BRITAIN:The battle for Scotland was fought to an exciting finish last night as the final opinion polls showed the SNP still out in front but with Labour narrowing the gap.
Whatever the final line-up of the parties at Holyrood, however, all three devolved parts of the United Kingdom now seem set for coalition government after today's elections for the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and 312 local authorities in England, outside London.
Chancellor Gordon Brown fired the final shots in his Scottish campaign, again warning that he would find it difficult to work with a Scottish executive led by SNP leader Alex Salmond. And he and outgoing Scottish first minister Jack McConnell claimed a growing response to their call for traditional supporters to "come home to Labour".
Barring a spectacular change of fortune, however, Labour is facing a bleak night of heavy losses in Tony Blair's last elections as prime minister - and in contests widely seen as a first test of the man now seen as all but certain to succeed him.
While the left is still hoping to mount a challenge, the possibility of Mr Brown's "coronation" as next Labour leader and prime minister grew yesterday when former home secretary Charles Clarke joined the growing list of senior party figures proclaiming his strengths.
However, former prime minister Sir John Major yesterday warned that the "honeymoon" for a Brown premiership would be "stormy", and that today's elections could produce "the early rumblings" of a future "catastrophic defeat" for the Labour government.
At the same time, Conservative leader David Cameron repeated his demand for a snap general election should Mr Brown succeed Mr Blair, who will make his resignation statement next week.
Branding Mr Brown a "backstabber", Mr Cameron taunted Mr Blair: "Two years ago the prime minister told us he would serve a full term. [On Tuesday] he said he would be off in weeks.
"He has told us who will wear the crown - can he tell us who wielded the knife?"
Mr Blair hit back with a jibe of his own about Mr Cameron's reported attempts to have former BBC boss Greg Dyke stand for mayor of London in a Conservative/Liberal Democrat pact. "If he wants to talk about leadership and candidates, I certainly won't be following his example on the mayor," said Mr Blair:
"The person I back will at least be a member of the Labour Party."
In his intervention in an article in the London Times, Sir John effectively accused the Blair government of endangering the UK by its handling of the case for war in Iraq; said public cynicism about politics would remain after Mr Blair's departure; and suggested "the political landscape is changing again", as had happened to previous governments after long periods in office.
"We saw that in 1906, 1945 and 1997," he said. "The political landscape is changing again. The early rumblings may begin to echo on Thursday."
Despite his public show of confidence, however, Mr Cameron will be awaiting the election results with much the same anxiety as Mr Brown.
While the Conservatives can expect to gain hundreds of council seats in England,the results will be closely scrutinised for any evidence of a Tory revival in major northern cities.
Some 37 million people are entitled to vote in today's elections for 129 members of the Scottish Parliament, 60 members of the Welsh Assembly and some 10,500 council seats in England.