The Co-operative Barometer

How fair is Britain?

In this new Insight Piece, our Secretary General Ed Mayo establishes "The Co-operative Barometer": a high level indicator representing the extent to which everyone has a chance to get on divided by the extent to which they fail to help people in need.

Fairness has been a subject of active debate in contemporary moral philosophy and political theory, ever since the publication in 1971 of John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice. In asking the people of Britain how fair they feel we are as a nation, we are helping to fill a gap: there has been nothing as yet, to our knowledge, which offers a systematic view of how fair the public believes the UK to be in a form that could become a regular indicator of progress, as recognised as orthodox measures of consumer confidence, bank lending and house prices. If co-operation is key to quality of life, innovation and long-run economic performance, then this is a measure that counts.