How Brexit destroys its high priests - and why it will get them all eventually Something I have thought long inevitable has finally appeared. To be fair, this sort of thing I’ve heard before but always on the fringes of the right - this week, it’s gone mainstream. What I’m talking about is a category of Brexit commentary which could loosely be described as “Boris Johnson betrayed Brexit”. This is only interesting because of Johnson’s position within the Brexit ecosphere, eventually managing to overshadow even Farage as BJ became “the man who got Brexit done”, added to the fact that its flowering is great proof of the adage, “Brexit eats all of its supporters eventually, no matter how Brexity they seek to become”.
Yes, I heard that the UK used to be pretty good at getting EU grants in the science area, I guess that was through the Horizon programme. Anyhow, apparently we were one of the bigger hitters in terms of the effectiveness of UK universities and programmes getting the EU money. I assume that has all changed now over the years of uncertainty since Brexit, and Truss's action to take the EU to court over the situation Brexit caused and she exacerbated is only likely to make things harder for UK Science in future.
I heard a decade-old programme the other day on Radio 4 Extra. It was examining the science business and making the argument that there were useful parallels to be made with the Premier League football in terms of trying to attract the stars of science to work in the UK. There were interviews with Paul Nurse and David Willetts (who was the Science Minister at the time). The talk was of the Foreign Office having put a cap on immigration, and how this had put likely candidates from, say, India or wherever off, with the impression that the UK was not a welcoming place to work or live and that they would be better off going to the USA. Willetts seemed to be optimistic that having discussed the issue with the people at the Foreign Office, he'd got them to see that an exception to the cap for these kind of high status individuals was good for the UK, and he was all guns blazing for trying to go around the world and convince the people who might want to come here that we were a welcoming place that wanted these intelligent scientists at the start of their careers to come live and work here. And of course the whole conversation was couched with an exception for EU candidates, who of course in those days could come and live and work at UK Universities without visas, red tape or anything. It was a dispatch from another world. I expect that after 6 years of Brexit hooha, any good work Willetts might have achieved has gone way down the drain, and unwelcome red tape and attitudes in the country in general will be as much of a consideration for bright scientists from Germany France or Spain as any potential candidates from India or China...
I wonder if you have an idea of how many of those British researchers who used to win a large share of the money were in fact Europeans. And how many have left and are still leaving because of Brexit
I don't really know anything about the figures, but I did see an article in the Guardian the other day written by a researcher lamenting the fact that his own research has been hit by the uncertainty of getting EU funding (it had been granted, but is now on hold, and he points out the practical difficulty of relocating his research to elsewhere in Europe, which is one of the options for unlocking his grant). And he was a European citizen who now lives and works in London and considers (or did consider pre- Brexit vote) that London was his home now. That was part of the the thrust of the 10 year old radio programme I mentioned too - Paul Nurse, the science guy in that show, was saying that basically his aim was to attract the young researchers to the UK and then have them fall in love with locals and marry into the country, and then they would be helping UK science for life. The prospects of all of this kind of thing have clearly become much more problematic since Brexit, and the uncertainty of anyone coming in from the EU about how much they'd be treated like a citizen if they were to put down roots in this country.
I think an important factor why they UK had done so well in accessing EU research funds was that this could be done without governmental meddling.
This is mostly based on the observation that access to other EU funds, those which require government participation, went either nowhere or did never reach its full potential.
Essentially the British researchers and their institutions did so well because they did it themselves and directly, by-passing any potential Westminster road blocker.
Not sure the UK government is a "rule taker". (Sorry if you have covered this before) My take is the current Tory government believes in very very small government - I.e. bare minimum of regulations and laws. Instead of "agreeing to" EU directives and rules in order to make it easy for companies to trade, the burden of proof on applying EU rules falls on individual companies. If a company doesn't succeed it is not the UK government's fault but that of a company's management.
Likewise, water companies can now pollute beaches for all sorts of reasons. The UK government won't step in to make citizens life better - instead the citizen has to sue the water company...or not use the beach. Unless private beach, it should be clean for use?
Similarly, the UK government won't help solve transport strikes. Instead, we turn on each other rather than the government as they claim it is not an issue for them.
