In the search for strong and stable government, the Prime Minister launched the country into almost two months of perpetual campaigning – possibly the longest ‘snap’ election ever.

The quest for certainty has monumentally failed.

As Theresa May substitutes her, admittedly slim, majority in Parliament for a minority position dependent on the whims of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), a miasma of confusion, uncertainty and doubt pervades Westminster.

A press release about securing the DUP deal had to be ‘recalled’; the PM humiliatingly apologised to her backbench 1922 Committee for getting them into this mess, and the Queen’s Speech was postponed.

None of this bodes well for the competence of a Government preparing for the greatest round of international negotiations in the modern era.

It is not good for business generally and may particularly impact retail.

The days of a long-term economic plan are long gone. This is a Prime Minister that will live day by day and a Government that will live vote by vote, month by month.

“Well-formed, costed and implementable interventions will be far more likely to obtain policy backing”

Risk aversion will be the rule and, worse, as the DUP is unlikely to be a formal coalition partner as the Liberal Democrats were, the need to keep the unionists on-side, vote by vote, will ensure the process of Government, already made ponderous by Brexit negotiations, will slow down yet further.

Rates and confidence

The previously firm promise to review the business rates system may no longer be as simple as it first appeared, particularly if additional measures for Northern Ireland are required or there is concerted opposition.

And in this uncertain period, consumer confidence will come under sustained pressure.

How retailers respond will likely frame the immediate economic climate far more swiftly than anything a lame-duck Government can do.

• Pressures on supply chain will stimulate political fall-out. Manufacturing and agricultural sectors already suffering from sterling devaluation and shortages of temporary labour as mainland EU workers return home will be unwilling or unable to accept tighter margins without protest.

• Immediate price shocks or less discounting over time will prompt consumer responses which the Government will be equally powerless to influence, but keen to apportion responsibility to the retail brands caught in the middle.

But it might not all be doom and gloom.

Looking up

There are opportunities for those sectors and organisations prepared to do more than simply make the case in a ‘business as usual’ way.

With civil service capacity diverted toward Brexit negotiations, well-formed, costed and implementable interventions will be far more likely to obtain policy backing – particularly if there is also an evident political upside.

“A weak Government, vulnerable to consumer backlash and mindful of the election result, should logically be less willing to pursue a ‘hard Brexit’”

Finally, a weak Government, vulnerable to consumer backlash and mindful of the election result, should logically be less willing to pursue a ‘hard Brexit’ and be more open to a version which reflects the deals reached by Norway (Single Market) or, at the minimum, Turkey (Customs Union).

Westminster is at present awash with rumours of a cross-party commission of some sort to give May leeway to achieve a more palatable exit.

But I’m not holding my breath because such a move would entail May losing a chunk of her most extreme Brexiteers, presaging a new general election.

And no-one in Westminster wants that just yet.