The Wroxton Conference

Last weekend I attended the Twelfth Workshop of Parliamentary Scholars and Parliamentarians. These are biennial conferences which have been held since the 1990s, and have settled in the Oxfordshire home of the North family. Lord North was the Prime Minister at the time of the American Declaration & War of Independence. Even the British Government website describe him as  "the man who lost Britain’s American colonies". It is now the home to an American University, Fairleigh Dickinson.

The workshop brought together parliamentarians from across the world, mainly from the countries who use the "Westminster Model" of legislatures, (Professor Meg Russell and Ruxandra Serban of the Constitution Unit put forward an excellent argument in a paper arguing that that term was in fact not useful, and should be retired.) and "parliamentary scholars". The workshops are organised by Lord Norton, whose textbooks and other writings have informed students of the British Parliament and UK politics for, dare I say it, generations.

I've attended a number of these conferences - and each time have returned home invigorated and inspired. There is some really good research going on, which is being put to practical use. The conference concluded with a discussion based with the IPU (Inter-Parliamentary Union) report on "Common Principles for Support to Parliaments". The Parliaments of Bahrain, Bangladesh, Flanders (Belgium), Greece, Kenya, Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Romania, The Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and of course the United Kingdom were all represented. Academics and practitioners of  Parliamentary development were also there in number.

I enjoyed reading some of the papers and attending the presentations and discussions. I have an extended reading list now to fill up the summer!

The Parliamentary background to the American Revolution

On Sunday morning I had a long lie in - I wasn't sleeping, but listening to a fascinating audio presentation in Stanford University's "The American Founders and their World". The third presentation in the series - which is available free at iTunes is called "When Abigail and John met George and Charlotte, or, the American Rebellion Viewed from London"

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=384234030

Andrew O'Shaughnessy explains the parliamentary background to the American Revolution - painting pictures in words of four of the key players - George III, Lord North, Charles James Fox and Edmund Burke. He describes the mood and politics of the House of Commons at the time - and the constitutional issues governing their behaviour. Other figures are also introduced. Well worth listening to!

The whole series is worth downloading and listening to. In the third presentation Edith Gelles discusses the travels of John and Abigail Adams.

Wroxton

The Workshop of Parliamentary Scholars and Parliamentarians is held every two years at Wroxton in Oxfordshire - and the ninth workshop takes place this weekend. Some of the papers will appear in The Journal of Legislative Studies.

Wroxton College is the UK campus for Fairleigh Dickinson University, an independent university in Madison, New Jersey. It has been known previously as Wroxton Abbey. Lord North, the Prime Minister at the time of the American War of Independence, lived here and after his death was buried at the local church.

A short biography of the man who lost America can be found at the No 10 Wesite - accessible here.

There is a fascinating blog about the history of the mansion at http://www.wroxtonabbey.org/