|
 The Fabian Next Capitalism Series
There is broad agreement across the political spectrum about some of the causes of the most serious financial crisis we have faced since the Great Stock Market Crash of 1929. What is far less clear, however, is whether we are dealing with a crisis of capitalism itself or a crisis caused by capitalism.
|
|
Saturday 16th January 2010, 10hr00 to 17hr30
The Fabian Society will hold its annual New Year Conference on Saturday 16th January 2010. The event brings together top speakers from across the political spectrum, to debate the most pressing issues of the coming political year.
|
 Fabian Lecture with John Healey MP
Wednesday 9th December, 6 pm - 7.30 pm, Westminster
John Healey MP, Minister for Housing and Planning gave a lecture to the Fabian Society outlining his vision for the future of housing after the credit crunch, joined by David Walker, Managing Director of the Audit Commission and the Fabian Society's James Gregory, who chaired the event.
|
|
 To mark the one-year anniversary of President Obama's electoral victory, the Fabians organised a one-day conference to debate the global issues of most significance. Panelists agreed that a progressive movement for change was possible in Europe, but required politicians to reconnect with the electorate particularly on issues related to climate change, business transparency and humanitarian intervention.
|
|
Wednesday 14th October, The Work Foundation, London
The Fabian Society and the Foundation of European Progressive Studies held a seminar in London to discuss lifelong learning policy, and the need for investment in people through the recession.
|
|
Monday 5th October - Tuesday 6th October
For the second year, the Fabian Society will have a fringe presence at the Conservative Party Conference. Joining forces with the two other leading think tanks in the political field, we will take our public fringe 'After the Crunch - how do we beat poverty?' to the Conservatives this October. Our policy roundtable will look in detail at the issues surrounding Emotional Intelligence and assess the various policy responses to this important and undeveloped area of social behavioural study.
All our events are outside the security zone and passes are not required.
|
|
Fair Deal for the Jobless Generation?
Tuesday 15th September 2009, 6 pm – 7.30 pm
Jury’s Hotel, Liverpool
Successful management of the recession will be one of the deciding factors for voters as the government seeks re-election in next year. The New Deal helped define New Labour welfare policy in 1997, but what will this look like in 2010 if up-skilling will no longer do the job? While the Conservatives continue to advocate a reduced state response, the government has promised to guarantee work for the unemployed and pay job seekers allowance to interns if under the age of 25. As the prospect of long term unemployment hits a new generation, this event will asses the government’s response to meeting both the aspirations of students and protecting the unskilled young.
|
Sunday 27th September - Thursday 1st October 2009
Our headline public events at Labour Party Conference were among the most prominent events of the conference fringe, providing a forum for the political debates that delegates wanted to have and a chance to hear A-list speakers discussing the most pressing issues of the moment.
|
|
Sunday 27th September - Thursday 1st October 2009
Our policy roundtables are the format in which we undertake most of our substantive policy discussions at the party conference. Expert participants debate emerging policy trends and ideas and interrogate key players in an invited forum of their peers.
|
|
23rd July, Maple House, Birmingham
The Fabian Society and Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) held a seminar in Birmingham examining a new report supported by the JRF with Evan Harris MP: Understanding attitudes to tackling economic inequality by the Fabian Society.
|
|
Tuesday 14th July, The Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, 11-12.30am.
Housing policy across the last century has been nothing short of disastrous for many people. Despite the great ambitions of successive Labour governments, housing still fails too many social groups. With detailed policy proposals, In the Mix: Narrowing The Gap Between Public and Private Housing shows how we can make a fundamental shift in the way we think about housing by mixing public and private, using holistic housing management, replacing Housing Benefit with a Housing Cost Credit, and balancing the ‘right to buy’ with a ‘right to sell’.
Housing Minister, John Healey MP led the discussion with other panellists to include the author of the report James Gregory from the Fabian Society, Kay Boycott from Shelter and Nick Raynsford MP who will looked at the issues surrounding mixed housing tenure and balanced communities in improving life chances and reducing inequality in 21st Century Britain. This event was chaired by Tom Hampson, editorial director of the Fabian Society.
|
A Fabian City, Business and Politics Policy Roundtable
Wednesday 8 July, 12.30-14.00, The Work Foundation
Our invite only roundtable will be an opportunity to examine how the financial crisis has affected the public’s attitudes toward the city, and discuss how a more coherent sense of narrative can be created to respond to the recession.
|
|
Wednesday 1st July, One Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster, 13.30-15.00
The Fabian Society and Joseph Rowntree Foundation are holding a seminar with John Denham MP, on Public Attitudes and Inequality, interrogating in more detail the findings of two new reports supported by the JRF: Tackling Economic Inequality - an exploration of the underslying "drivers" of public attitudes towards economic inequality; and Political debate about Economic Inequality by ippr.
|
|
Monday 22nd of June 2009, 6-8pm, Work Foundation
The Fabian Society held a panel discussion to launch two new reports supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation: Tackling Economic Inequality - an exploration of the underlying ‘drivers’ of public attitudes towards economic inequality by the Fabian Society; and Political Debate about Economic Inequality by ippr.
|
|
Saturday 20th June, Foreign Press Association, 11-16.30
Ed Miliband will lead a major Fabian Society conference on Saturday 20th June in the run up to December's vital Copenhagen climate change summit.
