The Fabian Review Party Conference special says there are only 200 days to go until the next election - so Labour should use them wisely. The magazine features a range of ideas for the key policies that the government should get on the statute book between now and May 2010, and Sunder Katwala outlines a strategy for how Labour should use the next 6 months. The full essay is in the Fabian Review, but here we present the key political moments for the government from Conference onwards.

200 days of power: the key moments

Day 1: 26 September 2009
Labour Party Conference begins in Brighton
Its last three conferences were dominated by the Blair swansong in 2006, and futile speculation over abortive General Elections and leadership plots in 2007 and 2008. Labour cannot afford to throw away a final chance to set out the clear public argument about what Labour wants a further term in office to do.

Day 53: 18 November 2009
The Queen's speech
As this final session of a long and bruised Parliament opens, can the Government seize the political reform agenda? The last chance to legislate for an election day referendum on electoral reform – the 'progressive' cause to which the most modernising of Tories remain allergic.

Day 72: 7 December 2009
Copenhagen climate summit
These are the most important decisions that the Government will take this year, though any domestic political credit may be limited. Ed Miliband is deepening the Government's previously pale green credentials. Carbon change legislation offers a model to entrench long-term progressive goals on other key policy issues, such as child poverty and paying for social care.

Day 156: 1 March 2010
Washington nuclear summit
Gordon Brown will put Trident on the negotiating table for a something-for-something multilateral disarmament and non-proliferation deal. The Government should also commit to the next Parliament voting again on Trident before construction contracts are placed after 2012.

Day 172: 17 March 2010 (provisional)
The Budget
The Labour history of pre-election Budgets is not a happy one, with the Gaitskell-Bevan split of 1951 lasting a generation, and Roy Jenkins' fiscal prudence in 1970 blamed by colleagues for a narrow defeat. Alistair Darling's task is more difficult than that of any post-war Chancellor, but very tight public finances make the strategic contribution of the Budget in establishing progressive priorities on tax and spend particularly important.

Day 200: 15 April 2010

Election campaign in full swing ahead of May 6th poll.