When is the Big Society NOT the Big Society? (when it’s the co-op movement...)

The Big Society rumbles ever onwards, and there still seems to be widespread confusion about what it actually is. However, the Commission on Big Society have produced this handy definition, which has since been adopted by national sector bodies Locality and ACEVO (amongst others):

"A society in which power and responsibility have shifted: one in which, at every level in our national life, individuals and communities have more aspiration, power and capacity to take decisions and solve problems themselves, and where all of us take greater responsibility for ourselves, our communities and one another"

All sounds very noble, but it’s also a definition of the co-operative movement (you know, that things that’s also been rumbling along for a few centuries now!)

Let me illustrate by mapping the defining Co-operative values and principles against this definition:

"A society in which power and responsibility have shifted: one in which, at every level in our national life, individuals and communities have more aspiration, power and capacity to take decisions and solve problems themselves (self-help, democracy, equity), and where all of us take greater responsibility for ourselves (self-responsibility), our communities and one another (social responsibility, caring for others, concern for community)"

This apparent ‘hi-jacking’ of the co-op movement to support the Conservative Party’s ambitions doesn’t stop with defining it's Big Society. Remember when they also launched the Conservative Co-operative Movement, apparently oblivious to the pre-existence of the existing wider co-operative movement...?

So – when is the Big Society not the Big Society? When it’s a political attempt to claim credit for others hard work and efforts over the last few centuries... So is it time to reclaim the Big Society as the Co-operative Society yet?