With only six months until the world’s leaders meet in Copenhagen to agree a post Kyoto deal, the Fabian Society will be asking what is the climate deal the world needs and how can progressives work to build a campaign coalition around the conference that will maintain political pressure and create the political space for an our leaders to take decisive action to tackle climate change.
The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change will be joined by Sian Berry, Ken Livingstone and many more speakers on international politics and the environment.
|
|
Fabian Ageing Society Conference
Monday 15th June 2009, 10 am – 4 pm, Westminster
Building on our Fairness in an Ageing Society Forum, Vince Cable MP gave a keynote speech, with newly appointed Angela Eagle MP, Minister for Pensions and an Ageing Society closing the final session, in the Fabian Ageing Society Conference 2009. The event brought together issues identified across the seminars, which have focused on how fairness and equality for older people can be achieved in practice. Specifically it considered the new Ageing Strategy, and how different stakeholders and advocates could promote and deliver equality across and within generations in the context of demographic and economic pressures.
|
|
13 June 2009, The Compass Conference, Institute of Education
With the recession at the heart of public debate, the Fabians will discuss what is the capitalism we want now at this year's Compass Conference on 13 June. Speakers at the Fabian fringe to be confirmed shortly.
The Compass Conference 2009 No Turning Back, will discuss an economic vision of the future, and will include speeches from Baroness Helena Kennedy, Harriet Harman MP and Fiona Weir from Gingerbread.
|
|
Monday 1 June 2009, Westminster, 7.30pm - 9pm
The Fabian Society was pleased to host: ‘Don't let the Tories use the expenses crisis to isolate Britain from Europe’ with Rt Hon David Miliband MP, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
|
|
Fabian Environmental Policy Network
'Does transport have to be a choice between the economy and the environment?’
Wednesday 3rd June.
Rt. Hon Geoff Hoon MP, Secretary of State for Transport, chaired a closed Fabian discussion on whether transport has to come at the cost of the environment. Chris Nash, Institute for Transport Studies and Stephen Joseph, Campaign for Better Transport joined him to ask how we can ensure that the next generation of transport infrastructure is green.
|
|
Tuesday 19th May, 6pm - 7.30pm.
Charles Clarke MP led a major Fabian Society lecture ahead of the June 4th European Union elections.
The lecture focused on how Labour can make the positive case for Europe ahead of the important election.
|
|
Tuesday 19th May, 15:30- 17:30, Committee Room 18, House of Commons.
Chair: James Gregory (Fabian Society)
Public housing is tainted by association with the imagery and stigma of the sink estate and this undermines popular support for all public housing.The mutual respect we owe each other becomes undermined, with some citizens seen as welfare dependents and somehow ‘other’: alien beings in a subculture that horrifies and fascinates middle England in equal measure. The repercussions of this ‘othering’ in turn corrode the moral and political legitimacy of the welfare state, making it harder to justify the redistribution of wealth and resources that is needed if public housing is to be valued as a vital public good like the NHS.
|
|
 Thursday 7th May, 10 am - 11.30 am, Westminster
Rt. Hon Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for Health led a major Fabian lecture on health inequalities. Joining Johnson on the panel were on the panel were Neil Churchill, Chief Executive of Asthma UK, Kay Boycott, Communications Director of Shelter and Tim Horton, Research Director of the Fabian Society, who chaired the event.
|
|
Wednesday 29 April, Westminster, 6.30 - 8pm
John McFall MP, Chairman of the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee led a Fabian public seminar on the role of 'trust' in shaping public attitudes towards the financial sector. Joining McFall were Jill Treanor, The Guardian; Antony Jenkins, CEO Barclaycard and Rachel Reeves, Labour PPC Leeds West and former Bank of England Economist.
|
|
23 March 2009, Westminster, 6.30 - 8pm
To celebrate the launch of our highly anticipated publication, 'The Change We Need: What Britain Can Learn from Obama' the Fabian Society held a public debate with Alastair Campbell; David Lammy MP; Will Straw; Catherine Mayer and Ben Brandzel. Panelists discussed how we can translate elements of Obama's successful campaign to Britain.
