Political differences resumed yesterday after the funeral of the Princess of Wales, as the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, was plunged into defending the economic implications for Scotland of Thursday's referendum on devolution.
The Tories have suggested that a "Yes, Yes" vote - in favour both of setting up of an Edinburgh assembly and of giving it "tax-varying" powers - would create an expensive and uncompetitive Scotland.
Opinion polls suggested yesterday that support for a Scottish parliament was holding, although on the question of tax-varying powers the figures were less encouraging.
An ICM poll for the Scotland on Sunday newspaper put support for Scotland having its own tax-varying powers at 45 per cent. This was 2 per cent down on the previous low recorded by a System Three poll for the Herald last week. Support for a Scottish parliament was put at 60 per cent in favour, while 25 per cent said they were opposed to the idea.
Another poll, by NOP for the Sunday Times, may give Labour the boost it needs as the party hits the campaign trail belatedly this week. The poll found that 63 per cent of Scots favoured a Scottish parliament - with 21 per cent against - while 51 per cent of respondents in favour of a Scottish parliament with tax-varying powers, with 34 per cent against.
Both of these polls were sharply contrasted by a third poll for Scotland on Sunday which said that three quarters of businesses believed a "Yes Yes" vote would harm Scotland's economy. More than 1,000 businesses took part in the poll, but another 3,000 did not respond and Labour seized on the fact when it questioned the validity of the poll.
A Labour spokesman said: "Only one in four firms approached thought it worth responding. That puts the whole report in perspective."
The polls will have brought some relief to Labour, which was fiercely criticised from within its own ranks by the MP for Linlithgow, Mr Tam Dalyell, yesterday. Mr Dalyell, who is opposed to devolution, has led the way in fuelling an often stormy debate on Scotland's future.
During a visit to Kelso he warned Labour that it was storing up tensions between a Scottish parliament and Westminster. He said a tax-varying parliament in Scotland could add to employment costs that would force growing companies to move the expanding part of their businesses outside Scotland.
"The relatively narrow commercial business base in Scotland presents relatively few alternative job opportunities and makes recruitment difficult. An additional tax would be an additional marginal disincentive to such talented people to stay in or come to Scotland," Mr Dalyell said.
Speaking on BBC's Breakfast With Frost before he visits Scotland this week, Mr Blair claimed he was committed to avoid raising the basic or top rate of income tax within the next five years. He then repeated his hope that a Scottish parliament with the power to vary taxes would choose not to. "That's a commitment that we've made that holds in Scotland as well as elsewhere. But for the parliament to have this flexibility and have this power seems to me entirely sensible," he said.
The Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, on the campaign trail in Scotland with the actor Sean Connery, also joined the debate. He announced that a communications firm from Leith would be relocating to the Rosyth Naval Dockyard, creating nearly 70 new jobs. He said it was "an undoubted vote of confidence in the future of Scotland's economy".
The Tories' devolution spokesman, Mr Michael Ancram, denounced the proposals for tax-varying powers and claimed that a low turn-out would be a "very questionable" endorsement of the referendum.
Pointing to the business community, which he said was very nervous about tax-varying powers, Mr Ancram claimed a "Yes, Yes" vote would make Scotland an expensive and uncompetitive place in which to live.