The National Conversation.

Mr Smith has flicked with interest through the White Paper, "Choosing Scotland's Future: A National Conversation: Independence and Responsibility in the Modern World," launched by the Scottish Government on the options for Scotland's constitutional future.

Whatever the merits of the document itself or the political argument, politicos may be interested in the word count on some key issues, as collated by Mr Smith: there are 88 references to "independence" in the document; 92 to "devolution"; 319 to "Scotland" and just 10 to "England"; 5 references to the "Scottish Executive" and 74 to the "Scottish Government." There is only one mention of Alex Salmond.

Mr Smith has no doubt that these numbers would have been very different if the document had been produced by the last Scottish Executive.