With less than a week to go until the election, the campaign is crystallising down to two issues: the economy and the role of the Scottish National Party in a future Labour government.

In his interview with this paper today, Chancellor George Osborne hammers away at what he portrays as the especially severe damage that will be done to London’s economy if Labour takes power. He also points to the potential damage to funding for major London projects such as the HS2 and Crossrail 2 rail links.

In truth, these projects are far from assured under a Tory government, given the swingeing nature of the cuts that Mr Osborne would have to make in order to hit his deficit- reduction targets. He is right, however, that such schemes would face stiff opposition from parts of the Labour Party. Yet the case for HS2 and Crossrail 2 — to name just two key projects — is primarily in the boost they would give to the whole economy, and in Crossrail 2’s case, for the blueprint it would establish for transport-led growth.

As for the SNP, some polls appear to suggest that warnings like Mr Osborne’s are starting to hit home. A poll for this paper has shown that by a two-to-one margin, Londoners are concerned about the potential extent of the SNP’s influence in a hung parliament — despite reassurances like SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon’s today.

Yet the mechanics of such a Labour government appear less clear after last night’s leaders’ TV debates, during which Ed Miliband pledged emphatically not to strike any deal with the SNP, including even a loose “confidence and supply” arrangement for support on key votes. Instead, a Labour minority government would dare the SNP to vote down its Budget and key Bills that it essentially agreed with.

It would be a recipe for instability — and probably for a second election within 12 months. Yet it remains entirely possible that a Conservative minority government would be equally disabled by reliance on the votes of fickle allies. The present political deadlock may last a lot longer than this already lengthy election campaign.

Clapham chaos

YESTERDAY’S chaos at and outside Clapham Junction was a disgrace. A power outage on the line saw hundreds of passengers stranded on trains for up to six hours, with huge delays and overcrowding at Clapham Junction station and at Victoria. Southern services were particularly badly hit, as was the Gatwick Express. Ministers are now calling for proper compensation.

This has been a particularly rough few months for London’s long-suffering rail commuters, following repeated chaos at London Bridge. Whatever the root cause of the problems — both at Clapham Junction and London Bridge, ultimately Network rail’s fault — the response of rail operators has enraged commuters. With responsibility for the service so fragmented, every problem inevitably ends up being no one’s fault — while passengers are left waiting. The case for transferring control of commuter rail to Transport for London has never been stronger.

Ione’s courage

OUR interview today with sexual assault survivor Ione Wells is a powerful tribute to her bravery in challenging her attacker. Ms Wells wrote an open letter to her assailant after she was attacked near her home in Camden last month, waiving her right to anonymity in order to boost the #NotGuilty campaign for assault victims. Her point is that victims are never responsible for such violence, whatever the spurious assumptions made by some people about women’s dress and the like. She is absolutely right: we salute her eloquence and her courage.