Ireland has one of the world’s largest credit union sectors, per capita. While the movement is perceived to have been around for generations, the first credit union in the Irish.. read more

After months of bad news stories, the disclosure that the Co-operative Bank made a £1.3bn loss in 2013 – following a loss of £674m in 2012 – was no surprise.. read more

I once read a short story by Leo Tolstoy called How Much Land Does a Man Need?. You might guess the principle behind the story from the title. But to.. read more

Anyone who reads this column regularly will have been unsurprised to read that the Co-operative Group is considering the sale of the pharmacy business, as well as moving towards practical.. read more

This is a period of substantial transition not just for the Co-operative Bank, but also for the Co-operative Group.  Not the least of this – though it has passed with.. read more

One of my guilty pleasures is that I like watching crime dramas.  I don’t want to see the blood and guts, but there is the pleasure of working out who.. read more

I was contacted recently by a close observer of the Co-operative Bank’s affairs, who suggested I had missed a dimension to the crisis at the Bank.  Over the longer term,.. read more

Sir Christopher Kelly’s review into the crisis at The Co-operative Bank began in September.  While that review is conducted in private, it is becoming clearer to outsiders what the review.. read more

It can be very useful to revisit history to work out what went wrong and why – not least to prevent repeating past mistakes.  This is perhaps a good moment.. read more

Farewell to 2013 – and may our sector never have a year as bad again please.  Events for the UK’s co-operative movement have been dominated by the crisis at The.. read more

The Treasury Select Committee hearings into the crisis at The Co-operative Bank have shone a bright light onto the uncomfortable hidden truths of our movement.  Most of us knew that.. read more

In the last column I wrote that the end game was upon us.  It has now arrived and, whatever words anyone chooses to use, the reality is that The Co-operative.. read more