It's Bloody Complicated - A Compass Podcast

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 Tim...

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...

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 fo...

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 Nadeem The Orwell Youth Prize is an an...

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...

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, wher...

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...

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 So...

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...

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 ho...

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....

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: Anton...

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 Polit...

Election results across England, Scotland and Wales showed more than ever why progressives need to work together – and what can happen when they do. We're joined by a stellar lineup to survey the aftermath, and work out where we go next:  Sir John Curtice , polling expert, Professor of Politics at the University of Strathclyde and Senior Research Fellow at the National Centre for Social Resea...

Leader of the Women's Equality Party Mandu Reid joined the podcast to talk about why the pandemic has not been a gender-neutral crisis, how her 'politically polyamorous' party is shaking up the system and why she's working to put herself out of a job. Mandu Reid is Leader of the Women’s Equality Party, the party’s candidate for Mayor of London and the first Black leader of a na...

Former leader of the Liberal Democrats Sir Vince Cable joins It’s Bloody Complicated to share the lessons of his long and varied political life and tell us about his new book,  Money and Power . In uncertain times for progressives of all stripes, not least the Lib Dems, it was great to get Vince's unique perspective. Vince Cable was MP for Twickenham from 1997 to 2015 and from 2017 to 2019, a...

It’s a year since Keir Starmer was elected leader of the Labour Party – a year that has seen the shock of the Covid-19 pandemic, internal divisions within the party and vocal debates about the best way forward. We welcome writer, journalist and film-maker Paul Mason to It’s Bloody Complicated to discuss Keir Starmer one year on, the prospects for a Progressive Alliance, strategies for the left and...

Special guest host John Harris is joined by Marc Stears to discuss Marc's new book, Out of the Ordinary: How Everyday Life Inspired a Nation and How It Can Again . Joining John and Marc are Jon Cruddas, Labour MP for Dagenham and Rainham, and Sue Goss, author of Open Tribe and the Compass report Garden Mind . In Out of the Ordinary , Stears describes how, in a period of intense political turm...

On this very special edition of It’s Bloody Complicated, we're joined by Clive Lewis, MP for Norwich South; academic and advocate for human rights Francesca Klug; and political theorist Stuart White to celebrate the launch of Belonging, Place and the Nation , Compass’s new report into nationalism and patriotism. Should we try to confront the Right with our own, more progressive, patriotism an...

On this edition of It’s Bloody Complicated , we're celebrating a very special reunion. Neal Lawson is joined by 2017 Progressive Alliance veterans Andrée Frieze, Barry Langford, Stephen Clark, Remco van der Stoep, Jana Mills, Steve Williams and Frances Foley to look back on the successes and lessons of that election, and look forward to how we can build a formidable Progressive Alliance next...

On this episode of It's Bloody Complicated, Frances Foley is joined by another great double bill – this time Peter MacFadyen who has inspired the Flatpack Democracy movement and Indra Adnan one of the co-founders of the new politics champions The Alternative UK. Flatpack Democracy is an independent movement which started in Frome, inspired by frustration with  missed opportunitities the way l...

We’re diving straight into 2021 with a conversation about what the next year might hold for us and what it all means for progressive politics. Our guests, Tom Clark (Editor of Prospect Magazine) and Yasmin Khan (human rights campaigner), were on hand to help us chart a course through what is likely to be an extraordinarily challenging year for us all. We covered the pandemic, the economy, the Tori...

For the final podcast of 2020, we had an extra special Christmas treat for our members.  Writer, economist, politician, and former academic Yanis Varoufakis joined us live on Zoom for an hour of hard-headed economic analysis, a few home truths for the European Left, and plenty of laughter too. A former academic, Yanis is perhaps best known for his tenure as Greek finance minister and his role in t...

This week, we spoke to  Natasha Walter:  feminist writer, founder and director of Women for Refugee Women and author of Living Dolls and A Quiet Life . We talked to Natasha about what motivated her to write Living Dolls, and how she moved out of journalism to found the charity Women for Refugee Women . After 14 years at WFRW, Natasha had plenty of stories to share with us and wasn’t afraid to dig...

We’re delighted to welcome academic, author, social commentator, and human cartographer Danny Dorling to the podcast this week. The conversation roamed over many topics, from Biden and Covid, to Finland and Extinction Rebellion.  We discussed in particular Danny's three latest books:  Rule Britannia (written with Sally Tomlinson) , Slowdown , and Finntopia (written with Annika Koljonen). Some...