It may have been one of the longest waits in recent political history but Tony Blair is finally putting the nation out of its misery.
And, in true New Labour style, he is abandoning the traditional, curt statement on the doorstep of No 10 in favour of an announcement at a London school.
His choice of the venue is the clearest possible indication of what will be at the centre of Labour's manifesto.
It is the prime minister's way of highlighting precisely the areas of public spending that he claims would be under threat by a Tory government.
His announcement is triggering frantic political activity from the other parties, who have been poised to go for months.
William Hague is going on the election trail immediately and is promising more on-the-stump campaigning that any other party.
He is determined to woo as many voters as possible in a concerted attempt to erode Labour's giant opinion poll lead and win people over to his manifesto for government.
But Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy is doing his best to out bid him by instantly embarking on a massive, 4000 mile campaign trail.
Stage managed
Like Mr Hague, he believes Mr Blair will avoid too many old-fashioned visits meeting ordinary voters and thinks he can make significant ground by doing exactly that himself.
There is little doubt that the New Labour campaign will be tightly stage managed as the spin doctors move to deliver on the prime minister's dream of a second victory.
Top of the party's manifesto will be public spending and the economy - the key areas where they believe the Tories are vulnerable.
Mr Blair will constantly repeat his plea to voters to give him a second term to complete the transformation of Britain he has promised them.
He has confessed that many people have been disappointed by his first term but will argue that his government had to take difficult decisions to get the economy on a firm footing and allow the huge increases in public spending he is now offering.
He will warn that the Tories programme of tax cuts will fatally undermine that programme and lead to huge across-the-board cuts in all vital public services.
Tax cuts
William Hague, however, will insist that Labour has failed voters by actually increasing overall taxation.
He will offer a large package of tax cuts, insisting the money can be found from efficiency savings in government, the welfare budget and other areas without hitting public spending.
Mr Kennedy will go into the campaign as the only leader promising to increases taxes to fund public spending, particularly on education.
He has also promised to fight a positive campaign and has urged the other leaders to follow his example. But his pleas are likely to fall on deaf ears.
Mr Blair has warned his party that they must fight the campaign as if the result is on a knife-edge, rather than the foregone conclusion many of them believe it to be.
And William Hague has promised not to be deflected from tackling hugely-sensitive issues such as asylum and immigration.
Rough campaign
With so much at stake, many believe this could be one of the roughest campaigns ever.
The first taste of that will come on Wednesday afternoon in the weekly Commons question time clash between the three leaders.
It will be the last before Parliament shuts down for the campaign and will see all the party leaders setting out their stalls and attempting to score the first victory.
But the campaign itself will also throw up the inevitable blunders and gaffes by the leaders.
One of the fascinating things of this election will be watching how the leaders cope with these setbacks and who rises best to the occasion.