Is the Haldane Principle obsolete?

Governments by their very nature attempt to interfere in many areas where there is a significant gap between politicians' knowledge and expertise in that domain... generally with poor results. In the UK, both school-level education and the NHS have, sadly, demonstrated this. The government's role needs to be confined to deciding how much public money should be spent in that area, they have neither the right nor the competence to attempt to micromanage how it's used. The 'Haldane Principle' cannot be allowed to die, indeed it needs to be extended.

The issue is not Government involvement in expensive, citizen-funded projects. That's inevitable. The issue is Government competence to intervene usefully and creatively. Right now, the Chinese government is the most competent in this regard, because most politicians have technical backgrounds (Xi is a chemist) and their technical advice committees are among the brightest people in the world. We could profitably emulate them.

It is important to follow up contracts by requiring an assessment of the outcome.

When Einstein researched Relativity, how would the 'impacts' be anticipated, which today include electron microscopes, and GPS satellites with satnav for cars and mobile phones. Moreover you tend to 'find what you are looking for', and if you are actually being paid to find it,you had better find it or face getting no more grants to 'find it' in the future. So 'impact' is likely to bias research to what we know, or want to be able to prove,for corporate or governance reasons - RIP blue skies research that might have found something truly remarkable and revolutionary, because nobody will have the money to find it. 'Pecunia non olet' as the Romans said, and eventually, 'Terra mortuum non olet' either.