Labour Members are truly despicable.So the Chiefs of the defence staff are all Tories.The families of the bereaved soldiers desrve better from a Government. Cameron should pursue this in writing.How Brown turned such a serious and tragic issue round to Lord Ashcroft tells us everything we need to know about the nature of this vile calculating self interested Government.

Jack you are wrong about Margaret Thatcher.Without those reforms resisted tooth and claw by Labour this country would never have seen the relative economic growth of the previous 20 years. Labour's 13 years has taken us a giant step backwards towards those bad old days.I believe the next Conservative government led by David Cameron will realise this and act accordingly.

I can not understand the pessimistic tone of many of the posts.To suggest that the Conservatives and the campaign are falling apart sounds that wishful thinking from Labour HQ. The election campaign proper is not underway and Labour have fired this nonsense over Ashcroft.They are playing this card to suggest that we are the same old tories and by implication that they are different.In short they are the champion of the underddog. What nonsense as we recall they were exposed as a party of flippers during the Expenses scandal. They take more non dom money than anybody elses.Witness Harman's pathetic response to Marr this morning to understand the Labour mentality.They don't care about Ashcroft for any other reason than they know he will take seats off them. As with everything Brown does it is pure political calculation.From when he visits Afghanistan to inviting Mrs Thatcher round for Tea.There is no thought about the good of this nation.We need to stop navel gazing and point this out.I felt Liam Fox began to do this today when asking why Labour politicians were not been questioned on the Non Dom donations issues? should we not know Lord Paul's tax status or Cohen's? let shine a light on Labour. While we are at it we may wish to expose the salaries of top union bosses.Particularly within unite who bankroll labour with cash in the marginals to far greater an extent than any individual gives us.Cash that is in some part provided by non labour voters. This phase of the campaigh is unfortunately negative.Labour have chosen to make it so by putting character at the forefront.Instead of arguing and critiscising ourselves we should hit back at them now.When in April we move onto policies Labour have nothing coherent to say.That is besides "yes we know we are in debt but we will just take out another bridging loan and hope that the markets will lend us a bit more".Ask yourself would you do that with your family's finances? and if not stop moaning and get out an fight Labour.

You keep on smacking that horse.With such an awful case to put before the electorate I don't blame you.We have Brown's explanation of his brilliant decision on the cutting of Helicopter budget to look forward to for Friday.Mind you don't suppose this was important to you was it?

The tax cutting agenda ,to come back on thread,is an excellent one. It is believable and recognises the need for a growth strategy driven through the productive private sector.At the same time we can go hard on the necessity of deficit reduction for the initial years of the next parliamnet.It is the corrrect strategy and will contrast well with Labour's on the doorstep.

Richard you are wrong this issue is not a game changer.It only becomes significant if you act in such a way as to suggest that we are uniquely guilty of a significant wrong.What exactly is that wrong ? is it taking Ashcroft's money and expertise? is it not forcing him to come out explicitly about his tax staus earlier? is it Hague not coming out in the past 2 months and disclosing Ashcroft's status of his won back?What is it that will so affect a voter in a marginal seat who now, sees 3 MPs on criminal charges and struggles to make any connection with their everyday lives and the westminster bubble. You may think that this is is cynical but is representaive of what I hear from the voters.If you go running scared at the very salvo of what David Hill indicated would come from Labour you will lose the right to a hearing.We can not fight this election on a holier than thou footing it will be bare knuckle and new labour has to be taken on that ground also.

Richard I know everything is about the electorate just 9 weeks prior to a general election.Your mistake is to believe that this issue is a game changer, with the elecorate.It is not nor will it be.I would like to wager you may have felt that the revelations about Brown, last week would have damaged him and Labour? but did they? evidence suggests not. This election is going to be fought out in key marginal seats.The issues that are key will be much more earthy and personal to those voters.These voters don't trust any politcian from any of the parties in the background of the expenses scandal. The decision they make is likely to be a forced decision.It will not be driven by high minded claims by any party to clean up politics.It will be driven by the availability of a good school,the levels and experience of crime,issues of community chesion and immigration and theri own sense of economic well being. If the Conservative's act as you suggest they will in the eyes of voters make this an issue specific to us.This will dilute our ability to expose the truly pathetic Labour record on the above mentioned issues which are crucial. This is all low politics,I am afraid,don't make the mistake of pretending anything else.Next week the story will be irrelevant.

