Massive corruption and Starmer says….. nothing.
Did you miss Starmers statement in reply to Johnson in parliament about an hour ago?
Thats exactly what he was talking about. Dodgy PPE contracts dished out to crony's without tender and the shambles of test and trace handed to his private sector mates
You are Denis the constitutionalist peasant and I claim my five pounds
Dammit you just nailed my invented internet persona 😄
Seriously though, my point is that many/most of the most radical and progressive things that happen in our society happen entirely outside the realm or influence of government. A lot of it happens in business. Did the government force John Lewis to set themselves up as a cooperative? Did the government force the owners of my company to hand the whole thing over to the employees when they retired? Of course not, political parties operate within a narrow bliinkered mindset where winning power and being the government are the only things that are important, and outside that the rest of the world keeps turning and getting on with what they want to do irregardless. Don't get me wrong, government is important, but it's not the only place where stuff happens, and pretty much everything the government does could be organised without politicians.
Co-operative friendly measures in the (losing) party manifestos at the last election:
It's not about nice or nasty bosses. Workers are employed so that employers can profit from their labour, hence (Adam Smith's) 'theory of value'. If they don't, they're out of business. Co-ops can't opt out of prevailing market conditions so workers in co-ops aren't necessarily that much better off, JLP has been laying off significant numbers. I think Sir will struggle to find an example of cuddly capitalism to be snapped in front of, he needs to find someone who expropriates surplus value in the friendliest possible way and has minority group managers and directors, 'ethical exploitation'.
Co-ops can’t opt out of prevailing market conditions so workers in co-ops aren’t necessarily that much better off
Agree to a point but workers are still better off than in a shareholder or privately held company. Coops still have to operate in a market environment, that means at least breaking even, which may require layoffs, restraints on pay etc as the market dictates. I've got no problem with coops making a profit and workers being paid according to their 'value' (within reason of course). The economy would be much healthier if privately owned companies transitioned to the cooperative model. Capitalism would still exist and profit would still be made, the but the problems of rapacious executives and corrupt practices which drive the exploitation of workers would be vastly reduced. Of course you still need good management and leadership, but that can be achieved just like it can in large public sector or non-profit organisations.
Absolutely agree. If only this sort of stuff was being proposed by either party but evidence suggests they will talk up a 'trickle down' policy. The Unicorn food shop in Chorlton seems to be a good setup but such examples are sadly rare. History is littered with failed businesses where owners tried to do the 'right thing' by their workers whilst in competition with rapacious exploiters.
The Unicorn food shop in Chorlton seems to be a good setup...
Yeah, but it's run by hippies for the hampsters* and yummy mummies of Chorlton, it couldn't actually exist in the real world.
*Damn them with their furry bodies and pouched cheeks...no, wait, Hipsters...
The Unicorn food shop in Chorlton seems to be a good setup
I don't know how you can say that when those monsters were responsible for Quinoagate....
That'll be the right-on, cooperative, collective where the car park is full of BMW X5's and Range Rovers picking up their organic, free-range, faitrade, ethically sourced, soil-association approved veggie products they've had flown in from Bolivia then? That one?
picking up their organic, free-range, faitrade, ethically sourced, soil-association approved veggie products they’ve had flown in from Bolivia then? That one?
They have a weird ban on sugar that they could only have come up with after a huge session with a bong...Now they'll sell you honey and maple syrup...but not sugar, because Sugar is bad for you, d'you see?
I get it. Little Tarquin and Tabatha both get absolutely hyper when they have sugar, and then we can't calm them down as we don't impose any restrictions on their behavior as that would essentially be oppression and would stifle their creativity in later life.
Middle-class people complaining about other middle-class people. Perfect STW material.
Hows life on the working class barricades, comrade?
Will you spare any of us, come the glorious revolution? Or is backs against the wall or off to the gulag for 're-education'
Any one wearing glasses or clutching a copy of guardian...off to the quarry
There'll be no more discussion of Yotam Ottolenghi mushroom and herb polenta recipes when you're turning big rocks into little rocks, you bourgeois scum
Hows life on the working class barricades, comrade?
It's pretty tough. We've had at least five minutes since a crayon-botherer told us which kind of quinoa we should be eating.
A glasses wearing guardian reading crayon-botherer. Give him a lump hammer.
Yep, you do get precious types in those places (8th day is another one) with very loud and insistent kids called Flora and Fauna (and the coffee is crap). But has anyone got another example of workers being pretty well treated?
a rather large Manchester based cooperative certainly didnt lay off a load of staff this year....they outsources the roles and let them do the dirty, its hands were clean but the end result was the same. a load of people still ended up looking for new jobs.
That's what happens. With the best will in the world market conditions prevail so these little co-ops are no panacea, they behave in the same way.
Yes I also can't stand it when people attempt to eat healthier, more ethically produced food with less waste/packaging - absolute bastards.
(TBF Unicorn is pretty ****y!)
. But has anyone got another example of workers being pretty well treated?
Timpson.
The Unicorn food shop in Chorlton
It's not. I know the people who set it up and a lot of my mates work there or have done in the past. They operate a two-tier system where coop members get lots of benefits, and temporary workers on zero hours contracts are worked to the bone doing the donkey work. A good friend of mine applied to join after working there for a year as a zero hours temp and was denied in favour of someone else with no explanation, and then was summarily fired because he'd worked there too long as they were worried about rules around temp workers being declared perrmanent. A lot of the old timers have left because it's been taken over by people who have lost the original vision, and equitable treatment of workers is one of them.
And as for quinoa-gate, I could tell a story about the long and protracted debate they had about stocking Palestinian olive oil 🙂
Now they’ll sell you honey and maple syrup…but not sugar, because Sugar is bad for you, d’you see?
