No answers from David Cameron on any hung parliament deal

Lib Dems are “too often away with the fairies” says David Cameron – an unscripted throwaway line in what was otherwise a bit of Lib Dem love-bombing.

What DC repeatedly refused to answer whether he would rule out negotiating on electoral reform in a hung parliament. “I don’t want the electoral system changed,” was as far as he would go.

The thrust of the presentation before the Q and A was “quality of life” issues and DC acknowledged that many people – I think he must’ve meant people in his own party – “will say why are you wittering on about trees,” suggesting the revolution in the Tory Party may not be as profound as the leader sometimes suggests.

Interesting point about postal votes made in the excellent UK POLLING REPORT website.

A poll in yesterday’s Mail On Sunday asked people with postal votes how they INTENDED to vote. It should be the last of its kind you see in this election.

That’s because if you separately poll people who have postal votes how they HAVE voted that constitutes an exit poll and exit polls cannot be published until close of polling stations on 6 May. It is against the law and police might feel they have to investigate, as in the European Elections in 2004.

– By the way, you may find this interesting and alarming. It is the FT’s DIY deficit buster. You get to choose which cuts you’d make and pretty brutal they look too.

Gordon Brown’s just been getting a good reception at the RCN Conference in Bournemouth but then he wasn’t getting into the sort of stuff that the FT is… He was emphasising what he would safeguard not what would be cut.

He said public sector pension reform had already gone far enough for nurses, that pay should not be frozen.