Well reading between the lines:

“Remember the relief we felt when Scotland voted no. Why was that? Because towards the end, having paid only intermittent attention to the enormity of the decision, we awoke to it and realised – I think with shock – how close we had come to relegating ourselves from the Premier League of nations. Now think if the vote had gone the other way. It doesn’t bear thinking of. It would be exactly the same with a vote on Europe. We’re frankly not much focused on it now. But that is the same semi-conscious torpor that almost led us to disaster in keeping the UK together.”

Basically he is saying the people don’t think about these things hard enough, so we can’t risk them getting it wrong by giving them the chance.

Because Tony Blair never got anything wrong in the face of popular opinion now, did he…

UKIP are the party of straight-talking and free-thinking, so much so that this morning Patrick O’Flynn sent a stinging missive to the party’s candidates warning them not to step out of line. “Unity is Strength” says Paddy, lifting the charming slogan from the totalitarian regime in 1984:

“Just to stress that during this campaign most media organisations are of a generally anti-UKIP disposition. The Express group of newspapers (Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star, Daily Star Sunday) is the only national newspaper group that is generally sympathetic in its coverage. Many broadcasters are also drawn from social backgrounds in which UKIP supporters are to say the least thin on the ground.

Therefore if you as a candidate get approached by a national media representative you should realise that they may well be seeking to create division or otherwise damage our efforts to maximise support. So don’t get bounced into saying things that will give them ammunition to use against our party.

There was, for instance, a big media effort to divide us over Nigel’s comments on health tourism and HIV. The party generally held together extremely well and then, lo and behold, a YouGov poll found that half the country agreed with what Nigel had said (including 89% of UKIP-minded voters).

The moral of the story is that during election campaigns unity is strength. Those who freelance with their own lines that contradict overall party policy or what the leader has said are of more use to our opponents than they are to us. I know that none of you will want to find yourself in that position.”

You have been warned…

It’s Labour’s big health day, so Guido was amused to find this leaflet in his inbox over the weekend. Under the Representation of the People Act 1983 it is illegal to knowingly provide false statements on election literature. Just ask Phil Woolas if you think they are joking…

Up in Wirral West they are throwing the absolute kitchen sink at Esther McVey, but given all the ammo they have with her, this Labour leaflet looks very sloppy:

“Tories have: Cut thousands of nurses, doctors and GPs”? Odd, given that since 2010 there are 9,500 more doctors and 6,900 more nurses providing healthcare, according to official NHS statistics. Even odder that Shadow Public Health Minister Luciana Berger had no qualms delivering this leaflet when she visited the seat on Saturday. Given that the local Labour candidate Margaret Greenwood claims to be an NHS expert, you might have thought she would know what she was talking about.

Ed reportedly blew £10,000 a day on Obama’s debate coach before last night. Value for money? 

Much squirming over semantics as Ed’s pledge to end the “epidemic” of zero-hours contracts becomes embarrassing following revelations that over a quarter of Labour MPs as well as their biggest funder, the Unite union, employ workers on essentially “zero hours” contracts.

Labour’s line that staff employed without guaranteed hours by 68 of their MPs were on “casual contracts” not “zero hours contracts” is looking increasingly ridiculous following the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority’s clarification that they while they don’t use the term “zero hours”, they interpret requests for the number of parliamentary staff working on “zero hours” as “the number of MP’s staff who are contracted on an hourly rate.” In other words casual contracts..

As if things couldn’t get any worse for Labour, Unite, who just last year were calling on those MPs to stop using in their words “zero-hours” contracts, have been rumbled by an Industrial Tribunal for employing a man on “a series of short-term contracts. Or as some might say a series of  “effectively zero-hour contracts.”

If it looks like a zero hours contract and sounds like a zero hours contract…

Guido hears Labour are planning an all female onslaught in the spin room tonight with Yvette Cooper, Caroline Flint and – amazingly – Lucy Powell lined up for the post match analysis/spin war. Telly sources suggest no men have been offered up by Labour for any interviews, despite Lucy Powell’s spectacularly crap weekend outing. It’s not yet clear whether they are bringing their pink bus…