The greatness of British innovation is never knowingly undersold by David Cameron. In his pre-conference tribute to the country’s strengths, the Prime Minister noted that it had “invented the jet engine, DNA and the worldwide web”. Some viewers of the interview he gave to Andrew Marr were quick to spot the odd one out.
To say that Britain invented DNA is like saying that Columbus invented America or that David Attenborough invented the giant rat-eating nepenthes plant. Sceptics might wonder whether the tendency to mistake invention for discovery was more than one simple slip of the tongue. Has the Government, for example, discovered a growth strategy, or has it just invented one?
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