I learned a new expression yesterday: creep load. I was talking with a sound engineer friend at church about how I suspected the jack sockets on the keyboard amp were flaky because they spent years with leads plugged in, exerting a tiny pressure that caused damage over time and he explained that this was called ‘creep load’. Something small can have a significant influence if it acts over a prolonged period of time.

The same is true of votes in elections. Your vote and my vote are pretty insignificant on their own. If we didn’t bother to vote, how would that have any measurable effect on tens of millions of votes cast? However, as thousands and then millions of people express that view, it adds up to a significant vote for apathy. Even if you can’t bring yourself to vote for any of the candidates or think all governments would be as bad as each other, you should get down to the polling station on election days. Deface your paper with hearts, flowers or ‘None of the above’ in block letters if you will but at least a spoiled vote shows that it wasn’t a failure to get your act together that meant you didn’t support any of those standing.

If you are registered to vote in the forthcoming UK General Election (8 June), you have the right to turn up at the polling station and contribute to the democratic exercise. However, if you aren’t yet registered you have just a tiny window of opportunity left or you lose your chance and, whatever the outcome and consequences, you will be partly to blame. If you are reading this, I can assume you are online. I only had to search for register to vote and Google gave the registration site as the top result. Only a minority of the UK populace aren’t registered but that is still a large enough group to make a significant difference. Register and be ready to be counted.