It's Bloody Complicated - A Compass Podcast

The involvement of young people in politics has always been a contentious issue - are they ready? do they know enough? are we educating them properly? Often, young people's voices are erased from the conversation by those who think they know better. Here, our Media and Communications Officer Sam Mandi-Ghomi sits down with the Co-Presidents of Warwick Think Tank, a student society at the University of Warwick, to discuss youth engagement in politics. Support the show Enjoyed the podcast and wa...

Andy Burnham's elevation to the office of Prime Minister came thick and fast on the back of a Labour Party desperate not to waste its first chance in government in 15 years. The promise, in order to not waste it, is Burnham's pledge to 'end 40 years of neoliberalism'. But what actually is that and how can it be done? Joining Compass Director Neal Lawson to figure that out is Clive Lewis (Member of Parliament for Norwich South), Sue Goss (coach, strategic advisor and facilitator to leadership ...

This week we're asking: Can Burnham Win on Water? With public anger over sewage, rising bills and failing infrastructure showing no sign of going away, the debate over who owns our water has moved from the margins to the mainstream. This week Lena was joined by two expert guests to help us navigate the topic: Professor Ewan McGaughey, is a legal scholar at Kings College London and expert on public ownership. Cat Hobbs is founder and director of leading campaign group We Own It. ...

The Scott Trust is the parent company that owns The Guardian Media Group. In 2023, the Trust launched their ‘Legacies of Enslavement Programme’, formed to acknowledge that the founder of the Manchester Guardian, John Edward Taylor, and his backers profited from transatlantic enslavement through their business interests in cotton and sugar. Among them was Sir George Philips, co-owner of the Success plantation in Hanover, Jamaica. Links were also identified between Taylor’s family business and ...

10 years on from the vote to leave the European Union, Lena is joined by Stella Creasy MP to discuss the impact of that decision, and what the future holds for our relationship with Europe. Plus: the staff team react to the resignation of Keir Starmer as Prime Minister, and consider what a Burnham premiership could mean for progressives. Support the show Enjoyed the podcast and want to be a live audience member at our next episode? Want to have the chance in raising questions to the panelist?...

It’s probably not being dramatic to suggest that the 2026 Makerfield by-election could go down as the most influential Westminster by-election of all time. As Labour’s woes in government continue, sitting 8 points behind Reform in the polls, their candidate Andy Burnham made his intentions clear in intending to run to be the next leader (and Prime Minister). With his commitment to changing the political culture in the country, including electoral reform and a return to public ownership of wat...

Perhaps the foremost crisis of the omnicrisis that is seeming to plague British politics these days is the cost of living. With inflation through the roof over the past decade due to a series of seismic economic shocks – some self-inflicted, most unforeseen – and wages stagnant, what do we do? At Compass, we pride ourselves on providing progressive solutions to all issues. But the economy remains the one area in which progressives are consistently seen as outliers, whose ideas are not only po...

This month, something happened in British politics that would normally sound completely impossible. A Labour mayor appointed a Green council leader as her deputy. Not after a coalition deal, or an election without a clear winner, or because somebody lost a bet, but because they decided they might be able to govern better together than apart. In this episode, Lena talks to West of England Mayor Helen Goodwin and her Deputy Mayor Tony Dyer about how pluralism is working for them in practice.&n...

Neal Lawson is joined by Uffe Elbæk, Danish politician, former Minister of Culture, founder of The Alternative political party, and long-time friend of Compass. They discuss Uffe's new book Doubt, Hope, Action which is out now. Podcast listeners get 10% Off & free UK shipping using code: DHA-COMPASS10 https://5mbooks.com/product/doubt-hope-action Valid til 30 June 2026 Support the show Enjoyed the podcast and want to be a live audience member at our next episode? Want to have the ch...

At this pivotal moment for British politics, Compass has been very proud to release ‘What is the Soft Left?‘. Our newest publication – which you can read here – dives into the history of the soft left within the Labour Party. It charts the grouping’s course from the 1980s divide to the present day emergence of Mainstream and showcases how the soft left is now moving from kingmaker to royalty within the party. But, in a turbulent week, what is that soft left position and what part does it actu...

The 2026 Local Elections have been some of the most seismic in British history. Across England the public took their chance to give Labour a kicking, with Reform winning big and the Greens bringing about their best-ever election night. Add to this Wales, where Labour dropped to the third-largest party for the first time ever, and the SNP’s anticipated plurality in Scotland, and May 8th now look sradically different at the local level than the previous day. To dissect what’s happened ove...

The 2026 Local Elections are set to be the most seismic the country has faced in a generation. Across all of Britain the old order is being thrown out of the window and the brave new world of six-party fragmentation will be laid bare for all to witness. This will, seemingly, come at the expense of the Labour Party, whose time in government hasn’t been all too well recieved as of yet. In Wales, Plaid Cymru and Reform look set to displace Labour as the biggest parties in the Senedd. The SNP loo...

