UK Politics

[Dong Zhou]

-Politics Home doing a list of which Mp's are standing, which are going

-Thornberry urges May to summon Russia ambassador over Chechnya's treatment of homosexuals

-Probate fees rise scrapped

-Farron urging Remain Tories to oppose hard Brexit

-Corbyn attacks supersized classes, Tories put to Wales 18% rise in such classes, would abolish zero hour contracts and says he loves campaigning, feels Labour are already making a lot of ground

-Dawn Butler's claim that May is trying to rig democracy (by calling an election) is not helping Labour and idea of rolling manifesto, wonder if that could be an issue.

-Farron being challenged in his seat by Mr Fish Finger

-Antonio Tajani, president of the European parliament would be very happy to welcome us back

-Leaked EU guidelines suggest they want us to honour billions in budget commitments, guarantee lifelong rights for EU citizens in Britain, and stay bound to the European court of justice

-Patel has written to MP's with a long defence of Dfird's work amidst rumours the 0.7% target would be axed though May (apparently persuaded by Ruth Davidson) has now said it will be kept

-Tory MP's are being invited to give idea's for manifesto

-Tory HQ fears polls are leading to unrealistic expectations of what would be a good win

-Lib Dems emergency appeal for election funds has raised more then double Labour but the latter should be able to tap up union funding

-Stormont talks extended to June 29th (I said N.Ireland councils were setting business rates, turns out it was distract rates, my mistake)

-Sturgeon makes clear she sees Scottish Tories as big threat in local election but suggests some of their candidates are akin to UKIP

-May has lost communications chief Katie Perrior and press secretary Lizzie Loudon since that election announcement, Vote Leave's Rob Oxley is Tory's head of media for election

-Ofcom delays report into Fox bid for Sky till June 20th aka after election

-May warns election can not be taken for granted

-Hammond hopes this manifesto will give more flexibility with econimic policy which is pretty much seen as "please allow me to raise Vat and National Insurance"

-McCluskey wins Unite elections, a boost to Corbyn. Winner got 59,067 votes (46%), Gerard Coyne 53,544 (41%) and Ian Allinson 17,143 (13%), in a turnout of just over 12.2%. Coyne's strategy to reach out beyond that hardcore 15% to get them to vote clearly didn't work but he did quite well getting so close in McCluskey's heartland, might not be comfort given his suspension though. Coyne says machine made it impossible for some of his supporters to vote and tried to bully him

-Election Commission investigating Leave.EU for alleged spending offences in referendum

-A sense Tories are refusing to commit to pension triple lock

-Retail sales fell by 1.8% which is far more then expected. 7 year worst result with quarter of 1.4% fall, pound slips

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-Valarie Vaz attacks in Commons don't land

-Farage not standing as he would have won this time but felt Brussels work more important

-Gisela Stuart warns Parliament has difficult task with Brexit

-Carswell doubts UKIP will ever another MP

-Ed Balls not returning this time

-Dugher retiring, a small tear rolling down Corbyn's cheek

-Daily Mirror doing the chicken thing on May

-Baroness Prosser compares Unite's suspension of Coyne to North Korea. As concerning as Unite suspending McCluskey's rival is, not sure people should use North Korea as an example of anything

-Telegraphs Chris Chope fearing manifesto is not going to proper Tory

-Blair predicts large Tory majority

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-The Economist welcomes election

-Kuessenberg on May and Corbyn touching on same vein of anger

-D'Arcy prasies the skill of Carswell

-Iain Watson on Corbyn's strong start

-Hardman on Labour backbench tactics won't work in election

-Gabby Hinsliff on Labour's tax plans

-Professor Scully on elections in Wales

[Dong Zhou]

-Tories trying to dampen down talks from opposition and media of Tory tax bombshell coming

-David Mackintosh facing deselection after allegations about finances and a loan his council, when he was leader, gave Northampton Town Football club

-Sir David Beamish retires as Clerk of the Parliaments

-D'Arcy's week ahead

-Corbyn mixed up statistics in education speech, a minor case this time and he has been having a good few weeks but those statistical errors keep happening risks biting him

