The following is taken from David Drew's column for this week's SNJ (Nov 7).

As well as being a Labour MP, I am also one of the 38 Cooperative MPs in the House of Commons, as well as a sizeable number of Cooperative peers.

If Cooperative MPs stood separately then they would be the third largest grouping in the Commons.

The reason we don’t is because of an historic agreement signed in the 1920s which made Labour and Cooperative parties ‘sister parties’ and specified that they would never stand against one another but instead allow candidates to stand on a joint ticket.

The Cooperative movement in this country and internationally, is huge.

It is estimated that nearly half the world’s population are linked in some way to that movement.

This includes, retail, wholesale, funeral, insurance, banking, manufacturing, agriculture and many other examples of humankind’s endeavours.

Particularly well known examples are the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, Mondragon in the Basque region of Spain, and the Credit Agricole Group in France.

Cooperation remains strong in the UK and is now being trumpeted as the alternative to the casino capitalism that has done so much to damage economies in the West.

One such example is the work being pioneered by Preston Council in Lancashire where a Cooperative model has revolutionised the delivery of services.

If you want to hear more about this then Matthew Brown the Council Leader is talking on Friday, November 9, 5.30pm at Cashes Green Community Centre.

The simple fact is that there are other ways in which we can run our economy and some of us are keen to explore that.

The cooperative movement provides a starting point for creating an economy based on sharing our resources and wealth in a fair and equitable way.