It's Bloody Complicated - A Compass Podcast

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 saw Labour returned to government with the promise of ‘a decade of national renewal’. But what exactly would national renewal look like? With right-wing populism on the march, and with voters desperate for real change, it’s crucial that we start to develop the ideas and intellectual basis, as well as the organisation and alliances, required to answer that question and deliver. And it’s not just at home that the left is struggling. They’re facing existential political and electoral challenges, exacerbated by crises of capitalism, climate, technology and the global order, it is clear that a compelling vision of the future is sorely lacking. Which is where Renewal comes in. Whilst maintaining their editorial independence, they will host, initiate and organise reflection not only on short-term challenges, but also on the deeper renewal of their intellectual project, drawing inspiration from both within and beyond our own tradition. To help us unpack what the future holds for the journal and how it will fit with Compass’ plans, our Director, Neal Lawson was joined by two members of the editorial board: Dr Lise Butler, David Klemperer, 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.

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). In some way I couldn’t quite work out, after all the political turbulence and anger I had been reporting on, what I really wanted to write about was human happiness. And music.John HarrisThe blurb for the book reads: “Obsessed with music since he was a child, John Harris had no idea that he was in fact preparing himself for the greatest challenge of his life. But so it transpired. When his son James was born, and three years later diagnosed with autism, music became a source of precious connection and endless wonder for both of them. Maybe I’m Amazed describes how the music of The Beatles, Kraftwerk, Funkadelic, The Velvet Underground, Amy Winehouse and many more were soon woven into the fabric of James’s life, becoming an essential part of who he is. It takes us through the struggles of raising an autistic child in a prejudiced world, and uncovers a hidden history of neurodivergence and creativity that casts new light on why notes, chords and lyrics speak so powerfully to the human mind.” We were thrilled to have John back on the It’s Bloody Complicated on Tues 8th April to discuss his new book. 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 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 crucial topic, Neal was joined by academic and author, Stewart Lansley, and Head of Communications and Public Affairs at Women’s Budget Group, Erin Mansell. 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.

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, Labour’s message of growth, with the approval of the Heathrow expansion, their keenness for North Sea oil extraction to go ahead despite a court case ruling it “unlawful”, and shelving of the Climate and Nature Bill paints a troubling picture. The challenge we face is one and the same as the opportunity we have – how do progressives fight for substantial climate action in 2025? Where are we winning? With the most progressive parliament ever elected, more and more obvious, widespread effects of a warming world, and the rise of climate-denying right-wing populism we sat down with two people at the forefront of the climate fight to dig into where climate policy and pushback is in the UK: Will McCallum, co-executive director of GreenpeaceTessa Khan, executive director of UpliftSupport 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.

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 over 80 seats ending at 121, with the Greens losing 33 seats and securing only 85. The smaller Liberal FDP lost all 91 seats they held as they joined the BSW Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance in struggling to reach the 5% threshold to qualify for parliament, but in a unexpected resurgence the left party (Die Linke) won 64 seats. To dig through the results, explain the acronyms, parse what difference the voting system makes, and explore the ramifications for us in the UK, Frances was joined by Ronja Endres, Boris Kanzleiter, and James Hoctor. Ronja EndresBoris Kanzleiter James Hoctor 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.

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 next for the NPF, Neal was joined by Professor of French and European Politics, Philippe Marliėre, and journalist and researcher based in the UK, Olly Haynes. 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.

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 “uninvestable“, and a regulator that has fined water companies just £2 despite record sewage spillages. But how did we get here, and how do we turn the tide? On this episode of It’s Bloody Complicated we discussed just how feasible, desirable, and popular public ownership of water is and highlighted the campaign to get there. The Compass campaigns team were joined by the Director of We Own It, Cat Hobbs, expert on water legislation Professor Ewan McGaughey, and chair of the UNISON Water Industry Sector Committee Natalie Mladenovich-Haigh to dive into how we got here and how we get out of this mess. We’ve been working with Clive Lewis MP, Green New Deal Rising, We Own It, and more to campaign for changes to ownership and management of water and will be doing more in the coming months. This podcast is one piece of that work – find our more here. 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.

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 panelist? Support our work and be a part of the Compass community. Become a member! You can find us on Twitter at @CompassOffice.

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 breaking performance in 2024, and what she’s planning for 2025 and beyond. 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.

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,Frank Sharry,Oliver Laughland, Anywhere but Washington 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.

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% respectively). The South of England is considerably more wealthy than the North and this difference is growing – the difference in median individual wealth between the South-East (£263,000) and North-East (£79,000) more than doubled between July 2010 to June 2012, and April 2018 to March 2020. Wealth inequality distorts democratic political cultures, and causes a series of social and environmental harms. But polling shows that many of the consequences of inequality such as undermining economic growth or social cohesion or democracy are poorly understood by most people – and are not fully appreciated by decision-makers. So how do we bridge these gaps of knowledge and of wealth to move towards a more equal, more equitable society? The Fairness Foundation have launched a Wealth Gap Risk Register – an online evidence resource about the impacts of wealth inequality, how to reduce it and mitigate its impacts, and public attitudes to it. Click here to access the Wealth Gap Risk Register. To mark the launch, we hosted the chair of their Editorial Board, Will Hutton, and Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the LSE, Dr Burchardt to dig into how wealth inequality spills over into democracy, social relations, economic security, a fair tax system, public services and so on – and how to tackle this. Report author Jack Jeffrey also joined the discussion. 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.

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, there is something much nastier around the corner. We’re excited to welcome Sam onto the podcast on 8th October to talk about how to make the state capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st century. Sam is a Senior Fellow covering education at the Institute of Government and a former senior adviser on schools at the Department for Education. 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.

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 conference in power for 15 years, we were be joined by: Adam BienkovHilary WainwrightSupport 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.

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 and building blocks of a Good Society that is much more equal, democratic and sustainable. To discuss how we can make this vision a reality, we were joined by: Willie Sullivan, Fatima Ibrahim, Sue GossA New Settlement: For a Better SocietyPriya Sanhi-Nicholas, 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.

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. Neal Lawson and Frances Foley from the Compass office were joined by journalist John Harris and Labour campaigner Laura Parker us to discuss how exactly things changed so dramatically from 2019, and what 2024 holds for progressives and our country. 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.

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, why it’s on the march and how to stop it Jon Bloomfield Our City: Migrants and the Making of Modern Birmingham. 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 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 Nigel Farage that accelerated our desire to hear from him – in it Aditya graphically illustrated how Farage and Reform UK set the tone of debate, now primarily on the issue of immigration, and then watch first the Tories then labour following their direction. Farage may or may not win the seat of Clacton but he is already winning the general election debate. 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.