Co-Op Elections Modern Democracy

Now democracy is a fine thing, even if it doesn't change things at least you can get rid of people. Not that The Co-Operative's annual Area Elections are anything like politics. Well canvassing has always been expressly forbidden in all elections to a co-operative so that removes any chance of acrimony.

In the old Norwest Co-Op days we used to have attend the meeting at Hardy Lane. Listen to verbal reports and put your completed ballot paper in a black box. It was then sealed, a scrutineer elected from the meeting to go to the counting event. It was taken seriously, but then you went home and forgot about it. Different coloured voting slips marking papers with 1,2,3 etc in a single transferable vote system. Politicians have been wittering about proportional representation for years but various systems have been practised by co-op society elections in all that time. 

Today it takes place by post and increasingly online. You even get 25 points to your dividend as a thank you for taking part. Not so sure about the hyperbole that arrives in the mail. Phrases like "Together we can build a better world". It is after all an area election in an organisation that has lots of areas, and from these two are delegated to one of the eight regions, and from these some are delegated to attend the national board. A three tier cake. It's very distant but it does stop the chancer, capetbagger and charmer running the show. Now we have enough of those self regarding egotists in politics. You also get the self regarding windbags at every meeting. At least we are spared that.