-Leave.EU figures clearly feel the Electoral Commission is out to get them and nobble Banks in Clacton (admitting he has no idea where it is and will need to look up on a map suggests the best way to do that is let him run)

-Britain went a full day without using coal to generate electricity for the first time since the Industrial Revolution (1882 to be exact)

-Times has White House sources claiming that trade deal with EU is higher priority then trade deal with UK

-The money spent on bailing out Lloyds have been repaid

-Gina Miller did really badly on This Week, not helped by denying she is a Remainer though interesting she opposes second referendum and she had a right to be angry at Andrew Neill (I paraphrase) "is this a new hobby for rich woman?"

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-Bush on Unite election

-Marina Hyde has fun with never ending cycle of elections

-James Foyrsth on e elections prediction, May and Crosby, concerned Tories, manifesto

-Richard Angell of Progress on his strategy for Labour campaign

[Dong Zhou]

-Corbyn pledges making each country's saints day (St George, St David, St Patrick and St Andrew) a bank holiday but asked by Marr, made clear his dislike of Trident, concerned over Kora and Trump unpicking Iran deal. The Bank Holidays was a good move, hard for business to argue, taps into a patriotism that is Corbyn's weak point, everyone loves holidays (we need more Bank Holidays but they are badly placed, this makes it even worse) but Trident remains an issue he is going to struggle with. He has been doing well this campaign and came across well on Marr, calm, polite, warm

-Express says 1 in 7 Labour voters have turned Tory, Mail on Sunday says Tory lead halved due to tax U-turn, Comres gives Tory 50% though that seems an outlier

- McLoughlin calls Corbyn a man who puts UK at more risk against terrorism

-Farron rules out going into Coalition

-Mail on Sunday declared for May

-UKIP would ban the Burqa, Nuttall saying he is following European example while UKIP leadership says they are open for their local parties to decide not to stand against Brexit MP's

-May says Tories are the low tax party

-Nice Tory line on Corbyn bank holidays ""The British economy would be on a permanent holiday if Mr Corbyn got near Downing Street."

-Guy Verhofstadt says election is simply political opportunism that will not help her on Brexit and irrelevant to Brussels if she increases majority and gives a hard warning to UK citizens

-Environment Department tries to block report on air pollution in courts but failed and have to publish on Monday

-SNP will not back Michelle Thomson and Natalie McGarry during election, Thomson is stepping down

-Greg Clark warns energy regulation needs improving, would welcome nuclear engineers from EU but not power station workers

-Javid says changing business rates to suit digital economy isn't a priority and points out business groups are great at critiszing but not coming up with an agreed alternative

-Sun saying Javid, Truss and Leadsom are in real danger of axe, Greening and Grayling could also be in trouble and if May thinks she has a big enough majority to take the risk: out go Fox, Hunt and Boris with Brandon Lewis and Raab tipped for promotion

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-Sir Cable suggests Hammond and May are at loggerheads over tax plans

-Sir Pickles retiring after 25 years

-Constitutional Select Committee chair Graham Allen retiring due to ill-health after 30 years

-Tip Shipman says Tory MP's are referring to May as "Mummy" and that some part of May calling election would have been forcing Osborne to make a decision to stay or go

-Lord Prescott calls for no election polls and says Corbyn's superior campaigning skills could see him win

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-Peter Barnes on target seats

-Ether Webber on the admin behind election campaigns

-John Rentoul on plans for after Labour defeat

[Dong Zhou]

-Farron clearly getting angry at constant questions about his attitude on homosexuality

-Corbyn dodges around if he would order a strike against the head of Isis. I think he is going to get a lot of these questions and I wonder if, while avoiding getting self indulgent on Trident for once in his leadership, he needs to find a way to argue for his more pacifistic foreign policy to the wider public and hope some of it resonates and do it quickly

-Tories, Sun, Times, Telegraph and Mail suddenly big fans of "Marxist madness, anti-business, back to 70s" policy of Ed Miliband as Tories promise energy price cap in manifesto. Greens say not enough, energy companies say wrong strategy while plenty on all sides concerned it makes a mockery of switching

