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.