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Time for a quick update on the goings-on at UKIP's spring conference in Margate. Among other speakers this morning, deputy leader Paul Nuttall said there was a "fight on" for the future of the UK in the aftermath of the Scottish independence referendum. He attacked the SNP for saying they would vote on Commons legislation directly affecting England. And immigration spokesman Stephen Woolfe said policymakers had "taken their eye off the ball" for a decade about the impact of migration on infrastructure. "Schools are now full, hospitals are troubled, healthcare - it is very difficult to be seen in many areas of this country," he said.

Michael Crick, political correspondent for Channel 4 News, external, has been reflecting on why Nigel Farage seems to have been on our TV screens a little less than usual since Christmas. He believes it is part of a strategy dreamt up by new UKIP communications director Paul Lambert, a former BBC producer known universally as Gobby (he was the one who used to shout rude questions at politicians on the TV news) to give UKIP's leader a "bit of a rest". Lambert is pictured above conferring with his leader. Mr Farage, suggests Crick, has been given time to focus on "internal policy discussions" while other figures have shouldered more of the media limelight. However, Michael Crick questions Mr Farage's decision to travel to the US on Thursday to attend a gathering of Conservative politicians a day before he is due to give his keynote speech to the party's spring conference, which is underway in Margate.

The team at the New Statesman's May2015.com election website looks at five election forecasts, external and sees that the average conclusion is that a hung parliament is becoming "an inevitability", with Labour and the Conservatives set to fall about 40 seats short of a majority.

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Universities have welcomed Labour's pledge to increase maintenance support for students from low and middle income households and its pledge that the loss of income from lower tuition fees will be fully covered. "It will go some way to help reassure universities that a future Labour government would continue to provide a stable funding environment in the next parliament," says Professor Sir Christopher Snowden, president of vice-chancellors' group Universities UK.

tweets, external: Vince Cable tells @BBCWorldatOne he wont apologise for current tuition fee policy saying "It's a good one"

The World at One BBC Radio 4
Presented by Martha Kearney

Labour's Chuka Umunna dismisses Vince Cable's criticism of its tuition fee policy, suggesting the Lib Dems have "no credibility" on the issue. He says Ed Miliband's desire to reverse "the assault on young people" that Labour maintains has taken place since 2010 was a "very personal thing". There was, he added, a "very substantial difference" between the parties' policies on higher education and other issues which he believed young people would take notice of before casting their vote on 7 May.

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Mayor of London Boris Johnson, speaking on the subject of terrorism, said it had been an error to water down control orders that permitted the home secretary to restrict individuals' liberty on grounds of national security: "I do think that was a mistake. We're now back on the right track. The politicians who made that mistake need to think very carefully about why they did it and I think the benefit of the doubt was given too much to those who wish us serious harm. This whole thing needs to be tackled very robustly."

The World at One BBC Radio 4
Presented by Martha Kearney

Vince Cable has labelled Labour's tuition fees policy "fraudulent", claiming there is no guarantee that the money from the pension tax changes will go to universities and instead is likely to be "pocketed by the Treasury" and used to reduce the deficit. Appearing on the World at One, the Lib Dem business secretary also admits that his party has "suffered politically" for its broken pledge not to let fees rise.

Daily Politics
Live on BBC Two

On the Daily Politics, Harry Cole of the Guido Fawkes blog says Labour's announcement on fees is "the politics of the National Union of Students on a national scale".

Daily Politics
Live on BBC Two

Labour's shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna says it is a mistake for people to cast Labour's decision to pay for a cut in tuition fees by curbing some pension relief as some sort of "generational war". He tells Andrew Neil that a lot of older people are as concerned about university funding as are people about to embark on higher education.

The World at One BBC Radio 4
Presented by Martha Kearney

Paul Johnson, from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, tells the BBC's World at One that Labour's plan to fund the tuition fee cut "broadly adds up". However, he says that curbing pension tax relief for the highest earners effectively amounts to a £3bn tax increase and could have an impact on people seeking to save for their retirement.

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A couple of hours ago, David Cameron was speaking in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, with Nick Clegg standing beside him. The prime minister is still in Wales but Mr Clegg is no-where to be seen as Mr Cameron has moved onto the home territory of the Welsh Conservatives' spring conference. He told activists that the Conservatives are "the party of Wales", claiming they have done more to attract investment, create jobs and boost transport infrastructure over the past five years than Labour.

tweets, external: Which bit of Clegg's brain told him posing in Wales with Cameron would be good for Lib Dems? #yellowtories

Ed Miliband finishes his Q&A in Leeds by promising his audience: "We're not going to do a Nick Clegg - we are deadly serious about this."

The Chancellor George Osborne has responded to Labour's announcement on fees by saying: "Under this government, we've made real progress in getting students from poorer background to go to universities - something governments have been trying to do for decades. All of that progress would be at risk from this ill-thought out policy. Ed Miliband's sums don't add up because the universities would get less money and there would be fewer students so it's bad for students, bad for universities, bad for the taxpayer and bad for the British economy."

More reaction to Labour's plans. Manufacturers' organisation, the EEF, says there is "no evidence" that the current system needs to be overhauled, pointing out that the number of people applying for engineering degrees rose by 8% between 2010 and 2013. Raising fees, it suggests, has helped people make "more informed decisions about their careers and employability". The Association of Colleges, meanwhile, has called for more focus and resources for those not going to university.

Ed Miliband says a reduction in fees is a cast-iron guarantee, and will be a "red line" in potential coalition negotiations after May's election.

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The free market think tank, the Institute for Economic Affairs, has criticised Labour plans, saying they will make universities "more dependent on the public purse". "This is a bad policy at a time when reductions in government spending are still necessary and will lead to yet more government interference in how universities are run," says its director Mark Littlewood. The IEA is also critical of the current system introduced by the coalition and wants it replaced by a graduate tax.

Ed Miliband says the tuition fee cut will apply from September 2016 - and promises that even if a student started a course before then, the £6000 fee will apply for his or her remaining years.

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Ed Miliband is now taking questions from students and the media. Asked about the rhetoric around charging money for higher education, he says: "There is a big disagreement here between those who believe there's a public interest in public investment in young people and our universities, and those who think it's just a matter of consumer choice for our young people". He says it's "absolute nonsense to say this is only about young people", as the whole country has an interest in young people unburdened with debt.