Too close to the bone

摘要

Imagine you are a scientist researching a question with implications for public policy: pollution, say, or drug addiction, or vaccines, or f racking, or the rehabilitation of offenders. Should you be allowed to speak out about what your discoveries mean for wider society? In an open and enlightened society, this should not even be a question. But in the UK, the answer almost became no, until a skin-of-the-teeth U-turn from the government. As of next month, a new piece of legislation will prevent anyone who receives UK government funding from using that money to "support activity intended to influence or attempt to influence Parliament, Government or political parties... or attempting to influence legislative or regulatory action".