60 Second Briefing: April 9

Labour
Wendy Alexander condemned reports that she is preparing to run for the Labour leadership, saying: "This is ill-informed, unsourced and malicious spin, designed to benefit the SNP. Like all Labour colleagues, my focus is on winning the maximum support for Labour in May." The party pledged to cut water bills in half for pensioners. Jack McConnell spent Easter Sunday campaigning around the north-east and Highlands.

SNP
Nationalists spent Saturday campaigning in Glasgow for the women's vote, which even strong polling shows is a weak area for them. Revelations about the private life of Western Isles MP Angus MacNeil took the shine off a poll putting the Nats 12 points ahead of Labour, the biggest gap yet. They unveiled another heavyweight businessman as a supporter, hotel industry leader Donald MacDonald.

LibDems
The alternative to Labour's council tax and the SNP's 3p local income tax was unveiled by the LibDems. Initial details seemed to make it almost identical to the SNP plan except that it is between a halfpenny and three-quarters of a penny more, averaging 3.625p, leading some to dub it the "halfpenny for Scotland".

Conservatives
Tories were delighted by a poll by Scottish Business Insider that showed that, out of the top 500 companies in the country, 39% want the Conservatives to win the Holyrood election, with the SNP and Labour tied on 13% and the LibDems, the party of enterprise minister Nicol Stephen, on 8%. Deputy leader Murdo Fraser says: "This survey is further proof that the business community believes that the Conservatives are the party with the best policies to help the Scottish economy."

Others
The Greens say a poll shows 69% of Scots are concerned about the issue of global warming and they rank the Greens as the top party for pledges on the environment. The Scottish Socialists joined families rolling Easter Eggs in Balloch Country Park to spread the word about free school meals and free prescriptions.