So much for the big society.

It’s been announced that the 25th hour campaign will be scrapped. This was based on the idea that everyone can find an extra hour in their day to help others with voluntary / charity work, and to reward this behaviour 2,012 pairs of tickets for the opening ceremony  were going to be given to the [...]

Knew it was coming… but so angry

How can you lay off half a million people AND cut benefits at the same time? Dave….. Do you really think this will work? ‘Cos all I see is the economy grinding to a halt.  

Scientific evidence is evidence; Or why I had a glass of wine when pregnant.

So another scientific review published and ignored by the government. I’m begining to understand why the government want to cut Quangos and Science funding, it’s not like they take any notice of it anyway. There was the badger cull argument, A scientific study showed that extensive badger culling actually increases TB incidence in surrounding cattle, [...]

Tory cuts benefits…..Oh…wait…I agree.

What is going on in the world. I actually agree with the Tories? Or maybe it’s a Lib-Dem thing, yes that’ll be it. In ‘the current economic climate’ (really, how long are we going to use this phrase) everyone needs to make cuts, the private sector has cut back, and very shortly the public sector [...]

Christiania

I was in Copenhagen recently at a conference, and among the conference trips was a guided tour of Christiania  (http://www.christiania.org/modules.php?name=Side&navn=linkeng). The guide, who had lived in the community from the early days except for a 10 year break, gave us a good talk about the history, the organisation and the political (with Denmark) issues before [...]

Guessing games.

So Nick Clegg told the Today programme:- “Sometimes I wish we could get the comprehensive spending round done in a day so that we could deal with all of the fears that are raised. It’s the middle of August. This is not going to be announced until October. And final decisions will only be taken [...]

Cutting science again

So, the Con-Dems are not only cutting back on science funding but also trying to cut back on regulation. http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100804/full/466674a.html Health secretary Andrew Lansley announced that the number of health agencies will be reduced from 18 to “between eight and ten”, to reduce overlap between the bodies and save £180 million Part of this is [...]

Brain Drain

Here I am, trying to write a fellowship application so I can have a job next year. Things already look bad, science funding was already cut (or maintained with zero inflation, so in fact reduced in real terms) about the same time the revised costing of the Olympics were found out. Now we have vague [...]

What to wear?

The immigration minister said yesterday that it would be ‘rather un-British’ to bring in a French style burka ban. Good on him. Women (and men) should be free to wear what they want, with a little common sense. Obviously, I don’t think you should wear a Nazi uniform in Germany, or a bikini in Antarctica, [...]