Warwickshire Fabian Society

Warwickshire Fabians: Forthcoming Events

2012-01-26T03:27:00.001-08:00

Dear all

Please make a note of these two forthcoming Warwickshire Fabians speaker meetings:

Thursday 16 February: David Morgan to speak on “US election 2012: Can Obama do it again?”

Friday 9 March: Lord Stewart Wood to speak on “Responsible capitalism: Labour’s new agenda”.

Time and venue: Both meetings above will start at 7:30 pm and will be held at the Friends’ Meeting House, 28 Regent Place, Rugby, CV21 2PN.

David Morgan has extensive experience of both UK and US politics. Some of you will also know him as the founder of a forerunner of the Warwickshire Fabians, the Watershed Fabian Society.

Lord Stewart Wood is a key adviser to Ed Miliband, a member of the Shadow Cabinet, and an architect of the “responsible capitalism” agenda.

All are welcome at our meetings. I hope to see you there!

Best wishes

Ben

Ben Ferrett
Secretary, Warwickshire Fabian Society

Warwickshire Fabians highlight effect of Legal Aid cuts

2011-11-21T05:09:00.000-08:00

Dear all

I’m writing to tell you about our recent Warwickshire Fabians meeting in Rugby last Friday, which was a real eye-opener for many of us. The event discussed the government’s proposals to cut the Legal Aid budget for social welfare law – and the impact that cuts will have on the ability of everyone in society to access justice on equal terms.

I’d like to ask you to register your opposition to these Legal Aid cuts through the Sound Off For Justice web site (http://soundoffforjustice.org/), where you can sign an on-line petition and send an email to your MP. It only takes a couple of minutes.

Addressing the meeting were Lord Willy Bach, a former barrister and Labour’s spokesperson on Justice in the Lords, and Sue Bent, Director of the Coventry Law Centre – a not-for-profit organisation whose activities would be severely hit by the government’s proposals. Coventry Law Centre provides free legal advice and representation to people facing disadvantage in Coventry and Warwickshire.

Through the national network of law centres, vulnerable people can access free advice and solicitors’ services in the areas of social welfare law – for example, employment, discrimination, housing, education, debt, community care, welfare benefits and immigration. Much of this work is funded through Legal Aid, and it is threatened by the cuts proposed in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, which is currently before Parliament.

Addressing the meeting, Sue Bent described the government’s proposals as “an outrage”. She attacked the popular misconception that Legal Aid always goes to “fat cat” lawyers, and she stressed the restrictiveness of the means and merit tests that law centre clients must satisfy to qualify for free legal help.

Sue also gave examples, based on CAB research, of the value for money that Legal Aid spending provides to society. For example, every £1 spent on Legal Aid advice in the employment area saves the state over £7 – by promoting good employment practices and reducing the costs of exploitation, for example non-payment of wages, on the taxpayer.

Willy Bach urged everyone to lobby their MPs to vote against the Bill. You can do this very quickly on-line at http://soundoffforjustice.org/.

Thank you for reading this. And thanks also to Sue and Willy for taking the time to speak to us on this very important topic. I will shortly be circulating our programme of events for the New Year, and I hope to see you there.

Best wishes

Ben

Ben Ferrett
Secretary, Warwickshire Fabian Society

Warwickshire Fabians speaker meeting – Friday 18 November

2011-11-07T09:18:00.000-08:00

Our next Warwickshire Fabians speaker meeting is as follows:

EVENT: Lord Willy Bach and Sue Bent speaking on “Access to Justice”
DATE: Friday 18 November 2011
TIME: 7:30 pm (to 9 pm)
PLACE: Friends’ Meeting House, 28 Regent Place, Rugby, CV21 2PN

Further details are below. This promises to be a very interesting and topical meeting. All are welcome. I hope to see you there.

Best wishes

Ben

Ben Ferrett
Secretary, Warwickshire Fabian Society

Further details of the event:

Sue Bent is the Director of the Coventry Law Centre, which was set up as a not-for-profit organisation in 1976 to provide free legal advice and representation to people facing disadvantage in Coventry.

Through the Law Centre, thousands of vulnerable people a year in Coventry and Warwickshire get free advice and solicitors’ services in the areas of housing, immigration, money, employment, discrimination, public law, community care and welfare benefits. The current government’s proposed cuts to Legal Aid would severely affect the Law Centre’s work.

