Both the Lib Dems and the SNP are undoubtedly posturing ahead of May's election. Both are trying to set out their respective positions as clearly as possible for the voters - even though they know the rules change immediately after the ballot papers are counted and the seats allocated.
As one SNP source said yesterday when asked whether his party's position on a referendum was non-negotiable: "Well, I know it is non-negotiable before the election."
Even Mr Stephen, after making it absolutely clear he would not do a deal on a referendum without a clear mandate, went on to stress he would not label anything as "non-negotiable".
He said: "If I start to divide the manifesto, divide our policies, into those bits which are negotiable and those bits which are non-negotiable, then people will immediately discount the sections of the manifesto which have been made 'negotiable'."
What Mr Stephen - who is set to be in the position of kingmaker - is doing, is trying both to firm up his rhetoric ahead of the election and give himself a little room to manoeuvre afterwards.
His decision to be apparently unequivocal on an independence referendum is designed to mark out the Lib Dems clearly as defiantly anti-independence.
Is that clear then? Mr Stephen will not do a deal on a referendum unless the nationalist parties secure a majority (in which case, of course, he will not need to). Nevertheless that is not non-negotiable.
Vote for us! We'll do X, Y and Z, unless we decide not to do them by negotiating them away.
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