Blair tells voters `You the British people are the boss'

A passionate Mr Tony Blair has urged voters to take power into their own hands and determine the future of Britain in today's…

A passionate Mr Tony Blair has urged voters to take power into their own hands and determine the future of Britain in today's general election.

"The vote is a precious thing. People fought and died to get the vote. We honour them, and we honour democracy, by using our vote," was his relentless message on a final campaign swing through England, Scotland and Wales.

The Conservative leader, Mr William Hague, and the Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Charles Kennedy, criss-crossed Mr Blair on their final sweep across the country in a last effort to galvanise core supporters and reach-out to the undecided. Mr Hague urged voters to reject Labour's "arrogance and spin and broken promises" and called on "the forces of Conservatism" to sweep his party back to power.

Bouyed by the latest poll evidence that the Liberal Democrats might gain some seats at Labour's expense, Mr Kennedy again insisted his party was the best guarantor of good public services and the likeliest source of effective opposition.

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In a final determined push to counter apathy encouraged by predictions of a Labour landslide, Mr Blair declared: "Nothing we offer is possible if people do not come out and vote for it. . . So I say to people: this is your election, your moment of maximum power. Tomorrow it is not the media, not the pollsters, not even the politicians who are in power. You are in power. You hold the key to the future. You, the British people, are the boss." And the party leaders were hoping forecasts of clear skies and sunshine would confound opinion poll predictions of a record low turnout in what could prove a landmark election for the United Kingdom as a whole.

As the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, trusted his fate and that of the Belfast Agreement to the electorate in Northern Ireland, Plaid Cymru and the SNP urged voters to ensure a distinctive and independent Welsh and Scottish voice in the new House of Commons.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind expressed confidence that the Conservatives could prove the pollsters wrong and avoid a second successive wipeout in Scotland, while the leader of the Scottish Socialist Party, Mr Tommy Sheridan, predicted his party was on the verge of a "tremendous" result there.

Meanwhile the presiding officer of the Scottish Parliament, the former Liberal leader, Sir Steel - ensured that the dominant Scottish campaign debate about greater fiscal autonomy would carry into the new Westminster parliament, when he backed calls for Holyrood to be given greater financial power and responsibility.

The leader of the Scottish National Party, Mr John Swinney, claimed the election there was a two-horse race between the SNP and Labour with the Tories out of the running across the UK as a whole.

Accusing Labour and the Tories of taking Welsh communities for granted, the Plaid Cymru leader, Mr Ieuan Wyn Jones, said: "The only way to fight back is to cast a vote for the party which is governed by the needs of Wales."