Brief post to note the ‘social business’ supplement in the Society Guardian today (not online, sadly, that I can see…). It’s a kind of follow on to Voice 07 and includes “seven social enterprise pioneers” (aka the magnificent seven, which includes SSE Fellow Paul Hodgkin (of Patient Opinion) and other familiar names like Liam Black (Fifteen), Penny Newman (CafeDirect), Gordon D’Silva (Training for Life), Nigel Lowthrop (Hill Holt Wood)  and Andrew Mawson (Bromley by Bow). Indeed, the only new name to me was that of Sital Punja, who runs Sari UK, a social enterprise “marrying fashion, recycling and international aid”. Interesting stuff…check out the website (though it doesn’t work for me…).

There’s also a report from the conference, a piece about enterprise education, the opportuntities in the food market and care, and an article focusing on the north of England. There’s also a column from Ed Miliband, which is pretty similar to his conference speech; he points out that social enterprise is “pioneering new ways of achieving social change…..and….social enterprise can be another channel for our idealism. It can be a force for dynamism, prosperity – and social justice.” Elsewhere it covers the action plan, the role of government and tax relief. Perhaps the key sentence, which is pulled out as a quote, is “In praising social enterprise, the motivation must not be to palm off responsibility”. Cue cheering from the rafters….

There’s also a top 10 of tips from Unique Social Enterprise CIC…which I’ll try and post up another time.