By next Friday we may know who is going to head up UK plc for the next five years (or we may not if the polls are anything to go by).

The run up to this election has been long, tortuous, tetchy – and largely boring (where is John Prescott when you need him?) My impression is that the business community has regarded the endless stage-managed promises and pronouncements with indifference.

We will all have our preferences for who we would like to fill the CEO’s chair, but it has been more about style than substance, posturing than policy. A few months ago, it was supposed to be the Farage factor which would upset the apple-cart. In the event, it’s the SNP who have grabbed all the headlines and displayed the passion and charisma lacking in other quarters. Unlike the last election however, we have hardly heard the phrase “I agree with Nicola” south of the border.

So we have this strange situation where the Tories in England are Public Enemy No 1 for the SNP, whilst the SNP are probably loathed to an even greater degree by Labour. So where does that leave us?

Oddly in a position where there is more common ground between the Conservative and Labour than with other parties with their specific agendas. They may both offer a different route map, tinker around the edges, but appear to acknowledge that the only way that public spending can be generated is through a strong economy and growth from business.

This election may turn out to be the swan-song for the political parties as we know them. But in the meantime, the two main parties could start to be grown up, acknowledge that there is only the accepted way of running a company or a country - and co-operate. Formal coalition is unthinkable, but there is a starting point.

The NHS. A treasured institution, on which we all rely, should be taken out of the political arena. Chucking money at it is never going to be enough. The demands on its future services are going to be astronomical – and the solution to future planning and management lies well beyond political points scoring.

In the meanwhile, we can get on with our businesses and our lives. The uncontrollable has more impact on our immediate and long-term future than glossy political manifestos. Is it going to rain? What is Putin up to? How will that affect commodity prices?

And all must be right in the world if Bournemouth can reach the dizzy heights of the Premiership! With a ground set amongst the pine trees and with a precarious past, ‘sleepy' Bournemouth has seen nothing like it since star striker Ted McDougall signed for Manchester United!

The Cherries home warm-up game at the start of this season was against Real Madrid. How people laughed. . .