I think the last one in Britain that bothered with that was Harold Wilson's first government.

possibly, but they messed it up aswell unfortunately.

__________________
Trust me, I'm a socialist!

There's power in a factory,power in the land, power in the hand of the worker. But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand, there is power in a union.
The union forever defending our rights, down with the blackleg, workers unite. To our brothers and our sisters in many far off lands, there is power in a union.
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own. - Billy Bragg

I always use my vote. The trouble is, there is increasingly little to vote for, but plenty to vote against. In the UK, I find this situation is further complicated by the fact that few politicians are worth the bother. Once elected their sole ambition seems to be self, self, self rather than honest representation of the people who put them in power. I include all parties in this description. They are all as self serving and corrupt as each other.

Perhaps if everyone stopped voting they might get the message.

I think a better plan would be if everyone were to spoil ther ballot paper, not that i agree with that either, but I agree with your assessment of most of our politicians. Fortunately though there are still a few good ones out there, my MP for example (Alan Simpson), George Galloway and Menzies Campbell aswell IMO, to name just three.

__________________
Trust me, I'm a socialist!

There's power in a factory,power in the land, power in the hand of the worker. But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand, there is power in a union.
The union forever defending our rights, down with the blackleg, workers unite. To our brothers and our sisters in many far off lands, there is power in a union.
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own. - Billy Bragg

I think it is an absolutely horrid idea. I would say it is just wrong in concept because of the forcing part. Not to mention making uninformed people vote does not do any good. I believe that any person that does not feel they are informed in an election should stay at home. Not forcing them to do either way. I also am wondering what the punishment is for not voting.

There is no problem with spoiling a ballot paper. You don't have to be informed to do that.

__________________
Trust me, I'm a socialist!

There's power in a factory,power in the land, power in the hand of the worker. But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand, there is power in a union.
The union forever defending our rights, down with the blackleg, workers unite. To our brothers and our sisters in many far off lands, there is power in a union.
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own. - Billy Bragg

Adds ignorance to the system. The less uninformed voters the better the decision.

So what you want is a democracy of the "informed"?

__________________
Trust me, I'm a socialist!

There's power in a factory,power in the land, power in the hand of the worker. But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand, there is power in a union.
The union forever defending our rights, down with the blackleg, workers unite. To our brothers and our sisters in many far off lands, there is power in a union.
Money speaks for money, the devil for his own. - Billy Bragg

Eventually, but then all governments do that eventually.

People here are usually given a nominal fine if they don't vote. However if someone makes an issue of it they can be imprisoned. This is the only case I'm aware of but it ws for a breach of an injunction rather than being directly related to the issue of voting.

Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Website