IF there is not quite panic on the streets of London there certainly is within the halls of Westminster.

The UK's political establishment finally woke up to the reality that a Yes vote next Thursday is a serious possibility.

The parties will tell you that the visits by David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg would have happened anyway in the final days of the campaign, but you can't help think it was as a result of a serious case of the jitters.

Squeaky bum time as Sir Alex Ferguson would say.

It is all about convincing the undecided and those who could be persuaded to change their mind one way or another.

Labour has to hold on to their traditional support and stop its seduction by the Yes campaign.

Gordon Brown is in the party's heartlands this week promoting his message of Labour values of solidarity to keep the UK together.

He will likely be more effective than Miliband and Johan Lamont in that role, but the problem he will find is Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon have been in there before him.

They have had success in convincing Labour supporters, particularly those who stopped voting for the party under Tony Blair, that independence will allow Scottish Labour to reclaim its soul.

Salmond and the SNP have long said they welcome the interventions of Westminster politicians and particularly the Tory Prime Minister and his cabinet as it can only boost a Yes vote.

Indeed the narrowing in the opinion polls can be traced back to George Osborne's visit to Edinburgh to rule out a currency union between an independent Scotland and the rest of the UK.

This week however the tactic changed and it was a much softer approach from Cameron, which could be crucial.

HE has few fans in Scotland, so arguing about policy and the usual election tactics will not work.

Instead the Prime Minister came north with a message from people in England, not politicians in Westminster, but the ordinary men and women.

He said they cared about the referendum and they did not want Scotland to leave the UK.

He accepted his place in Scotland saying it's not an election where it's about Scots kicking the Tories.

He said he would be heartbroken and he appeared to be genuinely moved as he delivered his plea.

Miliband made the same plea on the same day giving a concerted message that people in the rest of the UK want Scots to stay.

If they leave off attacking the SNP, telling Scotland what it can and can't do and instead make the case it's about people not politicians, Salmond might not be so willing to pay the bus fare to bring them north.