A Reprieve for Jodrell Bank?

The Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Three days ago the latest Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Andy Burnham, gave a commitment to rescue Jodrell Bank Observatory from the threat of closure resulting from funding cuts at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). In a previous post about this I wrote The last time STFC had a financial crisis was in 2009 and e-Merlin might well have been cut then but survived thanks to political intervention at the highest level. I suppose that could happen again, but I wouldn’t bet on it. It looks like it has indeed happened again. The exact quote from Andy Burnham is: There must be a way to save Jodrell Bank, and I give a commitment today, at this despatch box, we will find it. That sounds like an unequivocal commitment, but it raises quite a few questions. One of these is that STFC was actually planning to cut funding to the e-MERLIN project and it is by no means clear that the £2.8 million needed for e-MERLIN will actually be…