|
|
Wednesday, 11 March 2009, 6 - 7.30pm
Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP, Financial Secretary to HM Treasury ourlined the government's G20 priorities at a Fabian seminar on the public politics of the G20. This special event was only open to Fabian members and will be the first opportunity to hear the Minister discuss the left's public arguments for internationalism and what our priorities are in a run-up to the G20.
|
|
Saturday, 21 February 2009, London School of Economics, Hong Kong Lecture Hall
Beatrice Webb's 1909 Minority Report first set out the vision, arguments and values of social justice that were to become the foundations of the modern welfare state. Nearly 100 years on, Lord Roy Hattersley, will lead our Fighting Poverty and Inequality in an Age of Affluence Conference to commemorate the centenary of the Minority Report. The event aims to make a major contemporary contribution to the strategy for fighting poverty and inequality in today's Britain.
Read the event report here
|
|
February 12th 2009, Portcullis House
 North West of England MEP and European Labour Party Leader Gary Titley will be leading a major Fabian Society lecture on February 12th 2009.
The lecture, part of the Progressive Manifesto Series, will focus on the future of the European Union and the state of the current debate, both in the United Kingdom, and Europe more widely.
For more information - or to register to attend - please contact Richard Lane on 0207 227 4902 or at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
|
|
20th January 2009
The Fabian Society launched a Fairness in an Ageing Society Policy Forum, in association with Housing 21 and Counsel & Care , which analyses and influences key issues emerging in relation to older people and intergenerational equity, and aims to frame debate around the government’s future policy agenda.
The Forum was launched on 20th January 2009 by Professor Alan Walker (University of Sheffield), Baroness Kay Andrews (DCLG), Rosie Winterton MP (DWP) and Polly Toynbee (the Guardian). The launch brought together leading decision makers and opinion formers to discuss conceptions of our ageing society and intergenerational equity, as well as current and future policy relating to our growing and ageing population
|
|
Saturday 17 January 2009, Imperial College, London
The Fabian Society New Year Conference: Fairness Doesn't Happen By Chance discussed how we could make 2009 the year of equality. 600 delgates and over 50 speakers joined us at the conference to advocate an equality agenda that is ambitious, aspiring and achievable.
|
|
17th January 2009
At the Fabian Society New Year Conference this panel debate explored what was happening to social solidarity in the early 21st Century and how we can foster the solidarity necessary for the radical welfare measures that will be needed to end poverty. In particular, the discussion looked at the role welfare institutions themselves can play in generating solidarity and how welfare policies should be designed in order to be both progressive and politically sustainable.
The key speakers were James Purnell MP (Secretary of State for Work and Pensions), Shamit Saggar from the project advisory panel (University of Sussex), and Trevor Phillips (Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission).
Some highlights from the event were reported on the Fabian Society’s blog, Next Left.
|
|
January 12th 2009, 12:00-13:00
Speakers: Professor Pat Thane (Institute of Historical Research, University of London), Professor Noel Whiteside (University of Warwick)
Chair: Tim Horton (Fabian Society)
The seminar, part of the Fabian Society and Webb Memorial Trust research project Fighting Poverty and Inequality in an Age of Affluence, was designed specifically to examine the historical foundations of the British welfare state and to draw comparisons with, and learn lessons from, other welfare states across the developed world.
It examined the historical context of the UK’s approach to anti-poverty policy, exploring understandings of how the UK welfare model has developed and questioning how we can shape and direct the development of policy in a more progressive direction in the future.
|
|
7th January 2009
Profession Richard Wilkinson Emeritus Professor of Social Epidemiology, University of Nottingham, gave a seminar hosted by The Fabian Society and the Webb Memorial Trust in advance of the publication of his new book The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better.
|
|
Wednesday 17th December 2008
The Fabian Society held a one day policy conference on the future of the equalities agenda, kindly supported by the Barrow Cadbury Trust . The Conference looked at the development of an effective public argument for a more equal society which is relevant across the different equality dimensions, and challenged key decision-makers and opinion formers to achieve this in order to mobilise the resources and support needed to make faster progress.
