General election 2010: Newly-formed Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition to compete in Huddersfield and Colne Valley
Apr 17 2010 by Barry Gibson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner
Clr Grunsell said: “I don’t think Labour is a left-wing party any more. They might have a handful of left-wing candidates running elsewhere in the country, but certainly not in the Colne Valley.
“We’ve seen Tory policies from this Labour government. Voting for any of the three main parties will be voting for the status quo.”
In Huddersfield TUSC will be represented by Paul Cooney, an NHS worker from Edgerton.
Along with Clr Grunsell, he will be drumming up support by speaking in Market Place at 12.30pm today.
He said: “We have to campaign in a different way because we don’t have the funds that other parties have. We’ll be holding rallies on the streets and knocking on doors. We’re also using new media to get our message across.”
Mr Cooney, who is being helped by around 25 activists during the campaign, has been a member of two other political parties in Huddersfield in the past.
He explained his political journey: “I came to Huddersfield in 1991 and joined the Labour Party. By 1997 I was chair of Paddock Labour Party but I left two months before the general election when Gordon Brown said he would stick to Tory spending plans.
“I saw that Labour was more interested in winning re-election than making radical change.”
In 2003 Mr Cooney joined the Greens.
He said: “I was quite impressed with a lot of Green policies – I’m still happy with some of them today.
“I was chosen as the party’s Parliamentary candidate for Huddersfield but I left the party six months later in 2008. I wasn’t impressed with the Greens forming alliances with conservative regimes in places like Ireland and Germany.
“At council level in England – including in Kirklees – they were forming coalitions with the Conservatives.”
Mr Cooney, who is a member of the Radical Action Network, hopes others will follow him in to TUSC.
He said: “There are many good people in the Greens and Labour and I would hope to get their support.”
