The First Minister's poker face

In American football parlance, it might be termed a Hail Mary play. The SNP government in Scotland, facing a general election in May and trailing Labour by up to ten points in the polls, are now betting the electoral house on perhaps the most contentious issue in current British politics: education.

Four years of grinding political hackery at Holyrood and a weak majority propped up by an uneasy confidence-and-supply partnership with the Greens have sapped much of the momentum that so energised the SNP's 2007 campaign. The independence agenda, for so long the sacred touchstone of that party's political platform and the defining feature of their political identity, has been stalled by a towering wall of cross-party opposition in Parliament and a surprisingly ambivalent public. So it is on education that First Minister Alex Salmond and his party must stake their claim and make their stand.

The Scottish Government's ambitiously-titled green paper on higher education, 'Building a Smarter Future', lays out a smorgasbord of options, and draws few steadfast conclusions. On only one issue is the report particularly decisive: it refuses to countenance the introduction of tuition fees for Scottish students. In this, the green paper might be seen as a triumphant defence of the democratic intellect. But in most other respects, this is a report which feigns energy while tactfully reserving judgement.

This election has the potential to be a referendum on four difficult years of SNP government, and it seems that Mr Salmond & co. are being uncharacteristically coy on the very issue which may come to define the campaign. By forcing the issue to the top of the agenda, Mr Salmond is coaxing his opponents into placing their political cards on the table without laying out a steadfast position of his own.

The government have played it safe by promising to continue free higher education for home students, who are more politically invigorated now than they have been in years. But more importantly, they have thrown down a gauntlet before the other Scottish parties: state your position, or risk being seen as laissez-faire in the eyes of the electorate. It's very canny politics, but little help in answering the question presently worrying many Scottish voters: what are we going to do about higher education?