LSHG Press Release

London Socialist Historians Group
Press release February 28th
Contact Keith Flett 07803 167266
Conference Saturday 27th February

HISTORY CONFERENCE ON PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY REVEALS EVEN 1917 SOVIETS USED PR (Proportional Representation)

With a General Election just months off a packed audience of socialist historians met on Saturday at the Institute of Historical Research in central London to review the history of the labour movement’s engagement with Parliamentary Democracy and wider issues of political democracy and corruption highlighted by the recent Parliamentary expenses scandal.

The London Socialist Historians Group which organised the event said that the conference brought together some of the leading authorities in the field of British political history to review the history of the demand for democratic representation from the Chartists fight against Old Corruption in the 1830s to the present day

Conference organiser Dr Keith Flett said ‘there were some really excellent papers and some rigorous discussion on issues from the EU and democracy to how far New Corruption has replaced the Old Corruption of the 1830s. Above all there was a sense of the rich heritage of the engagement of socialists with democracy all the way from Labour MPs to Soviets, which, it was revealed, were elected in 1917 by proportional representation'.