Iain Gray's Remarkable No-Man Band

Meanwhile, STV have a poll asking punters who they think would make the best First Minister. The results are almost entertaining:

Don’t Know – 37% Alex Salmond – 30% None of Them – 16% Annabel Goldie – 9% Iain Gray – 7% Tavish Scott – 2%

Remember that the same poll has Labour and the SNP neck and neck (38% to 37% on the constituency vote and 35% each on the list vote) and so, by my calculations, fewer than one in five Labour voters will tell pollsters their so-called leader is the best man to head the government after this election.

Mr Gray complains that the SNP are a “one-man band” which is reasonable enough even if one suspects he’d have been out-polled by Nicola Sturgeon too. But even if he is correct he merely invites the observation that his own party is a no-man band. If there’s a consolation for Mr Gray it must be that his ratings can only improve; if there’s a problem for Labour it is that little in Mr Gray’s record suggests his problem is really that the public don’t know who or what he is.