Janice Atkinson

Ukip member, former Tory MP candidate

Too often Ukip's political enemies and those in the media take swipes at us by branding us racist and homophobic and for having ill-thought out and un-costed policies. It is understandable when you are a threat to the established, cosy tripartite system at Westminster.

David Gauke MP

Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, Conservative MP for Hertfordshire South West

During times of economic difficulty, when we are taking tough action to keep welfare spending under control, how can we justify spending nearly £2 billion per year on child benefit to the wealthiest people in society?

Robin Lustig

Journalist and broadcaster

Instead of talking about a two-speed Europe, or a multi-tier Europe, or an "associate membership" Europe, why don't we imagine a Europe of concentric circles?

Caroline Davey

Director of Policy at Gingerbread, the national charity for single parents

While it may seem obvious on many levels that of course the government should take money from higher earners in a difficult economic environment - in particular when one of the other political debates raging at the moment is about introducing real-terms benefit cuts for those on the lowest incomes, a move likely to plunge even more children into poverty - it has always struck me as singularly unfair that the only higher earners being asked to pay more are those with children.

Peter Kellner

President of YouGov, political commentator and journalist

Today, Cameron and his family are at Chequers, enjoying perhaps the happiest new year of his premiership. He is the undoubted master of Britain's political landscape. His Labour, Lib Dem and Ukip opponents have turned in on themselves. His own backbench rebels have fallen silent. He is already dreaming of how to win his third general election in 2020.

John Wight

Writer

The potentiality, and perhaps inevitably, of 2013 proving one of the most socially convulsive and ugly in Britain's social history is very real.

Marcus Middleton

Journalist, Current Affairs Producer and, before you ask... no relation

whatever your political persuasion may be, you have to agree, there's a hidden poverty in Great Britain and it's becoming too great a problem to ignore.

Adnan Al-Daini

Blogger who abhors injustice, hypocrisy and double standards

One can see that if you want to create a bubble economy that enriches the banks, but starves the wealth creating sector, you would be hard put to devise a better system. The bursting of the bubble becomes inevitable, leading to the misery and ruin of millions of lives.

Ben Mitchell

Freelance political commentator; Deputy Editor of the cross-party blog Speaker's Chair

Immigration is in the news once again. Not that it ever leaves it. A complex issue made harder by distortions, stereotypes, and populism. One could argue that its social and cultural effects are the trickiest to articulate and hardest to pin down. Certainly not easy to capture in a dry opinion poll.

Andrew Smith

London based Scot, occasional blogger and author of the not altogether bad novel 'A Quarter Life Crisis'

There is definitely, and often justifiably, a widespread sense of anger and disillusionment with Britain's political class, and Ukip's polling is a short term symptom of that. This is backed up by research from YouGov, who found that the surge in support for Ukip coincided with George Osborne's widely derided budget.

Mark Fletcher-Brown

Commsmeister

Scottish people living outside Scotland should have a vote on whether the country should be independent from the rest of the UK. Over 800,000 people, like me, are Scottish but since we live outside Scotland we are to be excluded from having a voice on this historic issue.

Alex MacDonald

Freelance journalist and filmmaker

If you need to constantly refer to your own lack of racism in your campaign material (as the BNP does as well) then maybe you have something of a guilty conscience? Maybe people need to think again about this 'moderate' party...

Naomi T. Smith

Co-Chair of the Social Liberal Forum

Nick Clegg's speech yesterday at the Royal Commonwealth Society has left me baffled. He claims to position the Liberal Democrats as "governing from the centre ground". If only. Instead, the area he has chosen to occupy, is a bizarre electoral wasteland where few voters exist.

Phil Shanks

Chief Executive, Houses4Homes

Despite claiming to stand up for hard working families, Mr Osborne's measures are hitting the working poor as well as the allegedly feckless where it really hurts. If the government truly wants to represent working families, it needs to take a different aim to reduce welfare spend.

Caroline Criado-Perez

Freelance journalist, feminist campaigner and co-founder of thewomensroom.org.uk

I know this is an unpopular viewpoint, but I don't think Cameron is evil. I think he's misguided. I think he's blinded by his privilege. I think no-one's ever told him to check it - or at least not until it was too late.

Joel Faulkner Rogers

Academic Director, YouGov

David Cameron got an apparent boost for the 'cake and eat it' approach to Europe last week, when finance ministers of the European Union (EU) agreed on the terms of an embryonic Eurozone Banking Union.