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THE SNP's independence prospectus has failed to provide a boost in support for separation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

SINCE Scotland's Future: Your Guide to an Independent Scotland was launched last Tuesday, everyone at Holyrood seems to have had their noses buried in Alex Salmond's White Paper. But the 670-page tome, considered by some to be a work of fiction, is not exactly a page-turner, so Dog can forgive STV political editor Bernard Ponsonby for skipping bits of it before interviewing the First Minister. This became apparent when the broadcaster confessed his concern that the one question he personally wants answered on independence had not featured in the White Paper: whether or not a separate Scotland would be able to compete for the Eurovision Song Contest. Actually, it does, on page 532. Nul points to Ponsonby. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Those lucky people who have read every word of the White Paper won't have failed to notice the huge number of words and phrases repeated throughout each section. Some might even wonder which country the 'guide' is supposed to be about, since Norway gets 42 mentions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

IT was the SNP that insisted the publication of its White Paper last week was a 'key moment' in the independence referendum campaign. So the revelation, in an opinion poll carried out for The Scottish Mail on Sunday by Progressive Scottish Opinion, that support for a Yes vote remains becalmed exactly where it was a month ago, at 27 per cent, is a devastating setback for Alex Salmond. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

OUR poll was held on the two days following the launch of the Government's White Paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

CRITICS complain that the White Paper contains nothing new. Even its title is stolen from Scotland's Future, an expert analysis of the case for independence edited by Professor Andrew Goudie, adviser to Strathclyde University, which ripped into large sections of the SNP's economic blueprint for a separate Scotland. Come to your own conclusions as to which version of Scotland's Future is closer to the truth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

IN what the SNP would hope is a sign of the future, many of the broadcasters who turned up to the launch of the White Paper on independence last week were given some rather surprising accreditation badges. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]