at large to endorse their manifesto. the fact is that the snp has consistently stood on manifestos pledging that scotland's future should be in scotland's hands, not that of a westminster government we didn't elect. the challenge for us here is to ensure that the labour party and indeed the conservative party actually respect democracy in scotland, because if they don't i suspect they'll get rather short shrift from an electorate, that, with every passing day of this campaign struggles to see much difference between them. mr linden, looking at some of the polls they suggest that your party could halve the number of seats at westminster. of course they are just polls and we won't know until the actual vote next week, but if those polls are to believed then the clout that you might have to persuade whoever the next government is to call for independence, that is going to go, isn't it? the only poll that matters is the one that takes place next thursday between 7am and 10pm. the snp is fighting very hard for every vote and i have been out on the doorsteps this morning campaigning in govanhill and there is very strong support for the snp out there. the challenge is to make sure that vote gets out on polling day. polls come and go. i remember in 2011 in the january there was a prediction of a majority labour government in holyrood. fast forward to the election and the snp won it with a historic majority. polls are interesting but the reality is the one that matters is the one that takes place next thursday, and whether voters respond to that message from the snp, voting snp to put scotland's interests first to ensure that a future for scotland is made in scotland. at the moment they look on and see keir starmer and rishi sunak having this faux debate with each other. i think the former chief economist at the bank of england was right when he said that you could not get a lettuce leaf between labour and the conservatives when it comes to fiscal policy. if people want to reject that £18 billion worth of public sector cuts proposed by sir keir starmer and his pro—brexit labour party, they should vote snp next thursday. i want to ask you about that, because the ifs has looked at the snp manifesto and says the snp's manifesto ignores the big fiscal challenges. it says, on their own figures, the snp proposals would also lead to additional borrowing. they say it doesn't quite add up. i think when you look at what that ifs has said, they have been crystal—clear that there is a conspiracy of silence taking place between labour and the conservatives. the snp has been pretty upfront about some of the challenges that we face in terms of the fiscal environment, what that means in terms of tax and spending. but the clear choice for both labour and the conservatives is to be honest with the public because if you want to have good public services in the way we do in scotland, for example with free tuition, record low a&e waiting times, free bus travel under—22s have, the fact that rail services have been nationalised, free prescriptions. if you want to have those things you have to pay for it. that's why it's right that folk like myself, members of parliament on good salaries, pay a little bit more in tax. the problem is that the labour and conservative parties have this conspiracy of silence that has been identified by the ifs and leading voters down the garden path this general election which will almost certainly result in public sector cuts which the snp will always oppose. you can see on that slate on the screen, all the other candidates from the other parties who are also running in thursday's general election in that seat and a reminder that if you want to know who is running in your constituency, you can go to the bbc news website, input the seat you are interested in and all of the candidates will come up. stopping the boats has been a major theme of the uk general election debates, with party leaders clashing over how it should be achieved. it's an issue that's particularly hard to ignore in dover, where people who've risked their lives to cross the channel in the boats, are brought to shore. our correspondent simon jones has this report. the channel, the world's busiest shipping lane. there are no constituencies at sea, this stretch of water is not home to any voters, but what happens here has become a key election battleground because of the issue of small boats. fisherman matt coker regularly sees firsthand what's happening. the last one, i think i see had about 70 or 80 people on board, and that was a good ten or iim long. pretty dangerous. well, they are, because they're massively overloaded. i mean, even a dinghy of that size, it's really playing with danger. when the weather is calm, you can stand on top of those famous white cliffs of dover and see the border force and rnli bring groups of migrants to shore. some channel watchers even have clickers and literally count people in. it's become a very visible thing, which helps explain why politicians have become so exercised by the issue. so far this year, around 13,000 migrants have arrived by small boat, but that figure is dwarfed by the number of migrants coming legally. last year, net migration, the difference between the number of people arriving in the uk and leaving, stood at 685,000. at this cafe in dover, migration in all its forms is certainly a hot topic. if they didn't let them in the country, you wouldn't have the problems we got. what problems? erm, housing, cost—of—living and everything like that. there's too many of them being brought in on our money, really. it's been going on for such a long time and nobody�*s solved it. the cafe's owner, heather horne, used to work looking after child asylum—seekers. she thinks politicians are too quick to scapegoat. i think they use the immigration to deflect real problems that we have in england. such as? as homeless people, rates, the price of everything. rishan, who came to the uk in the back of a lorry aged 17 and now has uk citizenship, is preparing to vote for the first time in a general election. now training to be a nurse, she says all the focus on immigration, particularly illegal immigration, can be dehumanising. it's always on the negative side. it's always in the way of the illegal, illegal, as if someone coming as a refugee is being like a criminal or trying to do something different than what it's supposed to be, rather than human, basic things than just someone seeking safety in this country. so i guess it gives me a feeling of upsetting and annoyed. the main political parties agree that people should not be risking their lives in the channel on small boats. immigration is an issue, perhaps more than most, where there appears to be clear blue water between the parties. simon jones, bbc news. more on all of the election issues you are interested in on the bbc news website. dozens of firefighters, police and mountain rangers have joined what authorities had hoped would be a "massive search" on tenerife for missing british teenagerjay slater. they had also called for experienced volunteers to come and help, but by10am, fewer than a dozen members of the public had arrived at the meeting point. the 19—year—old was last seen on the 17th ofjune in a national park on a remote part of the spanish island. police confirmed that today's search would go over much of the same ground as previous ones, but that it would be more intensive and detailed, making use of the extra personnel. 