How Queen Victoria hounded her Prime Ministers Wednesday, 17 April, 2024 She gave them no peace. A marvellous new book gives the details of her tempestuous relations with them. Alistair Lexden reviewed it in Parliament’s magazine The House on 15 April. Queen Victoria and Her Prime Ministers: A Personal History By Anne Somerset Published by William Collins Books Queen Victoria began her long reign as an ardent Whig and ended it a diehard Tory. Her Hanoverian... Articles
Royal Archives - fairness for historians 5th January 2017 An article in The Times on January 4 criticised one crucially important aspect of the way in which the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle are being run. Some... Articles
Tribute to Patrick Jenkin 23rd December 2016 Patrick Jenkin entered Parliament as the MP for Winston Churchill’s former Essex constituency in 1964; he left it 2015 on retiring (under a newly introduced... Articles
Florence Nightingale in love 23rd December 2016 New letters recently came to light which seemed to suggest that Florence Nightingale broke a man’s heart in a cold and callous fashion. This was not the case... Articles
Julian Fellowes's error 21st December 2016 Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey , is supposed to be an expert on all aspects of upper-class society. Some of the finer details of rights of succession... Articles
Protecting press freedom 20th December 2016 How is the freedom of the press—a crucial element of the British way of life—to be reconciled with the individual’s right to privacy on a new, permanent basis... Speeches
Prime Minister on a Tricycle 20th December 2016 The third Marquess of Salisbury became Tory Prime Minister for first time in 1885; he retired from public life in 1902, having spent all but four years of the... Articles
A historian's verdict on 2016 16th December 2016 How will history view the astonishing events of this year? Parliament’s House Magazine asked ten historians from Commons and Lords to give their assessments... Articles
New partnership proposals from the Independent Schools Council 15th December 2016 Academic and other partnership activities between independent and state schools are flourishing—and expanding—in many parts of the country. In September the... Speeches
Northern Ireland: Gay equality advances 13th December 2016 On November 9 (see below) Alistair Lexden introduced amendments to a Bill under discussion in the Lords to extend to Northern Ireland a scheme for England and... Speeches