Wednesday 4 November 2009

Science 1 - Government by tabloid 0

Professor Nutt, recently sacked as head of the government's advisory council on drugs for… er… giving advice on drugs has written a guest editorial in New Scientist. It's, well, calm and sensible.

A little taster:
The message for the British government is a simple one: don't exclude rational argument in order to exploit a visceral public response. Politicians have to win the hearts and minds of their electorate. If your policy is informed by an underlying moral imperative, be open about what that is, and don't try to disguise it with a veneer of pseudo-science. We ignore scientific evidence at our peril.

1 comment:

Jase said...

This is what happens when people who simply don't 'get' science try to make scientific decisions.

It's almost (but not quite) as annoying as journalists that think that 'balanced reporting' of scientific issues is to have a discussion between someone who espouses settled scientific theories and some lunatic nut-job who thinks that the future of energy production is harnessing fairy dust!

Can you tell I'm bitter...?