British political reference guide book
The Times Guide to the House of Commons is a political reference guide book published by Times Newspapers giving coverage of general elections in the United Kingdom.
Following most general elections since 1880, the book has been published. The contents usually include the following;
- a summary of general election results.
- lists of Members of Parliament (MPs) elected to the House of Commons and government ministers, including defeated and retiring MPs and ministers in the House of Lords.
- a history of the previous Parliament and the events leading up to the general election.
- reviews of the election campaign.
- a list of opinion polls held throughout the election campaign.
- election results by constituency, and a photograph and biographical details of every MP.
- from 1929 to 1997, as well as containing biographical details of every MP, the books carried biographical details of every unsuccessful candidate at the last election.
- since 2001, the biographies of unsuccessful candidates have been replaced by a description of the constituency.
- a list of by-election results of the previous Parliament.
- a statistical breakdown of election results by countries, counties, cities, etc., and a comparison with the previous general election results.
- the full text of the manifestos of major political parties, and summaries of manifestos for minor political parties.
- an index of all election candidates.
- a fold-up map of British constituencies illustrating the election results.
The most recent version of the book tends to be available for around a year after publication, although older editions have in some cases become rare collectors' items.