Next week sees the first national celebratory fortnight of all things co-operative

The UK movement is largely dominated by The Cooperative Group which offers everything from groceries, to holidays, pharmacies and financial services. Consumers are offered membership of the group where they receive a share of the profits, and voice issues that are important to them such as Fairtrade and ethical finance.

Other business set-ups include worker cooperatives and social enterprises; there is a great wealth of variety and diversity in the UK cooperative scene and in order to promote this alternative way of working, the two week programme of events is being organised by their voice in the sector Cooperatives UK.

To keep an eye on the happenings of the national fortnight see the website. Please also check out our twitter feed @SharedInterest (http://twitter.com/SharedInterest) to see which events we will be attending.