As many modern political parties announce their manifestos this week Dr Robin Eagles from our House of Lords 1715-1790 project looks back at the decisions around flagship policies that could make or break parties and alliances in the 18th century, as part of our Georgian Elections Project. Party manifestos as we know them today are largely a product of the post-1832 changes in the way … Continue reading To reform or not to reform: Party manifestos
Ahead of next Tuesday’s Virtual IHR Parliaments, Politics and People seminar, we hear from Dr Max Skjönsberg, of the University of Liverpool. On 2 March 2021, between 5.15 p.m. and 6.30 p.m., Max will be responding to your questions about his pre-circulated paper, based on his recently published book: The Persistence of Party: Ideas of Harmonious Discord in Eighteenth-Century Britain and we will also be welcoming … Continue reading Party in Eighteenth-Century Politics
On the 230th anniversary of the publication of Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France, we hear from guest blogger Dr Ian Harris from the University of Leicester on the theme of political representation, then and now… The 1st November this year is the two-hundred-and-thirtieth anniversary of Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France. A 230th may not seem the most noteworthy of … Continue reading ‘Reflections on the Revolution in France’ and political representation
The History of Parliament team is very fond of a cup of coffee to help power through a day of research, particularly when trying to stay focused working from home! Coffee has a long and interesting place within parliamentary history as Dr Robin Eagles, editor of our House of Lords 1715-90 project, explores… On 12 March 1739 Lord Delawarr reported from a committee tasked with … Continue reading Early modern Parliament and Coffee
Ahead of this evening’s IHR Parliaments, Politics and People seminar, Dr Max Skjönsberg from the University of Liverpool revisits his paper from the previous session, discussing political philosopher and MP Edmund Burke’s alignment with the Whig party… Edmund Burke (1729/30-97) is the best-known proponent of party in parliamentary history and the history of political thought. In his Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents … Continue reading Parliaments, Politics and People seminar: Edmund Burke and the Rockingham Whigs
For the second week in a row, parliamentary business is dominated by the government’s ‘Brexit bill’. For many, this bill rekindles the dilemma – put so famously by Edmund Burke – of what an MP should do when their opinion differs from that of their constituents; an issue discussed here by our Director, Dr Paul Seaward… It didn’t take long for Edmund Burke to be … Continue reading Edmund Burke and the Brexit debates
250 years ago this month Parliament was debating the fate of the Stamp Act – the law which proved dangerously unpopular in Britain’s American colonies. In the first of two blogs on the issue, Dr Robin Eagles, Senior Research Fellow in the House of Lords 1660-1832 section, discusses the Act’s history and the debates over its repeal… January 1766 ought in many ways to have … Continue reading ‘Very grievous and unconstitutional’? The repeal of the (American) Stamp Act (1766)
On Bastille day our director, Dr Paul Seaward, discusses British views of the new regime in Paris… Bastille day, the anniversary of the storming in 1789 of the brooding stronghold in Paris that represented for its inhabitants the arbitrary nature of the ancient regime, provides an opportunity to reflect on the impact of the advent of representative government in France on Britain and British observers. … Continue reading The French Revolution, as seen from England
