The prime minister and chancellor head from Rome to Birmingham for crisis talks on Rover, and its thousands of potentially lost votes - sorry jobs - with some slim hope that a Chinese deal could still be revived.

Perhaps on the flight back, the two will have a chance to ratify their "secret pact", according to The Independent.

Even though those West Midlands constituencies are important to Labour's overall strategy, in the current circumstances Mr Blair might want to avoid canvassing here on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Millwall are at home to Crewe on Saturday, giving their supporters an opportunity to see the huge Tory billboard right outside the ground with the "It's not racist to impose limits on immigration" message.

Although the question for some Lions fans perhaps shouldn't be "Are you thinking what we're thinking?", but much shorter than that.

A new YouGov poll for the Daily Telegraph has Labour on 36 with the Tories just one point behind, and the Lib Dems on 21. Tony Blair has a 34-26 lead over Michael Howard in personal popularity. Charles Kennedy is on 16.

Nick Assinder at the BBC looks at the high level of media management that Labour has put in place at its public events while the Daily Mail takes the PM to task for "hiding from the voters", saying, graphically:

"Like a Mafia squealer who fears the reprisals of the Mob, he is cocooned at every turn."

The Mail also has a picture of Labour's rent-a-crowd, down to circling the same folks who appeared at both poster launches, this week and last month. They even seem to be wearing the same central casting outfits.

On the heels of the Birmingham postal vote fraud case, there's this from Blackburn. But even that's not as blatant as the folks who tried to sell their votes on eBay.

No wonder the folks behind notapathetic.co.uk think it's a good idea to at least let people who won't be voting explain why, rather than have the rest of us theorise on their behalf.


Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik, fresh from his appearance on The Late Edition, has demonstrated his dedication to the party's cause by postponing his wedding to weatherperson Sian Lloyd.


Finally, at Fullers pubs across London, drinkers can show their allegiance by using the 'Swig-O-Meter' which counts votes - ie pints pulled from three different coloured pumps.

Nicholson’s customers will also be given the chance to put themselves in the shoes of the political party leaders by ....drafting a manifesto on the back of special beer mats.

And of course, there's a certain wedding this weekend....