On May 7th 2026, the Scottish people go to the polls to elect a new Scottish Parliament. In and amongst what look like seismic losses for the Labour Government across the English local elections and in the Welsh Senedd, Scotland stands out: it had its reckoning with the Labour Party back in 2011. If the polls are to be believed then the SNP look set to retain their place as the biggest party in Holyrood, but with a diminished seat number as Reform, the Greens and the Lib Dems look to capitali...

Aneurin Bevan called it “quite the most ambitious adventure in the care of national health that any country has seen”. Nigel Lawson called it “the closest thing the English have to a religion.” And it’s been called by our guest tonight “an expression of what’s best in our society”. We are, of course, talking about the NHS. After another report about just how much the staff and the patients they treated endured during the Covid-19 pandemic, our Deputy Director Lena Swedlow was joined by ...

The world that Compass has long predicted is now becoming self-evident: Britain no longer lives in its two-party system. The Conservative-Labour duality that has dominated British politics since the 20th Century is no longer a given. Our politics has fragmented. Five parties are now regularly polling in double figures. Reform have led every poll since May 2025, Labour are sitting at half of their 2024 vote share in under two years, the Tories sit in the wilderness. Amongst all of this, the Gr...

In this bonus episode, Neal and Lena are joined by the political commentators Megan Kenyan and Peter Kellner to dissect the result of this week's by-election in Gorton & Denton. Support the show Enjoyed the podcast and want to be a live audience member at our next episode? Want to have the chance in raising questions to the panelist? Support our work and be a part of the Compass community. Become a member! You can find us on Twitter at @CompassOffice.

One of Compass’ evergreen campaigns is that for proportional representation. Doing away with the archaic first-past-the-post voting system is something self-evident to the new politics we here at Compass are trying to build. Ensuring cross-party collaboration and the best of all progressive ideas will be key to a democratic system that works in the people’s best interest going forward. But there’s a darker side to FPTP too: how it contributes to inequality. This little-researched area of the ...

‘We’re living through unprecedented times’ seems to be the slogan of the past decade now, which is a grim reality. But, when facing the international space, it’s difficult to argue. The rampant chaos that has been seen through international relations since Brexit and Donald Trump’s first election as US President seems to be reaching an apex. Between the recent incursion into Venezuela, overtures towards Greenland and Iran – the former directly calling into question the 80-year sanctity of NAT...

This EMERGENCY episode of It's Bloody Complicated was deemed necessary due to the rapidly moving events of the past weekend. Recorded on Monday 9th February 2026, the day after Morgan McSweeney resigned as the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff, and the same day that Tim Allen resigned as the PM's Director of Communications - before the Cabinet gave Starmer full-throated support online - there is a sincere feeling that this is far beyond the beginning of the end of this Government. To discuss wh...

Even for the most stalwart party member, the meteoric rise of popularity for the Green Party since the 2024 General Election would have caught them off guard. After a record-setting performance at the election – 6.8% vote share and four returned MPs – there were questions of how they could ensure they went from strength-to-strength. As it turned out, this came in the form of a new leadership team. In September 2025, Zack Polanski was elected leader of the Green Party, with Rachel Millward and...

The elections happening for the Welsh Senedd in 2026 are held at the same time as the English local elections and the vote for the Scottish Parliament – but there’s an argument to be made that they’re by far the most important ones happening on May 7th. Since it was first elected in 1999, Labour have been the story of Wales. They have held a plurality of seats and have formed all Welsh Governments, be that majority, minority or coalition. They’ve never received less than 29.6% of the vote in ...

The New Year is, understandably, a time for both self-reflection and for figuring out the future. With January comes confronting what you might want to happen in your life. But in politics, what you want to happen and what you think is going to happen can be two very separate things. With some pivotal local elections coming in May, and both the Welsh Senedd and Scottish Parliament facing significant changes in composition, we’re convening some voices to have a go at predicting just what is go...

The launch of Mainstream, the election of Zack Polanski as Green Party leader, Angela Rayner’s resignation and Peter Mandelson’s sacking – just some of the headline events of another chaotic year in British politics. 2025 may not have had a General Election like last year, but the first full year of a Labour government since 2009 was never going to be dull. At this time of year it’s good to take stock of just what happened so that we can all launch into making 2026 something very special. On ...

Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana's new political party - now officially named Your Party - had its founding conference at the end of November. In fashion that is seemingly becoming typical with the organisation, the conference wasn't without its difficulties, with arguments over access, disputes over positioning and Sultana ending up boycotting the first day. But the new leftist party are officially founded and will be a force in British politics going forward. So what is going on inside the f...

