in just under one hour polling stations across the land close and a maddash of counting begins, heralding what is being seen as one of the biggest changes to british politics in over 30 years. It is a time of mass enthusiasm from a young generation who are finally being engaged into the world of politics, being made aware of who does what for our country and why, and personally i have never been included in so many discussions about politics in all the years ive been able to vote (ill keep that one secret...), and i have never had felt such strong will to vote from this countries youth, its an exciting time indeed.
along with stong feelings and enthusims comes stong divided opinions on the right leaders for this country. it would be improper to blog from a bias point of view, but more pressing is the need to discuss the importance of these parties views on Science, Engineering, Technology, British Research Council funding, University Research funding and jobs for young science graduates.
its hard to deciefer how wide and varied parties will spread their science policies, it is important to remember the area covers all manor of scientific disciplines; drug control, ethics of stem cell research, the environment, climate change and of a more local issue , flooding, nuclear power and energy.....the list goes on....
ill be posting throughout the night (whilst writing my thesis) about the main policies Labour, Lib Dem and Conservatives have dicussed in recent debates.
What i can tell you from young researchers and scientists within my community is that people are worried for the future of research, about funding cuts and the place britain will retain in an international community of science. but as long as there are strongly opinionated people will for a positive change to happen, a new generation of scientists may be the strongest to come out of britain yet!
Here is a fantastic link to a website arguing the case for the ScienceVote http://blog.sciencecampaign.org.uk/
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