0ur correspondent nick garnett is on tenerife and has the latest on the search. the search started earlier on today and involved around 25 to 30 fire officers, police, civil protection officers, and around half a dozen members of the public. the call had gone out yesterday, asking for people who had mountain experience or were experienced walkers to come and offer their support. only half a dozen did come. one of them was a british tiktoker, one was a private detective, and there were a couple who live on the island who wanted to offer their help and support. they say they are doing what they can, they had seen the news that jay had disappeared and they wanted to help as much as they possibly could. they are searching the same areas that they have been searching since he disappeared 13 days ago now. and they have been in this valley here, right the way through the search and indeed today, have been back in there. they say they are going further and deeper than i have been and deeper than they have been able to before and therefore it is searching new ground and making sure that the ground they have searched is completely clear. at the moment, though, we have still not heard that they have found any clues whatsoever as to how he disappeared. now, the man who is leading the inquiry, he explained what the terrain is like. translation: they are difficult - areas and we have given instructions for people not to risk their own safety, but there is something we need to make clear, which is that any area we don't go to, well, jay won't have gone there either. you have to think about it logically, if i see there is vegetation in front of me and i am going to get spiked and i cannot get through, then he won't have gone through that area either. we have to be logical, obviously. can you reach the sea directly from the area you are - searching? you can reach the sea. in fact, last saturday i went along the whole path, there are paths only occasionally used because it is a cliff with very little attraction for sporting purposes. but you can reach the beach along them. so i reached the beach. we didn't find anything. it's a path that goes above and not along the bottom of the cliff, it has drops, and what is needed are ropes to get down. and we also know he was not equipped for that. how difficult are i the difficult areas? there are rocky drops that you cannot get beyond. you can only get down with a harness and ropes. the people searching that spot today will have to turn around, i think, because they don't have the necessary equipment. and anyway, the best that jay could do was simply walk. so, the search goes on and it will continue to go on. in the same numbers, doing the same thing that they have done so far, hoping to get that final clue that will unlock what happened to jay slater. that is nick garnett reporting from tenerife. air travel is booming again and, this summer, passenger numbers are finally expected to be similar to those before the pandemic. but there has been significant disruption in recent years, including air traffic chaos on the august bank holiday last year. 0ur transport correspondent katy austin has been looking at what the industry's doing to ensure it can cope with the number of travellers expected in the coming weeks. everyone wants to make memories on holiday, but not ones like these. we've just been told that our flights have been cancelled. just not being given any information as to whether or not we're even flying today. last august bank holiday, an it failure at the uk's main air traffic services provider, nats, left three quarters of a million passengers facing cancellations or delays, and there have been recent smaller scale disruptions to air travel. take the power cut at manchester airport last weekend, or flights cancelled at gatwick because of an air traffic control staff shortage. after the quiet pandemic times, air travel this summer is expected to be pretty much as busy as it was in 2019, despite higherfares. most flights happen absolutely fine, but there's not much spare space in the system, so if something does go wrong, it can have a big impact very quickly. this place plays a crucial role. the control centre in hampshire, where much of the uk's air traffic is managed. so, over here we have heathrow airport — final approach. it was here that the it failure happened last august. nats insists the same problem won't happen again. it says improvements have been made, including in communication with airlines and airports, and it's as well resourced as it can be for the summer. the priority has absolutely been in making sure that we're ready for the demand that's coming in the summer. there is no organisation that can confirm nothing will happen, whether it's a weather event or a technical event or somebody else's technical event. but what i can say is communication is absolutely key to make sure people know what's going on and that we manage the recovery of any issue or event as quickly as possible. for airlines, strengthening their operations to minimise the impact of any problems, whatever the cause, is the big focus. including easyjet. we control all of our flying from here. so for all of the uk, all of europe, all of switzerland, it's all controlled here. we were allowed in to its new control centre at luton, where several teams, including crew rostering and maintenance, have been brought together. putting in every kind of resilience measure we can think of. so everything that we've learned from the past, everything that we learned from last year, things that we learnt from pre—covid. so, looking at making sure we've got enough standby crew, making sure we've got plenty of standby aircraft and they're in the right places, making sure we've got gaps in the programme so that we can pick up any delays that are happening. extra customer service staff are also being introduced at bigger airports. it's impossible to prevent any problems happening. the industry hopes it's done enough to cope with whatever comes along and recover quickly, so it can be a summer to remember for the right reasons. katie austin, bbc news. hundreds of aer lingus pilots marched around dublin airport earlier today during an eight—hour strike in a dispute with the airline over pay. the pilots, all in full uniform, set off at 6am from aer lingus's head office on the airport site and walked past the two terminal buildings twice holding placards and banners. the demonstration, which took place in pouring rain, caused major traffic disruption around the airport. after the march was concluded, pilots set up a picket line at the main roundabout on the entrance to the airport. a new portrait of king charles wearing military uniform has been released to commemorate armed forces day. the publication of the image coincides with a video message from queen camilla paying tribute to the efforts of the military, as graham satchell reports. i'm deeply honoured tojoin you all on armed forces day. whether in this country or overseas, we celebrate the service of men and women in our military and thank you all for everything you do to protect this country of ours.