Speakers included Trevor Phillips (EHRC Chair), Sarah Veale (TUC), Simon Fanshawe (broadcaster and journalist), Nick Johnson (Institute for Community Cohesion), Peter Kellner (You Gov), Polly Toynbee (the Guardian) Karen Rowlingson (University of Brimingham), Joy Warmington (brap) and Linda Bellos (Diversity Solutions).
|
|
Wednesday 10th December 2008, 7-8:30pm
Other speakers: Harriet Lamb, Chief executive of Fairtrade Foundation, and Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at City University
|
|
Nov 2008 - March 2009
The Fabian skills forum will explore how we can best combine the economic mission of the developing skills agenda with the social mission of ensuring fair life chances for all. In particular, it will seek to engage with and inform a strategy for closing the skills gap, and - in connection with the Fabian Society's work on Life Chances - to ensure that all young people and workers are properly prepared and equipped to succeed in the workplace.
|
|
The Fabian Society AGM took place this year on Saturday 29th November. The meeting opened with a brief panel discussion titled, 'A Return to Victorian Inequality? The Rise of the Super-Rich'. Speakers included David Walker, Editor of the Guardian Public Magazine and co-author of Unjust Rewards; author Stewart Lansley, and Karen Rowlingson, co-author of the Fabian Inheritance Tax Pamphlet and Professor of Social Policy at the University of Birmingham.
|
|
 Saturday 8th November, 10am to 4pm
The Fabian Society will hold a one day public conference on the immediate Saturday following the US Presidential election results. The event will be the first opportunity to hear leading European politicians, academics and journalists discuss how Obama will influence key policy issues at the forefront of transatlantic relations including, climate change, trade, international development and security.
|
|
25th November 2008
 The Fabian Society will be holding a one day policy conference on health inequalities, kindly supported by sanofi-aventis. The event will build on the successful Fabian health inequalities forum, and will bring together leading decision makers and opinion formers to examine current and future policy around health inequalities in light of the WHO'’s report on the social determinants of health.
Confirmed speaker include Sir Michael Marmot, Dawn Primarolo MP, Baroness Jane Campbell, Kevin Barron MP, Ben Bradshaw MP, Peter Kellner (YouGov), Anna Coote (New Economics Foundation), Yvonne Roberts (Young Foundation), Jacob West (Deputy Director Health, No. 10 Strategy Unit) and Dr Steve Feast (Department of Health).
|
|
Saturday 4th October 2008
The End Child Poverty Coalition will hold the UK's biggest ever event to end child poverty - "Keep the Promise" - with a mass rally at Trafalgar Square.
|
|
30th September 2008
At the 2008 Conservative Party Conference the Fabian Society hosted a public fringe debate entitled Is it the Warmth or the Wealth?
The speakers were Martin Narey (Barnado’s), Iain Duncan Smith (former leader of the Conservative Party), Samantha Callan (Conservative Social Justice Policy Group) and Sunder Katwala (Fabian Society). The panel explored the extent to which the Right has a distinct anti-poverty agenda, and the role that income redistribution, the family and measures to address broader social problems should play in this.
Highlights from the event were reported on the Fabian Society’s blog, Next Left.
The event was kindly supported by Webb Memorial Trust, Centre for Social Justice and End Child Poverty.
|
|
Tuesday 30th September 2008
The Fabian Society will be holding a public fringe on child poverty, and a policy seminar on social housing and worklessness, at this year's Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham.
|
|
Saturday 20th - Wednesday 24th September 2008
Our headline public events at Labour Party Conference 2008 were among the most prominent events of conference fringe, providing a forum for the political debates that delegates wanted to have, and a chance to hear A-list speakers discussing the most pressing issues of the moment.
In 2008 the Fabians held debates on the key electoral questions for Labour as it shapes the next manifesto and develops the strategy needed to win a fourth term.
Read reports from the events at the bottom of the page.
|
|
20th September 2008
At the 2008 Labour Party Conference the Fabian Society (in partnership with Barnado's and End Child Poverty) hosted a public fringe debate entitled Can Middle England Care About Equality?
Speakers were Liam Byrne (then Immigration Minister), Martin Narey (Barnado’s), Iain Duncan Smith (Centre for Social Justice), Polly Toynbee (Guardian), and Dianne Hayter. The panel discussed the electoral pressures on anti-poverty policy and asked if Labour could win the next election and take the necessary steps to meet its 2020 target to end child poverty. The session also explored what types of welfare policies for tackling poverty could be both effective and politically popular.
Highlights from the event were reported on the Fabian Society's blog, Next Left.
The event was kindly supported by Webb Memorial Trust, Bardnados, Centre for Social Justice and End Child Poverty.
|
|
17th September 2008
At the 2008 Liberal Democrat Party Conference the Fabian Society (in partnership with CentreForum and Oxfam) hosted a public fringe debate entitled Climbing the Ladder: Can Social Mobility End Child Poverty in the 21st Century?
Speakers were David Laws (Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary) and Martin Narey (Barnado’s), together with Kate Wareing (Oxfam) and Tim Horton (Fabian Society). The panel discussed whether social mobility was a useful concept for formulating anti-poverty policy and what a policy agenda to genuinely improve social mobility might involve. Julian Astle (CentreForum) chaired the debate.
