Co-op Group Profits

Last week United Co-op posted robust profit figures, this week it's the turn of Co-operative Group to announce 318m GBP profit up 17.6%. All of this ahead of next week's merger meetings - the members to decide with a 2 thirds majority needed.

The Co-op Bank's contribution was down by 21.6m GBP, apparently caused by a rise in bad debts in the UK. Good job there isn't a recession on then. Pharmacy, food (41.8% of revenue, like-for-like sales increased by 4.4%, with profits rising by 29.2 pct), funeral care did well, travel lost money.

An Inconvenient Truth Showings

The Co-operative Group are hiring independent cinemas and showing "An Inconvenient Truth" free of charge to its members. Venues in May and June include Liverpool, Burnley, Huddersfield, Sheffield, Hull and Bradford. In Manchester it's on at The Cornerhouse 9th June. It's the film that won't go away - possibly because the subject won't go away either. Released in the UK in September 2006, and won a couple of Oscars since then. It was even shown for free last month in a local school in Chorlton. Available on Amazon for 5.97 GBP + P&P.

Election for shirts?

Our local supporters owned football club - FC United of Manchester have just won promotion to the Unibond (Northern Premier League Division 1) and the members voted to have a new shirt for next season. Now we can vote on which shirt it will be. 147 entries have been whittled down to 4 and it's crunch time for the candidates. Note the strict no sponsorship on the shirt too. Principles before profit.

Co-operative Music

Always on the look out for all things co-op. Co-op taxi firms, cinemas, cafes...yeah, yeah, yeah. But didn't expect to find anything on iTunes. Just waiting for a download and ran a search. How about Co-operative Music.
Might be based in Sweden but covers artists through Europe, Brazil, USA, Australia. A collective of independent labels. Plenty there. I'll get back after dipping in for a sample. It's the age of democratic publishing but you still need someone to separate the signal from the noise and find the gems.

Co-Op Video & Film Night

The plans for our Co-operative Film evening are moving forward. There is the film footage that members' want to see because a lot of them are in it. Shot on Hi-8 tape over ten years ago, it has remained unedited and unseen since then. Now, we have access to an old Hi-8 camera the process of transferring it a short piece on DVD will commence.

The Labour Party has it's own channel on YouTube - Labourvision which attracts some hits. Well the Tony Blair 1 minute intro video has after being featured on ITN news.

Whilst we wait for a Co-operative Party channel I've started to aggregate some co-operative videos available on the web. You are welcome to join in. You can, if you sign up - it's free. Otherwise send links of interesting videos reflecting co-operative values or featuring mutual organisations. Most of the material comes from the USA so far - so more searching to give the collection are more international balance. CoOpVid

The candidate

A favourable story in this week's South Manchester Reporter about the new Labour candidate for Withington Manchester. Seen here with Lord Bradley, the last Labour MP and Secretary of Withington Co-op Party for many years. Lucy recently joined the Co-op Party and we'll look forward to inviting her to our meetings. I publish these because some people don't always receive the freesheet and then miss out on the news and lively letters page.
Move Over John I Want Your Seat - SMR 5th April 2007

Search For A Mutual

The search facility at the FSA Mutuals Public Register is pretty thorough. Turns up some results you wouldn't expect. Organisations like Manchester Tenants Limited who've been running Burnage Garden Village since 1906, or how about Old Trafford Conservative Club on Seymour Grove. Actually quite a few old Conservative Clubs are registered under the Act. The latest entry for the area was Manchester City Supporters Society Ltd, March 2007.
Some stats for Manchester and thereabouts : I&P Societies (167), Building Societies (1), Credit Unions (14), Friendly Societies (46). Doesn't include Stockport or Sale which are located in Cheshire apparently. You always need some research skills to get the best out of the data.
FSA Mutuals Public Register

Local Election Campaigns

This is the month when most of our members are involved in the local election campaigns. Have a meeting in April then expect no one to turn up and a few irate phone calls - don't you know there is an election on. This year there is only one Labour/Co-operative candidate in our area - John Hacking in Chorlton Park. However other members are standing in Didsbury East (Geoff Bridson), Crumpsall (Con Keegan) as Labour candidates. Errr, there might be some more.... How will the phenomena of "Blogging For Labour" fare during an election period - when there are distractions of leaflets, canvassing and going to the pub afterwards. There are some good examples out there of MP's, Councillors and activists making good use of push button publishing. However there are a lot of static sites that should be deleted.

Will there be further use of internet technology - videos, photo slideshows, online debates, netcasting, even making your leaflet available online. Possibly, but maybe not this year. However a good start has been made. The Labour Party is featuring the local elections on its opening page. Our local Labour bloggers published the story of lower Council taxes in Labour authorities than Conservative or Lib-Dem. If you have any examples of good use of technology for political propaganda (not afraid to use that word) then email or comment. Some of the blogs we'll be following in between another bundle of leaflets will be :-
Chorlton Park Labour (Manchester)
Crumpsall Labour (Manchester)
Fallowfield Labour (Manchester)
Louise Baldock (Liverpool)
Northenden Labour (Manchester)
On The Knocker (Manchester)

United Co-op Post Good Figures

A month ahead of the AGM and a couple of weeks before the "merger" meetings United Co-operative publishes it trading figures for 2006. Turnover 2.2 billion GBP - 52 week year, 2005 was 2.5 billion on a 53 week year. Pre-tax profits were up to 62.4 million GBP - though some of that was exceptional items - that usually means disposing property as the Co-op disengages itself from having large stores.
Food sales 1.01 billion (921m - 2006), retail pharmacy 220m (152m - 2006), travel sales 555m (568m), motor sales 285m (311m).

Co-op Party Has Two Lords

We have two Lords in our Co-op Party, but we just call them Gerry and Keith. The hereditary one with no seat in the House with red seats was in this week's local South Manchester Reporter. They appear to be running stories with a historical connection to fill in the pages before the estate agents blurb. If they'd asked I could have sent in this snap I took in the old County Hall, home of the old GLC. Keep meaning to make a print of one of his ancestors set in stone to give to Gerry.
Lord knows that I don’t need the title - Story in SM Reporter (with picture).