The 2025 Budget was set up to be the most important since at least the Truss-Kwarteng mega-failure of 2022. It’s Labour’s first attempt to set a full, multi-year spanning agenda since 2007. In the build-up to it every possible financial lever has been floated as on the table: income tax rises, changes to national insurance and VAT, windfall taxes on banks or the gambling industry, to name a few. What the Chancellor eventually decides to do will have serious ramifications for years to come. So...

Jamie Driscoll was the Mayor of the North of Tyne between 2019-2024 and a true champion of progressive ideas throughout his political career. In 2023, he was denied the ability to run as Labour’s candidate for the North East Mayoral Election by the Labour NEC – an unprecedented decision for an incumbent Mayor and an inherently political decision. This moment has become one of the key indicators of the direction the Labour Party has moved under the leadership of Sir Keir Starmer. Since then, J...

In the second instalment in this miniseries, Compass Director Neal Lawson sits down to chat to long-time Compass intellectual contributors - and hosts of their own podcast Culture, Power and Politics - Professor Jeremy Gilbert and Professor Alan Finlayson. The three discuss the history of factions within the Labour Party, from its inception through the New Labour era and now to the Starmer-McSweeney hyperfaction, and the consequences that has both for the party and for democracy in Brit...

Paul Holden's new book, 'The Fraud', has made waves since its publication last month as it lays bare the intrigues, stratagems, and deceits that made Keir Starmer Leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister. Paul Holden shows how Starmer has been the frontman for a ruthless, right-wing political project headed by Morgan McSweeney, now chief of staff in Number 10 and arguably the most powerful man in Britain. McSweeney’s clique often employed dirty tricks to undermine the left-wing Labour le...

Named one of The Guardian and The Telegraph’s Top 50 Comedians of the 21st Century, Nish Kumar has come to stand out from the stand-up crowd. With his politically-charged brand of funny, he has sought out and established his own space in the entertainment scene. As co-host of Pod Save the UK, Nish melds comedy with commentary to bring light and resolution to the ever-growing sense of bleakness in British politics (including on an episode with Compass Director, Neal Lawson, back in 2023). As h...

Where and how we live has always been political – but with the right to buy, the explosion of the private-rented sector, and ever-increasingly demand for affordable, social, and council housing, it’s rarely felt this existential. With the Renters’ Rights Bill currently making its way through Parliament, the mammoth English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill set to extend planning powers to new mayors and councils, and the budget expected on 26th November, it feels like a timely moment ...

The Labour Government find themselves in a difficult moment. On the eve of their 2025 Conference, they are faced with the knowledge that their ‘decade of national renewal’ currently seems stuck in first gear. A series of events have rocked public confidence in the government, including the resignation of Angela Rayner from her government roles and role as Deputy Leader of the party, the sacking of Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador, and the launch of the new network, ‘Mainstream’. With the autu...

It's clear that this Labour Government are in a bit of trouble. Already floundering in the polls off the back of a year in which their promise of 'change' in 2024 hasn't lived up to expectations, they have now been rocked by a series of scandals and resignations - Angela Rayner, Peter Mandelson, Paul Ovenden - that are undermining Sir Keir Starmer's Premiership. With a Deputy Leadership contest now being seen as an internal referendum on the leadership, the 2025 Party Conference is set to be ...

Investigative journalist, author, commentator and activist – George Monbiot has come to define the intellectual left in many of his own ways over the past three decades. From the rights of indigenous peoples the world over to climate activism to opposition to the Iraq War to now speaking out on the Government’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action, George has taken a stand where many others wouldn’t tread. And with the political moment being what it is, with tremendous uncertainty both home...

Zack Polanski’s victory in the Green Party leadership election has hailed in a a new political moment and couldn’t have arrived at a more turbulent time. With Reform surging in the polls, the Labour government struggling to gain any traction, the Conservatives fighting for relevance and the Liberal Democrats looking to capitalise in their heartlands, the Greens find themselves balancing their own member’s interests between dynamic leftism and seat-winning localism. But with Polanski defeating...

The launch of a new left party by Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn is all anyone is talking about in the political world right now. An out-and-out left-wing party hasn't existed in Britain for quite some time, let alone seen any Parliamentary success, and for all of us in the progressive space its potential success will be fascinating to watch. But how could it succeed? What are the implications? To discuss this, Compass Director Neal Lawson sat down with campaigner Laura Parker, Professor Ala...

Under Mark Drakeford’s leadership, Labour in Wales bucked the party’s national trend in 2021, winning a working majority of 30 seats in the Senedd, worked with Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats, and pushed genuinely innovative, exciting, unapologetically progressive policy: the UK’s first a universal basic income (UBI) trial, a Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, changing the voting system to a form of Proportional Representation, and taking Welsh rail services back into public han...

