REPORT FROM COMPASS CONFERENCE

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Cabinet minister Harriet Harman has urged “bold” policies to combat the dire Tory threat.

The Commons leader issued her call at a No Turning Back conference at the weekend in London organised by centre-left pressure group Compass.

Calling for drastic reforms of Parliament, she stressed: “Renewing democracy is not just solving a problem. It is an end in itself that there should be a sharing of power as well as a sharing of wealth as part of our progressive promise.”

The current economic and political crisis raised the need for “a new social order which must be based on fairness and equality,” said Ms Harman, who is Labour Party deputy leader.

Communications union CWU general secretary Billy Hayes, speaking alongside Ms Harman, was warmly applauded as he issued a direct appeal to the Prime Minister “to drop the nonsense of the part-privatisation of Royal Mail.”

Mr Hayes also scolded the government for failing to nationalise banks while paying them “huge sums” of public money.

Labour MP Jon Cruddas won a standing ovation from the 1,000-strong audience as he called for a broad progressive movement to “grasp this historic moment.”

He warned that the Labour Party was “doomed” if it failed to change course.

Mr Cruddas declared: “Now is the time to rise up and move forward. We cannot return to the failed ideas that got us into this mess.”

In a direct challenge to the new Labour plotters, he added: “We have possibly got nine months before a general election. Let us have a definite battle between left and right.”

Labour Party treasurer and industry union Unite deputy general secretary Jack Dromey warned the government that continuing to pursue privatisation of Royal Mail would “seriously divide the Labour Party.”

Mr Dromey demanded urgent action to stop “massive tax avoidance” by the rich.

Calls for a new unity among progressive parties and groups came from a number of platform speakers at the event, including Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, Respect leader Salma Yaqoob and Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price.

The discussion conference, sponsored by the CWU, the Guardian and the New Statesman, broke up into 31 seminars.

At a seminar entitled What capitalism do we want now? the platform speakers were somewhat nonplussed when Dr Michele Javary asked from the audience: “Shouldn’t the question be, do we want capitalism now?”