Ah, "Sense About Science." What the SAS crowd of cranks have to say, I'm sure, is as well founded as a rumor you reported that Ali Khameni is "gravely ill" (cf. <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20070101/000174.html>) and about to kick the bucket.
<http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2003/12/09/invasion-of-the-entryists/> Invasion of the Entryists Posted December 9, 2003 By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 9th December 2003
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Let us begin with the Association for Sense About Science (SAS), the lobby group chaired by the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Taverne, and whose board contains such prominent scientists as Professor Sir Brian Heap, Professor Dame Bridget Ogilvie and Sir John Maddox.17 In October it organised a letter to the Prime Minister by 114 scientists, complaining that the government had failed to make the case for genetic engineering.18 In response, Tony Blair told the Commons that he had not ruled out the commercialisation of GM crops in Britain.19
The phone number for Sense About Science is shared by the "publishing house" Global Futures.20 One of its two trustees is Phil Mullan,21 a former RCP activist and LM contributor who is listed as the registrant of Spiked magazine's website.22 The only publication on the Global Futures site is a paper by Frank Furedi, the godfather of the cult.23 The assistant director of Sense About Science, Ellen Raphael, is the contact person for Global Futures.24 The director of SAS, Tracey Brown, has written for both LM and Spiked and has published a book with the Institute of Ideas 25: all of them RCP spin-offs. Both Brown and Raphael studied under Frank Furedi at the University of Kent, before working for the PR firm Regester Larkin,26 which defends companies such as the biotech giants Aventis CropScience, Bayer and Pfizer against consumer and environmental campaigners.27 Brown's address is shared by Adam Burgess, also a contributor to LM. LM's health writer, Dr Michael Fitzpatrick, is a trustee of both Global Futures and Sense About Science.28
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17. Frank Furedi and Tony Gilland, 1998. Research Proposal: The impact of safety panics on the debate about the use of GMOs in food production. Sent to the superstores, Food and Drink Federation and National Farmers' Union by Tony Gilland, from 23 Roslyn Road, London.
18. http://www.senseaboutscience.org.uk/about.htm
19. From Professor Derek Burke and others, 30th October 2003. Letter to Tony Blair.
20. The Prime Minister, 10th November 2003. Commons Hansard Written Answers, Column 14W. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmhansrd/cm031110/text/311
21. From the Charity Commission for England and Wales.
22. spiked-online.com registration details are available from http://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/whois/index.jhtml which gives the owner as Phil Mullan of 39 Whitfield Street, London.
23. http://www.futureproof.org/copyright.htm
24. From the Charity Commission for England and Wales.
25. Tracey Brown, 2002, in Ellie Lee (Editor): Compensation Crazy: Do We Blame and Claim Too Much? Hodder Arnold, with the Institute of Ideas
26. http://web.archive.org/web/20010309203835/www.regesterlarkin.com/traceybrown.htm, http://web.archive.org/web/20020630233947/http://www.regesterlarkin.com/rl/staff_eraphael.shtml
27. http://www.regesterlarkin.com/rl/clients.shtml
28. Charity Commission for England and Wales; http://www.senseaboutscience.org.uk/about.htm -- Yoshie