BBC Radio 4

Is your ambition to make every school in the country either an academy or a free school? the education secretary is asked. "I want each school to make the right choice for them," she says diplomatically, but says she is a big fan of putting more power in the hands of teachers and parents.

BBC Radio 4

"People are pulling all sort of things out of the report," Ms Morgan says of the Policy Exchange report on free schools, but she says it's clear that collaboration between schools - free and un-free, so to speak - is increasing.

BBC Radio 4

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan says 70% of free schools inspected so far have been good or outstanding. Asked if she thinks the government is rushing the policy through, she says: "I don't think where children's education is concerned we have a day to lose."

Slashing the tax paid by air travellers could boost Scotland's economy by £1bn by 2020 and create almost 4,000 new jobs, a report has suggested. Powers over air passenger duty are to be devolved to Holyrood following recommendations by the Smith Commission. More here.

Image source, Other

Photoshop strikes again with the Conservatives' latest (digital) election poster - a further attempt to put more pressure on Labour leader Ed Miliband to rule out a deal of some sorts with the SNP in the event of a hung parliament. Labour sees the Tory focus on the SNP as an attempt to suppress the former's vote in Scotland and rally the Conservative vote in England.

We'll no doubt hear from shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt in the flesh later, but here's what he's had to say about free schools in a statement today. "Instead of focusing on the desperate need for more primary school places across the country and on spreading innovation right across the school system, David Cameron's government has spent at least £241m on free schools in areas that already have enough school places."

Mr Hunt added that far from being good for education standards, a third of all free schools had been found to be under-performing.

tweets:, external Delighted that we have raised a further £500m for the taxpayer through Lloyds share sales, taking total recovered to approximately £8.5bn

tweets:, external again @David_Cameron uses flawed data to justify failed policy. Free schools claims totally bogus. Read data chapter in WINNERS loser

The Mirror

As the interview with Chris Leslie a short time ago showed, Labour just can't shake the SNP question. Writing in the Daily Mirror,, external Kevin Maguire discusses the issue of the Trident weapons system, about which Labour and the SNP appear to fundamentally disagree. He says Ed Miliband might be able to "dishonourably ignore" that disagreement until after the election but he can't ignore the SNP itself. "Sturgeon and Salmond could put Cameron back into No 10 but Miliband might also need them to put himself there. Every party is involved in a plot and the ending isn't scripted, so options are best kept open," Mr Maguire writes.

tweets:, external "Correlation should not be mistaken for causation." Policy Exchange sets out a flaw in its free school report. Read more, external

tweets:, external An interview on our economic analysis @BBCr4today but @JohnHumphrysr4 determined to try to browbeat! Osborne wouldn't get this treatment!

tweets:, external @ChrisLeslieMP refuses to say if @labourpress will put back into social care all the money taken out by coalition if it wins #GE2015

BBC Radio 4

Image source, MOD

Chris Leslie is asked about defence spending and whether Labour would stick to the Nato target of ploughing 2% of GDP into defence. "I can't give you commitments..." he replies, before being interrupted by his combative interviewer. He goes on: "I know it will be difficult to keep that level at 2% [under a Labour government], but I can tell you it will be absolutely impossible under the Conservative trajectory."

BBC Radio 4

"A cataclysmic scenario" - that's what Mr Leslie says is looming for social care if the Conservatives' have their way. We want to get rid of the deficit but not at the expense of care for vulnerable elderly people, he says.

BBC Radio 4

"If people vote SNP they will just end up with David Cameron in Downing Street", Chris Leslie tells the BBC, and that is "very, very risky indeed" for our public services. He says Labour would eliminate the deficit by 2020 at the latest, but hopefully much sooner than that

BBC Radio 4

"What a total distraction from the key issues," says Chris Leslie, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, on John Humphrys' opening question about Labour and a possible deal with the SNP after the election. What we want to do is set out the true nature of the cuts the Conservatives would bring in if they are re-elected, Mr Leslie says.

tweets:, external UKIP and the Greens matter a lot in this election, and barely at all in the coalition talks afterwards Read more., external

The debate about the debates - or lack of them, as the case may be - hasn't gone away. Dominic Lawson, writing in today's Daily Mail,, external turns his focus on the BBC and the potential for the corporation to "empty chair" David Cameron if he refuses to turn up. He calls such a move "a petulant gesture" and says it "would be an unprecedentedly hostile act by any broadcaster, but especially by the BBC, with its particular obligation, as an organisation funded by a form of television poll tax, to behave impartially".

BBC Radio 4

"It's a tax on justice." That's the view of leading barrister Lord Pannick on the rise in civil court fees in England and Wales which comes into force today. The Ministry of Justice says courts must pay for themselves and the changes won't apply to the majority of claims. But Lord Pannick said "the government shouldn't be making money out of people who need to go to court." He said the average small business, or a victim of a personal injury claim, would not be able to access justice.

BBC Radio 4

Dr Rebecca Allen, director of think tank Education Datalab, told the Today programme the sample size was too small for Policy Exchange to have drawn the conclusions it has on free schools, external. "They never report things like statistical significance, whether the results could have been simply due to chance," she said.

Jonathan Simons, from Policy Exchange, agreed the evidence pool was small, but even what there was did contradict the predictions made by those against free schools - "that they would lower standards in neighbouring schools, cause chaos and take money away".