LSE Festival: Beveridge 2.0

LSE Festival 2018 

The Five Giants and the Ministers who Made a Difference

Recorded on 19 February 2018

Speakers: Nicholas Timmins, Professor Sir Julian Le Grand
Chair: Minouche Shafik

Five tools and massive programmes were adopted to tackle Beveridge's "Five Giants": A policy of full employment; a National Health Service; a massively extended system of education; a new housing programme; and a much modernised system of social security. But in the 75 years since they took effect, who have been the "Five Giant" ministers in each of these areas? In this opening event of the LSE Festival: Beveridge 2.0, Nicholas Timmins and Professor Sir Julian Le Grand debate who, among the many hundreds of politicians who have held office, really made a difference between then and now.

LSE Festival 2018

Beveridge Rebooted: a basic income for every citizen?

Recorded on 20 February 2018

Speakers: Professor John Kay, Professor Philippe Van Parijs,
Dr Malcolm Torry, Polly Toynbee
Chair: Dr Enkeleida Tahiraj

Discussion of a Basic Income – an unconditional, nonwithdrawable income for every individual (and sometimes called a Citizen’s Income, a Citizen’s Basic Income, or a Universal Basic Income) – is now a mainstream global social policy debate. 

This event will bring together key figures on different sides of that debate.

LSE Festival 2018

The Challenge of Richness? Rethinking the Giant of Poverty

Recorded on 20 February 2018

Speakers: Dr Tania Burchardt, Amy Feneck, Dr Sam Friedman, Dr Luna Glucksberg
Chair: Professor Mike Savage

The economic and political power of the richest in our society has dramatically increased since 1942. 75 years on since his report, the panel will discuss whether Beveridge’s concern with poverty now needs to be extended to include a concern with richness.

LSE Festival 2018

Education and the Giant of Ignorance

Recorded on 21 February 2018

Speakers: Professor Nicholas Barr, Profesor Howard Glennerster, Professor Sandra McNally, Dr Kitty Stewart, Professor Anne West
Chair: Professor David Piachaud
Ignorance, though one of the Giants, was barely mentioned in the Beveridge Report, but addressed by the 1944 Education Act and 1963 Robbins Report. This panel identifies gaps that have emerged and ways to fill them, focussing particularly on equality of opportunity.

LSE Festival 2018

The Future of Ageing

Recorded on 22 February 2018

Speakers: Dr Olivia Casanueva, Nicci Gerrard, Professor Joanna Latimer, Professor Michael Murphy, Jane Vass
Chair: Dr Carrie Friese

With the average life expectancy increasing from 66.7 in 1942 to 81.25 in 2017, and set to continue, population ageing is poised to become one of the most significant social transformations of the 21st century. This panel discusses how ageing could come to dominate the giant issue of health and social care, and potentially all areas of the welfare state.

LSE Festival 2018

Lessons from Grenfell Tower: inequality and housing need, the Giant that still divides us

Recorded on 23 February 2018

Speakers: Professor Danny Dorling, Lynsey Hanley,
Professor Anne Power

The crucially important role of social housing has been recognised following the Grenfell Tower disaster, which also laid bare the disconnect between the ‘elites’ and the most disadvantaged in society.This event explores the link between inequality and housing, evidenced by the growing demand for low cost rented housing among those on the very lowest incomes. Unless the voices of communities and residents are heard and taken seriously, there is a risk that gaps in society will widen even further.

LSE Festival 2018

Five LSE Giants' Perspectives on Poverty

Recorded on 24 February 2018

Speakers: Dr Tania Burchardt, Professor Sir John Hills,
Professor Stephen Jenkins, Professor Lucinda Platt
Chair: Professor Paul Gregg

Taking five ‘Giants’ in the study of poverty over the last 100 years, themselves, like Beveridge, authors of influential reports, this event discusses how their thinking articulates with Beveridge’s vision and has advanced our understanding of poverty and how to tackle it.

Related blog: Beatrice Webb, William Beveridge, Poverty, and the Minority Report on The Poor Law. Read here.

LSE Festival 2018

Civil Society and the Five Giants: a global perspective

Recorded on 24 February 2018

Speakers: Dr Duncan Green, Dr Armine Ishkanian, Dr Michael McQuarrie, Ludovica Rogers
Chair: Dr Hakan Seckinelgin

The Beveridge Report's contemporary relevance can only be considered if we properly understand the ways in which civil society actors from across the globe are challenging unequal redistributive systems.  The aim of this panel is to challenge the top-down approach of defining welfare needs and well-being and to critically examine how civil society actors, ranging from social movements, NGOs, to trade unions, have campaigned for the recognition of needs and for fairer redistribution.

LSE Festival 2018

The Giants of 2020

Recorded on 24 February 2018

Speakers: Dr Tania Burchardt, Tammy Campbell, Kathleen Scanlon, Dr Janie Woodcock
Chair: Minouche Shafik

What are the key challenges of welfare states of the future? In a world of limited resources, what should our priority be? To close the LSE Festival, we will pit Beveridge's "five giants" (reimagined as the giant issues of housing and urbanisation, education and skills, health and social care, the future of work and the challenges of poverty), as well as the missing sixth Giant voted for by you, against each other in a battle to decide which is the biggest issue now and in the near future.