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Tony Blair today delivered we Scots of the ‘latest horrors of the SNP’ speech, accompanied with a statement promising the likelihood of a Scot being the next Prime Minister, which it must be said was almost delivered through gritted teeth; does he feel that we will all vote Labour because a Scot will be Prime Minister? Was that not the same Scot who publicly chose England in preference to Scotland as his choice of winner for a proposed World Cup to be held in England?

Whats to celebrate? just seen labours party political broadcast or should I say SNP bashing session.Scots must be fed up with JM's pleading for votes,with their negative campaign reaching an all time low.
"Give it up Jack,your doomed"

I'm just tired of Labour - that's New Labour and Scottish Labour. That's Jack McConnell, Cathy Jamieson, Tony Blair, Gordon Broon, Jack Straw et al.
Jack McConnell's been ..well OK, but I want fresh thinking for Scotland. I want my children to feel that they have a good future here. For my small business to grow and prosper. I want health care to be local.
Independence might be the best thing for Scotland's future to take away the dependency culture which seems to be have been fostered here and to have kept us back. But if SNP get elected we can see how they will do. It is time for a change. 8 years is enough. Hopefully there are exciting times ahead for Scotland and doesn't it feel great!

It's my party and i'll cry if I want too...

Just remember only one election matters....mine

Gordon

To the Scots who think that the Union has been beneficial to Scotland - can I have some of what they are smoking and can I get it on the NHS!
It must take some strong drugs indeed to think that the last 30 years in particular has been beneficial!
Open your eyes and take a good look around this country called Scotland! Leave the wacky weed at home please!

BTW Brian, Do you or any of your colleagues know what you will be doing to fill in the air time after the polls close and before the first results are announced?

Given the computer counting that will simultaneously count the FPTP/Regional ballot and the council count, it is anticipated that the first results will be available at around 1am-2am significantly later than normal as they are counting everything at once.

All that you will be able to see is boxes moving around the hall, going into scanners coming back out and going to another stand. Not exactly riveting telly. The adjudication screens are only for votes they are unable to read electronically so won't give you any clue as to how things are going.

The first indication of a result will be after 3-4 hours of shifting boxes around when they press print and out pops a piece of paper with the result. Sudden death as it were, no warning of how things are going, no seeing ballot papers stacking up for each party and knowing if its close or not. Just several hours of nothing followed by an instant result.

Difficult to cover I'd imagine? Its not as if Colin Whyte can get his usual insider info from my predictions at the count in Aberdeen and thus provide the studio with indications of how its looking in our neck of the woods. None of us will know!! Exasperating I'm sure.

The usual SNP voters slagging off anyone who dares not to vote SNP - sorry but I don't buy into that.

The SNP, if they win, will have probably pulled off the biggest piece of deception ever - and that includes the Tories. A party promising to increase public expenditure without increasing taxes - oh yes - I forgot - there will be "efficency gains" - this will be the same "efficiency gains" that labour and the Tories promised but never achieved.

The sad thing is that Labour could have blown the SNP ship out of the water by simply committing to have a referedum on independence - not in the fourth year but the first year of the new Parliament. The SNP would lose - I have no doubt - and would have been dead as a political force.

But then Labour have been running scared of the SNP and have not tackled them on their ground.

If the SNP are elected just watch the drain of the well-paid middle-classes out of Scotland when they realise that their taxes are going up. And they will - even if it is only the 3% that is used it will still mean an extra £1500 per year in tax for a middle-income family like my own - I object as it is to present tax levels - increasing them further is no laughing matter.

If the SNP are the winners from tomorrow’s poll there will be the reality that Scottish residents may be able to assess Alex Salmond and the SNP’s performance and fitness for office; in this instance it will only be their abilities pertinent to the administration of Scotland as First Minister and Governing Party in a devolved administration that will be on offer.

If a party or parties for political positioning attempt to thwart the expressed wishes of the Scottish voters they should be aware of the ever decreasing patience of Scottish voters with political parties and individuals in their attempts at political and social engineering.

As for the lack of Happy Birthday songs this could either be down to the copyright on the song held by Time Warner and subsequent royalties due from those who sing this ditty in public, although it is OK to hum the melody; more possibly the lack of choral expression may be resultant from the fact that the Union seems more important to politicians in general and the Chancellor of the Exchequer in particular.

Well - the mass media has done it's best for the Union - and helped perpetuate Labour spin and lies to a large degree.

