Frantic campaigning on the final full day, with an apparently confident Labour nevertheless continuing the "Don't risk a Tory government" line.

All three parties, in fact, seem to be more concerned with why voters shouldn't vote for the other two than being positive about their own ambitions.

Amid rumblings of discontent within their party, the latest poll in The Times shows the Conservatives in a "worse position than before their record defeats in 1997 and 2001".

The Populus poll has the Tories on 27 per cent, with Labour on 41 per cent and the Lib Dems up 2 points on 23 per cent, their highest level of the campaign.

Yet, here's something to think about. It may just be that - like in the 1992 election, when no-one polled would own up to intending to vote Tory - this time around no-one will admit to voting for either the Conservatives or Labour. If that's the case, then the Lib Dems support might be artificially high.

Elsewhere in The Times, meanwhile, Simon Jenkins, says that if Labour wins, it will represent a "seventh victory in a row for Margaret Thatcher."

Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos, continuing his guest slot for The Guardian, praises the prime minister's final morning press conference.

The Sky News "interest index" hasn't been in positive territory once, but deep down, has it really all been that boring?

With an estimated 6.5m postal votes expected to be cast, the shadow cast by potential fraud is potentially a long one; another arrest this morning probably does nothing to make anyone feel better.

Forty-eight hours to go. The widow of the 87th and latest British serviceman to be killed in Iraq ensures that the issue stays in the spotlight by directly blaming Tony Blair for her husband's death.

Coming in the wake of the move by several other bereaved families to take legal action against the prime minister, both stories are set to keep Iraq on the front burner.

With the final Mori poll of the campaign for the FT showing Labour with a comfortable lead, Mr Blair himself has returned to his theme of heading off a Lib Dem protest vote, saying:

"There are three ways to get a Tory MP. One is to vote Tory, one is to stay home, one is to vote Liberal Democrat. Take nothing for granted. Unless people come out and vote Labour, it is a Tory government they will wake up to on May 6."

The message dovetailing nicely there, with Labour's latest poster campaign showing a sleeping Michael Howard, ready to wake on May 6th ready to wreak who-knows-what kind of havoc....

The Tory leader, meanwhile, sidestepped both Labour's continuing poll lead, and what seems to be the growing dissatisfaction within Tory ranks over his leadership.

And how do voters know they can trust him? Because he ordered the party battlebus off the road on finding out that it's tax disc was out of date.

But you have to wonder if he'd trade a few thousand of his majority for a last-minute penalty here later...

Bookies Ladbrokes reports that, despite Labour still being 1/33 to win the most seats, (and Liverpool 15/8 to beat Chelsea) it has taken a £10,000 bet on the Tories to win the election at 10/1.

The appeal ruling in the Birmingham postal vote fraud case is expected today, while there's always these guys or these guys.

Finally, for tonight's distractions, this is pretty good, as is this, I guess (but be careful where you open it).

Once again, the war took centre stage in the campaign as a British serviceman was killed in Iraq, and the continuing fallout from the various leaked documents relating to the government's conduct.

With Labour stepping up its rhetoric over the need for its traditional supporters to turn out (the latest poster says "If one in 10 Labour voters don't vote, the Tories win"), and that a vote for the Lib Dems is the same as voting Conservative, the scene seems set for an increasingly desperate, personal round of back-and-forth over the final three days.

Charles Kennedy introduced former Labour supporter Greg Dyke - the ex-Director General of the BBC - at the Lib Dems' morning presser, pointing to the fact that the Iraq war had cost Dyke his job, while the prime minister carried on regardless.

According to, appropriately, the BBC, Mr Dyke said it was now clear that Mr Blair and his Downing Street staff "did the same to the legal advice on the war in Iraq as they did to the intelligence".

He also compared the Blair administration to the Nixon White House.

Someone else drawing transatlantic comparisons is Markos Moulitsas, who writes the popular Daily Kos blog in the US. Guest blogging for The Guardian , he looks at some similarities and differences between campaigning in the two systems. (They like flags a lot more. Everyone likes U2)

Meanwhile, the prime minister, it seems, has won at least one hard-fought diplomatic endorsement.

If the folks at strategicvoter.org.uk get their way, he will eventually wind up with plenty of time to explore the lucrative delights of the international lecture circuit.

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".

The prime minister's rationale as he allowed the publication of the full legal advice on the Iraq war from the attorney general? 'Everyone's pretty much seen it all anyway', calling it more a 'damp squib than a smoking gun'.

