A WHEEN o’ words has been written about Nicola Sturgeon’s Brexit options paper and a whole lot more will appear before the festive break, giving folk quality time to chew over the SNP’s bold vision of Scotland’s future in Europe.

Ten out of 10 for timing – and for content.

Even though network media outlets were more interested in the Brexit paper’s proxy value – whether a red line over single market membership makes indyref2 inevitable – there was enough detail to set a dozen hares running right now through the half-ploughed field of Britain’s unwritten constitution.

For example, if Scotland is to remain inside the UK and become a member of the EU or EEA (the underlying single market mechanism), the Scottish Parliament needs legal capacity to be able to sign international treaties – a power the tiny Faroe Islands has wielded since its truly powerful devolved parliament was established by Denmark in 1946.

But there’s more.

If Scotland is to preserve and develop the distinctive political culture that helped produce its hefty Remain majority, then more powers must come Holyrood’s way. Firstly, powers currently exercised by Brussels but devolved to Scotland like agriculture and fisheries. Secondly, powers currently exercised by Brussels but reserved to Westminster like workers’ rights and health and safety. And finally powers like immigration which would be essential for a small nation navigating its way solo through the EU. There’s a logic to the Scottish Government’s demands that was completely missing from the shambolic Smith Commission settlement; a lucky bag of random powers deemed safe enough to hand over to Holyrood by a chronically hesitant British Labour Party.

It’s clear now that the Scottish Government’s been busily evolving a distinctively non-British outlook on trade, immigration, Europe and its own working definition of “near federalism” within the UK since the unexpected outcome of the European referendum. The result is not just a Brexit options paper but a document that lists the powers needed to justifiably confer the title world’s most “powerfully devolved parliament” upon Holyrood. It’s not a demand note – we all know in unbalanced, winner-takes-all Britain no one has the power to demand anything of Theresa May. But the logic running through the paper lists the steps Westminster must take to empower the Scottish Parliament and put the threat of indyref2 “beyond reach” for a generation.

If you accept Scotland is a nation, then you must accept it has a distinct cultural and political identity. If that political identity is strongly pro-European, Nicola Sturgeon does have a democratic mandate to keep Scotland within the mechanisms of the EU. The only question now is how to do that – not whether it matters or whether Scotland has the right to kick up a fuss. By and large those arguments have fallen away on both sides of the Border. With its very different Brexit vote, Scotland has effectively demolished the “one singer, one song” model of British governance and moved commentators from why to whether diversity within the UK can be achieved.

That’s a massive step forward.

And let’s be clear. No one who voted Yes in 2014, no one who voted SNP in 2015 and I’d guess few No voters think Westminster can deliver anything beyond its familiar “my way or the highway” response to any perfectly justified democratic challenge. Like an arthritic old lady, the British Government’s appearance of tight-lipped resolve masks a near terminal lack of flexibility.

Yesterday, former Labour MSP for Leith Malcolm Chisholm tweeted: “I can’t find anything in ScotGov Brexit Plan to disagree with and hope all parties will get behind it.” That’s typically generous and potentially game-changing. If the next two years become a constant comparison between positive, statesperson-like Nicola Sturgeon and a haunted-looking, desperate Theresa May, more and more prominent No voters will be forced to choose sides in a new context of chaos, chauvinism and protectionism – in short the backdrop for indyref2 will have changed completely.

In the No corner we have Theresa May – who has produced not one shred of public paperwork on her route-map to Brexit. In the Yes corner stands Nicola Sturgeon, whose Committee of European experts and Brexit Minister Mike Russell have played a blinder by getting serious proposals down on a bit of paper. First, the Brexit options paper looks like what it is – a bit of proper governance. A bit of old-fashioned transparency and democracy by politicians who seem to have a coherent and ambitious plan mapping precisely onto the demands of most Scottish voters. Compare and contrast the situation south of the Border. And have no doubt, over the coming weeks, every Scottish voter will.

The Scottish Government was much derided for producing a detailed White paper almost a year before the independence vote. But now everyone can see the confidence-eroding guddle produced by the unwritten, make-it-up-as-you-go-along British model. In every move, large and small, the Scottish Government is deploying a distinctive Scottish outlook. And that’s an important building block for indyref2.

Another is the changed attitude of neighbours towards Scotland. The rest of the world (except the valiant Icelanders) was vaguely puzzled about Scotland’s reasons for wanting to leave the stable and powerful UK in 2014. Now they can see why. From afar, Britain still had the appearance of a slightly-jaded Cool Britannia back then – now she resembles nothing more than a polite old lady turned into a self-obsessed and malicious misery after a couple of large Christmas sherries. It’s not a pretty sight.

Back then, most Irish political leaders were reluctant to nail their colours to the mast – now our nearest neighbours are unequivocal. They back Scotland’s bid for renewed single-market membership however it’s obtained – from within or without the UK. I appreciate many consider Irish support for independence to be unremarkable. But remember England is Ireland’s biggest market and closest neighbour. Two short years ago politicians there calculated it wasn’t in Ireland’s best interests to take on England over Scottish independence. Today, bets are off. Westminster’s contemptuous and curmudgeonly attitude towards Europe appears to have sealed the deal between the Celts and Nicola Sturgeon’s cogent Brexit statement may yet seal the deal with European neighbours further afield.

Scotland wants to keep trade and cultural links with Europe – that much is clear. But is the EU really the best club in town? Might an independent Scotland do better within the EEA like Iceland and Norway – keeping the single market but losing the troublesome common fisheries and agriculture programmes and making sure an indy Scotland doesn’t border a Brexited England with radically different customs arrangements?

Or could an independent Scotland help steer the future direction of the European Union like Finland – away from the inflexible structures that suit big players and towards a diverse union that acknowledges the growing clout of small, asset-rich Baltic and North Atlantic players?

The Nordic countries’ have a veritable smorgasbord of relationships within and outwith the European Union, knitted together by a common Nordic travel area created 10 years before Schengen and joint membership of the Nordic Council.

The nation outlined in the Scottish Government’s Brexit options paper looks for all the world like a new Nordic state not a kilted British one by its references, precedents and aspirations; but above all by its outlook. It’s been a long time coming – but this is the kind of open, outward-looking, social democratic template for a future Scotland that many of us have been waiting to see from the SNP.

A gift of good cheer on the shortest day of the longest, most depressing year many of us can remember.

McSmorgasbord: what post-Brexit Scotland can learn from the Nordics – by Paddy Bort and Lesley Riddoch - published by Luath March 2017