Norman Smith
Assistant political editor

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BBC Radio 4 Today

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Might it be the case that the Greens are just a glorified pressure group which struggles when it tries to actually run things? "We are now the third largest party in England and Wales," Natalie Bennett tells Today in reply. "We're now working very hard to send a strong group of Green MPs to Parliament." The Greens currently only have one MP - Caroline Lucas, above - but nevertheless, given the electoral arithmetic this time round, Ms Bennett suggests, they might even be able to have a say in the next government. Around 90% of voters will have the chance to vote Green. "They can create a peaceful political revolution on May 7th," she says.

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Andrew Barton, West Yorkshire:

BBC Radio 4 Today

Natalie Bennett is pressed about the Greens' pledge to decriminalise being a member of organisations like Al-Qaeda and Islamic State. They are absolutely "hideous", she says, before adding: "We need to think about how we get a more secure and more stable world." On defence, she says the Greens back the coalition's spending plans.

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BBC Radio 4 Today

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The Green leader is now on the Today programme, where she's being asked about her party's "citizens' income" policy. Paying everyone in the country £72 a week will be in the manifesto, she says, but will take longer than one parliamentary term to implement. "In the sixth richest economy we have to provide for everyone's basic needs and we have to do that within the limits of our one planet," she says. Some have criticised the policy for being just a little regressive, but she disagrees. "We stand for saying multinational companies and rich individuals have to pay their way," she says. "We're saying we need a different kind of politics."

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On Monday, Danny Alexander claimed he heard a senior Tory tell a Lib Dem colleague: "You take care of the workers and we'll take care of the bosses." But he refused to say who said it - and it appears he's sticking to that line despite being accused of lying by Conservative Culture Secretary Sajid Javid. Our correspondent Chris Mason tweets:, external "Danny Alexander: 'I will tell you which Tory minister who said it....in my memoirs in 30 years time.' #GE2015, external "

Perhaps part of the reason Nick Clegg is attacking the Conservatives so vigorously in his press conference this morning is that he’s realised the Tories are targeting their coalition partners in this campaign. “Their vote just isn’t picking up,” one unnamed Conservative is quoted as saying by the Telegraph, external. “The way we win this election is by taking a couple of seats off Labour and then just destroy the Lib Dems.” One big dividing line could be on the EU referendum - and Mr Clegg says he strongly agrees with Tony Blair, who’s doing a speech on the issue today. “It’s basically elevating internal party management to a very misguided approach to the national interest in Europe and in the world,” he says.

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Labour’s focus this morning on the stresses faced by the NHS is underlined by today’s FT, external, which splashes on research from the Health Foundation. It’s found that hospital productivity "tumbled" in 2012 and that efficiency growth in recent years turns out to have been much less impressive than previously thought. The £8bn of extra spending demanded by Simon Stevens by 2020 must be viewed as “the absolute minimum” as a result. That will only make things harder for the politicians, it’s implied. The ‘financial black hole’ now faced by the NHS has, as the FT puts it, just got bigger.

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What effect will the Conservatives’ spending plans have on their commitment to spending 2% of gross national income on defence? “At the moment the Tory sums don’t add up at all,” Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander says. “They’re proposing swingeing cuts, no tax rises to ask the wealthiest to make a contribution, and if all that falls on unprotected departments… if you go for a plan that is as extreme as the Tories’ is, then maintaining that 2% is almost impossible.”

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BBC News Channel

The Tories, and in particular David Cameron, have been doing down the Lib Dems as a "minor party". Nick Clegg responds in strident terms by saying the Conservatives, despite being “awash with money”, are “still not going to win this election”. He adds: “Do you know what that means? It means David Cameron is going to be in hock to Nigel Farage and to the right wing of his own party. And I think that will send a real shiver down the spines of lots of moderate voters across the country…. whatever you hear from the Conservative Party, remember they’re not going to win the election and the Conservative Party leadership is basically going to dance to the tune of the right wing."

BBC News Channel

Nick Clegg is ramming home the Liberal Democrat message that his party will iron out the extremes his party warns will result from majority governments of either Labour or the Conservatives. The party will “finish the job of balancing the books but of course we will do it fairly”, he says. Today’s big policy announcement is about increasing the personal allowance from £10,600 to £12,500. That’s not new - what’s new is the detail about how this is going to be paid for, Mr Clegg says.

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