Squeezed by the SNP on social democratic politics and by the Conservatives on a unionist agenda, the once mighty Scottish Labour party is desperate for this to be the election when it finally comes out of intensive care.

Jeremy Corbyn's two-day visit to Scotland is an attempt to crank up some old time religion in the hope that those lost to other parties come home.

The problem for Scottish Labour is that it has not been home for many voters for quite some time. Electoral umbilical cords were severed years ago.

Much of Labour's election strategy relies on moving the agenda off Europe and independence and on to the post-austerity agenda which they believe can forge a coalition of different voters behind a raft of progressive policies.

It would be unwise to write Jeremy Corbyn off. In 2017, Labour were behind by 21 points on the Conservatives and eventually managed to poll over 40% of the popular vote. The BBC poll tracker puts the current Conservative lead at an average of 10%. This election is not over, not by a long way.

He is, of course, being battered by the right-wing press in a par for the course choreography of political assassination. They did it with the sainted Clement Attlee in 1945 and with Harold Wilson too. Actually, the attacks on Michael Foot in 1983 were if anything stronger and more personal than on Corbyn, who is enduring a Neil Kinnock-type experience focusing on whether he is fit to govern.

Both Johnson and Corbyn are being assailed by some on their own side. Ken Clarke thinks Johnson is leading a right-wing nationalist sect. David Gauke urges a vote for the Lib Dems and today the former Labour MP Tom Harris reveals that he is voting Conservative. Then again, having taken the Daily Telegraph shilling and resigned from Labour that is perhaps no surprise, even if it will condemn him to hell in the eyes of former colleagues.

One thing is for sure. Jeremy Corbyn will get nowhere near Downing Street unless there is a revival of sorts in Scotland. And yet the polls (yes, the usual health warnings apply) suggest a near wipe-out from their current miserable tally of seven seats.

His best hope appears that the post-election arithmetic points to a remain majority in the Commons and that he governs with the informal support of the SNP and Lib Dems, whom he will dare to vote down a minority Labour Government's Queen's Speech.

Commentators like me get stuck in bubbles defined by media events, set-piece interviews, leader's debates and the obsessions of the political classes. We are spectacularly unrepresentative of voters in general.

Jeremy Corbyn proved adept in 2017 at ignoring the mainstream media and getting on with talking about what he thought the issues were - rather than bending the knee to a media narrative.

This election looks a big ask for Labour but 2017 taught a lesson that the unpredictable is the new predictable. The polls are narrowing. Events like the floods in England are a reminder that any government can be blown of course by an angry electorate.

The early hours of December 13 will not only determine Labour's fate but in all probability whether Jeremy Corbyn becomes Prime Minister or starts to scribble the opening lines of a resignation speech.