On the news that membership of the Green Party in England and Wales has just passed 60,000 people. A party spokesman said: "We go in to this election powered by an unheralded level of grassroots activity from Green Party members and supporters.

“More and more people are motivated to join the Greens when they learn about our values and principles. People are fed up with our tired, business-as-usual politics, and unbalanced economy and looking for a real alternative. Only the Greens are committed to delivering the real change for the common good that people are crying out for.”

A new 50p top rate of income tax for high earners should only be a temporary measure, Labour's Chuka Umunna has said. Labour is committed to reintroducing the higher charge on those earning over £150,000 that was ditched by the coalition government.

But the shadow business secretary said the decision on how long to sustain the measure for should be purely economic, not moral.

"I wouldn't want to do it permanently because ... I would like to see the tax burden as low as possible," he told the New Statesman magazine.

Image source, AP

Tweets, external : Green Party says it now has over 60k members in Eng+Wales #greensurge, external

Tweets, external : WATCH: Nick Clegg tells @BBCAllegra, external that he will not take a departmental role in next parliament https://vine.co/v/ezu9lHQqz23, external #newsnight

Tweets, external: Check out the latest Newsnight Index, our election forecast compiled by Chris Hanretty

Image source, @BBCNewsnight

Tomorrow the Scottish Conservative manifesto launch will take place in Glasgow. The Conservatives are the only party to win 50% of the vote in Scotland (50.1%) in a post-War general election (1955). Even in 1983 they held 21 Scottish seats. By 1992 they were down to 11 and in 1997 they won no seats there. In 2001 they won one seat. In 2010, they held their one seat Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale & Tweedale with a 2.7% swing from Labour, resulting in a 4,194 vote (9.1%) majority.

Evan Davis reflects on his BBC Newsnight interview with David Cameron:

tweets:, external How embarrassing for Tories is IMF forecast that UK official projection of return to surplus is wrong ?

Another snap here of the crew setting up for tomorrow's debate at Central Hall in Westminster.

Nick Clegg - and David Cameron - will both be missing from Thursday's debate. A BBC spokesman has been explaining the Lib Dem leader's absence:

Planning to watch tomorrow's election debate on the BBC? Here's a little preview of the set at Central Hall in Westminster and a very relaxed-looking David Dimbleby, who will chair the debate.

Andrew Neil
Daily and Sunday Politics

The Daily Politics is touring the UK talking to voters at 18 different locations and asking for their views on the general election - and Tuesday's stop was in Sandbach, Cheshire. Reporter Giles Dilnot spoke to Ian Raisbeck, Dave McGlynn, Stewart Green who are members of Foden's Band, about what tunes the parties must dance to if they want to voters to sing from the same hymn sheet. Watch the interviews

David Cameron says accusations that the Conservatives are "the party of the rich" make him "more angry than almost anything else".In an interview with BBC Newsnight presenter Evan Davis, the prime minister also told the BBC some people did not pay tax in Britain "who damn well should".

If the Conservatives fall short of an overall majority at the general election, he will feel he has "not succeeded", he said.

The prime minister said his party "came close" last time. Full story here.

BBC Radio 5 Live

Tweets, external: .@dannyalexander, external rules out a coalition with UKIP: "Liberal values and UKIP values are at the opposite ends of the spectrum". #GE2015, external

Across on the BBC News Channel, Tory donor and strip club pioneer Peter Stringfellow, Queen guitarist Brian May and barrister and FA director Heather Rabbatts are giving their analysis on the election. Among the highlights include May's support for comedian Russell Brand.

"I think he has been slightly misquoted - what he is saying is the current system doesn't encourage people to vote," says May. "I agree with a lot of what Russell Brand says, and I think in the end he will encourage people to vote."

Meanwhile, Peter Stringfellow attacked Ed Balls, saying: "I have paid thousands if not millions in taxes, I'm 74 let me have the rest of my life. I pay fortunes in taxes, don't take another 5%. Ed Balls. There's something wrong with his brain if he actually thinks there is no such thing as a trickle-down economy."

And Ms Rabbatts noted the lack of social mobility in society, adding: "The gap has got wider and it's the same group of people who are staying in the controlling heights of the economy."

Colleagues here have been totting up the number of policies for veterans in UKIP's manifesto, and counted at least 11:

1. Build 500 affordable rent houses every year for veterans

2. Build eight halfway house hostels for homeless veterans

3. Create a dedicated minister for veterans

4. Build a dedicated military hospital

5. Guarantee the offer of a job in the police service, prison service or border force for anyone who has served in the Armed Forces for a minimum of 12 years

6. Fund 6,000 additional posts spread between the police service, the prison service and the Border Agency for armed services veterans

7. Create a "Boots to Business" scheme to provide loans, grants and access to free advice to veterans who wish to set up their own businesses after leaving the forces

8. Issue a veterans’ service card to ensure fast-track access to NHS mental health care

9. Award a National Defence Medal to all veterans

10. No veteran to use their war pension to pay for social care

11. Access to veteran financial services

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On a lighter note, Al Murray's Free United Kingdom Party (FUKP) has appeared to launch their manifesto - on the back of a fag packet. Top of the light-hearted five-point plan, posted on FUKP's Twitter account, is "make more stuff, sell it for profit" followed by "build new houses for people who make stuff to live in".

Image source, @FUKPnews

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