Interesting if true

Back page gossip from the 6 September issue of Research Fortnight.

Clock work David Davis’s work ethic is under the spotlight. First, James Chapman, Davis’s former chief of staff, took to Twitter to accuse the Brexit secretary of working a three-day week. Then ahead of the latest Brexit talks, Brussels correspondents were struggling to get confirmation on whether the UK negotiating team was going to turn up on 28 August, as it was a UK bank holiday. Davis eventually delivered a joint press statement with the European Union’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier, but it remains unclear if any actual negotiating took place.

Jobs site Anxiety in Swindon about who will have a job once UK Research and Innovation is launched in April 2018 has slightly eased, after it was confirmed to the trade unions that all the staff at Research Councils UK, the seven research councils and Innovate UK are to be transferred automatically to UKRI. So, there will be no job losses on day one, but some still wonder whether they’ve just been postponed so as not to overshadow the launch.