David Ward, who pressed David Cameron about the rowdiness of PMQs during the session, has elaborating his views on the state of the Commons' flagship event. The Liberal Democrat MP doesn't hold back. "Most people in the real world, outside of the Westminster bubble, think that prime minister's questions is pathetic and is the manifestation of all the things which are wrong with politics at the moment," he says. "People in Bradford see politicians evading simple and often important questions, being loud, boisterous and frankly just looking like a bunch of out of control public school children. No wonder people get apathetic about voting when they see how this lot carry on in the weekly 'Punch and Judy' show."

BBC News Channel

Image source, PA

Returning to the immigration debate, Labour's Frank Field says a target on net migration is essential to "give direction" to policy, suggesting that to ditch it would be to "throw in the towel". "When you fail, you try next time to fail less spectacularly. That is how progress is made," the MP - who backs temporary curbs on freedom of movement within the EU - tells the BBC News channel. But economist Jonathan Portes disagrees, saying the Conservatives' current target has been a "miserable failure" and any numerical target is counter-productive.

The Spectator

This lunchtime's exchanges disappointed Isabel Hardman at the Spectator, who wasn't impressed by rowdy MPs' heckling clashing with sensitive questions. "They were getting carried away to the extent that when a serious question did come up, many MPs were rolling so fast down a hill of heckling and laughing that they couldn't stop themselves when they needed to," she writes. Laughter over Labour MP Barry Gardiner's opening sentence of his question - "my father died of cancer" - was especially shameful, she says.

BBC Radio 4

Image source, Reuters

Earlier today the Treasury announced it is selling taxpayers' 40% stake in Eurostar for £757.1m. The decision is a "disaster", Kat Hobbs, founder of the We Own It pressure group, has told BBC Radio 4's PM programme. "What we had was a public asset that could be run for the benefit of all of us, and George Osborne has sold it off - it's an ideological decision," she says. Dr Eamonn Butler, from the Adam Smith Institute, disagrees. "It's a good deal for the taxpayer, actually," he says, highlighting the fact that three-quarters of a billion pounds will help pay down the national debt. "It means there is more money in taxpayers' pockets."

BBC News Channel

UKIP MP Mark Reckless has been defending the party's immigration policy on the BBC News Channel. He declines to mention the word cap but says that between 20,000 and 50,000 applications for work visas were likely to be approved every year under the system his party is proposing. He acknowledges that total migration numbers could exceed 50,000 a year because of dependents and others coming into the UK but insists overall levels would be "significantly reduced" by applying the same restrictions to EU nationals as to non-EU migrants through an Australian-style points system.

tweets, external: EXCL: Colonel Bob Stewart MP has told @IainDale on LBC that he has seriously considered resigning as an MP over defence cuts.

Labour veteran Paul Flynn has seen one or two PMQs in his time, and it's his view that today's exchanges were the "worst ever". He called for the "demeaning spectacle" to be abolished if it could not be improved - you can read BBC Wales' story on his comments for more.

House of Lords
Parliament

Peers have been debating defence spending this afternoon. Former Labour defence minister and former First Sea Lord Lord West has called for the Conservatives and Labour to make a joint pre-election pledge to maintain spending at 2% of GDP. Lord West said spending, as a percentage of national output, was at a 25-year low and ministers were "horrifyingly complacent" about the resources needed to deal with the threats facing the UK.

House of Commons
Parliament

In the Commons the opposition day debate on future government spending has seen Labour's shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Chris Leslie, claim that stagnant wages, falling tax receipts and rising welfare costs have had a "devastatingly corrosive effect" on the health of the country's public finances. "The majority of people are not feeling the benefit of the recovery and the squeeze on living standards has never been so prolonged since the 1920s," he said. Treasury minister David Gauke insisted public spending is only "returning to the levels of 2002-03, before the previous government lost control of public spending". Mr Gauke also criticised Labour for opposing the government's policies to unwind the deficit. He said it is "down by half as a percentage of GDP, thanks to the stability we have put in place".

