Whatever your views, I urge you to vote even if it’s to spoil your ballot. Spoiled papers get counted, abstentions do not and low turnouts are spun by the victors to suit their own ends - witness witless John Prescott’s facile attributing of the abysmal turnout in 2001 to a “culture of contentment”. According to his yokel logic, people were so happy they didn’t feel like spending ten minutes to endorse how much better New Labour claimed they had made people’s lives.

The perversity and unfairness of our electoral system is being scrutinised like never before. The way the popular vote translates into a deformed distribution of parliamentary seats will be highlighted and debated long after the election. That’s why a Lib Dem vote or a Green vote or a Monster Raving Loony vote or a spoiled ballot will count.

A New Labour majority is going to be a calamity. But in a final analysis, vote for who you believe in. Somebody is counting the votes, the statistics will be published which will provide the ammunition for the next fight.

We’re not beaten yet but as a great man said: “Save your strength. There’ll be another time”.