Blair: "It's time for change because it's right for change"

Blair Joins Scottish Devolution Campaign Trail

In an interview with BBC Radio Scotland, Mr Blair said the devolution issue was of "huge significance" to Britain as a whole.

It would "show the whole of the United Kingdom that there is a better way that Britain can be governed, that we can bring power closer to the people, closer to the people's priorities and that we can give Scotland the ability to be a proud nation within the United Kingdom."

Pro: Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Alistair Darling

Flying the flag

There was no contradiction, the Prime Minister said, in Scots being proud to be Scottish and part of the United Kingdom at the same time.

Dismissing the "No" campaign as a "scare campaign" controlled by the Conservatives, Mr Blair tackled head-on the fears of the business community over the proposed tax-raising powers for the Scottish parliament.

Mr Blair said: "I can't think of many or indeed any legislative bodies that don't have some form of revenue raising power."

He argued that tax-raising powers would "be good for inward investment because Scotland would then have a strong voice."

But business leaders remained unimpressed. The Director of the Scottish CBI, Iain McMillan, said: "Tony Blair is saying that the case for devolution has been made from a business point of view.

"The view of the council of CBI Scotland is that the case has not been made."

Michael Ancram: "Think twice"

In a debate on Scottish Television the Scottish Secretary, Donald Dewar, the SNP Leader, Alex Salmond, and the Scottish Liberal Democrat Leader, Jim Wallace, appealed to the Scottish people to trust them to deliver a Scottish Parliament responsive to Scotland's needs.

The rebel Labour MP, Tam Dalyell, Tory Constitutional spokesman, Michael Ancram, and Think Twice campaigner, Donald Findlay, led opposition to devolution.

Mr Ancram claimed the Government's plans contained extra tax-raising powers, particularly in local government, that were being hidden from the public.

And Mr Dalyell said: "There is a real problem of running two administrative and two fiscal systems in a single economy."