London Gazette Archive

Today I learnt the £50 reward for info on the whereabouts of Dick Turpin was advertised in the London Gazette in 1734 and you can see it online.

As well as being a source of current official, regulatory and legal information, the London Gazette has a vast and historically important archive. It was first published in 1665 (when Charles II was King). You can search the archive by date or keyword, or choose from the historic events from their drop down list including:

World War I

World War II

Great Fire of London 1666

King James declares freedom of religion 1687

Reward for Dick Turpin 1734

Battle of Trafalgar 1805

Death of Napoleon 1821

Coronation of Queen Victoria 1838

Birth of Princess Elizabeth 1926

http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/

Cabinet Manual

Today I learnt that the Cabinet Manual published this week by the Prime Minister, is the “ultimate user’s guide to government”.

According to the Cabinet Office website:

“The Cabinet Manual will for the first time provide a guide to the laws, conventions and rules on the operation of Government. The Manual is designed primarily as a user’s guide but has the potential to become a useful reference tool for all those with an interest in the workings of Government”.*

There are chapters on all aspects of government; the sovereign, the executive, the cabinet, devolved administrations, the EU, as well as financial & expenditure and official information. At 110 pages long, it is pretty comprehensive and I’m sure it will be a useful reference tool. All I need to do now is read it…

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/default/files/resources/cabinet-manual.pdf

* http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/news/new-cabinet-manual-be-ultimate-user%E2%80%99s-guide-government

Law Commission Publications Available on BAILII and TSO websites

Today I learnt how to get hold of Law Commission Publications.

Pre-1996 publications are not available on the Law Commission website. You can either get them from the Law Commission's very own page on BAILII (from 1965 onwards) or from the TSO Official Documents website (from 2005 onwards).

http://www.bailii.org/ew/other/EWLC/

http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/
If you still can't find what you need you can contact the Law Commission and they'll email the files to you.

http://www.justice.gov.uk/lawcommission/publications.htm

TSO's Daily List - More Useful Than legislation.gov.uk?

Today I learnt that TSO provides a Daily List on its website which records all publications published by TSO each day. It is really handy because Draft Statutory Instruments are not published in order on the legislation.gov.uk website. Boo. How else are we supposed to tell what's been published each day? Thank you to my colleague Nicky for the tip:

http://www.tsoshop.co.uk/bookstore.asp?FO=38797

You can also take out a subscription to the hardcopy of the Daily List, if that's your thing:

http://www.tsoshop.co.uk/parliament/bookstore.asp?DI=546133