THE question on Labour supporters' minds today should be: when does disarray become disintegration?

Gordon Brown is in a mess at Downing Street and Wendy Alexander is blundering all over the place in Scotland.

The fiasco over the "bring it on" referendum comment by Ms Alexander reveals a lack of any cohesive thinking at the top of the party. Mr Brown and Ms Alexander have squirmed their way through the week since her moment of bravado.

Maybe there was lots of distortion on the line when they spoke, since each of them appears to have a different interpretation of whether he was endorsing her position.

Despite her claims to the contrary, Ms Alexander's U-turn in demanding an independence referendum stunned many, if not most, of her Holyrood colleagues.

And the Prime Minister's failure to back her when questioned by Tory leader David Cameron has undermined her already diminished credibility.

Neither did Mr Brown do himself any favours by being ignorant of the SNP's plans for a referendum in 2010, despite it being clearly set out in its manifesto and mentioned frequently in news reports.

No wonder Ms Alexander and her advisers hid from the press for hours on Wednesday afternoon.

And, since she had backed herself into a corner, the Labour leaderette, had no option but to lead on it at First Minister's Questions.

It was made worse for her when she found herself being attacked by the Tories and LibDems, who criticised her rather than attacking the Government.

LibDems' leader Nicol Stephen put it best when he asked if Mr Salmond could believe his luck with his new best friends - the Tories - backing his policies for the last year and a Labour Party that had turned into a "farcical floor-show".

The referendum question is a gift for the Nats, who can simply say they are sticking to the schedule outlined in their manifesto while they prove themselves in government.

There was not the expected blood on the walls of the chamber because Mr Salmond was restrained.

Maybe he wants to keep Ms Alexander as opposition leader for as long as possible in case Labour finds someone less bad.

However, he could not resist the obvious reply when she said, in reference to the referendum: "I'm not the problem."

She could not have been surprised to be told she "wasn't the answer" either.

Week after week this Labour Party's leadership simply hands ammunition to the SNP. Ms Alexander is still Scottish leader - but for how long?

It is where policy decisions are confirmed and responses to topical developments are discussed.

But Mr Salmond was missing from this week's he was at home in Strichen celebrating his 27th wedding anniversary.

The First Minister may not be frightened of Wendy Alexander or Tory boss Annabel Goldie, but obviously knows better than to antagonise wife Moira.