Previously Marcus served as Field Director of the Ed Miliband for Leader campaign and was Campaign Manager for Rushanara Ali's 2010 Bethnal Green & Bow election. He is a Founding Partner of Zentrum Consulting and also worked on the Al Gore, John Kerry and Barack Obama US presidential campaigns. He has previously contributed to Fabian Society events and publications on movement politics and party reform and worked on the Refounding Labour consultation.

Many thanks to everyone who came to this year's AGM.

We had nearly double the attendance that we received last year which reflects the new enthusiasm that comes with our record rise in membership numbers. Members as young as 15 came and contributed to the discussion which centered around a new Fabian stream of work on the role of the state.

The debate was led by Karen Buck MP (Westminster North), Patrick Diamond (Policy Network), Jessica Asato (Islington Councillor and member of the Fabian Executive) and was chaired by our General Secretary Andrew Harrop.

A day earlier than expected, below are the final results for the Fabian and Young Fabian Executive. Congratulations to everyone who made it and commiserations to those that didn't. In the final reckoning there were only 4 votes in it for the Fabian Exec and just one single vote in the Young Fabian race.

 Thank you to everyone who attended year's Fabian Annual Conference

Over 1,000 people came through the doors and over 100 volunteers and speakers helped make the day happen.

The response was absolutely huge with the frontpage of the Guardian, TV coverage on all major networks and over 4,000 tweets on #fab12.

Cick the link below to see a full text of Ed Balls' speech to the Society.

Our next major event is our conference on Social Europe. Click here to get your tickets and debate one of the biggest questions in politics today.

Pollsters Deborah Mattinson and Ben Shimshon look at the challenges and opportunites for the year ahead, arguing that whilst Miliband leads on issues of integrity and empathy, David Cameron's style of leadership is currently more in demand from voters.

‘The Credibility Deficit: How to rebuild Labour’s economic reputation’ says Labour has an opportunity on the economy but currently lacks credibility; the party must return to its core values and ethics to rebuild its economic reputation.

]]> Sat, 24 Sep 2011 15:42:12 GMT http://www.fabians.org.uk/publications/publications-news/beer-splash http://www.fabians.org.uk/events/events-news/fabians-at-labour-party-conference The Fabian Society put on the biggest public fringe programme at the Labour Party Conference 2011.

Our thanks to everyone who came along to our Question Time events, to our debates on the future of liberal interventionism, Labour's relationship with the press after the News of the World phone-hacking scandal and to our Dragon's Den format discussion on how Labour can win the next election.

As part of our Conference activities we also launched the September Fabian Review, with pieces from Andrew Harrop, James Macintyre and Stewart Wood, Mary Riddell's interview with Chuka Umunna, and new polling on the Labour leadership from Deborah Mattinson and Ben Shimshon.

Stephen Beer's pamphlet 'The Credibility Deficit: How to rebuild Labour's economic reputation' was at Economy Question Time on Monday. During Labour Conference week, you can download a PDF of this pamphlet here.

‘Homes for Citizens’, written by leading MPs, academics and policy experts, argues that politicians are still missing the significance of housing and that, with one person in four saying the stress of meeting housing costs keeps them awake at night, both government and opposition need to renew their political focus on housing.

Britain should renegotiate with the European Union to end the free movement of labour, Maurice Glasman says in a interview in the forthcoming Fabian Review. The man behind Blue Labour says any immigration should be on a case-by-case basis and that "we have to put the people in this country first".

Speaking to Mary Riddell he said: “We’ve got to re-interrogate our relationship with the EU on the movement of labour. The EU has gone from being a sort of pig farm subsidised bloc ... to the free movement of labour and capital. It’s legalistic, it’s administrative, and it’s no good. So I think we’ve got to renegotiate with the EU.”

