The dispatches coming back from Labour's frontline in this snap election echo the doom-laden messages of Scotland two years ago.
In Scotland, Labour are, we know, fighting to stay on the map in Ian Murray's Edinburgh South constituency with the forlorn hope that tactical unionist voting kicks in big style for the wave to break any other way.
Labour expect to hang on in the north of England around the Tyne but that band of Brexit seats across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire are danger zones.
Private polls show seats that have been Labour since 1931 going to the Tories with big majorities.
A lot of it is Brexit but most of it, according to activists, is down to the radioactive qualities of Jeremy Corbyn, whose senior aides secretly calculate if Labour come within touching distance of 30 per cent of the vote, as much as Miliband did, then he can stay on.
It leaves you wondering how delusional the Labour leader's office is.
The idea of Corbyn staying on is as fanciful as that 30 per cent showing for Labour is just now.
But remember how Tony Benn had the scent of victory in Labour's catastrophic 1983 defeat because eight and a half million voters had endorsed a socialist manifesto.
It kind of explains why Corbyn is spending time touring constituencies where membership has expanded because of him.
The confrontation between pensioner Malcolm Baker and Tim Farron, one of the rare encounters between a party leader and a voter, rails might have served as a snapshot of the real world election.
As Baker, a Leave voter, berated the Lib Dem leader (who stood up for himself) he was very revealing.
"I've always voted Labour but I will be voting for Theresa May," he said.
Not for the Tories, but willing to make the exception of a lifetime for the Prime Minister who will lead Brexit negotiations.
Focus groups show Labour voters flirting with the idea of backing May but not the still-toxic Tory brand.
It should be in the bag for the Tories but with five weeks to run a campaign can still go off the rails.
The awkward photo-ops and staged soundbites cannot be sustained for that long.
Eventually the opposition, the media, or God forbid, the public will break into the bubble and hold May to some kind of scrutiny.
Anticipating the scenario, the Tories used the symbolism of a Downing Street podium to launch an extraordinary attack on the European Union.
It was a blatant attempt to scoop up Labour voters and homeless Ukippers at the expense of being unfriended by the 27 neighbouring states she hopes to negotiate a smooth Brexit with.
Politics can often be a low calculation, but May has stooped to conquer.