-Nia Griffith and Andrew Gwynne frantically trying to assure the public Labour will renew Trident despite Corbyn's recent comments, Mail headline is on Labour's defence split

-Survation has Tories on 21%, ICM has 21% Tory lead. Panelbase poll for the Sunday Times in Scotland has SNP on 44%, Tories on 33% and Labour on 13% for those seats, Youguv gives Tories 10 point lead in Wales with a lot of taking of UKIP vote, first time ever they have had a Youguv lead there while Labour's 30% rating has only been as low once this century in the nadir of Brown's time and Tories highest this century at 40%. Tories have not had majority of seats (which such a lead would give them in theory) in Wales since 1850's

-Labour asking members for manifesto ideas

-May remarks given pollsters track record, they can't trust the big Tory lead

-Equalities chair Maria Miller urges parties to use election to get more women into parliament

-Fallon says Corbyn is a security risk since he wouldn't strike against terrorists for Trident comments

-Corbyn says Labour will never apologize for it's ties to unions, describes them as family, proposes Scottish National Bank, rules out coalition with SNP

-Commons Public Administration Committee accuse Osborne of undermining the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments by not asking permission to take Evening Standard Job, would also like ministers banned for two years from holding jobs related to their former role

-Plaid leader Leanne Wood not running for Westminster as she would have to resign as leader if she won, Plaid aiming for five MP's (an up of 2) this time

-Tories hire Jim Messina again

-Ukip says girls at risk of FGM should have to undergo a medical examination every year, calls for immediate moratorium on new Islamic schools, calls "Multiculturalism is the enemy of women's rights.", rape where attacker is of different race should be considered a hate crime. Lib Dems accuse them of out Le-Penning Le Pen

-Khan gives full backing of Corbyn for PM

-Labour manifesto expected 15th May

-UKIP will not stand against Connor Burns while Nuttall has called Hoey (Fallon happily playing on this in her pro Remain constituency) and namesake David Nuttall as real Brexit MP's

-Greens won't stand against Rupa Huq

-Shadow cabinet expected to do three campaign visits a week

-Communist party of Britain is not running for first time since 1920 but is backing Labour. Got 275 votes last time so more useful as a propaganda tool for the Tories then Labour

-Carwyn Jones warns Corbyn has a lot of work to do to convince voters in Wales, needs to say yes he will replace Trident and Labour has a mountain to climb to keep it's Welsh strongholds. Does say Corbyn comes across well in person

-Sturgeon challenges Corbyn to stand by his convictions and rule out replacing Trident, says governments should have strong relationship with unions, suggests May is doing elections before law catches up over alleged electoral fraud in some seats (two of her own MP's are facing police inquiries it should be said)

-Lib Dems pass 100,000 members

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-Banks not in favour of burqa ban and formally pulls out of Clacton, Sun calls him chicken and other media seem to agree

-Blair considering running for office again. He really shouldn't

-Woman Equality Party leader Sophie Walker to run against Philip Davies who she calls a misogynist and the people of Shipley want their seat back for someone who will focus on their needs (I suspect she is going to be very disappointed) and stop offending them

-Umunna calls UKIp hate pedddlers

-Farage rules out coalition

-Sir Cable urges Lib Dems to back Caroline Lucas

-Chris White defends aid

-Nicky Morgan on the practicalities of an election camapign for an MP

-Ian Davidson to fight against Calum Kerr

-Rumours Goldsmith wishes to run for Tories in Richmond

-Leighton Andrews, the former education minister in the Welsh Labour government, calls for Corbyn to go

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-James Forysth on May's gamble and why

-D'Ancona on Mayisim

-Zoe Williams calls for an end to leadership and yay to progressive alliance

-Professor Scully on that Wales poll

[Dong Zhou]

-Labour Brexit would remain in Single Market and unilaterally guarantee the rights of EU residents (which he argues would set a tone of cooperation with EU), no deal is not an option and keep workers rights. Wish to stay in Erasmus, the EU exchange scheme for students, Euratom, the European Medicines Agency, Europol and Eurojust, would match future EU standards on environment and workers rights. No second referendum or EEA, promise to hand devolved powers to relevant assembly's. UKIP say it is a plan to pretend we hadn't left, Tories say Labour too weak and divided to get good deal (David Davies) and nonsensical (May)

