May 2010
10 posts
Over and out
I thought I ought to post a final message to round off the Geek the Vote campaign.
This campaign started because I felt that no party was courting the science and technology vote, but that the Liberal Democrat manifesto, plus their history on key issues put them head and shoulders above the other parties in representing us on so many important questions: research funding, independence of expert...
If science had a vote ... →
After two weeks painstakingly examining all the parties’ policies and attitudes to science issues, Martin Robbins in the Guardian agrees with Geek the Vote that the Lib Dems are the party with the most credibility. He concludes:
If I were to cast my vote based purely on science, it would be for the Liberal Democrats, for Nick Clegg and for Evan Harris.
“Liberal Democrats recognise that to recruit, retain and satisfy the career...”
– Dr Evan Harris, Lib Dem science spokesman, in a response to the Royal Academy of Engineering’s magazine Ingenia.
His full response, as well as those from the Labour and Conservative parties, are reproduced on New Scientist’s blog The S Word.
The Lib Dem science team: 50 reasons to Geek the...
Parliament is woefully lacking in expertise on issues regarding science, technology, engineering and IT.
Help to redress that balance by supporting these 50 Lib Dem candidates all of whom have backgrounds in these key areas. If you know a geek in one of the constituencies listed below, make sure they know that not only are the Lib Dems the most geek-friendly party, but also that their local...
Chemists back Lib Dems →
52% of Chemistry World readers think that the Liberal Democrats would give science the best deal after the general election (click title above for full poll results).
Geek the Vote: the flyer →
Click the title above to download the 2-sided flyer (700kB).
You can print one side, the other or even both!
There are just 3 days left until polling day - please hand these out or print them blown up and post them up and make sure all your friendly neighbourhood geeks know how many great reasons there are to Geek the Vote for the Lib Dems this Thursday.
Lib Dems defending net freedoms in European... →
Read the full article on Lib Dem Voice by Lib Dem MEP Catherine Bearder.
David Colquhoun FRS: Lib Dems are the only option →
Fellow of the Royal Society and UCL Professor of Pharmacology David Colquhoun explains why, despite having voted Labour for most of his life, the Liberal Democrats are the only option in the 2010 election. (Click title above for full post).
Science an excellent reason to ditch Labour →
Martin Robbins responds to Labour’s science survey answers in the Guardian, concluding:
The problem with Labour isn’t its previous record on science. We all make bad decisions, and so do governments, but the measure of a good government should be its ability to learn from its mistakes, and improve policy accordingly. The problem is, quite simply, that it hasn’t. And so, for...
Lib Dems to give tax breaks to video game... →
Lib Dem incumbent for Bath, Don Foster, said that tax breaks for developers in the UK video game industry would be implemented as soon as possible.
April 2010
58 posts
Lib Dems to tackle crisis in UK physics →
The Times Higher Education supplement weigh up the promises of all the parties on science policy, finding that the Lib Dems make the strongest commitments on scientific advice to government, libel reform, protecting university departments and supporting female researchers.
Clegg in the lead on Digital Debate →
YouTube and Facebook users submitted over 5000 questions to be put to the leaders of the three major parties. Of these, ten were selected and the responses of all the party leaders can be viewed and voted on on the YouTube micro-site (click on link above).
The results will be announced on May 3 but Clegg is in the lead so far, and leading especially strongly on subjects like the Digital Economy...
Nature Poll: scientists see the Liberal Democrats... →
From the article:
Evan Harris, member of parliament (MP) for Oxford West and Abingdon and the Liberal Democrat spokesman on science, says that the party has a proven track record of respecting scientific advice on issues such as research involving human embryos. “Do we think there’s a sizeable science vote? Yes we do,” he says. The science supremos for Labour and the...
Dawkins endorses Lib Dems as 'party of progress' →
It’s been no secret that Richard Dawkins was planning to vote Lib Dem in the upcoming election, but his local candidate is Evan Harris, so that decision is something of a no-brainer.
In the Guardian this week, Dawkins joined a distinguished list of economists, journalists, diplomats, businesspeople, authors and judges to endorse the Liberal Democrat campaign in this election as a...
“[T]he Labour response to CASE is mostly noteworthy for what it does not say....”
– Times Science Editor Mark Henderson responds to Labour’s Science Manifesto and letter to CaSE.
Geek the Vote Guest Post: Tara Saville
Tara is the Lib Dem PPC for Easington in County Durham. She holds a degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge and currently works as the Head of Science at St Johns school in Bishop Auckland.
At a time when David Cameron has threatened severe cutbacks in the North East, Tara and the Lib Dems have pledged to ensure the North East gets more help through the recession.
On science and science...
“[The] UK will stop searching for the Dark Matter which makes up 25% of the...”
– UCL Physics Professor Jon Butterworth on Labour’s underfunding of British physics research. Jon works in the High Energy Physics group on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
Liberal Democrats: Science test results →
The Liberal Democrats were the first party to respond to a list of detailed questions on science policy posed by Martin Robbins, Brian Cox, Simon Singh, David Nutt, Petra Boynton and Ben Goldacre. Read the evaluation of their responses in The Guardian by clicking the link above.
Robbins writes:
The Liberal Democrats have set a very high standard, with their engagement with the scientific...
Geek the Vote Profile: Sarah Teather
Sarah Teather is defending her seat of Brent East, which she won in a 2003 by-election in which the Lib Dems had previously been in third place. In the 2005 election she held the seat with an increased majority.