]]> ed.wallis@fabian-society.org.uk (Ed Wallis) Mon, 18 Jul 2011 11:43:41 GMT http://www.fabians.org.uk/publications/publications-news/qdraw-the-lineq-on-immigration-says-glasman http://www.fabians.org.uk/events/events-news/fabian-summer-gala-dinner The Fabian Society is delighted to announce that Alastair Campbell will join Chuka Umunna MP for the Fabian Summer Gala Dinner on the 11th July at Altitude 360 with its stunning 29th floor view looking across Westminster and the whole of London.

All attendees will be treated to wine and a three course meal with each table hosted by a special guest including Rushanara Ali MP, Luciana Berger MP, John Denham MP, Lord Dubs, Kate Green MP, Tristam Hunt MP, Dan Jarvis MP, Denis MacShane MP, Kerry McCarthy MP, Rachel Reeves MP, and Stephen Twigg MP.

As reported in the Guardian, Sunder Katwala and Seema Malhotra argue that the Lib Dems must take radical action to avoid becoming a male-only parliamentary party, starting by droping opposition to all-women shortlists.

A recruitment process for a new General Secretary is now underway, the results of which will be announced in due course.

Writing on the Next Left blog, Sunder said: "I have very much enjoyed leading the Fabians - which is one of the reasons I’ve been doing the job for over seven years now – and working with brilliant colleagues on the staff team and across the Fabian Society.

With the next two years offering an important window to influence public policies as we emerge from deficit reduction, this project aims to shape a new cross-party consensus on the economic and social importance of a fair and efficient assets and savings regime. This will mean broadening the base of assets and savings in the UK, and helping to entrench the savings habits of low as well as middle-income households. The project aims to articulate a new framework for public policy on assets and savings, one that should inform the thinking of all of the major political parties.

For further information about the project or to discuss partnership opportunities contact James Gregory (Senior Research Fellow) on:

Email: james.gregory@fabian-society.org.uk
Tel: 020 7227 4919/4900

New analysis by the Fabian Society and Landman Economics of George Osborne's March Budget suggests that many single-earner families with children and families claiming help with childcare costs will be the big losers from the Coalition’s tax-and-benefit reforms over the next couple of years.

And despite Government rhetoric about ‘lifting the poorest out of tax’, many low-income families are set to become bigger contributors to the Exchequer too.

Reed argues that: “The coalition Government’s record on gender equality so far is poor: the particular mix of fiscal consolidation measures introduced have a more adverse impact on women than men. Labour would have implemented spending cuts, but they did not have to be made in a way which disadvantaged women this much.”

One of the Fabian Society's main areas of research is into poverty and inequality. The programme provides high quality research into its causes and effects and into public attitudes towards poverty. Current and past projects can be found below, as can the contact details of the lead researcher Tim Horton.

Tim Horton

Phone: 020 7227 4908

Email:  tim.horton@fabian.society.org.uk

Projects

Fighting Poverty and Inequality in an Age of Affluence

Understanding Attitudes to Tackling Economic Inequality

The Equality Project

Fabian Life Chances and Child Poverty Commission

The Progressive Fightback

Keynote: Andy Burnham MP
Saturday 14th May 2011
11hr00 to 16hr00 at Altitude, London SW1P 4QP

This event will bring together politicians, thinkers, grassroots campaigners and members of the public to discuss the electoral verdict and what it means for the future of political party reform.

]]> Wed, 23 Feb 2011 14:25:43 GMT http://www.fabians.org.uk/events/events-news/progressivefightbackconf http://www.fabians.org.uk/events/events-news/the-justice-tests-with-sadiq-khan-mp On the 7th March 2011, the Fabians in partnership with Prison Reform Trust hosted Rt Hon Sadiq Khan MP (Shadow Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice) as he delivered his first major speech on justice; outlining the future direction of Labour’s criminal justice policy review.

Following the speech, Sadiq Khan MP joined Juliet Lyon (Director, Prison Reform Trust) and Sunder Katwala (General Secretary, Fabian Society) for a panel discussion and an audience Q&A session.

The full text of the speech can be found here.

A podcast of the speech can be found here.