Notice of BAPG events will be advertised on this site and included in the All Party Parliamentary Group Notices. We will also e-mail members. For more information on any of the events advertised please contact the BAPG Programme Manager, Hannah Mitchell.
Lyndon Johnson: American Colossus
Panel Discussion Event on Wednesday, 25th June 2025 at 6pm in the State Rooms, Speaker’s House
Panellists:
Professor Barbara Perry , J. Wilson Newman Professor of Governance at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center;
Professor John Dumbrell , Emeritus Professor of Government at Durham University
This summer marks the sixtieth anniversary of both the passage of Lyndon Johnson’s historic Voting Rights Act and his decision to go to war in Vietnam. A presidency replete with paradox, Johnson took the United States into a war which divided the nation and which he could not win, while launching a programme of liberal reform, unprecedented for its scope, which encompassed civil rights, a war on poverty, landmark health-care and educational reforms and much more besides.
Johnson continues to inspire fascination, not only amongst the public, but also leading politicians on both sides of the Atlantic. A master politician, Johnson demonstrated a remarkable ability to understand power, to master the legislative process, and to articulate a bold vision for the American future.
To mark this anniversary, the British-American Parliamentary Group, the London POTUS Group, and the Archives and History APPG, with the kind support of The National Archives, have organised a special event on Wednesday, 25th June at 6pm in which a number of distinguished speakers will explore Johnson’s life and presidency. The event will take place in the Speaker’s State Rooms in the House of Commons by kind permission of the Speaker of the House of Commons, The Rt. Hon. Sir Lindsay Hoyle, MP.
The panel of speakers will include The Rt. Hon. the Lord Howard, CH, KC, Leader of the Conservative Party between 2003 and 2005, who will examine Lyndon Johnson’s rise to power. Professor Barbara Perry, J. Wilson Newman Professor of Governance at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center and author of sixteen books (including several on 1960s America), will discuss Lyndon Johnson’s record on civil rights. Professor John Dumbrell, Emeritus Professor of Government at Durham University and author of Rethinking the Vietnam War and many other influential works, will consider Johnson’s policies in Vietnam.
This event will be introduced by Chris Evans, MP, Chair of the Archives and History APPG.
BAPG members wishing to attend the panel discussion should RSVP to BAPG Secretariat.
As there is very limited space at the venue, we would have to restrict the event on a first come first served basis.
As part of the government and FCDO outreach beyond the Washington DC / Boston axis into other parts of America, we are arranging a visit to North Carolina, in particular to their rapidly developing and outstanding Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Tech Triangle, which hosts a range of new technology companies working in advanced cyber and plant technology, and to Charlotte, the second financial centre in the United States after New York, in the week commencing 28th April 2025.
This visit will provide the opportunity to engage with technologists, scientists, business and government officials and to better understand the very substantial economies and complexes away from the traditional centres, which are major economic drivers in their own right.
A delegation is now in North Carolina undertaking a programme arranged by the UK Government Office in North Carolina and the British Consulate General Atlanta.
The Group’s Annual Parliamentary / Congressional Conference with members of the United States Senate, postponed from 2023, will take place in Washington D.C. in the week commencing 21st July 2025. The British delegation will also take the opportunity of meetings arranged by the British Embassy while there, which will include calls on Members of Congress, various Departments of the Administration, business, unions and think tanks.
A delegation has now been confirmed for this exchange.
The BAPG, in conjunction with the United States Department of State and the American Embassy London, is to send a group of Parliamentarians to the United States in late July 2025.
The purpose of the trip is to acquaint BAPG members with the American political system at the federal, state, and local levels, with emphasis on the role and organization of Congress. It will include a short time with a Member of Congress in their district.
Members have now been nominated to the U.S. Department of State to take part in this year’s programme.
