Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Campaigners for and against Scottish independence say every vote will count as opinion polls suggest the race is neck and neck, as James Cooke reports 
 
 Campaigners in the battle for Scotland's future say the referendum result is too close to call with less than two weeks until the vote. 
 
 The Yes camp claims to have the "big momentum" behind it, while opponents of independence insist they will win. 
 
 It comes as one poll put Yes Scotland narrowly ahead for the first time. 
 
 Responding to the poll, UK Chancellor George Osborne pledged that in the next few days there would be a plan for more powers for the Scottish Parliament. 
 
 Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond branded the suggestion a "panicky" bribe, coming after thousands of people had already voted by postal ballot. 
 
 With just 11 days of campaigning left, both sides are stepping up their bids for the wavering voters who could yet sway the result. 
 
 VIDEO: Campaigners make pitch to voters 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption George Osborne said an action plan would provide ''the best of both worlds'' 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Alex Salmond: ''The whole Westminster elite are losing the referendum campaign'' 
 
 On 18 September voters will be asked the Yes/No question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?" 
 
 The final push for votes comes as a a YouGov poll for the Sunday Times suggested that, of those who have made up their mind, 51% planned to back independence, while 49% intended to vote no. 
 
 The poll of 1,084 people, carried out between 2 and 5 September, is the first and only serious study to put the Yes campaign ahead. 
 
 The cross-party Better Together campaign - which supports the Union - had previously retained a lead in polls, often reaching double digits. 
 
 However, a separate poll for the Yes Scotland campaign put the pro-Union camp four points ahead - by 52% to 48% - when undecided voters were excluded. 
 
 Pollsters Panelbase questioned voters between 2 and 6 September. 
 
 Writing in the Sunday Mirror, former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown appeared to blame the Conservative Party for the closeness of the battle. 
 
 He suggested the Better Together camp was finding it "difficult" to win over Scots because of anger over coalition policies - including changes to housing benefit and tax cuts for the wealthy. 
 
 A referendum on whether Scotland should become independent is to take place 
 
 People resident in Scotland will be able to take part in the vote, answering the "yes/no" question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?" 
 
 The referendum will take place on Thursday, 18 September 2014 
 
 Go to the BBC's Scotland Decides page for analysis, background and explainers on the independence debate. 
 
 Better Together campaign leader Alistair Darling said the findings were a "wake-up call". 
 
 "The polls may conflict," Mr Darling said. "But the message I take from them is clear - if you want Scotland to remain part of the UK family you have to vote for it on 18 September. 
 
 "Separation is forever." 
 
 And while he insisted "this is a battle we will win", the former chancellor said the result would "go down to the wire". 
 
 'Work better' 
 
 Commenting on the Sunday Times poll, Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: "This breakthrough poll shows that Yes has the big momentum." 
 
 "Scotland is one of the wealthiest countries in the world," she added. 
 
 "More and more people are beginning to realise that a Yes vote is Scotland's one opportunity to make that enormous wealth work better for everybody who lives here, create more jobs, and protect vital services such as the NHS from the damaging effects of Westminster privatisation." 
 
 But the SNP's deputy leader acknowledged the Yes campaign "still has a lot of work to do". 
 
 Image copyright PA Image caption Ms Sturgeon visited Glasgow Central Mosque on the campaign trail on Friday 
 
 The Sunday Times poll results exclude undecided voters or those who plan not to vote. 
 
 When they are included, 47% backed Yes while 45% said they would opt to stay in the UK. 
 
 Responding to the polls, a Downing Street source said David Cameron believed there was "only one poll that matters". 
 
 The prime minister would "strain every sinew" to make the case for the union, the source added. 
 
 On Sunday's Andrew Marr Show, George Osborne promised further powers to Scotland if there is a No vote. 
 
 He said: "You will see in the next few days a plan of action to give more powers to Scotland, more tax powers, more spending powers, more powers over the welfare state. 
 
 "That will be put into effect the moment there is a 'No' vote in the referendum." 
 
 However, speaking on the BBC's Sunday Politics Scotland, Mr Salmond called the new proposal a "bribe". 
 
 He said: "Are we expected to believe, after hundreds of thousands have already voted, that there's a radical new deal? 
 
 "This is a panicky measure made because the 'Yes' side is winning on the ground." 
 
 He added: "They're trying to bribe us, but it won't work as they have no credibility left." 
 