Sarah is a highly scientifically literate candidate, having studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge, with a specialism in pharmacology. She has also worked for the Royal Society, Macmillan...
“I’m not totally sure why I am here,” he confided. “I am...”
– Former Conservative Party Chairman Francis Maude at a party organised by the Telegraph to get scientists to meet the media.
Maude is running for office again in Horsham. He is contested by Lib Dem candidate Godfrey Newman. Godfrey has formerly worked as an industrial chemist, taught science at...
“Only the Liberal Democrats’ manifesto stands out, promising funding like...”
– Dr Ben Goldacre of Bad Science in an article in which he also takes apart David Cameron’s claims about availability of cancer drugs on the NHS.
Lib Dems are 'best defenders of freedom of speech' →
Last week Index on Censorship ran a hustings on libel reform proposals between speakers from the three main parties.
Liberal Democrat representative Evan Harris was the clear winner with more than 50% of the audience’s support in all categories. 58% of the audience preferred the Liberal Democrats’ new proposals for libel reform to the other parties.
An audio transcript of the event...
“I blogged last week about science content of Labour, Tory and Lib Dem...”
– Times Science Editor Mark Henderson blogging on Eureka Zone.
“As the leader of a party rooted in the traditions of the Enlightenment, I like...”
– Nick Clegg addressing the Royal Society in January 2010. Download a PDF of the full transcript of his speech here.
Conservative MP Nadine Dorries on science issues →
From a post last year by Martin Robbins on Liberal Conspiracy:
In the world of Nadine Dorries the fact that pretty much every medical authority disagrees with her doesn’t suggest that her views on health might be wrong, but that in fact the medical establishment are part of some vast conspiracy against her, a conspiracy that has infiltrated the highest levels of our public institutions. A...
“We need to think out of the box here. As with healers who can do remote healing,...”
– Conservative MP for Bosworth, David Tredinnick, displaying an extensive understanding of the principles of evidence-based medicine. (Full transcript here).
David is contested in Bosworth by Lib Dem candidate Michael Mullaney; and also by the sole candidate for the newly-formed Science Party,...
Labour's plans for the next generation of science... →
Full marks for effort: we need to think about how to create new jobs in science and technology, but subatomic devices are not going to play a role in that.
From the 10minus9 blog:
Sub-atomic devices? Devices smaller than an atom? Now I acknowledge that there is some debate as to what will be possible in the future, and admit I’m always a bit wary of futurists’ predictions, but this is so...
WatchWriter, composer and multimedia producer Dean Whitbread interviews Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Bridget Fox about her views on the Digital Economy Act, as well as various local, national and international issues.
THE: Cleggmania appears to be gripping the academy →
Since the first televised debate, a poll of Times Higher Education readers shows a jump in voting intentions for the Liberal Democrats from 40% to 62% (vs 20% for Labour and 12% for the Conservatives).
“There are few things more distressing to true democrats than seeing...”
– Lib Dem PPC for Bristol South Mark Wright (and former astrophysicist studying interstellar masers) on the importance of science- and tech-savvy representation in government in a letter to the Campaign for Science and Engineering.
Jack of Kent pledges a Lib Dem Vote →
Freelance legal and policy writer Allen Green, who blogs under the name Jack of Kent, was, according to Simon Singh’s solicitor, “instrumental in turning the Simon Singh libel case into both an international cause célèbre and the basis for the current libel reform campaign.”
Lib Dems Save the Net on Facebook →
This Facebook group, created by Islington South Parliamentary Candidate Bridget Fox, supports similar issues to the Geek the Vote campaign, with a particular focus on repealing the Digital Economy Act.
“Evan Harris clearly understood and cared about the science, was passionate about...”
– Blogger Joe D’s analysis of January’s science debate between Lib Dem MP Evan Harris, Labour Science Minister Lord Drayson and Conservative Shadow Science minister Adam Afriyie.
The Good Web Guide asks if GeekTheVote could help...
At present Geek the Vote is a list of Lib Dem policies, a blog and plenty of noise on twitter. But given the serious nature of many geek concerns, and the way Labour and the Conservative Party have been ignoring science and technology issues, could this website be the one to help swing the election even more in Nick Clegg’s direction?
Read more…
The Evening Standard and geeks = youth?
On my way home from the gym I was amazed to find that we’ve got a mention in today’s London Evening Standard (page 10, “Election Whispers”).
For a website that was only registered on Monday lunchtime to make it into the printed press by Wednesday afternoon makes me a happy geek. And it’s all down to you lot showing your support here, on Facebook, on Twitter and...
“My Lords, I thank [Baroness Thornton] for that Answer. Is she aware that, since...”
– Two quotes from Lib Dem Peer Baroness Sharp of Guildford speaking in the Lords last year.
Geek the Vote campaign hits the gadget-news... →
Though they are mistakenly listing us as an official party campaign …
“The wash-up wasn’t a wash-up, it was a stitch-up.
We would want to...”
– Danny Alexander debating on a Guardian live debate organised by 38 Degrees with Ed Miliband and Tory Jeremy Hunt.
Jeremy Hunt claimed that the Tories were against the Digital Economy Bill passing, but he personally voted in favour of it.
No Liberal Democrat MPs supported the bill.
Science issues second only to the economy in... →
Voters in Lib Dem MP Phil Willis’s constituency place science as the second most important issue to them.
Phil Willis is standing down in this election but the Liberal Democrats will be represented there by Claire Kelley.
“There is no point in wasting taxpayers’ money on an advisory body of experts if...”
– Chris Huhne commenting on ministers’ decisions to overrule the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs in January.