A guy goes to the doctor…

Nick Clegg gets some lessons in comedy on The Last Leg.

Here’s how it went:

And the Liberal Democrat leader has good reason to smile, according to one new poll.

The Survation poll for the Daily Mirror gives the Lib Dems a three-point boost in a survey of people’s voting intentions.

According to the poll Labour has dropped four points and the Conservatives have dropped one point, while Ukip and the Green Party have gained one point.

NEW: Survation/@DailyMirror (chg vs 17/04) CON 33% (-1); LAB 29% (-4); UKIP 18% (+1); LD 10% (+3); SNP 4% (NC); GRE 4% (+1); AP 1% (-1)

— Survation. (@Survation) April 23, 2015

Nigel Farage on track in South Thanet?

A new poll by Survation, carried out for major Ukip donor Alan Brown, finds that Nigel Farage is on course to win the South Thanet seat with 39 per cent of support, compared to his nearest rival, Conservative Craig Mackinlay, on 30 per cent.

New polling 1,057 residents of the South Thanet constituency polled yesterday: pic.twitter.com/RodytvOmkJ

— Survation. (@Survation) April 23, 2015

In November, a Lord Ashcroft poll found Mr Farage trailing his Conservative counterpart by one point.

If such a turnaround transpires, how has it been achieved? The Survation poll sheds some insight.

The South Thanet "Battleground" Met the candidate? been canvassed? noticed literature? or been phone canvassed: pic.twitter.com/tQ3oNLOOkb

— Survation. (@Survation) April 23, 2015

The polling shows a major effort by Mr Farage’s team to succeed in South Thanet – it suggests Nigel Farage has met as many of South Thanet’s potential voters as the Labour and Conservative candidates combined.

There also appears to be double the effort at knocking on doors and calling voters.

Ed Miliband accused of blaming David Cameron for migrant deaths

A row is brewing this morning over Ed Miliband’s decision to use a foreign policy speech to place some of the blame for migrants deaths in the Mediterranean on David Cameron’s shoulders.

The Conservatives say they are outraged and see it as a “shameful” bid to make political capital out of migrant deaths in the Mediterranean. Liz Truss, the environment secretary, has been doing the media rounds this morning demanding the Labour leader take back his remarks.

Mr Miliband is expected to say use his Chatham house speech at 11 am today to say that the deaths of hundreds of refugees crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa are “in part a direct result” of the Prime Minister’s intervention in Libya.

“The tragedy is that this could have been anticipated,” he is due to say, the day after Mr Cameron attended an emergency EU summit to deal with the escalating situation.

“Since the action, the failure of post-conflict planning has become obvious. David Cameron was wrong to assume that Libya’s political culture and institutions could be left to evolve and transform on their own.

“It should have been avoided. And Britain could have played its part in ensuring the international community stood by the people of Libya in practice rather than standing behind the unfounded hopes of potential progress only in principle.”

Douglas Alexander, Labour’s shadow Foreign Secretary, said the Conservatives are manufacturing a row and said David Cameron had “abjectly failed” to engage in effective post-conflict planning.

Today on the campaign trail

We’ve got David Cameron is with William Hague in Lincoln this morning talking about EVEL – English Votes for English Laws.

They are saying that under a Conservative government legislation would be in place in 100 days of a new Government. The Conservatives want to give MPs for English seats a veto on issues which only affect England.

George Osborne is visiting the Midlands again talking about business.

Ed Miliband is giving his now much anticipated foreign policy speech at Chatham House at 11.

For the Lib Dems Danny Alexander is giving a speech in Aberdeen on the risks to the economy after the election and Nick Clegg is off to a pub in Sheffield.

No news yet of the Ukpi campaign trail, but we’ll keep you posted.

What is Ed Miliband actually going to say?

• Georgia Graham georgia.graham@itn.co.uk

Everyone is very angry this morning about what Ed Miliband may or may not say this morning about David Cameron’s responsibility, direct or indirect, for the deaths of thousands of migrants in the Med.

Last night it was briefed that he will say this:

He will say the refugee crisis and tragic scenes this week in the Mediterranean are in part a direct result of the failure of post conflict planning for Libya.

David Cameron was wrong to assume that Libya’s political culture and institutions could be left to evolve and transform on their own.

The tragedy is this should have been anticipated, it could have been avoided.

