Naive but touching

Calton is in good company when it comes to not understanding the difference between devo-plus and devo-max. Sir Tom Farmer doesn't either. He does, however, support the idea of greater autonomy for Scotland short of full independence, a view Calton has a lot of sympathy for. Where Calton and Sir Tom part company is with regard to his desire to have more than one question in the independence referendum. Calton has already said that he thinks this is a bad idea, although Sir Tom's faith in his fellow-Scots' ability to cope with a complex ballot paper is touching. Naive but touching.

Devo headache

Oh great. Calton was still trying to get his head round devo-max and now we also have devo-plus to consider. It's enough to make you want to emigrate (preferably to somewhere sunnier). Calton suspects politicians are just trying to confuse bloggers like himself. They will certainly confuse the electorate. Calton had first-hand experience of the 2007 election-night disaster where automated systems struggled to cope with thousands of spoilt ballot papers and the one thing it demonstrated was that a significant percentage of the voters are as thick as mince and can't follow complicated ballot instructions to save themselves. So, the moral of the story is - keep it simple! No second question on the independence ballot paper, no mention of devo-anything, just independence yes or no. And please can someone come up with a better name for devo-plus! (Suggestions in the comments field welcome.)

Mushroom politics

Scottish Secretary Michael Moore looks like he has been attending the Alex Salmond School of Question Evasion, judging by his performance at Scottish Questions earlier today. So now, not only do we not know what independence will mean for vital areas like defence and pensions, we also do not know what we might be offered in terms of devo-max if we vote 'no' to independence. Wonderful. Being kept in the dark and fed a load of manure might be good for mushrooms but it is not the way to treat the electorate. One bombastic, blustering minister is bad enough. Two, on opposing sides, is a nightmare. Come back Jim Murphy - all is forgiven!

Keep it simples

Calton thinks there should just be one referendum question: independence - yes or no? After all, if the answer is yes, who cares about devo-max? And if the answer is no, another debate can still be had on the extent to which we want to be devolved. Simples. Because his poor head is still spinning after reading about all the possible options and permutations (and opportunities for gerrymandering) outlined in this post by the wee red squirrel.