Bubbly open ... but no good news

Chancellor Gordon Brown's ten-year investment plan for science was the subject of much champagne-fuelled speculation at the Royal Society's glitzy summer house party last week. Some were disappointed that no draft copies of the final report were in covert circulation. But as one senior source close to the Government revealed, the Treasury is so determined to retain complete control over this glossy good-news story that it even refused to give the Office of Science and Technology a preview last week.