The Conservatives seem particularly upset (or at least election upset) about the “direct result” comment and the decision to mention the Conservative leader by name in this context.

Labour peer Stewart Wood is sharing this extract, the “direct result” comment is conspicuously missing.

Are election primed politicians grown up enough to discuss foreign policy?

• Georgia Graham georgia.graham@itn.co.uk

The rest of the world can’t just be put on hold while Britain works its way through a slow, catty and at times quite laborious election campaign, and so politicians will have to talk about it.

But as today’s row over Ed Miliband’s apparent plan to place some of the responsibility for the deaths in the Mediterranean on David Cameron’s shoulders it’s a dangerous thing to play politics with.

Ed Miliband is accused of putting “direct” blame for the deaths of migrants on David Cameron’s shoulders and now Conservative MPs and ministers are using this is clear proof the Labour leader is unfit to be PM.

Last week Lindsey Hilsum wrote and interesting blog on why foreign policy has become the ignored debate of the 2015 election.

In it she says politicians are refusing to engage with the big global issues we face: Is the balance of forces in the British military right for the 21st century? Is there really nothing we can do about the unfolding tragedy in Syria? Could we at least admit a few more Syrian refugees?

Now instead of talking about the horror of thousands and thousands of people drowning just miles from Europe’s shoreline the conversation has turned to  a spat between two party leaders.

Can the trauma of thousands really be about which politician is able to claim the moral authority in the run up to a British election? Because whoever wins people in the Mediterranean are likely to still be drowning.

David Cameron: If we don’t have EVEL resentment will fester in the UK

David Cameron is saying that EVEL is not about “fragmenting the UK”, he says, it is not about pulling apart.

Instead he says that if a solution is not found for a re-balancing of influence on issues that affect England alone resentment “fester” and will undermine “the bonds and fellow feeling” which is the basis of Britain.

He says that the plans today give English MPs the decisive vote on issues that affect England while maintaining an “essential parity with the rest of the UK”.

Danny Alexander responds to the famous treasury note

• Georgia Graham georgia.graham@itn.co.uk

Danny Alexander has written his own reply to the famous note Labour’s Liam Byrne left in the Treasury in 2010 saying: I’m afraid there is no money. Kind regards – and good luck!”

We’ve all learnt something important here. Our chief secretary to the treasury has really bad handwriting.

My year three English teacher would be truly shocked by that effort.

David Cameron: Ed Miliband’s claims about Med migrants were ‘ill judged’

David Cameron is asked about Ed MIliband’s comments on his “direct” responsibility for the deaths in the Mediterranean, he says the comments were “ill judged”.

He says he has learnt as Prime Minister that it is “very important in a dangerous and uncertain world that you show clarity, consistency and strength on these foreign policy issues”

“Frankly people will look at these ill-judged remarks and they will reach their own conclusions,” he adds.

More generally he adds: “Let me deal first of all with the tragic situation in the Mediterranean, the loss of life has been appalling and it is right that we act.

“Yesterday at the European council meeting I proposed HMS Bulwark the Royal Navy’s flagship and cutters to come and help and important work done by helicopters, so that we play, as Britain always does, our full role in helping out with this very,very difficult very, very pressing issue.”

Ed Miliband is speaking

He attacks the “small-minded isolationism” which he says has defined the Conservative government.

He says the financial crash has left nations around the world diminished with countries finding it hard to act on their own to the threats from around the world.

Their “capacity and willingness to respond internationally has been dimmed”, he adds.

Those Ed Miliband comments on the Mediterranean crisis in full

He has made those comments about David Cameron, although its not quite what was briefed and it was not quite what the Conservatives were so outraged about. He talks about David Cameron’s shared responsibility for the failure of “post conflict planning” in Libya, but he doesn’t directly link that failure to deaths in the Med.

Here they are:

“Now these global trends are unavoidable, that’s true, but the crucial truth that we must acknowledge is that the difficult Britain faces in navigating its new global order I believe is being made far worse than decisions our own government has made.

“My case is that David Cameron has presided over the biggest loss of influence for out country in a generation. And that has happened because the Government he leads has stepped away from the world rather than confidently towards it.

“I believe it is an approach that has shrunk our influence and weakened Britain and the evidence for that is all around us, take the situation of Russia and Ukraine. Was there ever a more apt symbol of Britain’s isolation and waning influence than when David Cameron was absent as the leaders of Germany and France tried to negotiate peace with president Putin.

