{UK} Researchers plan for deeper cuts to science budget (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent, BBC News

UK science funding bodies have learned that they will have to absorb cuts of 41% to their capital expenditure.

This capital expenditure is money spent on building, maintainance or equipment.

These cuts are on top of the 10% real terms cut announced by the Chancellor George Osborne during the spending review in October.

The news emerged as the science minister David Willetts announced how the science budget would be allocated to research funding bodies.
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"Today's announcement confirms that the government is planning to slash capital expenditure for research. It looks like we could be returning to the dark days of the 1980s and early 1990s when researchers were forced to work in laboratories and facilities that were starved of investment."
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12021483




This is what happens when Neocons run government -- they wreck the economy so thoroughly that suddenly "austerity measures" seem the only workable option, and all the spending the Neocons opposed is cut first. How long before the Obama admin. is embracing similar "austerity" in US support for science ?

[jwirr]

1. Lack of R&D is part of our economic problems altogether. nt

[ladjf]

2. I predict that politicians in the U.S. will follow suit. nt

[Moostache]

3. "Austerity" is a word that should be stricken from the vernacular!

This is NOT a matter of not having available resources, it is a matter of who gets to do what with the available resources. Banksters and frauds in finance and government can squeeze TRILLIONS in zero interest, no collateral loans from the Federal Reserve. Dirty politicians (or simply spineless ones like the current president) work OT to cover the asses of their benefactors - mainly working for pennies on the dollar returned.

Society has misplaced priorities - wars, conflicts, greed, exploitation - in place of a greater altruism. A life well lived is one that contributes in some way - large or small, significant or supporting - to the advancement of human knowledge. Sadly, those with the most money in our current world often are the greatest failures of all against this standard. It makes me want to cry and apologize to those future generations that will look back at this current period (from ~1980 - 2020) and wonder why and how we collectively shoved our heads up our own ass so far!