Leader comment: Why all politicians should start their election pitch with an apology

One week down in the election campaign that no-one wanted.

So far the casualties include one cabinet minister, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, and a handful of candidates forced to quit the race, including one in Edinburgh.

Talk of post-election pacts is mounting, the angry rhetoric is building, and the country is well and truly fed up with 33 days still to go.

And that is what politicians have to keep in mind as they spring up on the doorsteps and podiums up and down the country.

Whatever your position on Brexit – and Edinburgh is firmly of the opinion that it is a bad thing – this whole debacle has been a complete failure of parliament and the politicians we sent to represent us.

They have to win our respect and our trust back.

So during this campaign can we please, please have more facts, and less fatuous point-scoring. An examination of policy, not an assassination of personality.

Respect for both opponents and the voters.

And perhaps, though it may be too much to hope for, a smidgen of regret and an admission of guilt for putting us all in this appalling situation in the first place.

Whatever happens, this election will not be the end of the story.

Indeed it may only be the beginning of an even more turbulent time.

Strap in tight.