a town in Co Durham N England pop 33433 1981 now nearer 24000 and where only 6

a town in Co Durham, N England, pop 33,433 (1981), now nearer 24,000 and where only 6 per cent of school-leavers find jobs; 2. Schoolchildren and students are not stupid: they are keenly aware of the prevailing ethos that all relationships are economic and that one's status in society is a function of one's income. By improving the image of science through events such as this week, so the reasoning goes, then industry will get the supplies of technologically trained manpower that it needs for our future economic prosperity.It is not clear that an extended PR programme will deliver what the Government wants. Two years ago, it published a White Paper reorienting the thrust of British research towards "wealth creation" and it sees public understanding as a tool towards stemming the flood of children away from careers in science or engineering. If the people are to be trusted in the Jeffersonian manner with determining their own future, then they must be equipped with the necessary knowledge.The Government's agenda, predictably, is economic rather than constitutional. But advances in genetics and information technology are ever more rapid and affect society ever more profoundly. We are surrounded by the trinkets of technology many of which, from computer databases to DNA fingerprinting, affect our lives profoundly.Understanding science is not essential to functional literacy in our society - there are scientists who have, say, a deep understanding of Maxwell's equations for the propagation of radio waves, yet cannot programme their video recorders.

This week is the second of its kind, a follow-on from last year's efforts at raising the public profile of science, engineering and technology. That the public should understand more about science has become rather like motherhood and apple pie; there are few who can be found to speak out against it. There is a democratic imperative: our society, more than any other in history, depends upon the fruits of applied scientific research. As one of more than 3,000 events taking place across the country during National Science Week (17 to 26 March), the Nordic version of relativity theory will be the focus for discussion in Kirkwall on Wednesday evening. For anyone who wants to know why Swedish women should be avoided on winter mornings, and what the connection is between the Viking Earl Sigurd and Albert Einstein, then Kirkwall Town Hall, in the Orkneys, is the place to find out. For them an interest in reform shows distinctly anorak tendencies They are wrong. The best way to encourage MPs to stay at Westminster is to give them something useful to do..

The procedures of the House should, they say, be completely overhauled. Labour's Graham Allen has even suggested that a chief executive should be brought in to supervise this revolution.All this is too worthy for many writers and politicians. They advocate modification of prime ministerial and ministerial question times to increase their effectiveness. To improve scrutiny they want to see proper support for select committees, their election from the floor of the House, automatic debate of their reports, and their involvement in the committee stages of relevant Bills. Reforming MPs have suggested modifying the chamber to make it less confrontational and giving each MP a seat, with electronic voting to speed up proceedings. But ask yourself this: what practical good has someone like Dennis Skinner - for all his attendance record, his questions, his red- tied omnipresence on the benches - ever done? Which bit of anyone's life has been by one iota improved because of the parliamentary performance of Britain's most active backbencher?No, thoroughgoing parliamentary reform is long overdue.

Precedence goes to seniority, not expertise.Working hours are preposterous, causing breakdowns in health and in family ties There are more MPs than there are seats in the chamber. The procedure is archaic, characterised by stupid rules and codes of behaviour that defy common sense.Of course the parliamentary nostalgists and the green-baize fetishists will deny it. Committee chairmen are not elected by all MPs, but gerrymandered by the whips.Debate in the House is too often reduced to the sterile exchanges of abuse between Government and Opposition. Of 500 committee reports only four have ever been debated on the floor of the House.