Dear Mr Osborne, We all enjoy our tea or our coffee. 20 ago a physicist was worrying about his coffee ring stained kitchen worktops. Why did they form those patterns? It seems an academic, perhaps useless question right? Yet solving that riddle was necessary for the development of the new field of plastic electronics. Would UK funding models allow for the early investigation of coffee stain effects? No. Britain risks losing out and falling behind. Science is vital. Science funding is vital.