Lorraine Davidson Wendy Alexander is many things - a politician is not one of them, as the events of the last 72 hours have proved. The plan to call the SNP's bluff by urging them to “bring on” a referendum on independence was ostensibly a good one. After months of Labour failing to land a glove on Alex Salmond and his team there was a glimmer of a bold strategy emerging, although it has to be said that it was, at best, oddly executed.

The Scottish Labour leader appeared on the BBC's Politics Show, where she was asked about speculation that she and Gordon Brown were set to change tact in an attempt to shoot the Nationalist fox. Ms Alexander began by stating that she would never announce such a plan on a BBC programme, before going on to do just that - leading to the inevitable charge of making policy on the hoof.

Instead of then claiming to be a bold politician capable of changing her mind and guiding us through the reasons why, she bizarrely argued that it had long been her view that Labour should call for an early referendum and that therefore it was not a U-turn on her part.

If you choose to buy that version of events, and there is some evidence to support it, then she is in essence admitting that she did not tell the truth in previous interviews in which she denounced that very tactic as being “not my politics”. Ms Alexander clearly believes that it is better to be exposed as someone who tells porkies than as a politician who performs U-turns.

The reason given for her failure to communicate her real feelings about a referendum was that she had to convince senior politicians at Westminster. So, displaying a complete lack of logic, she waits a year after Labour's election loss in Scotland, losing any momentum or potential to destabilise the new Nationalist administration, and makes an announcement despite it still not having the backing of the Prime Minister.

Over the past few months many senior Labour figures have called on the party to back a call for a referendum. Ms Alexander looks like a latecomer, creating the impression of being led rather than leading.

Her decision to announce a change in direction the weekend after Labour's disastrous showing in the English local government elections was terrible timing for Mr Brown and, as an experienced politician, Ms Alexander should have known that.

She won the leadership of Scottish Labour in part because she enjoyed the patronage of Gordon Brown and, as a result, some MSPs were too scared to vote against her.

Whether she will continue to enjoy this patronage has to be in doubt - even if her leadership is safe because, as with Mr Brown in London, there is no obvious replacement.

Labour's policy on a referendum is now a shambles, but it is clearly more likely to happen during the lifetime of this parliament.

If the Nationalists can turn the vote into a verdict on Labour it could be Wendy Alexander rather than Alex Salmond who becomes the midwife of independence.