Scotland has really made its presence felt at Euro2024 – sadly more off the pitch than on it.

I think that we can all agree that the Tartan Army has been absolutely phenomenal, winning the hearts of opposing fans and residents of the host cities, making us all proud.

Indeed, the tournament director, former world cup winner with the German team, Philipp Lahm, said of them: “they did everything right…they infected everyone with their good humour…they want to be in Europe.”

He added that he had been asked what bothers him most about the competition and his replay was “that the Scots have already gone home.”

What a wealth of goodwill they have banked for us over the last couple of weeks!

And that was something I referred to during a meeting of the Scottish Parliament’s Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee.  

Questioning the Cabinet Secretary, Angus Robertson,  as part of the committee’s review of the EU-UK trade and co-operation agreement, I pointed out that a fine example of non-Governmental soft power is what we were seeing with the Tartan Army in Germany and that Scotland’s reputation was being hugely boosted by their conduct.

In more in-depth questioning, I raised with the Cabinet Secretary the prospect of dealing with a new Government after the General Election.

I wanted to know whether the Scottish Government had a prepared list of “asks” in the hope that a new Government might have some new priorities.  

I was told that the Scottish Government has indeed been doing preparatory work for a potential change of UK Government and that work involves a list of improvements that are reachable, which include rejoining Erasmus+, for educational co-operation; rejoining Creative Europe, for cultural co-operation; and reaching agreement with the European Union on a mobility agreement. 

However, he underlined the point that those are still only going to impact on the margins of our relations with the European Union.

The UK will remain outside the single market and will continue to operate in a Brexit—a hard Brexit—environment. That is the policy of the UK Labour Party as well as the UK Conservative Party.

Having mentioned the General Election, I can’t finish this column without a bit more comment on that front.

The UK is a country crying out for change.  But that has to be fundamental, meaningful change.  Not just someone with a different taste in curtains for Number 10.  

The whole of the UK has been working within the same framework of austerity that the Tories have brought in - and the Labour party intend to retain.  

But it is only in Scotland – thanks to the SNP – that, despite those massive financial challenges, nurses are better paid, students get free tuition, the Scottish Child payment is tackling child poverty, under 22s get free bus travel and no-one pays for a prescription.

Just a handful of examples of the genuine change that the SNP delivers to better the lives of people in Scotland.

We need a future made in Scotland.