Chris's Blog

It's often said (both internally and externally) that smaller parties like the Green Party can't make a difference or take part in mainstream political debate merely by getting a small number of elected national officials. One thing that tends to be overlooked in these assertions is that while one or two people may not hold the balance of power or dictate national policy; is that there is an incalculable benefit of simply having people in high profile positions who can speak for people who's views aren't covered by the small spectrum of mainstream politics. For example how many people in the UK who wouldn't usually consider voting for the main parties do you think Patrick Harvie MSP is speaking for here:

Recently I've had to fill in an application form which which involved researching Green Party policy on cooperatives. Luckily Jim had a post on his blog from Matt Sellwood which has some great policy quotes, particularly this:

WR600 A Green economy must be a more mutual economy, in which industries and enterprises which are run by and for those who depend on them and are affected by them play a significant role in the economy. We believe that the international co-operative principles provide the benchmark for such businesses. This means that the Green Party must enable both the creation of new mutuals and the greater involvement of stakeholders other than investors in existing businesses.

At the last conference in Hove we added more policies to our manifesto that start to address how this might be achieved, which can be found here.

Unsurprisingly the other parties have little or nothing in their manifestos about cooperatives. The only exception obviously is the cooperative party, the political wing of the cooperative movement. The coop party is currently affiliated to the Labour Party, and members elected to parliament are elected as Labour-Coop MPs; the most common of which is the current Children, Schools and Families Secretary Ed Balls.

Apart from trumpeting the rather tepid Co-operative & Community Benefit Societies & Credit Unions Bill, the party also has a full manifesto for the next general election. I can't seem to find their manifesto for the last election so we can't compare how many of those policies have since been enacted by the government, but we can look at their current policies to see which party might be the most anxious to put them into practice. Below are some of the main points in the coop party manifesto with a couple of Green party policies interspersed in quotes for good measure.

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