Parties
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Party splits and political change in the 19th century
This summer, following the internal wrangling that occurred in most parties following the Brexit referendum, we’ve been taking a look at historic cases of party division. In today’s blog, Dr Philip Salmon, Editor of the Victorian Commons, discusses the impact…
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‘At whose door must this resentment be laid?’ The Whig Schism of 1717
The fall-out from Brexit has caused considerable disarray in the British party system, and over the course of this summer four parties either have new leaders or are holding leadership contests. Over the summer we’ll take a look at some…
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The parties and Europe 2: Conservatives and Maastricht
Earlier this week we delved in to our oral history archive to discover the divisions within the Labour Party over Britain’s entry into the European Economic Community (EEC) in the 1970s. In today’s blogpost, we’ve returned to our archive to…
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The Parties and Europe 1: Labour and the 1975 Referendum
The European Referendum campaign is now in full swing, creating heated political debate and causing some unusual alliances. In British politics, however, the issue of Europe and Britain’s role in it has been long-running and divisive for both the Labour…
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‘The Story of Parliament’: Pitt and Fox
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…
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Parliaments, Politics & People seminar: Luke Blaxill, ‘”Big data” and the analysis of parliamentary and platform speeches, 1880-present’
In the first ‘Parliaments, Politics and People’ Seminar of 2016, Dr Luke Blaxill (Hertford College, Oxford) spoke on ‘‘Big data’ and the analysis of parliamentary and platform speeches, 1880-present’. Here he discusses his paper… My paper made the argument that…
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Labour leadership elections through the years
The Labour party’s leadership contest comes to a close this week, with the winner announced at a special conference on Saturday. Our oral history project features many former Labour MPs’ recollections of leadership contests, and the consequences of them, particularly…
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1945 Election: A political awakening
Seventy years ago yesterday the results of the 1945 General Election were declared. Although the poll had been held on 5 July, the results were only announced on the 26th because of the time needed to return the ballots of…