“And we have seen it this week with regards to the crisis unfolding in the Mediterranean. In Libya Labour supported action to avoid the slaughter and stop the Gaddafi  regime, the threats they made to Benghazi, but since the action the failure of post conflict planning has been obvious.

“David Cameron was wrong to assume that Libya was a country who’s institutions could simply be left to evolve and transform themselves. What we have seen in Libya is when tensions over power and resource began to emerge they simply reinforced deep seated ideological and ethnic fault lines in the country, meaning the hopes of the revolutionary uprisings quickly began to unravel.

“The tragedy is this could have been anticipated and ti should have been avoided. And Britain could have played its part in ensuring that the international community stood by the people of Libya in practice rather than standing behind the unfounded hopes of potential progress only in principal.”

William Hague: A new low in opportunism from Ed Miliband

William Hague , the former foreign secretary who is now leader of the house, is still responding with fury describing it as: “a new low in opportunism from Ed Miliband”.

Despite the Conservatives making hay with the expected comments Mr Miliband’s actual speech (see the below post) was far less inflammatory than it had been briefed.

The question is was it ever going to directly blame David Cameron or was it over egged in the briefings to hacks last night?

Ed Miliband denies he suggests David Cameron is responsible for Mediterranean deaths

“I think the international community as a whole including our government bears some responsibility for the crisis we see in Libya, I think that is undeniable and I have to be clear with you like that anyone who looks at the issue of post conflict planning in Libya knows that it wasn’t properly done.”

Not quite a clear answer. He is pushed again on what responsibility David Cameron should take for the migrant crisis.

“On the specific issue of the crisis that you see in Libya I think the British government along with other governments didn’t engage in the proper post conflict planning and that is in part the cause of some of the issues we see taking place in Libya,” he says.

“As for the people trafficking that is taking place and the people trafficking of people onto boats and all of that, of course, it is the people traffickers that bear responsibility for that.”

Again he is asked: Do you hold David Cameron personally responsible for what is happening int he Mediterranean. He says the ” tragic scenes of people drowning in the Mediterranean” is “the result of the people traffickers.”

According to journalists who are in the press conference the questions are getting tougher. He is asked if he has implied David Cameron has blood on his hands over migrant crisis?

“I think anyone who reads my speech knows that is just very wide of the mark. I’m making a very important point I believe about post-conflict planning in Libya.”

He is then asked if he has politicised the tragedy:

“Nonsense. No”

Vote Name Surname!

This was posted to voters in East Ham on behalf of Conservative candidate Samir Jassal.

It begins well, “A personal message from Samir Jassal”.

But the end rather lets it down: “For a strong and effective MP who will be accountable to you, vote Name Surname on 7th May.”

Beauly Firth: The SNPs march on the Lib Dems

• Matthew Moore Producer

Beauly Firth

The SNP surge in Scotland is being felt on both sides of the Beauly Firth that separates Inverness from Ross and Cromarty. It also sits on the boundary of Charles Kennedy and Danny Alexander’s constituencies.

Nick Clegg’s party face near extinction here. If polls are right their 11 MPs will be whittled to one after the election. Channel 4 News is here because Lib Dem safe seats like these are no longer safe. These political heavyweights face a fight for survival against an SNP.

These locals explain why.

Yes there are those like Jim Prentice. He’s had much success racing his 1973 Contessa 32 up the firth. He says he’s “disgusted with himself” for deciding last year to give up on a life time of voting Labour. The Labour party’s roots run through his family tree. His great grandfather was a friend of its founder Keir Hardie.

But there’s another story. From her shop overlooking the Firth Susan Phillips can watch dolphins fishing all summer long. She’s says she’s “swithering,” a Scots word for “undecided”. In 2010 she voted for Danny Alexander but this time she’s tempted by Nicola Sturgeon’s offering – except, that is, the “independence stuff”.

On the campaign trail the SNP candidate meets a retired voter who whispers to me that he voted for Danny Alexander last time, and sums up the sentiment you hear a lot around the parts. “He’s done a good job for this area but maybe he’s got too much on his plate?”

On Monday Jon Snow will be here talking to the people about the political revolution that extends from Ayreshire to Inverness. Tune in.

