Looking for a back door…

Malcolm Chisholm and Iain Gray have been deployed by Wendy Alexander to spin their little heads off and try and argue that black is in fact white (Watch Newsnight Scotland on the BBC Iplayer and view Iain Gray’s performance in awe), in a valiant attempt to try and find a backdoor out of the referendum issue.

The latest wheeze from Labour is that they aren`t happy with the question the SNP would want to set in a referendum. They aren’t very clear on what it should be. But lets look at exactly what they have said on the matter.

Wendy herself has said that "I am very attracted to the idea of a straight choice for or against independence”.

After the Labour group meeting their spokesman Duncan McNeil MSP said “we are now in a position where, as a group, we will not vote down any Referendum Bill that comes into the Parliament”.

“will not vote down” – So it seems that Labour may be preparing to do what they did on the budget and abstain to allow the bill to pass but without giving it their formal backing. The pretext for abstaining and not voting in favour being issues such as the nature of the question – despite what Alexander has declared this week that she would like a straight choice for or against independence.