In this special BONUS episode of It's Bloody Complicated, Compass Director Neal Lawson is joined by John McTernan - former Director of Political Operations to Tony Blair - and Compass Board Member, Baroness Ruth Lister. Following the extraordinary action by the Labour Party to suspend the whip from four MPs last week - Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman, Chris Hinchliff and Rachael Maskell - for alleged 'repeated breaches of party discipline', the question had to be asked: where do we go from...

Caroline Lucas spent 10 years at the helm of the Green Party between 2003-2006, 2007-2012 and 2016-2018, as well as being the party’s first and only solely-elected MP for 14 years between 2010-2024. In that time, she became the face of green politics and one of the foremost voices for progressive politics in the country, laying the groundwork for the emerging climate discussion and leading the way in advocating against the ongoing climate catastrophe. In that time the Green Party went from r...

From their leader’s bungee-jumping stunts, their best general election result ever, and leading the fight for social care, the Lib Dems have had a good year. But in the political narrative, their place as the ‘third party’ outside the Labour-Tory duopoly has been threatened by Reform UK’s ascendancy. Coupled with their perennial struggle to be a party that fights for a progressive vision of the future while representing some of the most affluent, small-C constituencies across the country, the...

Hilary Cottam is a world-renowned author, innovator and change maker across a whole range of policy profiles. Between international humanitarianism, education policy, social architecture, welfare and prison reform – amongst many other things – she has been a social innovator committed to getting things done for nearly 40 years. Her latest book, The Work We Need, presents a radical vision of what the future of work in this world can be. She identifies work as a cultural force at the heart of g...

The government’s child poverty taskforce is set to release its findings imminently. But with a country that needs widespread reform at-large, what are the necessary steps in tackling child poverty? A new report by Baroness Ruth Lister, and published by Compass, argues for a radical set of new policies ranging from direct provisions, social welfare and wider societal attitudes towards how we view childhood to alleviate the epidemic of child poverty in this country. We were joined by Baroness ...

On this episode of It’s Bloody Complicated, listeners will get a sneak peek of the debate and discussion set to take place at Compass’ upcoming national conference, CHANGE: HOW? A Decade of Radical Renewal, on Saturday 31st May. Last summer, Labour was returned to government promising to deliver ‘a decade of national renewal’. Whilst some positive things have happened since then – especially on GB Energy and returning the railways to public ownership – decisions on oil and gas licenses, cuts ...

Since its launch in 1992 Renewal: A Journal of Social Democracy has consistently advanced and examined the conditions for a radical and emancipatory vision of social democracy. And now, with its historic ties to Compass Director Neal Lawson and a background of offering new policies, paradigms and strategies to an international readership of citizens, activists and politicians, Compass is delighted that it will be publishing Renewal starting from the next issue at the end of April. Last summer...

In a recent substack post, John Harris said that ‘the itch to write’ his new book Maybe I’m Amazed ‘arrived not long after the General Election of 2019’: I’d chewed over writing a book about the turns Britain had taken since the Brexit referendum three years before, but I had the feeling that a)The story had got too grim and relentless to return to with the dedication that a book would need, and b)In any case, the whole saga showed no sign of coming to any kind of conclusion (it still hasn’t)...

On this episode of It’s Bloody Complicated, ahead of the upcoming spring statement from the Treasury, we asked the perennial question: how could we pay for it? A lot of our vision of a good society rests on changing the narrative around fiscal rules and economic constraints, perhaps raising more money for the state, but certainly diverting the money we do have to more progressive ends. So where can that money come from and how can we effectively spend the money we do have? To discuss this cru...

We were delighted to be joined by Will McCallum, co-executive director of Greenpeace and Tessa Khan, executive director of Uplift. Last year was the first calendar year to globally reach more than 1.5°C of warming above pre-industrial levels. It was also the first year that renewables surpassed fossil fuels in the UK electricity mix. With a new Labour government, the advent of GB energy, a National Wealth Fund, it has, in some senses, been a momentously positive time for climate news. However...

It’s been said that German elections are usually dull affairs. Well, whether that’s been true in the past, it’s certainly not true this time – it’s bloody complicated. The result Sunday 23rd, brought success for the CDU/CSU conservatives, with 28.6% of the votes and 208 seats, followed by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) who won 20.8% and 151 seats. The partners who make up the current red-green-yellow “traffic light” government all suffered losses – the SPD Social Democrats lost o...

In July 2024 the New Popular Front (NFP), a coalition of left-wing parties, came out on top in a snap general election in France, winning 193 seats in the National Assembly. The centrist bloc supporting President Emmanuel Macron got 166 seats, the far-right National Rally (RN) 142, and the center-right Republicans forty-seven. A progressive alliance prevented Marine Le Pen far-right taking power in France. To help us pick through a complicated year for progressives in Frances, and what comes ...

