The Battleground: The Economy

The nub is the "feelgood factor" and whether or not it exists and, if it does, is it sufficiently strong enough to determine where voters put their cross?

The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats insist that they, through the hard choices made by the Coalition, have turned the economy around with record high employment, lower unemployment, the fastest growth of any G7 nation, the deficit halved, ultra-low interest rates and non-existent inflation. The economy, they say, is now ahead of where the UK was when the Great Recession hit and average households are £900 a year better off.

But Labour, while welcoming the upbeat figures, insist the breakneck austerity choked off the recovery, meaning this has been the slowest in living memory, that the Lib-Con partnership has failed to balance the books by now, as it promised to do, overall debt has ballooned - it has grown from £760 billion in 2010 to nearly £1.5 trillion this year - and, most importantly, ordinary folk, irrespective of David Cameron's and Nick Clegg's sunshine rhetoric, are still suffering from a cost of living crisis that has meant average households remain £1,100 a year worse off compared to 2010.

In the coming parliament, voters will have to weigh up whether they want an end to austerity in full or in part, which will mean the books might not be balanced at all or the deficit will be removed sometime over the hill in the next parliament; hopefully.

Grey areas still remain on, say, where the Tories plan to cut welfare and where Labour plan to hike taxes.

The Conservatives intend to continue with sharp cuts, removing the entire deficit by 2018, accepting reduced spending as the new normal, and then producing a £7bn surplus just in time for the 2020 election.

The Liberal Democrats will remove the overall deficit by the same time but will then seek to ease up on the cuts with investment in public projects.

Labour will balance the books on day to day spending by 2020 but will continue to borrow to invest, meaning, according to the IFS think-tank, they will still have an overall deficit of around £30bn; a figure Labour dispute, although the party has not yet produced its own estimate.

The SNP want to ease up on austerity altogether, saying the deficit can be reduced much more gradually as £180bn of extra spending in the next parliament is used to boost the UK's infrastructure; no clear word though on when the books would eventually be balanced.

Amid all the bamboozling numbers and static of spin, the public has to make up its mind. Good luck.

Key policies.

*Conservatives.

Eliminate overall deficit by 2018 with £30bn more of austerity measures; have £7bn budget surplus by 2020.

Create two million jobs.

Retain all pensioner benefits.

Referendum on Britain's EU membership.

Cut departmental spending by £13bn; reduce welfare by £12bn.

Three million new apprenticeships.

Recover £5bn from tax evasion crackdown.

Raise level of inheritance tax threshold from £325,000 to £1m.

Lift level of tax-free personal allowance to £12,500.

Increase amount when people start paying 40p income tax level from £42,000 to £50,000.

*Labour

Balance books on current spending but borrow to invest in infrastructure spending.

Deliver surplus on current budget in next parliament with debt falling as share of GDP and no extra borrowing for new spending.

Raise hourly minimum wage to £8.

Ban "exploitative" zero hours contracts.

Reintroduce 50p income tax rate for those earning £150,000.

36,000 more NHS staff, including 1,000 more nurses in Scotland; partly paid for by mansion tax.

80,000 more apprenticeships in England.

125,000 starter homes for first-time buyers in England.

*Lib Dems.

Eliminate deficit by 2018 with mix of spending cuts and tax rises; additional bank levy to raise £1bn.

High-value property levy will introduce extra council tax bands.

Extra £8bn for NHS.

Expand apprenticeships and develop national colleges for vocational skills.

Extend paternity leave from two to six weeks.

Additional £3.5bn for mental healthcare in England.

Remove winter fuel allowance and free TV licences from wealthy pensioners.

Raise tax-free personal allowance to £12,500.

Double renewable electricity by 2020.

*Ukip

Leave EU, saving annual £8bn, and negotiate new trade deal with Europe.

Cut annual net migration from current 300,000 to around 30,000; introduce Australian-style points system for migrant workers.

Review Barnett Formula and reduce level of public spending in Scotland to that in England, producing annual cut of around £5bn to Scottish budget.

Scrap HS2.

Raise tax-free personal allowance to level of minimum wage - £13,500.

Abolish inheritance tax.

Cut foreign aid budget by annual £9bn and "fully resource" armed forces.

*SNP.

Holyrood to have full fiscal autonomy with more job-creating powers.

Scrap Trident; red line in any formal deal with Labour.

Keep NHS in public hands.

Ease austerity with increased annual expenditure of 0.5 per cent of GDP, producing £180bn of spending over next parliament.

Protect Small Business Bonus; grow green economy.

Continue support for 125,000 modern apprenticeships.

Lower voting age to 16 for all Scottish elections.

Control minimum wage; "living wage" to remain at heart of all Holyrood contracts.

*Greens.

Increase hourly minimum wage to £10 by 2020.

End austerity and restore public sector by creating more than 1m jobs which pay "living wage"; pay for this with new wealth tax on top one per cent of earners, Robin Hood tax on banks and closure of tax loopholes.

Phase out fossil-fuel energy generation and nuclear power; invest in public programme of renewable generation, flood defences and building insulation.

Ban "exploitative" zero-hours contracts.

Introduce maximum 35-hour working week.

End "creeping privatisation" of NHS.

*DUP.

Work towards 10 per cent corporation tax rate.

Create 20,000 new jobs.

Double tourism revenue to £1bn in next 10 years.

Support "new start" on parades with abolition of Parades Commission.

Comprehensive review of sentencing policy to deter crime and cut reoffending; increase maximum prison time for offences involving violence or neglect against elderly and vulnerable.

Shift up to 30 per cent of health care from hospitals to communities; reduce "excessive" per capita spending on administrative costs to UK levels.