The event was kindly supported by Webb Memorial Trust, Centre Forum and Oxfam.
|
|
Saturday 20th - Wednesday 24th September 2008
Our policy roundtables are the format in which we undertake most of our substantive policy discussions at the party conferences. Expert participants debate emerging policy trends and ideas and interrogate key players in an invited forum of their peers.
In 2008 we will be exploring a range of key current and emerging areas of policy, from tackling health inequalities and overcoming worklessness, to improving the supply of skills and encouraging higher standards of corporate accountability.
|
|
Sunday 14th - Wednesday 17th September 2008
The Fabian society will be holding two public fringe events and one policy roundtable at this year's Liberal Democrat Party Conference in Bournemouth. The public events provide a forum for debate and a chance for delegates to hear MPs and other high-profile speakers discuss today's most pressing issues.
The public events will cover the problem of social mobility in Britain and the prospects for a Liberal Democrat and Labour coalition, while the policy roundtable focuses upon the link between social housing policy and unemployment.
|
|
Divided Society? Housing, Communities and Citizenship
On Tuesday 9th September the Fabian Society held a public fringe event at the TUC Congress in Brighton. The debate looked at the political and policy issues around housing, communities and citizenship, and the creation of mixed communities. The discussion focused on the ways in which social housing can concentrate poverty and an act as a barrier to exit from poverty.
|
|
Alan Johnson MP, Secretary of State for Health, will deliver a lecture next Wednesday on public health to the Fabian Society. This event will take place at Westminster Central Hall beginning at 17:30. There will be a small drinks reception from 17:00. If you are interested in attending please e-mail Ian Chapman at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
or call 0207 227 4914.
|
|
"A New Language for Old Age" - Tuesday 15th July, Grand Committe Room, House of Commons, 4.30pm
Age must be recast in terms of opportunity and contribution, not stagnation and decline. Minister of State for Pensions Reform, Mike O'Brien MP, will explain that the challenges posed by an ageing society require action from old and young to shed outdated stereotypes and change mindsets about retirement and the process of growing older.
|
|
Monday 30th June 2008
Building on the success of our recent Health Inequalities Forum, the Fabians will mark the 60th anniversary of the NHS with a broad discussion focusing on the big picture health policy themes for the next 30 years.
|
Monday 30th June 2008, 6pm
Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House
The world after Bush is now taking shape: either John McCain or Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States. Both candidates defied the odds to win their party's nominations, setting a benchmark for future contests and politics around the world. As Labour seeks to recover from defeats in the local elections and the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, David Lammy will explore what lessons there are to be learned from across the Atlantic.
|
|
Tuesday 17th June 2008
This seminar was led by Iain Wright MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government, with Richard Simmons, Chief Executive of CABE as a respondent, and discussed the government’s plans for ecotowns and their place within a broader strategy for adapting our towns and cities to a changing climate.
|
|
 Saturday 14th June 2008, 11:15am
The Fabian Society held a breakout session at Compass Conference 2008. The session provided conference participants with an informative and invigorating debate on some of the electoral challenges around the equality and poverty agenda.
|
|
The World After Bush: The Strange Death of Republican America
Tuesday 27th May 2008, 6.30pm for a 7pm start - 8.30pm
 Continuing the Fabian's World After Bush series, former Guardian columnist and Clinton White House advisor Sidney Blumenthal was joined by the Guardian's Jonathan Freedland as he launched his new book, The Strange Death of Republican America: Chronicles of a Collapsing Party, published in June.
|
|
Thursday 29th May 2008, 10am
Attlee Suite, Portcullis House
Given the tenth anniversary of the Royal Assent of the Minimum Wage legislation this year, this lecture will consider the advances made over the past ten years and initiate a debate on what new approaches can be adopted to further advance fairness at work when sustaining jobs and prosperity in a difficult economic environment.
|
|
 Tuesday 20th May 2008, 6:30pm
In this lecture, Peter Townsend, LSE Professor of International Social Policy, discussed the origins of the UK welfare state, including Beatrice Webb's 1909 Minority Report and early Fabian campaigning, and trace the political debates that accompanied the evolution of the welfare state throughout the 20th Century. Townsend also assessed Labour's progress since 1997 in dealing with poverty and discuss future directions for the welfare state.
