Scottish Lib Dems re-position themselves

They're going for no nuclear power, man. The Scotsman reports that Ming has 'thrown down the gauntlet' to Labour who support the development of new power stations in Scotland.

It's part of a re-packaging they're doing; getting all nationalist. Ming was talking about the need for a new constitutional convention - the last one that drew up the proposals for a devolved Parliament. He says there are "anomalies" in the present settlement. You know, the one they helped to draw up.

Plus with Ming, they'll be pushing in an 'Orangist' neoliberal direction:

"In a move which appeared to align him with the more right-of-centre thinkers in the party, Sir Menzies told the conference: "The pace of social, economic and environmental change is without precedent. Consolidation and caution will not be an adequate response, either for our country or our party."

Using language reminiscent of New Labour, Sir Menzies added: "Liberal Democracy cannot be a struggle between those who wish to modernise and those who do not. To be a Liberal Democrat is to be a moderniser"."

Translation: Listen, you sandal-wearing freaks, if we ever want to form a government, we've got to drop all this hippy crap, and go for hard-nosed neoliberalism. Grrrr!

Of course all this fluttering their eyelashes at the Nationalists and the Greens (who are also nationalists in Scotland) would have nothing to do with the fact that they defeated Labour in the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election with a completely unscrupulous campaign that sought to blame the Labour candidate for policies that were the responsibility of the Scottish Executive, would it?

It took a special kind of chutzpah for the Liberal candidate to blame his Labour opponent for policies that had been the responsibility of the Minister for Transport - who is a bleedin' Liberal Democrat! The Scottish Labour Party, understandably, have had just about enough of their slippery behaviour - this being merely a particularly egregious example of a general pattern where Scottish Lib Dems take credit for any successes of the Executive, but refuse to take any responsibility when things go wrong.

I saw Ming on the telly spouting some pious crap about there being a need for a principled opposition in Scotland. Yeeees, I dare say - but your lot so far have failed both of these criteria: they aren't the opposition, and they have no principles.

Ming: "You show me your proposals for fiscal autonomy and I'll show you mine".