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.

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

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.

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.

The choice between a Labour government and a Tory one is sharpening minds.

I will take a short time out from being in Parliament when the baby is born but I'll still be doing my constituency work - just with another baby in tow.

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