As diligent students of British politics understand, most votes under our first past the post system make no real difference to the result of a general election. The ones that count are those cast by swing voters in marginal constituencies. The Conservatives have been confident in their assertions that, despite a narrowing gap in nationwide opinion surveys, their lead among these defining voters in the marginals is big enough to make the crucial difference. A carefully targeted poll in this morning's Times suggests their confidence may be misplaced.
1.Tim would like you to listen to the Today programme between 7.30 and 8am on Monday morning. As before, make a note of everyone who speaks and identify which radio device is being used: live interview, recorded interview, package and so on. Tim will deconstruct why it was put together the way you hear that morning. As before, this exercise will only work if you have listened to that half hour of the programme.
2.He will also look at how to set up interviews, book in guests and do briefing sheets for the presenter.
During his excellent session yesterday, Allan Little told the story of Jessica Lynch, the 19-year-old US Army Ordnance Clerk who was captured by Iraqi soldiers in 2003. Allan described how the truth about Private Lynch was spun into a fictional heroic fantasy by the Pentagon's top rotational surgeons. You can read the full version of Jessica's story 
And big congratulations to Becci Hughes who filed copy on Mark Thompson's lecture to Journalism.co.uk. You can read Becci's account of the DG's defence of public service broadcasting, and the steps he is proposing to preserve it in the twenty-first century, 
Very pleasing to read, in