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The subject of the education funding has drawn a lot of attention in recent weeks, as the totemic Liberal Democrat influence on the coalition government. Nick Clegg claims to have ‘put a premium on fairness', the main constituent of which is a pledge for £2.5 billion extra to help disadvantaged pupils. As his party's policy concessions to the Tories stack up, education funding has assumed supreme political importance.

This is a challenging time for progressives. We have a coalition not only introducing savage cuts, but seeming to enjoy wielding the axe.

And that enthusiasm - with George Osborne and Danny Alexander competing to give the best impression of Freddie Kruger - gives the lie to the idea that these cuts are necessary because of the current recession.

Dark Times for Those That Cannot Work: No Competence, No Compassion in Incapacity Benefits Reform explores an alternative to the assumption that there are over one million people receiving Incapacity Benefit that are able to work. Work is good for health, there is no doubt about it; nor is there doubt that many people who are unfit for work might be able to return to work with appropriate support. But the case has been fatally exaggerated argues Steve Griffiths.

Compass is now in the process of recruiting new office volunteers to join our small but dynamic team located near to Westminster. Our volunteer programme lasts between 2-3 months and you'll ideally need to commit approximately at least 2 days a week. Ideal candidates will have excellent organisational skills, plenty of common sense, able to manage your time effectively, work to deadlines and to use your own initiative.

Our next Westminster Debate will be on the future of banking. This week the government announced over £83BN in swingeing public spending cuts, yet we should never allow people to forget that it was big banks not big government that busted our economy in the first place. This timely event will coincide with the publication of a major new report by Compass and takes place from 6pm - 7.30pm on Wednesday 24 November 2010 in Parliament. Confirmed speakers include Treasury Select Committee member Chuka Umunna MP; Compass Chair Neal Lawson; Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Lord Matthew Oakeshott; nef's Lindsay Mackie and chaired by Jill Treanor, The Guardian.

It's amazing that in less than 3 days since the launch of our fundraising appeal to raise £15,000 by the time of our AGM on Saturday 27 November, we have quickly raised more than £5000 over a third of the way towards our target! This is a brilliant start to the appeal. If you haven't offered a donation yet please consider offering £50 today or whatever you can afford to give. Thanks so much to everyone who has donated so far.

We're pleased to publish our annual report which outlines the main work and progress of Compass from March 2009 through to early October 2010. For legal requirements we are required to file an annual report for the financial year, which runs from March to March. For the benefit of members we have included an update to October this year when this report was written. This report coincides our Annual General Meeting which will take place on Saturday 27 November 2010 in central London (venue TBC).

As Brendan Barber puts it, Britain has been experiencing a ‘phoney war'---living in anticipation of what the cuts might mean, without experiencing their reality.

So now we have the ConDem cuts, imposed it has to be said in the face of feeble opposition from Labour as led by Millidee who has singularly failed to confront them head on and name them for what they are. What do they mean for us here in the North East? First, remember that they are in economic terms a disaster.

Thank you for inviting me to give the memorial Lecture tonight. My subject is ‘Taking Back the Big Society'. Now I was going to speak about the specifics of the Big Society debate, about its different forms across Whitehall; its tensions and contradictions and about Labour's own record and how we should respond.