BBC Radio 5 live

Tracy Myhill, the interim chief executive at the Welsh Ambulance Service, tells BBC Radio 5Live that December was a record in terms of high demand. She says there were more than 40,000 calls and within that an unpredicted 25% increase in "red one" calls, which involve the sickest patients. She says there are complex reasons as to why response times for urgent ambulance calls in Wales are the worst on record. The chief executive adds that solutions could be found within the service itself by looking at staff rotas, for example. However, she says the ambulance service is part of a wider care system and there are issues within it that need to be addressed.

tweets, external: Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy has said that Labour "does not want, expect or need" to have deals with any other parties post #ge2015

BBC News Channel

Image source, Press Association

BBC social affairs correspondent Alison Holt says the "pressure that people are feeling at every level" of the health and social care system shows "no sign of easing up" as the UK's population ages. She says the difficulties arising are "not going away quickly" and are "going to be there as a problem for whomever forms the next government".

She adds that "all the political parties are saying that the route out of this is better integration of health and social care - the arguments are going to lie in how each achieve that".

BBC News Channel

Lib Dem Health Minister Norman Lamb tells BBC News: "All parties need to come together this year in a non-partisan review of both NHS and care budgets, engaging the public about how we engage the system, how we bring the system together."

tweets, external: Sinn Fein MP Pat Doherty on whether senior Lab MPs "casually" ask for their support: "More than casually, they bring it up quite bluntly."

MPs who like to stay in shape are sure to welcome the news that Parliament's gym has been re-opened, by Commons Speaker John Bercow. Anyone that doesn't want to see Labour MP Jack Straw and Mr Bercow riding exercise bikes should not look at lobby journalist Tony Grew's tweet , externalfrom the scene.

Ben Wright
Political correspondent, BBC News

Here's the BBC's Ben Wright for Radio 4 - looking at today's reaction to the ongoing debates row.

The TV debate negotiations have run into another hurdle. After David Cameron said he would take part in debates only if the Green Party was included too the broadcasters proposed a new line-up: two debates featuring the Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats, UKIP, the Greens, the SNP and Plaid Cymru. But parties in Northern Ireland were furious at their exclusion - and yesterday David Cameron gave them his support, saying a "deal could be done" if they were involved too. Last week Peter Robinson, the leader of the DUP - the largest Northern Ireland Party with eight MPs at Westminster - wrote to the BBC and ITV asking them to justify their position. Now the director general of the BBC, Tony Hall, has replied to the DUP rejecting their demand to be included in the debates. It is understood Lord Hall said the decision complied with the BBC's obligations of impartiality. The DUP is considering taking legal action, as is Sinn Fein. The debate about debates seems a long way from concluding.

tweets, external: Great afternoon with @SharonStevenage and her lovely team. 99 days #countdown

BBC Radio 5 live

Roy Lilley, a former NHS Trust chairman, tells 5live the criteria for declaring a major incident had been very tight anyway and it was highly unusual for hospitals to take this step. He said that where this criteria has been made more difficult to meet, it exposes patients to an enhanced risk of being taken into a hospital that is full and perhaps not as safe as it could be. It also "places more difficulties with the ambulance services who are queuing up outside and can not unload their patients". Additionally, it puts "more pressure on social services who are already trying to find safe places to take particularly the elderly and frail".

The Mirror

Kevin Maguire, the associate editor of the Daily Mirror, takes David Cameron to task, external for his outrage over the idea of "weaponising" the NHS: "The National Health Service IS is a huge political issue. David Cameron knew that when he claimed 10 years ago he wanted to be defined by the letters NHS."

BBC Radio 4

Image source, PA

Tessa Munt, the Liberal Democrat MP who quit her government job as an aide to business secretary Vince Cable over fracking, has been explaining why she opposes her colleagues' views. She says her mind was made up when she found out a major insurer in her constituency will not insure farmers and others against the impact of fracking. "If farmers have no choice about the fact this is going to happen under their land," she told BBC Radio 4's PM programme, "I think it's utterly unfair they're then not able to insure themselves against the impact of something somebody else is doing under their land without their say so."

BBC News Channel

Image source, Various

BBC chief political correspondent Vicki Young sums up the current feeling on potential TV election debates by saying that the broadcasters' latest offer has left "all sorts of parties unhappy about where we are".

While the Greens are happy to be in the debates, the Liberal Democrats are upset they have been seemingly relegated to minor party status, and Labour is worried about the presence of the SNP. Today, the DUP learned from BBC Director-General Tony Hall that it will not be invited to take part. Many parties, she adds, are unhappy the broadcasters appear to have "bent over backward" to accommodate David Cameron's conditions.

BBC News Channel

More from Frank Field. He says the growth in health spending under the last Labour government was not rewarded with much better treatment. Although he praised individual members of the NHS for their work, Mr Field said that "collectively they've not delivered on the new money with increased outcomes, with more of us being treated".

BBC News Channel

Frank Field, the Labour MP for Birkenhead, tells the BBC's Gavin Esler that the NHS is in serious need of more money for health and social care, and says electoral debates over the NHS must focus on providing answers to two difficult questions: "How do we get the new money? And how do we spend the new money in driving through reforms?"

Image source, Chloe Smith / Facebook

Chloe Smith, the Tory MP who won her Norwich North seat in a 2009 by-election, has taken to Twitter, external to advertise a 'politics in the pub' surgery where constituents can seek her help. The move echoes Nigel Farage's pub-based politics, but - unless there's a typo on her flyer - it seems she's planning on an all-nighter to win over voters...

Alex Hunt
Politics editor, BBC News Online

Robin Day crosses swords with Enoch Powell with counting under way ahead of the Conservative victory in the general election of 1970, questioning him on his links with the political left and his relationship with his party leader and new Prime Minister Edward Heath.

Each day from now until 7 May we'll be bringing you a classic election clip from the BBC archives. We've already selected a fair few but do feel free to suggest some via email at alex.hunt@bbc.co.uk or via Twitter @bbcpolitics

Chris Mason
Political correspondent, BBC News

BBC political correspondent Chris Mason reports on the NHS row that has dominated the political news today.

Today's fresh question-marks over the proposed TV debates aren't bothering William Hill, which has cut the odds it's offering on David Cameron not participating from 11/4 to 12/5. Spokesman Graham Sharpe says: "There is a widespread feeling that Mr Cameron would really like to find a way of avoiding taking part in the tv debates as he has the most to lose if he does so, but the humiliation of potentially being represented by an empty chair is likely to result in him ultimately taking part."

BBC Radio 5 live

The BBC'S Nick Triggle tells 5Live that despite government funding cuts councils on average are spending proportionally more and more of their budgets on care. However, they are struggling to keep up with an ageing population. According to BBC analysis of official figures, the average spend per person in England dropped from 12-hundred pounds in 2003 - down to around 950 pounds ten years later- that's a fall of 20 per cent.