Is this the argument that Labour should make its central dividing line with the right? We can only test the would-be "progressive" Tories by attacking them from their left, not their right.

Today the Tories attacked lesbians and abortion rights. They were soundly beaten.

This year's Compass National Conference Born Free and Equal will take place on Saturday 14 June 2008 at the Institute of Education in London. Held in association with Unite, The Guardian and New Statesman the conference will ask the question ‘How do we deliver equality in the 21st century?', high profile speakers include amongst others Ed Miliband, Douglas Alexander, Polly Toynbee, Jon Cruddas, Neal Lawson and Ruth Lister.

New controversy has hit the Brown Government amid the speculation that Lord Digby Jones will be leaving his position as Trade Minister before the next election. The former director general of the CBI was brought in apparently in a move toward Brown's big tent politics. Jones is commonly seen as more Tory than Labour, so his departure is certainly better late than never, but the question should not be why is Digby Jones leaving? But, why was he ever allowed in, in the first place?

Compass are delighted to announce our post-elections debate taking place on Tuesday 6 May from 6pm in the Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House, London.

The culmination of a fantastic campaign by trade unions saw 147 MPs, almost entirely Labour, turn out two weeks ago to back a Bill designed to give more than one million agency workers equal pay and equal treatment alongside their directly-employed counterparts.

It should not surprise us that again New Labour is claiming that all of society’s ills can be solved through getting people back to work. However, it certainly should disappoint us that this latest attack is made on those most vulnerable in society.

Over 150 people crammed into committee room 9 last night for a lively and informed debate on migration. The meeting was chaired by the country’s leading social policy commentator Polly Toynbee. The debate first heard from the Minister for Immigration, Liam Byrne who set out the reasons why he believes the policies being implemented by Labour are “firm but fair”.

Polly Toynbee is invariably referred to as one of the most influential commentators of the New Labour era, reviled and revered in equal measure.  This doyenne of the Left was formerly BBC social affairs editor and an associate editor of the Independent before rejoining the Guardian in 1998, where she had spent many years earlier in her career and where she still resides.  In this in depth interview with Polly - the first for many years - Chuka Umunna, editor of TMP (the online political magazine) and Compass management committee member, talks to Polly about life and her views.

Commentary for OpenDemocracy, on the challenges left thinking must address in the next decade.

Polling carried out for the Fabian Society by YouGov shows that the British public think the Prime Minister's salary should be double that of a premiership footballer. In the fair pay league, the public think footballers would earn 62,000 a year, not ten or fifty times that. But nurses and supermarket workers should get more.

The Prime Minister has spoken to gay press for the first time. In the Pink News Q&A he defends his gay voting record and denies that David Cameron is more pro-gay than him - something evident from the appointment of Sayeeda Warsi.

In 1997, Peter Mandelson said “I say to the doubters, judge us after ten years in office. For one of the fruits of that success will be that Britain has become a more equal society. However, we will have achieved that result by many different routes, not just the redistribution of cash from rich to poor, which others choose as their own limited version of egalitarianism…” (Peter Mandelson, Labour’s Next Steps: Tackling Social Exclusion, Fabian Society 1997)

Pink News has published a polling analysis of the Prime Minister's 'legacy' on gay rights, which makes interesting reading.

Apparently, Tony Blair has "not yet decided" on whether to give an opt-out on the proposed law to ban discrimination against lesbians and gay men.  Let me offer some help.

Why Mike Newell is wrong on women refs...

Once again the Government seems to be cautious on meeting the expectations of the LGBT community.

The past few weeks have contained a number of dispiriting events and reports for Labour members, but for me two in particular stand out. Firstly, party membership has now officially fallen below the psychologically crucial mark of 200,000. Secondly, according to a recent Mori poll nearly a quarter of Labour voters want their party to lose the next election to `rethink what they stand for and what their vision is for the... country'.