In setting the stage, the first thing to realize is that basic science has never been a local, parochial, national or regional activity. Globalization is nothing new to science. Unless a country continues to encourage and fully support basic research to an international level of excellence, such that the membership of its nationals in the invisible colleges is by invitation rather than supplication, it will lose access to the generator of new ideas. This process of loss of scientific literacy and its economic consequences is very rapid. It is in the interest of our suppliers that we do not become a threat through technological parity, and that we lack the knowledge to read the blueprints which tell the difference between the best and the superseded.
Basic research can be responsive to social needs but only as painted with the broadest brush.
The strategic plan should be invisible at the bench. Research decisions are made according to research criteria, not commercial, governmental or social ones. The role of the government is to provide leadership but not control. The risk of initiatives like the Green Paper, with its declared intention of building frameworks, is that of slipping across the line from framework to control. But he or she is not an irritating crank that somehowe has to be absorbed into the system.