New Statesman

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George Eaton at the New Statesman, external has given his verdict on today's PMQs. He says Ed Miliband had the better arguments, but the leader of the opposition's questions didn't stop David Cameron losing his cool. "Cameron simply blustered through it at all," he writes. "Miliband's arguments were by far the stronger but at no point did the PM appear truly uncomfortable."

Throughout the day, we've been reporting Nick Clegg's call for changes to the UK's drugs policy following his joint appearance with Sir Richard Branson. Now Downing Street has rejected any shift in approach. "The prime minister and Nick Clegg, as you well know, take a different view on this," a Downing Street spokesman says. "The prime minister thinks we have got the right approach and you see that in the fact that drug use is falling."

No 10 has responded to Channel 4 and Sky News' offer to reschedule their planned TV election debate between David Cameron and Ed Miliband. A Downing Street spokesman says: "We have heard lots of different things from different broadcasters for quite some time now. It is one for the political parties, but my understanding is that discussions are continuing."

Jack Straw, the former leader of the House of Commons, is speaking out to MPs on the procedure committee about prime minister's questions. "It's become less productive and more vulgar as the years have gone by," he says. Mr Straw thinks this is partly because PMQs now takes place in one half-hour chunk on Wednesday lunchtimes. Before 1997 it took place in two 15-minute sessions on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. What frustrates Mr Straw is that it's the whips who decide this format, not backbenchers, a fact he says is "completely unacceptable". His comments follow yesterday's launch by Labour of its political reform agenda, which didn't call for a return to the pre-1997 schedule.

Image source, YouGov

"When parties are seeking votes what matters is the plausibility, the credibility of what they say," YouGov president Peter Kellner says on the BBC News channel. "If you have one party saying we'll stop immigration, and another party saying we will control it better… voters will go for the more credible promise." He thinks Nigel Farage is being "quite smart because he's not promising the moon, he's promising something that is perhaps deliverable". The Tories, by contrast, will be "punished" for having failed to meet their 2010 manifesto commitment of cutting net migration from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands. But only those "for whom immigration matters to them personally" will turn their backs on David Cameron, Mr Kellner adds.

Image source, PA

Let's put aside thoughts about election debates and policy wrangles for one moment and reflect on the issue of e-mail etiquette. Former Liberal leader Lord Steel is concerned about the subject and has written a letter to The Oldie magazine, external. "Am I the only person driven mad by receiving emails from all and sundry beginning 'I hope you are well?' he writes. "When did this start and when will it end?"

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey has gone on the offensive against the Greens in an interview , externalwith sustainable living publication BusinessGreen. "They are very against the single market in Europe, which is disastrous for the environment," he said. "They want to nationalise everything - I think they'd undermine green business quicker than any party imaginable. They want to nationalise whole swathes of Britain's energy system." Green MEP Molly Scott Cato responded by saying Mr Davey's attacks showed "just how desperate" the Lib Dems have become.

Stepping aside with dignity is something all the party leaders may have to get familiar with if the results don't go their way on 7 May. It's something our early bloggers, Matthew West and Victoria King, are able to do with the same combination of grace and panache that's typified their copy all day. They're relinquished their keyboards as it's time for Gavin Stamp and Alex Stevenson to take over and keep you updated until midnight.

Image source, EPA

David Cameron has been holding talks with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in 10 Downing Street. The two countries' respective foreign ministers have also signed a declaration on closer co-operation.

House of Commons
Parliament

In the Commons chamber, MPs have agreed legislation devolving the power to set Corporation Tax to the Northern Ireland government. The Corporation Tax (Northern Ireland) Bill will now go before the House of Lords for further scrutiny. A debate on future government spending called by Labour is now underway. Chris Leslie is leading for the opposition while Treasury minister David Gauke is representing the government in the early stages.