So, we have the “historic” date. On Thursday 18th September 2014 Scotland will vote on whether to become an independent country. First Minister Alex Salmond had been keeping the date up his sleeve for months, so when he finally played his card, there was long applause in parliament.
“It is the day we will take responsibility for our country,” he declared. “The day we will begin a new, modern relationship with the rest of the UK and take our place as an equal and responsible member of the international community.”
That wasn’t quite how the opposition parties saw it. Johann Lamont, the Labour Party leader, said: “The hand of history has finally given Alex Salmond a shove and now he had to get on with it. He knows that if he held the referendum now, he would not just lose it, he would be routed.” And she predicted that 18th September 2014 will be the day 
“Scotland will cement its place in the United Kingdom.”
The day has been chosen carefully. It comes as Scotland will be celebrating the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn (24th June 1314). The Commonwealth Games will have been held in Glasgow that summer and the build-up to golf’s Ryder cup at Gleneagles will have begun. The weather should be good in September, with long light evenings for last-minute campaigning. The saint of the day is St Joseph of Cupertino, the 17th century friar famous for his powers of levitation, so we should all feel a little up-lifted.
The so-called “process” issues are now finally settled. We now know the date, the question, the legal standing of the referendum, who can vote, the campaign funding limits and the overseer – the independent Electoral Commission. What Mr Salmond called a “vigorous discourse” will now begin on the real issues. MSPs on all sides called for a mature and dignified campaign by the Yes and No camps. The “mother” of the parliament, Margo MacDonald, said: “ This is about a country’s soul. We need big questions and big answers, by big people. So let’s big it up.”
Alex Salmond made an attempt, by singing the praises of devolution so far – free personal care, free university education, less crime, fewer homeless families, falling youth unemployment (20 – 17 per cent in the latest figures). And much more could be done, he claimed, if Scotland became independent and had £4.4bn a year in oil revenues – a figure much disputed this week, with the Westminster government claiming that oil revenues will be half what the SNP are suggesting in the years ahead.
The Chancellor’s budget on Tuesday gave the SNP another chance to draw a distinction between the austerity being handed down by the Westminster government and what might be on offer if Scotland were to become independent. Mr Salmond told MSPs at question time that the Scottish government was suffering a £50m cut from its block grant this year and another £40m next year. Instead it was being offered “a straightjacket” of £266m in loans for building projects approved by the London Treasury. Labour’s Johann Lamont said independence would make little difference if – as the SNP was suggesting – Scotland remained in the Sterling zone, since the Chancellor in London would still impose spending limits and borrowing conditions.
Perhaps you can tell, but there has been little else talked about in Scotland this week. We are still in the grim grip of winter. Snow has come and gone along the eastern half of the country. Over 100 schools were closed mid-week and it has been bitterly cold. So cold, in fact, that the wildlife experts are getting worried about our hibernating animals, hedgehogs and bats for instance, who must be running out of body-fat, poor things.
And in the week when Pope Francis took office in Rome and outlined a new, humbler vision for the Catholic Church, Scotland has been creating its own religious news. 
St John’s Episcopal Church in Aberdeen has claimed an event of global significance, allowing a Muslim congregation to use its church as a mosque. The Rev Canon Isaac Poobalan is quoted as saying: “ The neighbouring mosque was so full at times, there would be people outside in the wind and rain praying. I knew I just couldn’t let this happen.”
I presume David Livingstone would approve. We have been celebrating the missionary/explorer’s 200th anniversary this week, with events in his home town of Blantyre and elsewhere. I wonder what he would make of our independence debate. The idea has not been a great success in Africa, but then British rule was not – and is not – without its faults.