The polls say Labour are set to take a trouncing in Scotland. But anyone shocked by this has a very short memory. Having spent much of the past 18 years in a slow-motion identity crisis – that is, not knowing their political arse from their elbow – it’s unsurprising that many in Scotland are leaving them to it.

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The beast that is UK party politics gorges itself on voter anxiety, spitting out bile, bluster and enough spin to make an astronaut hurl. That’s something that goes largely unchallenged in Westminster, but Scottish voters no longer accept it. For the first time in recent political history, they’ve tasted something different. They’ve sipped from the quaich of tangible democracy, and now they want the bottle.

There are no delusions here. Scotland voted no. And fair enough. That’s what democracy is about after all – each side having a fair chance. But for all the referendum’s shattered dreams, it was the sparking flint to the politics of an entire nation. From the high school kid to your ma’s granny, everyone had an opinion. Waking up to possibility – realised or not – is enough to make a people reject the status quo.

The Westminster way of doing things has been largely based on a simple equation of scant information and public ignorance. When an entire nation takes its politics seriously, the maths falls short. Scots are no longer dependent on spurious facts drip-fed by red-tops. They are joining parties, going to meetings, having discussions, sharing their ideas through social media. They can fact-check faster than you can lie – and for now, they’re still bothered enough to do it.

Tony Blair waltzed into No 10 on a wave of young people’s hopes, and we watched as he threw them into the furnace

For Scotland’s young people especially, 19 September threw political reality into sharp relief. We’re the ones that watched the left inch ever rightward, without knowing what that meant. Tony Blair waltzed into No 10 on a wave of young people’s hopes, and we watched as he threw them into the furnace.

Now we’re the ones in low-paid jobs and zero-hours contracts, saddled with student debt, renting rooms instead of houses. We’re paying the price for Labour’s failure to challenge Tory rhetoric. Take that UK-wide ennui, add some anti-independence mud-slinging, The Vow and every other sleekit ruse employed over the past year, and you earn yourself a lot of disillusioned Scottish voters. Traditional Labour doesn’t recognise its party, and the rest of us are unconvinced. Once you’ve gambled with trust and lost, no amount of clever slogans or pink buses will enable you to regain it. Not even Professor Brian Cox in a tartan two-piece will save you.

Labour is trying to play two games at once, and losing. Jim Murphy’s leadership has failed to budge the polls, while Ed Miliband – lacking in integrity and full of air – continues to project as much clout as a BHS bag flapping on a branch. You simply can’t chase the middle England vote in the south while claiming to be centre-left in the north. What does Labour actually stand for, if it’s so amorphous it can be geographically antithetical to itself?

For now, the SNP knows how to play the game. Riding on the political goodwill of Scotland’s freshly franchised masses, the Nats are scooping up the Labour vote with ease. However, any close examination of their policies shows that they are hardly on the radical left. It’s centralism with a soupcon of socialism – just enough to win over the floating left.

Many in Scotland are uneasy with nationalism, but the prospect of power is a very human weakness. Well-intentioned Green and socialist voters face a choice between aiding the right, amplifying their own small voices, or aligning themselves with a political storm of unprecedented magnitude. Right now the SNP has a reputation for being a party of doers. How often does that happen? The prospect of anything other than red and blue is enough for many to lay down their entrenched beliefs, and add their polling cards to the fight.

Labour failed to reset the debate in Scotland. The events of September are still raw for many, and the dazed voters are an easy gain for those who shout the loudest. Right now the SNP has a lot of voices, even if they’re not all singing in tune.