WHY LABOUR NEEDS MORE SCIENTISTS IN POLITICS - LEARNING FROM SCIENTISTS FOR LABOUR. ISABEL CREED
Go into any Labour university club around the country and you will find that most of the students you meet are studying subjects such as classics, PPE, history and so on. Perhaps not surprisingly, most of the politicians who went to university also studied these subjects. While there is certainly nothing wrong with these subjects, the UK could do with more politicians who have studied and, more importantly, understood science. As many of you reading this know, even though I am studying for a PhD in theoretical chemistry, my ambition is to eventually become a Labour MP. I'm currently on the programme for future Labour Party candidates so that I can one day become an MP (if they accept me)!
Usually when I mention that although I'm studying chemistry, I want to get into politics, I usually get one of two reactions. I am either reminded of a famous, or rather infamous, Oxford chemist who became the first female Prime Minister of the UK. Or people remind me that German chancellor Angela Merkel also has a PhD in quantum chemistry. . However, I think the role of a scientist in politics goes beyond these examples. The UK
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as a country should hope that more people with a scientific background enter politics, as many of the qualities that make people great scientists also make them great politicians.
In this article I want to explain the power of science in politics using the work of Scientists for Labour (SfL) as an example. I hope it will encourage many members of the Oxford University Labour Club to join SfL and help us in our cause. For those who don't know, SfL is a socialist society affiliated to the Labour Party which has two main aims. To promote science in politics and to promote Labour values in science. We have some famous patrons, including Gordon Brown!
If you think of the many major crises facing our society at present, many of them have to do with science and scientists will play an important role in overcoming them. For example, the climate crisis, the development
of drugs for diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's, COVID-19, education, etc. However, science can only go so far and we need politicians on board to implement scientific solutions and ensure research cooperation
