PARLIAMENTARY SELECTION IN CALDER VALLEY

Tomorrow I am going to spend most of the day holed up in a leisure centre in Halifax while my constituency decides who will be the candidate at the next General Election. Calder Valley, with a majority of around 1500, will be a very difficult one to win next time. But with the right candidate - it's not impossible. We need someone who can enthuse activists, capture the imaginations of the voters and work extremely hard for the next two years clawing back the ground we have lost round here thanks to issues like Iraq, our policy on Trident, tuition fees and indeed the total collapse of the New Labour project. We also need a candidate who will campaign against privatisation of local welfare services, campaign for a living wage and more social housing in the Calder Valley, and stop the march of the BNP .

In short, we need a committed socialist who can relate wider policy themes to the day to day needs of people coping with the double whammy of rising prices and falling wages.

That person is Janet Oosthuysen - nominated by five local Branches and the Co-operative Party. Janet is also endorsed by John McDonnell MP and ex Halifax MP Alice Mahon. She is pictured campaigning earlier this year on the issue of low wages . Good luck tomorrow!