A great many people remain unconvinced that a Labour government under Ed Miliband would overturn most of the harsh vagaries of the Con-Dem coalition. The Labour leader has so far made no clear statement condemning balanced-budget austerity.

He has certainly not contradicted Ed Balls and seems quite unaware of the disastrous consequences for the economy.

Given this silence before the election, voters would be justified in doubting whether he would do anything better once in government, whether he leads the largest party or not.

In order not to frighten the children and horses in the shires, the market towns and expansive suburbia, Balls has stated that Labour would stick to the Tories’ spending plans for the first two years of a Labour government.

Do you remember the self-same route to “socialism in our times” when Gordon Brown used these words when he set out to fund Blairism?

Then Brown was following on from Ken Clarke. Now Balls is on the coat-tails of George Osborne. It’s the same. But worse.

This is why, from a left point of view, the proposals emerging from the SNP, Plaid and the Greens are so important.

A “supply and confidence” arrangement between an SNP-Plaid-Green posse of MPs and Miliband’s Labour has all the potential to deliver an end to austerity. It would involve agreeing to support a Labour government — short of coalition — on the basis of key policy commitments.

An end to austerity would be one — enabling a reversal of the attacks on welfare and the full funding of social services. The other would be the cancellation of Trident renewal — further releasing another £100 billion over the next two decades.

There are numbers within Labour in the House of Commons who would happily seize the chance to work on a radical agenda which would challenge the established order at Westminster.

This agenda could deliver real change on behalf of the mass of people — for all those who don’t have a finger in the pie but rather an increasingly empty bowl in their hands.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s alternative approach to the relentless austerity programme promoted by Osborne, and accepted by Balls, would result in an extra £180bn spent on public services by 2020.

There are Labour MPs, such as John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn who would delight in such an opportunity to put into practice the kind of politics they’ve believed in for years.

Such a reversal of policy would give Ed Miliband a place in the political pantheon of which his father would have been proud.

It’s difficult to overstate how often the Tories accuse anyone on the left of political dogma when it comes to discussing the economy.

Their own political dogma has allowed the financiers who caused the crash to get off free while dictating terms for a bank rescue which is again handing massive profits to the very rich. In doing so, the Tories show their traditional contempt and disregard for all those on low incomes and those who depend on benefits.

Therefore, it’s saddening, to say the least, to see leaders of the Labour Party slavishly follow the Tory’s line on deficit reduction for fear of being seen by the likes of the Daily Mail as scatter-cash socialists who can’t be trusted on the economy.

Trident? How long must we watch as committed Labour MPs who’ve stood against nuclear weapons all of their lives huff and puff like Mr Wolf, while their piggish leadership sits in their House of Commons supporting renewal.

It’s like Orwell’s swinish host turning into those they had risen up against.

The confidence must be found by Labour’s leadership following this May’s elections to welcome the likely supply of new MPs from the rainbow formed of Plaid, the SNP and the Greens in order to regain a radical heart. Otherwise, Labour will degenerate even further into a bland grey group of nodding-donkeys, placemen and Westminster careerists.

Bill Kidd MSP for Glasgow Anniesland constituency where he represents the Scottish National Party.