Campaign becomes a 'numbers game'

Tony Blair visited Scotland for the second time in the campaign

BBC Scotland political correspondent Elizabeth Quigley on the election campaign.

The week's campaigning kicked off not with a high-tech media event but with a letter to The Scotsman newspaper from a dozen economists proclaiming the benefits of fiscal autonomy.

Their message seemed simple enough - if Scotland wants to spend money then it should surely raise and collect that money itself.

Politicians, they argued, would only be truly accountable for their actions if they were also accountable for finding the money to pay for them.

If the Scottish Executive wants to provide free care for the elderly or better pay for teachers then it should be able to provide the money itself, through taxation if necessary.

Margaret Thatcher joined the Euro debate

The battle over money swiftly degenerated into an almost childish war over numbers - not only over Scotland's money but over how many supporters each side of the argument could muster.

The campaign for fiscal autonomy had produced 12 economists, largely unknown to the wider public, so the campaign against produced another raft of academics, all equally unknown to the public.

Both sides then competed to out-do each other with politicians from across the political parties.

With the SNP's politicians supporting full fiscal autonomy, a Liberal Democrat who was also in favour of Scotland raising and spending all its own taxes was then matched by a fellow Liberal Democrat against - and similarly for Labour and the Conservatives.

The skirmishes over how much money Scotland actually contributes to the rest of the United Kingdom and whether Scotland should raise all its own taxes then gave way to another flurry over the pound in our pocket.

This time the arrival of the former Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, on the campaign trail was the signal for battle to commence over the Euro.

The SNP welcomed a letter from economists in The Scotsman

Politicians tend to avoid saying the word "never" - but Mrs Thatcher wasn't shy to use it in connection with the Euro.

William Hague had to sit, smile and listen as the former Tory leader declared Britain must "keep the pound forever" - something he has avoided saying for the last few weeks by choosing his words over the Euro very carefully and only ruling it out for the next parliament.

The Tories then moved into their "last two weeks to save the pound" campaigning mode, just as Tony Blair travelled north of the border for his second visit to Scotland since the campaign started.

If the Tories want to fight the election over the Euro, he seemed happy to take them on on their favoured battleground declaring it was "patriotic" to be part of Europe.

He was visibly more at home on this territory than on the subject of Scotland's share of public spending which had dominated the earlier part of the week - and in a BBC radio interview he appeared to struggle over the intricacies of how the Barnett formula, which calculates that share, actually works.

Lib Dem was pitted against Lib Dem

Just as with full fiscal autonomy, the SNP has been intent on trying to make electoral capital out of the possible future changes to Scotland's share of public spending.

And in an attempt to make the debate relevant to ordinary voters, they unveiled a poster calling for a cut in cancer deaths rather than a cut in public spending.

As far as voters are concerned, talk of the Barnett formula, the Euro and full fiscal autonomy might not exactly be a spur to turning up at the polling stations on 7 June.

In the last weeks of the campaign, all the parties are now concentrating their efforts on what will tempt the voters out - whether it's the big issues like public spending or just a leaflet through the door and a phone call from the hopeful candidate.