It's Bloody Complicated - A Compass Podcast

Compass and the Orwell Youth Prize have teamed up to bring you a special new series, The Future We Want.In this first episode, Orwell Youth Fellow Manal Nadeem joins Dawn Butler MP for a discussion of race, power and the pandemic. The episode begins with Manal reading her piece, 'The Poverty Pandemic'.Read 'The Poverty Pandemic' by Manal NadeemThe 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.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 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. 

We welcome writer, journalist and film-maker Paul Mason to the podcast to discuss his new book, How to Stop Fascism (Allen Lane).Paul spoke about how the rise of right-wing populism and authoritarianism has not acted as a 'firewall' against fascism, the online tactics of the new networked fascism and the lessons of the French Popular Front for a Progressive Alliance movement today.How to Stop Fascism: History, Ideology, Resistance is available now.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 week on the Compass podcast we are joined by Matthew Brown and Rhian E. Jones, authors of the book Paint Your Town Red: How Preston Took Back Control and Your Town Can Too, published by Repeater. Against a national backdrop of austerity and privatisation, a city in Lancashire bucked the trend and created what is known as the Preston Model.Matthew is the leader of Preston City Council, where he has led pioneering efforts in community wealth-building – what has become known as the ‘Preston Model’. He’s also a Senior Fellow at the Democracy Collaborative, tasked with promoting community wealth-building across the UK and abroad.Rhian is a writer, historian and the author of four books on politics and popular culture. She’s a founding editor of New Socialist and an editor at Red Pepper magazine.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. 

Recently departed Green Party Co-Leader Jonathan Bartley joins It’s Bloody Complicated.Jonathan stepped down as Green co-leader in July. He is now focusing his energy on helping to build a progressive alliance, saying to the Guardian that ‘there is a progressive majority in this country but we will have Conservative governments as far as we can see because of first past the post’.He spoke about why we need a progressive alliance – and why there must be something in it for the Greens – as well where the Greens' next seat in Parliament might come from, defending the right to protest and his unusual journey to the leadership of a political party.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. 

John Denham joined It's Bloody Complicated to talk nation, identity and patriotism.Is there such a thing as ‘progressive patriotism’? And against the backdrop of Brexit and a potential second Scottish independence referendum, is it finally time for progressives to talk about England?John Denham is Professor and Director of the Centre for English Identity and Politics at the University of Southampton, and co-founder of the English Labour Network. He was the Labour MP for Southampton Itchen, and served as a minister for ten years in the 1997–2010 Labour government.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 was recorded immediately following the initial devastating flooding across western Germany. Our thoughts and solidarity are with all those affected.Compass has teamed up with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung to bring you a German election special.Germany is poised to pick its next leader. After 16 years at the helm, Angela Merkel is stepping aside – and what comes next is anyone’s guess.Will Germans elect Armin Laschet, her successor in the CDU, after he pledged to continue what Merkel started? Or could they choose change in the form of the Greens’ first ever candidate – young and dynamic Annalena Baerbock? How might the Social Democratic Party respond to these changes?And what does this decision mean for the country at the heart of Europe – for action on climate change, the future of the EU and prospects for progressives across the continent?Ulrike Herrmann is a journalist based in Berlin and a staff member of the left-alternative daily “die tageszeitung” (taz). She focuses on economic issues and is a non-active member of the Green party.Christos Katsioulis currently heads the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung’s (FES) London office.Ed Turner is Reader in Politics at Aston University and Co-Director of the Aston Centre for Europe. and publishes widely on German politics.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. 

Policy innovator Anna Coote joined It’s Bloody Complicated to talk about a life at the cutting edge of policy thinking – from citizens' juries to a four-day week and universal basic services.We took a closer look at the idea of universal basic services (UBS) – and any tensions that may exist with universal basic income (UBI).And we surveyed the present state of progressive politics – and how we can advocate and implement transformative policies for a good society.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 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 23rd June 2016, the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU by a majority of 52% to 48%.The ensuing half-decade has seen rolling political turmoil, unprecedented realignments and questions over the future of the UK itself.To help make sense of these historic times, we welcome Labour MP Jon Trickett, Guardian journalist Zoe Williams, Zoe's dog Romeo, and writer Anthony Barnett to the show.Jon Trickett is the Labour MP for Hemsworth and a former shadow minister under the leaderships of Jeremy Corbyn and Ed Miliband.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist and the co-host of the Another Europe Podcast.Anthony Barnett is co-founder of openDemocracy and the author of The Lure of Greatness: England’s Brexit and America’s Trump.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 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. 

What are the strategy, ideology and aims of the modern Conservative Party? To beat them, we have to understand them – and maybe even learn from them.Professor Ken Spours applies the thinking of Antonio Gramsci to help us get to grips with today’s shapeshifting Tories.Ken has provided some additional notes to accompany the show. Find them here: https://bit.ly/3xj0OnA.Discussed on the show:Antonio Gramsci – Prison NotebooksStuart Hall – 'New Labour's Double Shuffle'Ken Spours – ShapeshiftersIt'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. 

Jon Cruddas MP joins It’s Bloody Complicated to mark the launch of his new book, The Dignity of Labour (Polity).Does work give our lives purpose, meaning and status? Or is it a tedious necessity that will soon be abolished by automation, leaving humans free to enjoy a life of leisure and basic income?Jon Cruddas is Labour MP for Dagenham and Rainham. The Dignity of Labour is available from Polity.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.