LAST week's European elections were the last time voters across the country will be asked to go to the polls before Gordon Brown calls a general election.
That could still be 11 months away – and there was nothing in the Euro results announced on Sunday night to make the Prime Minister want to go any earlier.
Labour's drubbing – third place at UK level behind the Tories and UKIP and second to the SN
P in Scotland – may not have been a surprise, but is damaging nonetheless.
So what do the results tell us about the likely outcome of the Westminster election?
If people voted the same way in the general election as they did last week, Labour would have no seats left in Edinburgh.
The European results showed the SNP with the biggest share of the votes in Edinburgh East, Edinburgh North & Leith and even Chancellor Alistair Darling's Edinburgh South West constituency, where Labour was pushed into third place. The Tories were top of the poll in Edinburgh South and the Liberal Democrats were ahead in their Edinburgh West seat.
The SNP also came out top in East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian.
The plain fact, however, is that people don't vote the same way at a general election as they do in a European poll. But in a world where opinion polls are analysed for every possible signal of the public mood, real votes in real ballot boxes cannot be ignored.
SNP election mastermind Angus Robertson says the Nationalists' good showing proves Alex Salmond's goal of winning 20 Westminster seats is "achievable".
"It is hugely significant the SNP is now winning across Edinburgh and the Lothians," he continues. "It's impossible to make accurate predictions, but we have a fighting chance of winning constituencies like Edinburgh East, North & Leith, Livingston – and the list goes on."
But the SNP stops short of claiming it could oust Alistair Darling, however delighted it is with the result in Edinburgh South West, where the Nationalists finished 70 votes ahead of the Tories.
"It was brilliant," says SNP candidate Kaukab Stewart. "I almost feel sorry for Alistair Darling."
Tory candidate Jason Rust, who believes he could beat the Chancellor, says he was "very content" with the Tories' "solid performance" and points out UKIP took 917 votes in the constituency, many of which might go to the Tories at the general election.
He says the SNP vote included a lot of traditional Labour voters punishing the party. "This must be a very worrying result for Alistair Darling," he says.
But Andrew Burns, Edinburgh's Labour group leader and agent for Mr Darling, insists the Chancellor will hold on.
"Good as they are for the SNP, even they would accept these figures will not translate into a general election result.
"It's a different contest completely and I don't think either the SNP or the Conservatives can win that seat."
Mr Burns says it was disappointing for Labour to end up third in Edinburgh. But he points out the SNP's share of the vote in the Capital – 21.4 per cent – was actually down on the 1999 European elections, when it took 22.2 per cent. "I'm not taking away any credit from them," he adds. "But it's still really a four-way split in Edinburgh – and with the Greens doing well, you could almost say a five-way split."
In Edinburgh North & Leith, the SNP was delighted to top the poll in the European elections after finishing fifth in the constituency in the last Euro vote.
Candidate Calum Cashley acknowledges the "fantastic" result will not necessarily be repeated at the general election. But he says: "This gives an indication of the direction of travel, which is in our favour."
The Lib Dems are targeting the seat for the general election and their candidate Kevin Lang insists they are "firmly on track" despite the party's third place.
"This is our best performance in a European election ever in North & Leith. If you look back at the last European election in 2004, we came fourth – just a year before finishing a strong second in the general election."
Sitting Labour MP Mark Lazarowicz accepts the Euro elections were "a bad result for Labour everywhere" but says it is not necessarily a guide to what will happen at a general election.
He argues the Lib Dems' poor showing in last year's Forth ward by-election – which covers a large part of the constituency – shows they are not making inroads.
In Nigel Griffiths' Edinburgh South seat, the Tories took the biggest share of the votes, with the Lib Dems second and Labour third. This is the Lib Dems' top target seat for the next election – they came within 405 votes of defeating Mr Griffiths in 2005 – and candidate Fred Mackintosh is hoping most people who voted Green last week will switch to him for the Westminster poll. But the Tories' top slot gives credibility to their claim the seat is a three-way marginal rather than just a Labour-Lib Dem battle.
The SNP's George Kerevan will also be encouraged by the way the votes stacked up in Edinburgh East, where he faces a battle with Labour former councillor Sheila Gilmore to replace outgoing MP Gavin Strang.
Most politicians accept the European results cannot be neatly translated into wins and losses at Westminster. But the figures from last week's poll could still hold valuable lessons and warnings for the parties as they build up for a closely-fought contest next year.