-May says other parties have not taken the wake up call of the Brexit vote and instead closed ranks. Uses visit to Wales to warn Plaid and Labour alliance risks Brexit and putting Corbyn in number 10, and attacks Welsh Labour's record. Oh and mentioned “lead the world in preventing tourism” in speech

-Electronic voter registration will not be in place in Northern Ireland for the election, the Assembly Election delayed implementation

-BBC on parties attitudes on Brexit and what bills might be passed before election

-Brokenshire's proposed N.Ireland budget would rise health and communities department budgets get rise but education cu

-Ruth Davidson says Corbyn would allow SNP another independence referendum and says he didn't campaign for union

-SDLP call for Stormont talks to be paused till after election

-Sir Stramer open to staying in customs union and calls Labour's Brexit position as nuanced (Damien Green calls it "completely incoherent" that would risk UK nationals rights, Gardiner calls it "nice" vs Tories "nationalistic", Farron calls it "more holes than a colander"), says trade deals with EU more important then new countries, says May must face scrutiny if she wishes to be a leader and of damaging tone with EU, wants Brexit Commons vote in Autumn 2018, believes EU vote was a demand for managed migration (which contradicts staying in single market, May at least is honest about that)

-Gardiner might be wise to remove "I'm in" sticker from I-pad after Susan Reid pointed it out

-Muslim Council of Britain accuses UKIP of singling out Muslims, aren't true leaders and hints they are bigots

-UK deficit hits lowest since the financial crisis, the 52 billion is 28% less then last year if a smidgen more then expected though our national debt is now around £1.7 trillion.

-Education select committee wants university staff to be guaranteed being allowed to stay and students to be taken out of migration numbers

-Nuttall still dithering on if to run

-UKIP foreign affairs spokesperson James Carver resigns in protest at Buraq ban

-May has visited Wales five times in three months

-N.Ireland Greens won't do pact with SDLP due to SDLP's anti-abortion stance and no to Sinn Feinn since Sinn Fein boycott Westminster. Alliance also refusing to have a pact with SDLP and Sinn Feinn

-Sturgeon delays statement on next steps towards referendum due to election

-Farron says gay sex is not a sin after being badgered on this for some time.

-Katnar (formerly TNS) polling says support for independence down to 37% and only 28% back referendum in Sturgeon's time frame

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-N.Ireland questions went as well as one could be expected ie horribly for anyone that wants N.Ireland to sort itself out though Danny Kinahan was thoughtful

-Labour's attacks on homelessness record of government was very ugly

-Helen Jones interesting as she pushes for open book literature test route

-Lord Mandelson on Labour's EU stance “Well, search me,” and warns they need a clearer one by polling day

-Jim Packard "Audacious of Tories to accuse other parties of chaos after EU civil war, surprise referendum result, leader resigning, surprise election etc"

-Diane James backs Centrica (energy company) big complaint that some in government do not believe in free markets

-Banks accuses UKIP of declaring war on Muslims

-Sophie Walker failed to really explain why Philip Davies is misogynist when on BBC radio

-Tory MP's withdrawing from Open Britain as they are targetting some Brexit Tory MP's

-Blair on how Labour can turn Tory Brexit election claims against them

-Looks like Simon Danczuk will run for Labour as can't complete disciplinary process in time and so would be open to legal challenge

-Political Studies Association predict a kicking for Labour in Wales and disaster in Scotland for local elections including losing control of all Scottish councils, lose almost one in seven councillors in England. Tories to make substantial gains in England and Scotland, SNP in Scotland, Lib Dems who could take Cornwall to make good gains in England, UKIP to collapse

-IDS on the kind of manifesto he wants to see

-Andrew Tyrie retiring, huge blow given his highly effective Treasury Committee chairmanship

-Andrew Sparrow after May's stump speech in Wales "I will post a summary soon. Although that may be a struggle, because for the most part May as robustly unenlightening. "

-Roy Hattersley risks spiking Labour's Brexit policy launch by saying Corbyn policies doomed to failure, situation worse then 1983 and says 10 potential Labour leaders need to speak out and take control or could be out of power for two or three elections.

