As the parties prepare for the forthcoming conference season most attention is

As the parties prepare for the forthcoming conference season, most attention is likely to be focussed on the Tories’ leadership beauty parade in Blackpool The Labour Party is unlikely to make too many headlines. I don’t mean the old sexist objections, addressed long since by the appointment of Dame Judi as M, complete with this line, much mulled over by textual glossers: “If you don’t think I have the balls to send a man out to die, your instincts are dead wrong.”No, it’s this: how sexy is it, not finding something? How do you inject some glamour and danger into Googling “global threat” and “recent postgraduate theses”? I suppose there could be a fetching IT consultant, Iva Backup, and a tense struggle over the mouse – “looks like she’s squeaked” – but it’s not exactly clunky chase in exotic location ending explosively, is it?But there is one man who could pull it off. It’s unclear how they compare unfavourably with the roster so far: balding Scots ex-milkman, inanimate Australian chocolate seller, ageing ex-knitwear model, brooding Shakespearean, and bloke sounding like a firm of solicitors.
Still, you can see the problem if they’re looking for a Bond for now. Ewan McGregor, Hugh Jackman, Colin Farrell: too short, too fey, too bad (please tick your own boxes) Hmm. But these lecturers have frequently been unwilling or unable to divulge the key information about the molecule – what it is, its structure, or how it is produced.This was the very information for which the registrants attended the meeting. Commercial interest has meant that more and more scientific details may remain undisclosed..

Disturbing news for Vermouth manufacturers, tuxedo fanciers, prominently attributed starlets and admirers of plots involving loose-mouthed megalomaniacs intent on world domination, but not before revealing their plan: there are problems finding the new James Bond. In the last three years, I have paid to go to a series of cell biology meetings in the USA where the lecturer has given some fascinating news about how a particular molecule he or she is studying seems to change cell growth or differentiation. There is a very serious danger that commercial activity could change the public perception of science. Once the pursuit of science becomes heavily geared to profit, scientists may be perceived as having vested interests and not working merely for the public good.And with increasing commercialisation may come increasing secrecy amongst scientists. Funding of science to make our respective countries “competitive” is to be welcomed – but it has its downside.

Science is no longer seen as an essential part of our culture or as an important expression of essential human inquisitiveness. This has grave dangers for science, though scientists often forget this. It means some expensive scientific subjects – for example, astronomy – may be increasingly underfunded because they are perceived as useless or not producing sufficient economic returns.
But my most important concern is the risk of public trust. Yet we don’t fund the study of the literature and theatre of Shakespeare, O’Casey or James Joyce at universities because these subjects will increase British or Irish invisible earnings, and courses in archaeology, Gaelic and Tudor history are not supported because they are good money-spinners. And it should not be forgotten that in China itself, economic growth is lifting millions out of poverty The bra wars are a distraction from this bigger picture. Narrow protectionism in the face of the rise of China is unsustainable as well as wrong.. We have recently seen that the UK Government is committed to scientific research because it is convinced that it will make Britain more economically competitive.Economic reasons seem almost entirely the only stated reason for the increased funding – science is seen as a financial investment.

And Western states must not turn a blind eye to China’s shameful repression of its own people for the sake of good economic relations with Beijing.But globalisation and the emergence of China is a process that also brings great benefits. In the West, it is depressing consumer prices and keeping a lid on inflation. It is also providing a myriad of new business opportunities – as witnessed by another deal yesterday for Europe to sell 1,800 Airbus aircraft to China over the next 20 years. The predatory targeting of markets supplied by other developing countries must cease.

Chinese state banks should not be providing cheap finance for favoured companies. If a country can perform an economic function more efficiently than the rest of the world, it is senseless to try to stop it. This is especially true in today’s global economy where the consumer is so powerful. The only viable option for European economies is to concentrate on where they can perform better than others. It is increasingly clear that this does not include making T-shirts.China is rapidly becoming the new workshop of the world It is the biggest manufacturer of televisions A Chinese firm owns IBM’s personal computer business This undoubtedly raises serious issues. It is simply pain postponed.The best interests of European economies would be served if the EU began to dismantle trade quotas entirely.