Now is the best time in a generation to go out and vote

Provocative but spot on from Armando Iannucci:

Now is the best time in a generation to go out and vote. With such a fragmented system on offer, nothing is inevitable. Uncertainty may create instability, but it can also generate churn and change in a way that doing nothing never can…

No politician voted into office is going to take the number of people who didn’t vote into account; what they will do is heed the number who voted, but not for them, if that number is overwhelming. The 45% who voted yes to independence in Scotland, because it was so large and because it was underwritten by the force of an 84.5% turnout, is driving the agenda in Scottish politics as powerfully as if it had been on the winning side. This says a lot about how weird democracy is at the moment, but it’s also a bright example of how effective a massive turnout can be…

If we want to have any sort of impact on the national political agenda [this] …will only happen if we come out in numbers; there’s nothing to be gained from sitting at home, apart from the chance to watch again the Pub Landlord slugging it out with Russell Brand and us dreaming of a Brandlord coalition that might have been, had we bothered to vote for one.

The full piece (including the bits I don’t agree with!) is well worth a read.