Tag: Hansard

19th Century history, Elections, Parliamentary Life, Scottish History, Victorian, Victorian Commons

Robert Spankie: From parliamentary reporter to Member of Parliament

Robert Spankie, who was returned for Finsbury in 1832, had an unusual pre-parliamentary career. Dr Martin Spychal, Senior Research Fellow on our House of Commons 1832-1868 project, explores his route from ground-breaking parliamentary reporter to serving as a controversial advocate-general of Bengal. The son of a Church of Scotland minister, Robert Spankie was born in Falkland in 1774 and at 14 was sent to the … Continue reading Robert Spankie: From parliamentary reporter to Member of Parliament

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Modern, 20th century history, Art, Fashion and Material Culture, Social history

Clangers in Parliament: The Politics of Postgate and Bagpuss

2026 sees the 50th anniversary of the reissuing (in colour) of the children’s classic, Ivor the Engine, created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin. What is perhaps less well known is the longer political context of the Postgate family and how that influence may, in a small way, have made its way into the otherwise comforting world of Bagpuss and the Clangers. On 23 February … Continue reading Clangers in Parliament: The Politics of Postgate and Bagpuss

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Georgian, 18th Century history, 19th Century history, Art, Fashion and Material Culture, Arthur Wellesley, 1st duke of Wellington, Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, Parliamentary Life, Social history, Victorian, William Ewart Gladstone

Politics, popular celebration and the Trojan War

The recent release of Christopher Nolan’s latest epic, The Odyssey, has sparked debate in many quarters for its depiction of Odysseus’ efforts to get back home after the tribulations of the Trojan War. In this latest post, Dr Robin Eagles considers how Homer’s epic has featured in British political discourse. Possibly the most famous moment in the mythical story of the fall of Troy is … Continue reading Politics, popular celebration and the Trojan War

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Victorian, Parliamentary Life, Resources and Publications, Victorian Commons

Accessing Hansard online: a research guide

Hansard – the official record of what is said in Parliament – originated in the early 19th century. Our Commons 1832-68 project team have previously written about how the reporting of parliamentary debates evolved in the 19th century and what conditions were like in the reporters’ gallery. In this post, Dr Kathryn Rix has put together a research guide for other researchers or interested readers … Continue reading Accessing Hansard online: a research guide

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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