LSE and the Fabian Society: 130 years of partnership

Join us for this special event to mark the 130th anniversary of the founding of LSE, with a panel discussion exploring the historic relationship between LSE and the Fabian Society.

This will be followed by a Q&A with the audience and a reception.

Chair

Michael Cox is a Founding Director of LSE IDEAS. He was Director of LSE IDEAS between 2008 and 2019 and now holds a senior fellowship. He is also Emeritus Professor of International Relations at LSE. He was appointed to a Chair at LSE in 2002, having previously held positions in the UK at The Queen's University of Belfast and the Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth. He helped establish the Cold War Studies Centre at LSE in 2004 and later co-founded LSE IDEAS in 2008 with Arne Westad.

Speakers

Joe Dromey is General Secretary of the Fabian Society. Dromey is a British policy expert and Labour movement figure whose career spans think tanks, local government, and the voluntary and social policy sectors. He began his career as an employment adviser in Southwark, supporting long‑term unemployed people into work, before moving into policy roles focused on employment, skills, and inclusive growth. He went on to work at leading think tanks including IPPR and the Learning and Work Institute, where he served as Deputy Director and led major research programmes on skills and the future of work. Alongside this, Dromey spent seven years in local government as a councillor and cabinet member in a London borough, and later became Director of Central London Forward (also referred to as Central London First), a partnership of central London councils that supported thousands of residents into employment. In January 2025, he was appointed General Secretary of the Fabian Society, the Labour‑affiliated think tank, bringing together his experience in policy development, local governance, and labour‑market reform.

Glenys Thornton is a British Labour and Co‑operative life peer who has served in the House of Lords since 1998, with a career spanning government, public policy, and the voluntary sector. Raised in Bradford and educated at LSE, she worked in the co‑operative movement and as General Secretary of the Fabian Society from 1993-1996 before being created Baroness Thornton of Manningham. In government she served as a Lords whip and Parliamentary Under‑Secretary of State for Health (2008–2010), and in opposition she has held senior shadow portfolios including Health, Women and Equalities, and Culture, Media and Sport. Beyond Parliament, she has been a prominent advocate for social enterprise—founding and chairing what became Social Enterprise UK—and served as Chief Executive of the Young Foundation, reflecting her long‑standing focus on health, equality, and social innovation.

Michael Weatherburn is Field Leader and Academic Fellow at Imperial College, where he leads the Humanities and Social Sciences education programme. Originally trained as a historian of science and technology, Michael teaches history, technology analysis, ethics, and futures. Outside higher education, Michael champions the value of humanities in many contexts, particularly through Project Hindsight, through which he has worked with the defence, law, civil service and banking sectors. He is co-editor of forthcoming book Mind, Machine, Market. Within the Fabians, Michael is local societies convenor and national executive member, honorary secretary of the Central London Fabians, and is currently researching projects undertaken during the tenures of GDH Cole (1889-1959) and Margaret Cole (1893-1980).

Hosted by

LSE Library

The British Library of Political and Economic Science (LSE Library) was founded in 1896, a year after the London School of Economics and Political Science. It has been based in the Lionel Robbins Building since 1978 and houses many world-class collections, including The Women's Library.

The Fabian Society

Fabianism (noun) ‘the beliefs, principles, or practices of the Fabian Society’ – Collins English Dictionary

Founded in 1884, the Fabian Society is an independent left-leaning think tank and a democratic membership society with over 6,000 members. No other think tank has an ‘ism’ of its own. We influence political and public thinking and provide a space for broad and open-minded debate. We publish insight, analysis and opinion; conduct research and undertake major policy inquiries; convene conferences, speaker meetings and roundtables; and facilitate member debate and activism across the UK.

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