It's a strange by-election where the only conceivable winners claim to be underdogs, while absolute no-hopers insist all bets are off and they are in with a real chance.

It's a strange by-election where the only conceivable winners claim to be underdogs, while absolute no-hopers insist all bets are off and they are in with a real chance.

However, that is where we are in Glenrothes, with incumbents Labour defending a whopping majority of more than 10,600, with more than double the share of the vote of their nearest rival, but insisting, as do the bookmakers, that the SNP are frontrunners.

After the death of John MacDougall, the odds were set at a ludicrous 4-1 on in favour of the Nationalists in what can only have been an attempt to deter betting after the bookies took a hit in Glasgow East.

These odds have since eased slightly but the SNP remain favourites, an uncomfortable position for them given the size of the majority they are chasing - so they too insist they are underdogs, even though they took the equivalent seat at Holyrood 18 months ago.

Labour want to lower expectations so a second Scottish by-election loss within months, this time literally on the Prime Minister's doorstep, would appear less cataclysmic.

No-one is any longer predicting such a loss could cost Gordon Brown his job. The reshuffle, with the return of Peter Mandelson to the fold, coupled with the international financial crash has changed the political climate.

But you can be sure Labour, with Jim Murphy leading the fray as new Scottish Secretary, are still fighting desperately to save the seat.

Parachute into Glenrothes and you would struggle to tell which Scottish new town you are in. It could be Cumbernauld or Livingston, not unattractive in parts but a little soulless.

You need to ascend one of the few high-rise buildings and catch the view down the Firth of Forth to the Bass Rock to get your bearings, although Leslie and Markinch give a flavour of this part of Fife before the new town was created in 1948 and began to swallow them up.

Unemployment is below average here, but so too are earnings. There is not the grinding poverty of parts of Glasgow East, but neither is this a very affluent area, and although the dual- carriageway slicing across Fife has brought the motorway link to Edinburgh closer, it is not classic commuter territory.

Fife Central, the Holyrood seat held for Labour by Henry McLeish and then Christine May, fell before the seemingly inexorable rise of the SNP in the new town area 18 months ago, but that only represents 80% of the voters in the Westminster seat.

Cardenden to the west and Levenmouth to the east hold the key to this seat.

Labour say their vote is holding up in these areas, while the SNP believe they are following the rest of the seat in crossing to them.

It means Levenmouth, as the mini-conurbation of Leven, Methil and Buckhaven is styled, will become a Glasgow East-style battleground.

Labour make repeated accusations of cuts and maladministration by the new SNP-led coalition running Fife Council, producing an equally lengthy string of denials and rebuttals.

Are there savage education cuts under way, or was the budget actually increased by 10% after years of falling under Labour?

SNP candidate Peter Grant, as leader of the administration, seems happy to stand on his record after 18 months in office in Fife and at Holyrood.

"We're telling people we're on their side, freezing council tax, helping small businesses, piloting frees school meals, scrapping bridge tolls on the Forth and Tay - these are all promises kept," he says.

Labour are pushing Lindsay Roy, headteacher of Gordon Brown's old school in Kirkcaldy, as a "non-politician", which may strike a chord with some but appears to be making a virtue of necessity given his awkwardness at the nitty-gritty of campaigning.

The situation has allowed the LibDems to talk of being a voice of reason amid the bickering, and the Tories to claim the long-awaited Cameron bounce has reached Scotland.

However, in truth it is a two-horse race, and probably closer than the bookies are calling it.