British voters went to polls yesterday, with surveys suggesting Prime Minister Tony Blair will win a third consecutive term despite anger over his decision to go to war in Iraq. Blair is personally far less popular than he was when he was swept to power in landslide victories in 1997 and 2001.

His decision to back President Bush in launching a war in Iraq has hurt his public trust ratings and infuriated many traditional supporters of his center-left Labour party.

But he has campaigned on the strength of the economy, which has blossomed throughout his eight years in office. He says a third term would be his last, and has campaigned alongside his heir apparent, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, principal architect of his economic policies.

Blair?s main opponents, the center-right Conservatives, have had trouble capitalizing on the issue of Iraq, since they backed the war. But they have used the case Blair made for the conflict to hammer at his personal credibility, while campaigning on calls for tighter controls on immigration.

Polls show the anti-war third party, the Liberal Democrats, getting a lift over Iraq. The Conservatives could also benefit if Blair?s Labour supporters angry over the war stay home. Winning a third straight mandate would be a first for a Labour leader ? only Conservative Margaret Thatcher has done it before.

<B>Parliamentary majority</B>

But if his parliamentary majority is much reduced from the massive 161-seat advantage he has enjoyed in the 646-seat house, he could have difficulty pushing through his plans, especially health and education reforms opposed by some in his own party.

A final Populus poll for the Times newspaper put Labour on 37.9 percent, with the Conservatives lagging on 31.7. It said that would translate into a still-hefty parliamentary majority for Blair of between 100 and 130 seats. But such predictions are tricky. Under Britain?s electoral system ? unlike the proportional party representation in most European countries ? all hangs on the outcome of races in individual districts, many of which are too close to call.

Polls opened at 7 am. (0600 GMT) and closed at 10 pm. The first indication of the result came almost instantly from an exit poll of thousands of Britons who have cast their vote, by broadcasters BBC and ITV.

In the last two elections, exit polls accurately predicted Blair victories. But in both those cases he won by wide margins. In the narrower 1992 election the polls wrongly forecast a Labour victory when Conservative John Major won.

Surveys show Labour supporters were less likely to vote than their opponents, so low turnout could hurt Blair. When Blair stormed to power in 1997, national turnout was 71 percent, but that slumped to 59 percent in 2001 ? the lowest level since World War One ? and may be even lower this time. After an exhaustive bout of cross-country campaigning, Blair cast his own vote in his home seat of Sedgefield, northern England, early yesterday and await a night-time declaration of his personal result before returning to London.

?It is going to be decided in these marginal constituencies and a few hundred votes or a few thousand votes either way will determine the result,? he said in a last bout of electioneering late on Wednesday. If Blair is re-elected, his first task on Friday, his 52nd birthday, would be to shape a new Cabinet. He has already made clear Brown will remain in his post at the treasury.

<B>Andrew GRAY</B>

EXPLOSION AT BRITISH CONSULATE IN NEW YORK

An explosion shattered windows around the British consulate in New York in the early hours yesterday, police said, as British voters went to the polls in a general election. There were no apparent injuries, a police spokesman told CNN. ?We are aware of the reports and we are checking them,? a British Foreign Office spokeswoman said in London.

New York radio news stations quoted police and witnesses as saying there were two small explosions outside the building housing consulate, at the corner of 3rd Avenue and East 50th Street. There were no reports of structural damage at the consulate, CNN said. Television pictures showed police and bomb squad officers examining vehicles at the scene.

FACTBOX

<B>Changes in Britain during Blair?s eight years

<B>THE ECONOMY: </B>

Blair?s biggest boast has been the economic performance since his party took power. Determined to prove it could handle the economy responsibly, Labour made the Bank of England independent and held spending in check in its first term. As the only big, rich country not to suffer from a recession during the last global downturn, Britain is now enjoying its longest period of uninterrupted economic growth since it invented modern industrial capitalism two centuries ago.

<B> THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE: </B>

Like his friend Bill Clinton, Blair came from a political party on the left of the spectrum but aimed straight for the centre where most voters are. Today ?New Labour?, once one of the prominent socialist parties in Europe, espouses policies ? health-sector privatisation, fees for higher education, tough law and order measures, the war in Iraq ? that put it to the right of even many centre-right parties on the continent. Notably, Blair has leapfrogged over Britain?s traditionally centrist third party, putting the Liberal Democrats firmly to his left.

<B>BRITAIN?S POSITION IN THE WORLD: </B>

Blair shows Britain?s muscle: he has dispatched troops to the Balkans, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq, where a force of 45,000 was Britain?s largest overseas deployment since the Korean War 50 years ago. But Iraq saw Blair firmly on the side of Washington against many of Britain?s traditional allies on the Continent. Blair gets on personally better with George Bush than with Jacques Chirac.

<B> HOUSE PRICE MADNESS: </B>

In 1997, the average house in Britain cost about 60,000 pounds. Now it costs nearly 170,000 pounds ($318,000). Yet wages have gone up only by 15 percent. Most Britons own their own homes, the real estate bonanza has made most people a whole lot richer than ever before. The good news: sound economic management has kept mortgage rates low, which means borrowing more can cost less every month. The bad news: if rates ever do go up again sharply, and house prices fall, a lot of people could be in serious debt trouble.

<B> LONDON: </B>

Britain?s capital is booming. Immigrants are pouring in, and now about a quarter of Londoners were born abroad. That has put a lot of strain on a giant city where most of the housing and infrastructure were built during the last big boom ? when Victoria was queen from 1837-1901. Today, warehouses, old schools, even churches and the odd public toilet, are being done up as luxury apartments. A new tube line carries wealthy bankers into south and east London neighbourhoods considered dangerous slums for more than a century.

<B> THE FOOD: </B>

Notoriously, Blair and his finance minister, Gordon Brown, are said to have hatched their plans to dominate British politics a decade ago over dinner in a trendy North London bistro. It would be easier today: there are trendy bistros just about everywhere ? not just in London but in Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds. You are more likely to find a Starbucks than a fish and chip shop. Even the local pub may now serve something like ?organic venison carpaccio? instead of mushy peas or steak-and-kidney pie.

<B> BUT... </B>

With all that?s changed, some things still stay the same: The trains are still late; the weather is still rotten; the royal family soap opera shows no signs of ending and the tabloid newspapers are still bonkers ? the transformative power of New Labour can only go so far.