Future Politics: what next?

Stratagem and the John and Pat Hume Foundation joined forces to deliver a new political conference which took place in Belfast earlier this month.

Future Politics: Delivering Effective Government provided a non-partisan and positive platform to share ideas and featured a range of speakers from the political, policy, academic, business and media communities.

The event considered issues including institutional reform; the culture and architecture of public policy; the role of media and social media in political discourse; optimising North/South/East/West relationships in a post-Brexit world; and how we can deal with challenges around culture.

Speaking at the event, Stratagem Director, Gráinne Walsh, said:

“Today was about changing the entry point to conversations; finding new solutions to old problems; and to disrupting the narrative.

“As a business whose job it is to help organisations find solutions, we see day in, day out the potential of politics, and we believe in devolution. But we also see the structural challenges that often frustrate progress and we want to work with politicians and organisations across society to make our politics more sustainable.

“The people in this room can start to change the tone of the conversation, put forward solutions, and help our politicians with the difficult task of governing.

“Today was the start of a conversation. Over the weeks and months ahead, we want to take what comes from today to our politicians and look to support them in the many challenges that lie ahead.”

A report will be drawn up in coming weeks with a series of seminars set to take place across the year. Full line up and further information on the conference is available here.