And they’re off…

Except it seems that this is going to be perhaps the most stupid election in history rather than ‘the most important one for a generation’ that we have been promised. By the time Sky News had followed every second of Gordon Brown’s journey to the Palace, I was already losing the will to live.

Still, I managed to banish the urge to take a daily overdose of mephedrone for the duration of the campaign as quickly as it arrived. After the last couple of months (or even years?) of Phoney War, it is impossible not to feel a little frisson of excitement now the real crapshoot has begun.

So let us not be distracted by the parties’ bells and whistles, including but not limited to their fragrant wives, the gratuitous shots taken while riding public transport they are too grand to use at any other time and the block types of newspaper front pages trying to fudge our brains with a shitstorm of fear. Instead, let us make this election about what we want it to be about: real reform of our electoral systems; honesty and transparency from our MPs and – above all – a sense of irreverence and humour not seen since the far-off days of the Monster Raving Loonys.

Make sure you are registered to vote. Then join in the fun with Power2010 and Democracy Club, both non-partisan groups running campaigns to keep candidates focused more on the things that bug us and less on how their hair looks on the telly. Can we chuck some spanners at their carefully-crafted media onslaught? YES WE CAN.