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Our election coverage moves into Greater Manchester and the constituency of .

This is a seat which the Liberal Democrats are confident of taking.

If so they would defeat Labour's Phil Woolas, a high profile politician who has represented the area since 1997.

This is a divided constituency. The commuter villages of Saddleworth have little in common with the edge of urban Oldham.

In fact some people there would rather be part of Yorkshire.

The racial divisions are more serious. Glodwick in Oldham witnessed race riots back in 2001.

People there say there has been real improvement in terms of racial integration but there's no doubt this remains a highly segregated constituency.

That has wider implications.

For example, two schools are being merged into an academy partly to ensure children from the two communities mix together.

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The shadow Business Secretary is often "good value" and did not disappoint on a campaign stop in Warrington.

Our reporter asked him about the government's financial assistance to Vauxhall, in particular the factory in Ellesmere Port in Cheshire.

Mr Clarke did not say he was opposed to the plan but seemed to raise some major questions over it.

"Was there a good business case? Or were ministers just buying a good photocall?," he asked.

Later Ken Clarke's spokeswoman denied he was referring to Ellesmere Port at all.

Strange to answer a direct question about one place with an answer about somewhere else.

Anyway Labour has already put out a statement defending its business strategy.

Labour's unlikely to be disappointed if this row reminds voters in about the work it has done to protect Vauxhall.

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Where was after launching his party's general election manifesto? To the Vauxhall car plant in Ellesmere Port.

If it was good enough for the prime minster then it's good enough for us.

So the second constituency we are focusing on during the campaign is in Cheshire.

It is a place of contrasts.

The constituency straddles the base of the Wirral peninsula with the River Mersey on one side and the River Dee on the other.

It's always dangerous to generalise but Neston has some small villages and beautiful homes. While Ellesmere Port is more industrial with wider areas of deprivation.

Average life expectancy differs between the two areas by eight years.

No wonder it's the third most polarised constituency in the country.

Before 1992 it was a Conservative seat but it would need a very large 8% swing for the Tories to win it back.

The biggest issue is employment. Industry has given way to commerce, most notably at the Cheshire Oaks shopping centre.

But Vauxhall still employs almost 2,200 people and there's an emotional attachment to the company.

Workers and experts I have spoken to credit Labour with helping the plant survive, hence Gordon Brown's visit.

But there are still plenty of challenges here and I met several younger people who have gone through training but are struggling to find jobs.

Strengthening the constituency's industrial sector is going to be a big challenge for whoever wins.

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Manchester did not make history yesterday but history was made in Manchester.

I did wonder if the country's would be happening around the people of the city rather than engaging directly with them. Would the three men simply wander in and drive out?

In the end it seemed to work better than that. Political visits and police convoys reminded voters that something unusual was happening. People knew about the debate, even if many were not planning to watch it.

Apparently many people living abroad were going to though.

Manchester's Beetham Tower was like a giant transmitter. The media suite was based in the Hilton hotel there and a number of foreign journalists felt it was an event worth global attention.

But I found the spin operation the most revealing.

Just as the leaders were starting to answer the final question, senior politicians began walking into the room to brief journalists on who had won and lost.

If David Cameron had landed a killer punch in the final minute or Nick Clegg had fallen apart, maybe nobody would have noticed.

Peter Mandelson and Douglas Alexander waited until the debate ended and their entrance seemed to spark the most interest.

Curiously they were implying the winner was not Gordon Brown but Nick Clegg. Presumably perceived success for the Liberal Democrat leader would be more damaging to the Tories than Labour.

One older, very polite TV journalist kept whispering to Douglas Alexander: "Excuse me sir, would you mind stepping back? You're blocking the shot of Lord Mandelson."

Unfortunately Douglas Alexander did not seem able to hear him.

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We began our election coverage in Chester because it is Labour's most vulnerable seat in the North West.

Christine Russell was one of those many MPs swept to victory on the Blair landslide.

Unlike many of her colleagues in the region she has decided to stand and fight. But it looks pretty grim for Labour.

The Conservatives have rebuilt their base in the constituency. The party did very well in last year's local elections and their candidate Stephen Mosley is up for the fight. In fact, he does not even bother to disguise his optimism.

The Liberal Democrats say this should be natural territory for them but there's little sign of it at the ballot box.

But what about the rest of the region?

Because of boundary changes the North West is dropping from 74 seats to 72 seats. The region is a Labour fortress, controlling a massive 58 of those constituencies.

If David Cameron wishes to deprive Labour of a Commons majority he must win three seats here from both parties. A total of 10 and the Tory Leader would expect to be the largest party in a hung parliament.

It will take a very impressive performance to win the 19 seats theoretically necessary for a Commons majority.

In fact Hyndburn in East Lancashire requires the exact 6.9% swing required.

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