Over on Compass Jon Cruddass is making what appears to me to be a statement of intent to challenge Brown form the left (The New Labour brand is now toxic argues Jon Cruddas MP ) . It certainly has the sweet old socialists excited. I have been trying to convey to them the tragic irrelevance of their dancing on a pin head. "I think of Compass as a strangely enthralling old Lady still dressed in the ...

I did try to like Compass , honest. I went to their conference even though Cruddas had just backed Brown on 42 days detention. I listened to his speech . It was a checklist of all the right things, but as Dave reported at the time, his actions don't quite match: Compass leaders like Jon Cruddas combine the ability to deliver speeches demanding that Trident be scrapped, council houses be built...

Would have to treat this Cruddas-Purnell, or rather Purnell-Cruddas fantasy with he pinch of salt. You can say what you want about Derek Draper, and I did, but for Blairy briefing to be finding its way onto "the leading centre left blog in Europe" (sick) so soon after the that Borwnie was busted is quite peculiar. Tom Miller, who sadly believes in Jon Cruddas and the disappointing Compass project ...

Dear Compass Supporter Today I’m writing to urge you to book your place early at the Compass No Turning Back conference on Saturday 13 of June in London: Furthermore I wanted you to know that Rt Hon Harriet Harman QC MP has now confirmed to speak. Others include: Neal Lawson, Compass; Jon Cruddas MP; Prof

David Semple has rather brutally tackled Dr Jon Cruddas's failure to live up to his billing and also visited and commented. It is self-evident that Cruddas, and probably Compass as a whole, is at the left of the project, rather than at the left of the party or the movement. And that it probably would have to be someone between himself and John Maccy D, who is genuinely to the left of almost e...

Interesting interview by Paul Bickley from Third Way (Christian comment on culture) Few MPs have a bigger reputation for political passion and integrity than Dr Jon Cruddas. Third Way tracked him down to his office in the old Scotland Yard.  You have often spoken about your family. How did it shape you? I was one of five. My mother’s

Compass, the leading ‘soft-left’ pressure group in the Labour party, have initiated a ‘national debate about how we build a new kind of pro-social economy’ Jon Cruddas MP and Jonathan Rutherford’s opening salvo calls for the government ‘to use its stake in the banks to become an activist investor.’ In essence what they

At the Compass annual conference yesterday, Jon Cruddas MP gave this speech and received a standing ovation. It is perhaps his best speech ever Its been a cracking day. Vibrant. Open. Optimistic. In contrast to a sour right wing noise around Labour since the election. That goes something like this: We lost the vote of those

ROLL calls of great thinkers, from ancient Greeks to trendy continental PoMo merchants, probably do not constitute a staple of pub conversation in his Barking and Dagenham constituency. So if nothing else, Jon Cruddas deserves credit for name dropping so many star philosophers and economists in his speech on the renewal of social democracy earlier

Rumours have reached me of a falling out between Jon Cruddas MP, Compass' leading voice in Parliament, and Neal Lawson, the organisation's guru. Jon Cruddas, whatever his sometimes wrong policy calls, is a Labour Party man through-and-through in the best sense, and apparently takes exception to the wholesale embrace of Lib/Lab broad tent politics in Neal's latest article in the Guardian, which was...