Tag: Hansard

Victorian Commons, 19th Century history, Parliamentary Life, Victorian

Reporting debates in the Victorian Commons

Today we take it for granted that parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. During the Victorian era, however, there was no ‘official’ record. Dr Philip Salmon shows how, before the advent of modern democracy, public interest in Parliament was sufficient for reports of debates to be produced and sold commercially. As democracy advanced, however, the public’s appetite began to change … During the early 19th … Continue reading Reporting debates in the Victorian Commons

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17th Century history, Buildings and Architecture, Interregnum, James I to Restoration, Oliver Cromwell

Silence and Laughter in the Cromwellian House of Commons

On our blog we have often heard about the origins of the many strange and enduring traditions that exist within Westminster. In today’s blog Dr Patrick Little from our Commons 1640-1660 project takes a look at the use of non-verbal reactions within the Cromwellian Commons Chamber… When trying to understand debates in early modern Parliaments, historians rely on diaries: the private journals kept by individual … Continue reading Silence and Laughter in the Cromwellian House of Commons

Patrick LittleLeave a comment
Parliamentary Life, 17th Century history, 18th Century history, 19th Century history, Georgian, Stuart, Victorian

A History of Parliamentary Cucumbers

Our friends at Hansard at Huddersfield provide a great tool for tracking the popularity of certain words in parliamentary debate. It is unsurprising that the use of ‘deal’ and ‘Brexit’ have been common over the last few years, but, as Dr Patrick Little from our Commons 1640-1660 project explores below, there is one word little used in the chamber… cucumbers. Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84) is … Continue reading A History of Parliamentary Cucumbers

Patrick Little1 Comment
Georgian, 18th Century history, Parliamentary Life

‘A blank in the History of the country’: The ‘Unreported Parliament’ 1768-74

Today Dr Robin Eagles, editor of our House of Lords 1715-1790 section continues with our Named Parliaments blog theme… Throughout the early part of the 18th century Parliament periodically enforced its jealously guarded right of secrecy by prosecuting printers for publishing details of debates and occasionally turning out ‘strangers’ from the galleries. The response was, though, inconsistent and there were periods during which publishers were … Continue reading ‘A blank in the History of the country’: The ‘Unreported Parliament’ 1768-74

Robin EaglesLeave a comment
Modern, 19th Century history, 20th century history, Economic history, Legal history, Minority Ethnic History, Parliamentary Life, Social history, Women and Parliament

Hansard at Huddersfield: Making democracy more searchable

Today’s post is a guest blog from Lesley Jeffries of the University of Huddersfield. Lesley explains the Hansard at Huddersfield project which aims to provide some interesting search facilities and visualisations of the results from the record of the UK parliament. I am a linguist working on the language of texts – from poetry to politics – and I sometimes work on what we linguists … Continue reading Hansard at Huddersfield: Making democracy more searchable

History of ParliamentLeave a comment
Modern, 20th century history

Reporting Parliament: Hansard, Throwback Thursday

Today in our ‘Reporting Parliament’ series for Parliament Week, we have a guest blog from the team at Hansard. Here they have recorded the ‘day in the life’ of a Hansard reporter, now and thirty years ago… 2017: Thursday, 9 am I’m on the bus to work, flicking between cat memes and the Hansard website on my iPhone to read last night’s work. I scan … Continue reading Reporting Parliament: Hansard, Throwback Thursday

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Conferences, Seminars and Events, 19th Century history, 20th century history, Elections, Modern, Parliamentary Life, Parties, Victorian

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 almost all modern historians – and perhaps especially political historians – are increasingly surrounded by huge digitised textual collections which are too large to read, … Continue reading Parliaments, Politics & People seminar: Luke Blaxill, ‘”Big data” and the analysis of parliamentary and platform speeches, 1880-present’

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Social history, 18th Century history, 19th Century history, Georgian, Victorian

The ‘Story of Parliament’: Parliament and the press

Earlier this 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 – a great Christmas present for the parliamentary … Continue reading The ‘Story of Parliament’: Parliament and the press

Emma PeplowLeave a comment