Published 21st February 2025

National populism is surging across the globe. With Trump 2.0 entering a new and aggressive phase marked by alliances with Big Tech, authoritarian power grabs and US expansionism, and Reform UK experiencing a meteoric rise at home, how can progressives navigate a way through to a Good Society?

Ken Spours tackles this question in his latest report for Compass, bringing together Gramscian political theory and science fiction to delve into the spread of national populism both in the UK and abroad.

He argues that progressives must create sufficient gravitational pull to replace regressive chaos with progressive stability – and that a combinational, alliance-based politics can help us to do that.

This report is part of the New Settlement project, instigated by Compass but involving many others. Its purpose is to address the vision and ideas gap between what our country and its people need and the existing offer of formal politics. Set within the context of the moral and evidential failure of neoliberalism, it seeks to establish the guiding principles and building blocks of a New Settlement that is much more equal, democratic and sustainable.

Other reports in this series include:

• The New Settlement: For a Better Society by Sue Goss
• New Horizons: Reconsidering Britain’s role in the world by Clare Short
• The Ship and the Sea: The Framework for a New Settlement by Ken Spours & Neal Lawson

And the following by Compass members:

• Year Zero
• A Good Society
• A New Democracy