Ed Mayo's blog

Formed in 1972, the West Highland Free Paper serves the UK’s most isolated communities across an area of 250,000 square miles.

In 2008, with the support of the Baxi Partnership and a little but more from Co-operative and Community Finance, the paper was bought out by the staff, with the aim of keeping its high quality journalism in good shape.

Twenty years ago, today, the Co-operative Bank launched its ethical policy. It proved to be a pioneer of the ethical consumer movement, a commercial success over time and caught the imagination of the world.

I remember hearing Terry Thomas, CEO of the Co-operative Bank, talk at the time. “What are banks for?” he asked “if not to reflect how we want our money used.”

Today, the ethical policy has developed into a fully fledged ethical operating plan, affecting every part of the Co-operative Group, not just bank but food and pharmacy too.

Co-operatives Europe is an active and energetic network that brings us together, as part of the International Co-operative Alliance. Alongside this, there are specialist European networks for worker co-ops, consumer co-ops , co-operative and mutual banks and for agricultural co-ops. Right now, it is co-operative week in Brussels.

A month ago, I blogged on the growing interest in European and global purchasing and procurement for food across co-operative retailers. 2013 could be the international year of … co-operative spaghetti, I suggested.

Well, in fact, I learned here today in Brussels that it is going to be co-operative tomatoes.

The Japanese Consumers Co-operative Union is collaborating with Coop Italia to help them develop a boxed tomato sauce that is high quality and with packaging that is easy to recycle.

Pauline Green, the distinguished President of the International Co-operative Alliance has always said that co-operatives are about serving human need and not greed. Here, adapted from an old teaching story I picked up via Swami Atmapriyananda is a co-operative fable that says the same thing.

A fisherman is lounging at the wharf and a financier comes up and asks why he isn’t out there fishing. “I caught enough fish to share around yesterday. Today, someone else in the co-operative is fishing.”

It is co-operative fashion week online, as co-ops involved in clothing and design from around the world post their stories on www.stories.coop

The success of the Spanish employee owned cluster of co-operatives, Mondragon, has shone a light on the potential for businesses to be owned and run by the people who work in them.

That model is commonly seen as challenging to traditional banks and investors, who are locked out. But it has also been challenging to some in the labour movement, who believe in the representation rather than the ownership of employees.

The Queen in Parliament has asked us to love our neighbours.

Actually, Britain isn’t bad at this. At Coops UK recently, we took a look at the state of neighbourliness in Britain in a report called ‘Co-operative Streets’.

I am chairing the ‘Making Local Food Work’ Conference, with some hundreds of producers coming together. I think the last big food event I did was somewhat different – when I was invited to be a judge in the prestigious Product of the Year contest for the food industry. There were entries from every major food company and the experience was pretty awful.