-John Lamont resigning from Hollyrood to run for Westminster

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-Aditya Chakrabortty accuses May of culture war

-Deborah Mattinson on how English focus groups see Sturgeon (also Corbyn and May at end)

-Bush on that Wales poll

-Owen Jones good Brexit message, now Labour has to show discipline to sell it

-Nick Hilton on Labour down to low to mid 100 seats would be a disaster for all of Britain

-Stephen Pollard urges Labour to copy Labour of 1930's and Australia Labour twice and axe their leader

[Dong Zhou]

PMQ's: May went hard before Corbyn rose including threat to our defence in an effective attack and Corbyn avoiding it completely will not have helped. Corbyn paid thanks to those leaving Commons and to Speaker, Tories kept cheering Corbyn, nice little shot by Corbyn at May avoiding Q&A's and debates before going on NHS pay which calmed Tories down, May defends NHS pay as 4% rise on average for most staff then goes the usual NHS lines of strong economy then Corbyn goes on housing but without a real punch, May goes on Labour record compared to hers. Corbyn actually goes back on housing then school funding, May dodges around it and goes on generic education defence/attack, the pension age rise which May defended and gave decent defence of Tory pension record while May dodged NHS to have effective attack line from "Corbyn but" website. Corbyn was decent and used the letters he got fairly effectively while his strong against weak, weak against strong could be ann effective election line but I think that defence attack/Corbyn but is more likely to stick then anything he said and while May wasn't strong, she got her main attack lines out. Angus Robertson goes on triple lock pensions but May refuses to commit but it does seem like she is going to drop that Tory policy

Lasted nearly an hour as Bercow fitted in retiring MP's

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-Trudy Harrison makes maiden speech

-Charities not happy at snap election as it causes chaos for them in terms of finance and admin as they have to set out last ten months spending as they are hit by election spending rules

-Labour promises no tuition fees for student nurses and midwives and NHS payrise but questions about how this is to be afforded from other parties (corporation tax not being cut is the answer so far, it is also funding 8 other promises at least)

-Hollyrood condemns cut of child benefit/Universal Credit for more then three children (unless child is due to rape or adoption) with Dugdale giving a powerful speech and a lot of MSP's just making snide attacks on Tories

-Public Accounts Committee says free schools policy funding has been wasteful and inchorent

-Hunt admits Brexit will have impact on NHS

-Ashworth promises all promises will be fully funded in manifesto

-Greens would scrap tuition fees and bring back maintenance grants, continue the Erasmus programme and pay UK universities the equivalent funding they got from EU

-David Ward, despite having been suspended in past for anti-Semitism, selected by Lib Dems as they attempt to take back Bradford East. Farron made no mention of it at PMQ's and his attacks on Tories as nasty party got the lack of respect it deserved. It took till near 2:30 pm for Ward to be sacked

-Wall Street Journal concerned someone is leaking UK econimic data to trader

-Rumours May is being urged to sideline Boris during election campaign

-Most of Hammond's Finance bill junked to get it through Commons in time

-Ipsis Mori goes Tories at 49%, Labour 26% and May as best rated PM in their history (61%, Blair got 52% at highest), Panelbase give Tories 22 point lead

-Nuttall says he will be vindicated like Ghandi

-Tory manifesto expected on May8th

-Labour won't have Corbyn in TV debates without May (usually a wise idea as other parties pile up on big dog but Corbyn needs anything he can get), smaller parties furious

-Labour deny McDonnell called for MI5 to be disbanded

-130 extra slots for Dubs amendment children found after admin error discovered

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-Burnham accuses NHS of "criminal cover-up on an industrial scale" over contaminated blood in 70's and 80's and using patients as guinea pigs , will go to police if parliament does not order a full public inquiry

-Goldsmith confirmed as seeking Tory whip for Richmond

-Sir Alan Haselhurst retiring after 40 years due to his family making clear he should not stand again (and some in his local party wanted him to retire)

-Cameron says a large majority would give May more time to deal with Brexit and it's consequences, Tories accepting of result has kept them healthy, says referendum was needed as failure to have one before had become poisonous, Trump's travel ban has played into hands of terrorists

-Natalie Bennett standing for Greens

-Sharon Hodgson delights in Labour's free school meal policy

-Umunna tries to argue to vote Labour to hold Tories to account on Brexit

-Peter Lilley is retiring

-An interview with Dugher who is not retiring quietly (I wonder had he stayed, his free use of mental health would have seen him destroyed at some point).

