Your Parliament - 1964 edition
The Hansard Society was established in 1944 to promote the ideals of the parliamentary system of government and to ensure that democracy would be safeguarded by being understood, debated and improved by parliamentarians and the public.
Part of our work to increase the public’s understanding of politics has been to produce accessible information on the workings of the political system in the United Kingdom. We recently came across what was probably our first effort in this area – a beautifully illustrated booklet entitled Your Parliament, that the Society initially published in 1951. The version we unearthed is a revised edition published in 1964.
In 2004 the Hansard Society produced another publication called Your Parliament when we identified that there was no comparable literature explaining the basics of the political system. Whether the title was inspired by the previous version – if indeed staff were aware of its existence at the time – is unknown. In 2008 an updated Your Parliament was produced for our website.
For historical interest and comparison we have scanned the old Your Parliament and you can download a copy here. The current Your Parliament is available here.