Westminster Hour
Radio 4's Westminster Hour

Deidre Brock of the SNP disputes the Conservative focus on wealthy pensioners, saying that "over 200,000 over-65s in Scotland are struggling financially".

Westminster Hour
Radio 4's Westminster Hour

Conservative peer Lord Willetts says the party's social care policy amounts to "a fair contract between the generations".

He argues that it is right that wealthy pensioners contribute to the cost of their social care and describes the manifesto policy as "exactly the kind of tough decision we have to take".

Also on the Westminster Hour is George Parker, political editor of the FInancial Times.

If the Conservatives do win the election, "I'm not sure that the social care policy is going to get through in the next Parliament", he says.

Westminster Hour
Radio 4's Westminster Hour

Image source, Reuters

BBC Radio 4's the Westminster Hour speaks to two writers of election manifesto policies past: former Conservative minister Lord Willetts and Labour's Lord Wood.

Lord Wood is invited to recall a comment by then-Labour leader Ed Miliband to a studio audience during the 2015 election campaign, when he said the last Labour government did not over-spend.

Lord Wood says that was not a policy "wobble" but Mr Miliband's comments "captured what many people felt was a problem for us".

BBC Scotland presenter Jackie Bird is taking the temperature in the press room after the debate.

"Did we learn anything new?" she asks the Sun's Andrew Nicoll.

"No, I don't think we did," he says, succinctly, to much laughter from the press pack.

BBC Scotland political editor Brian Taylor, reflecting on the leaders' debate, says he was "struck" by three things.

Firstly, "the sharpest debates" were on issues devolved to Holyrood such as health, education and income tax.

Secondly, Nicola Sturgeon, Ruth Davidson and Kezia Dugdale were battling with each other to be the leader "who stands up best, if you like, for Scotland".

And thirdly, Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale seemed to be pitching her party as the opposition in Westminster after the general election, an approach also taken by the Lib Dems.

The general election on 8 June will determine who is in charge at Westminster, but the UK government's power to make laws across the land is limited.

Many functions have been passed to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which have their own elected bodies. However, they don't all share the same level of authority.

Read more.

Image source, Getty Images

In the spin room, political commentator David Torrance commented that polices get "jumbled up" during elections.

He adds that some people no longer differentiate between policies that are devolved to the Scottish Parliament and those that are reserved to Westminster.

Earlier, the Scottish party leaders debated education, which is a devolved matter. Whichever party is elected to power in Westminster will be able to make schools policy for England, but not for Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Other devolved policy areas in Scotland are health, housing, agriculture and some taxes, while defence, foreign policy, immigration and the majority of taxes are reserved to Westminster.

Image source, Scottish Parliament

Holyrood made history by voting to set separate Scottish income tax rates and bands for the first time in February.

The SNP and Greens agreed a deal which means the basic rate, paid by most taxpayers, has been left alone.

But the threshold for paying the 40p rate starts at £43,000 in Scotland instead of the £45,000 elsewhere.

Read more here.

UKIP's David Coburn says unreasonable taxes mean that people will just move.

Mr Coburn says he does not want to see that and there should be some "serious looking into" corporations and how they pay tax.

Scottish Green Party co-convener Patrick Harvie says we should have a progressive tax policy in Scotland.

Mr Harvie says the Tories have been consistently reducing the rate of corporation tax.

He says we must look at addressing wealth inequality and says the UK and Scottish government's need to change direction to make that happen.

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson says people on low incomes should not have that money taken away in tax which is why the threshold has been raised.

Ms Davidson says there needs to be an equitable tax system.

She says there are now divergent taxes in Scotland with a "sign at Gretna saying higher taxes here".