Something kept nagging at the back of our minds as we read today’s front-page lead story in Scotland On Sunday about a battle between finance secretary John Swinney and a number of Scottish councils.

And then we remembered what it was.

The row centred around Swinney’s plan to impose on councils a commitment to pay social care workers the living wage of £8.25 per hour, whether they were employed by the councils directly or private sector contractors.

The article notes that:

It then goes on to extensively quote Willie Young, finance committee convenor of the Labour-controlled Aberdeen City Council, on the subject:

The short version of that is that according to Young, it’s impossible for Swinney to impose a living-wage requirement on the hiring of care workers because it’d be in breach of EU laws, and every council in Scotland would resist the move in courts.

Which is all well and good, except that the party Mr Young represents appears to hold a rather different view.

For over a year and a half, and as recently as this morning (via deputy leader Alex Rowley on the BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland), Scottish Labour have been stridently insisting that the Scottish Government COULD impose exactly such a requirement, and railing furiously against its explanations that it was impossible for exactly the reasons which are now being cited as true by Scottish Labour councils.

The branch office’s tame newspaper, the Daily Record, added its tuppence-worth back in May 2014 when a Labour proposal to that effect was voted down in Holyrood:

The Scottish Labour website “slammed” the SNP at the time for their “hypocrisy” in blocking the proposal, with spokesman James Kelly MSP calling it “utterly spineless” and demanding that the Nats “grow a backbone”.

Given that his party now appear to have completely reversed that position and are threatening to take John Swinney to court if he does the exact thing they wanted him to do just 19 months ago, we must confess ourselves confused as to what Labour’s official policy now is. If anyone can clear the matter up for us, we’d be very grateful.