THE HISTORY OF PARLIAMENT ORAL HISTORY PROJECT:
INFORMATION FOR INTERVIEWERS AND INTERVIEWEES
The project
1. The History of Parliament Oral History project will create a sound archive of
people involved in politics at national and constituency level, and will provide a
unique record of post-2nd World War British political history. It is inspired by the
1930s project of the History of Parliament’s founder, Colonel Josiah Wedgwood,
which used a questionnaire to capture from MPs who sat in Parliament from 1885
to 1918 impressions of their political careers. These formed the basis for
biographical sketches of each Member.
2. The project will go well beyond Wedgwood’s, however. Initially focussing on
parliamentarians, it is intended to interview as many former Members of the
House of Commons as possible and some senior Members of the House of Lords.
A series of questions, based loosely on Wedgwood’s questionnaire, will form the
basis for the interviews. The questionnaire has been drawn up in collaboration
with academic partners to provide insights into the development of political
careers in the second half of the twentieth century, and to illuminate the changing
patterns of parliamentary politics, in particular: the professionalization of politics;
the history of the constituency surgery and the development of constituency
pressures; the changes in parliamentary lobbying; the relationship with
constituency parties, and with councillors and other local activists; the increase in
parliamentary activity, particularly select committees, all-party groups and other
activities at Westminster; the history of election campaigns.
3. While it will draw out unique information possessed by Members about their
activities within Parliament and their impressions of it, the project will also make
a particular point of collecting information about Members’ constituency links and
other extra-parliamentary activities: campaigns and contacts with lobby groups;
local links to newspapers and local campaigns and so on. Ultimately it is planned
to secure funding to extend the project well beyond Westminster, to interview
those involved in politics at a constituency level, and those involved in
campaigning and lobbying groups at local and national level.
4. The History of Parliament Trust is working together with Dods Parliamentary
Companion on setting up the initial project. Dods is contributing generously to the
costs of the project, and will also be providing publicity and administrative
support. We will also be working together with the Association of Former
Members of Parliament on contacting former Members, and obtaining further
publicity for the project. We plan to work closely with many collaborators in
universities and the media to undertake the interviews.
5. The History of Parliament Trust is funded by both Houses of Parliament and run
by Trustees composed of Members and officers of both Houses. Its purpose is to
create a scholarly reference work describing the members, constituencies and
activities of the Parliament of England and the United Kingdom. The volumes
either published or in preparation cover the House of Commons from 1386 to
1868 and the House of Lords from 1603 to 1832. They are widely regarded as an
unparalleled source for British political, social and local history. More details
about the History can be found on our websites, at www.histparl.ac.uk, and
www.historyofparliamentonline.org.
How we will do it
6. We will contact former members by post, to ask whether they would be willing to
be interviewed. We will ask them to respond – by phone, post or email – to our
co-ordinator, who is based at Dods, to tell us if they would like to be interviewed.
The co-ordinator, or the director of the History, can answer any questions that
former Members have about the interviews and use of the material. The aim is,
over time, to be as comprehensive in our coverage as possible – to cover all parts
of the UK and all parties who are involved in national or regional politics. It will,
of course, take some time before we are able to achieve this!
7. The interviews will be undertaken by volunteers. All of the volunteers will have a
keen interest in and knowledge of British politics since the second world war, and
will be trained in the techniques of oral history interviewing by the Oral History
Society and the British Library. They will include current politics and history
students at undergraduate and postgraduate level; graduate interns; journalists;
former parliamentary staff. They will be asked to prepare for the interview by
looking at as much background material as possible, including books or articles
written by former Members, or previous interviews with them. Ideally we will try
to find interviewers who have some knowledge of local conditions and politics.
We can’t, however, expect interviewers to undertake extensive research into the
archives of local newspapers or other difficult to obtain material.
8. We will match an interviewer to those former Members who have agreed to be
interviewed, trying so far as possible to find someone who has the knowledge and
skills to obtain the best possible result out of the interview. The interviewer will
contact the former Member directly to arrange a time and place for the interview
to take place. Ideally this will be at the former Member’s home, and our
interviewers will be able to travel where necessary.
9. We have prepared a basic list of questions to guide the conversation. This will
help us to obtain answers to a common set of questions that will build up into a
very useful set of sources for studying the history of post-war politics in the
United Kingdom. Our special focus is on how people came to be Members, and
how they worked within the constituency and in Parliament for their constituency
and for the particular causes in which they were interested. We will for the most
part not deal with ministerial careers except for their parliamentary aspects
(answering questions in the House, for example). We would expect the interview
to last for around three hours at least, although there is no formal limit on the
length of interviews, and if interviewees are happy to continue they may last much
longer than this.
10. The interview will be recorded. Where possible we will make a transcript of the
interview afterwards. The former Member is welcome to receive a copy of the
tape and transcript (if one is made). Where possible we will obtain a photograph
of the former Member as well. This may be taken by a professional photographer,
or it may be taken by the interviewer him or herself. Copyright in those
photographs may be held by Dods or by the History of Parliament Trust.
