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For Labour supporters, Tuesday's Populus poll in The Times was pleasurable reading. The poll indicates that in 100 of the key marginal seats currently held by Labour, Conservative support has dipped sharply. The poll shows Labour is still just ahead, on 38.2%, down from 45.3% in the 2005 election with the Tories on 37.6%, up from 31.4%.

Compass is excited to announce a new event The New Politics of Time held in association with the New Economics Foundation and New Political Economy Network focusing on the much published report by the NEF on a 21 hour working week. Speaks will include the Rt Hon David Lammy MP, Heather Wakefield of Unison, Katherine Rake of the National Family and Parenting Institute and Andrew Simms of NEF. We'd be delighted if you would join this free debate at the House of Commons on Tuesday 23rd March from 7-9pm in Committee Room 10, Palace of Westminster, London.

Markets or targets? That's about as good as the choice gets for people working in the NHS. You-the doctor, nurse, secretary, cleaner, or manager-can't be trusted to do your job properly without daily interference from the top or competition.

Whilst we hope and expect a 4th term Labour victory it's becoming clear that the Party will need to think carefully about how it renews and transforms itself in the long term and on that basis we want to hear your ideas for Transforming Labour!

The financial crisis and consequent recession has had a devastating effect on our public finances. City economists, corporate-funded thinktanks and the right-wing press are now piling on the pressure for spending cuts on a scale Margaret Thatcher never even attempted - we all have a duty to put a stop to this nonsense.

In After The Crash, we argue that it is time for a new coalition of ideas and action on the centre left. The election approaches and Britain begins the long haul out of deep recession. In such a crisis, one would expect an alternative to neo-liberalism to be riding high in the polls. Instead, the party which is ahead, the Conservative Party, offers no alternative. The Labour leadership differ only by degrees. It too shares the same desire to minimise change.

We seem to be besieged by the budget cutters; the financiers and politicians who tell us that our economies are doomed unless we plug the hole in our public finances and balance the books. "The sooner the better!" they cry, implying that immediate action is needed lest financial credibility is lost and we become another Greece or Ireland. Yet, as most economists will tell you, cutting expenditure now would send Britain back into recession.

Over 100 people have now registered for our debate held in association with The Smith Institute to coincide with our campaign for a High Pay Commission. Unequal Britain: time for a High Pay Commission? will take place from 6pm - 7.30pm on Monday 15 March 2009 in the Houses of Parliament, London. Speakers include Jon Cruddas MP; Rt Hon John Battle MP; Professor Alan Manning; Andrew Haldenby, Reform and chaired by Polly Toynbee, The Guardian. Book soon to guarantee a place.

As public cynicism about the world of politics mounts, it is refreshing to see a queue snaking out of the door of the Quaker Meeting House a full thirty minutes before the start of a meeting launching a Compass group in Liverpool.

A simple ‘business education tax' would raise enough money to abolish all university tuition fees and would still leave our rate of corporation tax lower that of France, Japan and the United States. We would need to raise corporation tax to just the G7 average of 32.87%, which would leave the rate lower than when the Tories were last in power.