The Conservatives are expected to lose five out of six councils they aspx control.Labour, on aspx Home 53 per cent, is expected to win more than half of the new councils, including its key targets of Stirling and South Ayrshire from the Tories. National issues - in particular VAT on domestic fuel and rail privatisation, which raise strong emotions aspx among Scots - have dominated the aspx campaign.The latest opinion polls show the Tories being wiped off the local government map. aspx The results will set the tone Home for the local elections in England and Wales next month and provide the best indication yet of the Tories' electoral prospects in the Perth and Kinross by-election. Although political leaders have attempted to focus attention on local matters, the elections have become a referendum on the Government's record. Voters from the Borders to the Highlands will elect the 29 new single- tier authorities which will provide local services until 2000. The plain truth is that people are having to Home come to Home terms with the reality that we got it right."This will continue, but it Home has to be complemented by effective decision- making. Mr Blair is not in a position to do that, but there is no doubt that this speech will have an impact in so far as it is demonstrating that we have won our case.".

Scots go to the polls today in the most significant test of public opinion north of the border since the last general election. He said the real issue was "where does the centre of gravity lie?" In the Tory party, it was moving strongly towards withdrawal from the EU, he claimed.The only significant difference between the contents of yesterday's speech and the Euro-sceptical line the Government is now attempting to pursue came as Mr Blair called for an end to behind-closed-doors meetings of the Council of Ministers in legislative session.Bill Cash, the MP for Stafford and a leading Tory Euro-sceptic, claimed some credit for the speech, saying: "The Euro-realists are now winning across the board. It would maintain "vigorously" the national veto in areas such as security and immigration.Mr Blair lambasted the Tory Euro-sceptics, while dismissing claims of Labour splits over the single European currency as "glib". But Mr Blair seized the opportunity to emphasise: "Cabinet ministers who defend Europe are excoriated Those that damn it are praised. There is no doubt in the Tory party which side is gaining ground." He described Labour's present position as "several shades milder" than that of Michael Heseltine in the late Eighties.The rewritten Clause IV supported subsidiarity - the principle that decisions should be taken as far as practicable by the communities they affect - he said, while Labour was for a Europe that was less wasteful and inefficient, and against the scandals and waste of the Common Agricultural Policy. And while deriding Government policy on European monetary union as "unclear", he made no clear commitment that Labour supported a single currency as a matter of principle.The speech - high on political positioning but low on policy details - could have been penned by Michael Heseltine, Kenneth Clarke or Douglas Hurd.

A Labour government would adopt a policy of "constructive engagement" in Europe, Tony Blair, the party leader, pledged yesterday in a bid to snatch the political agenda from a deeply-divided Tory party. "We cannot remain in limbo, with the worst of both worlds for ever ... for heaven's sake let us get on with it," Mr Blair told the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House, London. The Labour leader emphasised that "for this generation at least, there are clear limits to integration, and this is felt right across Europe". And third, it now realises that it has to build bridges with other Northern Irish political parties.