WHILE supporters of independence may have been waiting impatiently for this week's White Paper, their hunger is nothing compared to that of the No camp, who have been salivating indecently for a year.
As Blair McDougall, chief executive of Better Together put it in June, his outfit has been straining to "test its credibility", by which he means putting all 670 pages under the microscope in the search for flaws.
Indeed, a special "war room" has been set up in Edinburgh in which staff will rake through every line to unearth errors to be given the foghorn treatment by Better Together and the unionist parties.
On the other side, one obvious drawback for the SNP is that the White Paper sets the SNP's position in stone for the 10 months between now and the referendum, and so takes on the weight of holy writ.
If the Government deviates from its contents, opponents will pounce and declare the whole document - and by extension independence - unsound. Alex Salmond's plan is highly susceptible to that bane of every politician: events.
The unionist parties will also try to undermine the SNP by rearranging the UK's economic furniture enough to ensure aspects of the White Paper are overtaken by manufactured events, making it out of date.
The spring 2014 Budget has been identified as offering a prime opportunity for such sabotage. "George Osborne is very political," said one senior LibDem. "He'll have an eye on the White Paper and on independence. I'm sure he'll do something in the Budget which could throw a spanner in the works."
Another attack line is that a large chunk of the White Paper is, in effect, the SNP's election manifesto. But governments don't publish manifestos and taxpayers don't pay for them - they're left to parties. Unionists, therefore, intend to harp on the White Paper as a waste of public money and an abuse of power: at least 20,000 SNP wish-lists paid for by you and me.
Moreover, inserting long-range policy commitments leaves the SNP open to questions of affordability and making promises in the dark.
A more subtle assault will come at Holyrood, where reserved issues are usually off-limits but unionists will bypass constraints by starting questions with the formula, "With reference to the Scottish Government White Paper", in order to flood ministers with queries about all aspects of a post-Yes Scotland. This week's bombardment is just the start.
l Independence could destroy some final salary pension schemes, Better Together claimed last night. Citing the Pensions Protection Fund, the UK lifeboat for defined benefit schemes, the No campaign said the White Paper must address the issue. The Fund considered independence a "high risk" that could mean "more schemes going bust" as a result of EU cross-border rules on funding.
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