Keir Starmer is suffocating any sense of enthusiasm in this general election

Always travel more in hope than in expectation, that’s a lesson you learn early when you sign up to the Tartan 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.

After 14 years, after all the damage they have done, we are about to get rid of them – Cameron, Boris, Truss and Sunak – in just 17 days’ time. But the other strange thing about this election is that the crippling caution of Sir Keir Starmer is suffocating any sense of enthusiasm.

Starmer’s status quo, his choice to change the guard but not to change course, won’t deliver real change. The consequence of Starmer’s caution means more spending cuts, more Brexit and more of the same.

For Scotland, there is a better alternative to that Westminster consensus. This week, the SNP will launch our manifesto which will have optimism at its heart. It will be a plan to finally end austerity for our public services, escape Brexit and invest in the green gold rush to net zero.

We will make the case that decisions about our future should be made in Scotland, for Scotland. It will also be a plan to put Scotland’s interests first and this campaign is proof of why that is needed more than ever.

The last few weeks have exposed the conspiracy of silence between the Tories and the Labour Party on the billions of Westminster cuts they have both signed up to – which the independent, Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates will be at least £18 billion.

Today, the SNP is publishing new analysis which outlines the scale of the threat those cuts would pose to our public services. A proportionate share of those Westminster cuts would amount to £1.45 billion for Scotland’s public services.

So, what do those massive sums mean in real terms? £1.45 billion would be the equivalent to NHS Scotland of losing one in six members of staff – including porters, midwives, nurses, doctors, and paramedics.

Outwith the NHS, £1.45 billion would be the equivalent cost of providing free university tuition, free bus travel for all who are currently entitled to it, the Education Maintenance Allowance, the Baby Box, and a range of interventions that mitigate against UK Government welfare cuts and underfunding – like the bedroom tax.

That is the threat Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party are signed up to and those are the cuts they are trying to hide – austerity on steroids. The only guarantee that can be given is that every single SNP MP elected will do everything in our power to stop Starmer’s cuts.

And the closer we get to polling day, the greater the desire for an alternative to the Westminster status quo.

On re-entering the European single market, on investment in public services, on the race to net zero, SNP MPs will offer that positive alternative. We will be the only major party with a truly left of centre manifesto. We won’t give in to a Westminster status quo designed and delivered by the Conservatives. Now that the Tories are finally done, it’s not a time for the caution Starmer is clinging to. It has to be a moment to deliver real change.

That positive agenda, to put Scotland’s interests first, is why momentum is with the SNP once again. Between now and polling day we will continue to provide an optimistic alternative for Scotland’s future, versus the continuing despair being offered by Westminster.

Because Scotland is always far better off when we travel in hope. For the Tartan Army, that hope begins again this Wednesday. For all of Scotland, that hope will lead us out of broken, Brexit Britain and back into the European Union, where we belong.

This article was originally published in the Daily Record, 17th June.