Yesterday the public got their first look at the Better Together campaigns list of 500 questions they say need to be answered before the Independence referendum in 2014.  They range from the oft-asked questions about scots currency and EU membership to questions regarding the price of a 1^st class stamp in an independent Scotland. 

Apparently, Better Together were then surprised when the list of 507 questions (not the 500 that would have made more sense with the 500 days to referendum and their own announcements) were ridiculed, satirised and humiliated online last night.  At least most of the Unionist supporters took this in good humour.

What we need to focus on though is that while there may be some concerns about the subjects raised in the 500 questions document, most of these are only answerable once the negotiation process starts post-indy, or once the first independent Scottish Government are being elected.  This whole stunt is just a way to obfuscate and distort the real debate because Better Together don’t want people to simply answer the only other question on the table.  Instead they will continue to doggedly throw up questions of process, irrelevant until a decision on independence is actually made.

Of course, there is a group that can answer a lot of the questions posed in the Better Together document (and oddly it was a document, rather than a series of blog posts or webpage that could be easily shared online) yet flatly refuse to do so.  Remember, the EU will only provide answers to a sitting government so the Coalition could ask for clarity on the post-indy process but won’t.  They could also provide answers on many of the shared liabilities and timescales for transition, but won’t.

At the moment, there is really only one question that needs to be answered – Should Scotland be an independent country?

It really is that simple.  I’m sure it’s really important to someone out there how much a first class stamp will cost in an independent Scotland, but that will be sorted in time and without the aide of a crystal ball it’s simply not possible to answer most of the questions on the Better Together list.  We can answer this one though and take that positive step forward.

So should Scotland be an independent country?  Everyone agrees now that it could so this is simply a matter of where our hearts and desires lie.  It’s not separation but emancipation.  Scotland would have control over every aspect of its society (including which currency to use incidentally) for the first time in 300 years and it’s a liberating prospect. 

All the other questions are important, sure, but not now.  They’ll be debated and answered as part of future elections and in negotiation with the rUK and Europe.   You don’t have to ignore all that, but don’t get too sidetracked as it’s not what this debate is really about.  If you want Scotland to make it’s own decisions and control the mechanisms of growing it’s own economy, then you will be ticking yes.  That’s what independence is.