Cameron's Conservative Co-operative Movement

[dan]

MJR, I do think you are blowing this out of all proportion, and looking at things through the "everyone is out to get LLP's" eyes. However, I think we are not going to agree on this one!

All I can say is that with my (limited) experience of Co-op Futures, I would be happy to recommend them.

It is good to here about LLP's becoming more popular, and even though I do not know a huge amount about them, the more flexibility in being able to have a legal form which suits has to be a good thing.

Getting back to to the actually topic, I am still not sure the extent to which Co-ops and the Co-op movement should be associated with one political party. It does seem that most parties at some level or other support co-operatives, and maybe the co-op movement should look to work with the different parties. It is something that I need to think about more.

[MJR]

MJR, I do think you are blowing this out of all proportion, and looking at things through the "everyone is out to get LLP's" eyes. However, I think we are not going to agree on this one!

I agree that you think that, but I also think you're mistaken. Really, I think most people are fine about LLPs, but there are two exceptions which do irritate me: 1. finance providers who won't accept companies whose registration "numbers" include letters (I think this might also screw CICs); 2. a few cooperative developers who seem confused about cooperative partnerships and are spreading confusion. I want to publish the names of those that do that, to avoid others finding out for themselves and maybe to encourage them to improve.

Getting back to to the actually topic, I am still not sure the extent to which Co-ops and the Co-op movement should be associated with one political party. It does seem that most parties at some level or other support co-operatives, and maybe the co-op movement should look to work with the different parties. It is something that I need to think about more.

I need to think about it more, too. Where we're based (a Somerset village and a Surrey town), subscribing to Labour seems to offer little hope of short-term practical changes (like improving transport or keeping our post offices open), no matter how much we agree with them on some topics, because there's little prospect of them taking power any time soon. How should we play this?

[adrian.ashton]

well - they're still at it! (http://www.conservativecoops.com), and are apparently planning to incorporate as an IPS.
Got me thinking: if enough of use join as members....

[michael harriott]

My thoughts as well.

I had an email from them as well today. Interestingly, they did not blind copy the addresses, so their mailing list is open to all. Surprising how many co-operators I recognised from the list. Would it be ethical to join and distort their organisation? or should we just let them get on with it?

[adrian.ashton]

will they be hoisted by their own petard?

a quick recap - a few years back, there was something akin to outcry when the conservative party announced the launch of its ‘conservative co-operative movement’, mainly because we already have a co-operative movement that‘s been doing quite well for quite some time and already has good linkages into the political systems at Westminster.

Undaunted, the conservatives pressed on, launching their movement with a website and flagship publication “Nuts & Bolts – how to start a food co-op”, the author of which prefaces by saying that they have no technical expertise in how to set up co-ops... and the site doesn't list what co-op values are, nor link to the national federal body for the movement - Co-operativesUK

And this new movement has been subject to some criticism, not least because although espousing co-op values, it was a self-selecting body, accountable to no-one... But now, all that’s changed! It’s incorporating itself as a formal co-operative entity, with membership open to all (a snip at £10 a year!)

And that got me thinking... if enough people in the ‘main’/pre-existent co-operative movement became members, we could exercise member democracy, call an extraordinary meeting, and agree to dissolve the co-op, distributing its assets throughout the wider non-partisan co-op movement.


Anyone with me?

http://thirdsectorexpert.blogspot.com/2 ... ement.html
http://www.conservativecoops.com/about
http://www.conservativecoops.com/pdf/nuts_and_bolts.pdf
http://www.labourlist.org/failure-conse ... ssa-jowell

[MJR]

I think it would be better to merge it into Cooperatives-UK or something like that, but basically I'd do it. Are you sure we can do that? I can't find the CCM governance information anywhere on their website. Have you got hold of a copy from the FSA or CoHo?

[adrian.ashton]

think graham mitchell working on getting a copy of their rules - also seems to be a number of fellows of the Royal Society (RSA) who'd be up for this as well!

[adrian.ashton]

whatever happened to the "conservative co-op movement"? - hyped loads pre-election and would seem to be an ideal BigSociety fit, but seems to have dissapeared from speeches and policy statements...

[MJR]

It's still appearing in replies in Parliament but it seems like they've lost some interest after noticing "voluntary" and "solidarity" among the values and principles.