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With the horrific terrorism murders of the past two weeks dominating the news out of the Britain, it's easy to forget there is a general election this Thursday.
The attacks are having a significant effect on the last days of what have been disrupted campaigns.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has called on Prime Minister Theresa May to resign over deep cuts to police numbers and budgets she presided over during her previous job as home minister.
He has also repeated a long-held belief that the UK's involvement in wars in places like Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya have made the UK less, not more safe.
In reply, Ms May has defended the police cuts as a necessary contribution to rebalancing the budget.
And she vehemently denies any negative effect on counterterrorism efforts, saying those areas of policing were strictly ring fenced from the cuts.
She attacks Mr Corbyn's pacifist leanings, saying he would be soft on terrorism and had previously opposed police shoot-to-kill orders.
The Prime Minister also questions Mr Corbyn's resolve against terrorism, accusing him of sympathies for the IRA during the troubles, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Unfit for office.
They're the character assessments freely given of each other. And now, it's up to British voters as to who they believe will keep their nation safe and prosperous.
The unthinkable happened
What the Conservatives are offering:
- increased spending on the National Health Service
- scrapping winter fuel allowances for wealthier pensioners
- including the value of the family home as part of the cost of aged care
- more money for schools
- a big cut in net migration
When Ms May called the election it was a case of the size of her victory, not if she would win.
She was riding high, enjoying increased support as the leader who would face down the European Union and demand the best possible deal on Brexit as the UK extracts itself from that gigantic organisation.
Vote for me, she argued, and Britain will have a bright bountiful future. Vote for him and he'll roll over and cost the nation dearly.
With a big margin what could go wrong.
It was assumed that Mr Corbyn's left-wing views and untested leadership would see him easily dispatched. Labour would lose more seats and become an even less effective opposition.
Simple.
Except the unthinkable happened. Young people registered to vote in their hundreds and thousands, the majority it seems, attracted to Mr Corbyn's promises of an end to tuition fees at university and the slogan to govern for all, not just the rich.
At the same time the man who rose from the obscurity on the backbench has proved to be a much better campaigner than the Prime Minister bargained on.
And he turned up for a major television debate Ms May squibbed, sending her Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, instead, even though her father had died two days before.
Have the pollsters got it wrong again?
What Labour is offering:
- scrap student tuition fees
- nationalise water, rail and energy companies
- increase taxes for the rich
- hire 10,000 new police officers, 3,000 new firefighters
- ban zero-hours contracts
- bring the Royal Mail back into public ownership
Ms May looked unsure, rattled, as the polls narrowed and her "easybeat" opponent started to look a real threat.
The polls vary widely but give the Conservatives a lead of between 12 and down to 1 per cent.
The extraordinary spread fuels suspicions the pollsters have got it wrong again as they were on Brexit and the 2015 election.
There are some variables that are hard to measure.
The UK Independence Party that played such a significant role in achieving Brexit is not the force it was.
With its leader, Nigel Farage, gone and Brexit a reality, it's struggling to find new relevance.
A lot of UKIP votes are up for grabs, and where they end up could have a decisive role in many marginal seats.
If the Conservatives actually lose seats and their slim majority they can count on support from Northern Ireland parties to form a coalition government. But that may not be enough.
Neither party keen on doing deals
It's highly unlikely Labour can claw back enough seats to govern in its own right but if it was within striking distance, it would find a willing partner in the Scottish National Party (SNP), which decimated the Labour vote in the last election and looked likely to control about 50 seats after this election.
Mr Corbyn says he will never form a coalition with the SNP. But faced with the possibility of five more years in opposition or the keys to Number 10, he might be persuaded.
And there is always the option of minority government with the implicit rather than the formal support of the SNP.
The price of cooperation with the Scottish nationalists would be high.
A second referendum on independence would be demanded as well as further devolution of powers from Westminster to Edinburgh.
The easiest of political bedfellows for both sides are the Liberal Democrats. But while they may pick up a seat or two, they are unlikely to have more than about 10 seats to bargain with.
Neither the Conservatives nor Labour want to have to do deals with any other party after the election.
If anyone is to win outright the chances are it will be the Tories.
But who would have given Mr Corbyn a remote shot at government even a month ago?
Loyal party faithful are thin on the ground these days and the volatility of a disaffected electorate mean there could be more shocks to come.
Topics: elections, government-and-politics, world-politics, united-kingdom, european-union
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