Image source, @nick_clegg/PA

BBC picture editor Phil Coomes has compiled the top campaign photos from today so far.

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It’s time for your early team of Alex Stevenson and Victoria King to wrap up after another alarmingly hectic day of campaigning. Surely they can’t keep up this pace for another 37 days? Here’s some of the things we’ve learned today:

• The living standards debate is continuing to rage despite new positive economic figures (10.09 and 14.21)
• Plaid Cymru will not prop up a government that supports the renewal of Britain’s nuclear weapons (09.26)
• Nigel Farage does think immigration should be capped after all – his figure is, roughly speaking, 30,000 (12.35)
• Joey Essex thinks Nick Clegg’s party is called the Liberal Democats – prompting an instant name change (11.43 and 15.33)
• The prime minister thinks Harry Styles is the most attractive member of One Direction (06.51)

There is much, much more actually – the only reasonable thing to do is to go back through every single post we’ve written today. And then carry on reading until midnight, of course, in the capable hands of Tim Fenton and Brian Wheeler.

tweets:, external . @Plaid_Cymru, external correct, #Wales, external gets £351 less govt cash per head than #Scotland, external , but still more than #England, external . All considerably less than #NI, external

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Not everyone, it’s fair to say, has been impressed by the Conservatives’ election campaign thus far. Writing in today’s Independent, external, Steve Richards says David Cameron would have been “taken aback” if he’d been told he’d be fighting this campaign the way he is. “Perhaps he is very slightly taken aback now, which is partly why he inadvertently spoke of his retirement, and performed awkwardly, during the Paxman interrogation,” he writes. Lobbyist Peter Bingle goes much further, attacking the Tories’ broader campaign as “terrible” and “shambolic” in a blog for Total Politics, external. “Not to win a majority against Gordon Brown was bad enough. Not to win a majority against Ed Miliband, a man who makes Michael Foot look normal, would be unforgivable.”

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There's been lots of economic news today. Here's the lead story written by our business colleagues, featuring analysis from Robert Peston.

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Image source, Lib Dems

Election campaigns have a habit of flirting with celebrity... This one is proving to be no different. This morning the Liberal Democrats welcomed Joey Essex into their news conference with open arms. The reality TV star is apparently making a programme in which he learns about politics, and who better to teach him than the deputy prime minister? Although apparently he thought Nick Clegg had the title of 'the Commander' and was actually called 'Nick Leg'. Those mistakes rectified, they seemed to get on like a house on fire. What is more, in an interview with the BBC afterwards the always fashionable Joey Essex revealed that looks-wise Nick Clegg was "alright". For a politician that seems like quite an accolade from one of the perma-tanned stars of the 'Only Way is Essex'.

Mr Clegg watched the video on board the party's battle bus and said it showed Joey to be "a man of taste". One thing did threaten this bromance though... Joey thought the Liberal Democrats were called the Liberal Demo-cats. However, the party have embraced this new view of politics. They've changed the party's name for the day on their website complete with a new feline logo.

Joey might well view that as 'reem'... Whatever that means.

Image source, AP

Nigel Farage swept in and out of a blustery press call in the shadow of the white cliffs of Dover. The UKIP leader - helped along by a backdrop of party activists - unveiled a poster attacking the Conservatives' record on immigration, in response to which the Tories said UKIP’s policy was in “chaos”. An initially well-behaved press pack soon descended into a gentle scrum, with Mr Farage directed towards one camera than another for a series of interviews. He announced new target immigration figures, was challenged over his views on migrants with long-term illnesses and set an ambitious timeframe to get immigration down. Then time for a coffee – not a pint – in a local pub before Mr Farage was whisked away again. A picturesque media opportunity, but one that revealed little more about UKIP’s immigration policy other than the obvious fact it’s central to their campaign. The symbolic location, with the shadow of France on the horizon, was deliberately chosen by Team UKIP to keep Britain’s relationship with the continent at the forefront of people’s minds. Although – perhaps ironically – it also caused some mobile phones to switch to French networks in order to function.

Politicians are getting away with awkward questions about the internet, Baroness Martha Lane Fox said in her Dimbleby lecture last night. "Politicians and business leaders are getting away with all this because you're not asking the tricky questions," she said. "No more about the price of milk - what about the price of broadband?" Our technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones has written a blog about the issue he suggests should be much, much higher up the political agenda as he asks: Will it be a tech election?

Daily Politics
Live on BBC Two

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The UK state is "relatively large compared to the overall size of the economy" says Mike Jakeman, of the Economic Intelligence Unit. He was speaking to Jo Coburn on the Daily Politics about how Britain shaped up alongside other economies. Watch the interview

Reality Check

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David Cameron says the coalition has created 1,000 jobs a day since it took office in 2010, a total of 1.9 million jobs. Is this correct, asks Sebastian Chrispin?

The first thing to note is that the best available figures relate to the number of people in employment, not the number of jobs. That’s important. Some people may have more than one job for example. And some statisticians say that you shouldn’t use employment as a measure of job creation.

If you divide the increase in the number of people in work by the number of days this government has been in office, then you get an answer of roughly 1,066.

This is, of course, just an illustration of how employment has increased. It is not an accurate reflection of when jobs have been created over the course of this parliament. Nor does it take into account unemployment figures.

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Image source, Getty Images

Today’s papers feature some rather scathing comments from the BBC’s Andrew Marr, who wasn’t very impressed with Jeremy Paxman’s technique, external in last week’s Battle For Number 10 programme. The ex-Newsnight presenter’s approach is shaped by the fact he is a “genuinely tortured, angry individual”, Marr said. "He looks disdainful and contemptuous and furious with his guests because he by and large is. You can't fake these things on television,” he told an LSE audience. “No disrespect to Jeremy Paxman, but it would have been a lot more interesting had it been head-to-head.” Ed Miliband won audience applause in last week’s exchanges when he told Paxman: “Jeremy, you're important, but you're not that important.”

Election Live reader:

Andrew Neil
Daily and Sunday Politics

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The Daily Politics' Andrew Neil thinks the campaign has "not started well" for the leaders of Westminster's three largest parties. Watch his daily report

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