SO, four weeks of rhetoric, spin and vote-catching gimmicks are over and, for 15 hours today, the future of our country's in our own hands.

But what impressions will we take into the polling booth?

In 1997, it was John Major's calm assurance, Tony Blair's confident smile, and Paddy Ashdown's friendly, favourite uncle routine.

Four years on, the Prime Minister's grin has been more manufactured than instinctive, William Hague has lacked the same kind of conviction which swept his arch-rival to power last time, and Charles Kennedy has picked up points for his pragmatic "I've nothing to lose" brand of political honesty.

To be blunt, they all count for little.

We'd have liked to have heard more about transport and the environment, and more acknowledgement of what it's really like to be a 56-hour-a-week teacher, or a nurse rushed off his or her feet, or a pensioner struggling to make ends meet in 21st Century Britain.

But today's more than just about whether New Labour wins a landslide, or the Tories begin a search for a new leader. It's also about the way our county's run.

The cold fact? The Tories need a 3 per cent swing to claim Worcestershire from the Labour/Lib-Dem coalition.

The stark truth? Whoever finds themselves in charge at County Hall when the counting ends tomorrow will have a more profound effect on the lives of every man, woman and child here than our six victorious MPs.

We languish at the foot of the county funding table, an injustice which our coverage has only reinforced.

Our schools, policemen, firefighters and social services staff need and deserve better. And the people we vote in are the link between those who provide the tax cash - us - and those who hold the purse strings.

But, to earn the right to have a say in how our new chamber of councillors governs our lives, every last eligible voter must take responsibility for electing them in the first place.

In other words, your vote counts. Before 10 o'clock tonight, use it.