 Analysis 
 
 John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University 
 
 At first glance today's two referendum polls tell much the same story. One, YouGov, says that the Yes side is narrowly ahead, while the other, Panelbase, says it is only just behind. Both polls are thus effectively saying that the referendum now looks too close to call. 
 
 But look a little closer and we see a remarkable difference between the two polls. Four weeks ago, YouGov were reporting the No side were 22 points ahead. But since then three polls in succession have identified a continuing trend to Yes that cumulatively amounts to no less a 12 point swing. 
 
 In contrast, Panelbase, always hitherto the most optimistic pollster for the Yes side, first put Yes on 48% as long ago as June. It did the same just three weeks ago. In other words its poll has failed to detect any recent swing to the Yes side at all. 
 
 Given this contrast, until another pollster confirms that there has indeed been a substantial swing to Yes there will inevitably be some doubt about just how much the progress the Yes side has made. 
 
 That said, a majority of pollsters have said in their most recent poll that the Yes vote is now at least as high as it has been at any point during the campaign. The race certainly now looks tight - we are just as yet still not sure quite how tight. 
 
 Elsewhere, Labour leader Ed Miliband suggested in an interview with the Scottish Mail on Sunday that manned border guards could be introduced if Scotland voted to go independent. 
 
 He told the paper: "If you don't want borders, vote to stay in the United Kingdom." 
 
 A spokesman for Mr Miliband added: "The last time I looked there were two sides to the border - and we would be in charge of one of them. It would be up to us, not [First Minister Alex] Salmond, to secure our northern border." 
 
 The party later said on Twitter that there was "no Labour 'plan' for border guards in [an] independent Scotland". 
 
 Image copyright Clyde Blowers Image caption Pro-independence tycoon Jim McColl will write a letter targeting undecided voters 
 
 The two sides will intensify their efforts this week, with senior Labour Party figures including John Prescott and Welsh first minister Carwyn Jones due to appear for Better Together. 
 
 For the pro-independence camp, a Yes Scotland television advert focusing on the NHS will be broadcast on Monday, and on Tuesday Mr Salmond will answer questions from undecided voters on Facebook. 
 
 The Yes campaign also plans to send out 675,000 letters from engineering tycoon Jim McColl, who recently stepped in to save Ferguson Shipbuilders on the Clyde, urging undecided voters to support independence. 
 
 Mr Darling described the planned letter as "rank hypocrisy", arguing that Mr McColl was not based in Scotland. 
 
 He also criticised the nationalists over a Commons vote on controversial welfare reforms on Friday, from which four out of six SNP MPs were absent. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Labour's John Prescott and Welsh first minister Carwyn Jones will campaign for a "No" vote 
 
 Better Together will also step up its leafleting and young voters will receive personally addressed letters. 
 
 Labour MP Douglas Alexander said: "In the course of the coming days we will be joined by amongst others John Prescott, the former deputy prime minister, and Carwyn Jones, the first minister of Wales. 
 
 "All young voters across Scotland will get a personally addressed letter this week from Better Together. 
 
 "Over four million individually addressed pieces of communication started going out last week." ||||| Ed Miliband today issues the stark threat that manned border posts could be introduced if Scotland backs independence in next week's historic vote. 
 
 With just 11 days to go until the referendum - and polls showing growing momentum for Alex Salmond's nationalists - the Labour leader has urged voters to face up to the consequences of severing the 300-year-old Union. 
 
 'If you don't want borders, vote to stay in the United Kingdom,' Mr Miliband said in an interview with today's Scottish Mail on Sunday. 
 
 Scroll down for video 
 
 Passport please: Our artists' impression of a road border between England and Scotland post-independence 
 
 Asked whether that would mean him introducing border guards and passport checks if he was Prime Minister, Mr Miliband warned: 'It would have to be looked at.' 
 
 And Mr Miliband's spokesman added last night: 'The last time I looked there were two sides to the border - and we would be in charge of one of them. It would be up to us, not Mr Salmond, to secure our northern border.' 
 
 The prospect was raised as a shock poll showed that 51 per cent of Scots would vote ‘Yes’ to going it alone with just 49 per cent saying ‘No’. 
 
 The results of the YouGov survey means that the ‘Yes’ campaign has overturned a 22-point lead within a month. 
 
 Until now, Mr Salmond’s SNP has insisted that a separate Scotland would be part of a common, free movement area with the rest of the UK and Ireland. 
 