Lord Willy Bach is Labour’s frontbench spokesperson for justice and constitutional affairs. A former barrister practising in criminal law, he was made a peer in 1998 and became minister for the then Lord Chancellor's department in 2000. After time spent at Defence and Defra, he became Legal Aid Minister in the last Labour government.

A recent Guardian on-line article by Willy on the proposed Legal Aid cuts is available here

Warwickshire Fabians speaker meeting – Thursday 20 October

2011-10-06T04:20:00.000-07:00

Our next Warwickshire Fabians speaker meeting is as follows:

EVENT: Lord Maurice Glasman speaking on “Blue Labour”
DATE: Thursday 20 October 2011
TIME: 7:30 pm (to 9 pm)
PLACE: Friends’ Meeting House, 28 Regent Place, Rugby, CV21 2PN

Speaker bio: Maurice Glasman is a political philosopher at London Metropolitan University and a community organiser with London Citizens, where he worked on the Living Wage campaign. He developed the influential idea of “Blue Labour”, which he has described as “a deeply conservative socialism that places family, faith and work at the heart of a new politics of reciprocity, mutuality and solidarity”. Earlier this year he was elevated to the Lords as a Labour peer by Ed Miliband. (He has also been highly critical of the Fabian tradition in Labour politics!) For further background information, see http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jan/16/maurice-glasman-peer-labour

This promises to be a very interesting and topical meeting. All are welcome. I hope to see you there.

Best wishes

Ben

Ben Ferrett
Secretary, Warwickshire Fabian Society

Warwickshire Fabians: Autumn 2011 Events

2011-08-27T08:07:00.000-07:00

Dear all

We have three Warwickshire Fabian Society events planned for the autumn:

Thursday 22 September: AGM and discussion group. The purpose of this meeting is to elect our executive officers for the forthcoming year and to share ideas for future events. For added amusement, we also plan to hold a “discussion group” after the AGM – more details to follow nearer the time!

Thursday 20 October: Lord Maurice Glasman, academic and inventor of “Blue Labour”. For background information, see Guardian article here

Friday 18 November: Lord Willy Bach, Labour spokesperson for Justice in the Lords, on “Access to Justice”. (Note that this event is being held on a Friday!)

Time and venue: All three meetings above will start at 7:30 pm and will be held at the Friends’ Meeting House, 28 Regent Place, Rugby, CV21 2PN.

All are welcome at our meetings. I think you’ll agree that this is an interesting and attractive line-up for the autumn. I hope to see you there!

Best wishes

Ben

Ben Ferrett
Secretary, Warwickshire Fabian Society

WFS speaker meeting on NHS: Thursday 9 June

2011-05-12T06:57:00.002-07:00

Dear all

Our next Warwickshire Fabian Society (WFS) speaker meeting is on the NHS:

EVENT: Bryan Stoten, Chairman of NHS Warwickshire, speaking on “Reforming the NHS”
DATE: Thursday 9 June 2011
TIME: 7:30 pm (to 9 pm)
PLACE: Severn Trent Room, Bath Place Community Venture, The Old Library, York Road, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, CV31 3PR

Speaker profile: Bryan Stoten is a renowned authority on the NHS, and he has wide-ranging experience of working within it. He is currently Chairman of NHS Warwickshire, and he was Chairman of the NHS Confederation from 2006 to April 2010. Bryan is a Fellow at Warwick University’s Business School and a Visiting Professor at Coventry University.

I hope you’re able to join us for what promises to be a very informative meeting. All are welcome. Bryan Stoten is an excellent speaker, and he has extensive knowledge and practical experience of the NHS and health policy-making.

Best wishes

Ben

Ben Ferrett
Secretary, Warwickshire Fabian Society

Warwickshire Fabians AV debate: Tuesday 12 April

2011-03-27T08:15:00.001-07:00

Dear all

Our next Warwickshire Fabians meeting is a debate on electoral reform – First Past The Post versus the Alternative Vote (AV):

EVENT: A debate on the AV referendum, with Ken Ritchie (former Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society) speaking in favour of AV and Steve Birkett (Chair of the Warwickshire Fabian Society) speaking against.
DATE: Tuesday 12 April 2011
TIME: 7:30 pm
PLACE: Friends’ Meeting House, 28 Regent Place, Rugby, CV21 2PN

Ken and Steve are both members of our local society, and I’m grateful to them for agreeing to speak on behalf of their opposing positions. To ensure impartiality, I will be in the chair.