Britain’s infrastructure is struggling. We’ve seen stories of concrete falling down in schools, unreliable public transport, and an NHS at breaking point after chronic neglect and the Covid-19 pandemic. But little has captured people’s attention and activism like the damage and disrepair of our sewage system and the disastrous decisions of the companies that own our water. Currently we’re dealing with sewage in the rivers, rising bills, poorly managed companies that are increasingly “uninvest...

For our first podcast of 2025, Neal and Lena were be joined by Rob Ford to discuss electoral chaos, First Past the Post and political instability, his recent work, and our recent publication Thin Ice. Rob Ford is a Professor of Political Science, and author of “Brexitland”, “The British General Election of 2019” and “Sex, Lies and Politics”. Support the show Enjoyed the podcast and want to be a live audience member at our next episode? Want to have the chance in raising questions to the panel...

Support the show Enjoyed the podcast and want to be a live audience member at our next episode? Want to have the chance in raising questions to the panelist? Support our work and be a part of the Compass community. Become a member! You can find us on Twitter at @CompassOffice.

Political commentator, journalist, and author Anushka Asthana joined us to break down the political year that was, and look ahead to 2025. Support the show Enjoyed the podcast and want to be a live audience member at our next episode? Want to have the chance in raising questions to the panelist? Support our work and be a part of the Compass community. Become a member! You can find us on Twitter at @CompassOffice.

Ellie Chowns has been involved with politics for less than a decade. Yet, in that time has represented the West Midlands in the European Parliament, led the Green Group on the Tory-controlled Herefordshire Council, and in 2024 was elected as a Green MP for North Herefordshire, the first non-Conservative Member of Parliament for the area since 1906. We were excited to welcome her onto the Compass podcast to hear about her journey, her first few months in Westminster, the Greens’ record breakin...

Last week, Donald Trump won a historic second term as US president. This victory in the face of the chaos, the lies and the courts should be a wake up call for progressives across the world. So what do progressives need to do to turn the dread we all feel at this result into something meaningful? To digest, dissect and discuss the results we’re joined by: Sky Gallegos, a Founding Partner at Hilltop Public Solutions, a political consulting firm based in DC that manages high-stakes, high-...

The UK is remarkably unequal. The richest 1% of Britons hold more wealth than 70 % of us combined. Wealth inequality is gendered, racialised, and extremely regional. Men have an average private pension wealth of £83,879 more than women, a gap of 90%. People in the black Caribbean, Bangladeshi and black African ethnic groups have more net debt (31%, 38% and 44% respectively) than individuals in the Indian ethnic group and the white British and Pakistani ethnic groups (11% and around 15% respec...

In his recent book, Failed State: Why Nothing Works and How We Fix It, Sam Freedman lays out why people matter, but systems matter more. Having a run of incompetent, corrupt leaders is a problem. But our problems run deeper – and we will get nowhere until we fix our systems. It’s not enough to change who sits in Westminster and Whitehall – we have change the whole system. The change we need is no small feat – and it’s bloody complicated. But unless our systems and politicians give away power,...

The 2024 general election result brought a welcome relief to British politics after 14 wasted years of Tory misrule. At last, some better people and ideas are at the helm. But, just a few months in, the challenges facing this new government are already beginning to pile up. Labour will need to be bold if it has any hope of rebuilding our crumbling public services, restoring trust in our democracy and tackling the climate crisis. To reflect on these challenges as Labour held its first conferen...

The 2024 general election result brings a welcome relief to UK politics. But now, we find ourselves at a crossroads: things are either going to get very much worse or very much better. There is no middle way. Neither the state, nor business, nor civil society can go it alone and bring about a better world – we have to do it together. That means having a clear, shared vision of what this positive future might look like. Compass’ New Settlement project seeks to establish the guiding principles ...

Support the show Enjoyed the podcast and want to be a live audience member at our next episode? Want to have the chance in raising questions to the panelist? Support our work and be a part of the Compass community. Become a member! You can find us on Twitter at @CompassOffice.

On the 4th July people across the country went to the polls for a long overdue, and bloody complicated, General Election. Labour ended up with a mammoth majority and the Tories were left with just 121 seats. But beyond the headline figures, there was a huge amount going on beneath the surface. This election produced one of the most disproportionate results we have ever seen, revealing a European-style multi-party politics struggling to break free from the straitjacket of our two-party system....

With Labour far ahead in the polls our attention turns to where the opposition from the Left will come from. We need to look no further than Nigel Farage and Reform UK – who could use the parliamentary base of Clacton to enact a shift to national populism of the kind we are now seeing in Italy, France and Germany. To discuss the very real threat of the Right we were joined on the podcast by one of the authors of a brand new publication The Little Black Book of the Populist Right: What it is, ...

On this special general Election issue of Its Bloody Complicated we are delighted to be joined by Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty. We’ve admired Aditya’s writing and reporting for years and have been keen to get him on. Aditya doesn’t just critique what’s wrong in terms of the economy, society and politics – he actively goes out and finds places and examples where things are being done better – finding places for hope. But it was his article last week on the threat poised by Nig...

