Nothing to say

Having lost the student vote, the Lib Dems are keen not to alienate scientists. Their approach, as Adam Smith reports, is not to promise too much.

Simon Wright has a fight on his hands. The Liberal Democrat MP is defending a majority of 310 in Norwich South, home to scientists from the University of East Anglia and Norwich Research Park. Wright, a former maths teacher, is a member of his party’s Team Science, a group of parliamentary candidates who want to talk science in the election. As such, he is keeping a close eye on George Freeman, a Norfolk rival and Conservative life sciences minister. “George shows what strengths a constituency MP who is engaged with science in his community can achieve,” says Wright.

But putting science high on the agenda will be a battle. With such a slim majority and awful poll results, Wright joins dozens of other party colleagues in fighting just to survive. However, the prediction that the Lib Dem parliamentary party will be slashed by half on 7 May is not the only reason for science to take a back seat.