Labour battle Scots nationalists in knife-edge seat

By Katherine Baldwin

ABERDEEN (Reuters) - Stuart Allison, a 42-year-old bakery manager, is voting for Labour in elections for Scotland's parliament -- because he always has.

But life-long Labour backer Williamine McFarlane, 79, thinks it's time someone else had a chance. She has already cast her ballot for the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP).

Their views reflect a raging battle for the Scottish parliament seat of Aberdeen Central, in the heart of this northern city, where Labour is defending a majority of just 1,242 against an assault by the SNP.

There's a similar fight across this nation of 5 million.

Opinion polls suggest the SNP could overtake Labour to become the biggest party in Scotland's parliament, ending 50 years of Labour dominance north of the border and delivering a slap in the face to Prime Minister Tony Blair and his presumed successor Gordon Brown, himself a Scot.

"It's too close to call," said Sandra Macdonald, whose husband Lewis is member of the Scottish Parliament for Aberdeen Central. "This is a straight fight between us and the SNP."

"What our core Labour vote has expressed over the last few months is that, whilst they recognise we've done good things, they want a change," she said at her husband's campaign office, its windows plastered with red "Vote Labour" posters.

But Macdonald predicted some voters who had flirted with the SNP would lose their nerve about voting for a party that wants to end the 300-year-old union between Scotland and England.