Claim OwnershipIt's Bloody Complicated - A Compass Podcast
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© 2025 It's Bloody Complicated - A Compass Podcast
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Hear from the widest range of voices in the progressive movement. Every week, host Neal Lawson, speaks with progressive thinkers, writers and politicians from the UK and beyond about current affairs and how to build the Good Society. Visit compassonline.org.uk to learn more about Compass.
158 Episodes
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Paul Holden's new book, 'The Fraud', has made waves since its publication last month as it lays bare the intrigues, stratagems, and deceits that made Keir Starmer Leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister. Paul Holden shows how Starmer has been the frontman for a ruthless, right-wing political project headed by Morgan McSweeney, now chief of staff in Number 10 and arguably the most powerful man in Britain. McSweeney’s clique often employed dirty tricks to undermine the left-wing Labour le...
Named one of The Guardian and The Telegraph’s Top 50 Comedians of the 21st Century, Nish Kumar has come to stand out from the stand-up crowd. With his politically-charged brand of funny, he has sought out and established his own space in the entertainment scene. As co-host of Pod Save the UK, Nish melds comedy with commentary to bring light and resolution to the ever-growing sense of bleakness in British politics (including on an episode with Compass Director, Neal Lawson, back in 2023). As h...
Where and how we live has always been political – but with the right to buy, the explosion of the private-rented sector, and ever-increasingly demand for affordable, social, and council housing, it’s rarely felt this existential. With the Renters’ Rights Bill currently making its way through Parliament, the mammoth English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill set to extend planning powers to new mayors and councils, and the budget expected on 26th November, it feels like a timely moment ...
The Labour Government find themselves in a difficult moment. On the eve of their 2025 Conference, they are faced with the knowledge that their ‘decade of national renewal’ currently seems stuck in first gear. A series of events have rocked public confidence in the government, including the resignation of Angela Rayner from her government roles and role as Deputy Leader of the party, the sacking of Peter Mandelson as US Ambassador, and the launch of the new network, ‘Mainstream’. With the autu...
It's clear that this Labour Government are in a bit of trouble. Already floundering in the polls off the back of a year in which their promise of 'change' in 2024 hasn't lived up to expectations, they have now been rocked by a series of scandals and resignations - Angela Rayner, Peter Mandelson, Paul Ovenden - that are undermining Sir Keir Starmer's Premiership. With a Deputy Leadership contest now being seen as an internal referendum on the leadership, the 2025 Party Conference is set to be ...
Investigative journalist, author, commentator and activist – George Monbiot has come to define the intellectual left in many of his own ways over the past three decades. From the rights of indigenous peoples the world over to climate activism to opposition to the Iraq War to now speaking out on the Government’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action, George has taken a stand where many others wouldn’t tread. And with the political moment being what it is, with tremendous uncertainty both home...
Zack Polanski’s victory in the Green Party leadership election has hailed in a a new political moment and couldn’t have arrived at a more turbulent time. With Reform surging in the polls, the Labour government struggling to gain any traction, the Conservatives fighting for relevance and the Liberal Democrats looking to capitalise in their heartlands, the Greens find themselves balancing their own member’s interests between dynamic leftism and seat-winning localism. But with Polanski defeating...
The launch of a new left party by Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn is all anyone is talking about in the political world right now. An out-and-out left-wing party hasn't existed in Britain for quite some time, let alone seen any Parliamentary success, and for all of us in the progressive space its potential success will be fascinating to watch. But how could it succeed? What are the implications? To discuss this, Compass Director Neal Lawson sat down with campaigner Laura Parker, Professor Ala...
Under Mark Drakeford’s leadership, Labour in Wales bucked the party’s national trend in 2021, winning a working majority of 30 seats in the Senedd, worked with Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats, and pushed genuinely innovative, exciting, unapologetically progressive policy: the UK’s first a universal basic income (UBI) trial, a Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, changing the voting system to a form of Proportional Representation, and taking Welsh rail services back into public han...
In this special BONUS episode of It's Bloody Complicated, Compass Director Neal Lawson is joined by John McTernan - former Director of Political Operations to Tony Blair - and Compass Board Member, Baroness Ruth Lister. Following the extraordinary action by the Labour Party to suspend the whip from four MPs last week - Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman, Chris Hinchliff and Rachael Maskell - for alleged 'repeated breaches of party discipline', the question had to be asked: where do we go from...
Caroline Lucas spent 10 years at the helm of the Green Party between 2003-2006, 2007-2012 and 2016-2018, as well as being the party’s first and only solely-elected MP for 14 years between 2010-2024. In that time, she became the face of green politics and one of the foremost voices for progressive politics in the country, laying the groundwork for the emerging climate discussion and leading the way in advocating against the ongoing climate catastrophe. In that time the Green Party went from r...
From their leader’s bungee-jumping stunts, their best general election result ever, and leading the fight for social care, the Lib Dems have had a good year. But in the political narrative, their place as the ‘third party’ outside the Labour-Tory duopoly has been threatened by Reform UK’s ascendancy. Coupled with their perennial struggle to be a party that fights for a progressive vision of the future while representing some of the most affluent, small-C constituencies across the country, the...
Hilary Cottam is a world-renowned author, innovator and change maker across a whole range of policy profiles. Between international humanitarianism, education policy, social architecture, welfare and prison reform – amongst many other things – she has been a social innovator committed to getting things done for nearly 40 years. Her latest book, The Work We Need, presents a radical vision of what the future of work in this world can be. She identifies work as a cultural force at the heart of g...
The government’s child poverty taskforce is set to release its findings imminently. But with a country that needs widespread reform at-large, what are the necessary steps in tackling child poverty? A new report by Baroness Ruth Lister, and published by Compass, argues for a radical set of new policies ranging from direct provisions, social welfare and wider societal attitudes towards how we view childhood to alleviate the epidemic of child poverty in this country. We were joined by Baroness ...
On this episode of It’s Bloody Complicated, listeners will get a sneak peek of the debate and discussion set to take place at Compass’ upcoming national conference, CHANGE: HOW? A Decade of Radical Renewal, on Saturday 31st May. Last summer, Labour was returned to government promising to deliver ‘a decade of national renewal’. Whilst some positive things have happened since then – especially on GB Energy and returning the railways to public ownership – decisions on oil and gas licenses, cuts ...
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...
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)...
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 cru...
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...
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 o...
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Thanks for making this ep I was searching this podcast from Alberta Canada Fort McMurray we were settled here mostly by air by settlers believe it or not
A generic neoliberal politician likes other generic neoliberal politicians and spouts neoliberal tropes Big yawn