Fraser Nelson

What a strange day. Lord Feldman, the Tory co-chairman, appears to have identified himself as the unnamed Cameron ally reported by several newspapers as referring to party activists as 'swivel-eyed loons'. He strenuously denies making the comments, and for good measure says he is  consulting lawyers. Here's what he has to say: 'I am very disappointed by the behaviour of the journalists involved, who have allowed rumour and innuendo to take hold by not putting these allegations to me before publication. I am taking legal advice.' It’s not clear why he thinks the journalists should have put the allegations to him if does not think they were referring to him.

The Daily Telegraph has an interesting splash tomorrow. Its headline reads: 'Shaun Bailey, the Prime Minister's only black aide, was 'frozen out by David Cameron's clique'. It quotes a 'friend of' Mr Bailey, a Hammersmith candidate once given the prime warm-up slot to Cameron in the Tory conference. This friend says rather a lot, and below is a summary: 'They just didn’t get what Shaun was saying. He kept challenging them saying, 'Why are we not saying this?’ … He went into Downing Street and the first thing he said was, 'The only political conversation you need to have publicly is about the cost of living’. He also gave plenty of warning that if they wanted to talk about being a diverse party, people have to see it.

Peter Hain is pessimistic about Ed Miliband's chances, in spite of what the bookies say*. 'If a general election was held tomorrow, Labour wouldn't win a majority,' he writes in Progress Online. 'The truth is if we want a majority in 2015, we need to be performing better than we are now.' He also zeroes in on the problem: Ed Balls, and how few of his Shadow Cabinet colleagues will support him: 'We cannot afford to be equivocal about our economic policy. We need to be more upfront with the public about our intentions. Yes, we will borrow more in the short-term, in order to generate growth that will reduce borrowing in the medium-term. It makes sense to do so with interest rates so low.

No one can ever recover from being wrongly accused of sexual assault, which is why I welcomed the government’s plan to 'extend anonymity in rape cases to defendants'. Turns out that Coalition Agreement pledge was a blunder: the Tories thought it was a Liberal Democrat idea and vice versa. When they worked out that neither of them wanted it, the idea was dropped – even though three-quarters of the public back it. Had this policy been introduced we might not know that Nigel Evans, a Tory MP and deputy speaker, was last night released on bail after being held on suspicion of raping one man and sexually assaulting another. He has not been charged but a man publicly accused of such an offence can expect his life, as he knew it, to end.

What few results there have been so far suggest that UKIP has scored about a quarter of the vote and gained more seats than Labour.  A 'phenomenal performance' says Prof John Curtice. Nigel Farage now looks like the main winner, suggesting that his party is mutating from an EU protest party into a being broader party of the working class. The local elections have nothing to do with the European Union so there's no rational reason that one-in-four voters would chose UKIP — unless they believed the party was addressing their concerns on wider issues. The reason that David Cameron's referendum pledge did not shoot the UKIP fox is that Farage has adopted a broader agenda, and one he has successfully communicated to millions of voters.

Given that the Bank of England was set up by a Scot, Alex Salmond may expect that an independent Scotland would be automatically eligible to use the pound. Not so, George Osborne has replied, in fact it's unlikely that England would let it.  The Chancellor takes a surprisingly keen interest in the campaign to save the union, and has chosen today- St George's day - to travel to Glasgow and release a paper saying that the pound will remain property of Her Majesty’s Westminster government. And if Scots want to keep using it, post a 2016 secession, they'll have to allow financial control to remain in London.

Guests at The Spectator's schools conference on  Thursday arrived via the stunning grounds of Westminster School (above), one of the best not just in the country but  the world. It was fitting setting. The great irony about the British schools debate is that while our state schools may languish at 25th place in the global rankings, our private schools are first. It's not as if Britain can't do teaching: we can, better than anyone. What we can't seem to do is expand what's good. Michael Gove's Academies Act allowed any private school to open a state school and expand — but they have been slow to respond. Now Westminster School has teamed up with the Harris Federation  to open a sixth form which will educate 250 pupils for free.

Fitch has today followed Moody's in downgrading Britain from AAA to AA+. The reason? George Osborne is borrowing far too much.  In its verdict, it said that gross debt "will peak at 101% of GDP in 2015-16...and will only gradually decline from 2017-18." The Chancellor, of course, had once set a rule to "ensure that debt is falling as a percentage of GDP by 2015". This has been abandoned, and the downgrades are the consequence. Fitch doesn't break down its forecasts, but it's likely they follow those made by Michael Saunders at Citi:-                       For all Labour's talk of austerity, George Osborne is borrowing more over five years than Labour did over 13 years.