Co-operating out of crime?

Abstract

Right across the political spectrum all the talk today is of co-operatives, mutuals, and co-production as the solution to everything from public service reform to the economic crisis and the problems of ‘broken Britain’. Labour talks of ‘John Lewis-style’ and mutual public services and holds up Lambeth Council as an example of how a ‘co-operative council’ could work. ‘Red Tories’ (Blond, 2010) call for an ownership revolution where ownership and control of public services is vested in those who work in and use them. Meanwhile Vince Cable for the Liberal Democrats extols the virtues of ‘mutualising the banking sector’ and becomes the darling of the Cooperative Movement at their 2009 Conference and a member of the Cabinet in the Con-Dem Coalition of 2010.

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Dave Nicholson

Dave Nicholson is Director of Ex-Cell Solutions Ltd (www.ex-cell.org.uk) with a Masters in Applied Criminology from Cambridge University