If you're going to start your election coverage somewhere, you may as well make it the most Irish constituency in Britain's fiercest battleground.
Coatbridge, on the eastern outskirts of Glasgow, is one of the most hotly-contested of all of the 650 seats up for grabs at this election and an estimated 70% of its residents have Irish Catholic heritage.
Given its long history of immigration, industry and iron-marking; it's no surprise the area was regarded by many as Labour's safest seat in the whole United Kingdom.
The Surge
In fact, current MP Tom Clarke was the proud owner of the biggest majority of any Labour member back in 2005 and managed to extend his margin of victory even further in 2010.
You'd be forgiven then, for thinking it was something of a 'gimme' for Ed Miliband's party as he looks to harness the support he needs to win the keys to 10 Downing Street. Not so.
Coatbridge, like almost all of Scotland's 59 seats, is under threat from the remarkable surge of Nicola Sturgeon's Scottish National Party. The SNP, represented locally by oil industry worker and former policeman Phil Boswell, actually lead in the polls.
If the SNP is declared the winner in Coatbridge at about 3am on Friday, it would be a pretty strong barometer for what could be an unprecedented shellacking for Labour in Scotland.
That's not to say they'll give it up without a fight. Coatbridge's residents are overwhelmingly proud of the town's socialist past and links to figures like Keir Hardie. Tom Clarke himself came to the fore during the Thatcher years and the community's retired miners will take some persuading to drop their support for Labour even now.
The great rift
The contrasting fortunes of Coatbridge and Scotland's two largest parties owes as much to last year's Independence Referendum as it does to the economy and 'Tory austerity'. The SNP's Phil Boswell says independence is regularly raised by constituents when he canvasses the public. Coatbridge's North Lanarkshire council area was one of four regions to vote Yes in 2014 but that's not to say that it isn't polarising locals. Many Labour supporters buzzing around St Patrick's Hall yesterday said they're voting to prevent a second referendum.
The tensions between the two parties is telling. The great rift was hewn between the two parties' grassroots in the run-up to 2014 and has grown steadily wider ever since.
That same tension has spilled over in peculiar ways in Coatbridge. A recent Guardian video report on the constituency featured both candidates but much was made of the interaction Labour's Tom Clarke and the journalists behind it. He felt The Guardian's team was trying to influence voters on the doorsteps.
It's because of that report that Mr Clarke's contribution to the report was limited to a phone conversation, in which he accused the media of pushing the SNP's potential influence in the formation of a minority government.
Nevertheless, he remains confident of holding his seat. If he does, he may find he's become a lonely figure among Labour's Scottish contingent.
