Library & Cultural Services: Politics: United Kingdom

Government. Official Publications

Parliament UK offers a number of resources to researchers including:

Search parliamentary material to find publications and records of parliamentary business, classified by staff of the House of Commons Library

Hansard Parliamentary Debates House of Commons debates from 1988- and House of Lords from 1995/96- from the official Parliament website. For the period 1803-2005 see the very useful Hansard Corpus, which offers advanced semantic searching, and the same period is also covered by the House libraries - Debates 1803-2005

See also the interesting Hansard at Huddersfield research project & interface to Hansard, examining & visualising patterns of language use (1800-2003)

House of Commons Library research briefings the full text of Research Papers from 1998, compiled for Members of Parliament by the staff of the House of Commons Library.

Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology (POST) carries out research relevant to policy & interviews stakeholders. Its publications (notes, briefings, etc.) are freely available

UK Parliament Web Archive aims to ensure that historic content from UK Parliament (see above) will remain available for future researchers

10 Downing Street

British Online Archives
BOA contains a large number of collections of primary sources of official documents relevant to political history, notably in relation to the colonial period, but also collections like British Government Information and Propaganda, 1939-2009 (contains materials produced by the Ministry of Information and the Central Office of Information)
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Cabinet Office
Cabinet Papers 1915-1980
Available in full text through the National Archives website.
Gov.UK
The official government information & public services website (replaces Directgov). Extensive list of publications, which can be refined by dept. or parliamentary paper status. Also see its E-Petitions section
National Archives
Official archive of the UK government, home to over 1000 years of historical records. Some digitised materials, such as the Cabinet Papers 1915-1980
Social Science Publications Current Awareness
Useful listing maintained by LSE Library for keeping up to date with government & other publications. Includes weekly Brexit report
UK Government Web Archive
Many older Official Government Documents are in the UK Government Web Archive.

UK Parliamentary Papers
UKPP provides complete online coverage of the sessional papers of the British House of Commons and 19th Century House of Lords. It covers working documents of government for all areas of social, political, economic and foreign policy.
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Organisations. Think Tanks. Websites

BBC Online's A-Z of Parliament
British Foreign Policy Group
The BPFG is an independent think tank focusing on the intersection between domestic and foreign policy
British Future
Independent think tank focusing on issues of identity, integration, migration & opportunity.
Bruges Group
Campaigns against European federalism and centralisation. Pro Brexit.
Centre for Women and Democracy
Promotes the involvement of women in parliament & other political institutions.
Cieo
New (2020) think tank seeking to challenge existing thinking on social & political issues
Citizens UK
Committed to local political participation in the form of community organising & action to bring about changes that benefit local communities. Partners with staff & students at Essex through the Democracy in Action initiative
Civitas
Carries out a broad range of policy research in the political, social & economic sphere
Compass
Centre-Left pressure group, with historic links to the Labour Party.
Constitution Society
Independent educational foundation working for constitutional reform since 2009.
Constitution Unit
Academic research based at UCL.
Declassified UK
Investigative journalist unit focusing on UK foreign policy. Hosted by Daily Maverick (South Africa), which is part of the UK Guardian's Africa network
Democratic Audit
Independent research organisation (largely funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation) investigating the state of democracy & human rights in the UK.
DEMOS
"The think tank for everyday democracy". Full-text of most of its publications are available.
Electoral Reform Society
European Movement
Leading cross-party pro-EU organisation, dates back to 1948.
Fabian Society
Venerable left-leaning think tank, aligned with the Labour Party. Extensive Fabian Society Online Archive of its publications is maintained by LSE, including the majority of Fabian Tracts 1884-1997.
Federal Trust
Research institute studying the interaction between regional, national, European, and world levels of government, with a focus on Britain & the EU.
Hansard Society
Independent charity promoting parliamentary democracy. Notable for its annual survey (1994-) of public opinion on politics - Audit of political engagement.
History & Policy
Offers an historical approach to public policy.
Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA)
Scrutinises the expenses claims of MPs.
Institute for Government
Independent charity aiming to improve the effectiveness of UK government. See especially its Whitehall Monitor annual report, and annual Performance Tracker evaluating quality of public services - https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/our-work/trackers/performance-tracker
Institute for Public Policy Research
Well established "independent, radical & progressive" think tank. Full text of many publications available.
Institute of Economic Affairs
The UK's premier free market think-tank, founded in 1955. Full text of its publications are freely available online from 2001 onwards. see especially its Paragon Initiative - a 5 year study of UK public policy from 2015-
Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust
Includes free access to some very useful publications on the state of democracy, political participation, and citizenship in the UK.
Left Foot Foward
Website for considered left/progressive political opinion
Onward
Centre-right think tank whose mission is to develop practical ideas to boost economic opportunity and strengthen communities in all parts of the UK. Not affiliated to any party but broadly mainstream conservative in approach
Policy Exchange
Independent think tank established in 2002, conducts research into all aspects of public services policy in the UK. Generally advocates reduced state interference and strengthened community involvement. Free access to its pamphlets and reports.
Policy Network
Progressive think tank based in London. International outlook, but main focus on UK & Europe. Free access to publications.
Progressive Britain
Formerly Progress, closely associated with the Labour Party, it offers a platform for policymaking, political education and imaginative thinking to rebuild Labour and the nation
Public Affairs Board
New organisation created 2018 from the merger of the Association of Professional Political Consultants (1994-) with the Public Relations & Communications Association (PRCA, 1969-). Maintains register of lobby firms.
Reform
Independent think tank aiming to reform public services. See its State of the State reports (with Deloitte) on the public sector, annual 2013-
Spinwatch
Monitors & exposes those who use lobbying and PR to distort political debate & undermine democracy.
UK in a Changing Europe
ESRC funded initiative based at King's College London, promoting impartial research on all aspects of the UK's relations with Europe.
UK Policy Agendas Project
Website hosting a number of interesting legacy datasets relating to aspects of public policy in the UK. Part of the wider Comparative Agendas Project (CAP)
Understanding the Civil Service
Useful website compiled by Martin Stanley (former senior civil servant), who also maintains pages on Understanding Regulation and Understanding Local Government
Unlock Democracy
Formed in 2007 from Charter 88 and New Politics Network, campaigns for political & constitutional reform

