Recent Events
Details of recent events held by the Hansard Society can be found below.
We audio record our events where possible, for a list of all of our recent events which can be listened to via mp3 download, please click here
-
The Festival of Politics 2010 was a big success, and for the second year running the Hansard Society were there to take part;
Women at the Top: Where next for Women in Politics? Dr Ruth Fox (Hansard Society) in conversation with Joyce MacMillan (The Scotsman)
Listen to a recording of the event here and Read The Guardian's comments here
Engaging Politics? Chair: Dr Ruth Fox (Hansard Society), Alex Fergusson MSP, Jim Hood MP, Peter MacMahon (The Scotsman), Prof Charlie Jeffrey (Institute of Governance), and Peter Kellner (YouGov)
Watch on BBC Parliament, 10.30am Wednesday 8th September (Directly before PMQs)
Where do young people get their political news? Michael Raftery Director of Citizenship and Education, Hansard Society
Listen to a recording of the event here
-
Chair: Dr. Andy Williamson, Hansard Society
Speakers: Rachel Gibson, University of Manchester; Matthew
McGregor, Blue State Digital; Helen Duffett, LibDemVoice and former LibDem
candidate.
2010
was supposed to be Britain's first ‘internet election', but, in the end, it was
the televised leaders' debates that really captured the public imagination.
There was no pivotal moment at which we entered the age of internet
politics but the 2010 election shows how the internet has become a ‘business as
usual' space for people and, with this, for politics and campaigning.
Listen to the panellists and audience discuss what they feel really happened online and behind the
scenes in the digital election.
-
July 7, 2010 at 6.30pm in Portcullis House, Westminster.
Chair: Dr. Andy Williamson (Director, Digital Democracy programme, Hansard Society).
Panelists: Dr. Paul Hodgkin (Patient Opinion); Tim Hood (Yoosk); Jon Kingsbury (NESTA).
This event was an exploration into the potential of online engagement in connecting MPs to their constituents and enabling politicians to embed current constituency relationships and forge new ones. There were introductions to online engagement tools Yoosk, Patient Opinion and MyMP, followed by an open and opinionated discussion between the audience and the panelists.
Listen to the introduction and Jon Kingsbury from NESTA
Listen to Paul Hodgkin and Jason Gough from Patient Opinion
Listen to Tim Hood from Yoosk and the Chair's remarks
Dr. Paul Hodgkin and Tim Hood used PowerPoint presentations - select the appropriate link below to access them:
Dr. Paul Hodgkin, Patient Opinion - Presentation slides
Tim Hood, Yoosk - Presentation slides
-
Chair: Dr. Ruth Fox (Director, Parliament and Government Programme, Hansard Society)
Speakers: Rt. Hon. Henry McLeish (Former Scottish First Minister, Labour MSP and MP), Joyce McMillan (Scotsman)
This stimulating and wide-ranging Democracy Forum addressed various aspects of the new coalition politics in Westminster and their implications for the political landscape in the short to long term. While coalition politics is quite new to contemporary Westminster politics, this is not the case in other parts of the UK's democracy: the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood has been working with a coalition and minority government since 1999. Mindful of this, the two speakers - both stalwarts of Scottish politics - engaged with the issues facing Westminster politics as regards the new coalition and the possibilities for its future trajectory from positions of familiarity with the effects that coalition government has had on Holyrood.
Listen to the introduction and Rt. Hon. Henry McLeish
Listen to Joyce McMillan
Listen to the Q&A session (part one)
Listen to the Q&A session (part two) and concluding remarks
-
June 23,
6.45pm Portcullis House, Westminster
Chair: Dr. Andy Williamson (Director, Digital Democracy Programme, Hansard Society).
Speakers: Tom Harris MP; Jason Kitcat (Open Rights Group); Jenny Watson (Chair, Electoral Commission).
Listen to the speakers.
Listen to the audience contribution.
This Democracy Forum followed on from a number of high-profile procedural
difficulties with the voting mechanisms at the recent general election and we
thought it an opportune time to debate the efficacy of UK voting practices and the
possibilities for its modernisation.
-
Parliamentary reform: the Coalition Government's agenda after Wright
June 16, 6.30pm, Westminster.
Read the transcript of the keynote address
Listen to the keynote address
Listen to Sir George's response to audience questions
BBC Parliament and after that will be on BBC iPlayer.
Rt Hon Sir George Young Bt MP made his first keynote address since becoming Leader of the House and Lord of the Privy Seal to the Hansard Society in Westminster on June 16. He said that on Parliamentary reform he agreed in many ways with the Speaker of the House of Commons. He shared some personal observations about how the new Government is operating compared to a single party administration that he has been involved in. He said one of the most important factors will be the strength of the relationship between the two leaders of the party’s involved, saying that the access between the party’s was probably stronger that that between Blair and Brown, of the same party. He went on to comment on the hierarchy of Ministers and the relationships between them, in order to preserve the coalition, saying that decision making dynamic has changed, possibly to make decisions more durable as they require stronger consensus across parties. Sir George said it was producing a grown-up approach to politics that was also a reflection of the governments approach to Parliament.
-
Reform in a new Parliament - Reviving the Chamber, a lecture by the Speaker of the House of Commons, Rt. Hon. John Bercow MP, June
9, Westminster.
Following on from the PSA/
Hansard Society Annual Lecture in November 2009 where Mr Speaker laid out his vision on
how to best engage the public with Parliament, Rt. Hon. John Bercow MP gave a lecture in which he set out how and why the Chamber needs to be and can be revived. The speech, chaired by Hansard Society Chairman Peter Riddell, was followed by questions from a number of the audience members and Speaker Bercow's responses to them.
-
An event to discuss the Hansard Society & British Council's new pamphlet Has Devolution Delivered for Women? made some excellent contributions to the debate around women's involvement in politics, from both the panel speakers and members of the audience.
Listen to the introduction to the pamphlet and speakers
Listen to Wendy Alexander MSP
Listen to Dr. Fiona Mackay (University of Edinburgh)
Listen to Leslie Riddoch
See some photos
Photos & audience contribution audio will follow shortly. Read the full write up.
-
Since its inception the Hansard Society has made many influential recommendations for parliamentary reform. In the run up to the general election the Hansard Society asked the three main parties to lay out their party's plans for parliamentary reform, should that party form the new government. These lectures have been collected in a pamphlet, The Reform Challenge, along side speeches from the Speaker of the House of Commons, Rt Hon John Bercow MP and the Lord Speaker, Baroness Hayman, to give an overview of their ideas for reform. In addition, Dr Ruth Fox, Director of the Parliament and Government programme, examines public confidence in Parliament and MPs, and proposes priority areas for reform. The lectures were chaired by Peter Riddell (Chair of the Hansard Society).
Click here to download The Reform Challenge.
Read and listen to the MPs' speeches.
-
Tuesday March 16 at 6.30pm, Houses of Parliament, Westminster.
Speakers:
- Professor Philip Cowley (academic and author of Revolts and Rebellions: Parliamentary Voting Under Blair)
- Chris Mullin MP (Labour MP for Sunderland South)
- Cllr Diane Park (independent PPC for Halifax)
- - Dr Richard Taylor MP (independent MP for Wyre Forest)
Chair: Virginia Gibbons (Head of Communications, Hansard Society)
Listen again
Dr Richard Taylor MP & Chris Mullin MP
Cllr Diane Park & Professor Phillip Cowley
Q&A 1
Q&A 2