Given the forthcoming national referendum on 5 May, this is a highly topical debate. I hope you’re able to make it. All are welcome.

For more information on the issues, the official websites of the two campaigns are here http://www.yestofairervotes.org/ and here http://www.no2av.org/

Best wishes

Ben

Ben Ferrett
Secretary
Warwickshire Fabian Society

Warwickshire Fabians speaker meeting: Thursday 10 March

2011-02-22T15:11:00.000-08:00

Dear all

The next Warwickshire Fabian Society speaker meeting is on 10 March:

EVENT: Professor Colin Crouch of Warwick University speaking on the subject of his forthcoming book, “The Strange Non-Death of Neoliberalism”
DATE: Thursday 10 March
TIME: 7:30 pm
PLACE: Friends’ Meeting House, 28 Regent Place, Rugby, CV21 2PN

Further information: Colin Crouch is a political scientist and sociologist. He is a professor at Warwick University and a former chair of the national Fabian Society. His new book examines “neoliberalism”: a widely-held view in politics that the centralised state should be rolled back – through deregulation in the private sector and the introduction of market incentives into public services. He asks why the recent economic and financial crises, which represented huge market failures, have not led to more widespread questioning of neoliberal ideas. More information on the book, “The Strange Non-Death of Neoliberalism”, is available here http://politybooks.com/book.asp?ref=9780745651200

I hope you’re able to join us. All are welcome.

Best wishes

Ben

Ben Ferrett
Secretary, Warwickshire Fabian Society
Email ben_ferrett at hotmail dot com

Jack Dromey MP to address Warwickshire Fabians on Thursday 10 February

2011-01-20T11:55:00.000-08:00

Dear all

I’m delighted to announce that Jack Dromey will be speaking at the next meeting of the Warwickshire Fabian Society:

EVENT: Jack Dromey MP speaking on the coalition government’s cuts agenda
DATE: Thursday 10 February
TIME: 7:30 pm
PLACE: Friends’ Meeting House, 28 Regent Place, Rugby, CV21 2PN

Speaker profile: Jack Dromey is the MP for Birmingham Erdington and the Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government. He was previously the Deputy General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union. He is married to Harriet Harman, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.

I hope you’re able to join us for what promises to be a very interesting and topical meeting. All are welcome.

Best wishes

Ben

Ben Ferrett
Secretary
Warwickshire Fabian Society

Estelle Morris speaker meeting: 18 November

2010-10-17T05:52:00.000-07:00

We are delighted that Estelle Morris will be speaking at our next meeting on the topic of "Where next for Labour's education policy?":

DATE: Thursday 18 November
TIME: 7:30 pm
PLACE: Friends' Meeting House, 28 Regent Place, Rugby, CV21 2PN

All are welcome. I hope you can make it.

Speaker profile: Estelle Morris worked as a secondary school teacher in Coventry for 18 years before becoming Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley in 1992. She was Education Secretary from 2001 to 2002 -- the first former comprehensive school teacher to hold that position. She stood down from Parliament in 2005, and she now sits as Baroness Morris of Yardley in the House of Lords.

Ben Ferrett
Secretary, Warwickshire Fabians

Follow us on Facebook

2010-10-02T07:11:00.000-07:00

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AGM: Thursday 30 September

2010-09-06T12:51:00.000-07:00

Following our highly successful launch event with Andy Burnham, the next Warwickshire Fabians event will be our AGM on 30 September:

DATE: Thursday 30 September

TIME: 7:30 pm

PLACE: Friends’ Meeting House, 28 Regent Place, Rugby, CV21 2PN

At the AGM, we will approve the society’s constitution and elect executive officers. Most importantly, we will also discuss ideas for future events.

Please send any items for the agenda to me at ben_ferrett at hotmail dot com.

I hope you can make it.

Ben

Ben Ferrett
Interim Secretary
Warwickshire Fabians

Launch event with Andy Burnham MP

2010-08-27T22:00:00.000-07:00

We're delighted that Andy Burnham MP, Labour leadership candidate and former Health Secretary, was able to join us for our launch event on Friday 27 August 2010. The evening was a great success with over 50 people in the audience. We hope it will be just the first of many such events in the future.

L to R: Ben Ferrett (Secretary), Andy Burnham MP, Steve Birkett (Chair)