On Tuesday, 14th May we were joined by Ben Walker and Alison Lowe to analyse the campaigns and the results of the 2024 local elections, and reflect where we are coming up to a general election. Ben Walker is a senior data journalist at the New Statesman and writes extensively about elections and UK public opinion. He is the co-founder of poll aggregator Britain Elects, and since 2023 is also a Cheshire West and Chester Councillor. Alison Lowe OBE is the West Yorkshire Deputy Mayor for Policin...

Over the last few years, the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to transform our society has become increasingly apparent. This comes with incredible opportunities – AI could help deepen our democracy and enable our politics to get closer to citizens to represent them more effectively – but is also fraught with risk. How can we take advantage of these opportunities while preventing AI from further destabilising our democracy with deepfakes and disinformation? To discuss all of this and...

It was a watershed moment in October 2022 when the Labour Party conference overwhelmingly voted to include in its manifesto a commitment to change the voting system to proportional representation after the next election. Just the year before, despite mass support in the membership, the motion failed because the affiliated Trade Unions opposed the motion. To discuss this historic shift, what the changing the voting systems means to the trade union movement, and where next, we’re excited to be ...

Support for Scottish independence is still strong but the SNP are clearly in a weaker position, institutionally, reputationally, and ideologically. They have become mired in scandal, their hegemonic grip on politics north of the border looks to be loosening, and yet the constitutional questions about who governs Scotland and how remain relevant and live. Labour’s position has clearly strengthened – albeit without ever addressing key questions of democratic renewal and constitutional change. W...

Citizens’ assemblies represent an alternative way of doing politics: a randomly selected group of citizens are convened to reason collectively, to consider evidence and to have discussions which should arrive at complex, nuanced decisions for the long term. As such, they’ve been called ‘democracy under good conditions’. They have been credited with tackling some of the toughest political and ethical questions – such as abortion, AI, hate crime and nuclear power –generating balanced and often ...

First Past the Post might block smaller parties from gaining representation at Westminster, but on this episode of It’s Bloody Complicated, we discussed how in spite of this they can still wield substantial influence and contribute meaningfully to our national political discourse. We were joined by: Gina Miller, True and Fair PartyCatherine Mayer, Women’s Equality Party Support the show Enjoyed the podcast and want to be a live audience member at our next episode? Want to have the chance in ...

Progressives face a dilemma; we want a change of government but know the country needs a big change of direction. In an essay published for the journal Renewal, Neal has set out the case for what he calls a Radical Pragmatic Left, i.e., a Left that recognises both the need to reconnect with voters and defeat the Tories but critically has a plan to transform the country within the context of the Poly crisis world we face. The need for such a Left is made more urgent by the looming threat of th...

In 2017, South West Surrey Compass organised and slashed Jeremy Hunt’s majority taking it from the 7th safest Tory-held seat to the 121st. In 2019, they took control of a local council. In 2023, they sued the government. In the beginning of a an election year, we brought old Compass friends Paul Follows and Steve Williams onto It’s Bloody Complicated to talk about their journey, lessons, and plans for cooperation in South West Surrey. For the past 8 years, they have been a leading light for p...

The mainstream press in Britain has been in a state of managed decline for much of the 21st century. Once massive news outlets have suffered massive staff reductions as they have struggled to adapt to a digital age. But over the last few years, green shoots of growth have emerged. From the national level with publications like Byline Times and Novara Media to the regional level with the Manchester Mill, Sheffield Tribune, Bristol Cable and more, new media outlets are daring to do things diffe...

As another year comes to a close, we were excited to welcome Ayesha Hazarika and Andrew Grice to It’s Bloody Complicated to round up another year in politics. Ayesha Hazarika is a broadcaster, journalist and political commentator, and former political adviser to senior Labour Party politicians.Andrew Grice is a political columnist for The Independent, having been its political editor from 1998 to 2015. He has worked in Westminster since 1982.2023 was a year of strikes and protests, record-bre...

According to the Right to Roam campaign, 92% of the UK’s countryside and 97% of its rivers are not available to the vast majority of the public. For Episode 96 of It’s Bloody Complicated, we’ll be discussing land ownership and the Commons, and why democratising and sharing control of our land, rivers and seas could slash inequality and help calm political instability in this country. We were joined by : Guy Standing, a leading thinker and writer on this issue. In his book Plunder of the Commo...

Climate chaos is looming. The question of how to protect and preserve our planet for future generations is a conversation that’s not just timely, but absolutely essential. That’s why, for Episode 95 of It’s Bloody Complicated, we were joined by Areeba Hamid, co-Director of Greenpeace. When she took up the role last October, Areeba became the first woman of colour and first migrant to lead Greenpeace and, along with Will McCallum, the first to share the top job. From grassroots activism to glo...

