Thursday 3 February 2011

Europe: in or out? Join Douglas Alexander, Shirley Williams and Nigel Farage to find out

Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander will open a Fabian conference on the future of Britain's role in the European Union, as we challenge both pro-Europeans and Eurosceptics from across the British political spectrum to make their case, and to interrogate rival visions of Britain's future relationships in Europe at the event on Saturday 19th February Britain and Europe: In, out or Somewhere in between?

LibDem peer Shirley Williams, also a former Fabian Chair and General Secretary, will offer her perspective on the politics of Britain and Europe, from the 1975 referendum to the present day, and what we might learn about the future debate today.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage will take part in a session to discuss The sceptic's vision: what would happen if we got out? with Linda McAvan MEP and pollster Ben Shimshon and others, while Claude Moraes MEP, Alexandra Pardal of the Foreign Policy Centre and David Nichols of Amnesty International will join Fabian General Secretary Sunder Katwala in an After the Crisis panel to look at the economic and political challenges facing EU members.

Our Question Time panel will include Mark Reckless, a Conservative MP who thinks Britain would be better off out, Ute Michel of the Green Party and Labour's Shadow Europe Minister Wayne David, chaired by Prospect's David Goodhart.

Tickets are £10 and available from the Fabian website, where you will also find details of more speakers as the line-up is finalised.

The Fabian conference is kindly supported by the European Commission (after a competitive bidding process) and hosted by Amnesty International UK. It is held in association with the Young Fabians, and our media partners The Independent and E!Sharp magazine.

2 comments:

Newmania said...

Mark Reckless ?

Seriously ?

Sunder Katwala said...

Glad he has agreed to speak. Why not?