee you'll notice the political appointees are often clueless - such as Johnson's appointment of a pretty blonde with a degree in music.

Cross bench life peers and some hereditary on the other hand bring real expertise by and large.

Once more the obvious answer is staring us in the face that democracy is a shit show and we would be better off governed by experts and the actual elite - not fakes like Johnson and co.
 
If you look through the Lords committee you'll notice the political appointees are often clueless - such as Johnson's appointment of a pretty blonde with a degree in music.

Cross bench life peers and some hereditary on the other hand bring real expertise by and large.

Once more the obvious answer is staring us in the face that democracy is a shit show and we would be better off governed by experts and the actual elite - not fakes like Johnson and co.
Some of these so called "experts" though, only got C's in their A levels :p
 
Coincidence that I should see this after the Beasties references earlier.

It is new this week but harks from a gentler time when there was enough PPE for all the b-boys and all the b-girls in this world and the next.

 
Are you nit picking about "and technology"?
If so, how do four Economists, two Lawyers, and one Miscellaneous help, unless there is a particularly thorny patent licensing issue?

Because patent licensing has rather less to do with science and rather more to economics and law.

11 fields are not much of a spread tho given the vast expanse of specialist knowledge. Perhaps the royal academies would work better (if slower) than a committee?
 
Because patent licensing has rather less to do with science and rather more to economics and law.

11 fields are not much of a spread tho given the vast expanse of specialist knowledge. Perhaps the royal academies would work better (if slower) than a committee?
...hence "unless there is a particularly thorny patent licensing issue". I'll wager this is a somewhat small part of the workload of that committee!
 
There's alotta people very angry at Boris in Manchester right now....
Arguing over 5 million for the people after the untold billions he has pissed away by giving to inexperienced, incompetent private companies.
122235115_1268311126878957_1022180120044593006_o.jpg
 
There's alotta people very angry at Boris in Manchester right now....
Arguing over 5 million for the people after the untold billions he has pissed away by giving to inexperienced, incompetent private companies.
122235115_1268311126878957_1022180120044593006_o.jpg

I can't believe somebody would write that on a a Tube board.
Some people, eh?

Wait, what? It's not real?? Well colour me shocked!
 
lol

"
Dear John Penrose MP (Conservative), Anti-Corruption Minister.

Any chance you could investigate the close links between 'NHS' Test and Trace and Serco?
I see that the head of Test and Trace, Dido Harding (Conservative peer) gave £12 Billion to Serco to run their utterly shite attempt at testing and tracing. The CEO of Serco, Rupert Soames is the brother of former Conservative MP, Nicholas Soames, and is married to Conservative donor, Camilla Dunne. The former Serco head of PR is the health minster, Edward Argar MP (Conservative). There was no bidding process for this £12 Billion of public money.

Do you think that this head of Test and Trace should be investigated for corruption?

Or would you rather not, seeing as you are married to her?
"
 
lol

"
Dear John Penrose MP (Conservative), Anti-Corruption Minister.

Any chance you could investigate the close links between 'NHS' Test and Trace and Serco?
I see that the head of Test and Trace, Dido Harding (Conservative peer) gave £12 Billion to Serco to run their utterly shite attempt at testing and tracing. The CEO of Serco, Rupert Soames is the brother of former Conservative MP, Nicholas Soames, and is married to Conservative donor, Camilla Dunne. The former Serco head of PR is the health minster, Edward Argar MP (Conservative). There was no bidding process for this £12 Billion of public money.

Do you think that this head of Test and Trace should be investigated for corruption?

Or would you rather not, seeing as you are married to her?
"

They (Serco) also run the asylum holding centres, and my OH has to deal with their incompetence on a daily basis!
 
Lolz,

Burnham was prepared to let people die when his whole tantrum came down to £5m? And he walked away? Rather shows the whole thing was down to a bit of political grandstanding on his part, I'm afraid.
He didn't walk away, the government did.

He had calculated the minimum that would be needed to keep Manchester businesses afloat. He could show them the formulas.

The government were not interested; they had decided on £28/29 per head regardless of local circumstances or needs and walked away

The government cannot and will not show they they have chosen that amount