It's Bloody Complicated - A Compass Podcast

Political commentators and Guardian journalists John Harris and Zoe Williams join us to break down the political year that was and look ahead to 2022.From tackling the climate catastrophe to the state of the current Conservative party and challenges facing a progressive alliance – as well as some political reasons to be cheerful in 2022.It's Bloody Complicated is recorded every second and fourth Tuesday of the month. Become a Compass member to join our live recordings and put your questions to our guests: https://action.compassonline.org.uk/podcastSupport the show (https://www.compassonline.org.uk/podcast/)Support the showEnjoyed 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. 

Across the nations, regions, towns and cities of the UK, a new way of doing politics is emerging.Far from the adversarial politics encouraged by Westminster’s first-past-the-post electoral system, politicians and people are working together across parties for progressive change.Joining us to discuss the art, benefits and challenges of progressive alliances are:Anthony Slaughter, Leader of the Wales Green Party, which recently announced an electoral alliance with Plaid Cymru in CardiffLucy Nethsingha, Liberal Democrat Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, which is run in a joint administration with Labour and independentsPeter Marland, Labour & Co-operative Leader of Milton Keynes Council, which is run by a ‘Progressive Alliance’ of Labour and the Lib Dems.It's Bloody Complicated is recorded every second and fourth Tuesday of the month. Become a Compass member to join our live recordings and put your questions to our guests: https://action.compassonline.org.uk/podcastSupport the showEnjoyed 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. 

Author, journalist and political commentator Ece Temelkuran joins the podcast to talk about her new book Together: 10 Choices for a Better Now, faith vs. hope, the parallels between the UK's slide towards authoritarianism and her experience in Turkey, and the power of young women.Ece was in conversation with special guest host Jon Alexander of the Social Liberal Forum.Together: 10 Choices for a Better Now  (https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/together-a-manifesto-against-the-heartless-world-ece-temelkuran-2) How to Lose a Country: The Seven Steps From Democracy to Dictatorship (https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/how-to-lose-a-country-the-7-steps-from-democracy-to-dictatorship-ece-temelkuran?variant=32558325629006)This episode is brought to you by Compass and the Social Liberal Forum.It's Bloody Complicated is recorded every second and fourth Tuesday of the month. Become a Compass member to join our live recordings and put your questions to our guests: https://action.compassonline.org.uk/podcastSupport the show (https://www.compassonline.org.uk/podcast/)Support the showEnjoyed 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 a special bonus episode of It’s Bloody Complicated, the Compass podcast, we welcome First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford MS.Mark spoke to Compass Director Neal Lawson about progressive alliances, his support for proportional representation, basic income and why he's vowed to stand down after five years.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.Welsh Labour is currently in talks with Plaid Cymru about a cooperation agreement. And the party has previously worked with the Liberal Democrats.The Welsh Government this year also approved a basic income (UBI) trial for Wales.The Basic Income Conversation, powered by Compass, recently published a report (https://autonomy.work/portfolio/ubi-in-wales/) with Autonomy on principles, precedents and feasibility of piloting a basic income in Wales.It's Bloody Complicated is recorded every second and fourth Tuesday of the month. Become a Compass member to join our live recordings and put your questions to our guests: https://action.compassonline.org.uk/podcastSupport the show (https://www.compassonline.org.uk/podcast/)Support the showEnjoyed 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. 

83% of Labour members backed proportional representation. So did 80% of the membership’s representatives on the conference floor. But the Labour machine didn’t, and the motion to make PR party policy fell at last month’s party conference.We welcome leading Labour for a New Democracy campaigners Laura Parker and Caroline Osborne to the podcast to get the inside track on the campaign for Labour to back fair votes.Why didn’t the leadership back PR? How can those unions who didn’t support PR be convinced to do so? And, with a groundswell of support among members and voters, what’s next for the UK’s largest progressive party and democratic reform?It's Bloody Complicated is recorded every second and fourth Tuesday of the month. Become a Compass member to join our live recordings and put your questions to our guests: https://action.compassonline.org.uk/podcastSupport the show (https://www.compassonline.org.uk/podcast/)Support the showEnjoyed 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. 

The election in Germany has seen progressives surge and conservatives suffer at the polls.John Kampfner and Michèle Auga join It's Bloody Complicated to make sense of the SPD and Olaf Scholz's (relative) surge, the CDU's collapse, and the 'traffic light' (red/yellow/green) coalition talks.Will Scholz’s late embrace of the climate agenda be born out in practice? And what can we in Britain learn from German progressive electoral successes – and the alliance-building challenges to come?John Kampfner is a journalist and the author of Why Germans Do It Better: Notes from A Grown-Up Country (https://atlantic-books.co.uk/book/why-the-germans-do-it-better/).Michèle Auga is head of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in London (https://www.fes-london.org/).It's Bloody Complicated is recorded every second and fourth Tuesday of the month. Become a Compass member to join our live recordings and put your questions to our guests: https://action.compassonline.org.uk/podcastSupport the show (https://www.compassonline.org.uk/podcast/)Support the showEnjoyed 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. 