After Labour came to power in 1997, Clare Short served as the UK’s first cabinet-level Secretary of State for International Development, a post she would go on to hold for six years. In this role, she secured large increases in the British government’s overseas aid budget and persuaded then-chancellor Gordon Brown to write off the debts to Britain of Africa’s poorest countries. A famously independent-minded politician, she stood down from her role over the Iraq war in 2003 and later resigned ...

Labour faces a huge challenge at the next election: first to win power, then to use it to change our country for the better. The polls suggest it will clear the first hurdle, but what of the second? The challenges our county faces have never been greater. We need a bold and reforming progressive government to rebuild our crumbling public services, restore trust in our democracy and tackle the climate crisis head-on. We brought you a live episode of It’s Bloody Complicated from Labour Conferen...

In 1993, New Zealanders voted to replace First Past the Post with a proportional voting system. 30 years on, we discussed how this all-important electoral overhaul came about with two special guests: Max Rashbrooke, a New Zealand based writer on democracy and economic inequalityAnd Danna Glendining, a New Zealand Green Party activist and MMP advocateWe discussed the challenges and difficulties of changing the voting system, how a transition to PR has transformed politics in New Zealand and wh...

On this episode, we brought together an expert panel to discuss the threat of the far-right to democracy and how progressives are fighting for change. Nick Lowles, Hope Not Hate chief executiveHannah Rose, Hate and Extremism Analyst at the Institute for Strategic DialogueAnd Luke Cooper, author of Authoritarian Contagion: The Global Threat to Democracy.With the far right marching steadily into the mainstream in Europe and elsewhere, the endurance of progressive forces and their capacity to wi...

The average human lifespan is absurdly, insultingly brief. If you live to be 80, you’ll have had about 4,000 weeks. But, to Oliver Burkeman, that’s no reason for despair. Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals was a smash hit from author and journalist Oliver Burkeman. On 25th July, he’ll join us on It’s Bloody Complicated to talk time, reality, the delusions we hold about productivity, and how to focus on the ‘gloriously possible’ in a time of spiralling global crises. Oliver...

What would a Fair Society actually look like? What are the feasible policy building blocks that could help us get there? In Daniel Chandler’s book Free and Equal he makes the case for a new progressive liberalism grounded in the ideas of the philosopher John Rawls – complete with democratic reform of the voting system for the House of Commons, a universal basic income, and the abolition of private schools. Listen back to this episode of It’s Bloody Complicated as we ask Daniel about these ide...

Ahead of the 75th anniversary of the NHS this year, Julia Grace Patterson is publishing a new book, Critical: Why the NHS is being betrayed and how we can fight for it. After years of austerity, a global pandemic, and the looming threats of privatisation, the NHS is bad shape. She writes, “The NHS is an institution. But it’s also a political football, kicked back and forth between politicians for the past 75 years. It’s a burden to some and a potent vote-winner for others. It’s a construct, f...

Vince Cable has been a Labour party councillor, a SDP coalition candidate, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, our Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, an academic, a civil servant in the Foreign Office, and a key minister and negotiator in the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government of 2010-15. We sat down with him and others with international experience of cooperation in politics on June 13th to talk about the why, where, and how of coalitions. If ou...

On this episode, Frances Foley, deputy director of Compass hosted two great movers and shakers of the community power movement: Andy Jackson, community leader at We’re Right Here, the campaign for community powerMohammed Afridi, Director of Organising at the Civic Power FundWe got into the complicated nitty and gritty of what terms like ‘community power’ actually mean, the links to physical infrastructure, and democratic innovation at the local level, from co-operatives to friendly societies,...

With the Conservatives publicly announcing that they are expecting of loss of more than 1,000 councillors in the upcoming local elections, it looks to be a good year for progressive councillors. But we know that, especially when there are 8,000+ seats up for election with 25,000+ candidates, It's Bloody Complicated. Join us on May 9th as we dig into the results from the Local Elections in 2023, and what's going on beneath the surface. We're joined by journalist and former president of t...

On the 4th April 2020, Keir Starmer assumed office as the Leader of the Labour Party. He won that leadership election with almost a 30% winning margin. 3 years on, Neal talks with journalists Rachel Shabi and Rafael Behr to look back, and forward to where Starmer's leadership is taking us. Sir Keir is a controversial leader. In the three months since the beginning of this year, he's come under fire for candidate selection processes that routinely block progressive and left leaning candidates,...

On 21st April 2023, Extinction Rebellion are bringing 100,000 to protest peacefully outside the Houses of Parliament to demand an end to the fossil fuel era and for a citizen-led transformation towards a fair society that includes reparations. This is the Big One. After a "winter of discontent" that saw thousands gathered at picket lines and demonstrations, and hundreds of pages spent evaluating and criticising the tactics of protests in our streets or our museums, protest - and its power - i...

