Written by Richard Ward, Archives Officer 2025 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Britain holding its first national referendum. Prime Minister Harold Wilson made the call for the electorate to decide whether to stay or leave the European Common Market. Westminster …
Written by Richard Ward, Archives Officer We continue our latest series of blog posts on ‘Inside the Act Room’ exploring decades in modern British history like no other before or since. For this instalment we’ll be travelling not too far …
Written by Richard Ward, Archives Officer As the 1980s dawned British governance was at a crossroads. Following on from the previous turbulent decade both the Conservative and Labour default mode was to attack regardless of the consequences. Frequently engaging themselves in …
Written by Richard Ward, Archives Officer Midway points in decades tend to be transitional moments determining the direction a nation is taking and its future hopes and aspirations. This latest instalment of our ‘A Year Like No Other’ blog series …
Pragmatism is possibly the most underappreciated of all political skill sets. The potential knock-on effect for its practitioners is the assumption of being easily swayed or worse on occasion damningly termed a ‘wet’. Lord Peter Carrington proved to be an …
In our Serjeant at Arms collection are a series of reports by police officers stationed at Parliament. They report suffragette protests that occurred in the Houses of Parliament estate as part of a wider campaign for votes for women. Many …
Earlier this year the Mikron Theatre Company toured a play dramatizing the life and times of Jennie Lee billed as the story of “The Radical MP You’ve Never Heard Of”. While over at the National Theatre audiences have flocked to …
Expanding on our ‘Year Like No Other’ series here’s the inaugural ‘Decade Like No Other’ blog and where better to kick off than 1980s Britain. I’ll focus on seven landmark events across the ten-year span and how Parliament initially reacted …
Beginning a new series of blog posts on ‘Inside the Act Room’ titled From the Backbenches celebrating backbench MPs who may not have reached Number Ten or achieved senior ministerial status yet still made a significant contribution in Parliament. Starting …
By Mari Takayanagi, Senior Archivist Following the recent State Visit to the UK by the Emperor and Empress of Japan, this blog looks at historic visits to Parliament by members of the Japanese royal family and other Japanese dignitaries, as …
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