What’s become of the Labour Party? It may seem strange for a lifetime opponent to be lamenting their current travails. However, as with so many Scots, Labour was my parents' party for a long time. My father was one of the supporters they lost. Growing up in the 1920s and 1930s in the lea of Polmaise Colliery, he witnessed the deprivation in the mining communities; and experienced rural poverty when every summer visiting family in the Western Isles. Both, those areas were once staunch Labour until switching to the SNP.

Accessing higher education through a scholarship, he arrived at university as war was dawning. He joined the Officer Training Corps, resulting in his military service as a Lieutenant in Europe and North Africa. On his death I recall receiving a poignant letter from someone who had served with him. It told how my father had been one of the few officers in their battalion overjoyed at the Labour victory in 1945.

It remained his party for many years, as they sought to build a more prosperous country for all and pursue peace for future generations. However, as the governments of Wilson, then Callaghan ran into social and economic difficulties and the party lost its way on the Scottish constitutional question, he moved to the SNP. Others can tell a similar tale of their fathers' political conversion. It’s a journey made by countless voters, north of the Border. What started as a gentle flow became a torrent after 2014. Many would claim it was Labour that left them, rather than them leaving Labour.

Moreover, I have reason to be grateful to that Labour Government which my father celebrated in 1945. Not just the welfare state and NHS; even university without tuition fees and with a grant, until New Labour pulled up the ladder for coming generations, was their legacy.

Hence, whilst I’ve been hugely critical of recent and some past Labour governments I’ve never sought to attack the contribution of that administration and the political giants that created the party. They deserve recalling and respect. Both Tom Johnston in government and Jack Kane in Craigmillar for example are rightly revered. Numerous others have and still do contribute greatly in communities across the land. But, Labour now trail the Tories in Scotland and are in crisis across the UK. A party so tied in with the history of modern Scotland is in danger of fading into its past.

Labour can, though, still play a significant role in Scotland’s future. But, to do that it has to change. Moreover, it’s not ditching Corbyn that’s needed but abandoning the policies of their parliamentary party who are trying to oust him. They’ve positioned the party against the interests of the very people they were established to protect. In the housing schemes of Scotland, it’s not Corbyn that’s despised but the stance they took in the referendum on independence; along with the contempt they’re held in for other more recent actions, whether PFI or the Iraq war.

If Labour is to revive then it needs to reconnect with its voters. I’m no fan of Corbyn but his personality isn’t the issue. The attempt to oust him is by those who created the policies of New Labour. They’ve failed not just in Scotland, but south of the Border as the votes in the EU referendum in former Labour heartlands in northern England showed. They need to re-engage with voters north of the Border who feel betrayed and south of it who feel marginalised by globalisation and the legacy not just of Thatcher but Blair.

There are some obvious steps they can take in Scotland as well as rejecting the New Labour coup at Westminster. Firstly, they become a separate political party from their UK colleagues. The political cultures are different as the EU referendum showed. Until they do that they will face the interference former leader Johann Lamont complained of and contempt from the electorate for being London’s poodle. Secondly, they should embrace Federalism, as well as reserve their position on Independence. That shouldn’t be too hard as Home Rule, after all, was championed by the likes of Jimmy Maxton and Mr Johnston. It should be about reclaiming their history. It has to be significant powers though not a sop. Thirdly, they could have their colleagues in their sister party in England tone down their hostility towards the SNP.

Comparing the SNP with Ukip as some in UK Labour have done is not only factually wrong but insulting to the 50 per cent of Scottish voters who support them.

Do that and they have a chance of a part in Scotland’s future, fail and they will become part of Scotland’s history.