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News and Events

See below for our latest news, events and publications.

You can also:

- Follow the History on Twitter (@HistParl) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/HistoryOfParliament)

- Follow our 1832-68 ‘Victorian Commons’ section on Twitter (@TheVictCommons)

- Read our History of Parliament blog, the Victorian Commons blog and our Director’s blog.

- See the current programme of our 'Parliaments, Politics and People' Seminar at the Institute of Historical Research

The History of Parliament has a vacancy for a Public Engagement Assistant to join our small but busy communications team to maintain and further develop our public presence via our website, social media and to contribute to the expansion of our projects and outreach activities in and through Parliament, education, and the voluntary sector.

The History of Parliament is one of the largest and most comprehensive research projects in British History.  Our published volumes provide summary biographies of Members of Parliament, surveys of politics and elections in each constituency, and introductory material, and so far cover periods from the fourteenth century to the nineteenth.  We are currently working on periods in the fifteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Most of our work has also been published on our website, which we are currently redeveloping and expanding. The project has an active presence on social media and undertakes a lively programme of events and outreach activities.

We’re looking for someone with excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, a strong interest in history and some experience in writing for/managing non-personal social media and websites and other engagement and outreach activities. The appointment is offered initially on a fixed-term basis for two years.

Job title: Public Engagement Assistant

Reporting to: Public Engagement Officer

Salary: £28,509 (point 16)

This post is offered on a full-time basis, but The History of Parliament is open to the possibility of a 3/5 or 4/5 part-time appointment. Some work can be done remotely, but there will be a requirement to attend the office in central London for 1 day a week.

Informal Enquiries can be sent to either Dr Jennifer Davey, the Director (jdavey@histparl.ac.uk) or Connie Jeffery, Public Engagement Manager (cjeffery@histparl.ac.uk)

Full job description and person specification available here

Application form available here

Please send C.V., application form and cover letter to atucker@histparl.ac.uk

Deadline: 27 March 2024

Interviews will be held remotely week commencing 15th April

Job description

Salary: £221 per day worked (pro rata equivalent to point 38 on the History of Parliament’s pay spine, £48,640).

Hours: Part time and variable. A minimum of one day a week; further days by arrangement. Significant extra hours may be required during the preparation of the budget (March-June); annual accounts (April-June) and annual audit (usually August-October)

Place of work: Much of the work may be done remotely, and meetings are often held remotely. The postholder will be required to attend in person at least two Trustee meetings, two Executive committee meetings and two Finance Committee meetings a year, and regular in-person meetings with the Director. There will also be a requirement for attendance in the office during some of the period of the annual audit.

Accountable to: Director, with reporting functions to Treasurer, Finance Committee and Trustees

Works with: Director, Office Manager (responsible for bookkeeping), Treasurer

Software: HPT uses VT accounts software

Responsible for:

·         Financial planning: involvement in the annual preparation of the strategic plan, modelling and preparation of annual budgets and bids for Grant-in-Aid for submission to Trustees and parliamentary authorities; support for the director in the presentation of budgets to Trustees and parliamentary authorities.

·         Monitoring of expenditure and in-year revision of budget, production of management reports and forecasts of expenditure and cash flow for the Director and others. Includes monitoring and checking of payroll, entering of data on accounts package.

·         Development of processes of risk management and monitoring.

·         Preparation of annual accounts according to Charities SORP and other legal and reporting standards; liaison with auditors (the National Audit Office), answering queries from the auditors. Support for the director in presentation of accounts to Trustees and parliamentary authorities.

·         Financial record keeping, including stocks of books held with various publishers and onsite, and fixed assets.

·         Monitoring of bank and investment accounts

·         Compliance: liaison with HMRC, including preparation of VAT returns; updating information supplied to Charity Commission.

·         Other related tasks as required, including input to preparation of external funding bids. There are various queries from other staff at the Trust (usually the Office Manager & Director) but occasionally other staff on financial issues that need to be researched and answered.

Please apply by completing an application form, along with your CV and a covering letter of not more than 2 pages.

Applications should be submitted to Adam Tucker at atucker@histparl.ac.uk by 5pm on Friday 24th November.

Application Form

Full Job Description

The Trustees of the History of Parliament are very pleased to announce that Dr Jennifer Davey will be the successor to Paul Seaward as the Director of the History of Parliament Trust. Lord Norton of Louth, the Chair of the History of Parliament Trust, said that “The History of Parliament is delighted that Jennifer Davey will be our next Director. She has been appointed following a recruitment exercise that involved the Editorial Board and the staff of the History as well as Trustees. Jennifer is a historian of great distinction of Modern British, particularly Victorian, history. Her work has particularly focused on female influence in the politics of Victorian Britain. She is editor-in-chief of History, the journal of the Historical Association, and has held several senior roles in the School of History at the University of East Anglia. Jennifer will take up the position from December, and we very much look forward to working with her to take the History into a new and exciting period”.