 Guards on the border: Where the controls could be placed if Scotland wins independence in 11 days' time 
 
 But a Downing Street source backed Mr Miliband, saying: ‘All the research shows that if there is a material difference between the immigration policy adopted by an independent Scotland and the rest of the UK, then border controls would have to be introduced.’ 
 
 It raises the extraordinary prospect of drivers having to stop at manned barriers on the borders to show their passports. 
 
 SCOTS FOOTBALL LEGENDS JOIN CALLS FOR PATRIOTS TO SAY 'NO' Soccer pundit Alan Hansen and a ‘squad’ of great Scottish footballers from all eras of the game have called on ‘every patriotic Scot’ to vote No to independence. The other players who signed up to a statement are: Alex McLeish, Jim Leighton, David Moyes, Willie Miller, Paddy Crerand, Davie Provan, Barry Ferguson, Bertie Auld, Denis Law, Ally McCoist, Derek Johnstone, Murdo MacLeod, Ian Durrant, John Brown and Frank McAvennie. 
 
 With the latest opinion polls showing Mr Miliband on course to win May’s General Election, a Labour Government could be in charge of negotiating Scotland’s passage to independence by March 2016 if the referendum returns a ‘Yes’ vote. 
 
 The SNP dismissed the idea of border controls as a ‘scare story’, but Mr Miliband’s advisers say it is not an idle threat: a secret memo drawn up by the Foreign Office in 2009 warned that a secure border would have to be established to protect the ‘remaining UK’ if an independent Scotland applied to join the EU. 
 
 All new EU members are obliged to accept the Schengen open borders scheme, meaning travellers from the continent would be free to fly into Scotland without immigration checks. 
 
 But Britain has opted out of the scheme, and erects border controls to vet travellers from Schengen countries, raising the prospect of a new Hadrian’s Wall between the two nations. 
 
 New border posts would cause chaos for travellers and prove to be hugely damaging to business. 
 
 The 95-mile border, which runs from Lamberton on the east coast to the Solway Firth in the west, cuts through 21 roads, including two major trunk routes, the A1 and M74. 
 
 No idle threat by Mr Miliband: A memo drawn up by the Foreign Office in 2009 warned that a secure border would have to be established to protect the ‘remaining UK’ if an independent Scotland applied to join the EU 
 
 A total of 23 million vehicle crossings a year are made on the roads, in addition to seven million passenger journeys on the West Coast and East Coast railway lines. 
 
 If controls were set up, immigration staff could man barriers on the roads while the train terminals would have to install checks similar to those adopted by Eurostar. 
 
 Last night former Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett echoed Mr Miliband’s warning by referring to last week’s riots in Calais when immigrants attempted to storm a ferry. 
 
 ‘Were the Scots to vote “Yes” to separation, the issue of border controls and the threat of entry through Scottish ports and airports would take on serious proportions,’ Mr Blunkett told The Mail on Sunday. 
 
 Support for Alex Salmond's camp has soared, with a poll last night putting the Yes vote on 51 per cent 
 
 ‘This is one issue that has not yet emerged as a key part of the debate over Scotland’s future. There is much at stake and little sign of Government action in response.’ 
 
 Panic spread through the ‘No’ campaign last week after an opinion poll showed that its lead over the nationalists had shrunk to just six points, with support for Mr Salmond’s position up by eight points in a month. 
 
 Mr Cameron is happy to let Mr Miliband make the running for the pro-Union campaign as Labour supporters make up a large proportion of the ‘undecided’ voters. 
 
 The Prime Minister paid his annual visit to the Queen at Balmoral yesterday, but accepted the advice of Palace aides not to join her at the Braemar Games in case it was seen as ‘politicising’ the Monarch. 
 
 It is also in Mr Miliband’s interest to defeat the nationalists: if Scottish voters had been excluded from the last Election, Mr Cameron would have won a clear Westminster majority without the need for a Coalition. 
 
 The scale of Labour fears over a possible ‘Yes’ vote was laid bare yesterday when the party’s English and Welsh MPs were told to get up to Scotland to save the Union. In an email to all Labour MPs, Chief Whip Rosie Winterton revealed that Labour had booked scores of train tickets to get them to go north of the border before the referendum. 
 