Orwell Youth Fellow Tom Finlayson joins Labour MP Jon Cruddas to discuss impending environmental disaster, automation, AI and the future of work – themes brought vividly to life in Tom's dystopian short story 'Not So Welcome Break'.Jon Cruddas is the Labour MP for Dagenham and Rainham and a leading thinker on the meaning of work. His book, The Dignity of Labour, is out now from Polity Books (https://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9781509540785&subject_id=89).The episode begins with Tom Reading his short story, 'Not So Welcome Break'.Read 'Not So Welcome Break' by Tom Finlayson (https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-youth-prize/2018-youth-prize/winners-orwell-youth-prize-2020/tom-finlayson/)The Future We Want is a new podcast series from the Orwell Youth Prize and Compass. We've matched the Orwell Youth Fellows from 2020 with figures from politics, media and political writing.The Orwell Youth Prize is an annual programme for students aged 12–18 culminating in a writing prize. The prize and programme introduce young people to the power of political language, and provoke them to think critically about the world around them.Compass' regular podcast, It's Bloody Complicated, is recorded every second and fourth Tuesday of the month. Become a Compass member to join our live recordings and put your questions to our guests: https://action.compassonline.org.uk/podcastSupport the show (https://www.compassonline.org.uk/podcast/)Support the showEnjoyed 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. 

In the face of global crises, how can communities attain better social, economic and environmental outcomes?Joining It's Bloody Complicated are Henry Tam, editor of the new book Tomorrow’s Communities: Lessons for community-based transformation in the age of global crises, and contributors to the book Marjorie Mayo and Diane Warburton.Henry Tam is a political writer whose books include Time to Save Democracy and Whose Government is it?. He was Head of Civil Renewal under the last Labour government.Marjorie Mayo is Professor of Community Development at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her recent publications include Community-based learning and social movements and Changing Communities: stories of migration, displacement and solidarities.Diane Warburton is a founding Trustee of Involve. Her published works include Community and Sustainable Development and From Here to Sustainability.Tomorrow's Communities by Henry Tam (ed.), Policy Press (https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/tomorrows-communities)It's Bloody Complicated is recorded every second and fourth Tuesday of the month. Become a Compass member to join our live recordings and put your questions to our guests: https://action.compassonline.org.uk/podcastSupport the show (https://www.compassonline.org.uk/podcast/)Support the showEnjoyed 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. 

In the second episode of The Future We Want, a new series from Compass and the Orwell Youth Prize, Orwell Youth Fellows Lauren DeBruin and Hugh Ludford join Andrew Simms to discuss climate, dystopia – and how we encourage each other to want a better future.Andrew Simms is the co-director of the New Weather Institute, coordinator of the Rapid Transition Alliance and co-author of the original Green New Deal.The episode begins with Lauren and Hugh reading their pieces, 'What We Lost' and 'You Are What You Eat'.Read 'What We Lost' by Lauren Debruin (https://www.orwellfoundation.com/?s=Lauren+Debruin) Read 'You Are What You Eat' by Hugh Ludford (https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-youth-prize/2018-youth-prize/winners-orwell-youth-prize-2020/hugh-ludford/)The Future We Want is a new podcast series from the Orwell Youth Prize and Compass. We've matched the Orwell Youth Fellows from 2020 with figures from politics, media and political writing.The Orwell Youth Prize is an annual programme for students aged 12–18 culminating in a writing prize. The prize and programme introduce young people to the power of political language, and provoke them to think critically about the world around them.Compass' regular podcast, It's Bloody Complicated, is recorded every second and fourth Tuesday of the month. Become a Compass member to join our live recordings and put your questions to our guests: https://action.compassonline.org.uk/podcastSupport the show (https://www.compassonline.org.uk/podcast/)Support the showEnjoyed 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. 

This episode of It's Bloody Complicated is brought to you from Labour Party Conference. At this year's conference, the Labour machine rejected the overwhelming wishes of party members, and the motion for the party to adopt proportional representation fell. We were joined by Labour MP Clive Lewis, Green MP Caroline Lucas, Labour for a New Democracy campaign head Laura Parker and Best for Britain CEO Naomi Smith to look at the necessity and strategy of a progressive alliance following Labour's latest rejection of PR.How do we build a cross-party progressive movement that can not only win an election but change our broken political system?Read: 'Keir Starmer made a huge mistake in not backing PR' – Neal Lawson | GuardianCaroline Lucas's speech in fullIt's Bloody Complicated is recorded every second and fourth Tuesday of the month. Become a Compass member to join our live recordings and put your questions to our guests: https://action.compassonline.org.uk/podcastSupport the show (https://www.compassonline.org.uk/podcast/)Support the showEnjoyed 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.