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Labour is trying to resist intense pressure over a controversial donation by the Tory supporter and oil trader Ian Taylor to the anti-independence Better Together campaign after Alex Salmond said it ought to be returned.
Johann Lamont, the Scottish Labour leader, insisted Taylor's £500,000 gift to the Better Together – the largest of a number of private donations it received - was an "appropriate donation" after the first minister added to calls for a rethink.
In an article co-written with Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Osborne said Scotland could become independent but questioned whether it made economic sense.
Attacking the SNP’s desire to keep sterling, they said: “If Scotland does vote Yes on September 18, 2014, they say they want to hand what would become a foreign government key decisions over the Scottish economy. This is one of the big contradictions in their whole economic approach.
“Campaigning to 'bring powers home' with one hand, while giving them away with the other. Calling for 'full fiscal freedom' with one breath, but calling for a 'full fiscal pact' with the next. It simply doesn't add up."
The deputy leader of the Scottish Labour Party has attacked the SNP in his speech to conference.
Anas Sarwar accused First Minister Alex Salmond of being ready to "do anything and say anything" in his bid to gain independence next year.
The Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont has backed the Better Together campaign's decision to accept £500,000 from oil trader Ian Taylor.
She said it was an "appropriate donation" despite concerns over the past activities of Mr Taylor's company, Vitol, in places like Iraq and Serbia.
First Minister Alex Salmond has called for the money to be returned.
Ms Lamont, who is at her party's spring conference, was asked about the donation during a BBC news webchat.
Nato has rejected Alex Salmond's claim that an independent Scotland would automatically become a member of the military alliance, saying it would have to be treated as a new applicant.
Nato said it was widely agreed under international law that Scotland would be seen as a new state that would have to win the unanimous agreement of all 28 member states – including the UK – to join the alliance.
First Minister Alex Salmond has called on the Better Together campaign to return the £500,000 donation it received from businessman Ian Taylor.
Mr Taylor, chief executive of the oil trading firm Vitol, gave the money in a personal capacity to help secure a "no" vote in the independence referendum.
But Alex Salmond questioned the donation because of controversy over some of Vitol's past business dealings.
Better Together said it was a "valid donation" and would be retained.
Plans for an independent Scotland to keep sterling as its currency have been defended by Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
The Scottish government wants to retain the pound if the country votes for independence in next year's referendum.
Ms Sturgeon said it was "every bit as much Scotland's currency" as the rest of the UK's.
A UK Treasury spokesman said the simplest way to keep the pound was for Scotland to stay in the UK.
THE gloves are off in the Scottish independence debate after the Yes campaign accused their pro-Union rivals of launching a smear campaign.
The Scottish government's ambition to maintain influence over the Bank of England after independence has been scoffed at by a House of Lords committee as an "entirely fanciful" notion.
Peers including a former chancellor made the claims in a report on the economic implications of Scottish independence for the UK.
Scotland will vote in a referendum on independence on 18 September 2014.
The report takes a broad look at issues including currency, banking, financial regulation, assets and liabilities.
The campaign for a Yes vote in next year's Scottish independence referendum has received donations of more than £1.7m, it has revealed.
Yes Scotland said more than 7,000 small donors had contributed about £112,000 since campaigning began in May 2012.
A further £1,283,000 came from five individual donors and the SNP contributed £342,797.
Large donors included Ayrshire lottery winners Christine and Colin Weir, who each gave the campaign £500,000.
In a speech in Washington DC, Mr Salmond said Nato membership should be a "cornerstone" of Scottish defence.
Kurt Volker, a former US ambassador to Nato, has said the SNP's commitment to remove nuclear weapons from an independent Scotland would cause concern in Washington.
BBC Scotland's political correspondent Glenn Campbell reports from the US capital.
First Minister Alex Salmond said he was "certain" that Nato countries would accept an independent Scotland opposed to nuclear weapons into the alliance.
Nato has said that if Scotland was considered to be a "new state" it would need to reapply for membership.
Mr Salmond said membership could be negotiated in the period between a "yes" vote in the referendum and Scotland actually becoming independent.
The SNP voted last year to change its position on Nato.
Both the UK and Scottish governments have been told by a committee of peers to be "more open" about what happens after the independence vote.
The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee criticised both for failing to spell out any possible consequences of the vote, whatever the outcome.
The Scottish government accused the committee of being "out of touch".
The UK government said it would publish a series of analysis papers in the run-up to the vote in September 2014.
A FLAGSHIP theatre production tackling the independence debate will tour village halls and community centres across Scotland in the immediate run-up to next year’s decision day, The Scotsman can reveal.
The National Theatre of Scotland is joining forces with the producers of the award-winning A Play, A Pie and A Pint series of shows for a “political variety show” expected to be performed just weeks before voters go the polls.
It will be directed by veteran Scottish theatre figure David MacLennan, artistic director of the lunchtime play series at Oran Mor, in Glasgow.
After ignoring an offer from Yes Scotland to agree a timetable for publishing donations, Better Together has released its biggest backers' names, including large sums from outside Scotland
“Any reading of this as the settled will of the Scottish people would be misplaced,” Chris Eynon, who heads TNS BRMB Scotland, said in an e-mailed statement. “The contest for hearts and minds on Scottish independence has not even begun.”
The results in the TNS-BMRB poll will come as a blow to Mr Salmond, who has struggled to consistently attract more than a third of the electorate to the pro-independence cause.
More than 1,000 voters were interviewed in the latest poll between 20 March and 2 April - the period immediately after Mr Salmond announced the referendum date.
IF the architects of the Yes campaign for Scottish independence were hoping that recent events would put rocket boosters under their cause, they will be disappointed by the latest TNS BMRB poll published in The Herald today.
