In this month’s newsletter, we have the following announcements/information:
- Ideas for 2020 wanted
- New Project: The Scottish Parliament – A Graphic History
- Celebrating 40 years of departmental select committees
- New data resource – ParlRulesData
- Event: Do parliamentary e-petitions matter to MPs?
- Call for new PSA Chair
- Recently on our blog
If you have any notices / messages you would like us to circulate to the group, please let us know.
Best wishes,
Marc (@marcgeddes), Louise (@LouiseVThompson) Alex (@A_Meakin) and Seán (@S_Haughey)
1. Ideas for 2020 wanted
We are now gathering ideas and suggestions for how the group can support its members in 2020. We are planning to continue with our regular set of activities, including our annual conference, contributing to the PSA Conference, holding methods events for early-career academics, and holding our essay competition.
We want to know how we can either improve those events or add to them (funding permitting!). At our upcoming conference at Cardiff, we will discuss the year ahead at our AGM. We will definitely discuss the location of our next annual conference, and welcome suggestions for this (we will announce the location and date of this close to Easter).
So: please send in your suggestions! Please email marc.geddes@ed.ac.uk and louise.thompson-4@manchester.ac.uk in the first instance.
If you have any questions, please contact us: psa.parliaments@gmail.com
2. New Project: The Scottish Parliament – A Graphic History
The Scottish Political Archive (SPA), housed at the University of Stirling, are crowdfunding to create a graphic novel about the devolved Scottish Parliament. The book will feature original artwork and reproduction of archival materials by Glasgow-based artist Jules Scheele, retracing the history of the Parliament from the campaign for a Scottish Assembly to today. The text, written by Dr. Emily St.Denny and Dr. Peter Lynch, will explain, in a clear, accessible, and engaging manner, how the Parliament functions and how it has changed over the last two decades.
To make this project a reality, the SPA has launched a crowdfunding campaign. The money raised from the campaign will go towards creating the book and ensuring that every high school and public library in Scotland gets a free copy of the book. For further details of the project, and to pledge towards it, please visit: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/scottishparliamentgraphichistory
3. Celebrating 40 years of departmental select committees
Back in June the House of Commons and Study of Parliament Group held a two day conference to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the creation of departmental select committees.
Videos and photos from the main plenary sessions are now available to view on the conference website. The website is a great resource for researchers and students and contains insights into how committees are innovating, how they are operating in the current political climate and how they have changed over the years.
4. New data resource – ParlRulesData
Group members may be interested in a new online database of parliamentary rules – ParlRulesData – that has just been launched by Thomas Fleming (University of Oxford), Niels Goet (Inspera AS), and Radoslaw Zubek (University of Oxford). It includes data on the UK House of Commons’ Standing Orders from 1811 to 2015, which can be explored and downloaded at ParlRulesData.org. Do get in touch (thomas.fleming@politics.ox.ac.uk) if you have any questions or comments about the site/data
5. Event: Do parliamentary e-petitions matter to MPs?
On Wednesday 6th November, Dr. Felicity Matthews (Sheffield) will be presenting a paper at a Centre for British Politics and Government (KCL) research seminar titled ‘Do parliamentary e-petitions matter to Members of Parliament?’. This will be taking place from 4-5.30pm in Bush House South East Wing (Room SE2.09).
All are welcome to attend. Please register here
6. Call for PSA Chair
The PSA is looking for a new Chair to take over from Angie Wilson, as well as new Vice-Chair. Both positions will run for three years from 1 June 2020. The PSA would particularly welcome joint applications for these roles but would also encourage individual applications.
Applications should be sent to the Chair of the Search Committee, Honorary Membership Secretary Professor Fiona Mackay at f.s.mackay@ed.ac.uk by 6 November 2019. Interviews will be held on 24 January 2020.
For information about the roles, including job specification, how to apply and a timetable, please visit the PSA website by clicking here.
For the PSA Parliaments Group, it would of course be a welcome boost if the Chair/Vice Chair were one of our members, so please do consider applying for one of these roles.
7. Recently on the blog
Some of our recent blogs include:
- When select committees speak, do newspapers listen? Brian J. Gaines (University of Illinois), Mark Goodwin (Coventry University) Stephen Holden Bates (University of Birmingham) and Gisela Sin (University of Illinois)
- How to make the select committee system more effective and influential Dr Sarah Wollaston MP
- Getting data is hard to do: Clean data on House of Commons Members Larissa Peixoto Gomes
- Electing a new Speaker: what happens next? Mark Bennister (Lincoln)
- Destroying parliaments leads to war – just look at history Aristotle Kallis (Keele University)
If you are interested in publishing a blog, please get in touch with our Communications Officer Alexandra Meakin (a.meakin@sheffield.ac.uk) for a chat about how to get involved.