It's official. Gordon Brown is our next Prime Minister.
When nominations were published at 6 pm tonight he was one name short of the number needed to avoid a contest. Tonight he has that name. It is Andrew Mackinlay MP.
So much for the idea that Brown wanted a contest. He could have ensured that there was one but insisted that it "would be dishonest" to lend votes to a possible challenger. So, he has seen off putative challenges by Alan Johnson, John Reid, Charles Clarke, David Milliband, Michael Meacher and, finally, John McDonnell. The job he's longed for is his. The contest and the debate which many in the party longed for is not to be.
After all the decades of protest, all the chilling warnings about the break up of Britain and all the sound and fury - was this it? Today Alex Salmond stormed Scotland's citadels of power and pledged to deliver "compromise and concession". It's hard to imagine that slogan written on the banners of nationalists down the ages.
Do not be fooled. This kinder, gentler, softer Salmond is not a different man from the feisty, aggressive political street fighter we've known for years. What's changed is his situation.
Salmond now has real power where for years he and his party have had none.
However, his power is constrained by the fact that the Scottish Parliament is wholly unlike its Westminster big brother where the "winner takes it all". The SNP now have the job titles, the ministerial cars and the staff but they can pass laws only with the co-operation of their political rivals.
Finally, the SNP leader knows he's come to power not thanks to the rise of nationalism but thanks to the decline of Scottish Labour.
Today was just a first step on a long journey that might transform the SNP into a party of power, may well lead to the Scottish Parliament gaining new powers and might end in Scottish independence. It might, on the other hand, all end in tears. Its sheer unpredictability is what makes it so interesting.
PS. The prize for the speech of the day goes not to Salmond but to the leader of the Scottish Tories, Annabel Goldie. In a short, witty and dignified speech she addressed Alex Salmond's wife and sister who were watching from the public gallery. This formidable Scot declared "If you're not around to keep this man in check, there's another woman who certainly will".
HOLYROOD: I have come to witness a moment of history.
It is the moment when a party of protest becomes a party of power. The moment when a man who was once expelled by his party and later said "if nominated, I'll decline. If drafted, I'll defer. And if elected, I'll resign" takes them into office. The moment when for the first time in Britain, nationalist politicians get to govern.
It will also see the start of an experiment in what some call the "new politics" - post-PR, post-coalition, minority government where every vote rests of a political wing and a prayer.
Alex Salmond's elevation to Scottish first minister is genuinely historic. His failure to gain a majority or to form a coalition means that he cannot - in the short term at least - get even close to the SNP's dream of independence. He may not even be able to implement many of his domestic policy promises. However, he will have the title, the trappings of office, the staff, the money and the platform to prove that Scotland can be run in a different way. If he succeeds Britain could be changed for good.
