Alex Buchan ( Leicester): The interview with Wendy Alexander blogged in OK seems to me to be part of an attempt to make her seem independent of her patron Gordon Brown. Emphasising that she has her own ideas is part of a carefully constructed attempt to disguise the truth, which is that the Labour party is not devolved and that she is only in the position she is in through the support of the Prime Minister.
She has also been reported as saying, contrary to official Labour policy, that: “There will be a referendum in 2010.”
What she is referring to is the SNP government’s call for a referendum in 2010 on Scottish Independence. The press, including the Scottish press, has been strangely silent on what is, to date, her most important comment.
The Labour press team present, when asked, said it was not a slip of the tongue. So this was not some policy made on the hoof. The fact that it wasn’t denied suggests that Brown may have decided to go down this route in order to see off the SNP, but there are critical reasons why he wouldn’t want it widely known, especially in England.
His most pressing concern at the moment is making himself presentable to voters. He is busily involved in going through every negative factor and countering it. Thus he brings into government people from other political parties to counter the impression, both that he is Old Labour, and that he is a control freak.
What he doesn’t need, this side of a general election, is a lot of speculation over what way Scotland will vote in a referendum, because that only helps to remind voters that he is Scottish, as well as reminding them of the Barnett Formula and the West Lothian Question. All of which are the negative factors that he can do little about except keeping the whole thing as much under wraps as possible.
The other big headache, of course, is that Labour has reneged on its commitment to hold a referendum on the EU constitution. This issue could still play an important role in any forthcoming election. One can imagine how the press in England could start to make trouble for him if they chose to highlight his hypocrisy in denying a referendum on the new EU treaty, while agreeing to a referendum on Scottish independence, or extra powers to the Scottish Parliament.
What the SNP should do is put pressure on Labour to spell out exactly what their position is. Labour is in a mess on this. This may be an attempt to try to wrong-foot the SNP, but Labour has far more to lose on this one than the SNP. Labour’s attempts to present one face north of the border and another down south is likely to start coming apart sooner rather than later.
