Why we need a cross-party consensus for long term policy to unlock the value of UK Science, Technology & Innovation.
“Politics is for the present. But an equation is for eternity.” - Albert Einstein
Of all the extraordinary places - labs - companies - institutes - academies - I’ve been lucky enough to visit in my 30 year career in science and technology - I think the highlight was probably Einstein’s library.
In a small room in the Jewish National and University Library - I was given the honour of holding his original paper on the General Theory of Relativity - which arguably led to the biggest transformation in the society, economy & geopolitics of mankind and our planet than any other single scientific paper.
(Ok. Alongside maybe Darwin, Erasmus, Pythagoras, and a host of other titans of science who’s work has transformed the story of mankind.)
Interestingly, but not surprisingly when you think on it, Einstein was a well read polymath. He loved Shakespeare and he was fascinated by the origins of socialism & political theory. (I was amused to see Dostoevsky’s The Idiot beside Karl Marx’s Das Capital).
Browsing his library you can see and feel that above all he was a man of THOUGHT who deeply believed in the power of IDEA to change HUMANITY.
He wasn’t a dry mute technician committed to the silence of eternal enquiry - he was a humanist fired by a deep questing need to ask the big questions at the heart of our existence and seek to answer them through empirical enquiry and observation, extraordinary powers of logic and language (they go together - as the idiot rantings of the dangerously stupid populist ideologues we see on the rise today illustrates) - and perhaps most importantly of all, imagination.
Like Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, and even Beethoven and Mozart for that matter, or indeed any of the great shapers of the story of mankind, he was a man who lived in and shaped that sweet spot of humanity where art and science meet.
Science, powerful stuff. (And in Einstein’s case megatons of power). Heady stuff too when combined with imagination and humanity.
As he warned in his last lecture as he left Europe at the Royal Albert Hall for the USA in 1933:
“We are concerned not merely with the technical problem of securing and maintaining peace, but also with the important task of education and enlightenment.
Without such freedom there would have been no Shakespeare, no Goethe, no Newton, no Faraday, no Pasteur, and no Lister.”
So why am I starting my post ministerial musings with Einstein? Especially after 14 years championing a crusade for a deeper commitment to supporting and unlocking the power of science research technology and innovation as part of a big program of national renewal.
Because for me the drive to pursue the politics of Science and Technology was shaped by a deep belief that to pull our country out of the tailspin crisis of political economy. A crisis which has seen us become more and more indebted, and more and more distrustful and despairing of the ability of our governing class to deliver the reforms we need for global and domestic prosperity. (They’re also linked - More on that later ).
After a career starting high growth bioscience ventures it seemed to me that the country needed a more innovative, entrepreneurial and scientific approach to Government and Growth (political economy - more on that later) and the enlightenment spirit of enquiry, enterprise and endeavour which are key to the innovation economy we so urgently need…
So.
14 years ago I gave up a 15 year career in science and technology start-up founding & financing to become an MP and try & help drive a stronger Government commitment to make this country a genuine Innovation Nation.
And I’ve been making the case to successive Prime Ministers (I’m on my 5th) and Chancellors (I’m on my 7th) that the only way we can escape the demographic debt spiral of a boom & bust service and consumer economy is to harness the UK’s phenomenal science base to develop, pioneer, test, & regulate finance & export the new technologies and innovations the world desperately needs to tackle the scale of the global Grand Challenges our planet faces.
From tackling Global Warming, to feeding 9 billion mouths, to avoiding future pandemics and to harnessing cheap renewable energy. The UK is a Biotech, Cleantech, Agritech powerhouse - but for 30 years we’ve been incubating great businesses ignored by the City and sold to American hedge funds to float on Nasdaq.
With a few key reforms we could fund and grow them here, attract billions in inward investment and unlock a new era of innovation led growth.
Or risk becoming an increasingly aged, indebted, and nostalgic country whose best days are behind it..
In November I stood down having served in 5 Front Bench roles under 4 Prime Ministers - as 1st UK Minister for Life Science, Agritech, TransportTech, and then 1st Minister of State at the new Dept. of Science, Technology and Innovation.
