LONDON isn't voting today - which is probably just as well, for the Westminster "jewel in the Tory crown" is somewhat tarnished. But across England 10 million people will have the chance to make their marks.
Four years ago, having just reelected Mr Major's government, they piled Conservative success upon success. They are not expected to do so today. And the reader could easily write tomorrow's headlines. By all accounts and forecasts, yet another "Black Friday" lies in store for Mr Major.
Speculation is already rife about the Prime Minister's survival. A "ring of ministerial steel" will be thrown around him as the backbenchers break, once again, into a cold sweat and consider their own prospects no more than a year from now. The Tory high command do everything possible to reduce the lever.
But another "wobble" at least seems assured. When Michael Heseltine sought to rally the troops behind their leader the other night, some detected the lingering hope that he might yet claim the prize.
Rumours of a deal between Mr Major and Mr Heseltine - in which, given another electoral pasting, the Prime Minister would make way for his deputy have resurfaced. Given Mr Major's tenacity in his own defence, such a development seems unlikely. Moreover, the Heseltine speech contained a robust challenge to the party's Eurosceptics. A leadership contest now would simply confirms the split many think inevitable after a general election defeat.
But, barring some undetected recovery in the party's fortunes, tomorrow's results are likely to reinforce the sense that such is the fate that awaits this government when it finally goes to the country. Certainly if the Tones perform as badly as last year and the year before, and fail to capture at least 30 per cent of the vote Dr Brian Mawhinney, the Tory chairman, will be hard pressed to show any convincing evidence of a turn around.
Nor will ministers be able to claim these are the result of midterm blues, or a comment on purely local issues and concerns. Local elections are now increasingly seen as a reflection of the national mood, not least because the Tories have so successfully emasculated local government in Britain.
It is ironic that one of the defining moments of the Conservative revolution may be undone by a mounting clamour for the restoration of a powerful elected authority in London. Still more ironic, you might think, that - as the Tory Party tears itself apart over Europe - the demand is growing for the direct election, European style, of a mayor to speak for the capital.
And for a job that doesn't yet exist it's already generating a great deal of excitement. The London Evening Standard, in conjunction with the Architecture Foundation and the City Corporation, has been holding a series of debates about the capital's future. The original hope was that they might fill a church hall in Piccadilly. But as Simon Jenkins, former editor of the Times, observed recently, each month Central Hall is being packed with 3,000 people in what have become "the biggest indoor rallies in post war London politics.
Ten years have passed since the abolition of the Greater London Council, and its former leader, Mr Ken Livingstone, features frequently in speculative pieces as to who might fulfil the role of mayor. Glenda Jackson AMP and Richard Branson pop up, too. A recent editorial in the Standard notes that a generation of London voters has grown up that "never knew the heady, rebel romantic exploits" of Mr Livingstone and his followers.
And while "the GLC's excesses ultimately discredited it," the authority was none the less a dynamic democratic forum and strategic authority for London under whose auspices were created stirring and remarkable projects like the Covent Garden redevelopment and the Thames Flood Barrier."
Londoners, it seems, are increasingly aware of the great vacuum at the head of the city. There is a yearning for a coherent political identity, for a capacity for grand strategic planning to supersede the boroughs and the network of quangos. The demand is for a recognisable and authoritative voice - to articulate the day to day concerns of the people which, in so many cases, are central to the performance and reputation of one of the world's great capitals.
Sorting out the chronic problems of traffic congestion the under funding of public transport, the homelessness still manifest in cardboard cities (and the attendant crisis of "care in the community") are themselves integral to the marketing and promotion of London.
Labour is committed to creation of a new authority for London. But Mr Tony Blair has not yet embraced the concept of a directly elected mayor. As Simon Jenkins argues, the case for an elected mayor "is the case for muscle." The reticence of establishment politicians is for reason understandable. An alternative democratic route. The election of a powerful figure necessarily amenable to party discipline - or, quite possibly, from outside established party ranks. An executive role a man or woman elected by the people with the capacity to take the issues and the options beyond the constraints of the party debate.
Sounds better by the minute. Establishment reticence should plainly be overcome.