we didn't have to deal with deadly bomb and mortar attacks

Over at Coffee House Peter Hoskin makes the point that despite the intimidation,voter turnout in Iraq is higher than that of the UK.

Ok, so it's down on the 75 percent achieved in 2005, but it's still striking – encouraging, even – that voter turnout was at 62 percent for the recent Iraqi general elections. That's higher than the 61.4 percent for the last UK general election and, lest it need saying, we didn't have to deal with deadly bomb and mortar attacks.
With the "chasm" between voters and the political class as it is, in this country, you suspect that our turnout figures will be even smaller this time around.