I'm honoured to have been selected to be the Labour candidate for Manchester Central.

At its most basic the democratic contract is a simple one: the right to vote comes with a responsibility to society, through tax payments and citizenship.

Team GB's success at the Beijing Olympics can, in part, be said to have been made in Manchester. For example, all the cycling medal winners trained at Manchester's velodrome, the National Cycling Centre.

Surely, the best and most effective measure is to get the economy moving and shorten the period of recession or slowdown. That's the rationale for Gordon Brown's "fiscal stimulus" and it sounds like a good one to me.

As a relatively young woman - I'm 33 - I hope to one day have a family and already have commitments. If and when I'm elected as an MP, I would face a choice: take my family with me to London each week or be apart for four, maybe five, nights a week.

When the heart stops for one beat it is desire, when it stops for one life time it is love

Sixteen- and 17-year-olds pay taxes and can join the army, so surely they should in turn be given their right to vote.