WE have a "spring in our step," declared Jim Murphy, the morning after he was widely feted as the winner in BBC Scotland's televised election debate from Aberdeen. The bounce lasted about 12 hours.

The latest YouGov poll, for The Times, on Thursday night made devastating reading for Mr Murphy. It found SNP support had climbed to 49 per cent, up three points and a new high for YouGov, while Labour slumped four points to 25 per cent. On a uniform swing, the result would translate into 53 seats for the SNP, four for Labour and one apiece for the Tories and Lib Dems. The survey was taken before the BBC debate but it did reflect public reaction to STV's showdown the previous night when Mr Murphy was also reckoned to have done well, albeit in a closer contest. In fact, 56 per cent of those who followed the two hour show from Edinburgh's Assembly Rooms called it for Ms Sturgeon. Mr Murphy trailed in third place, with 13 per cent of viewers believing he had come out on top, just behind Scots Tory leader Ruth Davidson. Four months after Mr Murphy claimed the leadership of Scottish Labour, two weeks into the General Election campaign proper and with 26 days to go to polling day, nothing the party has said or done seems to have improved its standings. Mr Murphy has said Scots will switch late and switch big to Labour. Right now, they are drifting in the other direction.

Most ominously for Scottish Labour, the YouGov poll came just as the party seemed to be having a good week. Ed Miliband set the agenda with proposals to end non-dom tax status. The Conservative campaign, meanwhile, began to look panicked when Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said the Labour leader was preparing to "stab the UK in the back" by siding with the SNP to scrap Trident and then tried to prove the point, already ruled out by Mr Miliband, by saying he had stabbed his brother in the back to lead his party. Comical efforts by Conservative-supporting newspapers to portray him as a bit of love rat (headlines the supposed super-geek could not have bought) added to the sense of desperation in Tory quarters. UK-wide polling confirmed Labour was on the up, with three separate surveys giving the party a lead of between three and six points and showing Mr Miliband's personal rating rising. In the televised Scottish leaders' debates, Nicola Sturgeon was forced onto the back foot, first over the question of a second independence referendum after 2016 and then on her demand for full fiscal autonomy.

If none of this is helping Scottish Labour what can the party do to save itself from annihilation on May 7?

Insiders insist the party is still pursuing "Glasgow Man," the shorthand for those 190,000 voters who backed Labour in the 2010 General Election but supported independence in last year's referendum.

However, if that's the case, it is starting to look like a rough wooing. Earlier in the year, Mr Murphy was wary of dismissing a post-election deal with the SNP for fear of alienating Glasgow Man. In recent days, though, Labour has firmly ruled out not only a coalition with the Nationalists but also a much looser confidence and supply deal, arguing any sort of formal pact would be impossible because of the SNP's demand not to renew Britain's nuclear deterrent. Labour has also launched a sustained attack on another key SNP policy, full fiscal autonomy, saying it would not accept a plan that would leave Scotland £7.6billion worse off and, in an interview conducted on the train up to Scotland on Thursday, Mr Miliband said he would not bow to demands for a second independence referendum if he becomes Prime Minister.

In reality, Labour appears to be reaching out more to those who voted No than Yes-supporting Glasgow Man.

Some of this is doubtless driven by Mr Miliband's need to neutralise Tory claims, gaining traction south of the Border, that his government would be dragged to the left by alliance with the SNP but it also fits with growing anecdotal evidence that in Scotland Labour is doing best in what used to be its worst areas. More than a few Labour candidates are admitting privately their warmest welcomes are coming in corners of constituencies that were once Tory blue or Lib Dem orange. Taking a tougher line against the SNP will help Labour there but whether it shifts the polls, we'll have to wait and see.