UK election at-a-glance: 18 April

David Cameron spoke to supporters at the Sun Inn in Swindon, as all three Westminster party leaders spent a sunny Sunday morning campaigning

DAY IN A NUTSHELL

Gordon Brown and David Cameron are seeking to regain the election initiative, after polls suggested a jump in support for the Lib Dems following the first leaders' TV debate. Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has also been urging young people to vote while David Cameron has been wooing older voters. Meanwhile, the prime minister called an emergency meeting to deal with the ash cloud and travel problems plaguing the UK. See how the day unfolded.

A WEEK IS A LONG TIME IN POLITICS

A week is a long time in politics especially during an election campaign.

"Politics, as everybody know, is showbusiness for ugly people." So says the Politics Show's Max Cotton in this irreverent looks back at the last week's more amusing moments.

Who can forget Peter Mandelson being whipped around the ballroom in Blackpool? And ITV's new "talent show for politicians".

SUNDAY'S QUOTES

"I think people are getting a little hyped up."
Nick Clegg, Lib Dem leader, on reports he is nearly as popular as Winston Churchill

"I lost on presentation. I lost on style. Maybe I lost on smiling..."
Gordon Brown, Labour leader, on his performance in the TV debates

"My response to all that is happening in this campaign is to accentuate the positive." David Cameron, Conservative leader

ELECTION PLEDGE OF THE DAY

Comes from the Monster Raving Looney Party, which is calling for floating bikes in London to ease congestion.

Knigel Knapp, parliamentary candidate for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, who calls himself shadow minister for big fibs and blatant lies, demonstrated the "Loony Bike" on the River Thames near Parliament on Sunday.

ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Addressing an audience of mainly older voters, including his own parents, in a pub garden in Swindon, Wiltshire, Conservative leader David Cameron again urges a "decisive Conservative vote" to ensure change.

Quizzed on the BBC's Andrew Marr programme, Gordon Brown says the Liberal Democrats are mistaken in their economic policy and "in the next two weeks we will be able to expose that".

And he said an ambition to enable every child in the world to go to school was possible, at an event marking World Poverty Day .

Speaking to young people in Sutton, Surrey, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg says "a growing number of people are starting to hope, starting to believe a little door has opened, that maybe this time we can do things differently".

The SNP and Plaid Cymru are preparing for a potential appeal against the BBC's decision to exclude them from the prime ministerial debates.

Gordon Brown calls for a "special investigation" into Goldman Sachs after reports that the bank is to pay £3.5bn in bonuses.

TODAY'S NEWSPAPER HEADLINES

According to a Sunday Times poll, the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who until a few days ago was little known to voters, is now the most popular party leader since Winston Churchill. Churchill had an 83% approval rating in 1945, the paper points out, just a few months before he lost the general election.

Gordon Brown tells the Sunday Telegraph the thought of George Osborne's planned public spending cuts "sends a shiver down my spine". He says the coming few weeks will be make or break for the economy's recovery.

The Observer hosts a debate between five experts in the field of education to discuss Swedish-style free schools.

The Mail on Sunday has tracked down the black man David Cameron quoted in the TV debate. Neal Forde, who corrected the Tory leader on a couple of points, said he didn't believe the Conservatives had the answers to Britain's immigration problem and, like Labour, had "forgotten the British people".

FIGURE OF THE DAY

1,600 - The number of new members the Liberal Democrats say they have attracted since Nick Clegg's performance in the first TV debate.