The actual process of empowering the mayors at the top of the local-government tier will begin only after the elections have been completed and legislation has been decreed about the distribution of powers between local- and provincial-government officials.

ECONOMIST: Pakistan��s peculiar election

And if there's to be a "no" vote, what then would happen to the distribution of both powers and finances around the rest of the UK?

BBC: Scottish independence: Braveheart or iPad?

It's in effect a demand for the new macro-prudential regulator being created by the Treasury which will sit within the Bank of England - the Financial Policy Committee, of which Lord Turner is a member - to have important and unprecedented new powers to determine credit creation by banks and to determine the distribution of credit.

BBC: Bank lending 'should be controlled'