Comic Steve still wants to change the world

Partridge star talks Co-ops, Kneecap and Oasis on town hall visit

- BY DAMON WILKINSON

STEVE Coogan is reading the menu in the grand surroundings of Rochdale town hall.

“I'll have the cheese and onion pie - stick to my roots,” he says with a grin and tongue ever-so-slightly in cheek.

But the Alan Partridge and Philomena star is not visiting the birthplace of cooperation just to try the local delicacy.

He's here because he wants to talk about how he believes cooperatives can change the world.

Later that day the Middleton-raised comedian will give a talk at the 155th UK Coop Congress.

That's because the 59-year-old has recently become an ambassador for local coop Middleton Cooperating. And after years of disillusionment with politics, the Oscar-nominated actor says it has reinvigorated his belief in the power of people to change things for the better.

“Half my family still live in Middleton so I became involved in (local community centre) the Lighthouse Project and it helped me lose my cynicism towards local people being able to change their circumstances,” he said.

“I saw how the people who used it and ran it treated each other with respect and how it led to them improving their quality of life.

“That galvanised me and made me start looking at the whole notion of bottom up politics.”

From there Coogan, who grew up in Alkrington in the late 60s and 70s and attended Cardinal Langley High School, got involved with Middleton Cooperating. The group

has recently opened an arts centre, has set up a tenants union for people with housing problems and wants to establish a community-run energy company.

“The way things are set up at the moment the economy just doesn’t work for people,” said Middleton Cooperating volunteer Mark Fraser, as he sits alongside Coogan and explains the group’s goals.