How are you feeling? Happy, confident and looking forward to the future?

Or are you worried about the cost of living, afraid your income won’t keep up with rising prices – or scared that unemployment could strike you or someone in your household?

Party strategists believe that how you feel could decide the next election. And so, the battle is on to convince us all that the future is bright – or not.

On the face of it, the statistics look pretty good.

The retail sector has enjoyed its best period of sales growth since 2006, according to new figures from the British Retail Consortium.

Total sales were up by 2.2 per cent on a like-for-like basis from July 2012.

Manufacturing output rose by 1.9 per cent month-on-month in June – and it was the first time that all 13 sectors of British manufacturing, from aircraft to food and drink, have expanded in a single month since June 1992.

Automotive manufacturers could be in for their best year since 2007 after the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders forecast annual sales this year of 2.22 ?million.

And house prices are up by almost five per cent on a year ago, the fastest annual rise for nearly three years.

On the face of it, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats should be well-placed to push their message that the economy is moving “from rescue to recovery”.

But Labour believes voters aren’t ready to celebrate just yet.

Ed Miliband and his colleagues aren’t planning to challenge every bit of good news about the economy, although naturally they will also highlight the bad news when it emerges.

But they will say that not everyone is benefitting from the progress that is being made.

This isn’t an argument directed entirely at the Conservative and Lib Dem government.

Mr Miliband believes that capitalism hasn’t been working as it should for some time. Britain enjoyed economic success before the banking crisis – under the last Labour government – but many working families saw their incomes fall in real terms, or found their employment prospects less secure.

The nation generated wealth, but that wealth wasn’t shared fairly.

This is what he was getting at when he promised in 2011 that a Labour government would reward “grafters” and punish “predators” – meaning businesses which made a “quick buck” without giving anything back.

The speech was widely criticised, partly because Mr Miliband was unable or unwilling to indicate the businesses he had in mind, or explain what Labour would actually do to them.

But it conveyed an important idea, which was that the wealth generated while the UK enjoyed continuous growth between 1993 and 2008 had not benefitted everyone – not even if they “do the right thing” and work, as Mr Miliband put it in his 2011 conference speech.

As a relatively new leader of his party speaking 18 months after a general election defeat, perhaps it was understandable if Mr Miliband focused on things his own party had got wrong and how it needed to change.

But a similar argument is now being deployed against the Conservatives and Lib Dems.

Labour published data this week highlighting the way that wages have been falling across the country. In the West Midlands, the median annual wage has fallen by £1,550 in real terms since 2010. This is a fall of £29.80 a week.

And a working person on a median wage will have lost £6,660 in real terms between 2010 and 2015, according to Labour.

The figures are based on salary statistics published by the Office for National Statistics and official inflation measures (although Labour used the higher RPI inflation figure rather than the more commonly used CPI measure).

Labour’s argument is that workers have been hit by a combination of stagnant wages and relatively high inflation, with the official (CPI) rate of inflation standing at 2.9 per cent - above the Bank of England’s target, which is two per cent.

At the same time, some of the richest people in society are getting even richer. Bonuses in the finance and business services sector in April this year were 82.2 per cent higher than in the same month last year, Labour points out – again, using data from the Office for National Statistics.

And the Government has of course cut the rate of income tax charged on incomes above £150,000 from 50p to 45p, which Labour sees as evidence that it cares more about “millionaires” than anyone else. There are a few difficulties with Labour’s position.

First, while inflation is above the Bank of England’s target, it’s hardly sky high. The real problem has been that wages for many people have been cut, frozen or increased by less than inflation (ie, cut in real terms). And there’s little that any government can do about this.

Yes, Labour is pushing its proposal for a “living wage”, which in Birmingham has meant no council employee earns less than £7.20 an hour.

But while this might make a real difference to the lives of people at the lowest end of the pay scale, it doesn’t help all those people who already earn more - including those on median salaries or thereabouts – who have seen their standard of living fall.

Asked what Labour would actually do to increase wages generally, Treasury Minister Chris Leslie could only say that the party would manage the economy better so that firms were able to pay more.

That’s not to suggest that the other parties have a better answer, but it might blunt Labour’s attacks on the Government slightly if the party is admitting that governments actually have little control over wages.

Even so, Conservatives are worried. They know it’s not what the statistics say - it’s whether people actually feel richer, or not.

And if we reach the 2015 general election and the public feels poorer, they may punish the Government for it.

The good economic figures could actually backfire on the Government. It’s one thing if the economy is going down the tubes (especially if you can convince people that the banks, or Gordon Brown, or America is to blame for that). Of course we’re all going to be poorer in that situation.

But if things are actually getting better - but ordinary people aren’t feeling the benefits - then Labour’s claim that this Government only cares about its rich friends starts to hit home.

So how are you feeling? David and Ed would really like to know.