Brian Monteith: So why are we waiting, Alex?

I LOOKED at my phone to check the date yesterday and it reminded me that it was Thursday, August 23. It was an interesting day because a committee of three experts, admittedly put together by the unionist parties, announced they had thought long and hard about the nature of the question required by an independence referendum and had come to a conclusion.

Despite them being called upon by the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat leadership it would be hard to impugn their objectivity or credentials. At various times the SNP has supported the appointment of these men to various bodies or quoted them in speeches as men of authority and stature to be listened to. One, a Canadian, has been involved in more elections and referenda that Alex Salmond’s had hot curries – and that’s a lot.

The single question they proffered was simple and straightforward enough, asking: “Scotland should become an independent state” with the answer being not a yes or no but “I agree” and “I don’t agree”.

I don’t need to rehearse all the pros and cons of why the question or the way it is answered are worded the way they are – for frankly it doesn’t matter.

After all, the SNP has its own ideas about a question too (remember, it only has a mandate for one question). It doesn’t quite say, “Would you like wee put-upon Scotland to be a free land of milk and honey rather than ruled by that colonial bunch of Tories down south”? But it might as well.

And to help those with impaired thought as well as impaired sight the answer would be printed with a Yes in 48pt type and a No in 12pt braille.

Quite honestly I would have no worries about the question being framed and published that way; for the Scottish public would see through it anyway, and vote the way they were always going to vote.

No, the point is that we now have the two sides with their respective campaigns already launched and their questions at the ready – and that is an advance – all they have to do is negotiate the wording and we can get down to actually asking the people.