The event was chaired by Nick Timmins, Financial Times.
|
|
Wednesday 14th May
This seminar was lead by Caroline Flint MP, Minister for Housing, with
Graham Moran (Metropolitan Housing Trust) as a respondent, and looked at the political and policy issues surrounding
homeownership, shared equity schemes, buy to let, as well as links to wealth,
assets and opportunities more widely.
|
|
Thursday 8th May, at 6:30pm
John Denham is the only Cabinet Member representing a southern English seat. He has consistently argued that the key to Labour’s success in all parts of the country lies in its ability to meet the needs of the south. He will set out how the priority Labour is giving to skills, research and innovation form part of a convincing case for southern Labour comfort.
|
|
Tuesday 6th May 2008, 1pm
The recently appointed Secretary of State for Work and Pensions outlined how the Government can sustain progress towards meeting their twin targets of halving child poverty by 2010/11 and eradicating it by 2020.
|
|
Tuesday 29th April 2008, 6pm
Inheritance tax is under attack, and not just from the political right. For too long the debate about this tax has been dominated by its critics. But, as the authors of the Fabian Society’s new pamphlet How to defend inheritance tax argue, there are very strong arguments for inheritance tax that need to be made if it is to survive.
So where do we start? What arguments will win public opinion? Is this up to government or do we need a citizen campaign? Can we form a progressive alternative to the Taxpayer’s Alliance? Can we reconnect tax with fairness?
|
Thursday, 3rd April 2008
Hazel Blears MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, launched the new Fabian Housing and Community Policy Network, with a lecture entitled 'Building Communities'.
|
Friday 28th to Saturday 29th March 2008
Devolution and social justice are the main themes at the Scottish Labour Party conference in Aviemore.
|
|
Friday, 14th March 2008
The Fabian Society held a major series of seminars on narrowing health inequalities between November 2007 and March 2008, including sessions led by health ministers Dawn Primarolo MP, Ben Bradshaw MP and Ivan Lewis MP, and eminent academics Julian Le Grand and Sir Michael Marmot. Continuing the work of the Fabian Commission on Life Chances and Child Poverty, the Fabian Health Inequalities Forum explored the major barriers to narrowing inequalities across a range of key health policy areas, and sought to suggest directions for the future strategy on health inequality that we need.
|
|
Saturday March 1 2008
The Fabian Society held two fringe events at Labour Party Spring Conference in Birmingham, on Saturday 1st March 2008. The venue was Bryne-Jones Room, Novotel Birmingham Centre, 70 Broad Street, Birmingham (outside the secure zone)
The Fringe event focused on NHS reforms and the challange for Labour of tackling child poverty. Speaking at the event Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell said that the target for ending child poverty by 2010 was "non-negotiable".
|
|
 February 5 2008
Breaking the link between social housing and worklessness will be a priority for government, Caroline Flint told the Fabian Society in her first speech as Housing Minister, but Adam Sampson of Shelter and Dave Prentis of Unison warned of the danger of stigmatising social housing.
Social housing must act as a springboard, not just a safety net, new Housing Minister Caroline Flint told a Fabian conference in her first major speech in the role.
|
Wednesday 30 January 2008
Ed Miliband launched a new two-year research project "Fighting Poverty and Inequality in an Age of Affluence;100 years on from the Poor Law Minority Report" to be run by the Fabian Society and the Webb Memorial Trust .
|
|
Thursday, 24th January 2008
Key speaker: John Healey MP, Minister of State for Local Government
Respondent: Nick Johnson, Deputy Chief Executive of Urban Splash
John Healey MP will lead discussion on the socio-economic and
political changes facing urban Britain, and the role of the build
environment in tackling the future policy and political challenges
facing policy makers.
|
|
Saturday 19 January 2008
David Miliband predicts that 'civilian surge' will reshape global politics as over 700 people debate ideas to change the world at the Fabian new year conference.
Britain must become a 'global hub' to deal with fundamental shifts in power from west to east, and from governments to civilians, David Miliband told the Fabian New Year Conference 'Change the World'.
|
|
Tuesday 15th January 2008
This seminar forms part of a two-year project run by the Fabian Society and the Webb Memorial Trust to commemorate the centenary of the 1909 Minority Report to the Poor Law Reform Commission. The project will seek to engage with and influence all major parties on their response to the challenge of tackling poverty and inequality in 21st Century Britain.
The speaker at this seminar was Greg Clark MP (Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office and member of the Social Justice Policy Group) and the respondents were Sunder Katwala (Fabian Society General Secretary) and Cameron Watt (Centre for Social Justice).
|
|
Tuesday 11th December 2007
Breaking the cycle of disadvantage in Britain will require a cross-party and public consensus on equality as deep as that which backs the NHS, Fabian General Secretary Sunder Katwala told the Guardian/CEHR Diverse Britain conference.
|
|
Monday 10th December 2007
This seminar forms part of a two-year project run by the Fabian Society and the Webb Memorial Trust to commemorate the centenary of the 1909 Minority Report to the Poor Law Reform Commission. The project will seek to engage with and influence all major parties on their response to the challenge of tackling poverty and inequality in 21st Century Britain.
