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

Back to Fighting Poverty and Inequality in an Age of Affluence Project

09hr00  Registration

09hr30 to 11hr00 Opening Keynote and panel discussion: The life and legacy of Beatrice Webb 
 
Keynote speaker: Lord Roy Hattersley
Chair: Sunder Katwala (General Secretary, Fabian Society)
Respondents:  Dr. Dianne Hayter (Former chair, Labour Party NEC; Vice Chair, Webb Memorial Trust)  
Rushanara Ali (Associate Director, Young Foundation & Labour PPC for Bethnal Green & Bow)
Carole Seymour-Jones (Author, Beatrice Webb: A Life)

11hr00 to 12hr00 The Legacy: From Beveridge to Brown
Chair:   Sarah Wise (Author, The Blackest Streets) 
Panelists:  Karen Buck MP 
James Gregory (Research Fellow, Fabian Society)
Greg Rosen (Chair, Labour History Group)

12hr00 to 13hr00 Lunch

13hr00 to 14hr00  The Politics of the Impossible
Chair:   Louise Bamfield (Senior Research Fellow, Fabian Society)  
Siân Berry (Green Party)
Nick Bosanquet (Professor of Health Policy, Imperial College) 
Barry Knight (Associate, Centris: The Centre for Research and Innovation in Social Policy Ltd)
Hetan Shah (Chief Executive, DEA)

14hr00 to 14hr30 Coffee Break

14hr30 to 15hr30 How have coalitions for change been built?
Chair:   Kate Green (Chief Executive, Child Poverty Action Group)
Tim Horton (Research Director, Fabian Society) 
Neil Jameson (Executive Director, London Citizens)
Pat Thane (Leverhulme Professor of Contemporary British History, School of Advance Study, University of London)                                                                                                                           

Peter Townsend (Professor of International Social Policy, London School of Economics)

At a time when arguments about the causes of poverty, the principles of social justice and the responsibilities of the state are again central and contested issues in our political discourse, the conference will explore how the Minority Report's key insights should be renewed and applied today. 

The Centenary Conference is in association with