-Sir Simon Burns (Sun Fin's fav MP) retiring

-Sir Howarth retiring

-Scottish Labour say former chief of the pro-UK Better Together campaign Blair McDougall and leading Corbynite Rhea Wolfson are running for them

-Gove hoping Brexit will give NHS something close to £100 million. A bit less then 350 million

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-Remainer Bonnie Greer on her thoughts on May and trying to rally Remainers

-Kuessnberg on Labour's Brexit stance and Wales

-Peter Barnes senses rise in tactical voting

-Iain Watson wonders if Labour's Brexit message is too nuanced

-Toynbee went to Commons seminar on polling and focus groups on underlying attitudes. Hint: it is very very very very bad for Labour

-Behr on why May will dodge the hard questions this campaign

-Alex Massie on Scottish election

[Dong Zhou]

-PMQ's was longest on record

- Tories targetting the seats of Tom Watson, Liz Kendall, Lilian Greenwood and Vernon Coaker

-UKIP doing badly in polls, slipping rapidly behind Lib Dems

-Salmond says election is a vote on indyref2, Boris comments on further strikes did not have Parliament's approval

-Boris calls Corbyn a “mutton-headed old mugwump” and “Islingtonian herbivore” but warns he is not harmless (apparently Tory HQ had to block joke about Corbyn "shooting blanks"). He has apologized to mugwump's everywhere and is talking of great swathes of trade deals post-brexit, says £250 million to NHS from Brexit is not disputed (it is by our major statistical authorities), asks where Corbyn is on the great foreign policy issues of the day, says UK will support airstrikes on Assad (said that on election day in Commons so got missed) and willing to join in future ones and isn't sure MP's will get a say, wary of a strike in N.Korea, 99.9% certain Assad forces responsible for chemical attack, refuses to back 100,000 immigration target

-Rumours Tories will go to pension double lock rather then triple and we will stick to ECHR till after Brexit as would inflame EU to bring that up

-Youguv gives Tories a lead of just 16 points and a small majority (45-43) arguing it was wrong to leave EU

-May and Corbyn yet to formally declare if they are standing for election as MP's

-Thornberry says Boris is single-handedly lowering our chances of good deal with EU by crass remarks

-Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee says departmental accounts should be done in a way to make it easier for public to scrutinise

-May has dinner with Barnier and Junker

-Public Accounts Committee questions Education department grip on getting school places where needed

-May gives vote of confidence in Andrew Davies and says Reckless issue is up to Welsh Tories

-Labour doing housing policy day

-UK housebuilders had good quarter, Deutsche Bank suggesting it will 4,000 staff (out of 9,000) out of UK which is apparently a evil German conspiracy to some in press

-State Opening of Parliament on 19th June, will be slimmed down version due to timescale

-Farron accuses May and Boris of pandering to Trump, says Lib Dems will offer youngsters a way out of hard Brexit

-Corbyn says he won't get involved in name calling, suggests he would be opposed to Assad strikes and UN inspectors need time and space to work in, mood on doorstep different then polls

-Works and Pensions Committee says Universal Credit needs a lot of fixing

-N.Ireland Renewable Heat Scheme inquiry has started

-Arrest at Whitehall with armed police involved and suspected attempt at terrorism

-N.Ireland talks shelved till after general election

-Government still losing on attempts to delay publication of air pollution plans

-Nutall has decided to stand for parliament

-White powder sent to Lord Hain, thankfully not harmful

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-Goldsmith indeed running for Richmond

