Haldene principle ‘clarified’: trampled all over and dumped in the bin more likely.

I am incandescent, disbelieving, upset and depressed all at once. I didn’t actually think I could be shocked any more than I already am at government policy and then I read this. Here is the second paragraph,  just to give you a flavour:

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) will spend a “significant” amount of its funding on the prime minister’s vision for the country, after a government “clarification” of the Haldane principle – a convention that for 90 years has protected the right of academics to decide where research funds should be spent.

Apparently, this is ‘non-negotiable’. I cannot recall, but am willing to be corrected, any government in recent years tying in research funding so closely to a particular ideology. Even if we leave on one side for time being the fact that this ideology is mendacious, pernicious and many other things ending in ‘ious’, the principle that a government can override academic freedom in this way is absolutely terrifying.

I hope to blog about this issue in more detail later, but thought it worth flagging now.

EDIT

The AHRC today issued a denial of The Observer‘s allegations, which you can read here. Although there is clearly more to this than meets the eye, I am still suspicious, mainly because of information located on this page. The fact that so  many people chose to believe yesterday’s article speaks volumes about the way the AHRC is currently regarded by those of us who have to deal with it. You can find more comment with links to other blogs at Guy Halsall’s Historian on the Edge.