Back to Westminster for MPs this week! Our Director, Dr Paul Seaward, discusses the history of the parliamentary timetable… It may be a warm October, but with the nights drawing in, the party conferences over and Parliament back, there’s still the feeling of the beginning of the autumn term. The October start of the political term is a routine that is part of the British … Continue reading Parliamentary timetabling
Exciting times at the History of Parliament, as next month we will publish our first set of volumes focusing on the House of Lords. Covering the period 1660-1715, this five-volume work is now available for pre-order at Cambridge University Press, at a special pre-publication price. Over the next month we’ll publish a series of blogposts inspired by research from the volumes. First up, and ready … Continue reading House of Lords 1660-1715… and horseracing
At our latest ‘Parliaments, Politics and People’ Seminar, our Director, Dr Paul Seaward, spoke on ‘Mr Marvell goes to Westminster: the poet as parliament-man.’ Here he gives an overview of his paper… If poets are the unacknowledged legislators of mankind, it comes as a surprise how many acknowledged poets have been proper legislators. In the seventeenth century, John Donne, Edmund Waller, Sir John Denham and … Continue reading Parliaments, politics and people seminar: Paul Seaward, Mr Marvell goes to Westminster: the poet as parliament-man
Last year the History published ‘The Story of Parliament: Celebrating 750 years of parliament in Britain’ to mark the anniversary of Simon de Montfort’s parliament in 1265. The book is a brief introduction to the full 750 years of parliamentary history, aimed at the general reader, and available to purchase from the Houses of Parliament bookshop. On this blog we are publishing some tasters of … Continue reading ‘The Story of Parliament’: Parnell and obstruction
Last year the History published ‘The Story of Parliament: Celebrating 750 years of parliament in Britain’ to mark the anniversary of Simon de Montfort’s parliament in 1265. The book is a brief introduction to the full 750 years of parliamentary history, aimed at the general reader, and available to purchase from the Houses of Parliament bookshop. On this blog we are publishing some tasters of … Continue reading ‘The Story of Parliament’: Pitt and Fox
After today’s State Opening of Parliament, many MPs will also have to battle to find a seat to debate the Queen’s Speech. This is a historic problem for the Commons, as our Director, Dr Paul Seaward, discusses… Mr Dennis Skinner, the fabled member for Bolsover, found himself on the day the House first sat after the election in a tussle with the SNP over his … Continue reading Seats in the Commons
Our Director, Dr Paul Seaward, reflects on the Lord Chancellor’s legal experience… Michael Gove was sworn in as Lord Chancellor on Tuesday, resplendent in the gold-trimmed gown of the office, but without the full-bottomed legal wig, apparently to mark the fact that he is not a qualified lawyer. It has been said that Gove is the second person to hold the office who is not … Continue reading Lord Chancellors – learned in the law?
Following the election of Mhairi Black last week, many of you have asked us about young MPs! Over to our Director, Dr Paul Seaward… Many have said that Mhairi Black’s election as the SNP Member of Parliament for Paisley and Renfrewshire South at the age of 20 makes her the youngest MP since the seventeenth century. It has already been pointed out (some have quoted … Continue reading The youngest MP since…?
After ‘chaos’ in the House of Commons on Monday night, our Director, Dr Paul Seaward, discusses the ‘previous question’ motion… The confusion over the debate on Monday 10th November on the Criminal Justice and Data Protection (Protocol No. 36) Regulations 2014 – or on the European Arrest Warrant, depending on which view you take – has provoked headlines referring to ‘chaos’ or ‘a shambles’ in … Continue reading A perpetual disturbance? The history of the previous question
Our Director, Dr Paul Seaward, explores the development of the late night culture at the House of Commons… The above John Doyle print of July 1831, ‘The House wot keeps bad hours’, shows the House of Commons in session with the clock showing seven o’clock in the morning. Members are crowded on the benches, asleep or half asleep; the clerk, barely conscious, is supporting his … Continue reading Time and the Commons