Why did I stand down?
Because - despite all the progress, successes and key reforms I’ve been lucky enough to be part of :
Shaping our Life Science Industrial Strategy to
Founding GEL,
Launching the Dementia Research Institute,
Establishing DSIT & the S+T Framework,
Negotiating our Horizon ReAssociation and
S+T partnerships with Israel , Switzerland and Japan ,
Establishing ARIA and
Launching our Fusion Industrial strategy and £2.5bn Engineering Biology and Quantum programs)
I was so exhausted, bust and depressed that I was starting to lose the irrepressible spirit of optimism, endeavour, teamwork & progress which are the fundamentals of human achievement.
And because my mortgage rises this month from £800pcm to £2000, which I simply couldn’t afford to pay on a Ministerial salary. That’s political economy 2.0. We’re in danger of making politics something only Hedge Funder Donors, young spin doctors and failed trade unionists can afford to do - (More on that later too).
Government is a cruel mistress.
Modern Politics is a savage playground.
To be the UK Minister for Science and able to drive and deliver some key reforms has been the privilege of my life. (After the birth of my dear children who have paid a very high price ).
The day after I handed in my red box and said goodbye and thank you with tears in my eyes to my brilliant civil servants, my diary went white. I suddenly had c.70hrs a week I didn’t have before.
I started receiving a tidal wave of letters from people I didn’t know cared what I was doing, thanking me and saying they wish I’d stayed.
It was a bit like prematurely announcing your death and finally discovering who cared.
So what now?
Firstly, I have some time to think, read, talk to good people who’ve been kind enough to support me and try and work out how I can best help the Science, Tech. and Innovation mission I’ve now spent 30yrs on.
And off the Government Front Bench I have the greatest freedom of all - to speak and write and talk openly about what I’ve learnt and what we need to do if we really want to turn this country’s economy - and global and geopolitical role and confidence in ourselves - around.
Which we urgently need to do.
To do that I’m sure of a few things I’ve learnt in the painful process of driving reforms across Whitehall over the last 13 years.
So, I’m going to use this pre-election year to share and inform the policymakers working on the manifestos across Westminster - in the hope that the next Government (whoever forms it) will be able to build on our successes and learn from our failings in delivering this vital mission.
And to build the non-partisan cross/party long term policy framework and mission we need to deliver the opportunity of national economic renewal through making the UK a global power in science technology and innovation.
Each generation has a duty and responsibility to leave their world better than they found it and to help the next generation do the same.
Born in 1967 I was inspired by the post-Apollo wave of “white heat” Science and Tech which flooded our TVs in the 1970s. And by the work of the great Science and Technology Ministers from Tony Benn to William Waldegrave to David Sainsbury to David Willets.
So the first reflection of my first year as a “Former Minister of State for Science Technology and Innovation” in this first post of 2024 - an election year - is that we need a more cross-party long term commitment to a shared national mission.
But how do we do that?
What are the big challenges and opportunities?
What are the lessons from the last 13 years?
How do we help ensure the balance of continuity and urgency that this mission requires?
These and many other key questions we need to tackle.
Time is Short. Watch this space.
You couldn't afford £2k a month mortgage payments on MP salary of £86584 AND a ministerial salary of £31680?
£117k puts you in the top 3% of income in this country, and over £6k per month income after tax. Forgive me for having little sympathy, given the number of households having to pay more than half their take home pay in rent.
Christ, try trying to live on a (high) academic salary of about £75k a year. Most of my brilliant academic colleagues (who are much smarter than the average Tory cabinet minister) get paid about a third less, after years and years of work to get PhDs and permanent posts. Your government has driven research, science and innovation in this country into the ground. The academic workforce is exhausted, demoralised and really pissed off. Brexit has been an unmitigated disaster and made everything in our sector worse. The whole country is falling to bits. We are utterly sick of your nonsense (and you are billed as one of the 'sensible' Tories). Good riddance.