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

Funding for sports (and the arts) are often the first things facing the chop in difficult times.

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

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.

These are tough times and under this Tory-led government many people in Manchester are suffering and getting left behind. If elected I will use all my energy, skills, experience and knowledge to stand up for our communities and get things done for the better.

Indeed, when all parties campaign effectively the overall effect is to push up voting rates, as you see in tight marginal seats or close general elections. That must be good for democracy.

Connecting people to jobs and to each other is absolutely vital to a city's economy (and to the wider economy).