-Cameron hopes for early deal on what money we owe EU

-Esther McVey running for Tatton

-Blair tries to dodge around question of if he endorses Corbyn as PM, says May should be trying to keep us in single market

-Lib Dems decide not to stand against Caroline Lucas

-David Ward says his sacking is a conspiracy to stop pro-Palestine people becoming MP's

-Greens won't run in Brighton Kempton to try to help Labour take it from Tory Simon Kirby

-Lord Peter Smith accuses Corbyn's office of ignoring the members of Leigh (who seem to want councillor Jo Platt) to try to impose Katy Clark and would resign if she is picked, says she and Corbyn have probably never been to Leigh and Clark is a proven vote loser

-Sir Cable on why Lib Dems could make a difference

-Dr Huppert fighting for Cambridge seat again

-Dugher becomes chief executive of the music industry group UK Music.

-Ukip’s north-east regional chairman, Steve Turner, defects to Tories bemoaning infighting and poor organization

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-Ellie Mae O'Hagan Welsh neglect

-Owen Jones urges Labour to go for hope

-Frances Ryan questions Tory claim to be party of competence

-Corbyn's former spokesperson Matt Zarb-Cousin on what it was like working for Corbyn and his views on the election

-Dr David Butterfield explains mugwump

-Toynbee not impressed by May still refusing to take students out of migration numbers

[Dong Zhou]

-Happy Ed Balls Day!

-Economic news: UK house price growth hits four-year low of 2.6%, RBS gets first quarterly profit since 2015, government slims it's stake in Llyods to less then 1%, pound gets 7 month high, first quarter growth slows to 0.3% which is worse then expected thanks to big slowdown in services (Lib Dems and SNP blame Brexit, Labour don't)

-Some unhappiness that UKIP have selected Le Pen fan Anne Marie Waters, who has called Islam evil, as election candidate but Nuttall saying he may overide local party on this

-Tories accused of stopping locals using Leeds community centre on May visit and just having Tory activists there

-Tories seeking £19 million in donations for election

-Bercow hugged retiring MP's

-Scottish Youguv voting intentions poll has SNP on 41% (down 9 on the 2015 result), Tories up to 28% (+13) and Labour to historic low of 18%

-Nuttall denies war on Muslims by UKIP, calls for English parliament and proportional representation, Farage will play a public role in campaign, denies he will resign if bad election and backs Sturgeon claism election is to jump before expenses allegations go further

-Government hastily drawing up powers for UK to be able to launch sanctions (apparently legally, the powers are with EU)

-Merkel says some in Britain have an illusion that Brexit and trade talks can happen at same time, May uses this to show why she needs a mandate

-Labour pledges a million homes in five years

-May gives vote of confidence in Boris but his allies spreading concerns he will be demoted

-EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom says there will be a trade deal after Brexit

-International Aid committee wants more of aid budget spent on education, from 8% to 10%

-Irish diplomats looking at getting EU to allow N.Ireland back into EU

-Transport Select Committee says Vauxhall were morally reprehensible over their handling of car fire issue of 2015 and showed a reckless disregard for safety

-Housing Minister Gavin Barwell admits they have not done enough on housing

-Government ministers decide to have a day off media work on the day of econimic slowdown. I'm sure a coincidence.

-May has used Strong and Stable 57 times since calling election (Buzfeed is keeping count)

-McDonnell says growth slowdown could help Labour win over UKIP voters

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-Vauxhall Labour gives fullbacking to Kate Hoey

-Rachael Johnson joins Lib Dems as opposed to hard Brexit

-Umunna gave good speech on Tories dividing the country

-Greens and Woman Equality Party agree pact in Shipley with Greens stepping aside while UKIP stand aside to help Philip Davies hold his seat, WEP won't stand against Greens in Brighton Pavilion, Bristol West, Bath, Isle of Wight and Sheffield.

