For the group, it's good (for some definition of good) if everyone votes. For the individual, their payoff from voting is extremely likely to be zero: if you voted, and your chosen MP won by a single vote, your trip to the polling station made a difference. Any other outcome, and you could have stayed at home or gone to the pub instead, with no change in outcome.<p>Whilst I'm not generally in favour of the state forcing people to do things, I wouldn't mind if I (and everyone else) were forced to vote at every general election, with some potential penalty to incentivise compliance.