Fabian Society - the UK’s oldest think-tank

The Fabian Society

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The Fabian events programme hosts some of the most prominent public events in British politics. We hold major conferences, lectures and public debates and small invitation only expert policy seminars, including our prestigious Fabian Policy Networks working with a wide range of partner organisations. The events programme can be viewed here , or in our online calendar.

Jemima Olchawski is Events Director, Ed Wallis, Fatima Hassan, Rosie Clayton are Events Managers and Ian Chapman is our Events Assistant. Please contact the Events Team with ideas for future Fabian events and to discuss partnership opportunities.

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Blears: Renewing Labour

Labour party chair Hazel Blears issued a stark warning that Labour could soon 'cease to exist as a national political party' without major structural and cultural change, in a Fabian Society and Young Fabians lecture on the eve of the party leadership contest.

The Labour party could cease to exist as a national political force without major organisational and cultural change, warned party chair Hazel Blears in a Fabian lecture on how to renew the party which was given on the evening that Prime Minister Tony Blair announced his resignation timetable.

'It is clear to me that if we continue with the current structure and culture of the Labour Party, we will cease to exist as a national political party beyond the end of the decade. Already, as the recent election campaign showed, there are parts of the country where local Labour parties find it hard to stand candidates and run campaigns'.

Blears pointed out that Labour had contested only 60 per cent of seats in the 2007 Council Elections, though 80 per cent of the electorate had the chance to vote for a Labour candidate because the party did tend to stand in more heavily populated areas. Blears said she regarded leaving Labour voters without candidates to support as tragic. 'I think of being able to vote Labour as a fundamental human right', she said.

Blears set out a wide-ranging agenda for change to make the party more outward-looking, arguing that 'rule book reform' would be needed, and accepting that some of the ideas would be controversial within the party.

Her argument that a stronger National Policy Forum should ' become the powerhouse for ideas and policies' and 'the true 'parliament of the movement' appeared to suggest a major shift in the role of the Labour Party conference.

The lecture showed Blears' intention to place party reform at the heart of her campaign for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party. Several other candidates - including Jon Cruddas and Peter Hain - have also already made party reform and renewal the most prominent issue in their own campaigns.

So it seems likely that a range of ideas about party organisation and Labour's future as a campaigning force will be at the heart of the deputy leadership contest. The Fabian Society will publish a major pamphlet on the subject of party reform this summer, and will continue to hold debates involving a wide range of different perspectives on this topic.

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