"Are we the bad guys?"

The comedy programme "That Mitchell and Webb Look" featured a classic sketch a few years ago. Two German soldiers stand at their posts before dawn on the Eastern Front waiting for the Red Army to attack. One recites stirring propaganda formulae about the inevitable crushing defeat of their unworthy, dehumanised adversary at the hands of the superior German forces. However, the other hesitates in a rare moment of doubt, having considered some hard realities of the situation surrounding them, and turns to tentatively ask - "are we the bad guys?"

It's a good question for anyone with a shred of productive introspection to ask themselves. In particular, as the massed hordes of a Yellow Army of SNP activists stands poised on the brink of the official election campaign, threatening to overwhelm a poorly manned Labour outpost far from home, this is surely a question Labour in Scotland need to be asking themselves right now. Tribalistic loathing may lead Labour to regard the SNP as some species of untermench unworthy of serious consideration, and make them deeply entrenched in a position that ultimately they cannot hold, but this is surely the right time, certainly the last chance before disaster unfolds, to ask the unthinkable - "are we the bad guys?"

They need to consider this possibility if they hope to recover any of the ground they have lost in recent months and years. Having parked themselves in a commanding position in Scottish politics for over 60 years, there is little evidence that they have achieved anything at all, following the abject impotence of the Thatcher years, compliance with indefensible Blairite involvements in Iraq, slavish adherence to nuclear voodoo at Faslane and neo-liberal dogma at Westminster, all while child poverty rises and life expectancies fall in their own working class constituencies. They need to ask themselves - "are we the bad guys?"

If Labour want to avert defeat as crushing as the two hypothetical Germans in the comedy sketch were about to experience they need some thorough soul-searching and tough decisions. For example, it is likely that they would be in a much stronger position in Scotland today if they were a completely separate party in Scotland rather than merely an accounting unit of London Labour with the misleading moniker "Scottish Labour". They have a Scottish "leader" yet it is actually illegal for him to represent a separate set of policies to London Labour because they are the same party. When you are only following orders, it is also your duty to ask yourself - "are we the bad guys?"

As a separate party they would be capable of developing policies independent of London Labour, capable of being an acceptable coalition partner for Labour in Westminster, and could be led without interference by a left wing MSP like Neil Findlay untarnished by Iraqi misadventure, nuclear delusions, and the sort of unprincipled, transparent, power-hungry opportunism and cynical, simplistic misrepresentations and manipulations of Murphy, MacDougall, McTiernan and co. When you are reduced to blatantly lying to scare pensioners into voting for you, you need to ask yourself - "are we the bad guys?"

Would admitting this be too much of a capitulation for the party to stomach? Are they so consumed by lurid obsession with an obsolete constitutional arrangement? Are they so self-serving that they cannot be dissuaded by reason, but only by defeat? When crushing defeat is the only thing that will make you think again, you really need to ask yourself - "are we the bad guys?"