There was a massive debate about honey 🙂 The original founders had a strict vegan policy and honey and sugar were rejected on those grounds. Honey was later allowed as long as it was from 'organic' farms which were 'friendly' to bees. Sugar supposedly still uses animal products in the manufacturing process so was denied.
You know that people only go there to get the hessian bags, because failure to carry one at all times in Chorlton can result in you being denied access to any of the Raki massage centres or baby yoga classes?
You know that people only go there to get the hessian bags
Got loads of them, in different colourrs and sizes 🙂 I like taking mine to tescos to stick it to the man.
Its not up the with the JC thread yet, but its great value.....keep it going! 🙂
because failure to carry one at all times in Chorlton can result in you being denied access to any of the Raki massage centres
They're amazing things, apparently if you're carrying one, it allows you to step into the paths on oncoming cyclists, secure in the knowledge that it is a recognized signal that you're entilted....to step out onto the road without looking.
Many of you will be sad to know that Unicorn came within weeks of closing. At the height of the Chorlton property boom the landlord was going to kick them out so he could sell the land to developers. The story I heard (which may be wrong) was that they were struggling to raise the money to buy the site themselves and then one day a few weeks before the deadline a customer walked in, asked them how much they needed and wrote them a cheque for something like 300k.
Bless the Hippy Elite.
I'm sure I read somewhere Unicorn is going for a big expansion. I can imagine they approach a merchant bank for a loan and the bank comes back with stipulations to guarantee their loan so they end up with employment practices that are commensurate with maximum profitability and are no different to any other supermarket.
Blimey, the dock labour scheme got rid of casualisation in the 60s and in the 70s they got rid of the lump on the building sites, now we're returning massively to that. It doesn't have to be like this.
It doesn’t have to be like this.
Last time I asked one of my mates who are members of Unicorn they said the justification for using temp workers on zero hours contracts was that many of them were students. They at least pay above mininum wage, something like £10/hour last time I heard (which was quiite a few years ago), but they really need to sort out their processes on who qualifies for membership as the perception is that it's an exclusive club.
To be fair to them also, they do a lot of good things. The members get paid something like 25k per year irregardless of how much money they make (and they turn over millions per year), and profits are given to local charities or invested other businesses which share the sustainable, organic and vegan approaches to food production.
I can imagine they approach a merchant bank for a loan and the bank comes back with stipulations to guarantee their loan so they end up with employment practices that are commensurate with maximum profitability and are no different to any other supermarket.
By the sounds of Daz’s story, you’d be considerably better off going working for Tesco. I don’t think being a vegan and a right bastard are mutually exclusive
I once saw Daz give a particularly withering stare to a duck
A member of my family worked there for a bit and she was happy as larry, I don't suppose they made her a partner.
All the cous cous she could eat?
Nice one Keir. Just when you're on the back foot why not open yourself up to accusations of rigging the candidate selection process for the mayoralty of one of the most solid labour supporting cities in the country when you don't like the candidate they've selected.
Meh, Ill bet you a plate of my mum-in-laws scouse that whatever Labour candidate will win
& ditching anyone associated with Anderson is the right & smart move, tho Rothery seems to have been less associated than the other 2 candidates
A new broom candidate would be wise.
So it's nothing to do with distancing themselves from a stale, dodgy regime, when it's pretty common knowledge that theres all sorts of shit about to come out about dodgy backhanders from property developers for dubious planning permissions. Considering it's a supposedly left wing council, that's all a bit...
But let's take the positives, the Corbynite left will literally be pissing their nickers with joy, sat there in their tinfoil helmets in their bedrooms, with something to go mental about on Twitter to fuel their deep-seated persecution complexes and moral indigence.
Who doesn't love a good conspiracy theory, eh?
Who doesn’t love a good conspiracy theory, eh?
Irrespective of the pros and cons of Rothery or other candidates, at a time when the media narrative is that Starmer isn't being very effective, all this does is support the view that he's more interested in fighting his party than he is Johnson.
I know that there's a certain type of person obsessed with the internal power struggles within the labour party, real or imagined, but this won't register with anyone outside those who subscribe to the Twitter feed of The Canary.
all this does is support the view that he’s more interested in fighting his party than he is Johnson.
That would be the view from the metaphorical bunker of Corbynism and its tinfoil-helmetted paranoics, whoever was leader and whatever they was they were doing. Everything is a conspiracy. Everything is a campaign against them. Boo hoo. Poor us.
Nobody's listening. Nobody cares. Normal people are going to look at whats going on and rather than seeing some sort of conspiracy, seeing it for what it is: the stench of some dodgy property deals.
This kind of dodginess has all got a rather familiar ring to it in Liverpool, hasn't it?
I can't imagine why anyone at the top of the party would think that a business which conjures up memories of this bloke (who, lest we forget, was welcomed back into the party by comrade Jeremy) would make for a bad look. Can you?
'Nobody’s listening. Nobody cares.'
Quite right. Then why are you banging on about it?
Yep, Timpsons, have had a car key of mine for months and no reply to an email. But generally they do seem pretty good in recruiting some vulnerable people and Travelodge I believe has a policy of employing ex-cons.
Nobody’s listening.
To Starmer? We know that.
Good find.
Still think they need a clean break from the past mayor. I presume the "interviews" were very much "what did you know, why didn't you know".
I know that there’s a certain type of person obsessed with the internal power struggles within the labour party, real or imagined, but this won’t register with anyone outside those who subscribe to the Twitter feed of The Canary.
Yep, never did Corbyn any harm.
