The 1922 Committee, also known as "the 22", is a committee of all backbench Conservative MPs that meets weekly when the Commons is sitting. Its chair, usually a senior MP, is elected by committee ...

The ceremony today begins with an announcement, on behalf of the King, read in the House of Lords by the Leader of the House. The announcement states, ‘My Lords, it not being convenient for His ...

The average age at which women have children has been increasing since the middle of the 1970s. There is a tendency to think of this as a modern phenomenon associated with the rise of family planning, ...

The Speaker’s House epitomises the status of the Speaker. It always was the grandest residence in the New Palace of Westminster and is the only one to survive in anything like its original form. The ...

The Commons Chamber looks very different to that of the Lords. The current Chamber was rebuilt after the Blitz by the architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in relatively austere style (although it was ...

The Recording Angel memorial in St Stephen's Porch, Westminster Hall, is dedicated to Peers, MPs, officers and their sons. This memorial is the main memorial to Members and staff of both Houses, ...

In 1820 the merchants of Britain's largest trading cities - London, Manchester and Glasgow - petitioned the House of Commons for the abolition of all duties, in other words, for 'free trade'. It led ...

Devolution in the UK has created a national Parliament in Scotland, a Welsh Parliament - or Senedd Cymru - and a national Assembly in Northern Ireland. This process transfers varying levels of power ...

In medieval times farming was based on large fields, known as open fields, in which individual yeomen or tenant farmers cultivated scattered strips of land. From as early as the 12th century, however, ...

Its last remaining monopoly over the China tea trade was abolished in 1833. Parliament allowed the Company to maintain its political and administrative duties in India, but the charter of 1813 ...

The 1835 competition to redesign the Palace was won by the Westminster-born architect Charles Barry. By then, the 40-year-old Barry was already quite a famous architect, having built several churches ...

Thomas Erskine May (1815-1886) was Clerk of the House of Commons from 1871 untill 1886. He began his career in Parliament in 1831 as an Assistant Librarian in the House of Commons Library. Subsequent ...