Never mind the quality, feel the width.

The UK Government has produced several reports in recent months claiming the prospectus for independence is flawed, and that the Scottish Government has failed to make its case and answer people's questions.

So the First Minister shot back with 670 pages and 170,000 words, a bludgeon of a document which could be used as a weapon if the debate turns increasingly rough.

It contains 650 questions which are answered - kind of - even if the answers are based more on belief and assertion, rather than guarantee and fact.

The Science Centre on the Clyde was picked as a venue to make things upbeat and forward-looking. A rainbow appeared to the north and journalists took photographs while talking pots of gold, then the rain came in from the south, and the talk was of how dreich Scotland might be.

Inside, we got an upbeat video, a bit like a VisitScotland advert, and then the magician and his charming assistant, wearing her foxy Judy R. Clark designer jacket (Harris Tweed and Ayrshire lace, doncha know) as the questions came thick and fast.

Can we guarantee this or provide assurances on that? In response came statements of firm belief that this or that would be best served all round by agreement.

Dr Who and Strictly Come Dancing raised their inevitable populist heads, and Alex Salmond assured the journalists - the biggest number clearly coming from the BBC - that there would be a seamless deal to create a sister broadcaster, the SBS, to continue working with the BBC.

A Sterling zone? Don't worry, all that will be sorted out. NATO? Ditto. The EU? Much the same.

In almost every case, the argument was that Scotland has so much to offer the world that no-one in their right mind would seek to block us joining the party.

It's a very Tartan Army view. The problem is that the Tartan Army doesn't get us into World Cups and European Championships.

It will be up to a better Team Scotland to do that.