Referendum joins the election campaign

The Scottish government has devised a new strategy designed to protect their plans for an independence referendum from being killed off at Holyrood.
New perhaps for the BBC, I blogged on it over a week ago:

First Minister Alex Salmond will put forward a bill for a referendum in draft form only, BBC Scotland can reveal.

This would allow the consultation process to be prolonged up to and beyond the UK general election.

He hopes opposition parties might then allow the referendum to take place.

Fat chance of that last one but I still think it's clever tactics, keep the question in the public realm during the election; if the SNP do well than expected it'll obviously be sold as the electorate's endorsement for the referendum. If the SNP do less well, Salmond's lost nothing.

But Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray accused the Scottish government of a "humiliating climb down" over the referendum, and accused Scottish ministers of "running scared" on their plans for a referendum.

He's (theoretically) bypassing the politicians and appealing directly to the voters, so hardly running scared.

Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie said the first minister's move was a "desperate attempt to divert attention from the troubles swamping his government".

I hardly think the decision to delay is going to be the main topic of conversation in the pubs tonight; when it comes to General Election time, it may well be.

As I said before, I think he's pulled a fly one off here and the Unionist parties have once more been left flailing in his wake.