Times: "When the public has an unreconstructed Labour candidate or a moderate and modern Conservative alternative they should be prepared to use a ballot intelligently … If the Labour contender claims to read the Guardian, electors should cancel their political subscription … To elect is to choose and we have chosen Labour as our preferred government. We want more of a choice in 2009-10 … The best result for Britain, we think, would be a smaller but viable Labour majority and a larger and renewed Tory opposition"
Guardian: "We want to see Labour re-elected to government and we want to see more Liberal Democrats returned to parliament, at whichever other party's expense … Only in a tiny handful of seats is it safe for Labour voters to switch to the Liberal Democrats without the risk of allowing the Tories to win. Elsewhere, think very carefully before you vote. You are voting not just for yourself but for others, frequently less fortunate, whose life chances rest on your good sense"
FT: "On the economy, the Conservatives are saying some of the right things. They are right to highlight the burden on business from red tape, corporate taxes and social obligations. Mr Howard is also right to focus on the inexorable rise of public spending. The problem is that he and his colleagues have not explained convincingly how they would stabilise it or put it on a downward path … There are good reasons for the nation's disenchantment with Mr Blair - not least the loss of trust resulting from the Iraq war and his shambolically informal style of government. But Mr Howard's Conservatives do not yet look like a convincing alternative. It is not yet time for a change"
