My experience is that advice from experts to politicians directly is not heeded. It is far better if the experts get through to the public and the press and then there is pressure from MPs postbags and the press, and politicians do respond to that. So that is another reason why I think it is important that scientific experts should engage with the wider public because that is a way of having more influence.
My guess is that he’s wrong about this. But he’s spent quite a while being a Lord, and I have never spoken to an MP, so I feel I have to increase my credence on this at least a bit…
Yes he’s said this very consistently for years. Its interesting for like the insider’s insider (Astronomer Royal!) to advocate an outside game.
As for everything, I suspect the answer is “you need both, determining which is most helpful on the margin depends on the specific details of each case and your own personal fit”.
Beat me to it, pressure from bottom up and top down are probably both needed. Also, could we say in a way that most politicians (those that don’t directly influence the given topic) can also be considered technically part of the wider public since they are media consumers. Sometimes this can lead to sideways pressure.
In a conversation with David Deutsch at the RSA, Rees said something which surprised me:
My guess is that he’s wrong about this. But he’s spent quite a while being a Lord, and I have never spoken to an MP, so I feel I have to increase my credence on this at least a bit…
Yes he’s said this very consistently for years. Its interesting for like the insider’s insider (Astronomer Royal!) to advocate an outside game.
As for everything, I suspect the answer is “you need both, determining which is most helpful on the margin depends on the specific details of each case and your own personal fit”.
Beat me to it, pressure from bottom up and top down are probably both needed. Also, could we say in a way that most politicians (those that don’t directly influence the given topic) can also be considered technically part of the wider public since they are media consumers. Sometimes this can lead to sideways pressure.