THEY think it's all over. The Yougov poll yesterday that put the SNP back up to seven points ahead in both the constituency and the list votes was a serious blow to Labour morale. If the SNP is managing to maintain its advantage going into the home straight, Labour is facing defeat for the first time in half a century.

So, what can be done? How could Labour win the Holyrood election? Here is a 10-point plan for victory.

Take out Tony. On his visit to Scotland this week, Tony Blair should say that he wants to end the uncertainty over his future, which is damaging the country and his party, and announce a firm timetable for his departure.

We all know he's going anyway, so why doesn't the PM just spell it out? Tony Blair should bring forward his resignation announcement, pencilled in for May 9 and use it to transform the Scottish campaign.

Press coverage would change over night, as the media started to look back on the career of the most electorally successful leader Labour has ever had. Scottish voters would no longer have a reason to kick him out the door. The paradox is that the Prime Minister is personally popular in Scotland at the same time as importing negatives such as Iraq and cash for honours into the Scottish campaign.

Hail Gordon! Gordon Brown would then be able to command the stage as the entire UK media became focussed on his future plans and his likely cabinet. David Miliband joins his campaign. Brown would let it be known that the future lies in the hands of a new generation of younger ministers, including Scots such as Douglas Alexander.

Let Jack be Jack. This would leave space for Jack McConnell to take over the campaign in Scotland. So far, it has been dominated by the media presence of Brown and Blair, the big guns, and the First Minister has been looking like the tea boy. McConnell has actually been working very hard in this campaign, and there is evidence that he goes down well with Labour voters. Labour fail to realise that by making McConnell look small they make Scotland look small.

Fix the constitution. Probably the worst mistake Gordon Brown made early in the campaign was to rule out any further powers for the Scottish parliament. This flies in the face of constitutional reality because, as McConnell himself pointed out at the weekend, the parliament is in practice acquiring more powers as it goes along, such as over rail.

Brown should announce that there is to be a grand constitutional review or convention established in 2009 to review the first decade of devolution in Wales, Scotland and, crucially, England. I can't understand why Labour hasn't done this before; it doesn't commit them to anything. With reform of the Lords inevitable, and the West Lothian Question looking for an answer, there is a very strong case for sitting down and looking at how the new British constitution is working. It would kill the constitutional issue in this election stone dead.

A Unionist referendum. Brown could also hint that, if the constitutional review proposes radical changes to the constitution, they could be put to the people of Scotland in a referendum. The best way to marginalise the SNP would be to force it to participate in a referendum that is not of its choosing and serves to marginalise the policy of independence.

Yesterday's poll confirmed that formal independence - separation of Scotland from the rest of the UK - has very little support in Scotland: only 22% said they favoured it, while more than 80% of Scots say they want to see Holyrood's powers enhanced.

Diss the dividend. The SNP has transformed the debate on the Scottish economy by spelling out that the so-called "union dividend", the Scottish budgetary deficit of £11.9bn, is actually a measure of failure not success.

It a symptom of Scotland's poor economic growth, which has lagged behind the UK average for two generations. Labour should steal the SNP's idea of setting a growth target for the Scottish economy of 2.5-3% and pledge to wipe out the deficit in a generation. The energies of government, north and south of the border, should be devoted to developing and expanding the Scottish economy instead of simply harvesting London subsidies. This is very much in the spirit of the Chancellor's work ethic. There is nothing nationalist in saying that Scotland needs more enterprise and fewer handouts.

A Scottish Economic Council. Labour could steal another SNP idea and set up an advisory council of the great and the good, including many of the businessmen that the SNP is going to unveil this week as supporters of their cause. Bring them all in, Farmer, Midwinter, Mathewson, and have them draw up a blueprint for growth. They may all disagree, or they may actually provide useful advice. The problem now is that the Scottish Executive is so lacking in imagination no-one trusts it to do the business.

Exit Iraq. The Labour former Scottish Secretary, Helen Liddell, of all people, has said the war on terror is a misnomer. The Development Secretary, Hilary Benn, says it can't be won. Brown should make clear where he stands on the issue, by echoing the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group's call for a regional peace conference, involving Iran and Syria. Of course, foreign policy should not be dictated by electoral expediency - but the sooner Brown makes the break with the past, the better.

Fast Unionism. Brown could pledge to bring Scotland and England closer together by reviving plans for a fast rail link between Scotland and London. Transport is a constitutional as well as an economic issue. It should be the right of every Scot to visit his family in England quickly and cheaply. This would demonstrate that unionism is about more than flags andfootball.

There is no point ten, except the willingness to win. Of course, it would be difficult for Labour to make these abrupt changes. It may be that it is too late and Scots have decided that they want a change from the indifferent leadership they have been receiving. But if Labour wants to prevent the SNP gaining a foothold on power, they may have to do something radical.

There is nothing in this programme that would compromise the integrity of the union. It would simply bring Labour back into line with mainstream Scottish opinion, where it should have been all along.

Think of it as a belated tribute to the late Donald Dewar's promise that devolution was a process, not an event.