Is an alert civil society an effective antidote to the cynical manipulation that mars contemporary democracy? Those of us who have argued that it is will soon face a stiff…
11 May, 2020
Coronavirus
28 Apr, 2020
Paving the way for a Basic Income
A new report by Basic Income expert Stewart Lansley highlights the importance of a recovery basic income as the Covid-19 pandemic crisis exposes the inadequacy of today's social security system.…
16 Apr, 2020
Crisis conversations: learning as we go for long-term transition #2
This blog was originally published on the Rapid Transition Alliance website. In the debate over the global response to Covid-19 a battle of hashtags has broken out between those urging…
10 Apr, 2020
It can’t be that everything changes except how we practise politics
This might seem a strange time to be promoting deliberation. A crisis requires speed and heightened attention, a laser-like focus on the problem. We need powerful, centralised institutions, authoritative networks…
09 Apr, 2020
2021 – Huddersfield in the New World
The coronavirus pandemic is making most of us feel quite scared at the moment, and it’s by no means certain that this fear will subside once we emerge from the…
01 Apr, 2020
An open letter to the UK government calling for faster and more far-reaching action
Compass has signed an open letter to the UK government along with 96 economists, academics and directors of research organisations. An edited version first appeared in The Times on Monday 23 March…
26 Mar, 2020
Civil Society and COVID-19
The article was originally published by the Sheila McKechnie Foundation. “Neighbourhoods are the cells which keep society whole. We are threatened with infections, from outside and from within; our powers…
24 Mar, 2020
Austerity has weakened our societal immune system
How easily a house of cards comes tumbling down. Just as our bodies need a strong immune system to fight the coronavirus disease, so too do our societies need resilience,…
20 Mar, 2020
Will Individualism Survive The Coronavirus?
The current national and global crisis in which we find ourselves has exposed the myth that a society based upon individualism can work, flourish and be sustainable. We can overcome…
20 Mar, 2020
Nine things I’ve noticed this week
The blog was originally published on Julia Unwin's personal website. We’ve known that a global pandemic would come for decades, and it’s been modelled and planned for time after time.…
18 Mar, 2020
Why we need an Emergency Basic Income
Two weeks ago myself and my Co-Founder Michael Pugh launched the Basic Income Conversation as a new arm of Compass. We’re working to further the case for a basic income…
16 Mar, 2020
This Changes Everything
Most of us have experienced nothing like this before. It is strange, forbidding and dislocating to a degree probably only experienced by those alive in the early 1940s. Events will…