briter, you're being silly: "people like me? you know me do you?" No, I don't know you personally from a broken brick but I do know about people who whine about complusory voting... and whine on about the wrong party, or the wrong man or the wrong woman, the wrong official... having being elected.
"its an oxy in that democracy and compulsory are opposing thoughts" 1. Go back to the history of democracy and see how it was set up and with what sentiments. 2. To be a member of a city state, ie a "civilian" it is your duty to participate in its running. Otherwise you have no right to demand services that others have fought for, voted for and gained. No one is a self-contained, self-sufficient island. 3. The nonsense about compulsory voting not being part of the institution of democracy is a spin which catches the fantasy of the lazy and the pessimists. Taxes have to be taken away from you to pay for the infrastructure and enormous number of services (including going to illegal wars and caging children) so you better get informed about them and say "yeae" or "nae" on them. 4. Democracy is valid only when everyone in a society votes. To abstain from that right is to act cowardly and undemocratically.