Conservatives criticise Ed Miliband for not raising issue of Libya in Parliament

Meanwhile Douglas Alexander, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary, has been on the World at One trying to explain why Ed MIliband has only raised the issue once. He says that it is his role as shadow foreign secretary to raise it and he has done many times.

Michael Crick: What’s that egg shaped egg then?

• Michael Crick Political Correspondent

A colourful interlude fro Michael Crick who is in Lincoln where the Prime Minister gave his speech on English votes for English laws this morning. 

To the centre of Lincoln, which is said to be Britain’s oldest parliamentary constituency.  I love the ancient centre of Lincoln, which must be one of the few English cities based on a hill.  I can’t get enough of the majestic cathedral towering over the county; the castle; the medieval streets; and lots of nice pubs, restaurants and shops.  During voxpops my producer Tim found a talkative butcher, Ken Roberts, who’s run his shop near the cathedral for 25 years now.

Surveying the produce on his counter, amid the various Lincolnshire cheeses, I spotted a large white egg-like object.  “What’s that egg-shape?” I enquired.  “A cheese?”

“No,” I was told.  “Haven’t you seen an  ostrich egg before?”

Worse still, the exchange was all filmed on camera.

Mandelson says he wants to see Ed Miliband out on the soapboxes

• Michael Crick Political Correspondent

Ed Miliband behind a lectern today, but Lord Mandelson says he should get out on the soapbox more

Our old colleague Elinor Goodman rings to tell me that Peter Mandelson has just been talking to pupils at Pewsey School in Wiltshire where she is a governor.  Afterwards Mandelson agreed to speak on camera to the regional BBC programme Points West.  In his interview, the former Labour spin-doctor urged Ed Miliband to get out on his soap-box and show voters the kind of person he is.

I’ve been urging Miliband and Cameron to do that for several days now.  But they’d better hurry up.  Only one can do it, and the other would look they they were copying.  And it’s almost getting to the stage, though, where to do so might look like a last-minute panic measure.

First ever Hindi song composed for David Cameron, and it’s absurdly catchy

• Georgia Graham georgia.graham@itn.co.uk

Well this is my favourite election song so far. That chorus is properly catchy, I can’t get the darn thing out of my head. Cameron should come out to his next speech to this.

It’s by the Conservative Friends of India and is a Hindi especially composed for the General Election 2015 – which they claim is a first in British election history.

The video encourages 1.6 million British Indians to support David Cameron.

As one commentator put it it’s “hideously catchy” … we just need a translation of the words now. Can any one offer one?

Here are some other political songs from the campaign and beyond.

This Liberal Democrat mash up bemused some viewers

The Green Party’s Westminster elite boyband split opinion

The Ukip Calypso drew ire from critics and an apology from DJ Mike Read

It’s Maggie For Me! debuted a the 1983 Conservative party conference

Nigel Farage says he wasn’t at his best in the debates

He has told Sky News that he would agree with commentators who said he was not at his best during the TV debates. Mr Farage drew criticism after he appeared to go out of his way to attack foreign HIV sufferers who use the NHS and to accuse a BBC audience of being biased against him.

This week on Channel 4 News he agreed he’s been a bit wonky in recent weeks but he’s got his “vim and vigour” back for the last weeks of the campaign.

Nigel Farage: I want David Cameron as PM so I can hold his feet to the fire

Chuka Umunna’s FAF circle keeps him grounded

In an interesting interview with The Guardian Labour’s shadow business secretary has talked, rather a lot, about the importance of being grounded.

He says he has a FAF phone for Friends and Family so they can contact him and keep him grounded. “There is a danger in believing your own hype,” he says.

He also gives and intriguing answer to his leadership ambitions: “You have just got to keep your feet firmly on the ground and that’s why I don’t really indulge in that chat.” Which is not a no.

He also said he would bring Conservative Michael Heseltine in as an adviser in a future Labour government on city regeneration.

Social media election

• Georgia Graham georgia.graham@itn.co.uk

The Conservatives are being mocked quite widely on Twitter for this attempt at a “down with the kids” Tweet warning of an SNP / Labour deal;.

It does seem a little laboured.

(And that wasn’t even an intentional pun.)

Michael Crick: Will David Miliband come back and campaign for his brother?

