Daniel Forman's daily diary of the election campaign.

Tuesday April 5 11:32am GMT

One day late but we're finally on the way. After the pre-pre-election skirmishes and the full-on pre-election scraps comes the official election campaign itself.

Except of course it isn't - the Commons will still sit until the end of the week when the campaign proper-proper kicks off. MPs and peers can expect a few late nights this week as they engage in some serious ping pong. Life would be a lot simpler with fixed term parliaments.

Nevertheless this week will give the parties the chance to recarve their messages into keynote campaign and manifesto launches.

But the cycle of daily press conferences, photocalls and announcements will continue much as it has since the new year.

The Conservatives are generally considered to have had the best of the early battles, setting the agenda with their 'dog whistle' issues of immigration, crime and hit and run attacks on the public services. Don't expect their difficulties on spending sparked by Howard Flight to go away too quickly though.

Labour has remained ahead in the opinion polls, proving perhaps that the voters have already made their minds up. If Iraq can't hit them maybe it is the economy, stupid.

But the gap has narrowed in recent weeks, as the latest polls attest and the Lib Dems will hope to be buoyed by their capture of a Labour candidate and their traditional campaign bounce.

As the Westminster village packs up, the media will play a role over the coming four weeks in terms of how the campaign is reported in the press, who's up and who's down in each party and, crucially, who gets to set the tone and topics of debates.

So this diary will aim to keep track of these and other themes and offer some insight and analysis amid the mayhem. Day one and counting - just 30 more to go.