Government 'scientific advisers': who needs these nuts in white coats? – Gerald Warner - Telegraph Blogs

Thanks to climate change scams, swine flu and a whole host of own-goals, the status of the white-coated prima donnas and narcissists has never been lower in the public esteem. It was Rush Limbaugh, of all unlikely candidates, who at the height of the Climategate exposé made the thoughtful point that more than climate was at stake: the credibility of the entire scientific community was collapsing. He was right. After a period of priest-like authority, the pointy-heads in lab coats have reassumed the role of mad cranks they enjoyed from the days of Frankenstein to boys’ comics in the 1950s.
...
Despite all this, Professor Nutt opposed the reclassification of cannabis as a Class B drug. In that purblind opposition he betrayed his detachment from real life. So do his colleagues in the global warming lobby. The public is no longer in awe of scientists. Like squabbling evangelical churches in the 19th century, they can form as many schismatic sects as they like, nobody is listening to them any more. Unquestioned authority derived from a white coat and a doctorate is as dead as the Druids.