Zack Polanski has had an incredible year. Last September, he was elected the Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. As a member of the London Assembly, he is the Chair of the Environment committee, and has worked with others across all parties and persuasions on an incredible array of progressive policies. From the fight to end new transmissions of HIV, campaigning for universal basic income, and bringing communities and civil society into making and informing climate policy t...

When people can't feed themselves and their families and the planet burns, it's clear democracy is not working. On this episode of It's Bloody Complicated, we're diving into the mechanics of how our political system makes our society more unequal and unstable. The structure of our parliaments changes what they can and will do, limiting the potential for the change this country needs. Voting justice would lead to social justice. Where votes are fair and equal across the UK, where people's voic...

On this episode of It's Bloody Complicated, Frances hosted a conversation between Anthony Barnett and one of the symbols of hope for British progressives - longtime Compass friend and the only Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas. At the tail end of 2022, Anthony Barnett caused a stir with an essay, "The Year of the Definite Left". He laid out why new movements on the Left across the world are challenging the political status quo, and what challenges lie ahead. His general diagnosis is h...

Significant power is vested in Wall Street and Silicon Valley. How did we come to live in a world dominated by big tech and finance, where they hold considerable sway over the direction of politics and government? How do we understand this transformation in power? And what can we do about it? On this episode of It's Bloody Complicated, Jeremy Gilbert joined us to talk through how we might upgrade the concept of hegemony, the importance of passive consent, the complexity of political interests...

It's fair to say that the events of the past few years still encroach on the everyday lives of people. Whether it’s the Covid pandemic, Brexit, economic instability or the cost of living crisis - how we all get through life and work has completely changed due to these major events. Nothing has changed as dramatically in our society and culture than the world of work. This is because we are experiencing a period where worker dignity is at the fore-front of public consciousness. The fight to o...

After the historic vote on the Labour Conference floor for a manifesto commitment at the next general election to implement proportional representation in the House of Commons, a group of the organisations campaigning for democratic renewal came to together to publish a petition together to call on Keir Starmer to take up the torch of electoral reform. Tens of thousands of you agreed. To start off 2023, we hosted some of the movers and shakers from the movement for change to our voting system...

Politics isn’t working. To do the big things, to transform our society and planet we have to transform the way we do politics. On this special episode of It's Bloody Complicated, our four guests helped us understand why and how our miserable political structures and culture deny the chance of big change in the areas they most care about, and why a better politics gives us hope that the system can make the desirable become feasible. They are: Gavin Esler, former Newsnight pre...

Join Frances in conversation with long time friend of Compass, Lisa Nandy MP about her new book "All In: How we build a country that works". This brilliant new book reveals how Britain can leave behind the mess in which we find ourselves. All In charts a course towards a fairer, more equal, more prosperous country by drawing on the greatest asset we have – each other. Get your copy of All In here Support the show Enjoyed the podcast and want to be a live audience member at our next episode?...

As part of Win As One, we’re going round the country holding podcasts in key regions to talk to local activists about the issues they’re facing, and ask the golden question – what do you want to win for? During this special episode of the Compass podcast, we talk to activists working in Cumbria about the climate crisis. We speak to activists from South Lakes Action on Climate Change, Make Votes Matter, MP Watch, and the Compass group, as well as a local councillor. With the decision due on th...

We need a leadership revolution if we are to reach our collective potential and address our complex challenges. Through her work as an activist and grassroots organiser, Clare Richmond is calling for leaders to shake off outdated leadership styles and seek instead a more inclusive, resilient and grass-roots methodology to find success for themselves and their teams. In this special episode, Neal Lawson talks to Clare about her new book The Scavenger Mindset: Rethinking Leadership to un...

Tuesday 8th November marked a decisive day in the US political calendar - the midterms elections - which set the scene for the rest of Biden's presidency and beyond. Following a summer of positive polling for the Democrats, some were cautiously optimistic that they would defy historic trends and hold on to their narrow majorities in both houses. The question now is not only whether Democrats will keep control of the Senate, but what the latest round of elections will do to the hea...

Perhaps the biggest reason we need to Win As One is the urgency and scale of the climate emergency, which impacts every one of us and demands a collective response like no other. On this episode of the Compass podcast, we discuss what on earth we are going to do to address this crisis to save people and planet. We know that we will need a united front between grassroots social movements, political parties and climate experts to get us there. To discuss how we get there, we're join...

Roger hosts this special episode in conversation with activists fighting the cost of living crisis whilst working for a pluralist, progressive politics in Buckinghamshire. If you're curious about the work that Compass local groups do, and where we're at with the Win As One campaign, this is a must listen. Also, we get an update from our director, Neal Lawson, on what Prime Minister Sunak means for Labour's electoral chances. To find out more about our upcoming campaign, please visit www.co...