Bermuda Islands: Political Parties Material

Material relating to political parties in Bermuda including press cuttings, platforms, conference reports, constitutions, and election materials issued by the National Liberal Party of Bermuda, the Progressive Labour Party (Bermuda Islands) and the United Bermuda Party.

The Bermuda Islands are a British overseas territory with internal self-government, universal suffrage having been introduced in 1968. Prior to 1998 power resided with the United Bermuda Party (UBP), traditionally the more conservative of the two main parties and therefore the one more likely to attract white support. Although the Progressive Labour Party now in government had been enthusiastically pro-independence there has been no referendum since 1995, when the idea was rejected. The relationship with Britain and arguments between the parties over economic competence in these generally prosperous islands are the main subjects discussed here.

Alphabetically by party, and then in rough chronological order.

Open to all for research purposes; access is free for anyone in higher education.

Institute of Commonwealth Studies

The Political Archives Project was a 2.5 year project to catalogue political archive material held in the libraries of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and the Institute for the Study of the Americas to the University and present it as a cohesive virtual collection. The project was successfully completed in July 2005. Descriptions of all the documents may be found by searching the library catalogue at http://catalogue.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/, or via the Political Archives website: http://polarch.sas.ac.uk

Records at item level on library catalogue (SASCAT)

Description compiled by Daniel Millum, Political Archives Project Officer at the Institutes of Commonwealth and Latin American Studies.

Copies can usually be obtained - apply to library staff.

The ICS political parties collection was begun in 1960-1961, with special emphasis being placed on primary material such as party constitutions, policy statements, convention reports and election manifestos. Since then, the main method of gathering material has been to appeal directly to political parties throughout the Commonwealth, though contributions from Institute members and staff following visits to relevant countries have been significant. More recently material has been collected by means of downloading documents from the websites of the major parties.

Further accruals are expected, some in electronic form.

See also Political Party, Trades Unions and Pressure Group Materials for other Commonwealth countries and related material in the library's main classified sequence, all held at the ICS.