John Vice worked for Hansard in the Houses of Parliament for more than 30 years, spending nearly half that time as Editor of Debates in the House of Lords. He and his team were responsible for producing Lords Hansard, which is the official report of everything that is said in the Chamber.
Now retired, John can talk freely about the challenges of writing an account of spoken debates, illustrating with anecdotes about those challenges, such as when Members sing, or swear, or are sarcastic, or use props, or speak incoherently or ungrammatically, or want to change the record. John will explain what Hansard’s work is, why it does what it does, and why its work still matters in a multimedia age of AI and populism, and he will show that Hansard’s solutions are rich in linguistic theory and practice. He was awarded an OBE in 2022 for services to parliament.
The event is free to attend but you must book a ticket.