The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, started Labour's Scottish election campaign yesterday with a searing attack on the Scottish Nationalist Party, calling for a debate on policy not national identity.
In a passionate performance before the Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow, he said Scotland faced a choice between social justice and separatism.
Rejecting claims that he should stay out of the Scottish contest, Mr Blair said: "I care about Scotland, care passionately about the future and want that future to be based on the politics of ideals, not of identity, of principles, not passports."
In an all-out assault on the SNP, he said independence would leave Scotland with a £4 billion sterling hole in its public finances, leading to an extra £30 a week in taxes for the average Scottish family.
He said: "How do they say they are going to pay for it? Oil money - oil having fallen to 10 dollars a barrel. This is not serious politics.
"It's an attempt to debase the whole political debate in order not to debate the issues that really, really matter."
He appealed to the Scottish media, saying: "You are covering one of the most serious and important events in Scotland's history. Let's start seeing a serious debate on the important issues.
"If we had produced the half-baked policies of the SNP at the last election, or at this one, the media would have torn us to shreds - and quite right too."
Mr Blair said education would be at the heart of Labour's campaign, claiming Scotland would lead Britain by extending nursery places for every four-year-old to cover every three-year-old by autumn 2002.
By 2003, every primary and secondary classroom in Scotland would have a minimum of four computers, double Labour's original target, with every school connected to the Internet free.
The Prime Minister said the SNP's politics could only divide and diminish, and Labour had to build bridges instead of barriers.
"We fight this campaign appealing not to the worst, but to the best instincts of the Scottish people," he said.
But the SNP leader, Mr Alex Salmond last night accused the Prime Minister of delivering a speech that was "defensive" on the issues of jobs, the Scottish Parliament voting system, and "London Labour control".
"London Labour are running scared because the SNP have captured the policy debate with our costed proposals for the Scottish Parliament to scrap tuition fees and restore a grant to the poorest students", said Mr Salmond.
"Labour in Scotland cannot match these policy commitments because their policy agenda is dictated to them by Tony Blair.
"Tony Blair is obviously rattled by the strength of Scotland's Party - which is why he abandoned the pre-visit Downing Street spin that he would not `bash the nats' unless asked to."
Meanwhile Mr John McAllion, Labour MP for Dundee East, moved to clarify his position after claiming Labour should not oppose Scottish independence in principle.
Speaking at a fringe meeting, he said he was opposed to independence, claiming the statement, contained in advance media reports of his speech, was taken out of context.