Looking for Nigel Two polls out today suggest this Thursday's election will be the closest we have seen for decades. Both YouGov and Populus today put Labour and Tories neck and neck with just one third of the vote each. Over the next 36 hours we can expect an avalanche of at least nine more polls, some of which will suggest either Labour or the Conservatives have the upper hand.
But in such a close race, national polls can only tell you so much. In this election, it is the battle in the marginal seats which will decide this either way. One of the biggest unknowns is the performance of the smaller parties. Recent constituency polls suggest that Nick Clegg is either comfortably ahead in his Sheffield Hallam seat or narrowly behind, depending on how the voting intention questions are put to voters. Similarly, different polling organisations have either put Nigel Farage comfortably ahead or narrowly behind in Thanet South. Similar uncertainties remain about other Lib Dem and Ukip battleground seats.
Much will depend on how effectively each party gets out their vote, and our visit to Thanet this week suggests there are big questions about how successful Ukip will be at this on Thursday.
With the election so close, the role of the press is also likely to be scrutinised like never before. A surprise endorsement for the Conservative-led coalition from the Independent this morning has caused outrage among some of their readers, as well as some of the Indy's own staff. We investigate how the endorsement came about. | 
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