IAN HART: There is no such thing as a wasted vote

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Britain will go to the polls a week today, following possibly one of the most bizarre and intriguing election campaigns in modern times.

As a youngster I can remember the two elections of 1974. In the first, in February, Ted Heath took the striking miners on and asked the country ‘Who governs Britain?’, won the popular vote but didn’t win enough seats to stay in No. 10.

Then it was almost a full five years on to the arrival of our first ever female premier as, possibly on the back of the winter of discontent, Margaret Thatcher arrived at Downing Street, complete with Francis of Assisi quotations.

Britain’s second female Prime Minister has attracted many comparisons with her predecessor, and the question of whether Theresa May is Thatcher Mark Two or very much her own person will go a long way to being answered in the coming days.

The same can be said for her opponent Jeremy Corbyn, one of the most interesting figures in front line politics in the past 40 years.

Allegedly unwanted by a large number of his own parliamentary party, vilified by large sections of the media, yet with a certain attraction and appeal to an ever-growing percentage of the electorate.

Perhaps fuelled by the growing influence of social media, I cannot remember a campaign that has both polarised opinion and seen people debating the issues so passionately.