Transformations: A Festival of Ideas Past, Present and Future

A day of amazing speakers presenting their ideas on how the past, present and future of how politics effects change. .

Transformations : A Festival of Ideas 22 November combines history, voter analysis and ideology in three very different contexts for an unmissable day of ideas.

PAST 1945 and After - How The Peace Was Won and a Postwar Consensus Established

The day opens with a keynote talk by Jon Cruddas author A Century of Labour his study of Labour in government 1924-2024. Jon is a former Labour MP, served as Deputy Political Secretary to Tony Blair and was one of the key organisers of the Hope not Hate campaign that defeated the BNP in Barking 2010. Jon will provide an historical account and practical insight into how Labour established a postwar consensus that lasted until Thatcherism overthrew it in 1979.

PRESENT The End of the Two-Party System as we knew it?

04.07.24 Marked an unprecedented fracturing of a previously almost impregnable two-party system, Labour vs Conservatives. Huge gains by the Liberal Democrats, breakthroughs by Reform UK and the Green Party, independent candidates led by Jeremy Corbyn winning seats off Labour, an SNP revival in Scotland. The result was a Labour landslide in terms of seats won but a Labour government elected on just 33.7% of the vote.

With Reform UK leading the polls ever since, Zack Polanski's election as Green Party Leader plus the launch of Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana's party is the two-party system finished? Tim Bale is one of the country's leading academic experts on voting patterns and will present an exclusive preview of the findings in his co-authored book The British General Election of 2024 due out in January. Jess Garland Director of Research and Policy at the Electoral Reform Society joins Tim to examine the implications of a three, four, five, six party system for elections designed for just two.

FUTURE How to Square a Circle that is Pragmatic, Radical and Social Democratic

The Labour Party of Clement Attlee that 'won the peace' and Harold Wilson of the 'white hot technological revolution' was superceded by the 'new' of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's New Labour Government. Keir Starmer who has publicly declared "there is no such thing as Starmerism and there never will be" has in turn replaced the 'new' with the practicalities of a 'mission-driven government.'

For a very special conversation we have brought together Rafael Behr columnist on the Guardian and author Poltics A Survivor's Guide : How To Stay Engaged Without Getting Enraged with Stella Creasy MP who is a unique voice on the Labour benches, combining her feminsm with being Chair of the Labour Movement for Europe and 1990s indie music as a foundatonal political influence. Together wih Rafael and Stella sit tight for an intellectual journey towards politics as the art of the possible.

TRANSFORMATIONS What Are the Prospects for a Politics That Can Effect Change

We conclude with a rpindtable of diverse views and experiences . Bella Sankey is Labour Leader Brighton and Hove City Council, Clive Lewis Labour MP and campaigner for the renationalisation of yhe Water Boards, Lise Butler Co-Editor Renewal: A Journal of Social Democracy .Chaired by Mark Perryman who's new book is The Starmer Symptom.

Plus our Lewes Labour pop-up bookshop, Keir Hardie Café and afters at the Lewes Arms.

Saturday 22 November 10am to 5.30pm.All welcome, our only entry qualification an open mind

Tickets £10 solidarity rate / £6 standard rate. If you can afford it please pay the solidarity rate which enables us to offer these low-price standard rate tickets.

Presented by Lewes Constituency Labour Party.

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