Hasty visits to Scotland

Surveys pointing to an independence swing in Scotland's referendum next week prompted Cameron and Miliband to jointly announce on Tuesday that they would travel to Scotland and skip Wednesday's debate in London's parliament.

Their statement, also signed by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats, said they "agreed passionately" that the United Kingdom was "better together."

"That's why all of us are agreed the right place for us to be tomorrow is in Scotland, not at prime minister's questions in Westminster," the statement said.

Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, who has long advocated independence for Scotland, said the separate visits by Cameron and Miliband were a "sign of the total disintegration of the No campaign."

Cameron said while it was for the Scottish people to decide, the rest of the United Kingdom wanted them "to stay" in the 307-year-old union.

A spokesman for Cameron said he had called for the Scottish flag to be flown over 10 Downing St., the premier's official residence, as well as ministerial offices in London's central Whitehall district in the run-up to the referendum.

Evenly split referendum predicted

A YouGov poll on Sunday had put the pro-independence "Yes" camp ahead by two points for the first time, sending shockwaves among opponents who until a month ago had expected a crushing defeat for the separatists.

Earlier on Tuesday in Edinburgh, the leaders of the Scottish Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem parties endorsed a timetable for the transfer of new powers to the devolved Scottish government in the event of a "No" vote.

Salmond, the leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), said "panicky" unionists were merely re-packaging proposals published earlier this year.

Another poll on Tuesday by TNS Scotland showed the two sides were neck and neck, putting the "Yes" camp on 38 percent and the "No" side on 39 percent.

Currency union "incompatible"

The latest surveys sent the pound tumbling to a 10-month low against the dollar on Tuesday, amid continued uncertainty about the effect that independence could have on the British economy.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney to a conference of trade union leaders in Liverpool, northwest England, that suggestions of a currency union between an independent Scotland and the remainder of the United Kingdom would not be compatible.

Scottish voters go to the polls on September 18 in a referendum on whether to break away from the United Kingdom.

So far, Cameron has made few visits to Scotland ahead of the referendum. His Conservatives have only one member in the London-based parliament, out of 59 from Scotland as a whole.

ipj/sb (Reuters, AFP, AP)