Parliamentary & Scientific Committee

Today was the annual lunch and Guest of Honour was Princess Anne. I wasn't sure how much she knows about science but was aware that she is involved with WISE (Women into Science and Engineering).

Clearly Lord Soulsby, when introducing her, was also struggling to pad out the scientific CV and mentioned how well qualified she was etc and mentioned some role that the Princess has in The Society of Farriers - or some such organisation.

The Princess stood up and commented that she was involved with that organisation but it hardly qualified her to speak on matters scientific. She also commented that her A level in geography was about as qualified as she got!
I found her really refreshing and down to earth and she clearly has no time for bull - I suspect she also likes to cut pompous people down to size but her candour was refreshing.

Her speech was also very entertaining and she clearly feels passionately about encouraging women into science. She also spoke about how she felt her A level choices had been limited and had liked the idea of going off "to the local polytechnic and studying some form of engineering but she hadn't been brave enough".

An event I enjoyed far more than I had anticipated