I'm out every day campaigning for election to the Scottish Parliament on May 5. So far you would barely know on the streets of Glasgow that an election was taking place.
But you certainly are aware of the devastation that is being wrought as the turbo-charged Thatcherite austerity rips through the country. The response from Labour is far from adequate. It's hardly a rallying cry to say that you would have made similar cuts but slightly later.
It does not accord with the feeling demonstrated superbly by the TUC last month with the historic demonstration in London. It doesn't fit with the despair and anger that is stalking the poorest and most vulnerable communities. And it is plain wrong.
The economies which are showing some recovery from the great financial crisis are those that have not gone down the route of savage austerity. The lesson of the crisis decade of the 1930s is that we need to invest our way out of recession, into growth and into rising tax returns that can close a deficit, which in any case is not out of control by historic standards.
These are arguments that are beginning to be made by commentators, economists and sections of the labour movement. They need to be refined and shouted from the rooftops. The forthcoming Holyrood election is one opportunity to do that. And the Scottish Parliament would be a platform for spreading that message.
There are other avenues as well. The left and progressive forces need to get our heads together to provide a clear alternative in the language of the people who are on the receiving end of the Old Etonians' class war.
That is part of creating the climate in which trade unions and community organisations will feel more able to co-ordinate campaigning and action against what is in effect the destruction of the welfare state.
There is another weapon in the hands of those in areas where there are elections this May. Wiping out the Liberal Democrats is not only a matter of righteous retribution against those who conned the electorate - particularly young voters whom they attracted on a false promise over student fees. It is also a strategic imperative.
This Con-Dem coalition is already shaky. If the Lib Dems wake up on May 6 with hundreds of councillors gone and a wipeout in the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections then the pressure on their MPs could become unbearable. At the very least it will provoke a crisis. How can we have a government propped up by a party that has lost what support it had?
In those circumstances, the voices of those arguing for and organising resistance to the Tories will be strengthened.
There is no single tactic that is going to break the Tory offensive. And it will not happen swiftly. But there is every reason to believe that the left can win the battles that are to come.
This article first appeared in the Morning Star