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'A blueprint for a Gordon Brown government to "make child poverty history" in Britain will be unveiled this week amid growing evidence that Labour will fail to hit its target to abolish it
• Andrew Grice, The Independent

’Anyone wanting clues to the possible agenda of a Gordon Brown government should look at the response to yesterday’s report of a Fabian Society Commission on child poverty, Narrowing the Gap, which was launched by David Miliband and Ed Balls’
• Peter Riddell, The Times

It's just a year until the next comprehensive spending review is set in stone. That's a year before Labour's direction and speed of travel is fixed in the run-up to the next election, and the last chance to set priorities that could halve child poverty by 2010 and transform children's life chances. Today the Fabians offer Gordon Brown a route map for reaching that goal - and a way to recapture political optimism. Social justice is, after all, what Labour is in power for'.
• Polly Toynbee, The Guardian.

'The Fabian Commission has produced a route map that leads to a fairer Britain … Making Britain fairer is not just a matter of redistributing income, crucial though that is. Public services have an important part to play too. Hence the report's call for maternity services, support and special benefits being refocused and concentrated on the most disadvantaged mothers. Similarly, there are too few incentives within schools for reducing the inequalities of attainment… The report rightly calls for new public service targets in this field, a cause which has the sympathy of the chief inspector of schools. The scale of the challenge is daunting. To its credit, Labour remains committed to its goal. What we need to know now is what the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties would do. Both have policy groups that will report next year. A consensus on the need for more fairness is welcome. An accord on how we get there would be even better'.
• editorial, The Guardian.

’Every government needs to renew as well as deliver. Let this report be the start of a process that leads to a manifesto and a new government that makes choice not fate the expectation of the majority’.
• David Miliband, in his Fabian lecture 'The fight against fate' which launched the report.

’It is a very important report. The party and government will want to study its analysis and recommendations in detail'
• Ed Balls MP, Vice-Chair of the Fabian Society. More on the launch from Ed's blog.

'The Labour Party has rediscovered equality. Later this month the Fabian Society, the keeper of the party's soul, will publish a revised Clause Four - the symbolic statement of Labour's first principles - in an attempt to embed a commitment to making Britain "a fair and more equal society". This is an ingenious idea ... The latest proposal on Clause Four comes out of a recent Fabian Commission on Life Chances and Child Poverty, which recognised that while some progress had been made, it was unacceptable that 2.6 million children still lived below the poverty line. Crucially, the commission recognised that far too many people's "life chances" (by which it meant educational attainment, state of health, employment status) are determined by geography and birth. The commission is recommending that equality become the theme of the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review ... The debate about how best to tackle inequality is everywhere and it is precisely the discussion the party should be having.
• New Statesman political ediitor Martin Bright on how the Labour Party rediscovered equality (April 17th 2006).

'As the debate on the Comprehensive Spending Review begins, the Commission should be congratulated for producing such a powerful and timely report. The recommendations, such as increasing child benefit, child tax credit and the minimum wage at least in line with or above average earnings, targeting spending and policy to reduce educational inequalities and working towards a system of universal high quality childcare, are essential if the Government is to meet its ambitious goals'.
• Kate Green, Child Poverty Action Group.

'The commission called for a new 50 pence top rate of tax and higher child benefit for second and subsequent children as part of a package of measures designed to close the income gap between the richest and poorest families, and move towards the government's target of eliminating child poverty, which is currently off course. While neither Miliband nor Balls have given their full backing to the plan. The two leading intellectual lights of the next generation of Labour MPs argue that the report has asked the right questions and has come up with many good answers'.
• Miliband and Balls back equality report, E-politix

’The hammer blow has come in the unexpected form of a Fabian Society pamphlet. These days the Fabians are positively vicious. The supporting cast for this pamphlet is a significant, carefully choreographed act of intimidation’
• Simon Heffer in The Telegraph

'The Fabians’ recommendations go further than simply tackling stalled anti-poverty programmes. The think-tank calls for annual ‘life chances audits’, undertaken across government departments, which would detail progress on improving conditions for all children and young people in the UK. Improved payments to disadvantaged mothers and pregnant women, extended and flexible parental leave, better access to childcare, new Treasury-led Public Service Agreement targets to reduce educational inequalities between social groups, and a review of school admissions policies also feature prominently'.
•Public Finance.

