Politics and science - chalk and cheese? (BBC) {former Science Advisor Lord May}

[eppur_se_muova]

VIEWPOINT
Lord May

Politicians must decide on many aspects of our lives governed by science, from climate change to medicine to the food we eat. How do they determine the right course of action? Former government chief scientist and Royal Society president, Lord May, examines the crucial but uneasy relationship between politics and science.
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New guidelines

Motivated by my own experience of the civil service tendency to hold things close to the chest, one of the first things I did after becoming chief scientific adviser was to set out formal guidelines for handling science advice in policy making.

Further developed by my successor, Sir David King, these guidelines say:

* in any scientific issue, seek advice widely, deliberately including dissenting views
* do it all openly
* frankly acknowledge uncertainty
* try to manage potential risks in a proportionate manner, offering choice whenever possible

Many of the political decisions that have to be taken - and sold to the public - involve such an assessment of risk.

Sometimes that gets out of proportion, especially when the media gets its teeth into a story. But you can't judge risk without proper evidence.

And in a recent report, the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee argued that ministers had become a bit too keen to argue that they'd made decisions on the basis of evidence when there wasn't any.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6365755.stm

Of interest for far more than UK politics. If only we could hear similar voices among our own elected representatives (other than Al Gore, who is technically elected, but restrained from representation).