The newspaper article is dated September 2014.
As well as the main reference to the Financial Times as described in Em's answer, there are other references to UK politics.
The political colour of the Labour party is red, and "pink" therefore implies weak or badly-thought-out left-wing policies or actions.
The Scottish referendum on independence was held in September 2014. The Labour party had been a strong supporter of Scottish devolution since the 1920s.
In 1998, the UK Labour government passed the Scotland Act which created the devolved Scottish Parliament, ironically giving the Scottish National Party a platform to build its power base at the expense of Labour. (And in the 2015 UK General Election a year after the independence referendum, the Labour party was wiped out in Scotland, with the Scottish Nationalist Party winning 56 out of 59 seats.)
In the 2014 referendum some prominent Labour politicians supported the "No" campaign. That culminated in Ed Milliband, the Labour leader, being branded "a ****ing liar and a traitor" the eve of the election by the "Yes" campaign, and being forced to abandon his campaigning activities for a "No" vote on the day before the election.
The Guardian newspaper supports left-wing policies, so its readership base would no doubt have understood this sub-text.