Picking and choosing

You may remember at the beginning of April a row broke out over science and politics. This row was re-ignited today [22 April] when the UK Drug Policy Commission and the think-tank Demos released a research report saying it was time to rethink drug control laws. The Commission/Demos work will refocus attention on the resignations earlier this month of a number of experts from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. They quit in protest over the way that ministers ignored the scientific advice and instead were accused of playing politics by pledging to ban mepherdone and therefore could be seen to be 'acting tough' in the run-up to the election.
A couple of weeks later and drugs were forgotten as airports across Europe were shut because of the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud which drifted over the continent. This time British ministers were in trouble from airlines and opposition politicians who accused them of dithering over lifting the ban. UK airports remained closed for a day longer than others in Europe. Planes were flying again following the creation of new guidelines by the UK's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) raising the threshold of ash density in the atmosphere at which flying is deemed safe from zero to 0.002 grams per meter cubed per hour. It said new data collected from test flights and additional analysis from manufacturers over the past few days had "helped to validate a new standard that is now being adopted across Europe."
But the advice received by government and its response to that advice has been questioned. The government says safety was paramount but it is now facing claims for compensation from an angry and already financially-weak airline industry.
Decisions over both mepherdone and volcanic ash were taken using information and political judgement, and both were subject to hard lobbying by self-interested parties. It seems politicians can expect to be damned when they do listen to scientific advice and damned when they ignore it. While scientists are fallible, perhaps we all need to recognise that listening to the information-based expert advice has to be the best route on all occasions.