Labour’s Secret Weapon: Stupidity

I don’t think this is a very good idea:

Senior staffers in Ed Miliband’s office started briefing Scottish hacks last night that Miliband is now going to take a much more “hands on” approach to the campaign. Miliband has only made one, brief appearance in the campaign so far. But he and Ed Balls are due to be in Scotland this week to push a more strident “anti-independence” message.

I suppose it’s possible that this might resurrect Labour’s fortunes but it seems unlikely. And that’s partly because Labour have run such a drab, dreary, depressing campaign. Their principle approach to policy has been to thieve stuff from the SNP and rewrap it in Labour cloth, trusting that voters will think it belonged to Labour all along. At no point has Labour made much of a positive case for themselves.

That being so, it seems strange to conclude Labour’s problem is that it hasn’t been negative enough or has just targetted the wrong people. Apparently so:

In another desperate attempt to rescue the campaign, Scottish Labour today re-launched its campaign, ditching the theme of “vote Labour to oppose Tory cuts,” for a relentless anti-independence barrage.

I don’t understand this either. Labour tried this in 2007 and it didn’t work then. Why should it work now? Everyone knows that this isn’t an election about independence so, presumably, Labour are targetting easily-scared simpletons. No surprise there. Perhaps this is a big enough slice of the electorate to make a difference come polling day but even if so it’s not an especially edifying approach to take.

Because, again, independence is irrelevant. Everyone knows that there’s a “referendum lock” protecting the Union. That’s when the matter will, one day, be decided. All a Holyrood election can do is alter the political calculations governing when and in what circumstances such a referendum might be held (the legal matter is a different one and it’s not obvious Holyrood has the power to legislate for such a plebiscite).

If this is the best Labour have to offer – Miliband, Balls and a bogus anti-independence brief – then, crivvens, they’re in worse shape than I’d thought possible. A cheery thought, for once.