If You Can't Beat Em.....
After all, why go to all the bother of forcing your own ideas down people's throats - especially if they're unpopular - when it's so much easier to steal someone else's clothes?
In case you hadn't heard - Labour is now in favour of a council tax freeze in Scotland - having spent recent years saying that this was an outrage - a denial of local democracy and that councils should be free to raise local taxes.
But ahead of the Scottish Parliament elections in May - Labour has decided to stand on its head - because in the battle of ideas the party is running scared of the SNP.
Likewise on tuition fees - Labour policy up until now has been to support a graduate contribution of some kind - and that's certainly what Ed Miliband stands for as UK Labour party leader.
What about abolishing NHS prescription charges - Labour used to argue that keeping prescription charges for those who could afford to pay meant more money for NHS services - but what is their position is now?
The same is true about Labour's 'double dealing' over the release of the Lockerbie bomber.
Labour in Scotland said the decision was an outrage - but we now know that the Gordon Brown and the Labour government in Westminster - was 'doing everything possible' to secure al Megrahi's release.
So it seems that the old saying - 'If you can't beat them, join them' - has won out as the election draws near.
Now that may gain Labour some short-term political advantage - who knows? - but in the longer run it simply confirms that the Scottish party is intellectually bankrupt.
Personally speaking, I don't support several flagship SNP policies - yet I've no incentive to vote for the Labour party in Scotland - if all they end up doing is agreeing with their SNP opponents.
That's not political leadership, that's political opportunism - and any government built on such a philosophy, such weak foundations - cannot survive in the longer-term.
