Difference between revisions of "David Sainsbury"
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| − | [[Image:sainsbury.jpg| | + | [[Image:sainsbury.jpg|130px|right|thumb]] ''Lord Sainsbury'' |
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==Background== | ==Background== | ||
| − | Lord (David) Sainsbury of Turville has been Science Minister in Tony | + | Lord (David) Sainsbury of Turville has been Science Minister in Tony Blair's government since 1998. He is also a member of the cabinet biotechnology committee, [[Sci-Bio]], responsible for national policy on GM crops and foods, and as such is a key adviser to Blair on GM technology. He is also a donor to Blair's Labour Party. He gave Labour its biggest ever single donation in September 1997. On October 3 1997 he was made a life peer by Blair and a year later Minister for Science. |
==Says Nuclear is Renewable Energy== | ==Says Nuclear is Renewable Energy== | ||
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Seen as a key nuclear proponent within Government. [''The Guardian'' (2005) "Energy Review: Who's for, who's Against and Why", 30 November, p6] | Seen as a key nuclear proponent within Government. [''The Guardian'' (2005) "Energy Review: Who's for, who's Against and Why", 30 November, p6] | ||
| − | In October 2005, Sainsbury caused further consternation when he declared that nuclear was a "renewable energy source. In a debate on energy security in the House of Lords, Sainsbury was asked whether he would reclassify nuclear as renewable energy. He said: 'Lady | + | In October 2005, Sainsbury caused further consternation when he declared that nuclear was a "renewable energy source. In a debate on energy security in the House of Lords, Sainsbury was asked whether he would reclassify nuclear as renewable energy. He said: 'Lady O'Cathain offered me the opportunity of . . . agreeing that nuclear is a renewable source of energy - it clearly is so'." |
As ''The Times'' pointed out: "A decision to reclassify nuclear as a renewable source of energy would have dramatic consequences. Nuclear generators would be exempted, like wind turbines, from the Climate Change Levy, a tax borne by the nuclear industry despite its carbon-free advantage. It would also force a rethink of the renewables obligation, which requires utilities to buy 10 per cent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2010." [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1850323,00.html] | As ''The Times'' pointed out: "A decision to reclassify nuclear as a renewable source of energy would have dramatic consequences. Nuclear generators would be exempted, like wind turbines, from the Climate Change Levy, a tax borne by the nuclear industry despite its carbon-free advantage. It would also force a rethink of the renewables obligation, which requires utilities to buy 10 per cent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2010." [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1850323,00.html] | ||
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==Labour Party donor== | ==Labour Party donor== | ||
| − | By 2003 Lord Sainsbury had given over | + | By 2003 Lord Sainsbury had given over million to the Labour Party. Mark Seddon, a member of Labour's National Executive Committee, told the BBC, 'In any other country I think a government minister donating such vast amounts of money and effectively buying a political party would be seen for what it is, a form of corruption of the political process.' Seddon said it was causing Labour to lose members amid criticism from the grassroots that the party was now 'in the pockets of the powerful and the rich'. |
When he was made Science Minister, Lord Sainsbury resigned as Chairman of the Sainsbury's supermarket chain and put into a blind trust major investments in two plant genetics-related investment companies ([[Diatech Ltd]] and [[Innotech Investments Ltd]]). Innotech has a substantial stake in a firm called [[Paradigm Genetics]] involved in a joint GM-related venture with [[Monsanto]]. Between 1996 and 1999 [[Diatech]] was granted three patents for GM products that are said to have the potential to make millions of pounds in royalties. | When he was made Science Minister, Lord Sainsbury resigned as Chairman of the Sainsbury's supermarket chain and put into a blind trust major investments in two plant genetics-related investment companies ([[Diatech Ltd]] and [[Innotech Investments Ltd]]). Innotech has a substantial stake in a firm called [[Paradigm Genetics]] involved in a joint GM-related venture with [[Monsanto]]. Between 1996 and 1999 [[Diatech]] was granted three patents for GM products that are said to have the potential to make millions of pounds in royalties. | ||
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==Biotech investor== | ==Biotech investor== | ||
| − | Through his [[Gatsby Charitable Foundation]] Lord Sainsbury has also put millions into the study of plant genetics. Gatsby gives approximately | + | Through his [[Gatsby Charitable Foundation]] Lord Sainsbury has also put millions into the study of plant genetics. Gatsby gives approximately million a year to the Sainsbury Laboratory of the [[John Innes Centre]], which does research into GM crops. Lord Sainsbury helped found the Laboratory in 1987 and his Gatsby Foundation remains its principal source of funding, although it also receives over ,000 a year from the [[Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council]] (BBSRC) , for which Sainsbury is responsible in his ministerial role. Its grant has increased several fold during Sainsbury's time as minister. |
Like his biotech investments, his Gatsby contributions have been administered through a blind trust run by his solicitor Judith Portrait since Sainsbury became UK Science Minister. Portrait is also a Gatsby trustee. Although he does not attend Gatsby meetings or make decisions, Sainsbury retains the power to appoint and dismiss its trustees. | Like his biotech investments, his Gatsby contributions have been administered through a blind trust run by his solicitor Judith Portrait since Sainsbury became UK Science Minister. Portrait is also a Gatsby trustee. Although he does not attend Gatsby meetings or make decisions, Sainsbury retains the power to appoint and dismiss its trustees. | ||
