Sunday 18 January 2009

The fairness wrap

A selection of reports and reaction to the Fabian conference:

The Independent on Sunday has a news feature on the next feminism conference debate.

The BBC reports on Ed Miliband's analysis of the "profound crisis" for the idea of unregulated markets, while his charge that the crisis "was not caused by government but by a lack of government" is reported in the Sunday Telegraph, while The People has a punchy tabloid report on a similar theme.

Politics.co.uk notes how the challenges from the floor put Ed Miliband on the defensive over Heathrow, while the Times website's Green Central blog has more of the Miliband defence of the government's climate strategy.

Iain Martin of The Telegraph finds in Ed Miliband's acceptance of my call to open up the manifesto process manouvering for future leadership advantage. Such cynicism!

There are several reports of the panel on 'fairness in a recession' with Peter Mandelson. The Sunday Express notes his rejection of calls to bail out the car industry. Mandelson also spoke about diversifying away from a dependence on financial services, warned against a politics of resentment on tax, but argued that fairness and equality were fundamental values for Labour.

Politics.co.uk reports on TUC boss Brendan Barber's challenge to Mandelson over regulation, while the TUC has more of Barber's comments on fair taxation. James Forsyth of The Spectator also took part in the panel and, noting Mandelson's argument that government will need to do more called for "more time, more ingenuity and possibly some further trial", rather doubts the electorate will have much patience.

Andrew Sparrow, who blogged all day for the Guardian, was impressed by Ed Miliband. Tom Miller reported for LabourList, including a liveblog capturing some of the highly enjoyable madness of our 'dragons den' final plenary - clips of which are now available on Next Left.

Reve Lavanchy, a Tribune reporter who has his own blog too, has spotted a Treasury Minister with a soft spot for Lenin. Its a creative angle, but slightly less exciting than it sounds. He reports Angela Eagle as noting that even Lenin realised that it wasn't possible to abolish markets entirely. One would hardly have to be a Bolshevik to make that point.

Finally, fairness doesn't happen by chance - and neither did the conference. A very big thank you to all of my colleagues - Fatima Hassan, who ran the event brilliantly; events director Jemima Olchawski and her team, media supremo Rachael Jolley for making this our most webbed up conference, and all of the Fabian staff, interns and stewards for their work in making the event possible.

No comments: