I don't need to be looking at every failure of government I need to be looking where failure of government needs reform.

America traditionally represents the greatest possibility of someone's going from nothing to something. Why? In theory if not practice the government stays out of the way and lets individuals take risks and reap rewards or accept the consequences of failure. We call this capitalism - or at least we used to.

The banking collapse was caused more than anything by bad government policy and the total failure of bad regulation rather than by greed.

If Liberia has failed then it is no evidence of the failure of the Negro in government. It is merely evidence of the failure of slavery.

Past experience with fiscal austerity at home and overseas strongly suggests that it is best for the economy's long-run performance to restrain government spending rather than raise taxes.

When they call the slightest spending reductions 'painful' we will say 'If government spending prevents pain why are we suffering so much of it?' And 'If you want to experience real pain just stay on the track we are on.'

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.

We can not continue to allow this over reliance on government to replace the cornerstone institution that has made the American experience possible.

Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent.

And think of how we challenged the idea of a male dominated Parliament with All-Women shortlists and made the cause of gender equality central to our government. We were right to do so.