Scottish independence referendum week in review: finance, flashmobs, effing Tories and fear-mongering

Well folks, this looks like it’s the penultimate weekly round-up of our reporting from the coalface of the Scottish independence referendum.

No need to thank me but, if you’re considering chipping in for a gift, I’ve got a yen for a blazer with contrasting braiding after watching the million or whatever Scottish teens at the BBC’s #BigBigDebate last night.

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For daily live updates, please follow my esteemed colleagues @BenQuinn75 and @AndrewSparrow.

For those new to the fact that Scotland is having a referendum on independence next week, or just parched for even more detail, we published this fabulous everything-you-need-to-know interactive guide.

This week began with a shock - or not-so-shocking, depending on which end of the telescope you’re looking down - new poll that put the yes camp ahead for the first time.

But out on the doorsteps with Better Together, we found the no campaign undaunted.

On Monday, the pound slumped to a 10 month low, and billions of pounds were wiped off the value of Scottish-linked firms, while Gordon Brown unveiled plans for a high-speed legislative timetable for more powers to a Scottish parliament after a no vote.

JK Rowling took to Twitter to explain her donation to Better Together.

While leader of the Welsh nationalist Leanne Wood took to the streets of Glasgow with Nicola Sturgeon.

On Tuesday, Brown continued to spearhead Labour’s efforts to save the union, while in Falkirk women voters explained why they were swinging away from Labour and towards yes.

Karen McVeigh reported on the local mood in East Kilbride, while Jon Helney asked what Scotland can learn from the Quebec referendum.

Ed Miliband’s plan for the Saltire to be raised across England, Wales and Northern Ireland as a symbol of solidarity ran into some bother above 10 Downing Street.

Our brilliant new data editor Alberto Nardelli drilled down into the key battlegrounds of new week’s poll, and yesterday mapped voting intention right across Scotland.

Roy Greenslade reflected on attitudes to the referendum in the Scottish press in general and the Scottish Sun in particular. (That Rupert Murdoch is a cheeky wee monkey, eh no?)

On Wednesday, as all three Westminster party leaders made an emergency dash north of the border, David Cameron said a yes vote was not about “giving the effing Tories a kicking”. And, as Severin Carrell reported the no camp received a poll boost when Survation suggested the sudden surge in backing for independence had subsided.

Sterling rallied after this. Sterling is so partial #bias.

Meanwhile, in Glasgow’s George Square, yes campaigners held an impromtu ceilidh, because they felt like it.

Yesterday, Nigel Farage complained that the referendum was driven by anti-English sentiment, ahead of his UKIP rally in Glasgow this evening. The Orange Order (no relations) are preparing for their own march in Edinburgh tomorrow.

Alex Salmond accused the Treasury of leaking market-sensitive information yes campaign. Meanwhile, our financial editor Nils Pratley argues a sudden exodus of banks is not the worry, but a slow leakof jobs and prosperity is.

Later, we reported that supermarket retails are being put under pressure by No 10 to state publicly that prices would rise with a yes vote.

Gordon Brown said he would return to frontline politics at the next Holyrood election if Alex Salmond continued with his “deception” NHS privatisation, while a critical report from the IFS calls into question many of the claims that the SNP have been making about healthcare.

ARE YOU STILL WITH ME?

The stand-out news yesterday was that astonishing 97% of the electorate is registered to vote next Thursday.

We reported how the referendum is energising calls for devolution elsewhere in the UK.

Esther Addley wrote a delightful sketch of Labour’s ‘save the union express’ jaunt to Glasgow. I would personally like to apologise on behalf on the gentleman who kept shouting ‘excrement’.

Comment-wise, Carol Craig argued that the SNP were the referendum’s Pollyannas, fronting a campaign driven by over-optimism, blind zeal and indifference to reality. Noted Pollyanna George Monbiot argued that independence would carry the potential to galvanise progressive movements across the rest of the UK. Michael White reminded readers that Alex Salmond never wanted a referendum in the first place.