Public-understanding-of-science policy in the UK

In 1985, a report called The Public Understanding of Science was published by the Royal Society, Britain’s premier scientific institution. source

... society as a whole simply does not value science. Item 5

1. The early 1980s were the time of ‘Thatcher’s Britain’, characterised by high unemployment, reductions in public spending, privatisation of essential services, a move towards a service economy and widespread labour unrest. 
2. 
   
3. Scientists were feeling the financial squeeze, and many were leaving the country for jobs abroad. 
4. 
   
5. British science was under threat. The Royal Society brought together a committee of distinguished scientists who believed that the root of the problem was that society as a whole simply does not value science. 

source - within a vast page in a previous blog of mine  no longer editable here    numerous new topics