The limits of pluralism

700 plus people attended the soft-left Compass and the Progressive Economy Forum's "Change:NOW! Mobilising the Progressive Majority". A third of the participants were probably under-40. Since 2011, Compass, once the premier soft-left grouping during the Blair years, has become more than a Labour party ginger group. Welcoming in the Lib Dems, Plaid Cymru, the SNP, and the Greens, it is probably the best-known exponent of a "progressive alliance", a coalition of parties not the Tories or Reform, to campaign for electoral reform and electoral pacts, and to form the next government.

Former Green Party leader and once sole MP, Caroline Lucas, is now one of its co-chairs. The sessions at the event were as many would come to expect, a mixture of well-known figures (Vince Cable, Zack Polanski, Andrea Egan, Kate Pickett) from politics, unions and academics. And while there was room for audience participation, it was often limited to short questions rather than the chance to further explore the often fairly bland ideas of panellists.

Of the third of younger people there, and a fair smattering of older attendees, were Green Party members rather than members of Labour's soft left. Several newly elected Green councillors were in the audience, while only Lucas and Polanski took part in the discussions. Polanski's closing speech was a substitute for a late drop-out, Andy Bunrham.

Caroline Lucas said Burnham is not the messiah, but it was very clear that a huge amount of hope is being invested in his election as someone who might unite together the "progressive majority", in the first instance to introduce electoral reform, but to be unafraid of then working with other parties, even as far as in a formal pact before the election. Lucas said that pluralism is how we get better politics and a fairer society. But the politics of pluralism, as done by Compass, is one of its major weaknesses. Compass plans to start a new organisation with senior politicians from the non-Tory, non-Reform parties to plan such a coalition. The new political situation means they might hinge this more on the Greens than on the Lib Dems, of whom I am not sure there were any activists in the room. If inequality and the need for a wealth tax, and taxing the rich were widely applauded when YouTuber Gary Stevenson said them, it would be hard to see a serious coalition involving the austerity-backing Lib Dems could be a meaningful part of it. The Greens are governing with the Lib Dems in many places, which again begs the question of how they will propose to run their council anti-austerity campaign.