A few answers

[Uncle Urchin]

hhmmmm...sex as well...I am beginning to like it over here... <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

[YELLOW]

This is the forum to be seen on!!!!

[Eastside Urchin]

you leave my tinky alone,she is mine!!!

[Bionic II]

I'm ready Paula!

Blimey just taken me all night to read all this.

Good luck to all my friends at Park Lane, end of....

[Eastside Urchin]

pot kettle black comes to mind leo,have no problem with the ordinary folk on here from canvey but i think you was a bit quick to start throwing the original insults around mate.Scoring points,no mate,not my style,wouldn't do it on a forum,think that you have other issues though,maybe about hornchurch,but thats for you to worry about.I have said all i need to say on this matter and it is now closed as far as i am concerned

[Kevin_Rye]

There are a couple of points I'd like to respond to on this post.

 

1. Interestingly, whilst you say that I am promoting an ideology that is 'left wing', co-operatives actually fit across the political spectrum; the left like it because it's about people acting together to benefit wider society, the Liberals like it because it is an example of 'localism', and the Tories like it because it's an example of self-help and people doing things without expecting the state to do it. It's why SD has cross-party support. Although it was set up by this government, it has always enjoyed support across the political spectrum.

 

2. I'm not opposed to Private or Public Limited Companies per-se, I just don't think that they're the best ownership model for football clubs.

 

3. In terms of the success or otherwise of co-operatives, it might be worth taking a look at the Co-op group, a co-operative, run for the benefit of its members, with a turnover of some £9 billion a year. Or Greenwich Leisure - an Industrial and Provident Society - is one of the fastest growing leisure groups in London.

 

There are also other forms of collective ownership, like employee owned businesses; John Lewis (inc. Waitrose) is owned by its employees, who share in its profits.

 

I don't want to see everything owned co-operatively as part of some dream-like utopia and the last thing most people would say about me in general is that I'm ideological across the board. The only reason I believe in fan ownership in football is because privately owned football clubs have been shown not to work to a large extent, have shown that it makes it easier to asset-strip (Wimbledon, Crystal Palace, Brentford, Southall, for example), or in some cases to defraud the club of money (like Darren Brown at Chesterfield - now in prison for what he did at the club), to legitimately take vast profits from the club instead of reinvesting it into the business, as in the case of too many to mention, or to chase a dream and bankrupt the club.

 

One thing I hope people realise is that whilst I espouse these ideas, what I do is to help facilitate people to get organised; I certainly don't want to impose my will on any group. What they do is up to them. After all, that's part of the idea behind supporters trusts; getting control of your own destiny as a group of fans, and ultimately as a club.

[Rick the Dick]

Thanks Kevin for taking the time to reply. Don't want to take up space on Canveys m/b on "peripheral" debates so I'll leave it there.

 

I just want to make the point that their is a massive difference between "using" a football club as an entertainment as opposed to being responsible for it's running, operating costs, legal obligations etc..

 

If watching football & supporting a club is what you do as relief from your working life you may soon find that the "novelty" of being responsible for the running of the club can turn into as big a chore as your full-time job.

 

I wish the fans of CIFC well in whatever course they choose.