Talking to Labour's demoralised Scottish army in Glasgow, as his party's collapse in Scottish polling predicts a wipeout north of the wall, Sir Keir Stamer decided to take the fight to Reform UK.
As well he might, given that In recent Scottish polls, Nigel Farage's new model people's army is a mere two points off Labour's heels, as well as overtaking them in the UK as a whole.
But Starmer, under the tutelage of Morgan McSweeney, has decided to build a political Maginot line by retreating behind what amounts to ancient lines of attack and defence. Importantly he is describing the electoral threat of Reform as "dangerous right-wing politics".
The problem he has is that yesterday's curse is fast-becoming tomorrow's battle cry. And just as the currency of threat that words such as "racist" have ceased to have an impact, so too does "far-right" or in this case "dangerous right".
These words have been overused and coming from the mouth of a Prime MInister whose ratings have already slid down a mountain, they have become meaningless.
On the very day that he is saying this, we learn that a grandmother had the Greater Manchester police force turning up at her door like a C&A clad Stasi for suggesting that a Labour councillor should resign. This is deeply authoritarian.
This follows the infamous arrests for hurty words highlighted by the likes of JD Vance and Farage. These arrests are the real threat to free speech but it was the victims of the arrests that were categorised as "far-right" by Starmer.
However, to him and his increasingly rudderless government, the far-right consists of anything a shade to the right of him.
Any suggestion that migration should be properly tackled effectively (rather than a quick video of half a dozen n'ere do wells being frog marched onto a plane for visa overstay) is far-right.
Believing that the Net Zero experiment being carried out by Ed Miliband on our lab rat nation is costing jobs and the economy is far-right. Supporting the concept of the family farm against the desire to financially crush them through inheritance tax is far-right.
Wanting lower taxation? Far-right. Thinking that there needs to be a fundamental overhaul of our education system and curriculum? Far-right. Opposing the creation of a grievance state through the imposition of ever stricter Politically Correct employment practices? Yes you guessed it: far-right.
Starmer, and Labour's problem, is that using yesterday's verbal weapons to fight tomorrow's battles just won't work. When a full quarter of the population now supports Reform, and Labour is desperate for those voters back, depicting them as hateful and far-right might not be the wisest move.
What the Prime Minister thinks of as far-right is seen, outside their own left-wing circles, as common sense. Today he, to the vast majority of people in the country, represents extremism.
Stripping pensioners of their winter fuel allowance is extreme, handing £500 million to farmers abroad while crucifying our own, is extreme. Doubling down on Net Zero policies when the costs of energy in the UK is already the highest in the world by some degree, that is extreme. Exporting jobs and livelihoods across the world is extreme.
Politicising education, rather than allowing what was beginning to be successful policies take root, is extreme. Handing over British sovereign territory to an ally of China, and paying £19 billion for the privilege, that too is extreme.
Across the whole gamut of government, this Labour Party has taken extreme and ideological positions. Economic confidence is collapsing, thoughts are being policed, jobs are being discarded, the NHS is buckling, the old are freezing.
Starmer may get a little hollow applause on the Clyde today, but to the rest of the country he is looking desperate. And as his government continues to tank, and as Reform continues to surge, he just doesn't seem to understand why. Worse than that, he doesn't understand that denouncing everyone unhappy with his regime as "dangerously right-wing" only serves as a powerful recruiting sergeant for Farage.
