tweets: How much will paid volunteer leave cost? @Conservatives, external tell me they've "no specific numbers" but "confident it'll pay for itself".

A Labour candidate who called for his Plaid Cymru rival to resign over a racism row has apologised for apparently advocating damaging cars with England flags. Two days ago Huw Thomas said Mike Parker should stand down from the race for Ceredigion over an article he wrote in which he compared English-born residents of rural Wales to Nazis. But now Mr Thomas has apologised for suggesting "Tippex" be thrown over cars displaying St George's flags, in a blog post written during the 2006 football World Cup:

BBC Radio 5 Live asked its audience to sum up the election in one word. 

Or is it jam? David Cameron got into a muddle over the correct way to prepare a scone, on the campaign trail Devon.

Speaking to locals in the Tea by the Taw cafe in Barnstaple, the PM said: "When you are in Devon you do the jam and the cream in a different order to Cornwall, is that right?"

"I'm going to get this wrong, aren't I ... In Devon it's jam first and cream on top?, before admitting defeat.

"It all tastes the same, doesn't it?," added Mr Cameron hopefully.

Scone enthusiasts may like to know that the Devon tradition is to apply the cream first, while the Cornish start with jam.

Hope we've got that right....

All the parties are often criticised for selecting relatively few female candidates for the general election. This year, the numbers look like this:

• The Conservatives have 167 female parliamentary candidates - up from 158
• Labour has 213 - up from 192
• The Liberal Democrats have 163 - up from 134
• The Green Party has almost doubled its female candidates from 108 to 209

The Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats are contesting virtually all the seats in England, Scotland and Wales at the general election. The Tories are also putting up candidates in 16 of Northern Ireland's 18 constituencies.

There is one exception - by tradition the other parties do not contest the re-election of the Commons Speaker. In 2010 John Bercow saw off a challenge in Buckingham from Nigel Farage and he again will face UKIP and Green candidates.

As nominations have closed for election candidates, the Press Association has been analysing who is standing where. Here's a few more details:

• The Scottish National Party is contesting all 59 seats north of the border and Plaid Cymru all 40 in Wales
• Respect has just four candidates including George Galloway - seven fewer than in 2010

Conservative parliamentary candidate Michael Fabricant has said through Twitter, external that he has skin cancer. The Tory has been diagnosed with melanoma and basal cell carcinoma and says he is feeling "optimistic", because specialists believe they have caught it in time.

He went to see his doctor after noticing changes on the skin on his chest and was then referred to a consultant. Mr Fabricant said he wanted to raise awareness:

There has been a big fall in the number of candidates standing for the British National Party at the general election. They have candidates in just eight constituencies - down from 338 last time.

Nominations have now closed if you want to stand in the general election. The Press Association have been doing some provisional number crunching. UKIP and the Green Party are fielding a record number of candidates, according to PA. Nigel Farage's party is contesting 624 of the UK's 650 Westminster seats - 66 more than in 2010.

Natalie Bennett's Greens are standing in 571 seats - up from 335 last time.

The total number of candidates appears to have dipped slightly from 4,150 in 2010 to 3,963 candidates. A growing number are women - up almost a fifth from 854 to 1,020.

Are you election-mad? BBC News is searching for the ' biggest amateur general election nerd '. Can you help?

After the row about Ed Miliband being criticised by Michael Fallon over his leadership fight - are the parties accentuating the negative?

Image source, BBC/ getty

tweets:, external

BBC political correspondent Susan Hulme looks back at the main elelction news of the day:

The SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, has confirmed she wants Scotland to take charge of all its own spending and tax-raising powers. But Ed Miliband says that would leave a £7.6bn hole in Scotland's finances - and he called on the SNP to "come clean" about the spending cuts that would follow. He's campaigning in Scotland where polls suggest the SNP could capture most of Labour's 41 seats. Nicola Sturgeon dismissed his claims as "desperation", and said Labour's analysis was wrong. David Cameron, meanwhile, has revived his "Big Society" idea - with a promise of three days paid leave for volunteers, saying he wanted to help people do more for their communities. And the Lib Dems' offer to voters today? Loans for young people in need of a deposit to rent a home."

Sarah Cope, one of the two Green Party candidates in Basingstoke who wanted to share the job of Basingstoke MP, said the pair hoped to get a judicial review of the Electoral Commission, external rules which forbid them from standing.

Ms Cope said:

The candidates for the constituency are:

• Paul Harvey (Labour)
• Maria Miller (Conservative)
• Selim Omar (Independent)
• Janice Spalding (Liberal Democrat)
• Alan Stone (UK Independence Party)

In a blog post, external , Conservative pollster Lord Ashcroft says his most recent constituency polling has found an increase in support for Labour and the Conservatives and, "in their own battlegrounds the Liberal Democrats". But he adds:

Writing in the Guardian, Marina Hyde says this election is being run as a " pseudo-event, external ", with political leaders being kept away from real people out of fear of an"unscripted event".

Prime Minister David Cameron, seemingly waving to himself (but actually to passengers on board the train he'd just left at Dawlish, Devon) in this photo by the Press Association's Stefan Rousseau.

Image source, PA

tweets:, external

BBC News picture editor Phil Coomes chooses his favourite images from the press snappers out on the road around the UK.

Image source, PA

You can see Phil's full selection here.