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Meanwhile the Tories' love affair with science, made public last year with the appointment of Robert Key as Shadow Science Minister, has turned out to be the briefest of flings. Mr Key has gone off to a defence post, turning his back on the Commons Science and Technology Committee, where he interrogated witnesses in a booming style reminiscent of Rumpole of the Bailey. Mr Key confessed he had no idea who might be taking over. To think that as recently as March he was wooing academic voters with promises that his party was the only one that really understood the plight of British research.