Starmer is suffocating any sense of enthusiasm. His status quo won't deliver real change

Munich was a sea of Scottish optimism but there's none of that around this election..

- STEPHEN FLYNN

"ALWAYS travel more in hope than in expectation, that's a lesson you learn early sign up to the Tartan when you Army.

And it's that spirit that best explains why some 200,000 Scots flooded on to the streets of Munich last Friday.

Those German streets, which I was lucky enough to take a campaign detour to enjoy, were a sea of Scottish optimism.

Thousands upon thousands of happy fans back in Europe, where we belong. True, we lost the match and lost it badly, but we still stole the show.

And it's far from over, we still hope even if we don't expect. We go into Wednesday's match with Switzerland full of hope because we have no other choice. No Scotland, no party. No hope, no point.

Travelling in hope rather than expectation applies to politics too, or at least it's supposed to. With less than three weeks to go though, it's fair to say this Westminster election hasn't exactly seen a wave of optimism. And there's a worrying reason for that.

Because the strange thing about this election is that we already know who is going to end up sitting in Downing Street and no prizes for guessing that it ain't Rishi Sunak.

The fact that the Tories are well and truly finished should be a moment of real positivity.