Imitation and Flattery
Alex Salmond must be chuckling to himself because the three opposition parties in Scotland - Labour, Tories and the Lib Dems - all ganged up to resist this measure in the last Scottish Parliament.
Now two of them are on board it seems - as far as the rest of the UK is concerned anyway.
So it will be interesting to see what happens now in Scotland.
Will Labour follow suit and admit that its knee-jerk opposition to a mimimum price on alcohol - was a really big mistake?
If so, that would be welcome too - a sign that Labour in Scotland is finally turning its back on 'opposition for opposition's sake'.
Punch and Judy politics has done immense damage to Labour in Scotland - its reputation and standing have plummeted in recent years - because the party's perceived interests have come first.
Not the interests of the people that Labour claims to represent.
Labour has been on the wrong side of the argument over equal pay - for example - way behind the curve as they say.
By looking the other way for many years - by refusing to make equal pay a priority - by not tackling the vested interests of the Labour-run councils - and vested interests of the Labour-supporting trade unions.
So maybe Labour will start doing the right thing - on the things that really matter to ordinary people - and pay less attention to what party activists think.
Because there is a big disconnnect between the two - as far as I can see the views of Labour and trade unions activists - are badly out of step with large numbers of the people they claim to represent.
But for things to change someone needs to stand up, speak out and capture the public's imagination - which requires courage, taking a few risks and showing real leadership.
