IT'S the final stretch before tomorrow's Westminster General Election when it seems that we are finally going to be rid of a loathsome Conservative government which has blighted the lives of millions of people, and see the Conservatives electorally annihilated.

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The Tories have pretty much conceded defeat. In an article for The Telegraph disgraced quasi-fascist former home secretary Suella Braverman told her party that it's "all over".

Tory cabinet minister Mel Stride, who has been one of the few senior Tories brave enough to face the press during this campaign, has admitted that Labour is likely to win a large majority.

Stride told the Today programme on Radio 4: "I totally accept that, where the polls are at the moment, means that tomorrow is likely to see the largest Labour landslide majority, the largest majority that this country has ever seen. Much bigger than 1997, bigger even than the National government in 1931."

That is a remarkable admission from a government minister on the eve of an election. The Conservatives know that they cannot avoid defeat and are employing the desperate tactic of talking up the scale of the Labour victory in the hope of encouraging complacency amongst Labour voters and making it more likely that they will not bother to turn out and vote, knowing that the result is in the bag. In this way the Tories hope to minimise their losses, which are nevertheless likely to be substantial.

The Tories are already preparing themselves for the bloodletting that will follow on Friday with Braverman urging the party to move even further to the right.

If the Tories are reduced to a sub-100 seat rump, as some polls suggest, and Nigel Farage's Reform Party piles up a significant share of the vote and return a group of MPs to the Commons, it is highly likely that Braverman's far right faction will win out in the internecine warfare into which the Tories will inevitably descend as soon as the results are counted.

It would be nice to be able to get excited about the very welcome development of a devastated Tory Party which could be jostling with the LibDems for the title of official opposition, but sadly the Tories are going to be replaced as a government by a Labour Party which has swallowed the Tory Brexit and its tax and spending nostrums wholesale and is led by a shamelessly lying control freak who has all the charisma of a burst dog poo bag flapping in the branches of a dead tree.

Labour has gone full on British nationalist under Keir Starmer and vies with the Conservatives in its eagerness to deny the right of the people of Scotland to self-determination.

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From a Scottish pro-independence perspective, it's like waiting for Christmas knowing that all you're going to get is a pair of socks with a hole in the toe and visit from a boring right wing uncle who is going to insist on watching the King's Christmas message and will then stay for five years.

In Scotland, the outcome is very much not a foregone conclusion. Labour absolutely does not need Scottish seats to win a Commons majority, as is always the case, Westminster general elections are won and lost in England. England has decided that it has had more than enough of the Tories and is determined to punish them. As ever, Scotland is a mere bystander in an English election.

Scotland's concerns have scarcely registered in a campaign in which Labour and the Tories have conspired to avoid any mention of Brexit or the eyewatering budget shortfall facing the British government which will necessitate either cuts in public spending or tax rises.

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For Scotland, the election is too close to call. When the election was called, polls put Labour ahead of the SNP in Scotland but as the campaign has progressed, Scottish voters have been distinctly underwhelmed by Labour's offering and the polls have narrowed.

On the eve of polling, a poll from Savanta for The Scotsman gave the SNP a 3% lead over Labour. This is especially significant as this polling company has a history of underestimating the SNP vote.

With many of the seats being contested between Labour and the SNP being on a knife edge, it will all come down to which party is better able to motivate its supporters to turn out and vote on the day. Labour will nevertheless make a significant improvement on its woeful showing in 2019, and the SNP is facing significant losses, but it could still end up as the largest party in Scotland in terms of vote share and seats won.

That will make it very difficult for Labour to claim that Scotland has rejected independence, which it will assuredly do should Labour win most seats and beat the SNP in vote share, despite the fact that the issue of independence has scarcely registered in this election. 

‘Put Scotland’s interests first’

In a speech on the eve of polling day, the First Minister John Swinney is expected to say: "We all know that the result of the General Election in England is a foregone conclusion. Labour will win and Keir Starmer will be prime minister.

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“The only story left in this election is here in Scotland, where seats across the country are on a knife-edge.

“And the election in Scotland is the only place where there are genuine, competing visions of the future at stake – a real contest of ideas and values.

“Labour are offering Scotland more of the same and picking up where the Tories left off.

“More cuts, opening the door to privatisation of the NHS, Brexit and capping child benefits but not bankers’ bonuses.

He is expected to add: “There are seats that could be decided by only a handful of votes. So be certain about one thing – your vote will matter. It could make all the difference.

“Tomorrow the power is in Scotland’s hands – let’s use it to put Scotland’s interests first.”