At Westminster
you'll find a POST
Which in science is
deeply engrossed
For our average M.P.
Knows no science you
see
And the right facts
are what they need most
You never know what you will discover when you are on the web. I often submit a limerick or two in a weekly limerick competition - and this week the first line had to end with post. Perhaps because I went to Dartington I like to think outside the box and find a slant that others will miss.
So I decided to see what organisations are referred to as P.O.S.T. and came up with the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. This body provides in-house advice on current issues parliamentarians, few of whom have any significant training in science. I probed further and discovered that the organisation publishes what are called POST Notes which are available online. There are far too many to assess them all but I decided to look at a few that interest me. They are normally 4 pages long - and explain the issues without suggesting policy decisions.
- POST Note 454 Risks from Climate Feedbacks. As readers of this blog will know I have an interest in climate change and I considered this was a very well balanced repost on how feedback worked.
- POST Note 468 Big Data: An Overview is one of a number on what is known on big data - such as POST Note 469 Big Data in Business. There are some contentious issues here and I felt the information about what is happening was well presented.
- POST Note 465 Ancient Woodlands interested me, because some of my "Rural Relaxation" walks run through ancient woodlands
My reaction is that POST is providing good support information to our Members of Parliament on science matters - but whether they actually read it is another matter. If I have reason to write to my M.P. on any science related issue I will be checking the list of POST Notes to remind him which one he should read.
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