 In his interview, Mr Miliband also mentioned his ‘personal connection’ with Scotland – his father, Ralph, was stationed at Inverkeithing, Fife, during the Second World War. ‘The rest of the UK would be much weaker without Scotland. It matters for reasons of heart and for head,’ he said. 
 
 Former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy urged fellow ‘No’ campaigners to hold their nerve, saying: ‘There is a flavour of detail and substance being swept aside in a tide of emotion and exclusive patriotism. It is a dangerous time for the No campaign.’ 
 
 Asked about Mr Miliband’s remarks, a spokesman for Yes Scotland said: ‘There will be no border posts between an independent Scotland and the rest of the UK. 
 
 ‘The No campaign will say anything to try to scare people into throwing away this unique opportunity to put our future into our own hands. They’ll always put what’s right for Westminster above what’s best for Scotland. Border posts manned by guards take the prize for one of the sillier scare stories.’ ||||| A rattled no campaign in the Scottish independence referendum was accused of panic and bogus bribes on Sunday after George Osborne vowed that "a credible timetable and process" will be agreed to develop further devolved powers. 
 
 Speaking a day after the first poll showing the yes campaign in the lead emerged, the chancellor said the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats would agree to discuss proposals involving "much greater" fiscal autonomy for Scotland. 
 
 Offering Scotland more power over tax rates, spending and welfare, the proposals would be ready for implementation in the first Westminster parliamentary session after the 2015 general election, Osborne added. 
 
 No campaign sources said the move to set out this process just 11 days before the vote had long been planned, though it emerged the morning after a YouGov poll for the Sunday Times showed a two-point lead for yes, once undecideds are eliminated. 
 
 The unexpected poll galvanised Westminster and sent the pound falling on currency markets, with Scotland's future position in the pound still uncertain. 
 
 Sterling fell nearly 1% to around $1.6165, reaching lows not seen since November, when trading opened in Asian markets on Monday. 
 
 The referendum was likely to have been the dominating topic as David Cameron spent the weekend at Balmoral, though Buckingham Palace reiterated the Queen remained neutral on the subject. She will be in Scotland on the day of the vote but the Palace said that was part of her normal schedule. 
 
 The Osborne initiative had a shaky start when the Scottish secretary, Alistair Carmichael, was forced to counter the impression left by the chancellor that the package itself would include greater devolution of powers than already agreed by the parties in a joint statement in June. 
 
 Labour, the Lib Dems and the Tories have differing devolution packages, and this week's initiative is designed to remind voters of the commitment to so-called devo max, as well as the process that guarantees it is delivered. "The aim is to make sure the Scottish people believe this package is credible, has a timetable and will be delivered on," said one Scottish government source. First minister Alex Salmond, riding the crest of a potentially historic wave launched by the explosive findings of a single polling company, YouGov – which gave a lead for yes at the weekend – accused Osborne of "a panicky last-minute measure because the yes campaign is winning on the ground". He added: "The evidence for that is overwhelming." 
 
 He said: "We're expected to believe that secretly, behind the scenes, after hundreds of thousands of people have already voted, there is a radical new deal on the constitution that is agreed by the Westminster parties. Well, there is a radical new deal on the constitution – it's called independence." 
 
 Cameron knows his own future as prime minister may lie in the hands of Scottish voters. Although he has insisted his own career is not on the ballot paper, he knows he will be blamed by some of his own party for pressing ahead with the high-risk referendum. 
 
 For Labour, the prospect of the permanent loss of as many as 40 Labour MPs representing Scottish seats would be "a disaster", the former Labour cabinet minister David Blunkett openly admitted on Sunday. 
 
 Labour politicians fear the vote for separation is in part driven by a disillusionment with politics among core Labour voters, as a well as pessimism about Labour's chances of being elected in 2015. These are emotional instincts that are difficult to combat and not susceptible to rational argument or even threats about the consequence of separation for the Scottish economy, the staple diet of the no Campaign so far. 
 
 Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp, publisher of the Sunday Times and the Sun and a growing advocate of devolution, claimed on Twitter that Salmond's private polls showed 54%-46% support for yes and predicted a desperate last 10 days as the establishment fought to save the union. He said the problem for Scottish parties now offering much new autonomy was the lateness of the promise and its credibility. 
 
 In the bid to regain the initiative, and shift away from the negative tactics of recent weeks, Osborne, speaking on BBC's Andrew Marr Show, said: "You will see in the next few days a plan of action to give more powers to Scotland. More tax powers, more spending powers, more plans for powers over the welfare state. 
 
