If you feel you have to do something, wait until Friday, then write to your new MP and tell them to talk about changing the voting system so at least next time we can have some fun working out how STV works rather than trying to work out which of the losers on the list is the least disreputable.

Not even tactical voting is going to change much. The protest vote might make a difference, but still nothing major.

Martin Kettle tells us this might be because Brits are all generally a lot more Blairite/Thatcherite than readers of his paper want to believe.

It’s all getting rather maudlin, sorry. Not to fear, Boris is about being his usual entertaining self. The Guardian gave him and Cook some cars to drive around in. Cheap gimmick? Of course, but more fun than anything else you’ll spot this morning.

Meanwhile, and still in the Guardian, apparently children are really into this politics lark. And these ones are too young to be reading the Sun.

There is little sign of apathy at schools up and down the country, where students are donning rosettes, mobilising their campaign teams and polishing their speeches in preparation to stand in their school mock elections.

Sorry, but this is fanciful nonsense. I know the Guardian had spent all day in the company of children and therefore needed a story to compensate for it, but this is all a bit low. Children don’t get involved in mock elections because they care about them – they do it because they’re told to and they enjoy it because it isn’t proper work. If you gave everyone the day off on Thursday so long as they voted, turnout would hit 95%.

Then we come across this eager orange lass:

So why the Liberal Democrats? "I just think their policies are the most honest," she explains. "Obviously, I'm keen to see the abolition of tuition fees and top-up fees, but this has got to be funded. Increasing taxation just seems like a more honest way of doing things."

The cynic inside me jumped at this: "Giving people the vote who think the Lib Dems sound quite cute isn’t a good idea", but then reason hopped back in "how many people really know what they’re voting for? 1? 2 per cent? If that."

The professional analysts again:

"Lots of young people didn't vote in the last election because they didn't really understand the voting process, or what the parties stood for," she says. "They chose not to vote because they didn't want to vote in ignorance. Many young people don't recognise how politics affects them on a daily basis - from how they get to school, what they're taught at school, to what they eat at school. Others see politics as being elitist, as if they have to have specialist knowledge to make their opinions known."

This, I believe is a good thing. Don’t know what you’re on about: don’t vote. If only it was a theory that could be applied to the rest of the population. Of course with kids, we should encourage it: being young is about having fun, not getting mixed up in politics. Can you imagine how boring life would be if every 16 year old was like the young William Hague? As we grow up, it is obviously important that some of us get interested in this sordid business, to keep a check on the people in power for a start. Not everyone mind, but that conjures up all sorts of problems... Anyway, I digress.

Also: slightly older, same sentiment:

Asked why [young people weren't going to vote], 32% said they could not be bothered, 30% said they did not believe their vote would make a difference, and around 20% said they did not know enough about politics.

***

Good idea: The Tories want to change the way they elect their leader. May I suggest a minimum hair requirement? A jolly nice voice perhaps (not slimy/geeky or scared)? And just someone a bit more chilled out?

Bad idea: Labour have turned their attack on to the Lib Dems, saying Kennedy, lovely as he is, isn’t fit to run the country. Who cares? How many Lib Dem voters are voting for Charlie thinking he might end up running the country? None. Labour are therefore preaching to NO potential voters, and simultaneously giving the Lib Dems some extra recognition. There was me thinking campaign strategists were supposed to be smart.

People are voting Lib Dem because they don’t like Labour or they don’t like the Tories. Therefore, would it not be a better idea to promote yourselves, rather than launching a stillborn attack on Kennedy?