ALEX Salmond was distinctly miffed. While the shambolic roll-out of Labour's leaked election manifesto was filling the right-wing tabloids with glee – what with Jeremy Corbyn's car running over a BBC cameraman's foot, and Unite's Len McCluskey falling downstairs – the former SNP leader was looking at the fine print. “They've pinched our policies,” he complained.

Salmond had a point. Leaked Labour policies looked remarkably similar to measures that the SNP has rolled out over the years, sometimes in the face of opposition from Labour politicians in Scotland. Scrapping the bedroom tax, abolishing university tuition fees and ending hospital parking charges are certainly policies with the SNP stamp.

The renationalisation of rail and mail have also been on the SNP radar over the years, though the Scottish Parliament hasn’t possessed the powers to take ScotRail into full public ownership. Then there are free school meals and prescription charges: been there; done that. And Nicola Sturgeon will be pleased that the Labour manifesto promises finally to abolish the so-called “rape clause” .

Now, I don't want to exaggerate this: the differences between the SNP and Labour remain huge. Most obvious is Labour's now unequivocal commitment to Brexit, which the Scottish National Party vigorously opposes, as it does the immigration controls that the Labour manifesto proposes in place of free movement. Labour's commitment to renewal of Trident – a remarkable U-turn by a leader who has been a lifelong member of CND – leaves the SNP as the only unilateralists among the larger parties. The Labour manifesto is also defiantly Unionist, opposing any referendum on Scottish independence.

So, let's not get carried away: there isn't any progressive alliance happening here, despite the policy convergence. The two tribes are as far apart as ever.

It's commonplace on the left to dismiss Nicola Sturgeon's government as past its radical sell-by date. Commentators like Gerry Hassan, author of Scotland The Bold, have long criticised the Scottish Government's lack of ambition. Yet, here's Corbyn being attacked for promoting for the most radical left-wing programme since 1945. You can understand why the SNP is a little put out by all this, since they believe they got there first.

But the truth is, for all the “Marxist” headlines, the Corbyn Labour manifesto isn't really all that radical. Is renationalising rail really that big a deal when Network Rail, which owns the track and signalling, is already in state hands? Most voters think that Royal Mail, which Margaret Thatcher balked at privatising, is still publicly owned. Even the Tories are now talking about, if not nationalising energy, then subjecting it to far greater state control. What the Corbyn manifesto marks is a return, not to full-blooded socialism, but to universal benefits, such as free higher education, which Tony Blair disowned. Labour, like the SNP, is going back to the future of social democracy.

Indeed, you could argue Labour's manifesto is a tad conservative. John McDonnell, the party's Shadow Chancellor, will this week promise to maintain “iron discipline” on spending through his “fiscal credibility rule”, which commits Labour to a Tory-style balanced budget. Like Gordon “prudence” Brown, he will only “borrow to invest”. Moreover, despite reports Labour is not committed to reversing the Tory welfare cuts – the only firm commitments are to scrapping the bedroom tax and the rape clause.

As for spending, most of Labour's supposedly “costly” pledges have already been introduced in Scotland within the very tight budgetary straitjacket of the Barnett Formula. Abolishing university fees, honouring the NHS pay review for nurses, free school meals and 60 per cent renewable energy generation targets have not broken the bank here, and neither has free personal care. Socialism is the language of priorities, as Labour used to say.

Whether or not you believe the SNP is a left-wing party, it can certainly claim credit for having rediscovered that universal benefits remain popular with voters. Opinion polls last week confirmed that much of the leaked manifesto has broad public support. Labour's tragedy is that it has managed to put together a popular manifesto at precisely the moment that its own popularity has never been lower. Labour voters just don't trust Jeremy Corbyn to deliver a competent government.

The Tories have spotted this too, of course, which is why Theresa May is expected to launch a manifesto next week directed very much at working-class voters who've strayed into the Tory universe because of Brexit. The cap on energy prices is only one policy stolen from Labour, despite the fact that the Tories condemned it in 2015. There will be a lot in the Tory manifesto about industrial policy and bringing back decent jobs, although the Tories have even less of a clue about how to do this than Donald Trump.

As we report today, Ruth Davidson is expected to announce a U-turn on her party's opposition to the Scottish Government's abolition of prescription charges. She's also accepted that the rape clause needs reviewed, claimed credit for ensuring that Theresa May doesn't trash the foreign aid budget. The Scottish Tories are becoming extremely bullish and some are talking about the party winning up to 15 seats.

All of which poses serious problems for Nicola Sturgeon as she rummages around to find new material for the SNP's 2017 general election manifesto. It's all very well accusing Labour of being a “magpie party” and stealing SNP policies, but what do they put in their place? The 50p tax band is expected to make a reappearance, for the UK at least, having been rejected for Scotland in the SNP's 2016 election campaign. But most of the SNP's distinctive policies have been implemented or borrowed. That leaves independence, which is precisely what Nicola Sturgeon doesn’t want to talk about in this general election. And education, which the First Minister would also rather avoid.

It's all feeling very different to 2015. Then there was a palpable sense of excitement, even revolution in the air in Scotland. The advance of the Yes campaign in the 2014 independence referendum generated momentum that led to the biggest general election swing in Scottish history. As this column has been arguing, perhaps to the point of tedium, the only way is down. The SNP is going to lose seats in June and needs to manage expectations accordingly. The press is hypnotised by the Scottish Tory revival, which is being heralded with all the evangelical zeal of a second coming.

Meanwhile the voters – if my observations are accurate – are feeling distinctly underwhelmed by the whole business. Few people wanted this general election in Scotland, and voter fatigue is rife. Brexit has exacerbated the post-referendum hangover, and most Scots are feeling distinctly queasy as events propel Scotland, unwillingly, towards a hard exit from Europe. The optimism of indyref has been replaced with a weary sense of inevitability about Brexit, and the prospect of endless Tory government. Unless, of course, you are a Conservative, which for all the hype remains very much a minority pursuit in Scotland, if a growing one.

Labour is crashing to defeat and most just want to get it all over with. The Greens have opted out of this general election, fielding only three candidates, and the SNP is looking distinctly unbalanced right now. Nationalists don't want to admit the Tory advance and many are in denial. One leading SNP watcher remarked that anything over 30 seats counts as a significant election victory: this is technically correct, but if the SNP lost 26 seats next month it would be a political earthquake. Nicola Sturgeon is going to have to mobilise all her political skills in the next three weeks to prevent Scottish politics coming back to earth with a crash.