Author profile

Neal Lawson

Neal Lawson is the executive director of Compass but writes here in a personal capacity. He was editor of The Causes and Cures of Brexit, has helped convene conversations and publications for many years on Europe and the Good Society and was the spokesperson for the Progressive Alliance in the 2017 UK general election.

Brexit and the left

Neal Lawson

The Labour Party has squandered three years in addressing the challenge posed by the Brexit referendum.

Averting the death of social democracy

Neal Lawson

Reformist social democracy has just two problems that result in its crisis. The first is that it’s heading in the wrong direction. The second is

People’s Vote On Brexit: Be Careful What You Wish For

Neal Lawson

When thinking about Brexit and Europe, we should remember the words of Hans Magnus Enzensberger: short term hopes are futile – long term resignation is

How Social Democrats Can Bring Real Change

Neal Lawson

How do social democrats change things? The traditional method has been to win elections, inhabit the state, pull the levers of the state and hey

Five Radical Ideas For Beating Inequality

Neal Lawson

Scratch the skin of any social democrat and s/he bleeds equality. Because of structural weakness we water the concept down into social justice or fairness

Zygmunt Bauman: A Beacon Of Hope In The Darkness

Neal Lawson

I don’t know what to do. A world that was getting darker suddenly turned pitch black. Zygmunt Bauman is dead. The towering intellectual colossus of

Social Democracy Without Social Democrats? How Can The Left Recover?

Neal Lawson

UK Labour has suffered another bad set of election results. But the failure of Labour is not the fault of the Corbynites or the Blairites.

Towards A Social Democracy Based On Facebook Culture

Neal Lawson

If you were a European social democrat looking to Labour for light at the end of the left’s long and dark electoral tunnel last month

Surfers Without Waves – Is Social Democracy Dead In The Water?

Neal Lawson

Is social democracy already dead and like the proverbial headless chicken are we simply running round the yard on instinct before we topple over for