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By Jason Farrell, home editor

No visit to Edinburgh is complete without a hike up Arthur’s Seat, an ancient extinct volcano which rises 250 metres above the city.

And as we are travelling across Britain with a parliamentary bench – it just seemed appropriate to plonk our seat on top of Edinburgh’s.

At the foot of Arthur’s Seat sits Holyrood, home of Scotland’s devolved government, and here we met a primary school teacher who later decided he didn’t want to be named, but his views reflected the shifting mood in Scotland.

“I’m leaning towards Labour, I previously voted SNP, but it’s a tactical vote because I don’t want to see another Conservative government,” he said.

While still supporting the idea of an independent Scotland, the teacher said he “doesn’t know if it’s realistic anymore”.

Since the departure of Nicola Sturgeon, then Humza Yousaf, following his broken alliance with the Greens, the nationalist dominance in Holyrood is less formidable and that will be reflected in this election.

Scotland has 57 seats on the green benches of Westminster.

In the last election Labour got just one of them, the SNP got 48. A few years ago, the prospect of Labour becoming the largest party in Scotland seemed about as realistic as someone hauling a parliamentary bench to the top of Arthur’s seat.

But, take a screwdriver to a bench and break it down – the task becomes less daunting – and a more fractured SNP makes Labour’s ambitions of re-conquering Scotland plausible.

We borrowed the muscle of three Scottish students to help cart our deconstructed bench up the rocky path towards Edinburgh’s highest peak.

Watch the full report below – and read more here.