Three-and-a-half years ago on these pages, writer and broadcaster David Torrance sparked some degree of fury by referring to the "Ulsterisation" of Scottish politics in the wake of the 2016 Scottish Parliament election results. The Tories had just returned a record result by riding the wave of Unionist sentiment, and the SNP had (despite losing its majority) returned another historically impressive result by scooping the near-half of the country who wanted independence.

Torrance offended the sensitivities of those who wished to point out our absence of bombs and guns, but that was not his point; his point was that both parties had exploited the overriding issue of the day and were consciously acting as magnets for a vote based on community identity, not on ideology.

Since Torrance first wrote it, Ulsterisation has been put into overdrive, with the Tories none-too-subtly targeting a Protestant, Rangers vote, and the SNP almost by default becoming a natural home of the Catholic Celtic supporter. These two melting pots, rather unedifyingly, have had global issues added to them (there are no shortage of Esteladas and Palestinian flags at your local All Under One Banner march).

What is missing here? Labour. Who would have thought, even five years ago, that the Labour Party would be neither the irresistible force nor the immovable object of Scottish politics? Yet here we are, and it is no small irony that the man who Torrance credited with first coining the "Ulsterisation of Scottish politics" phrase was Aiden Kerr, a then-broadcaster who went on to join Labour's communications effort.

The Labour Party, north and south of the border, is lying face-down in the dirt. It is faced with the stark choice of closing its eyes and dying, or opening them and understanding how to rehabilitate itself.

The party is in this position primarily for two reasons; a lack of leadership and a lack of relevance. The first of those is both the most obvious and instinctively should be the easiest to solve. Jeremy Corbyn has been calamitous for party and country; the toxic mix of suspicion about his loyalty to Britain, his indecisiveness on big issues like Brexit, his unconvincing reaction to the anti-Semitism crisis and his Marxism made him a figure of suspicion and despair amongst the mainstream, with his popularity limited to a cultist echo-chamber on Twitter.

Like most cults, it thinks the problem is the opposite of what it actually is, and so it appears almost inevitable that Labour is ready to repeat its mistake – to meet Einstein's definition of insanity by doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results – by elevating Corbyn's chosen successor to the role. Rebecca Long-Bailey is a gift for Boris Johnson, wrapped in sparkly blue paper and tied in a bow.

If she does win, Labour's moderate MPs have one decision to make, but for the purposes of this article I shall place that to one side. For the more urgent decision must be made by the party's MSPs who, 16 months from the Scottish election which is likely to result in a final decision on the second independence referendum, have no role and no relevance.

In order to get some, first Scottish Labour must accept its position and start to exploit it. In many ways, it still thinks and behaves like a large party, unable to understand the reality that it is no longer in either government or opposition. But it could exploit its position, particularly the position of not being one of the "Ulsterised" political poles.

For Labour's lack of relevance to the Scottish constitutional debate actually allows them to be far more nimble than either the SNP or the Tories; it allows them to change, radically and quickly. The centrepiece of that change must be to sever all ties with the UK Labour Party.

This is a change which is coming to all the pro-UK parties; it is a matter of time. The truth is that we collectively bungled the set-up of the Scottish Parliament, and if Holyrood had been populated by political parties of and for it, rather than limbs of their UK brethren, it is entirely possible that we would not be in the position in which we are. The Tories and Labour, in particular, recoil against accusations of being "branch offices", but having worked in that environment I know that the cold reality is that they are, re vera if not de facto.

Labour can gain a first mover advantage by shifting towards a Canadian model, whereby it creates a separate identity for itself (perhaps in alignment with the Scottish Lib Dems, although that is a discussion for another day), unique, Scottish, with none of London's baggage, and its own positions.

With it, the party has a significantly greater chance of creating a viable narrative on the key issue of the day in Scotland – independence. We should, by now, be past the point of seeing this as a short-term issue. It has been simmering for a 100 years, bubbling for 40 and boiling for 10, and whatever the result of the now-likely second independence referendum, its effects will remain with us for the rest of our lives. Scottish Labour can't sit this one out.

By creating its own, fully autonomous party and brand, Labour's MSPs can do what the SNP doesn't need to do, and what the Tories appear to be unable to do, which is to create the one solution to this conundrum that the Scottish people have consistently said they want but which has never been offered to them – the "something in the middle" option.

Thus far, the debate within Labour has been how to again be one of the poles. Instead, Labour must accept that this is a game it cannot win, and instead it should invent a new game. Instead of attempting to replace a pole, it should create a new one of its own.

Labour could be the antidote to the "Ulsterisation" of our politics which, as sure as night follows day, will in time repel and disgust a large swathe of the centre ground of Scotland's electorate. That is the future for Scottish Labour's MSPs. A party with unique and bespoke positions on the constitution, on the balance between fair taxation and enterprise, between environmental care and economic growth, between public service investment and public service reform.

In short, they could be a European-style social democratic party. And, in a post-indyref 2 environment, they could win again.

Andy Maciver is Director of Message Matters