Dr Davey said “I am thrilled to have been appointed as the next Director of the History of Parliament. The History is one of the country’s leading research projects, and is extremely well-placed to encourage, sustain, and prompt research into Britain’s political past. As the History enters its next phase, I am looking forward to building on its exemplary expertise and facilitating work across academic, parliamentary and public communities to produce robust and authoritative narratives of the history of British politics and much else besides.”

Dr Davey will take up the position in December.

**Please note: due to the current national marking and assessment boycott the History of Parliament Undergraduate Essay Competition deadline has been extended to 24 November 2023**

The History of Parliament Trust will award a prize of £250 to the best undergraduate dissertation presented in 2023 on a subject relating to British or Irish parliamentary or political history.

Each university History department is invited to enter one dissertation which they consider to qualify.  They should send a digital copy of the entry to Connie Jeffery at cjeffery@histparl.ac.uk together with a completed entry form (see below). (Please note printed copies are no longer required to be submitted).

 

The closing date for receipt of entries is 24 November 2023.

 

Parliamentary History has agreed to consider publication in the Journal for the winning dissertation. The decision to publish or not will be at the discretion of the editor of Parliamentary History. They may ask for appropriate amendments if necessary.

 Click here for full information and entry form.

For any queries, please contact: cjeffery@histparl.ac.uk.

 

For details about the History of Parliament Trust, please see our website, www.historyofparliamentonline.org.

 

How can political campaigns of the past inspire those of the present?

The History of Parliament is excited to once again be running its history competition for KS3 students. This year’s competition is in conjunction with the Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project, Letters of Richard Cobden Online: An Exploration in Active Citizenship and asks students to look at political campaigning and historical writing in new and exciting ways.

The winner(s) of the competition will receive a prize of £50 per student, as well as an invitation to join the launch of the Letters of Richard Cobden Online website, in an event held at the Palace of Westminster.

Background:

The Letters of Richard Cobden Online project, based at Leeds Beckett University and with links to the University of East Anglia, aims to make freely available c. 5,500 digital transcripts of this important British statesman’s letters, alongside teaching materials designed to support History and Citizenship lessons at Key Stage 3. Cobden was the quintessential ‘active citizen’: someone who decided to get involved in national and local campaigns to help change society or politics for the better. He is most famous for his involvement in the Anti-Corn Law League (1839-1846) which campaigned for free trade in food. However, his other causes included national education, press freedom, electoral reform and international peace, as well as the campaign to establish Manchester’s first elected municipal council.

The Task:

Inspired by Cobden, this year’s competition is on the theme of ‘active citizenship’ as we ask, ‘How can political campaigns of the past inspire those of the present?’.

We are asking students to examine one peaceful reform campaign in 19th or 20th century Britain and explain how it has inspired them to get involved as active citizens to try to change something in their community: whether that is their school, local neighbourhood, town, or something even bigger.

Campaigns they might examine include: the Anti-Corn Law League; Catholic Emancipation; Chartism; the Women’s Suffrage Movement; the Indian Independence movement; the Anti-Slavery movement; the Reform League; the British Anti-Apartheid Movement; the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; or any other essentially peaceful/constitutional campaign from the United Kingdom or its former empire.

Resources:

Students are encouraged to look into the life of Richard Cobden, as well as use the History of Parliament’s online resources, including our blog page when producing their work. However, the political campaign studied can be taken from any part of 19th or 20th century life.

Competition Rules:

Entries can take the form of a blog post of 800-1000 words (which can also include images); a video or podcast of up to 3 minutes in length; or an A3 digital poster.

Submissions are welcome from individuals or groups of up to three people.

The competition is open to any student at a UK school or college who will not have passed their 15th birthday by 31 July 2023.

The prize is £50 per student involved in the winning entry, plus an invitation to the launch of the Letters of Richard Cobden Online at the Palace of Westminster in the autumn of 2023. Where a group is awarded, each participant will receive £50 each.

Entries must be received by 23 June.

Judging will be by a panel appointed by the History of Parliament and the Letters of Richard Cobden project. The competition will award one group or individual project as the winner, however the judges may make special commendations if they think fit.

Some entries may be used by the History of Parliament online and the Letters of Richard Cobden Online; those whose entries are used in this way will be contacted.

To enter:

  1. All entries must be produced in electronic format and sent to the History of Parliament Public Engagement Manager, Connie Jeffery at cjeffery@histparl.ac.uk.
  2. All entries must be submitted by a teacher, accompanied by the following information:
    • Candidates’ name(s)
    • Candidates’ school and its address
    • Candidates’ age at 31 July 2023
    • A declaration within the email, as follows, to confirm that all work is the candidates’ own: I [teacher’s name] confirm that this entry to the History of Parliament KS3 Competition 2023 is the work of [student 1] [and student 2/3 where necessary].
  3. Entries must be received by 23 June 2023