The currently seatless Scottish Conservatives will win a couple and the SNP will win a few more. The nationalist share of the vote will not rise dramatically but the political debate will continue to shift onto their territory, with all the parties increasingly thinking in terms of boosting Edinburgh at the expense of London. Blair's second term will be ambushed by these questions when he tries to reform housing benefit and other social security spending that is the preserve of Westminster. The fascinating question underlying all this concerns the economy. If Wall Street continues to dip, it will mess up Gordon Brown's plans.
Quarterly figures suggest parts of the British economy are already in recession.
Economic downturn traditionally prompts political conservatism. How this might effect Scotland's political growth is anyone's guess.