The Armchair Socialist (Glasgow): When Wendy Alexander issued her challenge to Scotland's SNP government to 'bring it on' over their plans for a 2010 referendum on the future of Scotland in the UK, she unleashed a political storm the like of which has not been seen north of the border since Blair unilaterally announced that Labour would not consider victory in the 1997 general election as a mandate for devolution, much trumpeted until that point as 'the settled will of the Scottish people', but would instead require a two question referendum on both a parliament and it's fiscal powers.
The current Scottish Labour leadership election in which nominations close today, has already seen the front-runners to follow Alexander say that they will abandon Labour's recently acquired enthusiasm for letting the people decide sooner rather than later.
As has already been highlighted elsewhere in OurKingdom, Labour has already conceded the point that a referendum is a legitimate concern of the devolved Parliament, despite the constitution being a reserved issue. However, much of the wider debate on Labour's muddled stance has missed the point that Alexander's position was primarily a tactical move. The logic appeared to be that Alex Salmond's 'National Conversation' on the constitutional future of Scotland, which includes a consultation on a referendum bill could be scuppered by an early referendum with wording acceptable to unionists, this way forward could 'call the nationalist bluff', ending the debate for a generation and destroying the unity of the SNP in government.
However, Scottish Labour handled the unveiling of this policy so badly that it damaged the UK Government-backed Calman Commission charged with reviewing the devolution settlement and recommending on the case for further powers and entrenched the anti-referendum views of the other opposition parties, with whom they did not consult, ultimately setting in motion a chain of events and internal squabbling in public which combined with the trivialities of Alexander's campaign financing to fatally undermine and then engulf the leadership.
The current candidates for Scottish Labour leader will struggle to put the genie back in the bottle on the right of Holyrood to hold a referendum, albeit consultative, but they can and, with one exception who failed to make the ballot paper, are making clear that support for a referendum will not be forthcoming from Labour in the remainder of this Scot's Parliament.
This again leaves Salmond's own National Conversation looking pretty forlorn and effectively ends the chances of a plebiscite on the constitution before the next Scottish election in May 2011. Cross-border tensions are for the incoming Labour leader likely to move back to the debate about who has the final say in the running of the Scottish Party, Scottish MPs facing a resurgent Tory party in London or MSPs battling against the SNP in Edinburgh?
