I was born and grew up in Manchester.
My mother shopped mainly in two shops.
The first was a little corner shop run by the owner who lived on the premises.
I was often sent down with a note and some loose change to buy essentials, bread, milk, potatoes.
The other was a fairly large Co-op Store on the main Hyde Road which ran through the centre of Gorton.
Here our weekly necessities were purchased along with occasional luxuries.
I was always struck by the amazing overhead vacuum system that sent the money off with a whistle, the change arriving by return whistle, from some mysterious office hidden in the bowels or the attics of the store.
I was also made to commit the share number to memory in order to ensure that my Mother received her 'divi', the annual payout which reflected her share of the profits of the business of which she was an owner/member.
I suppose in the dull, grey, post-war, rationing, austerity days of the 1950's every little helped.
Now that phrase has been adopted by another large supermarket chain and austerity has returned with a vengeance.
My mission in this blog is to offer a wry look at the big society.
However, like much of the Tories pre-election commitment, remember vote blue, go green? the promise has proved to be very elusive now that power has been grasped through the cobbling together of the con-dem coalition.
Now that we are half way through the first term, with even the Bank of England warning of a triple dip recession ahead, it is hard to imagine any of these commitments being honoured.
There is no evidence that we are all in it together, plenty of evidence that some (a few) are doing better than others (the majority) and that it is going to take years to get out of the mess.
The model we are being offered is, we are told, the only possible model?
Well no, not really.
Tonight I am off to a meeting of the co-op Area Committee and interestingly this morning I received my share of the profits.
Admittedly lower than in previous years, doubtless because as the notice said, trading conditions are poor, but welcome nevertheless.
These are not customer rewards like in some businesses, the vouchers represent my share of the profits in a business of which I am an owner.
The democracy that runs the business is like most democracies flawed in so many small ways, but it works in the one big way that means that through public meetings and elections it is possible for a staff member or a customer who shops regularly in their local co-op an opportunity to stand for election first to an Area Committee and then to a Regional Committee and ultimately onto the Group Board.
So there is an alternative to retrenchment, cuts in public services and austerity.
The co-operative model offers a way forward and can be extended and applied to so many other areas of life and, given the highly successful co-op funeral service, death.
The key to all this does come down to one question, who owns the business?
Private ownership makes the answer to that question clear.
Owners directly, or shareholders, own the business and receive their share of the profits.
In a co-op the members own the business and whilst the current membership card might look like a loyalty card issued by a number of other supermarket chains it is in fact much more than that.
The recent Co-ops United event in Manchester made it clear that co-operation as a business model is extendable across a wide range of areas, from energy, to telephony, to holidays, to financial services.
There were seven principles established at the beginning that continue to serve the co-operative business model:
Open membership.
Democratic control.
Distribution of surplus in proportion to trade.
Payment of limited interest on capital.
Political and religious neutrality.
Cash trading.
Promotion of education.
From time to time these principles are reviewed and modernised but at heart they remain as the central core of what differentiates a co-op from any other form of business.
It seems to me that the co-op is a big society, itself, in its own right, without qualification. It is interesting that the winner in the recent Corby by-election was the Labour/Co-op candidate.
More attention has been paid to the 'success' of UKIP in coming third raising a question about whether the Tories will ditch the lib-dems and seek to form a coalition with UKIP in order to remain in office after the next election.
One of the key aspects of the event in Manchester was its international aspect with co-ops across the world, including of course Europe, reminding us that in a global economy national independence is not the way forward
Co-ops United was held in the former railway station from which I used to catch my train home after school, I can only hope that the Co-operation train which left the Station last month can catch both the public and political imagination and point to a better and more co-operative way for Great Britain plc to do its business in the future.
My mother shopped mainly in two shops.
The first was a little corner shop run by the owner who lived on the premises.
I was often sent down with a note and some loose change to buy essentials, bread, milk, potatoes.
The other was a fairly large Co-op Store on the main Hyde Road which ran through the centre of Gorton.
Here our weekly necessities were purchased along with occasional luxuries.
I was always struck by the amazing overhead vacuum system that sent the money off with a whistle, the change arriving by return whistle, from some mysterious office hidden in the bowels or the attics of the store.
I was also made to commit the share number to memory in order to ensure that my Mother received her 'divi', the annual payout which reflected her share of the profits of the business of which she was an owner/member.
I suppose in the dull, grey, post-war, rationing, austerity days of the 1950's every little helped.
Now that phrase has been adopted by another large supermarket chain and austerity has returned with a vengeance.
My mission in this blog is to offer a wry look at the big society.
However, like much of the Tories pre-election commitment, remember vote blue, go green? the promise has proved to be very elusive now that power has been grasped through the cobbling together of the con-dem coalition.
Now that we are half way through the first term, with even the Bank of England warning of a triple dip recession ahead, it is hard to imagine any of these commitments being honoured.
There is no evidence that we are all in it together, plenty of evidence that some (a few) are doing better than others (the majority) and that it is going to take years to get out of the mess.
The model we are being offered is, we are told, the only possible model?
Well no, not really.
Tonight I am off to a meeting of the co-op Area Committee and interestingly this morning I received my share of the profits.
Admittedly lower than in previous years, doubtless because as the notice said, trading conditions are poor, but welcome nevertheless.
These are not customer rewards like in some businesses, the vouchers represent my share of the profits in a business of which I am an owner.
The democracy that runs the business is like most democracies flawed in so many small ways, but it works in the one big way that means that through public meetings and elections it is possible for a staff member or a customer who shops regularly in their local co-op an opportunity to stand for election first to an Area Committee and then to a Regional Committee and ultimately onto the Group Board.
So there is an alternative to retrenchment, cuts in public services and austerity.
The co-operative model offers a way forward and can be extended and applied to so many other areas of life and, given the highly successful co-op funeral service, death.
The key to all this does come down to one question, who owns the business?
Private ownership makes the answer to that question clear.
Owners directly, or shareholders, own the business and receive their share of the profits.
In a co-op the members own the business and whilst the current membership card might look like a loyalty card issued by a number of other supermarket chains it is in fact much more than that.
The recent Co-ops United event in Manchester made it clear that co-operation as a business model is extendable across a wide range of areas, from energy, to telephony, to holidays, to financial services.
There were seven principles established at the beginning that continue to serve the co-operative business model:
Open membership.
Democratic control.
Distribution of surplus in proportion to trade.
Payment of limited interest on capital.
Political and religious neutrality.
Cash trading.
Promotion of education.
From time to time these principles are reviewed and modernised but at heart they remain as the central core of what differentiates a co-op from any other form of business.
It seems to me that the co-op is a big society, itself, in its own right, without qualification. It is interesting that the winner in the recent Corby by-election was the Labour/Co-op candidate.
More attention has been paid to the 'success' of UKIP in coming third raising a question about whether the Tories will ditch the lib-dems and seek to form a coalition with UKIP in order to remain in office after the next election.
One of the key aspects of the event in Manchester was its international aspect with co-ops across the world, including of course Europe, reminding us that in a global economy national independence is not the way forward
Co-ops United was held in the former railway station from which I used to catch my train home after school, I can only hope that the Co-operation train which left the Station last month can catch both the public and political imagination and point to a better and more co-operative way for Great Britain plc to do its business in the future.
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