Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in UK science cuts

Will Wiles19

Further insanity. We are scolded about our want of national pride - it is facilities like this, and the discoveries made there, that give me pride, and yet apparently they all need to go on the bonfire.

Gus6

They should lobby Burnham now & Labour conference in September to provide necessary funding. Don't ask mega rich, tax them like #Lineker wants. #science #astronomy #Burnham #Labour 🔭🌌

Dr. S.A. Applin5

But apparently, they can afford all that pricey "AI."

P. Thomas Johnson 🇬🇧🇨🇦 🤝 🇺🇦2

A decision to cut funding or support to the sciences, the humanities, or the arts is to lose the battle against ignorance in advance.

Comrade Jingle Pants ☭🔻Organize Against Oligarchs!2

Killing people is really expensive. So we need to stop doing anything that isn't killing people so we can kill enough people to not have to spend money on killing people anymore. Duh.

Copper Sturgeon 🇵🇭 🏴‍☠️🎨💾🗿🫚🦜2

We do have plenty of idiots out there thinking... Its all a hoax, urth is plat!!

Alexander Clarkson77

A society losing the ability to dream

Catherine Fletcher17

I actually admire UKRI's tactic here. If you want to draw public attention to dubious cuts, the exact way you do it is by threatening to shut down an iconic facility that millions of people see regularly driving down the M6

badly drawn bee 🐝16

Starmer of the North off to a strong start

James Butler15

Good opportunity for Burnham to deliver on his claim that science and academic research are key means of rebalancing the country and restore funding.

Richard K Morgan15

Very, *very* hard to shake the impression of Britain today as the dissolute aristo waster who blew a fortune playing Brexit late into the night and is now scrabbling about selling off the family silver in a desperate attempt to stave off his creditors and fix the leaking roof.....

Per Engzell10

If there's something Britain understands it's brand consistency. The world associates you with preventable self-inflicted disasters, better stay on message.

Prof. Liz Oakley-Brown10

Can someone summarise very clearly what UKRI will fund?

ShadowZone8

Are you a UK citizen? Write your MP to prevent this! Closing this would not only harm British science but astronomy world wide.

Paramount Observatory4

Why are we not surprised ... Earth is 'literally' burning and we decide to restrict the sciences of our future! Thats politicians for you, they only see the next 5 years.

Peyton Reads 📚💜🌻8

💯% this is dreadful! Science needs to be funded! We live in the stupidest timeline with some of the dumbest, most bizarre people ever!

Adrian Bowyer5

I think that, if you were to ask the public what type of scientific research they find most interesting, astronomy would come top.

Steve B3

Visitor centre as in it has loads of alien visitors from outer space.

Mark Hebden2

Feel like this is a deliberate attack on "The North"

Rodney Marques4

If Manchesterism can't slither 20 miles up the A56 from the Slug and Lettuce to Macc and sort this out what's the point?

Roger Rimbaud14

This is fucking insane and incredibly Dropping hard science for AI is nuts

Conor Fitzpatrick13

Even at a base level, turning our publicly funded research into off-the-shelf data centers as opposed to unique, one of a kind infrastructure like lovell does very little for industry in the UK. We will be paying american server vendors to pay taiwanese chip fabs to pay dutch lithography engineers.

Miles King11

Utter insanity. Hopefully Burnham will overturn the decision and demand a review of UKRI's spending priorities.

James O'Malley55

What's grim about this is that the numbers involved are almost comically small – it needs £2.8m! (Can we just cap bus fares at £2.01 instead?)

Garvan Walshe5

A Manchester PM can surely not allow this !

LeithMotive4

Everybody upset about this, but cutting funding for scientific infrastructure has been policy for a decade now. They'll fund new ideas, but won't fund the costs of maintaining the infrastructure to support them.

Lee Savage2

The UK continues its managed decline. Extraordinarily poor leadership from government to UKRI

Liesbeth Corens2

Grateful that the BBC puts in its blurb that this will also lead to the loss of skills* training for the next generation. Knowledge doesn't just exist, it lives in its passing on. This country is about create a knowledge black hole for itself. *the one thing Jacqui Smith claims to care about.

Dr Jo Kershaw17

Just trashing U.K. science and saving peanuts. Vandalism.

EspeciallySarah2

This is complete madness not just for the specific scientists working there but for our standing as a country and as a sign that our government doesn't support investment in science and technology

Dr Emily Drabek-Maunder 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🧑‍🔬2

Absolutely heartbreaking. As an astrophysicist who worked with e-MERLIN to study pebble formation around stars (the precursors to terrestrial planets, like Earth), it is such a short-sighted move. Decimating the science budget does not make a country great.

Moose Malloy6

Lmao we are such a fucking circus

Sam Wilson6

This would be deeply sad for a Prime Minister who talks so often about restoring hope to oversee. Burnham needs to step in at the budget and sort out research funding

Charlie Radclyffe5

I mean, seriously, what is the UK becoming? There aren't many telescopes of global significance (one less this week after Spanish fires) and it closing will affect the Square Kilometre Array, Event Horizon Telescope, and e-MERLIN. I hope this story is just trying to drum up interest and action

Harry Taylor5

The fame of Jodrell Bank might draw attention to this. Surely it's one of the UK's best known landmarks? The idea of it closing is a humiliation, as are the other details in this piece.

Reality Ausetkmt2

this is idiotic to shut down a tool for a budget filled with bs