On Tuesday 9th March 2010, the Royal Society of Chemistry held, with the agreement of the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee and on behalf of the science and engineering community, a unique political debate entitled Science and the General Election 2010.

In an historic first for both the Royal Society of Chemistry and Westminster, the political debate was webcast live from the House of Commons (see above). 

The major British political parties were invited to nominate someone to represent them in this debate. Those taking part were (in alphabetical order):

Adam Afriyie MP	Conservative Party Shadow Minister for Innovation and Science
Lord Drayson	Labour Party Minister of State for Science and Innovation
Dr Evan Harris MP	Liberal Democratic Party Spokesperson for Science & Technology

This high profile science debate provided a unique opportunity to raise the important issues in science with the major political parties and to hear what science and engineering policies may be in their parties' respective 2010 General Election Manifestos.

The debate is a prime example of the Society's commitment "to serve the public interest" by promoting widespread discussion about the issues and the policies affecting science and engineering that will affect the next Parliament and the next Government.
  
The RSC organised this event on behalf of the science & engineering community. Among the organisations who supported the debate are the Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering, Institute of Physics, Society of Biology, Geological Society, Royal Astronomical Society, the Science Council and the Campaign for Science & Engineering.

To date, this is the only political debate of its kind to have been held in the House of Commons prior to the 2010 General Election. Previous to this, only two debates of this kind have ever been held in the House prior to General Elections (in 2001 and 2005). Both of these were also organised by the RSC - in 2001 it was on the occasion of the launch of the first ever Charter for Science and Engineering.

Science and the General Election 2010 also saw the publication of a new RSC document, Vote for Science, which lists 8 questions for people to ask their Parliamentary candidates when the General Election is called. You can download this document below.