This autumn, The History of Parliament Trust has started working with a commercial sponsor, the publisher of political and parliamentary information Dods, to start an exciting new project to record the reminiscences of former Members.

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, which formed the basis for biographical sketches of each Member.

For this project, The History of Parliament will be aiming to interview as many former Members as they can, using volunteers who are trained in oral history interviewing and knowledgeable about the history of politics. While it will draw out unique information possessed by Members about how they became politicians, 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.

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