 "That will be put into effect – the timetable for delivering that will be put into effect the moment there is a no vote in the referendum. The clock will be ticking for delivering those powers, and then Scotland will have the best of both worlds." 
 
 "They will both avoid the risks of separation but have more control over their own destiny, which is where I think many Scots want to be." 
 
 Gordon Brown claimed Labour had for some weeks been pressing for a more definitive statement about the timetable for the delivery of extra powers. "I think when people see the full scale of the powers the Scottish parliament will have, and our ability to do things while retaining the benefits of the UK, including the currency, I think they are going to decide on the extended powers of the Scottish parliament within the UK." 
 
 Brown added: "I hope the other parties will support what is a Labour proposal, a Labour initiative, so that these powers are guaranteed, and so a No vote doesn't mean nothing happens, a No vote means we move quickly to the delivery of extra powers." 
 
 He is due to launch a six-day, 30-destinations tour of Scotland's heartlands aimed at convincing undecided voters of the case for a patriotic no vote. 
 
 The shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander has long been arguing for a Scottish Convention, or broader consultation, including the Scottish Nationalists to work out the details of so-called devo max. 
 
 But the Unite general secretary Len McCluskey complained "Right at the outset we argued that there should be two questions on the ballot paper: independence should be one and the other should be devo max. I have to say we were dismissed out of hand, but had there been two questions there would be none of the concerns that are being expressed now. He said while the yes campaign was campaigning on a vision of change, the no campaign appeared to be backing the the status quo. 
 
 "The truth is that the people of Scotland are not happy with the status quo", he said 
 
 . The three unionist parties have different devolution packages. Labour has proposed members of the Scottish parliament be empowered to increase – but not cut – the 40p and 45p income tax rates without touching the basic rate, so preventing the Scottish Nationalists undermining the union through tax competition. Labour has also said it would replace council tax with a new system that would see Scots in the largest properties pay more. 
 
 Control over the £1.7bn housing benefit budget would be devolved. The Lib Dems' Campbell II report and the Scottish Conservatives' Strathclyde commission would give the Scottish government full control over both the rates and bands of income tax.The Liberal Democrats would also devolve air passenger duty, capital gains tax and inheritance tax, as part of a wider federal settlement: under Labour these taxes would remain reserved, while the Conservatives propose devolving the former but not the latter two taxes. 
 
 If Scots vote yes … 
 
 • Alex Salmond will confirm his "Team Scotland" of negotiators – expected to include his deputy, Nicola Sturgeon, along with senior cross-party figures – within a week or so. David Cameron, if he has ridden out calls for his resignation, will set up a similar negotiating team for the remainder of the UK. 
 
 • To minimise market instability and avoid a run on the pound, Cameron must confirm quickly the UK's stance on the status of sterling and the splitting of debt with Scotland. Other subjects for immediate discussion would include dividing up oil and gas reserves. 
 
 • All 28 EU states are expected to meet by the end of 2014 to give the European commission a mandate to investigate Scotland's EU membership. Salmond must also begin talks with Nato. Both situations are without precedent and the negotiations are likely to be complex and protracted. 
 
 • Before the general election campaign begins in earnest, the UK parties will have to decide what role Scotland's 59 MPs at Westminster will have after May 2015. They will technically remain in the Commons, but only until independence day. 
 
 • Salmond has set midnight on 23 March as the target date to declare Scotland an independent country. Holyrood will then be dissolved for the first elections to an independent parliament.
– Is the UK on the road to Splitsville? Scotland votes on independence on Sept. 18, and one poll has put the pro-independence "Yes" camp in the lead with 51% for the first time, the BBC reports. The "No" side was 22 points ahead less than a month ago, and Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond accused British leaders of panicking as they unveiled proposals to give the Scottish parliament more powers if voters reject independence. Chancellor George Osborne promised that Scotland would be given more powers over things like tax rates and spending, the Guardian reports, but Salmond called the offer a bribe and said there is already a "radical new deal on the constitution—it's called independence." Yes campaigners have accused the No side of stepping up scare tactics in the lead-up to the vote, with Labour Party leader Ed Miliband warning that manned posts might be introduced along the border if Scotland decides to go it alone. "If you don't want borders, vote to stay in the United Kingdom," he told the Daily Mail yesterday.