They are going to the polls to choose between two possible governments nobody seems to want.

They are also being asked to choose between the calamity of a Jeremy Corbyn-led socialist revival on the one hand and the disaster of a Boris Johnson-led "crash through or just crash and burn" hard Brexit on the other.

And, to top it off, this is all happening amidst the sodden gloom of a dreary United Kingdom winter. The temperature in Manchester topped out at six degrees on Wednesday, with a 70 per cent chance of rain. It's little wonder some commentators are predicting voters will stay home in droves, given voting is not compulsory.

This, combined with Britain's "first-past-the-post" electoral system, means the already dodgy pre-election polling is going to be even more unreliable than usual.

While the most surprising turn-up, an apparent late swing to Labour and Corbyn, needs to be taken with a grain of salt, this will be seized upon by the Conservatives and the Brexiteers.

They will be using the fact that the most unpopular Labour leader in UK history, a textbook example of the type of person Lenin used to describe as a "useful idiot", apparently has a slim chance of winning to scare their own supporters into showing up.

There is actually a lot to be scared of. If British Labour does win, the nation will have elected the most radical and left-wing government in its history. It would be committed, amongst other things, to renationalising water and energy services, the railways, the post office and even broadband.

Johnson's Conservatives, by contrast, are pledging to hire an additional 50,000 nurses to relieve the pressure on the beleaguered National Health Service and to hand down a budget containing major tax cuts by the end of February.

The major point of difference between the two parties, as noted previously, is on Brexit. Johnson is committed to honouring the result of the 2016 referendum, regardless of whether or not a deal is secured.

Corbyn, who has only said he would not campaign for either a "yes" or "no" vote on the question of whether or not to leave or stay, would put the issue back to a second referendum.

This is the default position for the bulk of the country's remain faction, who see this as the only way of reversing the original result which sent shock waves across Europe and around the world.

Another key point of difference between Johnson and Corbyn is where they stand on immigration; itself a trigger issue in the original Brexit debate.

Johnson, as you would expect from his pro-Brexit stance, opposes the current free movement of EU citizens, which has not worked in Britain's favour.

He ramped up the rhetoric this week, saying a re-elected Tory government would close the tap on unskilled migration and give strong preference to young people with skills who could make a positive contribution.

Corbyn, on the other hand, would go so far as to allow uncontrolled entry, and would even consider giving resident foreigners the right to vote in British elections.

Voters in the UK are essentially being given a choice between a decade in hell and 10 years in purgatory, with no clear indication as to which party would deliver which.

The one thing we can be sure of is that regardless of how this ends, Britons, unless they enjoy disappointment and despair, will have little or nothing to celebrate this weekend.