The referendum was a Pyrrhic victory for Scottish Labour.
A No vote was secured, but Labour heartlands such as Glasgow and North Lanarkshire backed independence.
However, the migration of Labour voters to the SNP cause was symptomatic of a longer-term decline.
Labour lost narrowly to the Nationalists in the 2007 Holyrood election, took a hammering four years later, and were outpolled by the SNP at this year's European parliament poll.
The latest opinion poll for Holyrood puts Labour 15% behind the SNP on the constituency vote, an incredible finding given that Alex Salmond's party has been in power for seven years.
These alarming figures show why the decision of senior Labour activists to produce a radical blueprint for change is long overdue. The members call for a series of ambitious measures: a party name change; a commitment to home rule; full internal autonomy; and a commitment not to join the Tories in another pro-Union campaign.
While organisational change is vital, carving out a bold policy agenda is of greater importance.
It is difficult to remember the last time Scottish Labour produced a policy that captured the imagination of voters. The ban on smoking in public places had that effect, but that was eight years ago.
Personnel is another problem. Scottish Labour has talented members, but too few have been selected as party candidates.
The blueprint, to be discussed next weekend, will not provide a magic cure for Labour's ills, but it could be the beginning of a much-needed conversation.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article