As rabbits out of a hat go it was pretty unspectacular but the Nats did still manage to wrongfoot most watchers with the date of the referendum.
The conventional wisdom was that they would wait until the nation had been whipped into a post-Bannockburn anniversary, post-Commonwealth Games, post-Ryder Cup frenzy before inviting us to say Yes! Yes! Yes!
In the event they have gone for Thursday September 18 2014. (By the way what happened to all the hoo-hah about holding it on a Saturday so that people could vote on their day off?)
Strangely, the vote will come a week before the Ryder Cup. Presumably strategists in SNP Central reasoned that the biennial golf match between Europe and the United States was just a bit too much about countries working together for a party which wants to detach Scotland from the the UK. Who knows?
While spontaneous rejoicing burst out across the land at the announcement of the date not! Labour were in quick with the digs confidently predicting that Alex Salmond would be jacking it in as leader on September 19.
After all it is all over bar the shouting, isn’t it?
Is it heck.
The polls may show that only about a third of of voters want independence.
But then just a few months before the Scottish Elections in 2011 you couldn’t get a bet on an SNP win let alone a landslide that the system was supposed to make impossible.
It might only take a few twists like even a whiff of the Tories winning the general election in 2015 and it could be game on.
546 days is a long time in politics.