The speaker at this seminar was Danny Alexander MP (Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary) and respondents were Alasdair Murray (Centreforum) and Tim Horton (Fabian Society).
|
Tuesday, 27th November 2007
Far right speakers such as Nick Griffin and David Irving should not be banned from speaking at British universities because scrutiny was the best antidote to extremist views, argued Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell in a Fabian lecture inviting the academic community to open a major public debate about how free inquiry can challenge and refute violent extremism.
|
|
Tuesday, 20th November 2007
Malcolm Wicks MP, Minister for Energy and Sustainable Development, spoke to the Fabian Society on what he said would be two of the major political themes of the 21st Century. Elaborating on the implications for fairness and social justice, Wicks suggested action that should be taken on energy security and climate change by both governement and citizens.
|
|
The Fabian AGM yook place on Saturday 10th November. In addition to the usual AGM business, members enjoyed a debate on the relevance today of Beatrice Webb and the 1909 Poor Law Minority Report, previewing a major new Fabian research project into the future of the welfare state, with Karen Buck MP and Tim Horton, Fabian Society Research Director.
|
|
Monday, 5th November 2007
At this Fabian Education lecture, launching the Progressive Manifesto series, Schools Secretary Ed Balls set out how his department planned to raise the educational participation age to eighteen in order to improve the life chances of young people in this country.
|
|
Thursday, 1st November 2007
For anyone who loves a good general election night debate, and is feeling that they have missed out this year, the Fabian Society had the answer. Sadiq Khan chaired a discussion between Polly Toynbee, Peter Kellner and Sunder Katwala about the policy priorities Labour needs for the next 18 months.
|
|
Monday 24th to Thursday 27th September 2007
Our policy roundtables are the format in which we undertake most of our substantive policy discussions. Expert participants debate emerging policy trends and ideas and interrogate key players in an invited forum of their peers.
This year we have our strongest programme of policy roundtables ever, tackling the key issues on the political agenda from housing and the Respect agenda to the environment and energy policy.
|
|
Sunday 23rd to Thursday 27th September 2007
Our headline public events at Labour Party Conference are among the most prominent events of the conference fringe, providing a forum for the political debates that delegates want to have, and a chance to hear A-list speakers discussing the most pressing issues of the moment.
This year the Fabians will be holding debates on topics ranging from the future of equality in the UK to the approach we need to Iran.
|
|
Tuesday, 18th September 2007
Both parties may have different visions of the prosperous society, but how will a Brownite business agenda compare to a Cameronian one? What will the main policy and political challenges be for the party leaders at the next election in wooing the business vote?
|
|
Sunday, 16th September 2007
The Fabian Society made its debut appearance at Liberal Democrat Party Conference in Brighton this year.
In 'Labour and the Lib Dems - Whose progressive agenda?' Gareth Thomas MP and Tim Horton, Fabian Research Director, debated with Vince Cable MP and Baroness Shirley Williams the dividing lines between the parties as well as the potential for a progressive consensus in British politics to develop.
Our second event, a roundtable seminar, explored whether policy competition between the parties would prove a driver to real progress in meeting our environmental targets for energy generation and consumption.
|
|
Monday, 10th September 2007
The Fabian Society held two high profile events at this year's TUC. Continuing the debate on party reform begun in recent pamphlet Facing Out, David Coats led a panel assessing the state of the Labour-union relationship, while Roger Liddle presented his recent Fabian freethinking paper, A New Social Europe, with union voices from across Europe.
|
|
Saturday, 8th September 2007 The Fabian Autumn
Conference will kick off the new political season. Come along to listen
to speakers including Liam Byrne, Michael Wills and Hazel Blears. Have
your say and join leading politicians, thinkers and grassroots
campaigners as we debate ideas that will renew our democracy. Keynote speaker: Ed Miliband MP.
|
|
Thursday, 26th July 2007
Dr Howard Stoate MP, author of Fabian pamphlet 'Challenging the Citadel: Breaking the hospitals' grip on the NHS', led a discussion on the future of the NHS.
|
|
Tuesday, 26th June 2007
Ed Balls toasted a fantastic year for the Fabians at the annual
summer reception on the House of Commons terrace. The reception was an
opportunity for the Fabians to thank all contributors, partners and
friends of the Society for their support over the past year.
|
|
Sunday, 24th June 2007
Neither the Conservative Party's election strategy nor whether David Cameron, David Davis or William Hague will be the party leader can be predicted with certainty, Ed Balls told a Fabian fringe meeting on the morning of the Labour special leadership conference in Manchester. He suggested that the smooth transistion between Blair and Brown had focussed the public gaze on the Conservative split over grammar schools.
|
|
Thursday, 21st June 2007
In this lecture, DWP Minister James Purnell set out the case and vision for building an aspiration society where life chances are not inherited at birth, but depend on each person's own efforts and talents. He addressed some of the key policy questions for the next decade agenda, in particular placing education at the centre of the future political and policy debates and of the Labour government's future social vision.
|
|
Monday, 18th June 2007
International Development Secretary Hilary Benn MP was among the speakers debating Tony Klug's new Fabian freethinking paper How Peace Broke Out in the Middle East: A Short History of the Future.
