Event Guide | Michaelmas Term 2012
Cambridge
Fabian Society A pluralist and forward-‐looking forum for all thinkers, leaders, and pioneers
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About Cambridge Fabians
Amber Reeves founded Cambridge Fabian Society in 1905
We aim to be a pluralist forum for ‘progressive’ debate on the ideas and policies that shape society in the UK and globally, and on issues of political, social and cultural significance.
Cambridge Fabians are a political society like no other in the University The Cambridge Society was founded in 1905 and was the first student society to admit both women and men from the start. Novelist Virginia Woolf, early feminist author Amber Reeves, poet Rupert Brook and economist John Maynard Keynes were among the first members. We are unique in the lively mix of gown and town among our members – university teachers as well as students, from Anglia Ruskin and sixth-form college as well as Cambridge uni, nonacademic residents from all walks of life in the city.
We are run by students, academics and members of the local community. We have come together to foster and create a new radical tradition in Cambridge. We are especially interested in debating ideas that can make a difference. We look to speakers who think and act independently. And for us, the audiences at our events are as important as the speakers – and the audiences are full of interesting and challenging people of all ages and from a great variety of backgrounds and political persuasions. Basically, we hope that it would be fun for you to come along, and better still, to join us as members.
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Joining the Fabians We want to find out the good ideas that you may have – and we want to involve our audiences fully in debate with our speakers or among themselves, as we did in Easter 2012 with Maurice Glasman.
What issues and ideas should we be exploring? Over the next pages, we set out our initial programme and sketch out some of our ideas for events in the Lent and Easter terms in 2 013. We have several other themes and issues that w e would like to d iscuss. For example, Does the case for free schools stand up to scrutiny? W ith the economy in turmoil, can a conventional Keynesian Plan B come to the rescue-‐ or do we need a participatory Plan C? Does the UK really need a major hub airport to make its way in the modern w orld? Iain Duncan-‐Smith’s Universal Credit seems doomed to disaster – does the future lie in a more comprehensive citizens’ income scheme?
We have a w ide focus of topics such as “Can free schools actually bring about better schooling?”
Join in and tell us We want to frame an agenda for this year’s events that is truly participatory. If you have an idea for an event, a policy or idea that you would like to discuss with like-‐minded people, email us on cambridgefabians@gmail.com or just come along to an event ...
Membership
You can join Cambridge Fabians at the door of any of our events, at the Freshers’ Squash (from 8pm, 5 October, Armitage Room, Queens’ College) or by email at cambridgefabians@gmail.com. Membership for undergraduates is a cut-‐price £5 and gives you free entry into all university-‐based events.
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1.Freshers’ Squash A good time for new and old Fabians to get together and know each other, our unpretentious Squash w ill be from 20:00 hours on 5 October, in the Armitage Room, Q ueens’ College.
2.Taking Liberties: Welcome to the Surveillance State-Again? AGAIN! Ross Anderson, Professor of Security Engineering at Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory, played a major role in defeating the Labour government’s plan for a digitised surveillance state. Four years later, a new government is trying again to introduce mass monitoring of people’s emails, phone calls and web usage. He warns that the
potential for the browsing and calling habits of an entire nation to be put under surveillance are now within a government’s grasp. The event will be held on 15 October, from 20:00 at Queens’ College.
3. Pub Crawl Come and enjoy a drink in some of Cambridge’s celebrated pubs and perhaps have a chat or two about what’s going on in the world. We meet at the Anchor on the Cam at the end of Silver Street at 20:00 hours on Saturday, 13 October 2012, and move onto the Eagle, Bathhouse, Mitre and finally the Pickerel Inn.
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born lady. The event w ill be held on 9 November. The film show begins at 19:15, 9 November, in the Vivien Stewart Room, Murray Edwards.
4. Cutting Women Out Vera Baird QC gives the inaugural Amber Reeves Memorial Lecture on “The Impact of Coalition Policy on Women’s Economic Lives”. Vera Baird is former Solicitor General under the last Labour government, co-‐director of Astraea: Gender Justice and writer. Her lecture will be followed by a formal d inner at Newnham College and a panel discussion w ith prominent left-‐wing women. The Lecture w ill be held at 18:30 on 25 October at Newnham College.
6. FILM NIGHT – The Flaw, or What Happens When the Rich Get Richer Q&A with David Sington, director of The Flaw, a vivid, impassioned, amusing, iconoclastic documentary on the financial crisis with footage, analysis and animation (1 November, venue to be announced; please check website, www.cambridgefabians.org.uk).
5. FILM NIGHT – Dancing All Night My Fair Lady, the musical with Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews, based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, about Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from professor Henry Higgins so that she may pass as a well-‐
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7 7. UK’s £120 billion “tax gap” and how to plug it Tax campaigner Richard Murphy on tax avoidance, how reform could solve the UK’s deficit without imposing austerity on the most vulnerable, and how to achieve a sustainable economy. Provisionally at Clare College, 20:00 hours, 13 November. Richard was recently voted the seventh-‐most influential thinker on the left in the UK.
8. Modern Motherhood and the Illusion of Equality Rebecca Asher, author of Shattered, will discuss reforms that would enable woman to combine having a family and a working life. In Shattered, she argues that w hen women have children, the time machine of motherhood transports them back to the 1950s. She joins us to d escribe the inequalities that
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still exist between men and w omen and makes proposals for a more fulfilling family life (19:30, 19 November, Queens’ College).
9.Fabian Formal Dinner A chance to meet and socialise w ith other Fabians whilst sampling some lovely Murray Edwards formal food. Date TBC 20:00 hours, 20 or 27th November, limited spaces. To attend email il241@cam.ac.uk by 10 November.
10. The Liberal Democract Dilemma – Stick or Twist? Lord (Matthew) Oakeshott, the outspoken former Lib Dem Treasury Spokesman, ‘on post-‐coalition progressive politics’ (23 November, 19:30 at the Friends Meeting House, Jesus Lane). In August, Lord Oakeshott suggested that the Lib Dems should consider ousting Nick Clegg as their leader ahead of the next general election.
Other Upcoming Events STOP PRESS
Amidst potential speakers for Lent term are:
Professor Kern Alexander, financial expert at Cambridge. Making the banks work for the nation
David Beetham, author of Unelected Oligarchy. Corporate domination over government and the instruments that business uses to exercise its power and influence
David Nutt, sacked government adviser on drug policy. Talks commonsense on future policy
Owen Jones, author of Chavs. UK’s divided society Neal Lawson, from Compass. How to build a progressive future Tom Watson MP, scourge of the Murdochs. On the post-‐Leveson media Fiona Millar, campaigner for state schools. On the government’s push for academy and free schools
JOIN IN AND TELL US
We want to frame an agenda for this year’s events and themes that is truly participatory. You can help us make it so. If you have an idea for an e vent, or a policy area or idea that you would like to discuss with other like-‐minded people, email us on cambridgefabians@gmail.com, o r just come along to an event.
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2012 Cambridge Fabian Society Š www.cambridgefabians.org.uk cambridgefabians@gmail.com Tel: (+44) (0) 07812072928 173 Shelford Road, Trumpington Cambridge CB2 9ND