Blair calls for end to anti-science mentality
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Your support makes all the difference.Tony Blair will condemn the "anti-science" mentality of Britain in a speech today, and argue that biotechnology could enhance people's lives.
The Prime Minister will say that Britain could lose research contracts if the negative attitude to science persists. He will tell animal rights protesters and campaigners against genetically modified crops not to stand in the way of "legitimate" discoveries.
His comments are likely to infuriate environmental groups, which accuse him of ignoring public concern over the harmful effects of GM crops.
Critics may seize on the possible links between Mr Blair's enthusiasm towards scientific progress and the views of the Science minister Lord Sainsbury of Turville, who helped to found the Sainsbury Laboratory near Norwich, which specialises in research on crop disease. The laboratory – in which the minister has no financial interest – has been given increased government grants under Labour. Lord Sainsbury has donated £9m to the Labour Party since 1996.
Mr Blair will say that many people are afraid of advances they do not fully understand and that scientists should not be impeded by misinformed protest. "I've been increasingly concerned at elements of opinion – here in Britain, in Europe and elsewhere – that are almost anti-science, and I can tell you there is a queue of nations waiting to take up the opportunities if we let them fall," he toldITV News yesterday.
The Environment minister Michael Meacher wants to open to public debate the decision on whether to grow GM crops commercially. But Downing Street, backed by Lord Sainsbury, is understood to be in favour of basing the decision on the results of GM trials that finish next year.
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