Politicians 'cowardly' in their responses to scientific evidence, says Nobel Prize-winning geneticis

[smurfy]

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30744203[/url]
[quote]Politicians are "cowardly" in their repeated ignorance of scientific evidence that may be unpopular with the public, Sir Paul Nurse has said.

The Royal Society president and Nobel Prize-winning geneticist said politicians "must be honest" when disregarding scientists' findings.

He also warned "anti-immigration rhetoric" from certain political parties was damaging UK science.

He said top scientists from abroad were being put off working in Britain.[/quote]

[Pyroknight]

honest politicians lol

[Used Car Salesm]

Couldn't agree more. Except I might go with "greedy" over "cowardly". They're being paid quite well to continue saying "I'm not a scientist..." and ignoring the facts.

[KevBeans]

Well, considering their job consists of pandering to their constituency, among whom there may or may not be a majority of science-illiterate people, or just folks stuck in the past, it's not shocking to hear that in order to maintain their position of relative comfort and luxury and a high-paying job, they need to say exactly what the voters want to hear.

Edit:
Unless shit goes sideways faster than you can say "tyranny of the majority", expect no significant change.
Always remember: crisis precipitates change.

[Antdawg]

Pretty much what just-a-boy said. I reckon that many MPs privately do believe the scientific evidence that is put before them, but there are reasons why they do not make that public. For one, it may go against the party line, itself which may have been crafted ages ago without scientific input. And what happens when you go against the party line? You're not considered for committees, and you're certainly not considered for the well-paying ministerial positions. Then when it comes to pre-selection for candidates at the next election, loyalist forces within the party will seek to topple that MP over and replace it with someone else who does follow the party line.

The above isn't an attack on partisan politics, I have no problem with it. But what the problem is, is party policies are often decided by an elite of dinosaurs within the party rather than by party members themselves, and the policies are often very specific. Eg look at the Labor and Liberal parties in Australia; their policies are decided by the respective shadow cabinet/cabinet rather than the many registered party members (read: members not MPs).

[Sableye]

[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;46926401]Couldn't agree more. Except I might go with "greedy" over "cowardly". They're being paid quite well to continue saying "I'm not a scientist..." and ignoring the facts.[/QUOTE]

"I'm not a scientist mister NASA...head of atmospheric scieces... But my belief is that you and all of your department...and several other government institutions, 97% of the scientific community and bare logic are all wrong, but I'm no scientist"

Seriously if you have a damn scientist in front of you don't pick apart his scientific hypothesis by saying I'm no scientist