Another
one in the right direction! Three in a row is incredible. Overall, there
shouldn’t be much complaint about protecting the science budget or investing in
new major research facilities. Only government can fund major facilities,
because the long-term benefits and capital involved are too much for most companies.
Other things in the manifesto on this subject aren’t so good. I will
quibble with R&D tax credits, which are open to abuse without good
monitoring and prosecution of offences, but let’s call that a different issue.
I’d also quibble with the idea of university enterprise zones, another
pointless gimmick. Finally, I take serious issue with supporting the car
industry. The future lies in mass transit, remote working and on-demand
self-driven cars, not in our current model of universal car ownership and congestion.
Investment here isn’t research; it’s subsidy because of lobbying.
Nonetheless, the research
strategy isn’t too bad. My own opinion is that research should be a central
function of governments and should be funded far, far more than currently, but that’s
definitely a matter we could debate and not a matter of fact. This is
£1.15bn/year in the right direction. Let’s have more.
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