Salmond: Scotland Free By 2016?

So, the game is afoot. The Scottish government today published its consultation document on an independence referendum to be held in the autumn of 2014. You can read it all here though I should warn you that most of it is entirely unobjectionable. If Mr Salmond is the salesman he hopes he is, the next Scottish parliament – due to be elected in May 2016 – will be the first to govern an independent nation since that auld sang ended in 1707.

I notice, however, that the favoured question proffered by the SNP has changed. As recently as last year it proposed asking for a mandate to open negotiations. This has become a simpler, more direct question: Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?  No “maybe” box is provided for responses. This appears to satisfy everyone’s desire that the matter be put clearly. Nevertheless, one is struck by the problem that “independent country” is, these days, a matter of degree as well as taste.