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After the battle, the smoke clears and the landscape unfolds. Where, when all is said and done, does the Labour Party find itself? The picture is mixed. On the one hand, the party chalked up some impressive victories on election night, taking back councils and holding the line in seats such as Birmingham Edgbaston, Hammersmith and here in Oxford East.

In truth the New Labour era was over some time ago. The refusal to change is the reason Labour lost. In spite of the election result there is still a progressive majority in our country to be mobilised; a majority that feels anxious and insecure, whose lives are out of control. There are new social movements and new ways of organising that offer a tantalising glimpse of radical political change. In these changed and challenging times, Compass will stand for a new hope; for the dream of a better world that is created by the people of our country.

In a letter to The Guardian today leading Labour figures have It is now absolutely crucial that the party thinks long and hard about how it renews and transforms itself in the years ahead. called on the Party not to rush into a Labour leadership contest. Arguing "It is now absolutely crucial that the party thinks long and hard about how it renews and transforms itself in the years ahead".  

There are now no more tickets left for our rally After the election: what next for centre-left politics? which will take place from 6pm - 7.30pm on Wednesday 12 May in Bevan Hall at Local Government House, Smith Square, London SW1P 3HZ. This high-profile event takes place just 6 days after an historic general election and at a significant moment in British politics. Do not turn up unless you have pre-registered with us.

What's important at the moment is that those like us who favour PR stay cool and look at different strategies. In going to the largest party first, Clegg has followed commonly accepted political practice.

We are at a historic moment. The British people have spoken: they don't want a monopoly government, based on the support of less than a quarter of the electorate. In a hung parliament you either reach agreement with others or you and they walk into the wilderness.

Compass members led the way by endorsing honest tactical voting - where in nearly 8 out of 10 target seats we are asking Liberal Democrats and other progressive voters to back the Labour candidate against the Tory challenge. Instead of nods and winks we then took the logical, sensible, but difficult step of calling on Labour voters to back the best placed progressive in marginal seats where Labour doesn't stand a chance.

If Nick Clegg wants to appeal to younger voters we've got plenty to say. This election should be an opportunity for a radical change in direction in the same way that the elections of 1945 and 1979 were for our grandparents and parents respectively. But we have been collectively failed by the electoral system. This key moment to determine our future threatens to pass us by as mainstream politics sees us as the least important demographic in the electoral calculus.

The wheels are coming off the Compassionate Conservative project. Whether it is on gay rights or scaremongering over crime or even tax-phobia, the compassionate part of Compassionate Conservatism seems to have been put firmly on the back burner. Today we launched www.sameoldtories.co.uk with this video http://bit.ly/cQzAhd to expose the gap between the rhetoric and the reality. Yet this project is not just the result of old tribal loyalties, but the culmination of a much larger exploration into the philosophy of Compassionate Conservatism.

Now, more than ever before, Britain has a plural politics. In the last general election, smaller parties received a record one-third of the vote. And in last year's Euro-elections, where the proportional system meant that votes for smaller parties were more likely to be counted, that figure rose to well over half. And yet we are stuck with an electoral system which evolved in a time of two-party politics.