Science and the General Election 2010

On Tuesday 9 March at 7.30pm in the House of Commons the Royal Society of Chemistry is organising, with the agreement of the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee and on behalf of the science and engineering community, a political debate in Portcullis House about science entitled Science and the General Election 2010.

This is at present the only political debate of its kind being held in the House of Commons itself prior to the General Election.

The major British political parties have been invited to nominate someone to represent their party in this debate. Those taking place (so far) are, in alphabetical order:

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

Those attending this debate will have the opportunity to table a Question in the course of on-line registration and submit a Topical Question for consideration on the day itself.

The RSC is organising this event on behalf of the science & engineering community and among the organisations supporting this 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.

Only two previous debates of this kind have ever been held in the House prior to previous General Elections - both of them were organised by the RSC (in 2001 and 2005) - and in 2001 it was the occasion of the launch of the first-ever Charter for Science and Engineering.