'Pamphlets by the Fabian Society suddenly attract a lot of interest: last week, it found Ed Balls and David Miliband on the same platform. These two were the brains behind the Treasury and Number 10 policy unit respectively, but they are not carrying the battle to a next generation'
• The Business, News analysis)

‘Ed Balls has called it ‘a very important report’. Mr Brown himself has called it ‘valuable’. The Chancellor, a Labour man to the core of his soul, clearly believes he might yet squeeze blood out of a stone. How much more of this can we be expected to take’
• Daily Express, editorial

'Further tax increases are unacceptable - even if today's Fabian Society report says they are needed to end child poverty ... Ending child poverty is a worthwhile aim, but this and other priorities can be achieved within current levels of public expenditure. The comprehensive spending review must ruthlessly search for savings, identify activities the state no longer needs to fund and demand higher productivity in the public services. It should also look at other ways to finance those services'.
• Financial Times, editorial).

'Nine years of Tony Blair’s government has made little difference to the lives of Pakistani and Bangladeshi kids in Britain. A startling 57 per cent of children from these communities are still living in poverty. The overall figure for all Britons is 27 per cent. If action is not taken soon, the Government will miss its aim to half child poverty by 2010 and eradicate it by 2020. It is a scandal because Labour has relied on the Asian vote to win three elections. A Fabian Society report, Narrowing the Gap, published on Thursday, is urging the Prime Minister-in-waiting, Gordon Brown, to redouble efforts.'.
• Eastern Eye, front page, 31st March 2006).

'Gordon Brown will reject proposals from a Labour think-tank to bring in a 50p top rate of income tax to help fund the Government's plans to abolish child poverty. Mr Brown favoured raising the 40p in the pound tax rate when Labour was in opposition but has cooled on the idea. Allies say he believes a 50p rate would not raise as much revenue as its advocates claim because people would find ways to avoid it and it would send a negative signal about Britain to foreign entrepreneurs'
• Independent, Brown to resist calls to raise tax rate (March 31)

’The Fabian Society came out with a review that should be taken seriously because of the two people introducing it: David Miliband and Ed Balls - once the brainy apprentices of the Blair and Brown camps respectively, and now both MPs. Rather than take their masters' vendetta to a next generation, they have joined forces (Miliband now sees himself as Brown's successor, not his rival) and it is worth a close look at the agenda they have aligned behind. It is, in theory, about child poverty - although the argument is really about income distribution ... the Fabian Society's 12 recommendations involved expanding welfare for low-income mothers (and from pregnancy, not just childbirth), longer parental leave, more subsidised childcare, greater benefit rates for children, a higher minimum wage and higher tax. This is a different set of political values. Its logic is, essentially, that if Britain taxed as much as Sweden, things would be a lot better. The Fabian pamphlet title was 'Narrowing the gap'. It should have been 'Tax is the answer'.’
•Fraser Nelson, Scotland on Sunday

'Only 10 days ago a Fabian seminar on unequal life chances talked wistfully of seeking a political consensus on abolishing child poverty. If political parties in Scandinavian countries can unite to push child poverty below 5%, why does the UK have to suffer 27%? True, David Cameron, the new Tory leader, is committed to judging future policies by how "they help the most disadvantaged, not the rich". But welcome though this switch of emphasis was, it was not specific enough to ensure social change. Yesterday, a new era may have dawned: Oliver Letwin, the Conservative party's head of policy, in a Guardian article, unequivocally signed up in support of Labour's goal of ending child poverty by 2020 ... The Conservative switch is unlikely to have been entirely altruistic but it should be celebrated. It should strengthen the chancellor's hand with resisters in his own party and put pressure on the Liberal Democrats to join in ... It is a daunting challenge. But political consensus over what needs to be done has almost been reached. Time now to explore an accord of how the country is going to get there'.

•As the Conservatives respond, a further Guardian editorial about Oliver Letwin's conversion to the child poverty goalasks what Margaret Thatcher would think (April 12th 2006).

