Well, yesterday, actually:
Alan Johnson, in his letter dismissing a scientific advisor for complaining that the government was completely ignoring his findings:
"I cannot have confusion between scientific advice and policy"
In case you thought that the main opposition party would be any better, their spokesman had this to say:
"This was an inevitable decision after his latest ill-judged contribution to the debate but it is a sign of lack of focus at the Home Office that it didn't act sooner given that he has done this before."
Saturday, 31 October 2009
Quote(s) Of The Day
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20 comments:
Reminds me of a story of a testing laboratory that was rung up by an angry customer who expostulated "I'm not paying you all this money to have you fail every sample I send you!"
There was an episode of Yes Minister or Yes PM along these lines. Good to see nothing's changed.
Oil and water. Mr Johnson has the sincerity of a politician and Professor Nutt the integrity of an honest scientist.
Let us hope the latter is not fond of solitary strolls in the woods.
They sack a scientific adviser from time to time "pour encourager les autres".
Nutt should have had the integrity to have resigned after his work was rejected on political grounds.
As a leading banstubater Professor David Nutt has no sympathy from me, he was on Radio 4 this morning delaring that one of more of his colleagues on that council would be resigning in support of him. Any progress ?
Both sides have valid points. The government is correct in its view that policy should reflect the harm caused to society by a drug, not the harm caused to the individual. Prof. Nutt is quite right to point out this does not give the government the right to tell outright lies about the effects of a drug on the individual.
Ultimately, the role of scientific adviser to the government only exists to validate policy and genuine scientists would be well advised not to take these roles.
""I cannot have confusion between scientific advice and policy""
Unless of course, it is environmental tax policy in which case science is ignored altogether.
Roue de Jour,
"The government is correct in its view that policy should reflect the harm caused to society by a drug, not the harm caused to the individual."
No, they're not. The impact of drugs is overwhelmingly an individual issue, not an issue to society.
All we need to do as far as the effects on anyone but the individual is to tax the externalities and to come up with a plan to prevent people driving under the influence of drugs.
Optimistic Cynic,
What I was getting at is, if there were only a handful of heroin addicts in the country, all under medical supervision, while there was gang warfare in the streets over cannabis retail opportunities, the government would be perfectly correct to set the penalties for cannabis higher than heroin.
the government would be perfectly correct to set the penalties for cannabis higher than heroin.
"I'm not paying you all this money to have you fail every sample I send you!"
Professor Nutt the integrity of an honest scientist.
I cannot have confusion between scientific advice and policy. Let us hope the latter is not fond of solitary strolls in the woods.
Mr Johnson has the sincerity of a politician and Professor Nutt the integrity of an honest scientist.
"I'm not paying you all this money to have you fail every sample I send you!"
Let us hope the latter is not fond of solitary strolls in the woods.
The government is correct in its view that policy should reflect the harm caused to society by a drug, not the harm caused to the individual. Prof. Nutt is quite right to point out this does not give the government the right to tell outright lies about the effects of a drug on the individual.
All we need to do as far as the effects on anyone but the individual is to tax the externalities and to come up with a plan to prevent people driving under the influence of drugs.
Radio 4 this morning delaring that one of more of his colleagues on that council would be resigning in support of him. Any progress ?
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