Not voting in the general election makes you responsible for the worst that follows

Not voting is a choice, a serious choice. Couch potatoes who can’t be bothered need to realise what that means

Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and David Cameron appeal to the audience during the Question Time special (Getty Images)

A baby girl has been born to the most unaccountable, privileged, state-funded family in the country. And the people rejoiced and forgot all about the election for a day. I too am happy for the mum and dad and safely delivered child, but the royalist outpouring was bizarre and bonkers.

Compare this emotive monarchist baby-mania with how the election candidates in our reasonably well functioning democracy have been treated. Week after week, boorish voters have behaved like baying Ancient Romans in amphitheatres. This is what trolls and internet incontinence have done to our political culture. (We journalists are meant to take it too, just because we are in the public space.)

And it is getting worse because these people seem fresh and vital to the media, and are invited to unleash their seemingly bottomless furies. This people power was dramatised on Question Time last week and what a terrifying spectacle it was. The three leaders came under relentless abuse. It was a battle the mob was always going to win, because politicians could not fight back. A politician’s lot is always hard and thankless, but this was unacceptable humiliation. Maybe it is time now to turn the spotlight on the British electorate and ask it to behave better, with honour and integrity, to take responsibility for the state we are in.

Millions of Britons will not vote on Thursday – some may even be regular TV and radio haranguers – but by not voting they will help determine the election. Russell Brand has created a cult of the non-voter. Let it be on his head if we get another right-wing government. And if we get a centre-left coalition, impugn right-wingers who stayed away from polling stations. Why should the blame culture not extend to these inveterate blamers? Not voting is a choice, a serious choice. Couch potatoes who can’t be bothered need to realise what that means. I have been going around our local streets badgering people, asking them if they will vote. Sam, a 45-year-old builder, tells me: “No. They are all at it. Can’t trust them. Steal our money. All those taxes. Who is thinking of the working man? My dad voted Labour. He believed their lies, the old fool.”

Then came a long list of problems that haven’t been sorted, including potholes and bad schools. He got shirty when I said that political disengagement made him a traitor to democracy and that he had forsaken the right to moan about the nation’s ills. He was a patriot, he shouted back, and loved the Queen. Says it all, doesn’t it?

Melina, a hairdresser, is another non-voter. But she likes George Osborne and David Cameron and their small tax promises and hates Miliband. “So, Melina,” I ask, “Do you think we should get rid of our parliament because it has no point or purpose?” “No, I don’t want us to be like Africa but I don’t think one vote does anything anyway.”

And so to those who do cast a vote. Again, those two minutes, that choice carries implications that need to be thought through. Many voting for Cameron and his gang who, like Melina, hate paying taxes, must accept that they are validating other policies. They acquiesce to deliberately engineered poverty, to more food banks and child impoverishment in the years to come, to the bedroom tax, a fractured society, greater inequality, fewer workers’ rights, reduced legal aid, even harsher immigration controls and possibly an exit from the EU. The voters will be as culpable as the elected when the disabled, starving and hopeless can no longer cope and just give up.

This list and worse applies to Ukip voters too. As the hugely talented Armando Iannucci writes: “These two parties are exclusive, rather than inclusive... every policy is designed to appeal to the personal and exclusively personal, to the interests of the voter to the exclusion of everything else. We are urged to think of some people as being wasteful or scroungers... We are invited to diminish our neighbours... to grow fearful of people’s accents, to start thinking about second- and third-class citizenship.” So know that when you chose.

Remember, too, that a Labour win may not lead to an end to austerity. Maybe they won’t be quite as callous as the Tories, but their progressive policies will be timid, fearful, because the Coalition has embedded its story of Labour’s monetary recklessness. Labour voters are also agreeing to renewing the Trident nuclear weapons and to a continuation, possibly hardening, of some of the most illiberal laws to counter terrorism and curtail basic freedoms. That will, inevitably lead to more extremism.

On immigration they are as pitiless as the right-wing parties. The SNP could make Labour a teeny bit more socialist, but not necessarily. The Scottish Nationalists have had an effective campaign and Nicola Sturgeon is a stunning operator, but those who vote for the party prop up the campaign for an independent Scotland.

Lib Dems are now distancing themselves from their previous coalition partner. Vince Cable rues the laws that make anti-discrimination cases prohibitively expensive. Danny Alexander warns about the vicious Tory plans for deeper welfare cuts. Clegg too is making leftish noises. These born-again Lib Dems may mean it this time. Or not. So a vote for them is a leap of faith. If they do again hold the balance of power, they could again behave like smart escort ladies, happy to be what is expected of them. As I said, one can’t simply vote for Lib Dem promises when a Tory-Lib Dem coalition could be the result.

For the next three days, British men and women need to become more introspective and informed. The time for kicking politicians is over. We all must consider our options and accept responsibility for what happens on Thursday. This election really, really matters and we are all in it together.

Twitter: @y_alibhai