When politicians ignore scientific facts

It would be good for politics in this country and every other if people could move towards making their policies and decisions more evidence-based.

That includes being ready to challenge any orthodoxy including those which claim to be scientific if you have real evidence to back up the challenge, but the qualification is important.

Sadly too many of us find it easy to pay attention to the evidence that suits our preconceptions but ignore what doesn't.

One preconception many people have is that their own side pays attention to the evidence and the other doesn't; but the reality is that neither the political left nor right has a monopoly of wisdom.

A couple of interesting articles were drawn to my attention yesterday which address this from a US perspective. One was by a Democrat, but both point out that hostility to science is not the exclusive preserve of the right in the USA - any more than it is here.

The two articles can be found via the following links:

http://reason.com/archives/2015/06/17/the-lefts-bad-ideas-about-science-are-mo

http://tech.mit.edu/V135/N9/vierra.html

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