This is the first edition of the Review Forum. It is taking place little more than a year after the birth of the «Social Policy Review», and honours the commitment we made when the journal was still in the planning stage to examine periodically the themes of the welfare state as an essential part of our activity. These regular meetings are intended both as a driving force of our «institutional» work, and as a way of verifying its usefulness - through the printed word, so to speak. l'm not going to use this introduction to dwell on what the Review has achieved so far. Instead I want to take two subjects that are prior both to the journal as such and to the two-day forum, referring in particular to the choices (and accidents) that have contributed to giving the Review the form you are familiar with, which is in no way limited to its origins in the union movement but unites various abilities, backgrounds and levels of experience; and then briefly illustrating the structure of this Forum 2005 - the two days of seminars and panels that is starting today.