UK: The British general election in Scotland was invigorated yesterday after an opinion poll suggesting support for Labour down as much as 11 points since 2001.
The leader of the Scottish National Party, Alex Salmond, is waging an intensive effort to "make Scotland matter" in Thursday's poll. However, the bad news for the nationalists is that the Liberal Democrats could be the main beneficiaries from strong opposition to the Iraq war and the government's controversial decision to merge Scotland's infantry regiments.
Labour's predicted majority in the new House of Commons was in all events set to fall, since the post-devolution reduction in the number of Scottish seats from 72 to 59 will hurt the governing party disproportionately. However, Scottish Labour had been considered likely to "hold" 46 of the 59 redrawn constituencies, while yesterday's YouGov poll for the Daily Telegraph suggested Mr Blair's party could lose as many as nine seats.
The shock news came as Mr Blair and cabinet ministers launched a final campaign in 100 marginal seats across England, Scotland and Wales warning that a "protest vote" for the Lib Dems could let the Conservatives into power "by the back door".
With support for Labour in Scotland apparently plummeting to 33 per cent and the Lib Dems up seven points on 2001, this could be enough to give Charles Kennedy's party four extra seats in Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey; Dunbartonshire East; Aberdeen South and Edinburgh South.
According to yesterday's poll the Conservative Party's modest revival in Scotland - ironically thanks to the devolved settlement it had for so long opposed - may also be set to continue.
With more than 20 Scottish MPs for the most part between 1945 and 1983, the Conservatives were wiped out in Scotland in 1997, and claimed only one seat, Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, last time.
Their best target this time is in Dumfries and Galloway, where Labour is defending a majority of just 141.
However, the Tories are second-placed in five of the 12 Labour seats considered most at risk, out of 18 marginals in total.
And YouGov's findings appeared to put them in contention also in Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, and, possibly, in Angus and Moray, both held by the SNP.
The SNP has been hoping for a revival in its fortunes following Mr Salmond's resumption of the party leadership.
But while the party maintains it is still on target, gains from Labour would be offset by any losses to the Tories, making it difficult for the SNP to equal its 1997 tally of six seats.
While there are no predictions of a breakthrough for the minor parties, who between them took some 17 of the 127 Holyrood seats in the Scottish elections of 2003, the Scottish Socialists could also hurt Labour prospects in key areas like Glasgow.
Labour has won more than two thirds of Scotland's parliamentary seats in every election since Margaret Thatcher's second victory in 1983, although it fell below that margin in the Holyrood contest in 2003.