How will history judge Boris Johnson’s record on science? Almost exactly three years after he set out his first policies to make the UK “continue to be a science superpower”, and weeks away from his exit from Downing Street, it seems the consensus will not be kind.
“Morale in the scientific community is much lower than it was three years ago,” reflected Lord Rees of Ludlow, the former Royal Society president and Astronomer Royal, whose Science and Technology Committee in the House of Lords published a highly critical report on the government’s approach to science earlier this month. As its title, “Science and Technology Superpower”: More than a Slogan?, suggests, there are significant doubts that the catchy moniker referenced time and again by the prime minister is little more than “empty sloganeering” unless concrete metrics are published setting out the UK’s progress towards spending 2.4 per cent of gross domestic product on research and development by 2027.
