Alexander's woes

The Alexander Technique is a popular hands-on alternative therapy defined as working to inhibit "harmful personal habits" that interfere with the functioning of the whole self. It involves a process of blocking one's "too quick and unthinking reactions". The Labour leader at Holyrood seemed bent on inventing her own version last week. The Wendy Alexander technique seems to consist of something approaching the opposite of the original. It appears to involve throwing caution to the wind and precipitating a huge internal wrangle in her own ranks by spontaneously and unilaterally ditching her party's opposition to a referendum on Scottish independence and urging the SNP to "bring it on".