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Aggrieved boffins to march on Whitehall

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Thousands of white-coated boffins and their supporters are expected at a rally in London this weekend to protest against expected cuts in science funding.

In common with most areas of government activity, science and engineering research funds are expected to suffer in the Comprehensive Spending Review on Wednesday.

The protestors, organised by lobby group Science is Vital, will gather outside the Treasury tomorrow to make their case that cuts to research will damage the economy in the long run.

"Investment in science and engineering skills and research yields broad and historically proven economic returns. Such investment, if made now, could drive the growth needed to secure a strong economic recovery," the group said.

Science is Vital's full argument is here.

Speakers at the rally will include neurobiologist Colin Blakemore, and the science writers Ben Goldacre and Simon Singh. More details here. ®

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Cutting funding in this area is frankly insane. Once cuts are made and research (and teaching) suffer it'll be hell to build up to the levels we've managed to attain in the last few years. Basically it won't happen, and the country will have failed yet again.

I find it amazing that people think that any cuts in this area could ever be a good thing.

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@Spanners

What an apt name you have.

If we had a £500 bn surplus, the Tories would not be slashing public services, they would be slashing taxes. Let's face it, you 'heard this discussed' by Tarquin and the rest of your SWP friends.

From the tone of your post, I'm sure you are right behind the delightful Mr Crow, who not only believes that we should have no public sector job losses, despite the country being broke, but that we should also increase public sector pensions and keep the retirement age as it is.

Having spent the country into the ground, idiot socialists like yourselfs now carp about having to make cuts. If your union powered overlords had not spent every surplus since 97 on nanny state 'obey us' projects, laws, quangos and wars, we may have not ended up in such a shit position.

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How about...

...not letting a certain large mobile phone company avoid paying about £6billion*? How much research would that pay for?

The ConDems are happy enough to see children in poverty and the middle classes squeezed, but heave fore-fend that their pals in Big Business should ever have to pay their fair share. Hence all the cuts in benefits and the increase in tax investigation - but not against the biggest tax dodgers.

Labour would have been no better, mind you.

Those three parties in summary:

Labour - you will obey the machine.

Tory - do as you are told, peasant.

LibDem - er, well, yeah, but no, but yeah, but no, but...

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