Napoleon’s strategy of the centre has, rightly, become military gospel.
With an inevitably smaller force, the French Emperor consistently put his army in the middle of two or more larger opponents.
This allowed him to fight and, usually, defeat each army in turn, rather than facing an overwhelming combined force.
And Napoleon enjoyed tremendous success with this strategy of the centre – until, of course, Blucher turned up rather more quickly than expected at Waterloo.
Kezia Dugdale’s strategy of the left is, alas, despite her valiant and earnest efforts, unlikely to enjoy such longevity.
Designed to outflank the SNP by being more “progressive” – the rather tedious buzzword of the debate – she has in fact left herself open for attack on all fronts.
Nicola Sturgeon can assault her (metaphorically of course – the debate was not that exciting) as being irresponsible, even reckless, by wanting to raise tax.
The SNP leader now has free run of the centre ground – nicer than the Tories, more responsible than Labour.
While she can rightly be accused of hypocrisy by backing a 50p higher rate of tax but not introducing one, the sense is she is just too personally popular for this to make a real difference in the campaign.
Facing such an attack from the centre – Labour’s natural home for the last twenty or more years – Ms Dugdale turned to find her other line of attack – saving the Union – cut off by the Tories.
As the constitutional debate – rather unfortunately for Scottish politics, it has to be said – rumbles on, Ruth Davidson has carefully positioned her party as the party of a United Kingdom.
It could be argued that this is a high-risk strategy. By focusing the debate largely on constitutional terms, Ms Davidson – who performed in truth more poorly than she would have liked – hopes to unseat Labour as the official opposition, making the future of Britain the dividing line in the next Scottish Parliament.
This might make tactical sense given Ms Dugdale, in a bid to win back voters from the SNP, has removed the party whip on campaigning for independence, effectively weakening Labour’s pro-Union credentials – although she was emphatic tonight that her party’s manifesto would block any bid for a second referendum.
But Ms Davidson has also given Ms Dugdale a get out of jail free card by talking up her chances of becoming leader of the main opposition. That is, Ms Dugdale only needs to come second to appear victorious.
As the debate wound down, Ms Dugdale was probably the overall winner.
But it was clear Mses. Sturgeon and Davidson felt they had the best night. That is because the strategy of the left, unlike the strategy of the centre, is failing to yield results electorally.
Scottish Labour need a Blucher to arrive – and quickly. Despite Ms Dugdale’s valiant efforts tonight, that seems unlikely.