The ignition key has been turned on the 2016 Scottish Parliament election. Across six weeks, the parties will shift up through the gears as polling day gets closer and closer.

STV's political reporter Carole Erskine will be following them along every highway and byway, bringing you the big stories of Election 2016 on the STV News at Six every night.

But what about behind the scenes? The high ambitions and the low skullduggery, the backroom drama and the photo-ops gone wrong? That's where the spin comes unspun and claims and counterclaims are put to the test.

Every week, Carole will open her trusty reporter's notebook to give you a glimpse of fear and loathing on the campaign trail '16.

The starting gun has been sounded.

The rosettes are being preened and the smiles perfected.

The campaign for the Scottish Parliament election is officially under way.

In the next six weeks expect to hear a lot about education, taxes, and health as the parties do all they can to try to convince you to vote for them.

It officially began at midnight on Thursday when 'purdah' kicked in; that's the time between an announced election and when the final results are declared.

It's also the period of time when central and local government are prevented from making announcements about any new or controversial initiatives which could be viewed as advantageous to a candidate or party.

That's why a raft of new measures has been announced by the SNP government in the last few weeks. Holyrood has passed Bills from banning revenge porn to new rules governing burials and cremations. There have been promises of funding to low-income students, headteachers' training and entrepreneurs.

For the opposition parties, tax features heavily. Labour and the Liberal Democrats have both pledged to increase income tax by a penny to raise extra money for schools. Kezia Dugdale has also said her party will scrap the council tax and replace it with a tax based on property value. The Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said these plans would "tax Scotland back to the 1970s".

As STV's political reporter I will spend the campaign period, with colleagues, touring the country (sadly not in a red Cadillac, much to my disappointment) and quizzing the politicians on their policies and pledges. Expect to see many of them pose with babies, shake hands with as many voters as they can and promise to tackle local issues that come up on the campaign trail.

I'd say the Scottish Tories are the party to watch for the slightly wackier photocalls - before last year's general election Ruth Davidson drove a tank, acted as a bingo caller and dished out ice cream to hungry journalists. What's not to like?!

So what can voters expect from the politicians over the next six weeks? Well, we'll see all parties set out their manifestos with the promises and pledges they will introduce if they win. There will be TV debates, STV's taking place on Tuesday, March 29 at 8pm, along with discussions on radio and online. Expect much in the newspapers too; there's no getting away from election fever.

For us political journalists this is a busy but exciting time and I'd be lying if I said we didn't get caught up in the buzz.

And with Scotland more politically aware since the independence referendum, it should be an interesting few weeks.

Hunter S Thompson's assertion from 1972's 'Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail' now looks far from the truth in Scotland in 2016: "The kids are turned off from politics, they say. Most of 'em don't even want to hear about it."

Let's see who's right.

Analysis by Carole Erskine, STV's political reporter. She can be contacted at carole.erskine@stv.tv.