Great Mammon's Organisms

August 25, 2003 3:55 AM

Is the GM Food Business trying to nobble independent scientific inquiry? Scientists on the UK Government's GM Science Review Panel, say they have been threatened and bullied to provide pro-GM opinions.
(Meanwhile Tony Blair is reigning in his zeal for GMO's, it seems for entirely political reasons.)
posted by Blue Stone (7 comments total)

(the person appointed to lead the inquiry, minister for small business Nigel) Griffiths insisted that the inquiry would avoid being influenced by Government spin. 'I am determined to make sure none of the facts are kept from the public and none of it is spun. I am also making sure that filtered advice from civil servants does not get in the way. This is too much in the public interest,' he said.
Useful rule of thumb: Any time a government minister tells you an inquiry is too important to be spun --- it's being spun.
posted by kaemaril at 4:48 AM on August 25, 2003

Blair's amazing downward journey: from cool britannia to fighting science.

(Entirely political reasons = "Errr ... we already have one dead scientist to account for")

/puke
posted by magullo at 5:41 AM on August 25, 2003

What the hell is a nobble?
posted by nyxxxx at 9:11 AM on August 25, 2003

It's a verb in that sentence.
posted by hobbes at 9:15 AM on August 25, 2003

Nobble? From dictionary.com:

1 entry found for nobbled.
tr.v. Chiefly British nob·bled, nob·bling, nob·bles
1. To disable (a racehorse), especially by drugging.
2. To win (a person) over.
3. To outdo or get the better of by devious means.
4. To filch or steal.
5. To kidnap.
[Origin unknown.]
posted by kaemaril at 10:42 AM on August 25, 2003

So you're saying they're trying to drug scientific inquiry?
posted by nyxxxx at 5:13 PM on August 25, 2003

I'm not saying a damn thing, myself. But nobble=disable, stymie, flim-flam, con, degrade, put down, subvert, depreciate scientific inquiry? Sure. The average Brit would know the contextual meaning immediately. Perhaps it would have been better to say "Is the GM Food Industry trying to White House independent scientific investigation?" :)
posted by kaemaril at 1:36 PM on August 26, 2003