Britain's Scientists Polled on Election Candidate Preferences. (April 30, 2010)

Geoff Brumfiel reports in this week's Nature the results of an "informal" poll of UK scientists on their attitude to next week's general election. Robin Weiss, a University College, London virologist told Mr Brumfiel, "I'm pretty pissed off with Labour as a whole," but on the other hand he holds a dim view of the Tories, who slashed public spending on research and higher education in the 1980s.

Nevertheless, it is generally agreed that whoever forms Britain's next government will face a large budget deficit as well as a sluggish economy. Addressing the issues will require "increasing taxes, cutting public spending, or both", and as Nick Dusic, director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering in the UK, put it: How those cuts fall could dramatically alter the British research landscape.

Mr Brumfiel points out: "Since Labour came to power in 1997, annual funding for basic research has more than doubled to £3.7 billion (A$6.1 billion), along with extra cash for university facilities and laboratories. But more recent actions by the Labour government have not sat well with scientists."

The noticeable emphasis by the Brown government for scientists to show the 'economic and societal impact' of their research, together with the threatened metrification in the pending Research Excellence Framework (REF) is viewed with dim resignation at best, while "according to Nature's poll, scientists see the Liberal Democrats as the party most likely to formulate scientifically based policies". On the other hand "Only one in ten scientists polled by Nature say they would vote Conservative, and 70% feel that the party would make the deepest cuts to funding if elected".

Speaking in a private capacity rather than President of the Royal Society, Cambridge astrophysicist, Martin Rees, says that despite campaign pledges, "the average MP from the [Tory] party has very little understanding of science".

And Mr Brumfiel writes: "Late last year, the Labour government announced that universities and research would face £600 million in cuts by the 2012–13 fiscal year." That may be a minimum figure as none of the political parties has even committed to maintain the current level of science spending.

The acting rector of Imperial College in London Keith O'Nions says simply: "There are some very big questions that have to be answered."

Meanwhile, is there any suggestion of carpe diem by Australian Labor, the Coalition, the Greens?

Of course not, they're not those sorts of chaps to try and take advantage of the mother country's misfortunes.