Charles Kennedy at today's Lib Dem press conference. Photograph: Scott Barbour/Getty
Charles Kennedy starts what is likely to be his penultimate press conference of the campaign by thanking the media before going on to run through the Liberal Democrat key pledges. Elections should be about "positive ideas" not "personal insults", he says. Cast your vote for the Liberal Democrats "to help the pensioners" by giving them free personal care, a citizen's pension and lower local income tax.
Vote Liberal Democrat "for younger people" by abolishing university top-up fees and cutting class sizes. Vote Liberal Democrat for a healthier Britain, an NHS without "obsessional centralised targets". Vote Liberal Democrat for "policies on crime that are tough but also smart". And vote Liberal Democrat to "restore Britain's reputation on the world stage, and say "never again" to a foreign adventure like Iraq.
Mr Kennedy concludes by again dismissing the prime minister's "nonsense" claim that voting Liberal Democrat will let the Tories in. "He's cried wolf one too many times ... no one really believes him anymore."
7.50am: The questions also have a very end-of-campaign feel about them. Asked if he wants to fight a third campaign as party leader, he replies yes, if his colleagues allow. Queried about Labour's promise not to raise national insurance contributions, he says that people "won't be taken in" by Mr Blair again, who "won't be there for the duration" of a third term anyway. He also sidesteps historian Simon Schama's question (he's there for the Guardian, I think) about whether the Liberal Democrats are now Britain's centre-left party, in the tradition of past Labour governments. "How people want to characterise us is entirely up to them," he replies.