But they are okay with awarding large contracts (PPE) without worrying about inflation rising, or raising taxes beforehand to meet the costs of those contracts.
The UK government is having its cake and eating it - no blame on it, no EU rules to accept, and it can spend money how it likes with no real oversight.
Yes, I heard that the UK used to be pretty good at getting EU grants in the science area, I guess that was through the Horizon programme. Anyhow, apparently we were one of the bigger hitters in terms of the effectiveness of UK universities and programmes getting the EU money. I assume that has all changed now over the years of uncertainty since Brexit, and Truss's action to take the EU to court over the situation Brexit caused and she exacerbated is only likely to make things harder for UK Science in future.
I heard a decade-old programme the other day on Radio 4 Extra. It was examining the science business and making the argument that there were useful parallels to be made with the Premier League football in terms of trying to attract the stars of science to work in the UK. There were interviews with Paul Nurse and David Willetts (who was the Science Minister at the time). The talk was of the Foreign Office having put a cap on immigration, and how this had put likely candidates from, say, India or wherever off, with the impression that the UK was not a welcoming place to work or live and that they would be better off going to the USA. Willetts seemed to be optimistic that having discussed the issue with the people at the Foreign Office, he'd got them to see that an exception to the cap for these kind of high status individuals was good for the UK, and he was all guns blazing for trying to go around the world and convince the people who might want to come here that we were a welcoming place that wanted these intelligent scientists at the start of their careers to come live and work here. And of course the whole conversation was couched with an exception for EU candidates, who of course in those days could come and live and work at UK Universities without visas, red tape or anything. It was a dispatch from another world. I expect that after 6 years of Brexit hooha, any good work Willetts might have achieved has gone way down the drain, and unwelcome red tape and attitudes in the country in general will be as much of a consideration for bright scientists from Germany France or Spain as any potential candidates from India or China...
I wonder if you have an idea of how many of those British researchers who used to win a large share of the money were in fact Europeans. And how many have left and are still leaving because of Brexit
I don't really know anything about the figures, but I did see an article in the Guardian the other day written by a researcher lamenting the fact that his own research has been hit by the uncertainty of getting EU funding (it had been granted, but is now on hold, and he points out the practical difficulty of relocating his research to elsewhere in Europe, which is one of the options for unlocking his grant). And he was a European citizen who now lives and works in London and considers (or did consider pre- Brexit vote) that London was his home now. That was part of the the thrust of the 10 year old radio programme I mentioned too - Paul Nurse, the science guy in that show, was saying that basically his aim was to attract the young researchers to the UK and then have them fall in love with locals and marry into the country, and then they would be helping UK science for life. The prospects of all of this kind of thing have clearly become much more problematic since Brexit, and the uncertainty of anyone coming in from the EU about how much they'd be treated like a citizen if they were to put down roots in this country.
I think an important factor why they UK had done so well in accessing EU research funds was that this could be done without governmental meddling.
This is mostly based on the observation that access to other EU funds, those which require government participation, went either nowhere or did never reach its full potential.
Essentially the British researchers and their institutions did so well because they did it themselves and directly, by-passing any potential Westminster road blocker.
Not sure the UK government is a "rule taker". (Sorry if you have covered this before) My take is the current Tory government believes in very very small government - I.e. bare minimum of regulations and laws. Instead of "agreeing to" EU directives and rules in order to make it easy for companies to trade, the burden of proof on applying EU rules falls on individual companies. If a company doesn't succeed it is not the UK government's fault but that of a company's management.
Likewise, water companies can now pollute beaches for all sorts of reasons. The UK government won't step in to make citizens life better - instead the citizen has to sue the water company...or not use the beach. Unless private beach, it should be clean for use?
Similarly, the UK government won't help solve transport strikes. Instead, we turn on each other rather than the government as they claim it is not an issue for them.
But they are okay with awarding large contracts (PPE) without worrying about inflation rising, or raising taxes beforehand to meet the costs of those contracts.
The UK government is having its cake and eating it - no blame on it, no EU rules to accept, and it can spend money how it likes with no real oversight.