Benn spoke alongside Yossi Mekelberg of Chatham House and Atallah Said of the Arab Labour Group. The paper is generating an extraordinary response from a wide range of commentators, academics and government and civil society voices in the UK, Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
|
|
Wednesday, 13th June 2007
In this lecture, DCLG Minister Baroness Andrews explored the Government's response to the future provision of housing for a growing and ageing society, and argued that housing policy must be at the heart of the social justice and social care agenda.
|
|
Wednesday, 13th June 2007
David Coats of the Work Foundation and Richard Exell of the TUC lead discussion in the second seminar of 2007 in the Fabian City, Business and Politics Network on the challenges of global integration and the response of the UK government and business to economic nationalism and protectionist tendencies in Europe and elsewhere.
|
|
Tuesday, 12th June 2007
Leading workplace analyst David Coats argued that workers in the
south of England find the combination of a long commute, rising
interest rates and a job they don't like contributes to their "southern
discomfort".
But Coats, the former head of economics at the TUC, also argued in a
Fabian lecture that workplaces have actually become more secure and
better paid for the most vulnerable in his Next Decade lecture for the
Fabians. He threw down a challenge to employers and government to
improve workplaces.
|
|
Saturday, 9th June 2007
The Fabian Society will be running a session at this year's Compass conference to debate the public politics of equality. Tim Horton, Fabian Research Director, will be joined on a panel by Professor Anthony Giddens, LSE, Karen Buck MP and Louise Bamfield, Fabian Research Fellow.
|
|
Thursday, 7th June 2007
Jim Murphy, Minister of State, Department of Work and Pensions, led a Fabian policy seminar marking the tenth anniversary of the New Deal, assessing Labour's achievements in the area of employment policy and setting out the next decade challenges still to be met.
|
|
Wednesday, 6th June 2007
Ruth Kelly and Liam Byrne will speak at a Fabian seminar to launch
their new freethinking paper. Drawing on their different perspectives
in government, they will propose and debate new recommendations to
strengthen citizenship and a common, shared British identity. This event is by invitation only.
|
|
Wednesday, 6th June 2007
Baroness Amos will lead a high-level seminar exploring the next
decade challenges in the area of internatioanl health development
policy.
|
|
Tuesday, 5th June 2007
Continuing the Fabian 'Next Decade' series, Health Minister Andy Burnham argued that the era of the top down NHS is over. You can read the full transcript of his speech here.
|
|
Wednesday, 23rd May 2007
Labour cannot comfortably govern the UK as a whole without a significant presence in its largest and most prosperous region, argued former Home Office minister John Denham in a Fabian lecture. New Labour's unquestioned achievement was the solid base of councillors and MPs from the south of England. Read Denham's arguments on why that advance has been halted and, in many cases, reversed.
|
|
Tuesday, 22nd May 2007
Fear and unfamiliarity are the problems creating division in our society, Culture Minister David Lammy said in a Fabian lecture. "What we really need as a society is the social glue created by an encounter culture – in which it becomes normal, commonplace and comfortable to meet people from other backgrounds and cultures.We need workplaces that are representative. Public spaces that are welcoming."
|
|
Wednesday, 16th May 2007
Hazel Blears topped a straw poll following an exclusive Fabian Society and Progress deputy leadership hustings. All six candidates - Alan Johnson, Hazel Blears, Harriet Harman, Hilary Benn, Jon Cruddas and Peter Hain - debated major issues including democracy, education and foreign policy in a session chaired by The Guardian's Michael White. Read more in the full transcript.
Plus: Fabians publish book of candidates' essays:
Labour's Choice: The Deputy Leadership
|
|
Tuesday, 15th May 2007
Yvette Cooper, Minister for Housing and Planning, continued the
Fabian 'Next Decade' series, discussing the link between housing policy
and the government's child poverty agenda.
|
|
Sunday, 13th May 2007
What happened when the Fabian Society invited Gordon Brown, Michael Meacher and John McDonnell to debate Labour's future at a special Fabian hustings event?
|
|
