There is no single silver bullet policy to create a Good Society – but basic income is the closest there is. It opens up some big questions: what is a good society and what is a good life; how much should we work and what kind of work should we do; what else should we do; and, how we can be...

The announcement today that seven Labour MPs have renounced the whip and are setting up as independents comes as no surprise. The seven spoke of their personal reasons for leaving Labour – which must have been difficult. But they said little about what they were for. Some will say ‘good...

Our petition demanding a Citizens’ Assembly for Brexit has now reached 75k signatories and we’ve been looking at the comments to find out more about why this solution to the impasse seems so popular.

One sentiment that many people expressed upon signing the petition, was despair with...

Our politics and our parliament is in deadlock over Brexit. But if we choose to learn from other countries in how we resolve our differences, this could be a moment when Britain comes together rather than falls apart in constitutional chaos. Looking on, we cannot see how a majority can be...

With all the talk of a possible general election it is worth reflecting on the possibilities for a Progressive Alliance. The Progressive Alliance (PA) reached maximum recognition at two points – first at the Richmond Park by-election this time two years ago – and then at the subsequent snap...

2018 marks the centenary of the Representation of the People Act which, in 1918 conceded that men aged 21 and above should be allowed to vote and that women should be enfranchised too (provided they were 30 or over and owned property).  While it was not until 1928 that all women aged 21 and...

Part 2 showed how division is one of the major mechanisms holding exploitative forms of society in place, and how inequality and oppression function to produce division. Here, we look at a particular form of division-though-inequality: the middle agent mechanism.

Two and a half years ago the UK saw the biggest democratic revolution of a generation. The vote for Brexit had been a long time coming. Millions of our fellow citizens had been ignored and humiliated for decades. Whatever you think of Brexit, even if you would like to stop it altogether,...

Part 2: division and oppression

Part 1 looked at how individual mistreatment can become self-perpetuating and evolve into structural oppression, and how punishment and blame lock this in place. Part 2 looks the relationship between division and oppression.

For thousands of...

Ecotricity was founded in 1996 when founder Dale Vince brought renewable energy to the supply grid off his own back. Having been a self-sufficient man and what he describes as having “dropped out of society”, Dale’s house was run solely on the energy produced from his own windmill. He...

Labour conference this week is an important staging post in the new Corbyn-led, energised mass party - not just the biggest in Britain, but bigger than all the other party memberships put together. The Jeremy Corbyn-John McDonnell leadership has been three years at the helm, and are the new...

Human beings are capable of high levels of cooperation, love and caring.  However, for thousands of years most of us have been living in societies that systematically suppress these human qualities.  These inhuman social systems now function to sustain themselves, the systems, not the...

“Short term hopes are futile, long term resignation is suicidal” - Hans Magnus Enzensberger We thought that cheery quote might grab your attention. Let us explain what it means in terms of Compass and why we’re sending you an important update on our big project for the next few years:

One month on, and the dust has well and truly settled on the local elections of the 3rd May. As we take stock of the new political landscape at the council level, many will find their attention drawn once again to Richmond, where collaboration between the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party...

10:10 is far from your average campaign. As Leo Murray (Director of Strategy) explains, even their earliest beginnings were an “unusual way” to get started. It all began with a climate change documentary, which was released in cinemas and sparked considerable public interest and debate: The...

Women’s Environmental Network was founded in 1988 by women working within the environmental sector, who often saw that their perspectives were “completely overlooked”.  They decided to form an organisation to champion these issues and make sure they got the attention they deserved. They...

Richmond’s Progressive Alliance beats the Tories and introduces a new and more radical politics. On a night when the two big parties stood still, an experiment in Richmond, southwest London, proved that alliances between progressives work. The product of local decisions and...

This blog series seeks to explore some of the fascinating work being achieved by various environmental NGOs in the UK, and builds on our growing Everyday Democracy project. Everyday democracy is about the broadening of our political power base; it is about expanding democracy, beyond the...

Green Schools Project is a small organisation run by Henry Greenwood which gives schools the resources and tools to set up eco-committees and become more sustainable. A teacher for 12 years, Henry noticed the school where he was teaching in Enfield lacked any environmental sustainability...

Here at Compass head office, we don’t usually get involved in local election campaigns. We do of course want progressive parties and candidates to win, but in many areas progressives are competing with each other over real and pressing local issues – the best we can do here is hoping that a...