The Guardian's web story on the release, probably appropriately, occasionally featured a pop-up ad for Persil, with a splodge marked with the catchphrase "It's not dirt...".

It also seems, according to the paper, that families of British soldiers killed in Iraq are preparing a legal case against the PM.

And, just a reminder...

Yet, as Bob Worcester of Mori said on Sky News this evening, despite the furore and doom-laden headlines for the prime minister this morning - specifically about the trust issue - Iraq remains "14th" on the list of concerns among voters; while the implausibility of any revelation having an impact on the end result of the election is borne out by bookmakers Paddy Power , who are already paying out on straight "Labour to Win" bets.

James Blitz in the FT agrees that while the timing may be difficult, and the story will rattle around for a few days, the electoral impact will probably be minimal.

The three main party leaders are due to appear together on the BBC's Question Time this evening - not quite a debate, but at least an opportunity for them to "interact with a live studio audience", if not directly with each other.

Probably as well, then, that Michael Howard didn't take the opportunity today to repeat his previous accusation - described by Melanie Phillips as "inept, opportunistic and squalid" that the prime minister had lied over Iraq, while Charles Kennedy just stuck with the "misleading" line of attack.

No chance, one would assume, of either of them echoing Richard Gott's buzzworthy assertion in The Guardian the other day that the PM may actually be, in fact, a war criminal.

The leak of documents indicating that the government's advice on the legality of the war in Iraq makes an evening exclusive in The Guardian (link here - http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1471658,00.html).

Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, according to the paper, "warned that while he could be able to argue a "reasonable case" in favour of military action, he was far from confident a court would agree. Indeed, he added, a court 'might well conclude' that war would be found unlawful without a further UN resolution."

The Independent, (link here - http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=633361) meanwhile, suggests that Number 10 sought to limit the paper trail from the affair, quoting Lib Dem peer Lord Lester as saying it constituted "a cover-up in the interests of political expediency."

The personal nature (link here - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/frontpage/4487209.stm) of the contest continued, while a new Mori poll for the Financial Times, (link here - http://news.ft.com/cms/543e48fa-8727-11d9-9e3c-00000e2511c8.html) among people who say they are certain to vote, suggests that Labour's overall lead has narrowed, with the party on 36 per cent, two points ahead of the Conservatives, with the Lib Dems on 23 per cent.

Meanwhile, the prime minister, apparently dodged divine retribution (link here - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/frontpage/4490809.stm) today.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear... (link here - http://www.sayitwithknickers.com/ElectionKnickerGrams.asp)

The Independent had the defection of Brian Sedgemore (which would, of course, be a much bigger deal were he actually staying on as an MP) as a scoop this morning, quoting from the veteran Labour MP's letter to the paper:

"I voted against the war on Iraq and it becomes clearer every day that Blair decided to go to war after meeting Bush on his Texas ranch in 2002. After that, he lied to persuade the country to support him.

"The stomach-turning lies on Iraq were followed by the attempt to use the politics of fear to drive through Parliament a deeply authoritarian set of law-and-order measures that reminded me of the Star Chamber."

The paper also reports that Sedgemore believes a "small group of unnamed fellow MPs who are standing down are secretly planning to leave the Labour Party in protest at Mr Blair's leadership after the election".

There is much speculation as to who that might be.

An NOP poll for The Indy put Labour on 40 per cent, up three points on last week, with the Conservatives down two points on 30 per cent and the Liberal Democrats unchanged on 21 per cent.


The Lib Dems made much of their capture of one of old Labour's last castles, with his wonderful soundbite urging voters to "give Tony Blair a bloody nose".

But the prime minister shrugged off the attack, telling the Guardian:

"I've come to the conclusion that for those people who are opposed to the war, the more I put my point of view, the more it simply irritates them."

Blair also played down Michael Howard's recent comment that the Tories were "two goals down at half-time", something that Mr Howard's beloved Liverpool could find themselves tomorrow night.

And, while we all know the Labour press machine is pretty slick, this seems a bit of reach...

Deputy prime minister John Prescott had some unexpected visitors in the early hours.

Gordon Brown, meanwhile, claimed the economic mantle of, er.. Margaret Thatcher?


The opposition's latest anti-Blair billboard says: "If he’s prepared to lie to take us to war, he’s prepared to lie to win an election". The Tories, of course, supported the war.


Finally, I suppose this was only a matter of time... but it's not quite as bad as this.