Among the few distinct things to come out of last night's Question Time appearances by the three party leaders were that Charles Kennedy hasn't worked out whether or not British troops would stay in Iraq if the UN asked them to; that no matter what Michael Howard says, asylum seekers will always think he is "evil", and that Tony Blair isn't quite sure how the system for booking an appointment with a GP works.

Maybe none of that matters, though. (note to the BBC - it wasn't a "debate". Please stop calling it that.)

And, perhaps unsurprisingly, there was an announcement today on, er, the procedure for GP appointments...

Talking of The Times, the thunderer had a headline this morning saying "Blair anoints Brown as the next Premier". Which would have been fine had it not been for the story inside which, despite having a headline of its own that said: "It's friends reunited as Blair endorses Brown", quotes the prime minister thus:

"A week from a general election, I have a natural reluctance to end up with great headlines about who will be the next prime minister when the country has not even decided it wants me to remain prime minister."

So that's all cleared up, then.

The paper also has a front page picture story of Baroness Thatcher flying out to Venice for a holiday, saying that it will be the "first time in 70 years" that she has not been involved in an election campaign. The nine-year old Margaret Roberts was quite an asset on the stump, apparently.

Fear not. She will be back before May 5.


The latest Populus survey puts Labour on 40 per cent for the third day running. The Tories were up one point at 32 and the Lib Dems were unchanged at 21. The poll was taken before Thursday night's Question Time.

Given the general lack of public interest in the election campaign, (see above re Footballers' Wives) not sure how attractive the latest exhibit at Madame Tussauds will prove. According to the blurb, the "Kings of Spin" attraction features "a bona fide lie detector, Blair's pal George Bush and various other politicians. Guests get the opportunity to be wired up to the lie detector and grilled on a series of questions to see if they can "spin" like a politician."

With the boos ringing in his ears from last night's appearance, there's still more discussion on the prime minister's recent "boo v boom" throwdown with the south London schoolkids.

Now, thanks to the BBC you can decide for yourself....

Not so happy broadcast chappies over at Channel Four, which apologised to the Green Party after its Party Election Broadcast ran for three of its five minutes with subtitles meant for the UK Independence Party. The Greens, who are entitled to only one broadcast, are taking legal advice on whether the broadcast can be re-shown. UKIP, predictably, are "delighted".