THE Labour Party leader, Mr Tony Blair, last night sought to end his party's disarray over home rule for Scotland, saying many people had promised devolution but he would deliver it.
He appealed for the debate to be "put into perspective" and said the crucial issue was not the number of referendums, or the questions in them, but that the country got a devolved parliament with control over a range of Scottish matters.
"Devolution has been attempted before. A lot of people have promised it," he told party activists in Aberdeen. "Some of them have been vocal in recent days. But I wills deliver it."
He was speaking during a Scottish tour which took him to Hamilton, Kirkcaldy, Dundee and Aberdeen.
Mr Blair will travel to the North Sea to inaugurate a new oilfield today.
The issue of home rule and Labour's U turns first no referendum, then one, then two, now back to one - dominated the first day of his visit.
But Mr Blair said only Labour could deliver devolution, as the Liberal Democrats could not hope to form a government and the SNP could do little "except perhaps prevent Labour winning, a few key seats from the Tories.
During his tour he appeared to show signs of exasperation that devolution was dominating the political debate in Scotland to the exclusion of all else.
Addressing school students in Hamilton, he said devolution was an attempt to change the way Britain was governed but went on to spell out other cornerstones of Labour's vision - preparing Britain for massive technological change, education, and producing a country and a society we can be proud of.
. Lady Thatcher's former economic adviser, Sir Alan Walters, has been chosen to fight a London seat at the next election for Sir James Goldsmith's Referendum Party.
It had been expected that Sir Alan would challenge the strongly pro European Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Kenneth Clarke, for his Rushcliffe constituency, in a move calculated to highlight Tory divisions on Europe.