Indy ref Neither side is able to guarantee the future

The debate around the White Paper contains more guesses than hard facts.

No one kicks a dead dog.

I’m not sure where my ol’ man found that expression. But it’s reassuring when a column, book or speech kicks up a hornet’s nest.

I suppose it means critics don’t bother to attack ideas that lack a vital spark.

Evidently then, the White Paper contains more life than an Andy Murray serve. Because Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon have been kicked round the park by all and sundry since their slick Blueprint for Independence was launched last week.

First the two Alistairs wellied in. Scots Secretary Alistair Carmichael described the weighty 670-page tome as a wish-list without a price-list. Better Together chief Alistair Darling said plans to transform childcare after independence not now “beggared belief”.

But Labour didn’t find the cash for a childcare revolution in their loadsamoney days of control at Holyrood either.

Then the Spanish had a go. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy warned an independent Scotland would be “left outside the EU”, negotiating membership from scratch.

Big Lec waved a European Commission letter saying the opposite though it turned out to be a general website reply to a public enquiry.

Mind you, a reply is a reply. And it’s not clear if the EU could expel five million existing citizens just because they opt to exercise democratic choice over national sovereignty.

But then proof positive the White Paper had riled the truly powerful. John Major stirred. At last, a voice with gravitas. A new player in the slightly predictable referendum debate. The press was all ears.

The former Prime Minister famously mocked for counting peas in Spitting Image sketches said there “cannot and will not be” a Sterling currency union and there is “no halfway house” when it comes to Scotland’s future.

Hmmm. Clearly Sir John must have missed a decade of that halfway house known as devolution as well as David Cameron’s vague promise of more powers in the event of a No vote.

But then Sir John has also been “horrified” to discover posh boys from private schools are running Britain. He’s been missing rather a lot lately.

And, in any case, has Sir John proved a shared currency is impossible? No more than Big Lec has proved it’s a goer.

But Bank of England boss Mark Carney has now said he’ll talk about possible currency union. Nothing definite, of course. But recognition there is something to discuss.

And this surely has been the White Paper’s success. It’s commanded the attention of the rich and powerful, and prompted top-rank London TV presenters to ask searching questions of both sides. At last.

Why wouldn’t Sterling benefit from the added clout of Scotland’s oil, gas and whisky trade? Why wouldn’t the rest of the UK want their closest trading partner in the same currency? “Just because” doesn’t really cut it any more.

Every single utterance of Lec and Nicola on the “Yes” side has been subject to automatic challenge how can you promise this, what evidence do you have for saying that . . .

And yet, Sir John’s “no can do” was taken at face value. Well, he does have a trustworthy face. Kind of.

Let’s face it. The White Paper contains more unprovable predictions and educated guesses than hard facts. So does life. And so does the case for staying in the Union.

Will the UK be in the EU by 2020? Will benefits be slashed? Will renewing Trident stick to budget?

No one can guarantee the future not Alex Salmond nor Alistair Darling.

The SNP’s blueprint for independence is the only game-plan in town.

Come on, Better Together. “Life After No” would be a riveting read.

We await publication with bated breath.