Continuing the Fabian's World After Bush series, former Guardian columnist and Clinton White House advisor Sidney Blumenthal will be joined at a Fabian event by the Guardian's Jonathan Freedland as he launches his new book, The Strange Death of Republican America: Chronicles of a Collapsing Party. 

Following the major Conservative gains in the local elections, and the fall of Southampton council to the Conservatives, Cabinet minister John Denham emphasized the need to understand the issues that matter in the south of England in a Fabian lecture.

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions James Purnell outlined the Government's fightback strategy following the local elections in a speech to the Fabian Society, declaring "ideological confidence is the way out of this week's political setback."

Purnell spoke of the need to continue to tackle child poverty regardless of electoral considerations and accused the Tories of "failing the test on child poverty."

Alcohol companies should be banned from sponsoring sporting events, says Dr Howard Stoate MP in the Fabian Review.

Stoate says that with young people drinking more than ever, a ban on alcohol advertising is needed to curb alcohol misuse and reduce its negative health impacts.