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Elections

  • Putting aside party controversy: party organisers and the First World War

    Kathryn Rix

    One hundred years ago this month, the main British political parties decided to prioritise war in Europe over electoral battles. Dr Kathryn Rix, of the Victorian Commons, tells us more… In October 1914 the Conservative Agents’ Journal urged party organisers in the…

  • New website launched for ‘From the Grassroots’

    Emma Peplow

    Today, we are delighted to launch our new, interactive website for our HLF-funded project From the Grassroots: An Oral History of Community Politics in Devon. The project is creating a sound archive of people involved in local politics within the…

  • Rage of Party: election day in the 1690-1715 period

    Emma Peplow

    Today we go to the polls to vote in European and local elections. Voting was a very different experience at the turn of the 18th century… One of the most prolific periods for elections in Britain occurred long before universal…

  • Parliaments, Politics and People Seminar: The struggle for political representation: Labour candidates and the Liberal Party, 1868-1888

    History of Parliament

    The latest paper in our ‘Parliaments, Politics and People’ seminar series was given by Dr James Owen, of the Victorian Commons. James’ book, titled Labour and the Caucus, has just been published by Liverpool University Press. Here he gives us…

  • From the Grassroots: The official launch

    Emma Peplow

    Last week we made the trip down to the wonderful Devon Heritage Centre for the official launch of our new oral history project, ‘From the Grassroots’. You will probably know by now that we have been fortunate enough to receive…

  • Thomas Potter, MP for St Germans, Aylesbury and Okehampton

    Robin Eagles

    Dr Robin Eagles looks at the colourful life of Thomas Potter, who was first elected to parliament in the summer of 1747… During the summer of 1747, the ministry of Henry Pelham responded to a challenge caused by the heir to the…

  • ‘Watched with considerable curiosity’: The first secret ballot in Britain, 15 August 1872

    Kathryn Rix

    Dr Kathryn Rix, of the Victorian Commons, tells us about the very first election by secret ballot in Britain… Today marks the anniversary of the first occasion on which the secret ballot was used to elect a British MP, under the…

  • Charting the changing culture of modern elections

    History of Parliament

    A guest post today from Dr David Thackeray (Exeter University) on the changing culture of modern elections. David recently organised the exhibition ‘Democracy in Devon‘  at the Devon Heritage Centre (which you can still catch for a few weeks), and…

  • MPs memories: election campaigns

    Emma Peplow

    Today, local elections are taking place across England and Wales, and in South Shields a parliamentary by-election after David Milliband’s recent resignation (yesterday, the Victorian Commons blogged on 19th century by-elections, which you can read here). For many of the…

  • Welsh Electoral Arithmetic, 1640-1660

    Stephen Roberts

    As today is St David’s day, and in preparation for the upcoming ‘Parliaments, Politics and People’ seminar in which Rhodri Morgan, the former First Minister for Wales, will speak, our blogs will focus on Wales. In our first blog, Dr Stephen Roberts…

  • Women at the Polls in the Seventeenth Century

    larminiev

    As BBC Radio Four’s Woman’s Hour reveal their ‘Power List’ this morning, Dr Vivienne Larminie shares her recent discovery of two 17th century women who had their voices heard in a more 20th century manner… Researching parliamentary history has its…

  • The honourable member for Lambeth North, I presume? Henry Morton Stanley’s parliamentary career

    Kathryn Rix

    On the anniversary of his birth on 28 January 1841, Dr. Kathryn Rix examines the lesser-known parliamentary career of the explorer Henry Morton Stanley. The journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley is famously associated with the phrase, ‘Dr. Livingstone, I…