The Scottish National Party launched its election manifesto yesterday with a renewed commitment to independence and a promise to put Scotland first.
The SNP leader, Mr John Swinney, said voters faced a simple choice between a party which "stands for Scotland" and others "controlled by the London agenda".
But the Scottish Secretary, Ms Helen Liddell, dismissed the nationalist manifesto as a "pointless, irrelevant, sideshow," while the Liberal Democrats accused the SNP of "fantasy politics", and the Tories claimed they would turn Scotland "into the most highly taxed, left-wing country in Europe".
The SNP policy pledges combined a proposed 10p cut in fuel duty with the commitment to increase taxes for those earning more than £100,000 a year. And Mr Swinney said he would set-up a future generations fund using revenues from North Sea Oil to provide Scotland with a regular income.
"At present tax revenue raised in Scotland is sent to Westminster and it decides how much we can get back," he said at the manifesto launch at Edinburgh's Dynamic Earth centre. "We believe that taxes raised in Scotland should stay in Scotland and we should decide in the Scottish parliament how these taxes are spent."
Mr Swinney confirmed the SNP's support "in principle" for Scotland's membership of the European single currency, as he unveiled the SNP's promise to deliver 1,500 more nurses and 1,000 extra police officers, and to cut primary school classes to 18.
But the President of the Conservative Party in Scotland, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, described the nationalist blueprint as "fantasy Mickey Mouse economics from a Mickey Mouse party whose inward looking, narrow and destructive nationalism is an embarrassment to the majority of Scots".
Sir Malcolm - who represents his party's best hope of winning back at least one Westminster seat in Scotland after the 1997 wipeout - said the SNP would turn Scotland into the most highly taxed and leftwing country in Europe and "lead to an exodus of business and wealth creators, fewer jobs and economic misery for the Scottish people".
Ms Liddell said "conning the people of Scotland with a tartan wish list and gambling with their future is irresponsible and dangerous". And echoing Sir Malcolm, she went on: "Their damaging commitment to a tax raising agenda will drive away the companies and corporate headquarters that even nationalists admit are crucial to Scotland's future."
Meanwhile the Green Party - which is fighting 140 seats in England and Wales and four in Scotland - pledged to scrap university tuition fees and end prescription, eye test and dental charges as part of a healthcare shake-up.