Vote local, it's all you can do in this messy election

You don't need me to explain how the only thing your vote counts towards is the person who represents you as your local MP.

No-one is going to win this election unless something utterly incredible happens in the dying days of this bitter, long-winded campaign.

It doesn't matter how much David Cameron and Ed Miliband say they're going for an all out majority. Neither is going to get one.

The next government will be formed as a result of discussions and deals done behind closed doors.

It's not the case that the party that wins the most votes also wins the most seats. If that's happened before it's only been by a happy coincidence.

While the parties argue it out among themselves, while they bicker over whether or not the real winner will be Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP, the most important thing is going to be having a decent MP fighting your corner.

Nicola Sturgeon, for all the risk it's claimed she poses to the United Kingdom, is fighting tooth and nail for the people she represents.

She'll squeeze every last drop of funding out of the Treasury for Scotland if she gets the chance and she's not even an MP.

Can we really blame her for that? She's doing her job.

What every one of us will need in Westminster will be an MP who is going to be the flea in the ear of the government, whichever party or parties form it.

We need a professional pest, a squeaky wheel demanding grease.

Ordinarily the best sort of person to have is someone who puts the national interest first.

There's no longer any such thing. Devolution is coming whoever wins the election.

It's going to be a mad dash for the West Midlands to get itself organised, make its bid for powers over skills, transport and health and use them to compete furiously with a rapidly rising northern powerhouse and an ever expanding south east.

We're not all in this together anymore. Not as a nation at least. It's going to have to be the West Midlands, with a population larger than Scotland, versus the rest in this new political order.

Another absolute certainty is more cuts.

Public resources will continue to be squeezed and if there is to be any money for it then it will need someone utterly and completely devoted to improving their constituency to get it.

That person might be the Conservative candidate. It might be the Labour one, the Liberal Democrat, the UKIPper or the Green.

Their party's policies are still vital, of course, when making the decision.

They will be expected to go along with every one of those manifesto promises in the event their leader becomes Prime Minister.

The next government might not deliver anything like what the individual parties promise if it is formed of compromise, confidence and supply.

But the choice of local MP is the only thing over which the ballot paper exercises any control whatsoever.