What happens when Manchester Young Fabians get together…

What did you do this weekend? Well the Young Fabians did something people don’t usually expect. We had an event outside of London.

I know, you’re shocked!

In fact our Manchester members said that they wanted to organize an event and we agreed to help, so a number of Exec members jumped at the chance go to Manchester for the day. Thanks goes to@sambaconsam whose brainchild it was. Thankfully the Greater Manchester Fabian Society were having their annual conference, so there was a perfect excuse to organize a social after all the serious policy debate!

It was good to see Young Fabians and young people in general being an active part of the debate. One of the main points that was hammered home at the conference was that to win a General Election Labour needs to show off its core values not just in its policy making but in its campaigning too. This is especially important given that there is going to be a whole generation of new voters who don’t see Britain today as a product Thatcher/Major but of Blair/Brown, they need a persuasive reason for picking Labour on May 6th.

In fact the need to go out and engage with voters old and new was a reoccurring theme. Dan Whittle (a former YF exec member) was compelling in setting out the lessons that need to be learned from Obama campaign, in particular the importance of engaging in dialogue with voters. (As Young Fabians who went out to campaign for Obama in 2008 discovered for themselves.)

NB- no fireworks were set off at the Young Fabian event...

Engagement definitely summed up the YF post-conference Manchester social. We were lucky enough to have a real eclectic mix of attendees: YF members, politically interested friends, students and people just curious about the Young Fabians. Again and again people spoke of the importance of finding new ways of getting people involved and staying involved. [Poor James Purnell, people regularly asked him whether he was sad to leave politics, as if being an MP was the apogee of being political and everything else immaterial!]

What was really interesting from our point of view was the number of people interested in politics but not working in politics who came to the event. Too often Westminster can seem like an insiders’ game but there are people who jobs are a million miles away from ‘Politics’ and yet have a genuine interest in the issue we talk about.

We even managed to entice a couple of floating voters to join us! Listening to them talk about what this election will mean for them reiterated the need for Labour to make a persuasive case on why the best choice at the ballot box is with them.

So with Manchester being such a success (look out for Labour conference 2010!) we were left wondering…where’s next?

Sara Ibrahim and Vincenzo Rampulla really enjoyed Saturday’s event as did Shamik Das and Preth Rao who were also there!

If you think there’s a Young Fabian event itching to happen in your area let us know! You can contact vrampulla@youngfabians.org.uk for an initial chat.

GUEST POST: Three cheers for YF Women

Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt is the MP for Leicester West and the former Secretary of State for Health. Here she writes about the launch of YF Women.

Last week I was in the Commons to hear Harriet Harman open the (now traditional) International Women’s Debate. She made the point that when our generation started campaigning for women’s rights in the 1970s, we were regarded as some kind of fringe group of politically correct lefties. Today, all those issues we campaigned on – equal pay and sex discrimination laws, paid maternity leave, childcare and flexible working, domestic and sexual violence – are part of the mainstream political agenda. And a new survey commissioned by the Equalities Unit shows that the majority of people want an end to all-male decision-making.

But the battle isn’t over. With 95 women MPs, Labour is far ahead of the other parties. We have changed the face of Parliament – and we have changed the agenda. Ann Cryer, for instance, bravely confronted the problem of ‘honour’ killings – something her male Tory predecessor probably never even knew about. But we are still a small minority of the Commons and a long way from a Parliament where every part of the community can see themselves represented.

My daughter’s generation would be horrified if anyone suggested that a married woman’s income should be taxed as if it belonged to her husband. But that’s what used to happen – and it only changed because women made it change. So three cheers for the launch of YF Women. You are in the long line of women’s struggles, from Mary Wollstonecraft onwards … and your daughters and grand-daughters will thank you for it.