So what does being a Co-operator mean to me? Of course it is very special being elected as a Labour and Co-operative MP. 1997 brought to fruition something that many have striven for, and few have achieved. My membership of the Co-operative Party dates back over 25 year. I first joined in Stevenage, in the days where our branch could number hundreds of individual members. More recently, I have found my home in Oxford, Gloucester and Swindon Society now amalgamated with the West Midlands Society.
To me Co-operation remains the bulwark against the inequities and inadequacies of the market system going into places that the state can't or won't reach. Pleasingly after years of decline there are hopes of a genuine revival in co-operative fortunes. Of course, the retail sector remains competitive and we often face an uphill playing-field. It is in regard to community enterprise however, that we are now at our most vibrant and effective.
Thankfully, I have had the opportunity to be involved in a number of such initiatives including credit unions, neighbourhood projects, pre-school activities and voluntary shops - all run on co-operative principles. More particularly it is in the areas of health and housing that we could make a breakthrough. We have had that experience in the Stroud constituency.
For the last 18 years we have witnessed the run down of one of our best loved hospital sites, Standish. Clearly no longer wanted by the acute sector, campaigners needed to find an appropriate one to prevent the site being asset stripped. Thus with others we followed up on the idea of creating an alternative health and social care facility, which would be run on co-operative principles, acquiring the site as a land trust, and managing the facility as a mutual. This is both an exciting and challenging prospect - it has taken a great deal of time, effort and money to put the proposal together, but we have now submitted it to the Department of Health. If successful it will become the first such initiative, providing intermediate care, and complementary medical facilities taking over from the NHS.
The other ambition I have is to help deliver a Community Land Trust to overcome the problem of a desperate shortage of affordable housing. We have now entered into serious negotiations with English Partnerships on another former hospital site and hope to be able to progress this invaluable project to meet the needs of those who find it virtually impossible to access housing in places such as Stroud.
To me therefore co-operation is about practical answers to difficult problems underpinned by an underlying set of principles that denote the very best of motivations in our society. In developing the ideas I have spoken about locally, I would also like to then see them taken up nationally and even internationally. It proves to me that co-operation is as vital today as it was in 1844 with the Rochdale pioneers. Let us set out to make sure that we can keep the flame alight and burning brightly. 