Off His Trolley?
Lord Sainsbury, Minister for Science and Innovation, addressed the Reform Club and Physics Society on Tuesday night. He remained upbeat on the current world economic situation and, despite the dire predictions of some economists, did not believe the country was heading towards a recession on an unprecedented scale.
Lord Sainsbury is the fourth richest man in Britain, according to this Sunday's "Sunday Times Rich List", with an estimated fortune of £2.9 billion. He is also the biggest single donor to a political party in British history. He has come under some criticism during his short political career. He was only appointed a Minister in 1998, before which point he had been Chairman of J. Sainsbury Plc. His heavy investment in GM crops has led to claims he has a conflict of interest. However he concentrated instead on talking about the ways in which the government has attempted to encourage growth within business and in particular university business developments.
His speech was entitled 'Enterprise and the Knowledge Economy' and he pinpointed the ways in which the government has attempted to stimulate the economy, in the case of small businesses, and stabilise the economy in terms of macroeconomic policy, in order to prevent the crippling boom bust cycle. The government has, according to Sainsbury, attempted to boost funding to university science departments and encorage business links with universities, in addition to attempting to develop profitable scientific research.
Speaking after his speech he disputed whether Britain was suffering a 'brain drain' to the US universities such as Princeton and Stanford. Despite strong evidence that the salaries of scientists at UK institutions are significantly lower than those of their US counterparts, he believed that there was a global exchange in scientists. He said that he was not sure of the actual numbers involved, but that "though scientists go, others come" and you have to take into account "the quality lost, versus the gain". He also cited the Wolfson Foundation and the Royal Fund, which assist in the recruitment of top researchers. He said that though top-up fees were one way of increasing Higher Education funding, the government had ruled out their introduction.
As a prominent philanthropist who has given millions of pounds through the Sainbury family's Gatsby Foundation to a range of diverse causes, from cognitive neuroscience to the arts, Lord Sainsbury was keen to advocate the giving of money to universities. In comparison to the US, UK alumini give very little back to their places of Higher Education. However, Lord Sainsbury said that he expected donations to increase in the future as people who had made substantial fortunes in the 1980s and 90s were now able to make generous donations.
When asked about the serious problem of attacks on scientific companies who test on animals, in the light of attacks on those companies only dealing in the shares of such companies, including Huntingdon Life Sciences as in the case of Charles Schwab the stockbrokers, Sainsbury took a strong stance. He pointed out that Cabinet Ministers had been very clear. He seemed concerned about the risks of driving business away and commended the bravery of the people who worked at Huntingdon Life Sciences in the face of threats of violence. However he did comment on the 'cowardice' of some of the financial institutions involved, though he did not name any specific companies.
3rd May 2001