A small contingent of MPs verbally somewhat open to the notion of Independence would probably have done wonders in preventing the cataclysm of 2015.
That's the key point of the past twelve months if there ever was one. Was Labour really telling the public that despite the fact that anything from 20-35% of their own voters voted 'Yes' that not one sitting MP, MSP or even councillor of note were with them? Not one? Even during the old devolution campaigns you could identify Labourites of note who were against or not particularly warm to the idea of devolution as it waxed and waned as Labour's official policy. And that, even with Labour's extreme centralising tendencies, was okay.
The referendum campaign elevated Labour in Scotland for the first time into a publicly 'Unionist' party despite never being that (and to it's credit, Labour helped keep a lid on potential Ulster style schisms over the past 100 years appealing to the Labour movement which did transcend religious divisions) and essentially 'holed' itself amongst it's core west central Scotland 'Catholic' vote (which it got 50+% of even in 2007) The 'biggest of the big' swings against Labour were in these seats; West Dumbartonshire, Glasgow NE and SW, Coatbridge, Motherwell etc.
If Scottish politics re-orientates itself along civic (rather than religious) Nationalist/Unionist lines, then Labour are going to struggle because it has to pick one of those faces after loosing it's core constituency and mindful that it needs to get them back.
The fact that Scottish Labour's new 'heartlands' are Morningside not Leith and Newton Mearns not Barrhead is damning.
