Cheque Book Science: A Note

The Met Office has not been free to tell the truth since 1997. As a former senior government ‘suit’ involved in the restructuring of research in the UK I explain why…

I attach a screen capture that got my back up. The good news is that, judging by the comments, folk aren’t swallowing this. So let me spill a few ‘insider’ beans and tell a bit of my story…

A Bit Of My Story

As a postgraduate fast stream entrant to the UK scientific civil service back in 1985 I worked my way to the position of Principal Scientific Officer (PSO) within 6 years. For those not familiar with what a PSO was and did, in a nutshell, we were the backbone of research across the UK. We developed scientific staff to the level of senior government scientist, we were responsible for national research budgets, we awarded contracts to universities and institutions, we were voices in the SERC that was, we acted as peers for peer-reviewed publications, we gave interviews to the press/TV as departmental spokespersons, we headed-up a portfolio of research and we led teams/sections.

Many of us, like myself, were responsible for formulating government policy, assisting with the preparation of Acts of Parliament and subsequent Statutory Instruments, along with input on green and white papers. In conjunction with Assistant Secretaries we provided direct support for Departmental Ministers, Secretaries of State and Under-Secretaries of State. As a result of restructuring of the entire civil service during the early ‘90s PSOs and their executive counterparts (PEOs) became known as G7s (unified grade 7).

All this meant we got to hear what the public (including big name journalists) will never get to hear, with pretty much everything classified as confidential, and with some rather sensitive aspects classified all the way to secret and top secret. As a former ‘suit’ behind closed doors at the highest levels of government it would be tempting to write my memoirs in full but I’d like to spend my retirement at home rather than in an open prison!

With that background in mind I want to roll the clock back to 1988 when I became a Senior Scientific Officer (SSO) working under my PSO and got involved with the juicy stuff for the first time. Back then major UK research establishments were voted money from the public purse to carry out research as they saw fit. Directors of establishments directed streams of research for the good of the nation in consultation with their PSOs and were given the funds to do so. But all that changed.

Privatisation Of Research

During the ‘90s the government effectively privatised the entire national research effort by making all establishments ‘agencies’, with some taking the further step of becoming private companies. Voting of funds from the public purse en bloc was axed and in its place came customer held budgets (CHB), the customer usually being a G7 policy head. In the beginning policy heads shrank from the task since they hadn’t the expertise to formulate and direct research, so they simply handed the money over to their science-side G7s as before. This didn’t last long under Major’s regime; the club came down and CHBs became a cudgel. It is important to understand that with CHBs scientists don’t get to direct the science they undertake – the policy ‘suit’ does this.

At first policy suits were rather reasonable but that soon changed. It was made very clear that policy suits were to fund research that should support the government’s position and only the government’s position. Scientific research ‘proper’ was no longer permitted. To give you an example my establishment, as an agency, went from spending £50 million per year on scientist-led science to just £50k per year, with the remainder going to support government policies. When we became a private company that £50k dropped to zero since we were then in the business of chasing cash as a management-owned business 24/7/365. No cash, no business.

Cabinet Office Meetings

During these turbulent times for funding a series of high level meetings were held at the Cabinet Office to which all directors of research establishments were invited to attend. My director asked me to attend on his behalf because at that time I was being groomed for ‘big things’ – and he trusted me at a time when you had to watch your back. These meetings were rolled out as a sweetener to facilitate the change to CHBs because, as you can imagine, senior government scientists were livid.

As the series of Cabinet meetings rolled along it became very clear that the government under Major wasn’t to be messed with. Behind closed doors entire establishments were threatened with closure, this being made possible by transfer of contracts under CHB to alternative organisations willing to obey. “There are plenty of universities and private companies willing to do this work” was one such threat, and neither was the threat restricted to competition within the UK, with both Météo-France and Deutscher Wetterdienst willing to step in and do the UK Met Office out of a job.

Cheque Book Science

Anger amongst the directors turned to anxiety as they realised they had no choice but to comply with Major’s Thatcherite hatchet. Scientist-led science within the UK was to die a death whether we liked it or not. We called it cheque book science, and it was pretty depressing. During this time rather lucrative early retirement packages were offered to those aged 54 years and above and many of our most experienced scientists ran for the door leaving youngsters like myself.

And so - over plates of ham and cheese sandwiches during lunch break - myself, the director for the Building Research Establishment, two directors for something else and the Director-General of the Met Office had a quiet word about matters. We knew that Blue Skies research was at an end and we knew that we’d be directed to produce what would be tantamount to propaganda in support of government policies both good and bad. After listening and chomping the DG of the Met said something I’ll never forget, he said, “it’s very simple: we give the customer exactly what they want.” We knew there and then that the Met Office was going to cop out, yet it had to do so to survive. What you see today is a relic masquerading as the real thing. But they won’t admit this, of course; they dare not!

The Customer Is Always Right

And what did the ‘customer’ want? Well, back then behind closed doors we knew that anthropogenic warming was nonsense, but the government wished to use it as a lever to push forward some radical policies. Overtly signalled as energy security policies they were, in fact, a raft of draconian economic reforms designed to maintain the status quo for the privileged few under deteriorating market conditions.

Over drinks I learned from mouthy policy ‘suits’ that green energy policies were to be pursued to provide investment opportunities in the mid-term. The long-term aim was 100% nuclear, with (planned) failure of green and renewable energy being the club to soften the public into acceptance of an unacceptable energy source. Thatcher’s priority was energy security and for her this meant energy sovereignty and that meant nuclear. Major simply took up the baton.

Back then we didn’t appreciate the power of social and legacy media as conditioners of public thought and opinion but these, in truth, have made the job of the suits much easier. So here we are today with the public clamouring for what will eventually be their own unpleasant downfall. Job done. The customer is always right.

Kettle On!