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The first gathering of the Compass East Kent local group will take place at 7 pm on Monday 28 May 2012 at "The Parrot" (pub), 1-9 Church Lane St, Radigunds, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 2AG. For more information contact 01227 454170. Compass chair Neal Lawson will lead off the discussion and a conversation about the organisation of the local Compass group will follow.

The meeting is open to all centre-left campaigners, thinkers, and activists.

We look forward to seeing you.

Dick Symonds & Donald Thake

This lecture was delivered at UEA on the 9th of May 2012. It was part of the Philosopher Kings?: How Philosophy Informs Real Politics Today series.

Thanks very much for inviting me here this evening; not least because it allows me to talk about philosophy, society and socialism. Believe me as a Labour MP this does not happen very often.

'A radical vision for universities' will take place at 5pm on 24 May at UCU HQ (London NW1 7LH).

Speakers include:

Mary Stuart - VC at Lincoln, Chair of UALL (Universities Association for Lifelong Learning)
John Holmwood - Professor of Sociology at Nottingham University, leading figure in Campaign for the Public University
Michael MacNeil - Head of higher education at UCU
Toni Pearce - Vice-President (Further Education) at NUS
Chair: John Selby - Former Director (Education and Participation) HEFCE

A meeting of all those interested in contributing to the organisation of Compass education activities will take place at 3.30pm at UCU on the 24th.

To RSVP just email Ken Spours (Convenor, Compass Education Group) on k.spours@ioe.ac.uk

Last month Barclays’ shareholders endorsed a £17.7m pay packet for Bob Diamond, the CEO who admits that his company had an “unacceptable” year. This encapsulates all that is wrong with executive pay in Britain’s top companies.

A host of elections at home and abroad spell out a confused picture of how politics is changing.

Lets start with the good news. Labour performed well given the drubbing it received only two years ago, winning seats and councils across the country, including the south.

Our post-election event has been rescheduled and will take place this Wednesday 9th May from 7:00PM to 8:30PM in Committee Room 5, House of Lords, Westminster.

The London mayoral election and other important local elections will take place in England, Scotland and Wales on May 3rd. To discuss the results and analyse what they mean for our politics we have Jon Trickett MP (Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office), John Harris (Guardian) and Baroness Ruth Lister, Sadiq Khan MP, Gideon Skinner (Ipsos MORI). Neal Lawson (Compass) will chair the discussion.

If you have registered your place there is no need to re-register. If you still need to register a place please email info@compassonline.org.uk

What should the left think about shopping and our consumer society? Are shopping centres sites for cooperation and relationship building or something a lot more challenging? In this months Soundings magazine myself and Jon Wilson debate the issue. You can download the discussion free but we would encourage you to do one bit of shopping today by subscribing to Soundings - its a great journal.

Compass are delighted to announce that Rosie Rogers has been appointed to the role of National Coordinator. Ruth Lister, Chair of the Management Committee has welcomed Rosie to the team:

On behalf of the Management Committee I'm delighted to welcome Rosie to the Compass team. Rosie's wide experience together with her enthusiasm and energy will be a great asset to us. Building on the invaluable work Gavin did to help build Compass to its current strength, Rosie will play a pivotal role in further strengthening Compass as a membership organisation committed to achieving the good society.

Yesterday’s papers revealed two shocking new truths. The first was that there has been an explosion in wealth amongst the very richest in our society. The Sunday Times reported that the wealthiest 1000 people gained an estimated £155 billion in the last three years alone, at a time when millions of ordinary people face increasing austerity and collapsing standards of living.

The second is that the Tory Mayoral candidate, Boris Johnson, in the Sunday Telegraph, wants to line the pockets of the very richest even more by cutting their taxes far further than Osborne dared. His eagerness betrays his true Tory colours.

For many years, GDP has been the one simple number that could clearly gauge one country’s economic performance over time and in comparison to other countries. As the Olympics draws closer though, we could perhaps make a comparison between this kind of political economics and elite athletics. Usain Bolt is probably the greatest sprinter of his generation and perhaps the greatest of all time. Over 100 metres, he can run faster than anyone else in the world. But does that make him the greatest athlete in the world?