Social history
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Big Ben and the British
With Big Ben – possibly – due to fall silent next week, our Director, Dr Paul Seaward, discusses the history…
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MPs as law enforcers in Late Medieval England
In today’s guest blog, from Dr Gordon McKelvie from the University of Winchester discusses whether the MPs who passed legislation…
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50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act, 1967
On 12 July 2017 we brought together parliamentarians, activists and historians to mark 50 years since the passing of the…
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Parliaments, Politics & People Seminar: Kathryn Rix, ‘The professionalisation of electoral politics: the Liberal and Conservative party agents, 1880-1910’
At our last ‘Parliaments, Politics & People’ seminar, Dr. Kathryn Rix, assistant editor of our Victorian Commons project, spoke on…
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Hot takes and fake news: news management through the Votes of the House of Commons
In the era of live webcasts from the Chamber and committee rooms, rolling Hansard and near-instant transcripts of committee sessions,…
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Memories of the 1974 snap elections
Last week Theresa May shocked the political establishment by calling a snap election. In the first in our 2017 election…
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Parliaments, Politics & People Seminar: Edward Hicks, ‘The importance of character: Spencer Perceval and the early nineteenth century House of Commons’
At our last ‘Parliaments, Politics & People‘ seminar of lent term, Edward Hicks (University of Oxford) spoke on: ‘“The best…
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‘Time, that great discoverer of truth and falsehood’: the calendar change of 1752 and the dating of Easter
As Easter weekend – late this year – approaches, Dr Robin Eagles, Senior Research Fellow in the House of Lords…
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Voices from our Oral History Project: Sir Clive Bossom, Bt.
Sadly last month another of our oral history project interviewees passed away: former Conservative MP Sir Clive Bossom. Here we…
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Mutton addressed as Stamp (or, the precursors of the electronic signature)
In recent years electronic signatures have been given the same recognition as a hand-written version. This change has an early…
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Parliament and the 1965 Race Relations Act
Passing legislation with a small majority is an ongoing problem for our current government, but this not an unusual parliamentary…
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Lords and Commons in Late Medieval England
As the government’s bill to trigger article 50 and leave the European Union progresses through the House of Lords, the…