Consent, copyright and use of the recordings
11. We will ask the former Member being interviewed to sign a consent form at the
start of the interview. This will ensure that we are able to preserve the recording
permanently and we will be able to make the recording publicly available for use
in research, publication, education, broadcasting and the internet. Copyright in the
recording and transcript will be assigned to the History of Parliament Trust and to
the archive[s] which will hold the recordings and transcripts. The interviewee will
be able to place limits on public access to or certain types of use of the
contribution for a period of years if he or she wishes to do so. A copy of the
agreement we will ask interviewees to complete is attached.
12. The recordings and transcripts will be held by the History of Parliament Trust, but
copies will be lodged with the British Library sound archive and/or the
Parliamentary Archives to ensure their permanent preservation. Copyright will be
shared with the archive concerned.
13. As indicated, we will make the recording available for broadcasting use if consent
has been given for this purpose. If a broadcaster wishes to use the recording we
will endeavour to contact the interviewee wherever possible. If the broadcaster
wishes to contact the interviewee we will ask the interviewee whether he or she
wishes to be contacted. It is possible that the History of Parliament may
collaborate with broadcasters on programmes associated with the oral history
archive. Interviewees must be named if their recordings are used in any broadcast,
and their contributions must not be treated in a ‘derogatory’ manner.
14. The recordings will also become part of the material which will contribute to the
eventual compilation of the History of Parliament’s biographies of Members of
Parliament. The History may place on the internet brief summaries of the careers
of the Members it has interviewed, together with extracts from the recordings or
complete recordings if feasible. Dods may similarly use some of the interviews on
its website, or as the basis of articles on its websites and publications such as The
House Magazine and Dods Parliamentary Companion
History of Parliament
September 2011
ORAL HISTORY RECORDING AGREEMENT
Your recorded interview is part of the History of Parliament’s Oral History Project. It
will be preserved as a permanent public reference resource for use in research,
publication, education, lectures, broadcasting and the internet. The purpose of this
Agreement is to ensure that your contribution is preserved and used in strict
accordance with your wishes.
This Agreement is made between The History of Parliament Trust, 18 Bloomsbury
Square, London, WC1A 2NS (“The Trust”) and you (“The Interviewee” / “I”)
Your name:
Your address
In respect of the recorded interview/s which took place on:
Date/s:
Declaration: I, the interviewee confirm that I consented to take part in the recording
and hereby assign to the Trust all copyright in my contribution for use in all and any
media. I understand that this will not affect my moral right to be identified as the
‘performer’ in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.
If you do not wish to assign your copyright to the Trust, or you wish to limit public
access to your contribution for a period of years, please state these conditions here:
This Agreement will be governed by and construed in accordance with English law
and the jurisdiction of the English courts.
Both parties shall, by signing below, indicate acceptance of the Agreement.
By or on behalf of the Interviewee:
Signed:
Name in block capitals:
Date:
On behalf of the History of Parliament Trust:
Signed:
Name in block capitals:
Date:
Letter to prospective interviewees
Dear
I am writing in connection with the History of Parliament Trust’s Oral History
project, which will create a sound archive of people involved in politics at national
and constituency level, and will provide a unique record of post-2nd World War
British political history.
The project, whose first phase is a collaboration between the Trust and Dods, the
publishers of Dods Parliamentary Companion and the House Magazine, is inspired by
the 1930s project of the History of Parliament’s founder, Colonel Josiah Wedgwood,
which used a questionnaire to capture from MPs who sat in Parliament from 1885 to
1918 impressions of their political careers. In our current project we aim to ask
similar questions through interviews with former Members covering their lives and
political careers, including how they became MPs, parliamentary work and
impressions of Parliament, and the relationship with the constituency.
The recordings will be kept by the History of Parliament Trust and preserved
permanently by the British Library and/or the Parliamentary Archives. They will
become a part of the History of Parliament’s ongoing project to provide details of
everyone who has ever been a Member of Parliament. The History may place on the
internet brief summaries of the careers of the Members it has interviewed, together
with extracts from the recordings or complete recordings if feasible. Dods may
similarly use some of the interviews on its website, or as the basis of articles on its
websites and publications such as The House Magazine and Dods Parliamentary
Companion. They may also be used by others for research, publication, education,
lectures, broadcasting and the internet.
Interviews will be conducted by one of our volunteer interviewers who has been
trained in the techniques of oral history interviewing. We would aim for them to last
around three hours, although they may be shorter or longer if you wish.
I do hope that you will agree to be interviewed for the project: I know that it would be
extremely interesting to have your reminiscences of entering and working in
Parliament recorded for posterity. If you are interested in being interviewed, please
write to me at the postal or email address above, or telephone the project co-ordinator:
the telephone number is also given above.