The Justified Cynicism Award

New Statesman (U.K.) columnist Laurie Penny takes an extremely dim view of the upcoming British parliamentary election.

The question on the table isn’t whether we’ll ever get the government we deserve. The question is whether we want the next five years to be disastrous or merely depressing. The choice is between different shades of disillusion.

Right now, there may not be much to vote for but there’s plenty to vote against. Go out and vote, if you can stand it, and I hope you can. Vote in disgust. Vote in despair.

I could have written those very words in 2000, 2004, and 2008. I hope I won't feel that way again in 2016.