It’s been a busy summer already at the History of Parliament. As I’m sure you know during the course of 2015 we’ve been celebrating, along with many others of course, a number of important anniversaries in parliamentary history. The two most important of these – the sealing of Magna Carta in 1215 and Simon de Montfort’s 1265 parliament – formed the inspiration for two major … Continue reading Summer Events at the History of Parliament
This week at Westminster MPs elected for the first time will still be finding their feet. With such a large new intake these certainly will not be on their own, but how will they be feeling? This question is one we ask former MPs when we interview them for our oral history project. There are some very common answers (we’ve lost track of how many … Continue reading How does it feel to be a new MP?
Our last ‘Parliaments, politics and people’ seminar of term took place on 24 March. Dr Alexander Lock, one of the curators of the British Library’s current exhibition ‘Magna Carta: law, liberty, legacy’ spoke on the impact and legacy of the 1215 Great Charter. His paper covered the full eight hundred year history of Magna Carta, and described how a failed medieval peace treaty came to … Continue reading Parliaments, Politics and People seminar: Alexander Lock, ‘Magna Carta: law, liberty and myth’
2014 was the tenth year of the History of Parliament’s schools competition. As I’m sure you know, every year we run two competitions, one for A level students and one for Key Stage Three (KS3) students (11-14 year olds) – details of how to enter this year’s competition also in this post! Our 2014 winners were Matthew Pearson (Salesian College, Hampshire) at KS3 and Alan … Continue reading The History of Parliament Schools competition: 2014 winners’ prize days and 2015 competition
Reporting back from the first ‘Parliaments, Politics and People’ seminar of the year… Our seminar returned for 2015 last week when Dr Richard Aldous, from the University of Winchester, spoke on ‘Electoral politics in an age of uncertainty: the case of ‘Winchester man’, 1830-1880.’ Dr Aldous’s work explores the nineteenth century electorate through electoral registers, poll books and by then tracing the lives of registered … Continue reading Parliaments, Politics and People seminar: Richard Aldous (University of Winchester), ‘Electoral politics in an age of uncertainty: the case of ‘Winchester Man’ 1830-1880’
As 2014 comes to a close, it’s time for our annual review of all that has happened at the History of Parliament in another busy year! Our sections have been busy researching, revising and in some cases preparing for publication, but they’ve still had time to share some of their research with you. We explored what happened to MPs after the Battle of Bosworth; how … Continue reading Review of the Year 2014
Our last ‘Parliaments, Politics and People’ seminar was an internal affair, as Priscila Pivatto and Emma Peplow spoke on the History of Parliament’s own national oral history project, which is recording MPs’ memories in their own words. We began by introducing the project and our progress so far (you can find out more here), before discussing some preliminary findings from our project for post-war British … Continue reading Parliaments, Politics and People seminar: Priscila Pivatto & Emma Peplow, ‘MPs in their own words: the History of Parliament’s oral history project’
On 27 October we held our first ‘witness seminar’ at the Devon Heritage Centre as part of From the Grassroots: an oral history of community politics in Devon. The aim of a witness seminar is to bring together a small group of people who were involved in particular event or organisation to share their memories. The result is different from a one-on-one oral history interview … Continue reading Exeter elections in the 1990s: Witness Seminar
On 5th November our annual lecture was delivered in Portcullis House by Professor Sir Diarmaid MacCulloch. Professor MacCulloch has published widely on the Reformation, including a recent biography of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and Reformation: Europe’s House Divided, not to mention featuring in many television and radio programmes. He lectured on ‘Parliament and the Reformation of Edward VI.’ Professor MacCulloch began with a letter written to … Continue reading The History of Parliament’s Annual Lecture 2014: Professor Sir Diarmaid MacCulloch
In tomorrow’s by-election in Clacton, former Conservative MP Douglas Carswell will contest his previous seat after defection to UKIP. Carswell’s strong difference of opinion with his party over the issue of Europe has echoes of a different by-election – Lincoln in 1973 – but the parties and positions were reversed. When Britain was applying to join the then European Economic Community (EEC) in the 1960s … Continue reading Defection, by-elections and Europe… in the 1970s.
