Isabel Hardman

The Commons has gone beyond uproar on the vote on the secret ballot to re-elect the speaker. There has been clapping, a standing ovation, and tears. Charles Walker, chair of the Procedure Committee, told MPs that he had been ‘played for a fool by the whips and the party leadership who had had meetings with him or bumped into him in Parliament without mentioning that they intended to debate his report today, or indeed to use it as a means of introducing a secret ballot on the re-election of the Speaker'. He was visibly emotional as he spoke.

Perhaps there’s nothing wrong with negative campaigning (though surely there’s something a bit wrong about being inaccurate). But when parties pontificate about crafting messages of hope and avoiding smears and falsehood, before plumping for the latter, can they really be surprised that overall voters are a bit cheesed off with mainstream politics? All the parties negatively campaign against negative campaigning, accusing the others of doing something that they too are doing, and hoping that no-one notices. Well, voters do seem to notice. They’re also not particularly thrilled with any of the parties.

How has George Osborne’s Budget gone down with his party? The Tory MPs I’ve spoken to in the past 24 hours or so since the Budget seem reasonably content with it. They’re not skipping through the corridors singing, but they’re equally not furious or despairing. Most seem to have sympathy with the lack of a rabbit in the Chancellor’s speech, even though they’re a bit disappointed that the Chancellor gave enough signals for them to think he was keeping a rabbit in his hat, only for a hamster to come scuttling out in the form of his Help to Buy ISAs. One senior Tory backbencher says: ‘The judgement that he’s called has probably been right.

If George Osborne's Budget is going to end up in a mess, it hasn't done so yet. The worst criticism that the front pages of even hostile newspapers can come up with is that the Chancellor has produced a very political Budget which is hardly a surprise. Most splash on the retail offers in the Budget and the good economic news.    Some of the front pages have rather creative approaches to the Budget. Even front pages such as the i, which foregrounds the politics behind the Budget, still refer to the tax cuts for first-time buyers and savers. And the most critical front pages, from the Guardian and the Mirror, naturally, are below. Even the Guardian carries a quite positive 'at a glance' list of the offers that Osborne made to voters.

So both Labour and the Lib Dems have responded to the TV debates with caution and enthusiasm respectively. A Labour spokesman said ‘based on the broadcasters’ proposals we have accepted and plan to attend all three debates on April 2nd, 16th and the 30th. If the Tories have confirmed they are to attend one of these debates then that is progress. It is one down, two to go. But no-one should be fooled: David Cameron is running scared of a head-to-head televised debate with Ed Miliband’. The Lib Dems have also welcomed the move as 'progress', with a spokesman saying: ' 'It's good news that we are finally making progress towards a sensible solution on the TV debates.