Conservatives welcome a letter from over 100 company bosses backing a “Conservative-led government”
Labour publishes its own letter signed by “people from all walks of life” as it pledges a crackdown on zero hours contracts
Lib Dems discuss plans to triple paternity leave to six weeks
Ed Balls and Nick Clegg take their campaigns to Scotland
There are 36 days until the general election
Text: 61124
James, London:
I'm twenty three and this is only my second chance to vote, but every party seems more concerned about making sure I don't vote for someone else rather than winning my support for themselves. Instead, I've decided not to participate at all. I really wanted to engage in this election but can't stand how petty it all is.
@VickiYoung01
Quote MessageTories have spent first 3 days of election campaign talking about economy. Just where they want the debate to be. #GE2015"
Email: politics@bbc.co.uk
Alex Card, Kent:
100 business leaders support the conservatives- David Cameron and George Osborne agree. Tens of thousands of public sector workers strike over pensions in 2011 - David Cameron and George Osborne describe it as ‘a damp squib’ and ‘not going to change anything’.
Ed Miliband is visiting Huddersfield today, a Labour-held seat which saw the party’s majority slip to 11% five years ago. This time round the Lib Dem vote appears ripe for squeezing. As elsewhere, Nick Clegg's party is under pressure after presiding over spending cuts that, as the picture above taken outside Huddersfield town hall shows, haven't gone down well locally. Mr Miliband’s presence there could help win over waverers to Labour. But he will also be hoping to influence voters in neighbouring Colne Valley, where candidate Debbie Abrahams was pushed into third place in 2010. The Conservatives’ Jason McCartney is defending a majority of nearly 5,000 - but how many of the Lib Dems’ 15,000+ votes will go elsewhere?
Text: 61124
BBC News website reader:
Ask Chuka Umunna how many people are employed by the 100 business leaders, how many millions they pay in tax, then how many jobs he has created in his life. I am nobody and have created close to 1000 jobs from nothing and all those jobs exist today.
BBC News Channel
Culture secretary Sajid Javid echoes George Osborne in calling the Telegraph letter a "significant intervention". He tells the BBC News Channel that business figures have backed the Tories and that "we should listen to what they have to say". The 100 signatories are all people who have to take "difficult decisions", Mr Javid says. "That makes their voice important."
Image source, PAHaving the Liberal Democrats “at the centre of government” is necessary to keep British politics from “veering off to left and right”, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has been telling BBC Radio Scotland. He said the Lib Dems had delivered the “vast majority” of the party’s promises. "We have pursued a course over the last five years which is stable, it's delivered thousands of extra jobs in Scotland, it's been done fairly,” he said. “That's only been possible with the Lib Dems so whoever else is in power, what you definitely need is Liberal Democrats." Nick Clegg's party is defending 11 seats in Scotland.
@iainjwatson
Quote MessageThe Labour campaign bus is welcomed at the first stop on its West Yorkshire visit #ge2015"
Email: politics@bbc.co.uk
Elliott Quinn:
If employers can't predict when there will be busy or quiet periods and therefore cant predict the amount of staff they need on any given shift, then that business is not run very well. Zero hours contract are just a tool used by bad / lazy management.
@michaelsavage
Quote MessageIn a parallel universe, Cam's Big Society worked & 100 charity bosses have written letter backing Tories. Now that may have breakout appeal."
Nick Clegg attacks his coalition partners, claiming the Conservatives have lurched dramatically to the right since the coalition was formed in 2010. The Lib Dem leader says David Cameron "sought to mimic Ukip" - a far cry from the "husky hugging" days of opposition.
Image source, ReutersQuote MessageIt has been an almost non-stop struggle for me to try and remind the Conservatives they used to care about civil liberties, having tried to spend most of their time in the Home Office trying to trash them."
@BBCNormanS
Quote MessageLabour criticise decision of Paul Walsh - likely next boss of CBI - to sign @telegraph letter attacking Labour over economy"
Image source, Jeff Overs / BBCThis is your chance to quiz BBC's Jeremy Vine about his election night graphics. What technological wizardry will he be using and how will it help him make sense of the general election?
You can put your questions to him on Twitter @theJeremyVine, external from 1430 BST.
To submit a question, use the hashtag #AskBBCVine on Twitter or email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk using the subject 'Ask Jeremy Vine'.
Alternatively, you can text your question to 61124 (international users can text +44 7624 800 100), or message us on WhatsApp +44 7525 900971.
@BethRigby
Quote MessageLabour could do with a letter of big business explicitly supporting its pro-EU position. There are many out there #GE2015
The Daily Mail
Taking his cue from David Cameron, who earlier this week attacked London’s “sneering, hopeless Lefties”, the Mail’s Quentin Letts has let himself go in attacking the capital’s Labour supporters. He claims that Ed Miliband’s approach to the general election “has been moulded by prosperous Hampstead and its privileged, hypocritical faux egalitarians”. His particular geographical focus on north London knows no bounds. “Hampstead Lefties fret more about such things as fag packet design and minority rights than they do, say, about the pressure on schools and hospitals caused by immigration," he writes, external. They almost invariably use private schools and consult the private doctors of Harley Street rather than state providers, after all.”
Ed Miliband will be here - David Brown, a gearbox manufacturer in Huddersfield - for today’s only campaign appearance.
Email: politics@bbc.co.uk
Phil Brown, Lowestoft
Yet another election campaign of sound bites and playground politics. It is like a pantomime rather than a serious presentation of alternatives. Please can we have published manifestos, detailed policy statements and credible statistics. The UK is a mature democracy with a politically aware electorate. Stop treating us like children, give us your intentions then let us make our choice.
Email: politics@bbc.co.uk
Peter Warrington:
Some people need to understand corporation tax is not about business chief earnings, it is about giving business more flexibility to create jobs and that's what gets my vote right now.
@Nigel_Farage
Nigel Farage tweets:, external
Quote Message@MichaelLCrick It was actually a FIVE hour meeting over bacon sandwiches and fruitcake! #April1st
Labour’s campaign mugs featuring the party’s election pledges have already generated a lot of controversy - Diane Abbott has hit out at the ‘Controls on immigration’ edition as “shameful” and an “embarrassment”. And now the Tories have been busy creating their own versions. One features some crossed fingers and the slogan ‘We won’t raise taxes’. Another states: "We’d never forget something as important as the deficit. (Well, except that one time. And all the others)."