During the thirteen years I was an MP “interesting times” was the common description to sum up the political events of the day. And so it was until last Thursday’s election.

We now live in the most extraordinary times with a hung parliament, both the Conservatives and Labour dominating the landscape, and a government facing one of the most important decisions for our country since the Second World War.

However, life in Westminster will carry on and – beneath the familiar political point scoring – Parliament’s better side, where matters are thoroughly debated and consensus is reached, will become much more prominent. This is because in delivering a hung Parliament the electorate have given individual MPs a huge power surge. With no majority, every vote counts in Parliament.

The individual views of the 2017 intake will matter more than ever and the whips will have their work cut out keeping their flock happy. We can expect to see Select Committees become a dominant feature in government decision-making as well as greater interest in the reports and deliberations of key All-Party Parliamentary Groups.

This plays to our strengths here at Policy Connect: we have been developing new policy ideas through cross-party engagement for more than twenty years. We are the go-to think tank for influencing members of all parties. Our consensus-based approach to improving policy has seen collaborative work between Parliamentarians and charities, NGOs, public sector and private businesses in debates and seminars as well as contributing to and launching our research inquiries in the Houses of Parliament.

Our seventeen All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs), Commissions and Forums scrutinise and shape public policy by drawing in Parliamentarians of all parties – and this is where the power of policy and regulation will lie.

We look forward to seeing our members get more and more involved as Parliament progresses and as negotiations for the UK’s departure from the European Union throw up public policy questions. We have a busy programme of meetings, seminars, panel sessions and policy research lined up in Parliament between now and the summer recess – it’s certainly going to be an extraordinary few weeks ahead.

We will be leading on:

• New policy developments and research,
• Exactly what a hung Parliament means for your business and policy developments,
• How you could engage with politics to drive forward sector issues and policy solutions,
• How you can work with Policy Connect to engage with politicians and the sector.

Feel free to jonathan.shaw [at] policyconnect.org.uk (subject: I%27m%20interested%20in%20getting%20involved) (contact me) if you would like to find out more, or visit our About Us page to see what kind of work we do with our members and stakeholders.