AN END of term feeling has descended on Holyrood. But it's not the excited anticipation of a few weeks holiday stretching ahead. This time, MSPs are in the sort of manic mood that precedes revision and a set of tough exams.

Members are clearing their desks while constantly phoning their campaign teams on the ground. "How's it looking?" they ask, frustrated that a few more days of parliamentary business is keeping them from the doorsteps. After Wednesday, when Holyrood breaks up for the election battle, they'll find out for themselves.

Word is filtering back, however, and it seems a strange thing is happening in voter-land.

Seasoned campaigners from both the SNP and the Conservatives have mentioned a new phenomenon, the emergence of the "shy Labour" supporter.

They are the folk in traditional Labour areas telling canvassers who they probably won't vote for ("We're not SNP," "We don't like the Tories") but who are coy about naming the party they do seem to support.

The "shy Tory" is a well known species in the electoral eco-system. But "shy Labour"? It's a new discovery.

Nationalists, miles ahead in the polls, are studying it with a kind of detached bemusement. For the Tories, pitching to disillusioned Labourites with a strong dislike of the SNP, it's slightly more unsettling.

We might learn more about the state of Scottish Labour tomorrow, when the party meets for a one-day Spring conference in Glasgow that will effectively launch its election campaign.

It's the first time Labour has gone into a Holyrood election not leading in the polls. This time it's not absolutely clear they are even in second place.

A recent YouGov poll showed the SNP on 49 per cent and Labour tied with Tories on 19 per cent for the constituency vote (and slightly behind on the regional vote). Other pollsters have not found quite such strong support for the Tories but the scale of Scottish Labour's challenge is clear. Leader Kezia Dugdale more or less conceded defeat to the SNP a month ago when she clumsily told a TV interviewer her party would not be beaten into third place.

Against that background, MSPs, backroom staff and activists have been surprisingly positive as they prepare to gather at the SECC.

What has put a spring in their step is Ms Dugdale's bold pledge to put 1p on income tax, a move that would raise £500million to protect public services from spending cuts. With Nicola Sturgeon refusing to follow suit, Labour can present itself as Scotland's anti-austerity party.

After years of being branded "red Tories" - a spurious yet wounding SNP line of attack - Labour activists finally have a different story to take to the doorsteps.

It might even be starting to work. One grassroots member told me: "There's not as much anger towards us as there was. We're not getting chased away from the doors like we were a year ago."

Labour is positioning itself in other ways, too, to win back "soft Yes" voters - traditional supporters who backed independence then switched to the SNP.

Under Ms Dugdale, Scottish Labour has continued to loosen its ties with the UK party.

The fuss about Jeremy Corbyn's absence from the conference provides a welcome illustration of that, insiders insist, making the point that Ms Dugdale is in charge. And not of a branch office.

Scottish Labour's opposition to Trident, following a conference vote last autumn, is another example, they say.

So can Labour start to win back support at this election?

Strategists believe many of their "soft Yes" targets have lost faith in independence following the collapse of the oil price and have little enthusiasm for the SNP beyond Ms Sturgeon's huge personal appeal.

But that, surely, is Scottish Labour's biggest problem.

With the SNP about to launch the most presidential campaign Scotland has ever seen, there is a danger Ms Dugdale, an appealing but inexperienced leader who is still only starting to build a public profile, will be blown away.

Around 500 Labour delegates will be at the SECC.

It's a fraction of the 3000 SNP members who packed the same venue a week ago but enough to give Ms Dugdale a rousing ovation for the TV cameras.

Their real test, though, will come when they return to the doorsteps over the coming six weeks and talk to those "soft Yes" and "shy Labour" folk.