Political Parties. Prime Ministers

Reform UK
Previously the Brexit Party
British Political Speech Archives
Useful resource from Swansea University, offering listing major speeches (mostly by party leaders) since 1895, with transcripts of many.
Conservative Party
The Bodleian Library holds the Conservative Party Archives.
ESRC Party Members Project
Project studying membership of the 6 largest UK political parties
George Lansbury Archives
Papers of George Lansbury (1859-1940), prominent Labour MP and party leader, 1932-1935. Includes photographs, articles, pamphlets, speeches, leaflets, election addresses and personal ephemera
Green Party
Labour Party
see also various factions, including Labour Left Alliance, Momentum
Liberal Democrats
Archives of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which merged with the Liberals to form the Liberal Democrats, held by Albert Sloman Library, University of Essex.
Margaret Thatcher Foundation
Great resource for digitised papers relating to the former Conservative PM, including the early years from 1959 and the period in office (1979-1990)
United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP)

Local Government

Citizens Essex
Campaigns for local accountability & services
County Councils Network
Voice of county councils
Essex County Council
Local Government Association
Local Government Information Unit (LGiU)
Think tank working for and with local authorities
London.gov.uk
Website of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. See also City of London Corporation, and London Councils
Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government
HCLG is the government department responsible for housing. Official statistics of homelessness.
New Local Government Network
Independent think tank and network of councils, with a mission to transform public services and unlock community power

Northern Ireland

ARK
Social policy hub for N. Ireland, maintained by Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University. Includes survey and election data as well as publications
Northern Ireland Assembly
Northern Ireland Executive
Northern Ireland Official Publications Archive
Maintained by Queen's University Belfast.
Stormont Papers
Northern Ireland Parliamentary Papers Online, 1921-1972 - free access to full text government reports relating to Northern Ireland. Organised by the Queen's University Belfast, the database may be searched by keyword or browsed by subject and date indexes. Please note that the original pages maintained by King's Data Lab are currently unavailable, and the Web Archive version may not offer the same functionality

For information & sources on the Northern Ireland conflict see:

CAIN Web Service guide to websites

Divided Society : Northern Ireland 1990-1998 (Linen Hall) offers much digital material

Accounts of the Conflict (Ulster University) digitised oral histories

Scotland

Scottish Election Study
The source for a data driven understanding of Scottish elections, public opinion & voting behaviour
Scottish Government
Scottish Independence Referendum Collection
Extensive collection held by National Library of Scotland, relating to the 2014 independence referendum. Audio-visual material is available, contact NLS for details of other content
Scottish National Party
Scottish Office
Westminster body that handles Scottish affairs
Scottish Parliament
What Scotland Thinks
Set up by ScotCen Social Research to look at Scottish public opinion on how the constituent parts of the UK should be governed.

Wales

Source Guides

Some useful guides to sources for UK political research:

Cook, Chris. Sources in British political history, 1900-1951. 6 volumes. London : Macmillan, 1975-1985. Z 2020 (Floor 5)

Cook, Chris. Routledge guide to British political archives : sources since 1945. London : Routledge, 2006 CD 1041.R6 (Floor 2) and ONLINE