The above photograph was used on the front page of today's Scotsman, to illustrate a story on the SNP's willingness to freeze pay rises for top civil servants. The photograph serves no other purpose than to ridicule the First Minister, it's very clever, it appealed to my sense of humour, it's the sort of thing you'd expect to see on the pages of Private Eye. Not as the front cover on a National newspaper in a story addressing the effects of Labour's recession.
It served to remind me how little the Scotsman and Labour have moved on since May 2007. In Errol Morris' wonderful documentary 'The Fog of War', Robert McNamara, JFK's Secretary of Defence said that the first lesson in The Fog of War is to “Empathize with your enemy.” McNamara explained further: “We must try to put ourselves inside their skin and look at us through their eyes, just to understand the thoughts that lie behind their decisions and their actions.” Labour and the egotistical imaginations of the Scotsman have failed to learn this simple lesson.
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