Let's pray the Scots see through it all for once and vote for their Scottish Party - on a Scottish election.

God knows, the country will be better for it when Blair and Brown and co. scuttle back to Westminster for the duration.

Which is, by the way, what they intend on doing anyway - if they win.

Gordon:

'...job done...I'll come back here in a few years and bang-on about how important Scotland is again...'

Honestly, he's like some foppish late-Stewart monarch. Clearly, he has his own priorities - and it's not the nation of Scotland!

Once more - for old time's sake:

- Iraq?
- Cash for honours?
- Pensions wreck?
- Alienated trade unions?
- Increasingly low-school rating cards?
- Absurd 'Faslane spin?'
- Ripping the heart out our regiments
- Labour's foretold Al Qaeda attack?
- Labour's 'Social ties between Scotland and England dissolving?'
- The wholly risible [Brown] comment on 'The 'Balkanisation' of the UK?
- Increased Govan poverty?
- Reiterated, tired pledges?
- Phoney party political broadcasts with ex-Labour officials?
- *Alarming* control of the mass media in Scotland??
- The absolute stagnant economic position after eight-years of Lab-Lib govt.?

I, for one - have my anti-spin goggles on. I urge every Scot to see through the Labour spin, fabrication and lies.

Get this unimaginative, immoral, '...Scotland cannae dae that...' shower of Labour numpties out!

Labour = Scottish voters
SNP = Scottish voters

Labour = policies for the larger British state
SNP = policies for Scotland

It's really that simple.

This election is NOT about independence.

It IS about a referendum choice.

Despite Labour's abhorrent, nauseating desire to scare her own people, the only thing you need to be scared of is your own will.

Have noticed big differences in media coverage btwn England and Scotland...

I know the broadsheets in Scotland have been covering the anniversary for a while ..but down here it has barely registered as an event..and any coverage there has been seems to focus on the reaction of Scots to the anniversary (sub-text being...those provincials think it's a big deal ...but we in the centre of the universe have more important things to concern ourselves with..?)

Lets hope the Scottish people hold their nerve and decide to reject Labour for the first time in 40 years! Otherwise we may as well pack up and call it a dictatorship. If this were a Third World country and we were looking in at a party of power not losing a serious election in four decades, what would we call it?

Time for collective responisibility to kick in! Punish Blair, punish Brown, punish Jack, punish Cathy and Wendy, Andy and Allan. Reward the positive, ambitious campaign the SNP has fought.

Re Bliar's comments about the next PM being a Scot, isn't the current PM also a Scot? Or has Bliar conveniently forgotten that he was born in Edinburgh?

What's the old saying - you can fool some of the people, all of the time; fool all of the people, some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time!

Since e-counting of votes is being used in Scotland for the first time, I wonder why there is to be no independent auditing and/or verification before or after the election? As far as I can recall, the Electoral Commission recommended this back in 2004, but apparently the e-counting tsar (some nonentity called Derek Cairns, I think) thinks it unnecessary! Well, I for one don't want to trust my vote, or indeed democracy, to a machine without independent auditing and checking of a percentage of the results. Shades of Jeb Bush and Florida spring to mind. As for the benefits of the Union? Well, only if you're middle class or upwards have there been any benefits since 1979

Surely the true wielders of power are going to be the Lib Dems. They can either stick with Labour and give Happy Jack another crack of the whip, or jump ship and let the charismatic A.S. have a go. They've not committed either way... so seems to come down to who can sweet-talk Nicol Stephen the most! I’m sure we all agree that Jack and Alex are both highly exciting politicians (ahem), so what a difficult decision this is for the Liberals. Indeed, what an exciting election this is. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m being sarcastic.

I won't be celebrating until this union is over. We've had Scots sent overseas to fight imperialist wars for most of that 300 years - and other UK troops sent here to make sure we went, under threat of death, imprisonment or eviction for the unwilling at times.
Now an alleged Scottish chancellor in Westminster is threatening to sabotage our economy if we don't toe-the-line. He has already made a start by introducing PFI, which looks good for the Westminster Treasury books but can only lead to higher costs, and taxes locally, by cutting in unnecessary third parties - "Profits-For-Insiders" is the most despicable economic measure since the dreaded Poll Tax.

If I wake up on Friday morning and find that nothing has changed in Scotland - then I am off! I cant take the idea of living in or raising a family in a one party state anymore! Give us some hope Scotland! Some hope that we will not have to endure another 4 years or another generation of the same life wasting gangsters in power!