TUSC Profile: Hull West and Hessel
HE'S fighting a lone battle as the only Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidate standing in any of the region's parliamentary seats.
But Paul Spooner isn't daunted in the slightest.
Campaigning on a relatively shoestring budget, the 63-year- old part-time youth worker from Hull has been enjoying himself.
"It's been absolutely great so far. Even after slogging at it for hours on end, there's always someone you meet who restores your faith in what you're doing. The other night I was just finishing leafleting and feeling absolutely knackered when I bumped into a woman who remembered me from the days when I was managing a band. I told her what I was doing and she said, 'We need people like you as an alternative choice to the other parties.' That gave me a real buzz."
A long-standing community activist in the city, Paul's political roots go back to the 1970s.A former Militant supporter, he's now a member of the Socialist Party and is proud of his left-wing credentials, which mirror the ideals of the coalition he is representing in Hull West and Hessle."TUSC is firmly anti-austerity and anti-cuts," he said.
"In a place like Hull, it's easy to see how the austerity measures have really hit people hard. Personally, I don't think cities like Hull have ever really recovered from Thatcherism, but what has happened over the last five years, particular with the welfare cuts, is appalling. As an example, I can't think of anything worse than benefit sanctions.”
“What has made it worse here is that our Labour council just seems to have gone along with it all without standing up and fighting back. As a youth worker, I've seen funding being cut for some really great projects, which have sadly had to close. The Rights and Participation Project and the Two-Wheels Centre in Chapman Street are just two examples, which did some great work for many years. Now they're gone. They just seem to have been dropped on the basis of cost rather than need and that saddens me."
He is also standing in the city council elections in Boothferry ward, while fellow TUSC candidate Peter Marsh is contesting Newington ward. TUSC is fielding 100 parliamentary candidates across the country. Each one has pledged to take only the average manufacturing workers' wage in their respective area, should they get elected.
"In my case, that would work out around a third of what an MP would normally get as an allowance," said Paul."As a party, we've said the rest would go to good charitable causes. It's something else that sets us apart from the rest at Westminster these days."You couldn't fit a cig paper between them and their policies."
