The TV election debates. Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work we go. Bring on Cameron and the seven dwarves.

P.S: Actually, it’s now unlikely that these will happen at all.

Rebecca Coulson: We must ask searching questions of the purple insurgency

Just because we seek the votes of its supporters shouldn’t stop us pressing the party on its more unpalatable views.

Rohan Banerjee: Why the Conservative Party needs to change its face

Attacks on “Tory toffs” are nothing new – but, as the rise of UKIP demonstrates, they still have potency.

Cllr Chris Whitehouse: Ministers must make the case for the overseas aid target

We can be proud of our work around the world – but we must persuade voters that it is necessary and well-targeted.

Cameron Penny: A Party that people like me can openly support and be open within

And there’s no need for this truly modernised Conservative Party to abuse UKIP and its supporters.

Mark Reckless follows Carswell and defects to UKIP

The Rochester and Strood MP has jumped ship and called a by-election. What are the implications?

Rohan Banerjee: The insider’s guide to Thanet politics

This island within an island has an island mentality – hence UKIP’s popularity. But is that popularity anything more than skin deep?

The worst fault of the Westminster elite is that it is not elitist enough

Demagogic attacks by UKIP and the SNP on the Conservatives and Labour are inspired by an unacknowledged and unrealistic egalitarianism.

Garvan Walshe: From Scotland to Catalonia, secession is tempting because the stakes are so low

The freedoms gained are only those you would never want to use.

Charlotte Leslie MP: ISIS. Putin. Which way do the enemies of both England and Scotland want to vote to go on Thursday?

The final irony is that those who dislike the Establishment are dancing to the very tune, played expertly by Alex Salmond, against which they think they are revolting.

John Stevens: The struggles of Bercow, and the rise of UKIP and the SNP, tell the same story about our democracy

Only radical parliamentary reform will restore popular trust in Westminster – and the Speaker cannot be part of it.

Scotland 1) Graeme Archer: A town called Ardrossan

The sea is our border, but not our limit. It can teach us about ourselves and our nation.

Why isn’t growth translating into votes?

Is it really “the economy, stupid”, now that the growth figures have decoupled from the polls?

Lord Ashcroft: Labour’s lead climbs to seven points in my latest Ashcroft National Poll

Meanwhile, David Cameron remains the least unpopular party leader – and the only one to outpoll his party.

Graeme Archer: Suppose – nevertheless – that there are such things as monsters

Salmond and Carswell aren’t monsters – but they’re feeding one which threatens our nation of nations.