It's Bloody Complicated - A Compass Podcast

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 the YouGov, Peter Kellner, as well as council leaders and campaigners from Compass's networks around the country.We’re joined by Caroline Jackson, the Leader of Lancaster City Council for the last two years, leading a Shared Administration containing 5 political groups and 44 councillors, Elizabeth Dennis-Harburg who leads the Labour-Lib Dem partnership council in North Hertfordshire.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 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, a purge of the left leaning members, failing to engage with the recommendations of Brown's Commission, resolutely refusing to stand with striking workers, ignoring the wish of 80%+ of his party's members to scrap our rotten voting system, and the list goes on.He's built a huge poll lead, previously unthinkable for Labour. He is widely expected to be capable of winning the next election and become Prime Minister.But in December last year, 63% of voters thought the current poll lead Labour is enjoying is down to negative views of the government, not positive views of Labour or him. Compass is committed to ensuring a progressive government at the next election. That will be a Labour-led one, with either a majority or minority of seats. On this episode of It's Bloody Complicated we dive into the what Keir Starmer's leadership means for that future.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 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 - is in the air.What are the demands of the Big One? What is changing in how the British state interacts with protestors and organisers? Are we under threat?On this episode of It's Bloody Complicated we hear from Miranda Irwin a relationship builder from XR, David Mead, a legal academic specialising in the regulation of protest and dissent, and Nick Dearden, the director of Global Justice Now to talk about the power of protest.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. 

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 to standing by strikers and appearing on LBC, BBC, and at our Green Party Conference Event, he's been busy.On this episode, we caught up with longtime Compass friend Zack Polanski on the lessons and challenges of the past years and what's to come for him and his party in the years to come. 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. 

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 voices are represented and Westminster doesn't hold an iron grip on crucial levers of power.In the UK, voter are split pretty evenly (49/51) on whether immigration enriches or undermines our society. Yet, three quarters of constituencies have anti-immigration majorities. 8 in 10 Brits are concerned about climate change. Half think that net zero targets need to be brought forward. Over 65% of the public supports nonviolent direct action to protect the environment. The pay rise size that the most working Britons agree with is 1o%.Between union busting, new coal mines, and greater police power, it's clear that chasm between the policy passed and public opinion is creeping wider. Without changing the way we vote, the policy options of what we vote for policies will keep being decided by the margins, factions, and swing voters.Joining us to make the case for voting justice as social justice, and explain the connection between the ballot box and bills passed are:Professor Kate E. Pickett, co-author of The Spirit Level, is a Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of YorkEmeritus Professor, Baroness Ruth Lister, Professor of Social Policy at Loughborough UniversitySupport 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 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 hopeful, but disparaging about the UK:While it is in the Americas, both South and North, that the definite Left has gained political influence, the forces of humanisation that underlie it are felt everywhere, from Ukraine to Brazil, and from the apartments of Tehran to those of Beijing. But still they remain largely bottled up by the dominant order. In my own country, the UK, Brexit cannot be voted out like Trump, while the Labour opposition, far from seeking to initiate a Biden-style alliance with an intellectually vibrant definite Left, seeks to ensure its impotence and a return to Blairism.Full essay here. Guardian article here.Join the Martin Forde event 20th March 2023 here.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. 

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, and the structural force of technology. He is the co-author of Hegemony Now: How Big Tech and Wall Street Won the World (And How We Win it Back), which outlines a dynamic socialist strategy for the 21st Century.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. 

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 own this right is as strong as the political and economic forces that wish to go back to ‘business as usual,’ ‘profit is king,’ and ‘get back to the office and work.’On this episode we explored the path of universal worker dignity, celebrate successes achieved from workers in the UK and US, and as we go into 2023, explore the challenges that we need to stand against, using both the power of people and technology.We were joined by:Max Alvarez, Editor in chief of The Real News Network and author of The Work of living.Hannah O’Rourke, Co-founder of Campaign Lab and co-author of Reorganise: 15 Stories of workers fighting back in a digital age.Lucy Harley-McKeown, Journalist and editor of The Block and co-author of Reorganise: 15 Stories of workers fighting back in a digital age. 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. 

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. We picked up with some of those organisations that we launched this petition with:Tom Brake, Director of Unlock DemocracyJess Garland, Director of Policy and Research, Electoral Reform SocietyJoe Sousek, National Coordinator of Labour for a New DemocracyOwen Winter, Co-founder and researcher, Make Votes Matter.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. 

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 presenter and now author and campaigner – his latest book is How Britain EndsGail Bradrook, a scientist and co-founder of XR Simon Duffy, the President of Citizens Network a global non-profit cooperative developing the theory and active of active citizenship Lara Parizotto, the co-director of Migrant Democracy Project, an organisation mobilising migrants to participate in UK democracySupport 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.