Here's our take on the leaders who have been involved in this year's election.

David Cameron

MORE than one comic joked that by the end of this campaign the Prime Minister would be naked, given the clothing he was throwing away in the final days.

He had gone from being fully suited and booted to dispensing with the jacket, then the tie, then the sleeves were up as the Old Etonian charged around the country proving to apprentices and factory workers that he shared their concerns,

The Prime Minister had to do this because for his party he was suspect on Europe and the NHS, on which he was too mainstream, but he found a campaigning edge and began to look like he meant it.

Ed Miliband

SHOCKED the tabloids and Westminster village by actually being quite good. Overcame media catastrophes such as his bacon sandwich to become "Hot Ed" in some newspapers which, bizarrely, seemed to unsettle Tory strategists.

Strong in the early stages of the campaign, against media hostility, he then stood his ground in the big televised debates when Cameron was supposed to win. Made a ridiculous strategic error by saying he'd prefer a Tory Government to accepting SNP votes.

In spite of relentless battering by the London newspapers, he came through well but was let down by strategists by bizarre "tombstone" backdrop for final pledges.

Nick Clegg

FOR a dead man walking he has done far better than expected, even although an Ashcroft constituency poll has him losing his Sheffield seat to Labour.

From the beginning of this campaign it was assumed the LibDems were walking towards the electoral gunfire. But Clegg has remained calm, has defended his party's record, and made his pitch for a renewed stint as the compromise party of the centre..

The trouble is that sounds self-serving, not least North of the Border for Danny Alexander, so his party may face oblivion for its role propping up theTories.

Nigel Farage

A COUPLE of years ago Nigel was making the political weather. His clubbable style as the bar-room seer made him a media star at Westminster, but in this campaign his star is visibly waining and he may struggle to win his own constituency of Thanet.

His media profile helped Ukip break a pattern of losing deposits and to win a European seat. His trouble is the person who won that seat.

Before and since the European Elections broke the pattern, Ukip failed to save a single deposit, and the performance of MEP David Coburn points to a similar performance again.

Nicola Sturgeon

THE undoubted star of General Election 2015, already known and respected in Scotland for a lengthy apprenticeship before becoming First Minister. But UK televison debates catapulted her and her party to a whole new level, with English voters rating her above UK party leaders.

She has run a spectacular campaign, from cross-country helicopter trips to huge street events with multiple selfies. Even international journalists have been wowed by the Sturgeon factor, and yet she isn't even standing in this election.

Salmond and the other Westminster contenders have been happy to give their incredibly popular new leader her head, putting off any tensions until later.

Jim Murphy

CANNOT be faulted for effort, but was he the right man for the job? Many on the Left of the party and in the trade unions predicted disaster and, apparently, that has come top pass.

The unashamed Blairite who promised to tax London mansions to fund nurses in Scotland and re-wrote - again - the party's Scottish constitution to make it more patriotic did not convince everyone.

But to his credit he never stopped marching towards the gunfire as poll after poll suggested that Labour was facing a calamity North of the Border. The question became, would he even save his own seat?

Willie Rennie

IT'S ALWAYS the same with Willie. Everyone says he was brilliant, articulate, genuine, punter-friendly and engaging. Then we analyse another abattoir of his party's future.

Once more this wholly decent Fifer has played a dreadful hand quite well. In a nation inclined to the Left, he has had to defend his colleagues for going into coalition with the hated Conservatives.

Individual coalition members such as Danny Alexander will face their own judgment day, as will the likes of the candidate in Gordon in the face of the Salmond steamroller. Willie needs to steward the wreckage ahead of Holyrood next year.

Ruth Davidson

THE Tory high command adores Ruth, the Conservative newspapers and magazines are constantly boosting her, and there has even been loose talk of finding her an English seat.

This is because she and her party are essentially going nowhere here. The party may or may not cling to its single seat, may or may not win the neighbouring Borders constituency, but the fact that these mark the limit of the party's ambitions says it all.

Popping her head out of the turret of a tank, Thatcher style, or railing against unpleasant attacks on her sexuality, Ms Davidson has done well enough but her party is going nowhere.

Patrick Harvie/Natalie Bennett

THE co-convener of the Scottish Greens would have adorned the UK leaders' debates as a far more assured act than his counterpart in England and Wales, Natalie Bennett, who was on a steep learning curve during her exposure to interviews and broadcasts.

But Bennett weathered early storms and featured in the famous "three graces" hug with Nicola Sturgeon and Leanne Wood at the end of their televised debate.

In the Scottish debates Harvie was one of the highest ranked participants among viewers, but he's not daft. His party has zero prospects in the General Election and is simply marking time until the Scottish Election next year, with its potentially enticing Holyrood lists.

Leanne Wood

LIKE her SNP counterpart. the Plaid Cymru leader arrived on the UK stage courtesy of the first televised debate, particularly when she told Nigel Farage that he "ought to be ashamed of himself" for comments on immigrants with HIV.

But unlike the SNP her party is not surging in the polls and is likely to stall in terms of performance this week. Although the rest of Britain now knows and rather likes Leanne her country is not voting for her party, and her party may ditch her after the General Election.