'Our goal is fundamentally about giving all people the power to choose the life they lead," Mr Miliband told think-tank the Fabian Society yesterday. He was speaking at the launch of the Fabian Commission's report into social inequality, which argues that the old rhetoric of reducing poverty has less resonance with the public, and should be replaced by a new emphasis in increasing people's life chances. Launching the pamphlet yesterday, Mr Miliband said he believed the commission's approach could mobilise political support across all the parties – but warned that something more radical was needed'.
• Miliband: Empowerment is key to cutting inequality, E-politix

'The idea of 'life chances' is simple; it refers to the extent to which people are the 'victims of fate' - where they are born, into which class they are born - or whether they're able to make their own choices about the course of their life ... My perspective is that life chances are obviously affected by income, from work and from Government, but that the power to shape our own lives crucially also depends on power over public services, power as an employee or consumer, and power in the community. The redistribution of income will only equalise life chances if consistent with the redistribution of power.
•David Miliband blog, ODPM

'Polly Toynbee is right to call the poverty lobby to account. We are a disparate, disorganised, competing lot that need to get our act together in order to reveal to the public the true and damaging nature of poverty in the UK. There is a powerful coalition of charities, faiths, health professionals and trades unions existing in embryo. It will need organisational drive. Then we could mount a powerful national campaign on the issues that matter most to the poorest citizens.'.
• Rev Paul Nicolson, Chairman, Zacchaeus 2000 Trust. Read more letters from The Guardian in response to their coverage of the report.

'We need to make sure that the challenge of equalising life chances is at the centre of policy debate in the months to come as the Government prepares for its 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review, and as the main parties debate their manifestos for the next general election. The Fabian proposals our worthy of detailed scrutiny. I think there is a strong case, for example, for taking up the Fabian proposals to pay tax credits and child benefits to pregnant mothers in the months before their child is born. This would have a real impact on nutrition and life chances. But it is also important that we focus on the rights and life chances of those in our society who face the greatest obstacles and multiple deprivations. Which is why I was really pleased the recent Budget announced a review into how services can improve the life chances of disabled children and their families.
• Ed Balls on improving life chances for disabled children in the House Magazine (April 17th 2006).

'The problem with the Tory approach is not that the four causes of poverty it identifies are invalid, but that it is a partial view of a much wider problem. One of the great strengths of the government’s anti-poverty approach is that it has been multi-faceted in order to respond to the multiple causes of poverty. In comparison, the Tories’ analysis looks partial and limited. Debt is certainly an issue, but needs to be understood in the context of financial exclusion more broadly. Educational under-achievement is crucial, but the issues of poor health and substandard housing are glaring omissions. Tellingly, their approach says nothing about below-subsistence levels of financial support for childless adults, continued low pay, especially for female part-time workers, and the need for greater investment in social housing.

There are gaps still to be remedied in the government’s anti-poverty strategy. But the public will be naturally sceptical of the idea that the Tories are up to the task. It is a new and radical departure for the Tories to be making explicit commitments to tackling poverty in Britain. But there is a wide gap between acknowledging – belatedly – the existence of a problem, and offering a convincing set of solutions. What is needed is not a retreat of the state'.
• Louise Bamfield unpicks Tory thinking about social justice for the Fabian Review equality special (April 19th 2006).

'Yesterday in the Gladstone Room of the Palace of Westminster, I was fortunate enough to witness the best speech I have ever seen. This was given by David Miliband when he delivered a lecture entitled the "Fight Against Fate" at the launch of the Fabian Life Chances Commission report ... it hasn't been an easy few weeks but after I walked out the Gladstone Room yesterday, I would have no hesitation in telling anyone that I am member of the Labour Party and a Fabian, and keep my head held high'.
• Fabian member Nick Anstead blogs David Miliband's speech (April 1st 2006).

'It is great that Fabian society has produced this weighty report. Most of the detailed recommendations are excellent. So is the underpinning emphasis on equal moral worth. Reducing financial inequalities is an excellent aim, and should be unthreatening as it is well known that, beyond a certain level, extra income does not produce much correlating contentment ... Clearly we need to reduce child poverty but i do not think that reducing the gap in life chances is a safe slogan, though it should be an eventual outcome. Logically it seems to mean taking our money from schools in an affluent area, to subsidise a poorer area or waiting longer for a heart operation if you have a top life chance, so as to enable others to catch up. In an age of inadequate services i think frankly that we have no choice or intention of doing other than fighting for our own ... 'Maximising life chances for all' is of course acceptable, as is the perhaps more familiar 'empowering each to reach their full potential'. In the provision of public services we can and must level up, as i fear we are disengenuous if we maintain that we are willing to level down'.
• Fabian member John Champneys of Tunbridge Wells.