Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Will this desperate last-minute tactic save the ‘No’ campaign?

The Nationalists are of course right: this is a desperate last-minute tactic that the anti-independence camp never thought they’d have to dig out before 18 September. But with polls continually showing that the result is now too close to call, further powers on taxation and welfare, revealed by Gordon Brown last night, are an essential desperate last-minute tactic that the anti-independence camp needed to wheel out. Surgeons sometimes have to do desperate, last minute procedures to stop a patient dying in theatre, and sometimes those last-ditch attempts work. But no-one ever wants to be in that position.

But is this promise of more powers – still quite technical – the only tactic? Brown’s speech last night was passionate and appealing. It was the sort of thing many who wanted to see Better Together’s human, emotional side, wish there had been more of throughout the campaign.

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