As we witness this Starmer tsunami, let us also contemplate its cause, its origin. This is a remarkable endorsement for Labour - to whom congratulations - but it is also a shriek of pain by a troubled and anxious populace.

Firstly, let us consider the Labour triumph. It is remarkable, it is comprehensive, it secures a Blair-like majority in the House of Commons.

And, from Sir Keir Starmer, there were other conscious echoes of those days when Tony Blair gained the keys to Downing Street.

When Mr Blair won in 1997, he said his party had campaigned as New Labour - and would govern as New Labour. Sir Keir offered to govern as "changed Labour."

He cautioned that there would be challenges. Expect that and more. However ambitious, however united, it will be difficult in the extreme to turn round a static and sluggish economy.

Difficult to achieve such an outcome before the next UK General Election. (Yes, we're already thinking about that.) But more difficult still in the shorter run-up to the Holyrood contest in 2026.

Labour knows that - and yet Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, boldly proclaimed that he was already looking to the next stage: ousting the SNP at Holyrood in two years' time.

Which brings me back to the root cause of the results overnight. Yes, it is a superb result for Labour. But it is........

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