In fact if you take a close look with an open mind at a lot of what the unions have been putting forward most of it seems eminently sensible - popular and forward-looking policies that would no doubt resonate with the wider electorate and represent a move towards real progress in the 21st century. Positive ideas like improving the minimum wage for young people; improving standards in our hospitals by bringing cleaning back in house; closing the gender pay gap; increased social and council housing; bringing the fragmented train operating companies back into public ownership (which incidentally has already happened in most of the middle-class dominated South East) and yes when the top 1% own a quarter of the nation's wealth it's time that we looked again at taxing the super rich so they pay their fair dues to society. Let's give credit where credit is due these are not ‘yesteryear' ideas or ‘producer-driven demands' they are practical policies that could decisively win much needed renewed support for Labour from across society - from both the middle and working class. We should therefore welcome such contributions to the debate on Labour's future direction.

But let's be honest - as progressives we should be clear on what has not helped Labour in recent months and contributed to our political malaise. What doesn't help is when Ministers celebrate the super rich or call for a moratorium on new rights for workers; declare that council house tenants should be evicted; or remark that New Labour would have privatised the railways if the Tories hadn't done it first! These are not policies that have any resonance with Labour's values either in the past, present or future. By taccing so shamelessly to the right of the Tories all this does is alienate those who support Labour in building a fairer more equal society.

The fact is Labour has lost 4 million voters since it came to office in 1997 - many of those include public sector workers, BME and mosaic Group E voters, private sector manual workers, women, and young people. This coupled with the dreadful local election results, the loss of Crewe and Nantwich and whilst we will have to await the final result, Labour has at best faced a serious battle on its hands to hold Glasgow East - one of Labour's safest seats. Taking that onboard we really need to take a hard look and ask ourselves why these people have stopped voting Labour or are staying at home.

So the debate should not be about accusations of harking back to the 1970s or 1980s, or indeed the 1990s - although let's at least be honest enough to admit that as well as successes mistakes were made in our more recent past too. What the debate should be about is forging a new centre-left politics fit for the 21st century and in that discussion, in an inclusive manner, we should warmly welcome the views of all sections of the progressive community who share our values including the trade unions.

There's no escaping the fact that the New Labour project is now over a decade old and its fundamental problem as Compass has consistently pointed out is that it is no longer new enough or Labour enough - a new direction is indeed now needed. Yes let's have a debate about a modern left politics fit for the 21st century, but let's not do ourselves a disservice by framing that discussion in the way in which it has by some this week.