We are watching

It's simple.

If Labour want to recover in Scotland so badly, all they have to do is just stop being such utterly unprincipled opportunistic hypocrites.

The Forth Road Bridge. Tory anti-union legislation. The list goes on: every consequence of Labour complacency in office; every Tory affront that emerges from the very institution Labour campaigned shoulder-to-shoulder with the Tories to preserve. All become merely opportunities for Labour to bleat "SNP Baaad".

It remains transparent that all they care about is their own hegemony. The only consideration that motivates them to contribute to Scottish politics is still just their thwarted sense of entitlement.

They must show some humility, break the habit of their arrogance, admit they were wrong about the referendum, and begin the long rebuilding process with the aim of eventually offering the electorate a realistic option in an Independent Scotland.

The alternative is oblivion.

No-one is pretending the SNP are perfect. But one thing the referendum achieved irreversibly was to decouple Scottish Independence as an idea from the contingencies of a particular party's political fortunes. It is no longer the case that you can undermine the credibility of Independence by questioning the competence of the SNP. And for this reason, Scottish Independence is now inevitable, irrespective of which party forms the Scottish Government.  

So I hope you will bear with me if, as Hilary Benn might say, I "direct my closing remarks" to Labour in Scotland.

You could be part of this picture. Your efforts in opposition could be constructive and a positive advert for future efforts as a government.

But instead we sit here watching you defending Westminster as it ties the Scottish Government's hands, then attacking the Scottish Government as it struggles to fight back against its onslaughts as a result.

And there is only one thing worse than a bully, and that's the coward that mocks the bully's victims.

We are watching and we don't forget.