New Statesman - Events

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Welcome to the New Statesman's events section, the essential guide to all the best political debates, lectures and conferences.

07 November 2009

The Global Change We Need Conference

07 November 2009, 10am-4pm

A one-day Fabian conference to mark the first anniversary of President Obama's electoral victory.

Speakers include: David Miliband MP, Foreign Secretary; Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, former Danish Prime Minister and current President of the Party of European Socialists; Jennifer Palmieri, Senior Vice President for Communications at American Progress

Price: £10

0207 227 4903

Organiser: Fabian Society

Tags: Conferences & Seminars

09 November 2009

Professor Shlomo Sand in conversation with Denis McShane MP

09 November 2009, 6:30-7:30pm

Professor Sand discusses his controversial new book The Invention of the Jewish People with the Labour MP Denis MacShane

The New Statesman In Conversation With series....

Speakers: Professor Shlomo Sand, Professor of History at Tel Aviv University and author of The Invention of the Jewish People

Denis MacShane MP, Former Europe minister and Labour MP for Rotherham, author of Globalising Hatred: The New Anti-Semitism

Chair: Jonathan Derbyshire, culture editor, New Statesman

Price: Free

Organiser: New Statesman/Verso

Tags: Lectures & Debates

10 November 2009

A new government agenda

10 November 2009, 9am-3pm

Reform's major pre-election policy conference will analyse the two most important challenges facing the next government: rescuing the public finances and reforming the structure of government.

Speakers include: Oliver Letwin MP, Chairman of the Policy Review and of the Conservative Research Department; Vince Cable MP, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman; John McFall MP, Chairman, Treasury Select Committee; Polly Toynbee, Guardian columnist and President of the Social Policy Association; Peter Riddell, Times columnist; Douglas Carswell MP, Author of Direct Democracy and The Plan

Price: £250

020 7799 6699.

Organiser: Reform

Tags: Conferences & Seminars

11 November 2009

'Is There An Anglican Tradition of Social Justice?'

11 November 2009, 6:05-7pm

In the last of this year's JustShare lecture series on Christian social and political thought, the Revd Leech will explore Anglicanism's relationship with social justice.

Speaker: The Revd Dr Ken Leech, Founder of Centrepoint and formerly Director of the Runnymede Trust.

Organiser: Just Share

Tags: Lectures & Debates

12 November 2009

Debate: The threat to our civil liberties from an overmighty state has been much exaggerated

12 November 2009, 6:45-8pm

Many argue our civil liberties are slowly being eroded in the name of counter-terrorism. But with the Freedom of Information Act and the Human Rights Act are our freedoms actually more secure?

Speakers for the motion:

David Aaronovitch, Times columnist and author of Voodoo Histories: The Role of Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History.

Sir Ian Blair, Former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

Conor Gearty, Professor of Human Rights Law at the London School of Economics.

Speakers against the motion:

A.C. Grayling, Professor of philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London, and author of Liberty in the Age of Terror: A Defence of Civil Society and Enlightenment Values.

David Davis, Conservative MP and former shadow home secretary.

Shami Chakrabati, Director of Liberty.

Chair: Sue Lawley, Journalist and broadcaster.

Organiser: Intelligence Squared

Tags: Lectures & Debates

26 November 2009

Don’t look back: Radical thinkers and the arts since 1909

26 November 2009, 7:30pm

On the 100th anniversary of the Futurism Manifesto, a panel of critical thinkers assess the legacy of modernism

Speakers: Terry Eagleton, Professor of English Literature at the University of Lancaster and author of Literary Theory: An Introduction, The Illusions of Postmodernism and Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate.

Simon Critchley, Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research and author of The Book of Dead Philosophers, On Humour and Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction.

Kate Soper, philosophy teacher at the London Metropolitan University and author of To Relish the Sublime: Culture and Self-realisation in Postmodern Times and What Is Nature?: Culture, Politics and the Non-Human.

Eyal Weizman, Director of the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths College, University of London and author of Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation.

Chair: Alberto Toscano, editor of Historical Materialism, lecturer in sociology at Goldsmiths College, University of London and author of The Theatre of Production: Philosophy and Individuation Between Kant and Deleuze.

Debate: It Is Time To Lift Sanctions Against Burma

02 December 2009, 6:45-8:30pm

Should Aung San Suu Kyi change her position and call for the removal of sanctions on the junta?

Speakers for the motion:

Thant Myint-U, Author of the acclaimed history of Burma The River of Lost Footsteps.

Dr Frank Smithuis, Medical doctor who ran Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland in Burma for 15 years.

Derek Tonkin, Former ambassador to both Vietnam and Thailand, and currently chairman of Network Myanmar.

Speakers against the motion:

John Bercow, Conservative MP and former Shadow Secretary of State for International Development.

Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign.

Benedict Rogers, South-East Asia team leader for Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

Brad Adams, Executive director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division

Organiser: Intelligence Squared

Tags: Lectures & Debates

09 December 2009

NLGN/LGN conference: Stimulating Local Economies

09 December 2009, 9:30am-5pm

Devolution promises to give you more powers to influence the economic destiny of your local area, but how do you use these new powers effectively?

Speakers include: Chris Leslie, director, NLGN; Peter Rogers, Chief Executive, London Development Agency; Councillor Brian Connell, Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Family Policy Westminster City Council; Andrew Collinge, Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Local Government Information Unit

0845 056 8339

Organiser: New Local Government Network/Local Government News

Tags: Conferences & Seminars

Last New Statesman Round Table

Does getting back to work have to be a pain?

Work is good for you. It meets psychosocial needs, provides a framework for identity and social status, reduces poverty, and promotes rehabilitation and health.

With more than 2.6 million people in the UK dependent on incapacity benefits, the government is looking for ways to help people return to the workplace. The development of the new Employment and Support Allowance that is replacing Incapacity Benefit and Income Support focuses on what people can do, rather than on what they can’t.

This and the other reports in the longrunning series of New Statesmanand Pfizer joint-sponsored round table discussions are available at: www.policyforum.co.uk

2 March 2009

Previous New Statesman Round Table

The Future direction of the NHS

Sixty years ago, few could have predicted that the National Health Service would look as it does now. Indeed, its founders even predicted falling demand for its services, as major infections were brought under control.

Predicting what the NHS will start to look like over the next 60 years may be even more difficult as the pace of change will be furious and could lead us in directions that we have not even countenanced.

This supplement, sponsored jointly by the New Statesman and Pfizer, invited participants to offer their own expectations for the future direction of health services. What those who have participated in this project seem to agree on is that technology will have a radical effect on the landscape, that patients will be at the centre of their own healthcare and that services will be delivered more locally, even in patients’ own homes.