If the 2015 Election has whetted your political appetite you may be interested in the following materials available from the Information & Reference Library, Local Studies Library & Archive, our lending libraries, our electronic resources and from a few websites and blogs chosen by the Information and e-Services Team.

A note of warning! If you’re looking to identify your local MP, you won’t find the information on the House of Commons website. It explains that “Following the dissolution of Parliament on Monday 30 March 2015 there are no Members of Parliament. Every seat in the Commons will be vacant until after the general election on 7 May 2015.” Richmond has two parliamentary constituencies – Richmond Park, and Twickenham. To find out who’s standing where, use the lists of prospective parliamentary candidates far below.

Books & local election literature

  • For a selection of over 660 of our books about British politics, type Politics into the Quick Search field here and refine the results by Adult, Non-Fiction, Great Britain.
  • The Times Guide to the House of Commons 2010 – (The definitive guide to the 2010 general election. It provides a full statistical analysis of the 2010 election, a biography and photo of every Member of Parliament, a map of the UK illustrating the election results and authoritative reports and analyses of the election campaign.)
  • The Almanac of British Politics – (A well-researched and fascinating description of the demographics and political colouration of all the parliamentary constituencies.)
  • British General Election Manifestos 1900-1974 – (A collection of the manifestos of all the main political parties. Dated, but authoritative. See the web resource below for later manifestos.)
  • Party political literature for parliamentary and local council elections – (Our local Studies Library and Archive has acquired a considerable, if eclectic, collection of political ephemera for the Borough.)

Websites & blogs

E-resources (via your library card)

[ by Robert Jones, Information & e-Services Manager ]