Ideally, instead of being here at my office desk typing a blog, I’d have been at Westminster this morning for the launch of The Co-operative Advantage, a substantial piece of research coordinated by Ed Mayo at Co-operatives UK which suggests fifty innovative ways that cooperatives could help boost the British economy.

The book is divided into chapters covering, among other sectors, agriculture, housing, transport, banking, renewable energy, social care, health and (the chapter which I was asked to contribute) insurance.

Ed Mayo’s introduction sets the overall theme behind the book: “Britain needs to nurture a new approach for economic success. One ingredient for this will be to harness innovation trends that are encouraging a far stronger dose of economic collaboration… The participative model…of co-operative and mutual enterprise, where ownership is open to those who are most closely involved in the business itself, can itself add value.”

The book’s available for online purchase from New Internationalist (itself a cooperative, of course) at http://shop.newint.org/uk/co-operative-advantage-ebook.html