Tag Archives: paul flowers

Opinion: Time to rethink Co-operation

When we moved to Rochdale in 1999, we could hardly fail to take pride that the town was not only the birthplace of Gracie Fields, but of theĀ Co-operative Movement. Moving our banking to the Co-op seemed the right thing to do, and national events a few years ago reaffirmed our commitment to being part of a movement that did things differently.

It is only in the last few years – well before the latest scandal – that I have become disillusioned with the business that purports to have inherited the values and practices of …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 48 Comments

Should all fun events in December have to include “Christmas” in their title?

That would seem a pretty far-fetched demand. But what else to make of the complaints from Labour councillor and Methodist Rev Paul Flowers?

Bradford Council has been involved in organising and/or publicising a large number of events this year which feature Christmas, as shown by these examples:

  • German Christmas Market
  • Christmas Light Switch On Events
  • Victorian Christmas Market
  • Bradford Christmas Street Market

There’s also the event called “Midwinter Medieval Celebration”.

Clearly Bradford isn’t banishing Christmas, but should it have to stick Christmas in the name of all events?

Well, Rev Paul Flowers has complained (in the Daily Mail):

Why, oh why, must they now resort to the stupidity

Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 6 Comments
Advert



Recent Comments

  • Alex Macfie
    The US fashion for "majority-minority" (I think I got it the right way round there) districting needs to be seen in the context of a system where districting is...
  • Alex Macfie
    @Matt (Bristol): had the Brexit referendum been run under an electoral college system (perhaps based on constituencies), then Leave would have won by a landslid...
  • Matt (Bristol)
    I would say, we do need to acknowledge the Electoral College precedent in UK democratic discussions, as its an attempt to find a consensus view that attempts to...
  • Matt (Bristol)
    I think we can acknowledge the feet of clay and obvious flaws of many western democracies - including or own - without rushing to silly words like 'condemn'. ...
  • Peter Martin
    Speaking as a neutral, I would say Lib Dems have now made as much progress as could reasonably be expected against the Tories. Lib Dems did well in July because...