Share number, times past and poor example

20 November 2013

26879! Readers of a certain age will recognise that number, or at least one very like it. This one is my mother's CO-OP share number. For years every penny spent at the CO-OP was recorded on a small receipt that was collected and totally up to try to work out how much 'divi' you would get that year. At some point the CO-Op decided that it cost too much to keep up the practise and therefore claimed that members would still get their divi, but in lower prices, not a cash rebate.

It has just struck me that the CO-Op made share ownership popular a long time before Mad Maggie and her privatisations came on the scene. OK, it was only one share but you still got a return on it every six months or so. That makes it share ownership to me! But how the CO-OP has changed ...

They stopped paying the divi was the first of many changes. Just about every local area had a CO-OP grocery store. Wherever in the country you went to, if you entered one of their stores you knew exactly where the items were that you needed. Every one of their stores was laid out in exactly the same way. Their prices seemed to go up just as all other stores but I found they were more expensive than the others to begin with.

In the 1980's, the CO-OP bank around here used to be small office tucked away in a corner of the large main department store on Queen's Road, Dorktown. Slowly it grew larger and now the bank side has a much larger office just off Abbey Street. The current situation at the bank is perhaps a sign of the bigger problems facing the group as a whole. There are question over the issue of the bank getting over its problems and becoming strong again.

Well, it might do I suppose but the whole group needs to change, not just the bank. They are far too pricy overall for my liking. But their choice in executives needs to be overhauled. The pictures of the onetime top man at the CO-OP buying hard drugs should be a shock to everyone who holds a share in the group. I do not believe this is a one off aberration. No, he has done this before and I'm sure he would have done it again if he hadn't been caught. When he does it again now he will take much more care about doing so.

But why does a man of his age need hard drugs I wonder? Maybe it's meant to be a payment for services received. But for what services? Maybe it the use of the rent boys he's been alleged to use. If so then he could be open to a charge of supplying these drugs. But I think there is another issue here which is perhaps seen as being minor to a lot the UK population.

The Christian Church in this country is losing members right across the denominations. No one church is affected by this more than any other. So many people in the UK see the church as being irrelevant to them. I'm not surprised really; this man that I've been writing about is a Methodist minister by all accounts. He's accused of buying hard drugs, of using rent boys; now we wait to see what else he may be accused of. But he isn't the only one is he? How many other church ministers have been accused of adultery or child abuse? The numbers are staggering! Is it any wonder that so few people see any need for religion in their lives. Is it any wonder that that those who do look to Islam or the mystic religions of Asia?

That man has caused damage to so many institutions. We older folks tend to point the finger at the younger generations as being irresponsible and useless. Can we really expect any difference from them when there are so many poor examples of the older generation about?

For today's photo I thought that a shot well away from all this is appropriate. A cloudy sky.

And a funny ...

Sunny Afternoon, 3 guys storm into a bank, waving guns in the air...
"This is a stick up. Nobody move, nobody call no rozzers neither..." They shout.
Unfortunately in the act of waving his gun around, one of the would be robbers knocks his mask to the floor before picking it up and putting it back on.
He turns to the chap standing nearest, "Did you see my face?!" he says. "Why yes", replies the innocent fellow. BANG. Robber shoots him stone dead.
He moves to the little old lady, standing just behind. "Did YOU see my face?" He demands. "Well yes but only a little..." BANG. Another dead'un
Turns to another chap just standing to the left. "Did YOU see my face?" He once again enquires. "No, no I didn't" he replies. "But my wife did!"