I don't agree at all.We should not give any ground on this and should fight back.The Labour Party as Harman indicated is deperately trying to make this resonate outside the village, it will not. Labour taking the moral high ground is utterly contemptible.For years they have taken shady donations driven on by individuals like Mandelson and his love of wealth.Labour's real core concern is the organisation and professionalism that Ashcroft brings to marginal campaigning coupled with a desire to discredit the extremely effective Hague. We must not in anyway give any ground to them on this.This election will not be won in the westminster bubble and this story sits there alongside the Bullygate scandal.

Good to see the Tories coming out fighting.Hague was very very good Cameron and Osborne should take a lead from him.

Harman is absolutely useless

Hague rocks

Terrible from Bercow.He should have made Harman answer questions.She really is terrible

Jack none of that is true.The Conservative party is at it's strongest when it embodies several strands of opinion.That is what makes conservatism a lasting political force.All serious Conservatives whether of the right ,left or centre want to see David Cameron in number 10. There are disagreements chiefly over Europe (as ever) but I am not aware of any damage the right has done.What are you on about?

Jack right wing is not a term of abusive!!

How is life at Labour camapaign headquarters?

Jack it is not that.The reason the polls have closed a little is that there has been an improvement in optimism driven by the statistical end to the phase one of Brown's recession. It has to be said also however that the Conservative campaign up to now, has appeared muddled.They need to put someone in overall control ,attack Labour's record every single day and stick to one message on debt.

Who do you say is leading then?

Who does then what is coming out of the left that is innovative? why do you think people such as Purnell are jumping ship.Labour had it's chance and failed due to personal aminus between Blair and Brown we have seen no meaningful reform just the same old big government.Nothing new nothing addressing our core problems.

I would remind all of you to use caution when analysisng the current situation. It is worth remembering the following: 1 Our share of the vote has been remarkably stable at circa 40% in all polls for over 18 months. 2 labour on the same benchmark is barely at 30% 3 Our position in Marginals is stronger than national polls all pollsters show this. 4 Labour's "recovery" is not from us but results from those who are traditional Labour voters coming back on side as their misplaced optimism grows. 5 A party led by such an unpoular leader NEVER WINS 6 Remember where we started from before being too critical of Cameron the fundamentals are not changed and there is less time or ammunition for our opponents to change them with.

The more people see of Brown the less they will like him.Anybody who truly believes he is not a bully must be living in a parralel universe.

Bercow needs to get Brown to answer questions and to instruct labour whips to control that rabble.This behaviour at PMQs is unaccpetable bringing labour bully boy politics into our living rooms every week.

How on earth Brown can stand up and offer such pathetic answers beggars belief.Where is the Comedian to defend this apology of a man

Quite right our vote is not moving back to Labour and the position in the marginals shows a higher swing to us.This poll also happens to be part of a daily tracker series which will require care when analysed. Go back and look at the series of Polls run on a daily basis during conference season to see the volatility.The real issue for us is to remain calm and consider what are the game changers between now and May 6th? Some may argue that the budget will provide Labour with a rabbit to pull from the hat but with what? they are already pursuing a scorched earth policy.Then at the close of April we will have q1 growth numbers which is probably the reason GB has kept the money coming.Despite this it is very unlikely that we will see any return to substantial growth and very likely that we will go back into recession. Then there are the debates.We need DC to be at his brilliant best here.His preparation should be flawless.I reckon given the revelation in Andrew Rawnsley's book that many Labour insiders will be holding their breath as Gordon feels the heat at debate time. I remain convinced we are headed for a 40 -30 -20 split on May 6 with a Conseravtive Majority over 60