- David Mackintosh retires, local party made clear they were likely to deselect him

-Shadow minister Matthew Pennycook contacted on Twitter by a constituent who said he wanted to vote for him but couldn’t support Corbyn publicly responded “It will only be my name on the ballot paper,"

-Daniel Hannan optimistic for Brexit talks

-Sir Cable says coalition of chaos won't work because nobody believes Corbyn can win and says slowed growth is due to Brexit

-Labour choosing Preet Kaur Gill to replace Gisela Stuart means we could have our first female Sikh MP

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-Tom Mosley on why Tories say "strong and stable" again and again and again

-BBC on EU attitudes towards Brexit talks

-Isabel Hardman on Labour being split on election strategy

-Patrick Cockburn Boris Syria policy is nothing more then play-acting

-Stephen Bush says left and centre-left need to accept May is popular and explain how they will beat a PM people want to vote for

-Professor Tim Bale and David Jeffery look at if Corbynite MP's will have enough to get Corbynite on leadership ballot after election

-Peter McLeod on how parties use polling

-Simon Heffer on cabinet ministers facing axe and the jostling for power

[Dong Zhou]

-May to make her first election visit to Scotland

-Nuttall says Brexit is half-done and Tories need to be held to account on Brexit

-Farron wishes to become leader of the opposition (hard to see Lib Dems getting 100 MP's)

-Corbyn urges young to vote as apathy would lead to Tories

-Seems Ireland will ask that if N.Ireland joins the Republic, it joins EU (David Davis seems to agree with Irish government on this)

-David Davis ejects SNP Brexit plans of Scotland being in single market would create trading disruption in UK, something SNP disagree with. Government accuses SNP of trying to have Davis letter hushed up

-Insolvencies at three year high

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-Katy Clark pulls out of selection for Leigh at last moment so Burnhamite councillor Jo Platt gets it while Hull rejects Corbyn allies Sam Tarry and David Prescott but Watson allies like union activist Steph Peacockm (Barnsley) and Ellie Reeves (sister of Momentum's fav MP Rachael) have got selected though Corbynites have got some candidates selected like Laura Pidcock, in North West Durham. Apparently NEC has been checking local links quite a bit this time

-Steve Rotheram not quite retired from seat, apparently concerned that a non local will be selected

-Andrew Turner retiring after 16 years for a new generation after telling students in Newport homosexuality is a danger to society

-David Lammy on need for shared parental leave

-MP's including Reeves and Clegg using crowd funding to help with election expenses

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-Professor Archie Brown questions need for strong leader

-Peter Oborne defends Farron

-Deborah Orr on need to tackle air pollution now

[Dong Zhou]

-May pledges to increase pension regulator powers

-Labour makes 20 workers rights pledges like giving all workers equal rights from day one; pledges to ban zero-hours contracts; guaranteeing trade unions a right to access workplaces; raising the minimum wage; banning unpaid internships; and amending company takeover rules to protect employees' pensions.

-Environment Committee slams our 7.3m tonnes of foodwaste in 2015 as unacceptable, calculate foodwaste costs average household £470 a year (700 if children) but warns getting households to stop food-waste is going to be tricky.

-May says vote for Scottish Tories strengthen the union and her hand on Brexit, rules out raising VAT (feels like McDonnell managed to bounce her into it) while her interviews have not impressed pundits but sense she will drop triple lock pension

-President Tusk says EU needs serious guarantees on EU nationals and EU bill paid

-Corbyn says May has got trapped in bunker mentality and other party leaders have been trapped by vested interests

-David Davis admits these will be confrontational and difficult negotiation

-Nuttall to stand in Boston and Skegness, not a local but is a heavy Brexiteer area

-Lord Prescott rails against Blair

-Rumours Junker told Merkel that May is on another galaxy about Brexit and makes no deal more likely

-John Mann urges people to vote for Labour MP's who are proven fighters for their communities

-Labour donor Michael Johnson says he will stand against Corbyn

-head teachers’ conference gives Corbyn a warm reception.

-Panelbase poll for the Sunday Times Scotland found that 52% say May should allow referendun if Sturgeon has strong election, support for independence at 45%

-Scottish Labour have half male, half female for their candidates

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-Rachael Johnson defends her going to Lib Dems (it is not a good feature of our country that family members being of different political ideologies is considered an issue for a politician)

-Rawnsley urges May to have a mandate of substance and reform

-Nick Cohen says liberals should have been ok with Farron struggles on homosexuality