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Sainsbury's biotech business interconnections with areas of his official responsibility are numerous. For instance, when Lord Sainsbury travelled to America as Science Minister in 1999, to research a report into biotechnology, he was accompanied by members of the BioIndustry Association, a lobby group for companies involved in GM food (the DTI helped pay their costs). His company, Diatech is an Associate Member of the [[BioIndustry Association]]. | Sainsbury's biotech business interconnections with areas of his official responsibility are numerous. For instance, when Lord Sainsbury travelled to America as Science Minister in 1999, to research a report into biotechnology, he was accompanied by members of the BioIndustry Association, a lobby group for companies involved in GM food (the DTI helped pay their costs). His company, Diatech is an Associate Member of the [[BioIndustry Association]]. | ||
| − | Eight days before he became Science Minister he loaned [[Diatech]] money to buy a | + | Eight days before he became Science Minister he loaned [[Diatech]] money to buy a million office in Westminster. Diatech has registered a patent for a genetic sequence taken from the tobacco mosaic virus for use in genetically modified plants. This was developed at the [[Sainsbury Laboratory]] by [[Mike Wilson]] who is still a consultant to Diatech. |
| − | In a recent [http://www.i-sis.org.uk/EngineeringLifeAndMind.php?printing=yes Financial Times article], Lord Sainsbury cites the following statistics: British universities spun off 199 companies in 2000, up from an annual average of 67 in the previous five years and a mere 'handful' before that. The | + | In a recent [http://www.i-sis.org.uk/EngineeringLifeAndMind.php?printing=yes Financial Times article], Lord Sainsbury cites the following statistics: British universities spun off 199 companies in 2000, up from an annual average of 67 in the previous five years and a mere 'handful' before that. The UK's ratio of companies to research spending is now more than six times higher than the US. 'It's a dazzling record,' Lord Sainsbury is quoted as saying and he laments the nation's failure to celebrate such a 'stunning change in the entrepreneurial attitudes of our universities'. |
==Commercialising science== | ==Commercialising science== | ||
| − | Not everybody shares Sainsbury's enthusiasm. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/sci_tech/highlights/000914_whistleblowers.shtml Professor Steven Rose] of the Open University Biology Dept is among those who have commented critically on this emerging corporate science culture, | + | Not everybody shares Sainsbury's enthusiasm. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/sci_tech/highlights/000914_whistleblowers.shtml Professor Steven Rose] of the Open University Biology Dept is among those who have commented critically on this emerging corporate science culture, 'Well I think there is a very real problem from the point of view of university research in the way that private companies have entered the university, both with direct companies in the universities and with contracts to university researchers. So that in fact the whole climate of what might be open and independent scientific research has disappeared, the old idea that universities were a place of independence has gone. Instead of which one's got secrecy, one's got patents, one's got contracts and one's got shareholders.' |
| − | The key to delivering Lord | + | The key to delivering Lord Sainsbury's redefinition of 'good science', as science which is potentially commercially productive, is the higher education funding councils such as the BBSRC. The [[BBSRC]] has won an extra million in funding since Sainsbury became Science Minister. Until 2003 its Chairman was [[Peter Doyle]] a director of biotech giant [[Sourcewatch:Syngenta|Syngenta]]. |
==SDP activist== | ==SDP activist== | ||
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==Science Media Centre== | ==Science Media Centre== | ||
| − | Lord Sainsbury is also a keen supporter of the [[Science Media Centre]]. One of the advisors to the [[Science Media Centre]] is Diatech consultant, [[Mike Wilson]]. Wilson was also one of a number of scientists with links to Lord Sainsbury's funding network who served on the UK government's GM [[Science Review Panel]]. Amongst these was Professor [[John Gray]] from the Department of Plant Science, at the University of Cambridge. He is a council member and trustee of the [[Sainsbury Laboratory]], as well as being on the Science Advisory Panel of the [[Gatsby Charitable Trust]], along with Dr. [[Roger Freedman]] of Diatech. Professor Gray is also the chairman of the Trustees of the Gatsby organisation, [[Science and Plants for Schools]], along with [[Judith Portrait]], who manages Lord | + | Lord Sainsbury is also a keen supporter of the [[Science Media Centre]]. One of the advisors to the [[Science Media Centre]] is Diatech consultant, [[Mike Wilson]]. Wilson was also one of a number of scientists with links to Lord Sainsbury's funding network who served on the UK government's GM [[Science Review Panel]]. Amongst these was Professor [[John Gray]] from the Department of Plant Science, at the University of Cambridge. He is a council member and trustee of the [[Sainsbury Laboratory]], as well as being on the Science Advisory Panel of the [[Gatsby Charitable Trust]], along with Dr. [[Roger Freedman]] of Diatech. Professor Gray is also the chairman of the Trustees of the Gatsby organisation, [[Science and Plants for Schools]], along with [[Judith Portrait]], who manages Lord Sainsbury's blind trusts. |
The Science Review Panel also included 3 scientists with links to the [[John Innes Centre]], which houses the [[Sainsbury Laboratory]] - Professor [[Chris Leaver]], a member of the [[John Innes Centre]] Governing Council and a Trustee of the [[John Innes Foundation]], and [[Phil Dale]] and [[Mike Gale]] who both work at the JIC. Gale is also a director of John Innes Enterprises and a consultant to [[Plant Bioscience Ltd]], which is jointly owned by the JIC and Lord Sainsbury's Gatsby Foundation. | The Science Review Panel also included 3 scientists with links to the [[John Innes Centre]], which houses the [[Sainsbury Laboratory]] - Professor [[Chris Leaver]], a member of the [[John Innes Centre]] Governing Council and a Trustee of the [[John Innes Foundation]], and [[Phil Dale]] and [[Mike Gale]] who both work at the JIC. Gale is also a director of John Innes Enterprises and a consultant to [[Plant Bioscience Ltd]], which is jointly owned by the JIC and Lord Sainsbury's Gatsby Foundation. | ||