I have been a member of the Co-operative group for a quarter of a century and a Co-operative bank account holder for over 20 years.  I have a Britannia savings account and a Co-op pension plan. If I’d died, I would probably have had a Co-operative funeral.  I’m a Co-op member not because of a party political allegiance but because I’ve identified with  its stated ethical principles, because it was responsive to local people at a local level, and because it offered a dividend  for shopping locally.

There are a lot of people like me out there – a fact that the Co-operative group seems recently to have forgotten.  Sadly, despite its ethical policies the Co-operative Group seems to have been supporting ‘the man’ rather than ‘the little man’

Yesterday, I wrote to the group as follows:

I would like to ask you to confirm

• whether the Co-op group really did donate £50k to Ed Balls’ office last year?
• that the Coop group will NOT be paying a dividend to its many members this Christmas because the Group cannot afford it?
• and that if these two are both the case, how the Co-operative Group can  possibly square this with its ‘ethical policies’ which supposedly support the ‘little man’ (eg Co-operative  members) as opposed to ‘the man’ (eg Ed Balls – who surely is quite wealthy enough to donate £50k to his own damn office if he feels it needs it).

This is not a frivolous question and I hope for a serious answer.  I will post it