Nick Clegg is enjoying himself on the campaign trail at Panasonic in Pentwyn, busily attempting to destroy electronic products. “The thrill of just dropping a tablet into a bucket of water in your testing centre has been very exciting -I never thought I’d do that,” he tells reporters. Mr Clegg backs manufacturing as part of a broader British economy. “If you look at what’s happened over the last several years, things went horribly wrong in the run-up to the crash in 2008 precisely because we over-relied on one Square Mile,” he says. And then our feed goes down. Presumably because someone dropped it in a bucket of water.

While the trade unions might be expected to welcome the prospect of two million more jobs by 2020, they're not impressed with such a pledge coming from the Conservatives:

• TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady (above) says “savage spending cuts” will “suck demand out of the economy”, making it “hard to see” where those jobs will come from
• GMB leader Paul Kenny says “Cameron’s claim completely lacks credibility”
• Shopworkers’ union Usdaw’s leader John Hannett warns that the new jobs will have to “provide people with stability at work and a regular income”

• Mick Cash, leader of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, says the Tories' pledge is “total nonsense”

Sky News

Sky News

The Conservative pledge to find an extra £5bn by tackling aggressive tax avoiders has been cast into doubt by the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank. Its director, Paul Johnson, has told Sky News that number is “very flaky”. "Given the scale of spending cuts they'll otherwise require they must be at least thinking about tax rises," he added. This comes only a day after the IFS called Tory suggestions of a £3,000 tax hike under Labour "unhelpful".

tweets:, external

Image source, PA

Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy has pledged to end the need for food banks in Scotland, outlining plans for a £175m anti-poverty fund. “Nothing makes me angrier about the Tory government and its austerity policies, than the sight of children queueing for food hand-outs,” Mr Murphy says. “If it was not for the generosity of their fellow Scots, tens of thousands of people, including thousands of children, would be going hungry tonight."

We've had a slightly muddling few days on Conservative health policy. Over the weekend, via a Sunday Times interview, Jeremy Hunt, health secretary, pledged to meet the budgetary demands made by Simon Stevens, the NHS chief executive. Mr Stevens said that, left unchanged, the NHS would need another £30bn by 2020. But he proposed that if the NHS were given £8bn a year by 2020, the NHS could reform itself, and keep running within that budget.

But, on the Today programme this morning, David Cameron seemed sceptical about the financial commitment. It is worth checking Mr Hunt's small print to see why. Mr Hunt told the Sunday Times that the Stevens plan would be funded, although he noted: “The gap might be more than £8bn, it might be less”. The final figures would, Mr Hunt said, need to be checked over and would be finalised after the election.

Fixing a sum for the NHS budget now would open further questions for the Tories. For example, what is going to happen with defence? What about social care? These are all pretty big areas of policies that are fighting over a tight budget.

So what can we say with certainty? Not much, but I think it’s fair to assume that £8bn is a reasonable working estimate for now of what the Conservatives will end up putting in.

The Rev Richard James, Harrogate, North Yorkshire:

BBC News Channel

Chris Leslie, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, offers a moment of striking optimism about the political arts while being interviewed on the BBC News Channel. “You’ve got to expect this from politicians,” he says. “You’re going to get a lot of statistics bandied around.” He is not wrong. But actually this moment of striking openness is all for a political purpose, as he’s targeting the Conservatives’ triumphalism about the economy. “When you look at David Cameron’s pledge in that manifesto in 2010 he promised strong and sustained rises in living standards. Has he really fulfilled that? The answer is no.”

tweets:, external

Reality Check

An intriguing follow-up line from our correspondent Chris Buckler, who's with the Lib Dem leader. 

George Osborne made pizza earlier so perhaps there's a theme developing. We'll keep you posted...

Image source, PA

Here’s a bit more from Nick Clegg on his expectations ahead of this Thursday’s TV debate. The last time something like this happened, after all, the resulting "Cleggmania" helped the Lib Dems to a 23% vote share. "Last time nobody really knew who I was so I didn't have that much to lose,” he’s told journalists on the party’s battle bus. “But I've not much to lose this time." He said while there was a lot of froth around the debates, it wasn't a beauty contest and viewers would make up their own minds after listening to the discussion.

Sam Marner, Sheffield:

Reality Check

BBC Radio 4

If we end up with a hung parliament - and few now deny that is not a very strong possibility - there’s a chance we might end up with a minority government rather than another coalition. Such an administration could get quite a lot done, former civil service chief Sir Gus O’Donnell says. Foreign policy can be conducted, departmental budgets can be allocated “in various ways”. The only real headache is winning votes in the Commons. “What you can’t do is big tax or benefit changes, changes to regulations, things which require a change to the law,” he says. “But I stress there are lots of ways you can influence behaviour that aren’t necessarily about legislation. Having smaller amounts of legislation with a strong cross-party consensus might lead to better laws.”

Jamie from Mold, Wales:

BBC Radio 4

Malcolm Bruce, the deputy Liberal Democrat leader, rejects UKIP’s claim that it would be wrong to deny EU citizens living in the UK a say in any EU in-or-out referendum. “If they’re resident in the UK they’re already on the electoral register and can vote in European elections, they can vote in devolved administration elections,” he tells The World at One. “In our view it’s perfectly right and proper they should be free to do so."