Tory Co-op's a challenge to the left?

Cooperation may have been born in the Northern town of Rochdale but the Tories are determined it seems to claim it as their own in 2010.

They announced yesterday that they will give public sector workers the power to take over their organisations and run them as co-operatives.

It's a strange one.Surely the basis of cooperation strikes at the heart of Tory doctrine so could this be a rouse to bring out some on the traditional left to support a Tory measure.

Very interestingly Left Foot forward wrote

if the Left truly wants to put progressive politics above partisan politics, then this morning’s Tory policy on public sector co-ops should be cheered, not attacked.

So is this simply no more than a gimmick?

Power to the public sector workers was the call from David Cameron yesterday.

I know that there are millions of public sector workers who work in our public services and who frankly today feel demoralised, disrespected and unrecognised.We will not only get rid of the targets and bureaucracy that drive you so mad.We will give you power in a way that is as radical as the right to buy your council house.We will give you the chance to set up employee-owned co-operatives to take over the services so you can be your own boss and offer the public a better service......the way you think it should be done, not the way some distant bureaucrat thinks it should be done.So instead of government controlling every aspect of public service in our country, we would say to people who work in Job Centres, in the NHS, in social work, in call centres, right across our public sector......“here is your budget, deliver this service, and if you do it more efficiently and more effectively, you can keep some of the savings that you make.”

he said

He knows the sector has been under pressure,he knows that its workers are frustrated.This may well be a good move