Rude As many have stated here, independence is the SNP's main goal. So I was pretty surprised, shocked in fact, that they hadn't built up a really good strong case for independence by the time the referendum came around. The fact that so many questions remained unanswered - even un-considered if the media were to be believed, such as the issue of the currency - just indicates huge incompetence. Now I accept that much of that might be media spin - but really, Mr Salmond knew what the key issues were likely to be, why on earth didn't he have answers to them?
I have thought about that too, and I can only assume that it was as a result of a mixture of the typical incompetence that Scottish civic society is increasingly characterised by (trams network, Edinburgh City Council, Holyrood building project, dreadful infrastructure, etc.) and arrogance. Its probably well founded arrogance too - if you promise untalented people the prospect of riches and well paid jobs in an independent Scotland and to get one over on those who have taken a more traditional and hard working route to get where they have, you are not likely to be held to account for small matters such as constitutional rights, rule of law and disreguard for getting things wrong in your manifesto - "the Court of Justice of the European Community supports Scottish independence" - yeah, right.
The fact that Salmond and his cronies have reliably demonstrated a disreguard for legal rights and truthfulness, and encouraged SNP supporters to be abusive of anyone who challenges their mindset is not a mark of a philosophy that is likely to lead to a fairer and more equal society - more likely a worse and increasingly isolated one, ruled by someone who has more in common with dictators such as Putin than successful world leaders.
Even at the moment, Scotland has good laws ("Scotland has the best legal system in the world" is one of the typical "Scotland is the best" mantras some Scots like to trot out without thinking) but often they are not enforced. Freedom of information requests come to mind. Just google "City of Edinburgh FOI requests" or similar and look at the details of a few relating to something like the compulsory repairs/statutory notices scam - the Council frequently refuses to comply with them for various "exceptions" such as "economic reasons" or "not being in the public interest", except that such refusals are done in bad faith for the reason of denying justice. Its actually quite shocking and of course the wonderful Ombudsman for Freedom of Information to whom you can appeal is absolutely useless.
So that's a local authority in Scotland's capital city, compelling possibly unnecessary and fraudulent repairs on property owners (criminal charges are currently pending) but those citizens having to make freedom of information requests to attempt to challenge them, to get the information any reasonable person should have been given when presented with a bill for possibly tens of thousands of pounds of badly done work, and those FOI requests refused by that local authority.