And if you live in London, for the love of mercy, go and stop Boris...

The first and most important thing to say is: if you live in the UK, and live in an area that is holding council elections today, go out and vote! Not only is the process of democratic elections one of the most important things this country can give you, your vote really matters.

In general elections, when each seat is chosen by several thousand voters spread over a wide area, it's easy to think that your vote will be lost in the noise. Given our rather odd first-past-the-post voting system, in which all votes that weren't for the winner are effectively counted as "not for the winner" and nothing else, that's got a certain amount of truth to it, and in certain areas (such as mine, where the Conservatives hold a massive majority) it is very difficult to get excited about voting.

These local elections, though, are a very different animal. The last time my local councillor was elected, the turnout was somewhere around the 54% mark and the winner took 79% of that turnout. That means that there are easily enough people in the ward to change the result. When you factor in that, because of the small area of the ward, this 79% represented only 991 votes, it suddenly becomes entirely possible that there could be a change.

The weather should help too - it was hailing earlier this morning, and the dark clouds are still sweeping overhead. Usually, bad weather favours the minority, as the weather is more likely to prevent people who don't really mind about the results from voting (being part of the majority makes your vote seem less important).

That factor cuts another way, too. There are a number of small parties whose supporters may not be numerous, but they are fanatical. I'm talking, of course, about everyone's favourite ultra-right-wing nutjobs, the BNP. If you know that one of these idiots is standing in your local election, it is extremely important that you go and stop them. It may be raining, it may be thundering (it's just started here), but your vote is vital if you want to stop the lunatics taking over the asylum.

I think you get the picture now. So you'll get a bit wet. So what? Go out and vote!

UPDATE: Good result all round. Yeah, my vote didn't change my local councillor (still a gigantic majority), but the council itself is no longer run by the Tories, there was practically no BNP support anywhere, and the Lib Dems are in second place by national vote share. I'm happy enough with that.