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Ed Miliband has defended meeting Russell Brand, a man who said he doesn't vote. The Labour leader says he wants to get younger people engaged in the election.

It's one of the closest and least predictable elections in years but there's still a lot of public disengagement with politics and politicians.

This morning 5 live's Nicky Campbell is asking does your vote count?

Listen to the debate, share your views on 0500 909 693 text 85058 or leave a post on social media, external.

Paul:

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The Woman's Hour debate is a rather civilised affair - apart from the occasional clink of a cup of tea nothing is disturbing the harmony of the occasion.

Theresa May doesn't think anyone should be too worried by the planned £12bn welfare cuts proposed by the Conservatives. "This is the same rate of change that we've seen over the last five years," she says. The home secretary says that track record should leave people reassured, not worried.

But Harriet Harman isn't reassured at all. "In some ways she sounds perfectly reasonable, but at the end of the day people have got to ask what has happened in this country in the last five years." The "reality", as she puts it, is that the NHS, for example, "is not safe with David Cameron in No 10". Voting anything other than Labour risks letting Mr Cameron back into Downing Street.

Sal Brinton says there's a "balance" to be struck between the Conservative and Labour views - the "extremes", as she says.

Plaid leader Leanne Wood says the gap between the rich and the poor means a "rebalancing" is a priority.

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The party spokeswomen are outlining their priorities for the economy. Here's what they have to say:

Leanne Wood, representing Plaid Cymru, says her priority is the Welsh economy - but that in this election the national picture is dominant. Balancing the books is important but mustn't be done "on the backs of the poor", as she puts it. She wants the minimum wage should be raised to the living wage and calls for public services to be guaranteed a future.

Harriet Harman says the public finances have been reduced in a "fair way" - and this can be achieved by putting the top rate of income tax up to 50p. Labour's answer definitely isn't "extreme spending cuts", she says.

Caroline Lucas of the Greens says her party's priority is "ending austerity". She wants to protect women, who have been hit by the cuts in a "massively disproportionate" way.

Theresa May says public services rely on a "strong economy" and that's why the Conservatives have been so set on making progress on the deficit. They've helped first-time-buyers with the Help to Buy programme and offer an extension of childcare, too.

Eilidh Whiteford argues that the SNP would take a "responsible" approach to cutting the deficit but would do so over a much longer period of time.

Diane James says "addressing the national debt" has to be the first issue for UKIP. She's worried by the millions of pounds of interest on the national debt which will have to be paid for two or three generations. And she questions the need for spending on overseas aid, too.

Sal Brinton - pictured above - of the Liberal Democrats says the country "would be in the same state of Greece" if it hadn't been for the coalition's actions since 2010. Now the key is investing in "structural support", she says, like building more housing.

Lots going on at once here. Nicola Sturgeon is speaking to an audience in Glasgow.

She told them about the influence she hopes her party would have on a Labour government.

Ed Balls has got the PowerPoint out. He painting a fairly scary picture if the Conservatives have their way. "Neighbourhood policing won't survive", David Cameron's going "to devastate the armed forces and social care", and "I'm afraid he's going to cut our NHS", the shadow chancellor warns.

Worst hit of all, he goes on to say, will be child benefit and tax credits.

Chris:

Nigel Farage, UKIP leader, is addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg on the situation in the Mediterranan. This is some of what he's had to say:

"We are guilty for this crisis. We are guilty for drownings. We are hypocrites when we speak of poverty in Africa. I am not blind to the human suffering we enacted in many of these countries. What should we do? We have decided we can deal with this on our own, and people can come and won't be sent back. We have already agreed a common European asylum system. This resolution today is the direct implementation of it. The definition of who applies for asylum is so wide that we simply can't accept countless millions.

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Here's a taste of the opening statements from the Woman's Hour debate:

• Harriet Harman, kicking off proceedings on BBC Radio 4, says women may have made progress over the years, but "childcare is still a headache" and parents do still "dread the school holidays". Labour is the answer, she says.
• Caroline Lucas says "strong Green voices" are needed in parliament more than ever. "We can't afford more cuts," she says, as she outlines a raft of her party's policies: opposition to Trident and fracking, support for a climate change deal in particular.
• Theresa May says "security, freedom and opportunity" are the principles underpinning the Conservatives' approach. It's contrasted with the risk of "falling back to the dark days" of the Labour government.
• The SNP's Eilidh Whiteford says her message to people outside Scotland is that her party will work to ensure "progressive change to improve the lives of ordinary people" throughout Britain. She says parties will "have to build bridges between each other and learn to work together for the good of the people".
• Diane James of UKIP says a lot of "ladies" will agree with her in concluding that the parties don't really offer a decent solution for women. "It's empty pledge after empty pledge and sticking plaster after sticking plaster commitments."

Daily Politics viewer:

Ed Miliband has just started giving a speech in central London. He's contrasting the impacts he says Labour and the Conservatives would have on family finances. He says seven-and-a-half million families would lose an average of £760 a year if David Cameron was re-elected.

"If the Tories deny it, ask yourself why haven't they ruled out making changes to tax credits and child benefit?" the Labour leader says.

Duncan Gardiner:

BBC Radio 4

Now under way on BBC Radio 4 is the Woman’s Hour debate – two hours of discussion about women’s issues featuring leading figures from seven of our major political parties. Click on the ‘live coverage’ tab above to follow the to-and-fro.

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Plaid could work with the SNP and the Green Party in a hung parliament. But what does that actually mean? "We want to be flexible about what that means in exact terms, but there's a lot of common ground between our parties," Leanne Wood says. They all want to scrap Trident and end austerity, for example. "It would make sense for us to work together," she says.

Asked about vote-swapping, Ms Wood says there's a big problem with the first-past-the-post system. "Plaid Cymru would like to see us move to a system of PR [proportional representation] - STV [single transferable vote] preferably." Another "good opportunity", as she puts it, lies in social media, which is being used more and more as a way of accessing politics.

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Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood is explaining that things are "different" for her party this time around. The focus on nationalism in Scotland and the TV debates have raised her profile, she says. This has made her "happy". But can she capitalise on it when it comes to polling day? "Neither of the two parties have done enough to deserve a mandate, so that opens up the possibility of a party like Plaid Cymru to hold the balance of power," she says. This is perfectly legitimate in a democracy, Ms Wood insists, even if she only controls three seats. Plaid is demanding £1.2bn from London because "parity of funding [with Scotland] is crucial for us". She says she's being careful "not to talk about red lines".

BBC News Channel

On BBC News, political journalists are chewing the fat over the issues being covered on our Election Live page.

David Wooding, political editor of the Sun on Sunday, says he thinks Ed Miliband’s decision to be interviewed by Russell Brand is “odd” and “bizarre” because of Brand’s views about voting.

Helen Lewis, deputy editor of the New Statesman, says journalists should be grateful because at least it’s entertaining. “One of the primary things you should do as a politician is to try and change people’s minds,” she says. “This is something that will reach a huge number of people -so yes, if it goes wrong it will go very badly wrong publicly… but equally if it goes right it will add some spice to what has been a very dull campaign.”