Hooray! Compass become even more irrelevant.

Always suspected the likes of Neal Lawson never really understood the labour movement, though him and Cruddas are both adept at exploiting the trade unions for New Labour’s gain.

I think this shows the true extent of how the old Labour left are spread around the political parties.

I don’t think you can discriminate on grounds of party membership anymore – after all the trade unions manage to cope with people who aren’t Labour by allocating you to a different financial fund if you don’t want to support Labour but allowing you to vote and sit on exec etc.

I think it’s a great idea but then I am Compass and Green!

Please do it.

Labour’s problem from my eyes is often the tribalism.

This would be a step towards recognising, in Ed Milliband’s words, that no political party has a monopoly on wisdom.

“Always suspected the likes of Neal Lawson never really understood the labour movement”

And what about members of the Green Party trade union group? Do they not count as part of the labour movement? What about Green Left? Do they count?

Of course they do – because a true labour movement is not tied to parties. It is tied to principles.

“A true labour movement” eh? Whatever you say.

PS I hear the Green Party trade union group still have space in their phonebox for this year’s conference, if you’re free.

“Compass was not established to function as a faction within the Labour Party.”

No, but it was formed to be a Social Democratic pressure group.

How opening it up to David Laws will aid the cause of Social Democracy is rather beyond me.

The Compass MC is living in a pre-coalition wonderland – a wonderland that many of us never lived in in the first place.

I think it’s a good idea. I actually tried to join Compass once, after they asked me to in an email, but as I was a Lib Dem member (at the time) they said I could join but would have no voting rights.

I think anything that binds together the left wings of the various parties is a good idea. If it is true that we are now in an age where coalitions are the norm, it is vital for the left that Labour does not totally alienate the Lib Dems, or else we will see more of what we have now for years to come.

Anything that helps left-Lib Dems and Labour (and other parties of the left) to realise they have common interests and are working for some of the same things will help make permanent ongoing Tory-LD coalition less likely. I don’t really know what the argument against opening up is, and Goon in particular isn’t shedding any light on it.

RE: opening it up to David Laws (@ Tom Miller) – he won’t join because he is right wing. Just as Tom Harris could join now, but he won’t because he’s right wing.

I agree with Thomas. I’m a lib dem member and I was with Compass but didn’t renew because it was all labour and I couldnt vote.

I actually didn’t know it was affiliated with Labour and agreed with a lot of what they were saying and then gradually I realised it was about blindly getting labour back into power.

I uterrly, hugely yearn for a centre left membership organisation that isn’t affiliated with ANY party but my vision for government is a party less cabinet.

I’m an SNP member, and think that opening up Compass to the wider left would be a very good idea indeed. Labour in Scotland have become tribal to an embarrassing degree, and anything that helps them engage in progressive dialogue would be welcome.

Well, if the ballot comes out with “yes”, then I for one intend to join Compass. As a member of the Social Liberal Forum there’s plenty of overlap between principles and values.

A genuine cross party left group woudl be a good thing. Britain would benefit from a cross cutting organisation unitinga group that is long established but currently has no comfortable home – namely the Liberal Left.

The biggest concentration of the Liberal Left is probably in the Green Party, while there are also many remaining in the Labour and Lib Dem grassroots – spurned by the their party leaders.

Ifthe above is the aim of the widening out I am all for it. BUT if the aim of the widening out is to recruit more of the soft left back to Labour, where their voices will be stifled and trodden on, then the rest of us should be very wary indeed

So, the comments so far: eight intelligent, optimistic contributions from across the political spectrum -vs- one Goon.

“tribal to an embarrassing degree” indeed.

11 – Tribal when it comes to opposing alliances with the likes of the Liberals? Hell yeah! They are a cobbling together of a party of 19th-century factory owners and the 1st world war, with the dickheads who kept Thatcher in power for most of the 80s. Filth.

Compass are already nothing but a talking shop for bien-pensant media types, far removed from the grassroots realities of the labour movement. By taking on board the beardie-weirdies of the Green Party and the class enemies of the Liberals, they’ll become even less relevant to the future of left-wing politics. Which, as I suggested at #1, is something to be celebrated.

@ Goon

Well, you won’t be involved and that’s a good thing. As soon as anyone starts talking about how the Lib Dems are a bunch of 19th century industrialists you know they are more interested in image and working class posturing than being effective or making any real change.

Labour went from Michael Foot to Tony Blair in just over 10 years. That tells you everything you need to know about how asinine your position is. Political parties and alleigances can shift positions quickly, and tribalism can help support those shifts. Grassroots members of Labour helped prop up Blair throughout his term because of tribalism. Tribal Lib Dem MPs are propping up the current coalition. I have sympathy with either position – people want to try and reform from the inside, and that’s laudable. But tribalism all too often coincides with a distortion of principle for people involved in political parties, and that’s why I think a cross-party organisation based on liberal, left-wing principles would be a good way of reminding people of what they ought to stand for.

Also you ignore the point about the possibility of a long standing Lib Dem/Tory coalition, and the potential unlikeliness of single parties getting overall majorities. I don’t know if this is true, but if it is then tribalism will obviously marginalise Labour. You keep talking about the “future of left-wing politics”, but you don’t give any indication of what this might entail. Could you elaborate please?

I’ll echo George W. Potter and say that if this passes I will join.

Labour went from Michael Foot to Tony Blair and could go back again. Who knows? But as it’s financially in hock to the organised working class, rather than wealthy businessmen, it’s always got the potential to be a pro-working class party. Which no other party has.

I’m quite sanguine about a LD/Tory merger/pact. It might be bad news in the short term but simplifies and clarifies the class nature of society and politics, which will be to our advantage in the long term.

I have just applied to join as a NV member of Compass ( because I’m a LD member. It’s 50% experiment to see what its like and 50% desperation over aspects of the Coalitions programme. I’m much more likely to stay and put my shoulder to the wheel if I’m allowed parity of esteem through full membership. I think a pan party left liberal group would be a welcome addition to the country’s progressive archetecture and desperately needed if AV goes through.

It’s a no-brainer (or ought to be) that Compass should open itelf up to people outside the Labour party. I’d be very unlikely to join the Labour party as currently constituted, but as a social democrat I might join Compass if it doesn’t treat non Labour party members as second class citizens.