Tweets, external : Oh look @guardian have bothered to write about my frock, external . My 37 years as a journalist have all been worth it

Mr Miliband explained Labour's five election pledges. These are the first three:

1. Labour will cut the deficit and balance the budget as soon as possible. That will mean “common sense” spending cuts outside protected areas, he says but education and health will always be protected and Labour will never adopt “extreme Tory spending plans” on public services.
2. High living standards for working families, that will mean an energy price freeze and £8 per hour living wage, the banning of zero hours contracts and 25 hours of nursery school support per week
3. Labour will create a new double lock to protect the NHS and prevent privatisation. “You can’t protect the NHS if you can’t say where the money is coming from,” Mr Miliband says. He promises a mansion tax on properties worth more than £2m, a levy on tobacco companies and to close tax loopholes “exploited by hedge funds”. He also says Labour will repeal the Health and Social Care Act.

Ed Miliband claims Mr Cameron was "a rattled prime minister running from his record" in last night’s TV grillings.

He attacks Mr Cameron on zero hours contracts - among other things - and points out his admission that he couldn't live on a zero-hours contract.

Mr Miliband adds: "I say this to Mr Cameron if it’s not good enough for you, it’s not good enough for the people of Britain."

Within Ed Miliband's speech, which has just finished, he said that his party would cap the amount of profit private firms can make from the NHS. Get the full story here.

"We know Britain can do better than this," Ed Miliband says to rapturous applause as he launches his party's election campaign. He also says he wants to rescue the NHS from David Cameron.

Labour leader Ed Milband plans to say his party will:

• Raise £2.5bn a year for the NHS through a mansion tax on the most properties over £2m, tackling tax avoidance by hedge funds, and a levy on the tobacco companies.

• Pay for 20,000 more nurses, 8,000 more GPs, 5,000 new homecare workers and 3.000 more midwives.
• Join up services from home to hospital.
• Guarantee cancer patients don't wait more than a week for vital tests
• Guarantee of a GP appointment within 48 hours - or on the same day if you need it – ensuring families get quicker access to their GP and helping relieve pressure on frontline hospital services

tweets:, external Is Ed Miliband tough enough to take questions after his speech this morning? HELL NO, we've just been told he won't be taking any.

That's David Cameron, according to Labour, which is launching its election campaign proper in east London.

Ed Miliband will give a speech in about 30 minutes time when he is expected to announce plans for a "double lock" to safeguard the future of the NHS.

In his speech at the Orbit Tower at the Olympic Park in London, he will declare that Labour will guarantee that local health services are no longer threatened by marketisation and privatisation, and provide extra investment so the NHS has time to care.

Image source, Getty Images

What is it that's missing from this generation of political leaders? Gravitas? Statesmanship? A sense of understanding of the hardships most people face? Or is is their ability to sing Ernie the Fastest Milkman in the West?

If ever there were proof that politicians will do anything, and we mean absolutely anything, to connect with voters we've just been handed it by the folk at Business Insider , externalwho report thus:

"Last night,105 lucky voters were serenaded - literally - by David Cameron.

"Tasked with the job of keeping the audience entertained during an advert break, Sky News host Kay Burley asked whether Cameron could sing. The prime minister said no but he revealed he does sing 'Ernie' in the shower,a ditty about a milkman by legendary British comedian Benny Hill."

Incidentally, when Ed Miliband was asked if he knew of Ernie he replied: "Absolutely not."

Here's a clip of 80-year-old Labour MP for Great Grimsby who is standing down after 38 years in parliament. Austin Mitchell spoke to 5 live's Stephen Chittenden as he packed up his "museum" of an office. More than 80 MPs are standing down at this year's general election.

Image source, twitter

Has Sun columnist Katie Hopkins won the election for Labour? And if so was it by accident or design?

She's not known for her support for Ed Miliband. In fact, she tweeted last night that she would leave the country if he became prime minister. The i100 , externalsays of Ms Hopkins "the perennial reality TV contestant might just have unwittingly won the election for Labour".

One or two unkind souls offered to give her a lift to the airport and buy her plane ticket. Some people can be rather cruel it seems.

Image source, twitter

Image source, Reuters

And the ratings for last night's leader's interviews are in, (well some of them)!

And they're big. The programme has 2.6million viewers on Channel 4.

That beats ITV's documentary The Triplets Are Coming! which had 1.7 million.

It also means around 11.7% of the UK television audience watched the debate on Channel 4.

That's about double Channel 4's typical ratings in primetime.

There is still the ratings number for Sky News to come in yet so we don't have total viewing figures yet.

And it's fair to say the numbers are nowhere near those of the leader's debates in 2010 when the audience was around 9 million for the first debate.

But those numbers are perhaps partly explained by the fact that they were the first ever TV debates.

Tweets, external : When Obama beat McCain 54-46 in a head-to-head it was called a landslide. But for the BBC that's called "no clear winner". Odd!

Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage are likely to come across as the least trustworthy in the upcoming TV debates, according to a psychometric and qualitative profiling study from Praditus, the online self-assessment platform.

Data revealed that Cameron is likely to come across as too aggressive, with Ed Miliband being one of the most honest, but unable to think on his feet.