At last! The Sun makes a decision and a passing driver from Romford is suitably impressed.

Michael Howard and Oliver Letwin put forward their proposals for raising the threshold on stamp duty, a move that seems, um, egalitarian, at least in some patrician way, but is probably more likely a benefit to homeowners than homebuyers.

Labour, meanwhile, was talking law and order, while, - conveniently - the latest British Crime Survey figures were released; but of course there are always two sides.

Steve Richards in The Independent has an interesting interview with the prime minister where he speaks frankly about the trust issue and - in an almost Nixonesque exchange - where he thinks the blame lies:

"My frank assessment is that they were always going to say one of two things about me. The hope of the right wing was that New Labour would turn out to be old Labour, that we would mess up the economy and would not be strong on defence and therefore they could say that we came in as New Labour and turned into old Labour. If they weren't able to say that, I always knew they would go for my character. In 2001, they were calling me a liar and a cheat and that was before Iraq. The right wing plays this politics in a very heavy way."


Robert Shrimsley in the FT follows up the PM's grilling (as opposed to, er, stuffing) by Paxo the other night, with a look at the continued relevance of the traditional political encounter.

He writes: "Broadcast interviews have become all about headlines. But the point of a lengthy interview is not to win plaudits from the tabloids but to offer the viewer a rounded picture of what the subject believes. Are these interviews about broadening our understanding or are they just about tripping the politicians up? Opinion polls suggest public services and the economy are the big issues in this election; yet the interview was dominated by Iraq and immigration."


Guido Fawkes has an item on the Alexa rankings, showing the Tories' official website leading the traffic rankings of the three major parties, ahead of Labour and the Lib Dems.


Sandra Howard - Blogger extraordinaire!