Bringing it on herself

WENDY Alexander is correct. Now there's a phrase you won't have heard much in the past week: seven brutal days in which Labour's Holyrood leader found herself at the centre of a political storm after demanding a snap referendum on independence; a week in which she was pilloried because of the way she declared that change in policy.

Alexander has many faults and her eight months in charge of Scottish Labour have been marked by uncertainty, cack-handed presentation and a dodgy donations scandal, which she survived by the skin of her teeth. Even so, to repeat, in principle she is correct on this particular issue.

For almost a year this newspaper has been calling for the referendum to be brought forward from the current target date of 2010. We continue to make that demand because we want to end the uncertainty and give Scotland – and particularly business investors – a clear view of where we are going as a nation. Our view has been backed by CBI Scotland and by Sir Tom Hunter.

Alexander was a late convert to the cause, and she embraced it for political reasons. She saw it as a way to outflank Alex Salmond, who has been admirably open that he wants to prove that the SNP is fit to govern before he takes the independence question to the people. The First Minister has quite rightly emphasised that this was his promise in last year's SNP manifesto, and the sense of his approach is demonstrated in each opinion poll which shows increasing support for independence – and in every gaffe which dents confidence in Labour. If both trends continue, in two years there could be a stampede to vote yes for separation. The problem is the harm done to Scotland in the meantime.

As CBI Scotland director Iain McMillan said last week, the independence question is a "boil on Scotland's neck that needs lanced". Alexander was right to try to speed up that process, but her intervention was so badly handled that she merely damaged her own side. Most dramatically, she landed her boss in it, and her relationship with Gordon Brown may never recover. Some Labour MPs, jittery about their own seats, are furious that she tried to bounce the Prime Minister into backing a plan they disagree with. And while most of Alexander's MSPs still support her, this is only because their own necks are on the line. .

In fact, no senior Labour figure emerges from this sorry affair with any credit. Certainly not Alexander, whose clumsy methods have had the opposite of the intended effect: it is now almost impossible for an early referendum to take place. Which means that the constitutional uncertainty will continue for another two years – and when it does happen it will be on Salmond's terms and at the time of his choosing.

As for Brown, his role has been disastrous, once again. It is impossible not to conclude that his notorious prevarication played a part in this week's confusion. Moreover, once the rest of the UK started to wake up to the row and questioned the Prime Minister's ability to run anything if he could not control his own back yard, he came over all Stalinist. Having distanced himself from Alexander earlier in the week, this weekend he ordered her to make the row go away. In other words, London Labour gagged Alexander, put her in her place, told her what to do.

This was not done in the interests of Scotland or even the UK, but in the narrow interests of the Prime Minister. With a general election in early 2010 already looking like a grim prospect, the last thing he needed was embarrassment north of the border. His crude intervention may be too late. Right now, it is hard to see Brown recovering in time to beat the Tories, which could further help Salmond's case for independence later that year.

As this newspaper has long said, there is nothing to fear from independence, if that is the will of the Scottish people. But instead of a focused period of considered argument followed by a vote on Scotland's future later this year or in the spring, we face 28 months of uncertainty. Like the outcome of the vote on independence itself, the timing of the referendum should be about what is in the best long-term interest of Scotland. Not a consequence of the incompetence of squabbling Labour politicians.