The Daily Mail

Richard Littlejohn isn't short of praise for Trevor Phillips, the former head of the Commission for Racial Equality, in his Mail column today, external. Littlejohn acknowledges he's been a friend of Mr Phillips for 20 years but insists "no one has done more to advance the cause of race relations in Britain". "When I asked him why he'd accepted the job as head of the equalities commission, he told me his mission would be complete when he could close it down. He wanted to build a relaxed, integrated colour-blind society, where everyone rubbed along together, respecting each other's difference." That hasn't happened, Littlejohn says. "The 'diversity' Gestapo have concentrated on emphasising what divides us, not what unites us, and criminalising those who refuse to play ball."

The Guardian

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UKIP's education spokesperson Paul Nuttall has been answering questions from Guardian readers, external. Asked about his plan to scrap sex and relationship education for children under 11, he says not all children are ready to learn about sex. "We've developed a culture in which children are exposed to things they're not always developmentally ready for," Mr Nuttall says. "The state shouldn't be teaching such things at an age where many kids just aren't ready for it." With children being "bombarded with sexualised imagery" the result is a very high rate of teen pregnancies, he claims.

tweets:, external The Conservatives' confidence, in spite of the evidence, is quite impressive, says @dalexandermp #labourgovernment

MPs on the Commons' education select committee have given the government a bad write-up over the handling of the Trojan Horse scandal. The Department for Education was "slow to take an interest in the allegations", MPs found. And the "reliability and robustness" of Ofsted's judgements has been called into question too. Committee chair Graham Stuart says: "The Trojan Horse affair is less about extremism than about governance and the ability of local and central agencies to respond to whistle-blowers and to correct abuses of power within schools." You can read the report in full here, external.

tweets:, external Douglas on Ukip: We find it a very powerful argument (in northern seats) to challenge Farage with his own words - see NHS #labourgovernment

Norman Smith
BBC Assistant Political Editor

The actual Budget measures may be relatively limited because they have to be agreed with the Liberal Democrats. But we can expect George Osborne to use the occasion to flag up Conservative manifesto pledges. We're going to get a lot of rhetoric around what the Tories are offering if they are re-elected.

Whether we might see a full-blown white rabbit is open to question because, let's be honest, there just is no cash around. But tax would be the one to look for. There'll probably be an increase in the personal allowance. Some people have been suggesting George Osborne could do something on national insurance - that would be a high-profile tax cut that would certainly galvanize Tory supporters.

tweets:, external "The polls are bad [in Scotland]," Alexander says, "We've got work to do and ground to catch up." #labourgovernment

Shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander is now speaking to the Labour List audience., external Asked if the party manifesto - his responsibility - is ready yet, he replies: "It's getting there." He declines to say whether he - with a constituency in Scotland, of course - was one of the Labour MPs pushing Ed Miliband to formally rule out a coalition with the SNP.

BBC News Channel

Business minister Matt Hancock has been interviewed on the News Channel about the government's minimum wage announcements. "We want to make sure the recovery reaches all parts, that it's a truly national recovery, and that we make work pay for everybody," he says. "It speaks to values as well as speaking to the economic recovery which is clearly under way." Mr Hancock is not so sure about the story that Conservatives could be about to propose a major overhaul of inheritance tax. "I don't know about that," he adds, saying George Osborne "floated that idea seven or eight years ago". He points out it featured in the 2010 Tory manifesto.

The Independent

Over at the Independent, Steve Richards is rather unimpressed by the media's interest in possible coalition deals. "This is an election that invites endless mischievous speculation," he writes, external. He remembers the 1987 election, when there was intensive speculation about whether the SDP/Liberal alliance would work with either Labour or the Conservatives. It was ultimately "utterly pointless" and the same applies here. "The truth is that none of them are sure what they will do." Richards writes. "Although all the leaderships are planning tentatively for various outcomes, the post-election landscape will be entirely different from the one they navigate now. Like leaving the UK to live in a foreign land, none of them are sure how they will respond or cope until they get there."

BBC News Channel

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham welcomes the idea of having more pharmacists in GP surgeries to help ease demand for appointments - albeit with caveats. "My concern is that this is medicine on the cheap. People who need to see a doctor shouldn't be diverted." But he says: "With safeguards, this is something worth looking at."

tweets:, external Cameron says chances of Farage's demand for a 2015 referendum are "pretty slim". Why won't he say it's impossible?

Brian Taylor
Political editor, Scotland

Let's bear in mind exactly what's happening here. We are not here pre-negotiating a coalition, or pre-negotiating a coalition out of existence. It is not about that. Right now, it is about all the parties trying to trip up their opponents (entirely understandably and reasonably from their perspectives).

The SNP put forward terms for a coalition, which is no Trident update, an improvement in public spending and an enhancement of Scottish powers beyond the Smith Commission. These are not negotiating techniques - these are issues they're putting forward now to embarrass the Labour Party because they feel Labour is weak on those.

In return, Labour say SNP proposals would mean ending Barnett and ultimately bringing about a further referendum on independence. They're not doing that to knock down a coalition, they're doing that to point out what they feel are potential weak spots in the SNP position.

The Conservatives? They're looking on and laughing.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, PA

Here's a preview of the day ahead in Parliament:

• The Commons begins its sitting at 11:30 with Justice questions

• Labour backbencher Jim Hood will use a ten minute rule bill to call for a law requiring candidates in elections to public office to disclose criminal convictions

• The Modern Slavery Bill returns to the Commons from the Lords after peers defeated the government by adding an amendment giving greater protection to overseas domestic workers

• MPs will then look at proposed changes to the Commons' standards committee - including putting more non-MPs on the oversight body

• A backbench business debate will then take place on Shaker Aamer, a Saudi citizen in Guantanamo Bay

• Labour MP Jim Sheridan wraps up the Commons' day with a brief debate on asbestos in schools

tweets:, external It is the sheer desperation in this 'refusing to work with the SNP' that is the defining feature in this latest Labour nonsense.

Iain Watson
Political correspondent, BBC News

Image source, AP

The government has overruled the Low Pay Commission's recommended increase in the apprentice minimum wage of just 7p an hour. Instead, it will go up by a further 50p from the £2.80 recommended to £3.30 - the largest increase since the rate was introduced. But last October Business Secretary Vince Cable wrote to the LPC, asking them to look at an increase of £1 an hour to bring the rate into line with the rate paid to 16 and 17-year-olds. The government has chosen not to impose a rise of this scale.

tweets:, external @ChukaUmunna envisages the state taking an "active role" with #business & using power to "knock heads together". #labourgovernment

Green Party members are rather upset by Ofcom's ruling yesterday thatthey should not be considered a major party for the 2015 general election campaign - despite a petition from 275,000 members of the public. Andrew Fleming, a party member, writes on the LSE's blog, external that the watchdog's criteria for inclusion "appear to have been inconsistently applied". He thinks more attention should have been paid to party membership figures. The Greens currently have more than 56,000 members.

tweets:, external Lab's Kezia Dugdale avoiding @BBCGaryR 's questions about whether concessions would be on offer to the SNP in any informal deal

tweets:, external Chuka Umunna on criticism that Labour is anti-business: 'We cannot have national business debate hijacked by bunch of establishment people'