I’m angry that the Co-op group is in a mess.
As a member I have been let down.
As a customer of the bank they’ve failed me.
As a believer in the co-op approach to business I am disappointed that flagship co-op has failed so many other successful co-ops by its actions.
I am annoyed that an individual can be allowed to do so much harm.
But let’s be clear about what I’m most annoyed about, and that’s that the Co-op Group let itself be used. Continue reading
If you cut through the hysteria currently being generated by the Murdoch echo chamber that is the Sunday Times and the Daily Mail whose hatred of trade unions knows no bounds, there is a stubborn truth that no amount of air-brushing will do away with. It is that Jim Ratcliffe, the billionaire owner of the vital national asset that is Grangemouth, has been prepared to hold the country to ransom, and in organising an old fashioned Victorian lock-out, has been quite prepared to close the plant down altogether. In order for this not to happen, the workers at the plant have been obliged to agree to all of his miserable terms. Continue reading
Hedge funds and other major investors have forced the Cooperative Group to cede majority control of the Cooperative Bank, Labour’s bankers, with the Group’s stake in the bank dropping from 70% to 30%. The US-based hedge funds Aurelius Capital (a ‘vulture’ fund which bought the debt of bankrupt Argentina and forced them to pay out) and Silver Point Capital (linked to Lehman’s and other distressed financial institutions). They led other major investors who also owned preferential loans to the Coop Bank to overturn the rescue plan to fill a £1.5bn hole in its balance sheet prepared by its newly appointed top management team. Continue reading
We all know that the banks have failed us and something has to change.
The banks won’t change of their own accord and politicians and regulators are too narrowly focused on maintaining the status quo, so we must be the agents of change. It is simple: make a positive decision about where to put your money. Continue reading
