For those not up on the UK political scene, the country is currently on the verge of a general election (it's on May 7). For the average Joe, this means enduring several weeks of non-stop political campaigning from the UK's top parties across every form of media known to man. Hot Instagram selfies? Check. Increasingly awkward TV debates? Check. Showing a caring, nurturing side by feeding a lamb in a carefully choreographed and sickly set of newspaper photos? Err, unfortunately, check.

And then there are the party manifestos: pages and pages of meaningless buzz words and phrases like "long-term economic plan," and "package of measures," and completely outlandish promises that get thrown to the wayside within seconds of the elected setting foot in their new digs at 10 Downing Street. Frankly, with such a deluge of information and media to dig through, it's any wonder that people are able to make an informed voting decision at all.

Fortunately, like for most things in life, technology has the answer. Why bother taking a shot in the dark and hoping that those outlandish manifesto promises pan out for the best when a computer can make that decision for you? Enter Democracy 3, a video game with a network of systems that seamlessly feed back into each other to simulate the tough political decisions that a government has to face. New Statesman has spent the last few weeks feeding each party's manifesto promises into the game, starting with the same save file each time, to see which of them results in a successful and prosperous country.

OK, so this isn't exactly a scientific look at political process, but it's fun to see what Democracy 3's underlying simulation makes of each party's manifesto.

Perhaps the most interesting (simulated) result for left-leaning folks is what the game made of some of the Conservatives' plans to focus on the old, avoid messing with income tax, and reduce the benefits cap. Suffice it to say, it didn't go all that well:

"There's lynch mobs in the streets, class warfare as society collapses, inner city riots, booming crime rates, luddite riots smashing those lovely new robots, and extreme nationalism. Poverty has rocketed, equality plummeted, health collapsed, crime boomed, and generally the country has collapsed."

So, uhh, not so hot for the Conservatives then. Still, it wasn't exactly sunshine and roses for the lefties either. The Greens' plan to increase the role of the state, push equality, and tackle tough ethical issues is admirably focused, but unfortunately not quite the success you'd hope it would be:

"Our GDP has collapsed—I thought it would recover but it hasn’t. This is due to the twin problems of a brain drain and a corporate exodus. We have 100 per cent unemployment, which is making GDP drag along the bottom of the graph, so low that the axes markers get in the way of seeing the line...Despite everything, the Greens made the country better-educated, more productive, healthier and more equal than ever before—indeed, the game deemed the nation a 'Green utopia.'"

Back at the other (extreme) end of the political spectrum, EU-haters UKIP and its rather radical policies were so out there, Democracy 3 had a hard time representing them. Still, there was a result at the end of it, and not an entirely unexpected one at that:

"What’s killed our vote is the squeeze on the middle classes—their income has halved in our term. Combine that with the decline in GDP and the collapse in confidence because of our astonishing national debt, and I was surprised the country didn’t just default before the election."

So far, so depressing then. The only real success story came from Labour and its rather ineffectual manifesto that talks about "fiscal responsibility," but says little about what the party is actually going to do. Lots of guess work for New Statesman then, and after a shaky year of increased alcoholism, obesity, and water shortages, a stable economy:

"With the National Debt paid off, everything becomes easy. Huge budget surpluses mean that we can fund any innovative policy safely so Britain's push in nanotech, robots and flying cars is the envy of the world. Simultaneously, the prohibitive taxes on the richest have eliminated them from the country and political discourse, making the country fantastically equal, productive and prosperous. Barring a total global meltdown, the country is safe, so there's really little point continuing this. In this purely fantasy world, the Labour manifesto results in Utopia. That's an achievement for the Eds, even if they don't get elected."

So there you have it, a prosperous utopia filled with nanotech and flying cars awaits for those who vote Labour on May 7. Sure, these results are about as reliable as a pre-election party promise, and we certainly wouldn't recommend deciding the political future of the UK based off a flawed experiment with a $30 video game. But given the nonsense the parties are putting out to lure in voters these days, maybe it's not such a crazy idea.