Unionists to unveilproposal to counter Scottish independence

Move comes after nationalist camp nets 51 percent support in survey

Those who want to keep Scotland in the UK were gearing up on Monday to mount a counterattack as buoyant nationalists claimed they had the momentum ahead of next week's referendum on independence.

Following a poll on Sunday that put the pro-independence "Yes" camp ahead for the first time in the lengthy campaign, unionists are planning this week to unveil detailed plans for greater fiscal autonomy for Scotland if it votes on Sept 18 to retain the 300-year-old union with England.

Conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron, who spent the weekend with Queen Elizabeth II at her Scottish summer retreat, will try to convince skeptics that Edinburgh would swiftly get more powers following a "No" vote.

Meanwhile, the Labour opposition is to deploy some of its biggest names in a bid to halt the apparent nationalist surge.

Party leader Ed Miliband is expected to appear on a platform with his Scottish predecessor, former prime minister Gordon Brown, for the first time since the failed 2010 general election campaign.

Their finance spokesman, Ed Balls, who is due to speak in the oil city of Aberdeen, urged Scots not to vote for independence merely to register a protest against Cameron's Conservative-led UK government.

The moves come after a YouGov poll in The Sunday Times newspaper gave the pro-independence "Yes" camp 51 percent support compared to the "No" camp's 49 percent, excluding undecided voters. Six percent said they had not made up their minds.

The "No" camp had hitherto been ahead in the polls, though surveys showed the gap shrinking in recent weeks.

Any vote for Scotland to leave the UK would raise questions about Britain's standing in the international community.

'Act of self-mutilation'

Scotland represents one-third of Britain's landmass and is home to Britain's submarine-based Trident nuclear deterrent, which the SNP says must be out of an independent Scotland by 2020.

London Mayor Boris Johnson urged Scots to keep the union intact, warning that independence would be "an utter catastrophe for this country".

"We will all have lost a way of thinking about ourselves, a way of explaining ourselves to the world," the Conservative told The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

"We are on the verge of trashing our global name and brand in an act of self-mutilation that will leave our international rivals stunned, gleeful and discreetly scornful."

Conservative British Finance Minister George Osborne said the debate had shown Scots clearly wanted greater autonomy.

"You will see in the next few days a plan of action to give more powers to Scotland. More tax powers, more spending powers, more plans for powers over the welfare state," he told BBC television on Sunday. "Then Scotland will have the best of both worlds."

(China Daily 09/09/2014 page12)