The joy of select committees....

Fuck sake.

Title and abstract of a journal article: "Eyes and ears, and potentially so much more: the role of parliamentary private secretary to the prime minister—a case study".

Reading London Playbook ("The PM seems confident, which is why he got his PPS to text all Labour MPs last night begging them not to sack him / giving important context on the Mandelson case") has reminded me: this just came out (doi.org/10.1093/pa/g...). Possibly of interest to Thatcher 'fans', too?

Controverted Elections, Electoral Controversy and the Scottish Privy Council, 1689–1708* Both the privy council and elections in early modern Scotland are understudied. The council itself has largely been described as a tool for crown management of elections. But it was fundamentally a c....

Since we are in the midst of a Scottish Parliament election campaign I thought I'd repost my #OpenAccess article in @parlhistjournal.bsky.social from 2024 which investigates the Scottish Privy Council's role in elections between 1689 & 1708

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Peter McLagan (1823-1900): Scotland’s first Black MP This is the first article in a new series for the Victorian Commons on Peter McLagan (1823-1900), by Dr Martin Spychal, Senior Research Fellow on our House of Commons 1832-1868 project. McLagan was…

Later this month we will have a new article from @martinspychal.bsky.social as part of his series on Peter McLagan, Scotland's first Black MP. Here's a reminder of Martin's first article on McLagan and the process of researching his background: victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2025/06/12/p...

Far Right populists are a big risk in European politics, but in most states they get stuck around a 30% threshold. Their success is then dependent on specific state constitutional and legal structures as well as responses from other parties.

Responding to AI-driven demand on public systems How public services can avoid new forms of rationing and turn individual actions into collective benefits.

Anyway - have a read! Tell me what you think www.mysociety.org/2026/04/14/r...

Today in parliamentary history takes us to April 15, 1985: The Speaker "deplores" the use of particularly unparliamentary language - namely, saying that an MP "is deservedly acquiring a reputation for being one of the thickest and dumbest Members of the House of Commons

Cover of "Barbara Strozzi in Context" by Beth Glixon and Wendy Heller

Pleased to say that this volume on 17th-century composer and singer Barbara Strozzi and her world, “Barbara Strozzi in Context,” is finally out. I have a small essay in it, “Artemisia Gentileschi, Padovanino, and the Venetian Academies”

www.cambridge.org/us/universit... #musichistory #earlymodern

Hey wat leuk, @nrc.nl heeft het artikel van Bernard Capp over de hoed in vroegmodern Engeland opgepikt.

North Norfolk Coast was a biosphere reserve until 2014 when its status was withdrawn. It included part of Holme next the Sea, the boundaries excluded human communities (villages).

"Biosphere reserves are living laboratories for sustainable development"

www.unesco.org/en/mab/wnbr/...

An exciting female parliamentary first!

On the Clerk of the Parliaments Earlier this month, history was made in the House of Lords.

In case you missed it, in the latest entry for 'Scribble Book', @jhdavey.bsky.social has explored some of the notable individuals who have served as Clerk of the Parliaments in the role's 700 year history.

Click the link below to read and subscribe!

substack.com/home/post/p-...

I'm just about to complete what is my biggest commission which involved researching specific issues on the growth of Cambridge over the last 30 years. The number of reports I was only able to access via the Wayback Machine was astonishing. A vital, under-appreciated resource.

I really enjoyed returning to Past Present Future to talk about "political conversions" - starting with my favourite topic: interwar socialists who eventually embraced fascism

This is really good. My experience of driving through secondary legislation in government was that the blockers were (a) availability of legal drafting resource and (b) Ministerial bandwidth to sign off minor amends. /1

Headline: Your Expensive Cheeseburger Is a Taste of What’s to Come

Western drought is driving beef prices through the roof. This is just a prologue to the far more serious food-supply disruptions a hotter planet will bring

Gift link to my column for @opinion.bloomberg.com

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Walking the Dark Side: Evading Parliamentary Scrutiny.

One of David Judge's articles written for PQ in 2021. Well worth a read.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Magnificent.

Printed text from the Reports of Sir John Kelyng

In 1660, judges couldn't agree on which regnal year to use in the indictment against the regicides, as the crime of killing Charles I occurred on the last regnal day of Charles I's reign but also the first of Charles II's. So they just went with "30 Jan 1649" [from Sir John Kelyng's Reports]

www.ft.com/content/d9c3...

Tobacco Fraud and the Prorogation of April 1707 - The History of Parliament The Handbook of British Chronology (3rd edition) missed the short prorogation of April 1707 (which to the unwary looks suspiciously like an Easter recess)

299 years ago, Parliament was prorogued following the discovery of a loop-hole in the Act of Union, which was due to come into force on 1 May.

Read Dr Stuart Handley's article for #HistParl, exploring the so-called 'Tobacco Fraud' of April 1707.

In elimination of conciliar rule after 1660

The Sound looking from Helsingborg in Sweden to Helsingfors (Elsinore) in Denmark. A pinch point of international trade 2.5 miles across. Charging tolls financed the Danish state from 1429, and supported royal power...

L’ouvrage sur le droit parlementaire financier, que j’ai eu l’honneur de diriger avec mon comparse Vincent Dussart, vient de paraître aux Presses de l’Université Toulouse Capitole.

Bientôt chez votre libraire!

Portrait of the Poet Alonso de Ercilla y Zuniga, 1570s By El Greco [Doménikos Theotokopoulos] who d. #otd 7 Apr 1614.

Ercilla, a Basque, was best known for his epic poem La Araucana about the war between the Mapuche and Spaniard colonisers in #Chile

Don’t let Europe’s deregulatory temptations weaken its democracies A good tech strategy would aim not just to catch up but to cultivate better alternatives

www.ft.com/content/01e7... Don’t let Europe’s deregulatory temptations weaken its democracies

Let technology explore what the voters really want New insights into motivation and strength of feeling could help democracy work better

Hmmmm... but can one treat voters preferences as if they were hard data like this? giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

I suppose what concerns me by some popular rewilding ideas is the emphasis on uplands, although much potential exists for land use change, and forestry will stake a claim, the reality is even with a changing climate the uplands only encompass part of the ecosystem variation in Britain,

The rules governing lengths of parliaments in the 18th century - The History of Parliament Despite all of the political events of recent years, the upcoming General Election is the first time that the nation has gone to the polls since late 2019-

The rules governing lengths of parliaments in the 18th century historyofparliament.com/2024/06/07/g...