"Why the second half?"

Salmond has been absolutely open about it. In the election campaign he made it clear that if they were in a position to bring a referendum forward (which now for the first time they clearly are) then it would be in the second half of the parliament. So he is doing exactly what he said he would. Why the second half? That again seems pretty clear to me. Firstly he has openly stated that his initial objective is to strengthen the Scotland Bill. That is to bring more fiscal autonomy to Scotland. Seems sensible to hedge your bets. Secondly as you have pointed out generally a minority of Scots say they'd support independence. it normally amounts to about 30% or so - though of course that doesn't mean the other 70% all opppose it. The issue though has never been properly debated in either Holyrood or the Scottish media. Salmond no doubt wants time to put his arguments properly to the people and I dare say he thinks a proportion of those not supporting independence would be open to persuasion. I suspect he is right in that many Scots would favour it but have a fear of change! I suspect that unionist politicians know that too - hence we had the sight of unionists who had been actively blocking the referendum throughout the last 4 years of the minority SNP administration suddenly stating that the referendum 'must' be held straight away.