UK leaders pledge powers to Scots

The leaders of Britain's three main parties yesterday issued a joint pledge to give the Scottish parliament more powers if voters reject independence, in a final drive to stop the United Kingdom from splitting.
The promise was published on the front page of leading Scottish newspaper the Daily Record and was printed to look like a yellowed scroll with the signatures and faces of the three party leaders.
Published under the headline "The Vow", the promise by Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, opposition Labour party leader Ed Miliband, and Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg re-iterates previous commitments for more decentralisation.
"We agreed that: The Scottish Parliament is permanent and extensive new powers for the Parliament will be delivered," the text read. "People want to see change. A 'No' vote will deliver faster, safer and better change than separation."
The pledge was published after a trip to Scotland by Cameron on Monday to urge Scots to vote against independence or face dire consequences, in what could be his last visit before the vote.
Three of the latest polls published over the weekend put the pro-union campaign ahead by varying margins: 47 percent for "No" to 40.8 percent for "Yes" in a poll by Survation; 47.7 to 42.3 percent in an Opinium survey; and 47.1 to 46.1 percent in a Panelbase poll.
An ICM online poll for The Sunday Telegraph newspaper, however, gave the "Yes" camp 49 percent, ahead of the pro-UK camp at 42 percent with 9.0 percent undecided, although pollsters warned the sample size could be too small to be representative.