Three months ago I attended a meeting in Manchester of the Mayors For Peace working group. One of the people at that meeting was Councillor Bill Risby, who sadly died yesterday .
I'm pretty much at a loss to know what to say as Bill and his family have been part of my life for over 30 years.
Bill devoted his life to the labour and trade union movement. He was , right until the time of his death, a passionate advocate for peace and an instigator of the Nuclear Free Zone movement. He was a former Lord Mayor of Manchester, a hard-working Labour councillor in north Manchester for over 40 years, and a committed family man . Above all, he was a fundamentally decent person who I would always refer to when people asked me why I stayed loyal to Labour. We used to joke that the Party had moved so far to the right that he had somehow ended up on the "left." But he remained loyal to Labour and remained hopeful that one day his brand of moderate socialism would win the day. Many of the great and good in Manchester have been paying tribute today. I'm just glad that I knew him for so long - and will always remember him with great affection. Two days before he died, he sent me a message of support for my campaign in Keighley. That will stay on record as a tribute to the support he showed me through decades of political and personal friendship. It won't be forgotten
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