On Gordon Brown's North Sea plans, SNP deputy leader Stewart Hosie says: "As a chancellor who treated Scotland's oil as a cash cow, imposed the supplementary tax on the North Sea industry in the first place, then doubled it - and left office having failed to set up an oil fund to deliver any long-term benefit from our own natural resources - Gordon Brown is responsible for undermining investment in this vital industry." And he adds: "Whatever good ideas Mr Brown has now, by definition he didn't implement them in the 13 years when he was chancellor and prime minister."

tweets: , externalGisela Stuart floats idea of a Labour-Tory grand coalition. Not going to happen; would be a gift to Ukip, SNP and the Greens.

Image source, PA

Former prime minister Gordon Brown will be giving one of his last speeches before stepping down as an MP later. Mr Brown, who played a key role for the "No" campaign in the final days before Scotland's independence referendum, will be talking today about the creation of a North Sea reserve fund to help the oil industry. Mr Brown thinks the fund would help maintain and upgrade infrastructure and could provide last-resort debt finance for companies who want to keep fields open. He believes the UK government could even take over fields in partnership with some firms in order to keep them open and viable in future.

We mentioned the government's enthusiasm for tidal power earlier. If, like us, it's been a while since you did A-level geography, here's how it works.

The Huffington Post

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The Huffington Post has been speaking to Liberal Democrat President Tim Farron - widely seen as a possible successor to Nick Clegg as party leader. He says a lot of the speculation surrounding his future is "nonsense" which should be taken "with a pinch of salt". Mr Farron also tells the site Mr Clegg has been "absolutely lovely" the rumours. More here, external.

tweets: , external"We must slash our armed forces, yet PM has locked us into £5bn of perks for pensioners who've never had it so good" More here., external

Describing David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg as "vanilla", Nigel Farage suggested he might be seen as "marmite" - "some people love it", he adds.

Image source, ITV

Nigel Farage also discussed the impact of immigration on GMB, saying it could have a positive effect. He added: "If you control immigration sensibly and do it properly it can be a benefit to to the country, and it can enrich the culture too, no argument about that."

During his Good Morning Britain interview, Nigel Farage spoke about the impact of his political commitments on his family life. He told the programme: "To be honest with you, I think my whole family would rather I had never gone into politics."

tweets: , externalCameron & Shapps have no idea how to deliver new starter homes at a discount. A record number of young people in 20s/30s live wt parents.

tweets: , externalPSA survey of 500 experts produces mean Labour 282.3 seats, Con 278.4, LD 24.8, Ukip 6.6, SNP 28.7, Plaid 3.3, Green 1.9, Others 13.4

Nigel Farage was asked by Good Morning Britain if he'd like to be prime minister. His reply? "I don't think that's my role in life, I don't think I'd be very good at it either."

tweets, external: @Nigel_Farage struggling to answer when @GMB ask him to describe a benefit of other races & cultures in the UK

Should new peers only be admitted to the House of Lords when one stands down? The idea has been floated this morning by Baroness D'Souza, the Lords speaker. Writing for The Telegraph, external, she says the chamber has an "image problem", but does "valuable work in holding governments to account". She writes of a potential one "'one in, one out" policy: "This would not reduce the size of the House in the immediate future, but it would at least limit its expansion."

Ed Davey, the energy secretary, has been speaking to the BBC about plans to generate electricity from the world's first series of tidal lagoons in the UK. The lagoons will capture incoming and outgoing tides behind giant sea walls, and use the weight of the water to power turbines. A £1bn Swansea scheme, said to be able to produce energy for 155,000 homes, is already in the planning system. Mr Davey told BBC News: "I can't make a decision on this yet because discussions are ongoing. But I'm very excited by the prospect of tidal power. We have got some of the biggest tidal ranges in the world and it would be really useful if we could harness some of that clean energy."

Image source, PA

Here's a bit more on the Liberal Democrat plan to tax banks to pay off more of the deficit and how it would work. Corporation Tax is applied on a company's annual profits and is set to fall 1% to a rate of 20% from next month. But the Lib Dems say they wish to impose an additional corporation tax rate of 8% on banks only from April 2016. The party says this measure would raise £1bn a year and would go towards closing the structural budget deficit of £30bn. It said because failings in the banking system had caused the financial crisis, it was fair that banks helped repair the economy. Banks already pay a bank levy which has yielded £8bn over the past four years. The Conservatives may resist the proposals though. They've said they would cut the deficit solely by reducing spending. Labour says it would tax bank bonuses and re-impose the 50p top rate of income tax.

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Elsewhere this morning, Ken Clarke has said David Cameron's net migration target should be dropped. Mr Clarke, a former home secretary, said it would be impossible to reach without "severely" damaging the UK economy. He told the Times, external: "I am afraid that the net migration target has proved to be a mistake. It has been defended to me as almost returning to the figures to those when I was home secretary. This is true, but we weren't in a globalised economy then to the extent we are now. We will have to drop the target. It would not be possible to achieve it without damaging our economy quite severely."

Ross Hawkins
Political correspondent, BBC News

Despite us thinking we're a nation of homeowners, the proportion of people who actually own their own home, and live in it, has been falling in England for more than 10 years now as house prices have rocketed up. Labour have actually outbid the Conservatives by far on the number of homes they say that they would build - they are promising 200,000 homes a year by the end of the next Parliament and they say they have a plan to do it. You won't hear anyone today say the housing market is just fine, there isn't a problem here. You'll see a beauty contest of ideas, if you like, to sort it out." More on the housing announcement.: "

tweets: , externalHope he never gets chance but would be interesting to see if @David_Cameron meets his 200k housing pledge as quickly as NHS waiting pledge

Image source, Getty Images

Over the weekend, former defence secretary Liam Fox warned of a potential Tory rebellion if defence spending targets are not met. And now the head of the US Army - Chief of Staff General Raymond Odierno - has said he is "very concerned" about the impact of cuts in Britain. He said the falling proportion of the UK's national wealth being spent on the military could mean British troops end up operating within US ranks, rather than divisions working alongside each other. More here.