George Osborne speech at the Royal Society

George Osborne speech at the Royal Society; ENGLAND: London: Royal Society: INT **BEWARE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY** George Osborne MP (Chancellor) arriving and being shown mace in glass cabinet by Sir Paul Nurse (President, Royal Society) Sir Paul Nurse (President, Royal Society) speech SOT George Osborne MP (Chancellor) speech SOT **Speech transcript - check against delivery** It is a great privilege for me to address the Royal Society for the first time. You are testament to the continuing excellence of British science. You combine 350 years of history with support for cutting-edge research today. The manuscript of Newton’s Principia Mathematica is in your Library and you host a seminar this month on energy transduction and genome function. Later this month you will be hosting a celebration of the Nobel Prize just awarded to your Fellow, Professor Sir John Gurdon, the 277th in your history. His research on cloning lies behind the development of stem-cells which is already transforming medicine. The sheer quality and range of scientific enquiry, as vigorous today as in the days of Ernest Rutherford and Dorothy Hodgkin , is one of our nation’s greatest achievements in which we can take real pride. I am glad to say that one of my predecessors has some small place in your Hall of Fame. Charles Montagu, whose portrait is on display here today, was President of the Royal Society in the late 17th century, and at the same time as Chancellor of the Exchequer. He made his mark as Chancellor, founding the Bank of England and so saving the country from bankruptcy after racking up debts after war with the French. But I’m afraid to report he was a rather unremarkable Royal Society President. He only got the job because his illustrious friend, Sir Issac Newton owed him a favour because he had given Newton the then rather lucrative role of Master of the Mint. Charles Montagu did, however, get something right. Newton was one of the greatest Masters of the Mint, rebasi...