Some things in political life we just have to grin and bear and the unscrupulous readiness of oponents to rejoice in any of our difficulties is only to be expected. So do not be unduly upset by the fact that Signor Prodi has given his opinion that any European region, now an independent country, would have to apply for admission to the European Union as if it were an outsider starting from scratch. He has given one opinion; others might advise differently. His opinion was a spur of the moment response which might well be corrected following reflection and discussion. He might merely be wrong, and several of our colleagues with expertise in such matters have already challenged his view.

It is a pity that Signor Prodi, who has been an influence for good in the political life of his own country, should have been tricked into making his remarks. Being used to countering merely the effronteries of Signor Berlusconi he is innocently unprepared to deal with the sleekit unrelenting malice of British Labour. George Cunningham who ruined the second devolution attempt - David Steel ruined the first - now has a successor to share his fame in Mr Eluned Morgan.

Do you remember when you were children how there was always someone whose main pleasure in games and sports arose from forcing long arguments about the rules of the game, usually holding up play in the meantime? You perhaps also have had experience, come election time, of Labour's fascination with the precise date when a prospective candidate can be described as a "candidate"? or with the positioning of the printer's name on a leaflet? or how many feet away from the polling station a poster must be placed? or if the polling place is the playground, the school, the school hall or merely the classroom? or if a rosette is to be banned within the polling place, however defined, at all times, or only if a photo of the candidate is unwisely stuck to its centre? A Labour activist, on form, can make arguments about off-side and penalties seem like the purest logic.

What this latest nonsence really tells us is that it is all just part of the great game whose objective is total and permanent Labour monopoly of power in so far as it can be achieved. Signor Prodi, in relation to the Labour Party, doesn't know what he is talking about. And so, when Labour MPs and MSPs tumble chuckling over one another to quote his opinion to our discomfiture, let's just smile, admit that in their position we'd be tempted to seek advantage too, and remind everyone, including ourselves, that "they would say that, wouldn't they"?

As if with a double-barrelled weapon Labour's campaign has delivered a second volley, this time to re-invent the Co-operative Party in full separate panoply, to become the receptacle for Labour's second votes when the next Scottish election is held. If the plot works, it will help Labour to move towards its Promised Land shaking off in passing the nusiance of the Liberal fig leaf. We can bear the prospect of Liberal pain of course but must stand ready to do all we can to preserve the hope that local government may still be cleansed through the ending of the existing voting system.

These thoughts arise with the European Parliamentary elections a month away. As we have already, recently, pointed out, our record and reputation in this theatre stand high, and current opinion polls suggest that this remians so. The one factor remaining is organisation. Become prepared and turn out.