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The report "A Bitter Pill to swallow: Drugs for people not for profit" was covered in The Guardian on Saturday. The report highlights the growing crisis in productivity in the pharmaceutical industry and The Guardian report quotes Jon Cruddas MP, co-author of the report saying "We have learnt from the banking crisis that some things are too important to let fail - the pharmaceutical industry is one of them. The report shows that unless we take action now we are not going to get the lifesaving drugs we need in the future".

Last night saw the launch event for the latest Compass publication Don't bet the house on it: No turning back to housing boom and bust which will be officially released next week. A packed out committee room discussed the future of housing policy with echoing calls for us to go back to basic principles: making a house a place to live in, a home.

The economic crisis is a turning point in the life of this country. For a brief period, history is in the public realm and ours for the making; the opportunity will not come again for generations. People are angry and they want justice. We have to rediscover our capacity for collective change.

We are an economy falling into the unknown. No-one knows when or how we will land. The government continues its frenetic, piecemeal reforms to shore up the banks, but it has no long term strategy and no idea what kind of society it wants to create. The New Labour project is over. The Conservatives lead in the opinion polls but there is no great popular enthusiasm for them.

Right-wing factions can be dangerous things. Just ask the Pope: recently, Benedict XVI overturned the excommunication of four bishops, which many people saw as a deliberate political move, aimed at appeasing traditional elements of the church. But there's a problem: one of the four bishops, Richard Williamson, is a notable Holocaust denier, so the Vatican has tried to distance the Holy Father from this part of the controversy by claiming he didn't know about Williamson's views. Another problem: where does this leave the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, first stated in 1870?

We're pleased to announce the launch event of our PPC (Prospective Parliamentary Candidate) Support Network. This will take place on Tuesday 24 February 2009 at 6.30pm in the Houses of Parliament. Confirmed speakers include Jon Cruddas MP and the PPC for Streatham Chuka Umunna.

Last week saw the release of the Beta version of a brand new Labour website and community, LabourList.org. The slogan for the site is ‘where Labour people come together', which describes pretty accurately the mission behind it. Social democrats have and will always have issues to resolve within their own movement.

David Cameron was right to call the bankers to account earlier this week. But his ‘day of reckoning' does little more than tinker with the problem. As the recession hits home, we need a national debate about how we build a new kind of pro-social economy.

Today we launch a major ideas generating exercise on "How To Live In The 21st Century" with a state of the art new website. The political agenda has changed dramatically. For the first time in a generation the dominance of free markets is being questioned. Compass believes recent political and economic events can be a turning point but only if the right ideas and the right support are built for a better type of society, economy and form of living that is in tune with the planet.

On Tuesday night Compass convened a special Westminster debate to discuss the current financial crisis. Compass events always pack in a crowd and this one was no exception. The event began with Compass Chair Neal Lawson, who quoted Marx saying "we make history, but not of our own choosing".