Blackfriar: Companies present a wish list for the next government

True, they would all like to avoid the chaos of a hung parliament but credit rating agencies believe that as long as a coalition can get the necessary spending cuts through, a hung parliament won't affect the UK's ratings.

For retailers such as Bradford-based Morrisons and Leeds-based Asda, both would prefer to see public spending cuts rather than tax increases – a sentiment that will be echoed by other Yorkshire top ten PLCs upmarket sausage maker Cranswick and toiletries supplier Croda.

As far as Yorkshire's second biggest company Drax is concerned, it just wants a party that will sit down and agree to its demands for biomass subsidies.

Once the chaos of the election is over, it makes no sense not to agree to Drax's demands as it tries to push through plans to reduce its CO2 emissions.

Other top ten companies York housebuilder Persimmon and Sheffield insulations company SIG just need a recovery to boost their respective industries.

Meanwhile Saltaire-based set top box maker Pace is probably more worried about how well England do in the World Cup – a big boost to sales of its High Definition set-top boxes – than who gets in to Number 10 Downing Street.

But one leading Yorkshire company, credit lender Provident Financial, has a lot riding on this election.

When asked whether Provident expects to see a pick-up in 2011, chief executive Peter Crook said it depended on who is running the country, but he wouldn't be drawn on which political party he would rather see in power after the election.

But analysts believe the group will definitely be voting Tory tomorrow.

Labour has pledged to end the "era of extortionate credit" via a cap on interest rates.

Provident will be keeping its fingers crossed that a Labour crackdown on illegal money lending will not turn into reforms that will hammer legal lenders such as itself.

Blackfriar is most impressed with the party leaders' mad last-minute dash around the country, but why is it that they always seem to end up in an Asda store?

Forget Number 10, most of the action over the past month appears to have taken place in Asda shopping aisles up and down the country.

It all kicked off on April 14 when Nick Clegg launched the Liberal Democrat's General Election manifesto.

Immediately after he headed off to Oldham Asda to speak to staff about the party's policies.

He's not the only one. David Cameron visited Asda in Wolverhampton two days later and Clegg obviously felt he hadn't had enough as he elected to nip into the Harrogate Asda to have another chat with shoppers.

But out of all the candidates Gordon Brown has been the most devoted having visited three Asda stores in total during the campaign.

Although in hindsight, he probably regrets the trip to the Weymouth store.

This was where a female shopper suggested he change his career because he's been looking so unwell since he got the top job.

In addition to opening its stores to every party leader, Asda has also been selling different coloured cupcakes in 50 key marginal consti-tuences to allow shoppers to express their electoral preferences.

Blackfriar can exclusively reveal the results – LibDems have sold 2,968, the Tories have sold 2,506 and Labour comes third with 2,139.

One thing is for sure, it looks like a bunfight over the next few days as the three parties fight to win control of parliament.