Murphy's Law - anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Given the name of Scottish Labour's new leader, it was only a matter of time before some unimaginative hack brought up this old adage. I hereby claim the honour.

I did hesitate though. Isn't the term derived from some anti-Irish stereotype? However, according to Wikipedia, Murphy was a 1940s American aircraft engineer who blamed experimental failures on a technician's wiring. "If there's any way to do it wrong, he will."

Or it could be the misremembering - another thing going wrong - of De Morgan, the name of the 19th century mathematician credited with the first formal statement of the Law.

One explanation or the other. Wikipedia's never wrong, is it?

So Jim Murphy - the new leader of Scottish Labour. What could go wrong? Just about everything, you might think.

His remarkably speedy political transformation doesn't suggest a well-thought out, risk-free strategy guaranteed to reduce errors to a minimum.

Once, he was a Westminster Establishment man, estimated to have claimed over £1 million in expenses between 2001 and 2012. Once, he was so dedicated to the UK that in 2009, according to WikiLeaks, he led a coalition of Unionist politicians dedicated to blocking an independence referendum in Scotland.

Now, a proud veteran of the referendum campaign with the egg-stained shirt and ginger-scarred crate to prove it. Now, an advocate of devo-max(ish), sort of.

Once a mainstay of London Labour. Now the braveheart Scottish leader who has declared UDI from UK headquarters.

"No-one will tell me what to do," he says. Asked if his call for Holyrood to have full income tax powers had been approved by Miliband and Balls, Murphy declared they could "read it in the papers like everyone else."

Once a devotee of Tony Blair and a chief lieutenant of David Miliband's leadership campaign. Now a new broom. New Labour? That, he mumbles, is a twenty-year-old tag, best consigned to history.

Once a right-winger in economics and social policy. Now he's ditched Blairite notions of "aspiration." Instead, he's talking social justice and advocating progressive taxation with a 50p top rate. Teetotaller he might be, but Murphy's fairness now includes re-introducing alcohol at football grounds.

Once a leading supporter of university tuition fees. Now, when asked about the situation in Scotland, he comes over all delphic. Education policy, he says, is devolved. "We have free tuition here in Scotland already. The best of both worlds."

To be fair to Murphy, he hasn't shifted his position yet on defence and foreign policy. He's still a hawk: pro-USA as global policeman, pro-Israel, pro-Iraqi war, pro-Trident. He remains a leading member of the neo-con Henry Jackson Society. Maybe he thinks he doesn't need to change. After all, in his politics, these matters are London's business, not Scotland's.

Some of his Labour comrades though seem less than convinced about new Jim's re-invention of himself as the saviour of the Scottish people.

Relations with Ed Miliband are frosty. Len McCluskey declared his election a disaster for Labour and the trade unions. Just when New Jim's discovering socialism, his old mentor Tony Blair urges UK Labour to return to the political centre.

Unkinder souls question Murphy's motives. He's always been a very ambitious politician. His star was on the wane at Westminster. In Ed Miliband's One Nation Labour, he was increasingly seen as one of the Blairite old guard. In 2013, he was demoted from Shadow Defence Secretary to the brief for International Development.

Scottish Labour's troubles provided him with a new opportunity for advancement. Even in his own party, some think he began positioning himself for the leadership role while Johann Lamont was still in the job. In this scenario, his well-publicised tub-thumping tour of Scotland - no shared platforms with Tories - was less about his enthusiasm for the Union than a three-month job interview presentation.

But political ambition doesn't necessarily exclude positive achievement. There is sense in Murphy's current pitch. Many support the Yes side because they believe it's the only way to create a just society in Scotland. For this constituency, social democracy is more important than independence. New Jim's transformation - whether from self-interest or conviction - is designed to win them back to Scottish Labour.

It will be very interesting if Murphy's strategies fail and the Scottish electorate become convinced that the kind of country they want can only be achieved through independence. Will he go down with the sinking ship?

Or could he possibly envisage a future for himself as the leader of the Left in an independent Scotland? The Blairite elected to save the Union becomes prime minister of a sovereign Scotland. His place in the history books assured. He certainly has the ambition and the brass neck for it.

And wouldn't that outcome be just the most perfect, the very sweetest illustration of Murphy's Law?