SO the starting gun has been fired and MPs are no longer MPs...they become parliamentary candidates. You’ll spot one in many streets in the next six weeks as they go all out for your vote.

Now the Commons is out for election season, here’s a list of things you might (or might not if you’re bored already) like to know about the 2015 election.

•Even though MPs have left Westminster and their offices have been locked up, David Cameron remains Prime Minister and retains all his normal duties and powers in the period between dissolution and the formation of the new adminstration; •Ministers keep their Government jobs and their responsibility for running departments during the election campaign.

•When Parliament is dissolved, MPs revert to being members of the public and lose all their parliamentary privileges. They are barred from using the title MP - including on websites and in Twitter handles - and from 5pm, they lose access to facilities in the Palace of Westminster. Until the new parliament is elected, there are no MPs. And we have a Prime Minister who is not a member of either House of Parliament.

•Ministers are still ministers because Parliament and Government are two separate institutions. The Prime Minister is appointed by the Queen, and she appoints ministers on her Prime Minister's advice. Constitutionally, the appointments are independent of the status of MP.

•So do ministers lose their job when the results come in? Not necessarily. If there is a clear result, the tradition is that the outgoing prime minister goes to Buckingham Palace in the morning, and his or her possessions are discreetly taken out of 10 Downing Street by removal vans in time for the new premier to move in the same day. John Major famously spent the afternoon watching cricket at the Oval after losing in 1997.

•This year's result is likely to have more in common with 2010, when the election produced no clear winner, and Gordon Brown remained prime minister for five days as coalition negotiations went on, before tendering his resignation on May 11.

•Members of the House of Lords retain their titles and their membership of Parliament, but the Upper Chamber does not sit during the election period. Peers can enter the Palace of Westminster, but only limited facilities are available to them.

•Successful candidates in the May 7 election are declared MPs immediately after the votes are counted. They will take their seats at Westminster from May 18, when the Queen has summoned a new parliament.

•The new parliament begins on May 18 with the election of a speaker, followed by each MP being "sworn in" - in a process taking a number of days - ahead of the State Opening of Parliament on May 27, with a Queen's Speech setting out the programme of the new administration.