February 7th, 2008
Response to UK astronomy petition
Posted by
chrislintott in
Uncategorized
All those who signed the astronomy petition on the Downing Street website will have received an email pointing them to the STFC press releases as a response from the government. The upshot of these not very clear documents is that nothing has changed; UK astronomy is still facing large cuts. It would have been nice if the government has responded to that fact instead of saying the same thing over again.
on February 7th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Perhaps it’s time to employ other tools in order to bring pressure to bear on the government, i.e. publicity, which politicians often fear (& react to) more than rational debate
Drs Lintott & May, Sir Patrick, Helen Couper, Myleene Klass etc all have a public profile which could advance this issue - Would not such luminaries as Profs. Hawking & Penrose be sympathetic to such a cause? Look what a little publicity did for the GalaxyZoo!
If you can get the popular media on your side, you have a powerful ally.
on February 7th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
My apologies; I meant, of course, Heather Couper.
on February 8th, 2008 at 2:31 am
I notice the press release hadn’t even been updated to mention they’ve pulled out of Gemini, as explained in an earlier release. Worrying stuff…
http://www.scitech.ac.uk/PMC/PRel/STFC/Gemini-Update.aspx
http://www.scitech.ac.uk/PMC/PRel/STFC/CouncilPR010208.aspx
on February 8th, 2008 at 6:28 am
If The Government, as they say, want more kids to study science. Why are they cutting the science budget in this way? And the grants for higher education too? Astronomy must be one of the biggest ways to “turn kids on” to science. I know showing Saturn to my kids through our telescope had a profound affect on them.
I was also dissappointed by the rehashed, un-updated email I received from Downing Street. I think it showed they really don’t give this subject ANY priority.
on April 16th, 2008 at 8:29 am
I didn’t see the astronomy petition, but I did sign the particle physics funding one.
Meanwhile, today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day has a picture of the night sky as it should be, if there wasn’t light pollution from streetlights - maybe it’s time to hassle the government about that issue again, as all the light pouring up into the sky is wasted energy, which is bad news from an environmental point of view. I wonder if there’s a petition about it?