As an Everton fan, I'm well aware that hope can be a dangerous thing.

I've lost count of the miserable Saturday evenings spent picking apart capitulations - wondering why you ever expected anything first place. For good reason, they say it's the hope that kills you. How you respond to it is 'character building' - so I'm told. Such a sentiment goes well beyond football.

I remember the excitement of going to vote for the first time and the promise that came with that. I'd just turned 18 when I headed to my polling station in the 2015 general election for what was meant to be one of closest races in living memory.

READ MORE: 14 pictures of sad Tories

READ MORE: Rishi Sunak says 'I'm sorry' as he resigns after humiliating general election loss

As it turned out, it wasn't. Due to a variety of factors - notably an obsession with how the then-Labour leader ate a bacon sandwich - the result did not go the way that most voters in Merseyside wanted. The Tory - Liberal Democrat coalition became an unexpected Conservative majority.

Since then, my adult life has seen a whole host of political turmoil and an unusual amount of........

© Liverpool Echo