• Michael Crick Political Correspondent

David Miliband has just tweeted that he’s “proud to have voted Labour”, and has attached to his tweet a photo of an prepaid envelope which presumably contains his postal ballot.  So I tweeted back asking whether he plans to come back to Britain before 7 May to campaign for Labour.

It’s a legitimate question.  It would be very odd surely for David Miliband not to return for a few days to support his brother, and to help the party he once hoped to lead himself.  Perhaps David Miliband would be worried about overshadowing his younger sibling, but surely Ed Miliband has done enough by now to establish his own independent reputation with the British public.

David Miliband is a Labour star, and as the party keeps telling supporters and members, they need all the help they  can get.

We could see both David Cameron and Ed Miliband as Prime Ministers in the next five years.

• Krishnan Guru-Murthy Presenter

With HSBC citing uncertainty as one of the reasons they’re thinking of moving their headquarters from Britain it is worth considering how long the uncertainty could go on.

As Labour are still baulking at the idea of a deal with Nicola Sturgeon could the idea of a Grand Coalition be less far fetched than it once seemed? Obviously a formal coalition is absurd, but in the event David Cameron wins the most seats but not enough to form a majority with the Liberal Democrats would Ed Miliband really bring them down?

Constitutionally he’d be within his rights to attempt a minority government deal with the SNP. But he’d face fury over his legitimacy as Prime Minister from day one. He might therefore calculate that it is better to be seen putting country before party, saying Cameron has won the right to attempt a government and support his Queen’s Speech.

The Tories would then have to massively compromise on what they attempted to do. There’d be no question of a Europe referendum and those £12 billion welfare cuts would be off the table. Miliband would then be praised for having done the statesmanlike thing, and could save his leadership in the face of defeat, ready to spring and defeat the Conservatives whenever he wants.

At some point he could bring Cameron to a standstill, effectively forcing him to give up and then be the man who rode to Britain’s rescue forming a minority government to lead the country from crisis. If I was game planning the Labour strategy I think that would make sense.

We could easily see both David Cameron and Ed Miliband as Prime Ministers in the next five years. And that’s before we even start thinking about Boris Johnson and Chuka Umunna.

Jon Snow challenges David Cameron on migrant deaths

Watch the interview in full tonight at 7pm, Channel 4

Ed Miliband has a strict two kiss limit

… but a seemingly unlimited capacity for selfies.

Are you the girl that dumped David Cameron after a game of tennis?

Why me? David Cameron got dumped the last time her went to Frinton on Sea

The Prime Minister is in Frinton to launch his east of England campaign. He;s got painful memories of the place, 33 years ago young Dave came here on holiday – and got dumped.

He told the audience: “I worked out on the bus today I haven’t been in Frinton for 33 years.

“I remember it well, I was staying with my girlfriend’s family at the time, I had had a lovely game of tennis, I had been for a swim – I thought, how perfect life could be in Frinton,” he said. “And she dumped me.”

Vince Cable: The country would be better off under a grand coaltion

Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Vince Cable about the election confusion that is starting to make business jittery.

He says if the two major parties were less tribal and able to cooperate with each other the country would benefit from having a so called grand coaltion (two largest political parties of opposing political ideologies unite to form a government.

“You know nothing Jon Snow”: David Cameron indulges in some Game of Thrones geekery

Tories gnawing the Lib Dem lifebelt

• Gary Gibbon Political Editor

Tories do indeed seem to have all but given up on cracking the nut of Labour seats. Birmingham Northfield still gets talked about, as does Halifax. But others like Southampton Itchen and Newcastle-under-Lyme, where a lot of Tory money has been spent, now look out of reach, a Tory source tells me.

Tories insist that some Lib Dem seats they thought were out of reach – like North Devon, Colchester and Kingston – might be gettable. But the problem here is that the Tories are in danger of desperately gnawing through the very lifebelt they may need after 7 May. Put that to senior Tories and they acknowledge the problem but feel they can do no other.

Read Gary Gibbon’s blog

David Cameron speaks to Jon Snow on migrant deaths, cuts and skunk

• Jon Snow Presenter

Jon Snow and David Cameron discuss skunk and mental health

• Jon Snow Presenter

Election 2015: is it too late to talk foreign policy?

• Michael Crick Political Correspondent

Here’s a view on education you won’t find anywhere in Westminster

Tom Gill – a spoken word artist and actor from Salford – gives us his personal view on a key election issue – education and tuition fees.