07/09/2014 North West Tonight

That is all of the sport. Thank you. That's it from us, we are back

Good evening. Tributes are being paid

to the Labour MP for Heywood and Middleton Jim Dobbin,

who's died suddenly at the age of 73.

He'd represented the constituency since 1997.

In my view, that's absolutely outrageous. Jim Dobbin was on a trip

to Poland with the parliamentary committee when he died. He was due

to fly home today. The 73`ydar`old is a microbiologist by thred decades

before becoming a Rochdale Council, and eventually securing the Heywood

and Middleton seat of the 1897 election. He was a forthright man,

never afraid there were afr`id to speak his mind. On occasion, he had

to take on the party itself, but he did what he believed was right that

the people of Heywood and Mhddleton, and he was a fantastic honotr

outstanding local MP. The MP was a committed Roman Catholic, and in

2008, he was made a Papal Knight by Pope Benedict.

Mr Dobbin with the local MP for Fusilier Lee Rigby, the soldier who

was murdered in bullets last year. One of the first phone calls I

received after the tragic ddath of Lee was from Jim Dobbin, expressing

his sorrows for the family. He was always there for me, and he made

great inroads into making the family feel secure in their outcomds in the

future. He was a great supporter of the family. MPs and colleagtes from

both sides have been paying tribute today.

The Labour leader Ed Miliband said Jim Dobbin was a dedicated public

servant with a passion for helping others. The Foreign Office `re

providing assistance to his family. Thousands of people cheered

on some of the best cyclists in the world as the Tour of Britain

got underway in Liverpool today More than 100 riders did

eight laps of the city, starting at the Liver Buildhng,

then out to Sefton Park and back. Claire Fallon was there

for the 'Grand Depart'. It might not have the profile

of its French counterpart. The streets of Liverpool packed

for the first stage I love cycling, the kids love

cycling, so it is great. Wh`t is the atmosphere like? Who have you been

looking out for? Mark Cavendish and we go. , secondly. You make it sound

like he is a consolation prhze! He is, really.

Sir Bradley Wiggins, mobbed by fans as he arrived.

Do you guys cheering on tod`y? It's a bit hard, because he loves

Cavendish. He is 47, his hero is half his age! I am with the Team Sky

boys all the way, so badly. With eight laps around Liverpool,

that at least meant eight goes But come the end,

it wasn't Wiggo or Cavendish... ..but Marcel Kittel who madd

the best of the sprint finish. And, of course,

there is another winner. The crowds have come out in their

thousands as usual, and to see the images of the city, right across the

nation and internationally, is just great for us.

Tomorrow the Tour moves on `s they race from Knowsley to North Wales.

And you can get the best coverage of the second stage of

the Tour of Britain as it ldaves Merseyside tomorrow

from Tony Snell at Breakfast and throughout the day

700 people have re`created the mass enlisting of workers

from a Wirral factory at the start of the First World War.

In 1914, the staff at Lever Brothers in Port Sunlhght

travelled from the village to Chester to sign up for

the 13th Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment.

It was the biggest contingent from a single workplace in the country and

Those 700 men signed up to the 3th Battalion, which was very mtch a

Powles' battalion. They worked together in the factory, thdy lived

together in the village, and they also socialise together, so the

removal of that significant number of people must have had enormous

effect on both factory life and also village life, and, of coursd, many

never came back. The last two remaining airborne

Lancaster bombers were in the skies over the Lake District

this afternoon. The flypast over Brockhole near

Windermere was in memory of local man Archie Johnston, who was in the

original 'Dambusters' 617 Spuadron. He passed away in April and today

would have been his 100th bhrthday. In Superleague this afternoon,

Widnes won away at Bradford 32` 2, and Salford beat bottom`of`the`table

London Broncos by 58 points to 6 Let's get to K Forster, now, who has

the weather. Good evening. A fabulous dax today.

Blue skies that of Britain, and we are in for Simla weather for the

next stage. It looks like another fine day. Not a lot changes for the

rest of the day and overnight. We stay dry, clear skies for a time,

and temperatures will be falling quite quickly. Blows down to around

four or 5 degrees in some rtral spots by the morning. Some list and

fog around first thing as wdll, but that clears quite quickly through

the morning, and it will be another fine day. Fairweather cloud here and

there, but many of us stayed right and sunny all day, and with light

winds, temperatures around 06 or 17 Celsius. Shouldn't feel too bad at

all. We stay dry, but fairly cloudy, for the rest

of the week. That is it frol the. Goodbye.

Good evening. Most of us had a lovely end to the weekend but the

exception was the north-east of Scotland. It was cold, wet and windy

but the low responsible is now moving away and we have high

pressure moving its way in from the West. The pressure is rising all the

while over the next few days which will settle things down nicely and

it will be dry pretty much all week. But the forecasting headache will be

the amount of cloud. The next few hours will still be pretty wet and

windy in the north-east of Scotland but through