BY this time next week we will be hours away from the ballot closing in the Scottish Labour leadership election, then it is just one sleep till the announcement of the winner. One imagines Times Square-style countdowns across Scotland as the public awaits the declaration; five million red balloons ready to take to the air to symbolise the soaring hopes of every citizen; and maybe a dancing Tunnock’s tea cake or two, dusted off from last year’s Commonwealth Games, taking to the streets in a celebratory jig. Or maybe not.

Given the campaign thus far, make that definitely not. When it comes to setting the heather alight the election of a new leader for Scottish Labour has had the same effect as a bucket of water. From the moment former leader Jim Murphy (eventually) stepped down – how is the job of removing his fingernail marks from the podium going? – the general consensus among voters seemed to be that Scottish Labour should be left to deal with its grief in private. That would be the polite way of looking at it. In reality, such has been the dull nature of the contest, and the general whiff of decay around Scottish Labour, the truth is that voters are struggling to take any interest in who leads Scottish Labour. The party in the north has become the broccoli of UK politics – one knows one ought to partake, and that it will probably be good for the democratic mind and body, but really, isn’t life too short to care much whether it is Kez, Ken, or some other Kermit?

Perhaps the real problem blighting the Scottish Labour leadership contest is that there is a far better bash going on in the kitchen of the party down south. It is here that Liz, Yvette, Andy and Jeremy can be found, clutching their glasses of Shiraz or apple juice and expounding on everything from the nationalisation of the railways to improved child care. Given the coverage the London contest has received, one might think this is the more important bout. And one might be right, especially if Mr Corbyn becomes leader on September 12.

Mere months ago it would have been unthinkable to put the words Jeremy, Corbyn, Labour, and leader in the same sentence. A bit like Blair, comeback, all, forgiven. Or Alex, Salmond, shy, retiring. There has been no shortage of commentators and party grandees queuing up to tell Labour supporters that electing Corbyn would be as clear an expression of a political death wish as Labour could make. It would be another Foot, plus a Benn, with a Len McCluskey cherry on top. Amazingly, at least for those who forget that people have minds of their own, the words of the sages are going unheeded. Unions, including Unison and Unite, are backing Mr Corbyn. An Obama-style crowdfunding campaign to elect him leader has raised more than £100,000. Polls are showing him in front. He is everywhere in the media. With every interview he confirms, much to the dismay of his rivals, that he does not have two heads, speak in tongues, or anything else folk might imagine radical left wingers do. This is dangerous stuff. British politics needs its bogeymen, and the left have always been generous in supplying them. Why, if that source dries up, people might start taking a hard look at the Tories again.

There is a long way to go in the campaign, of course. Ballot papers do not go out until a week today, just in time for the end of the Scottish contest, and voting closes on September 10. Given the way pollsters performed in the General Election, it would be a brave soul who would declare Corbyn a dead cert winner at this stage. The one-person, one-vote process makes the result too difficult to call, particularly with claims of entryism surfacing (well done to Tory MP Tim “Nice But Dim” Loughton, who tried to sign up using his Commons email address and was caught). But assuming that the ranks of Labour supporters are not crammed with the equivalent of those “shy Tories” who decided the last election in the final minute, the election of Mr Corbyn as leader is not that wild a punt. As such, thoughts should be turning to the consequences, not just for the future of Labour in general, but for Scottish Labour and the SNP in particular. It is the latter two that concern us here.

Mr Corbyn has already given the matter some thought. Speaking to Novara Media, the MP for Islington North said he could do business with the SNP should he find himself at the head of a minority government after the next General Election. The sort of “confidence and supply” deal that former leader Ed Miliband rubbished was probable, he said. Given that Mr Corbyn takes the same dim view of Trident and austerity as the SNP, any alliance would be less a marriage of convenience and more a highly cordial entente. There is, of course, the not inconsiderable matter of independence – Mr Corbyn not being keen – but that could be the unique selling point that keeps the parties apart in the public mind. In theory, then, UK Labour led by Mr Corbyn might be good for the SNP, and vice versa. It is a juicy idea, one being considered by both sides this holiday season. But is it also a case of be careful what you wish for?

A Corbyn victory would land the likely winner of the Scottish Labour contest, Kezia Dugdale, with a headache. Having come out against him this week as being unelectable as prime minister (“I don’t want to spend my whole life just carping from the sidelines”) any first meeting between the two new leaders will be awkward to say the least. It will be more of a problem for Ms Dugdale when Labour in the south goes left while Labour in Scotland dallies on the centre ground. Then, Mr Corbyn becomes a king across the Border for disenchanted members of Scottish Labour, and the party here will be seen as even more of a lost cause than at present. Any divergence between Edinburgh and London will be portrayed not as a healthy divide but a harmful split.

For the SNP, a Corbyn leadership could promise much, but it might also bring problems. Not for the rank and file of the party, who are champing at the bit to run on to more radical territory, but for a leadership that has grown rather too fond of the quiet, managerial life. They don’t wish Mr Corbyn to be seen as the keeper of the flame any more than Ms Dugdale does. That could bring pressure to bear on them in areas such as tax rises, fracking, and a new independence referendum, all of which the leadership could do without in the run-up to next year’s Scottish Parliament elections.

Summer is meant to be the time when politics takes a break, but not this year, and not in Scotland. School, barely out, starts again next week with the announcement of a new Scottish Labour leader. Set the alarm.