Can Reform win big in Scotland? The establishment is terrified

Telegraph

2 days ago

Something that the progressive Left always feared but never took very seriously seems to have happened: the accusation of 'racist' has lost much of its power to silence opponents.
Take Scotland. There has been an avalanche of media and political condemnation, bordering on hysteria, against Nigel Farage and the prospect that his party, Reform UK, will do well in this week's by-election in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse. The First Minister himself, John Swinney, used the R-word to describe Farage at an election rally at the weekend. But to what effect?
Yesterday, Swinney's predecessor as first minister, Humza Yousaf, took to the stage at an event organised by Stand Up To Racism to inform us that Scotland, on whose behalf Yousaf claimed to be speaking, does not welcome Farage or his party.
We'll discover the truth of this assertion when the votes are counted on Thursday, but all the polling and anecdotal evidence from the campaign trail suggests that at least a significant proportion of this decidedly working-class constituency does not share Yousaf's views.
Worryingly for the main parties, recent front page splashes by Scottish tabloids and dire warnings of Scotland being engulfed in the shadow of 1930s Germany seem to be having far less of an impact than what might have been the case in days gone by.
That is not to say that Scots in west central Scotland are relaxed about the arrival of a 'far-Right' party in the Scottish Parliament and in town halls, or the consequences of that party's policies on race relations. It's more that they seem to have grown somewhat cynical about repeated cries of 'Wolf!' and the subsequent non-appearance of said sheep-bothering predator.
After decades in which ordinary people across the country were warned that criticising high levels of immigration was the equivalent of goose-stepping along Nuremberg High Street, such colourful 'lessons from history' are taken significantly less seriously than in the past. Partly this is down to fascism fatigue: when everyone to the Right of Ed Miliband is a fascist, then no one is.
And when commonly held opinions on immigration or gender ideology are considered by many to define the new fascism, the best response is to accept the new definition with a resigned sigh and get on with your life.
Commentators often seek answers as to the perceived increase in the kind of political disillusion that has led to the relative success of Reform UK in recent opinion polls: they should look no further than how the definition of 'far-Right' has shifted in the last few decades, from violent bullying of political opponents and the subversion of democratic norms, to believing that you cannot change your biological sex.
Much, though not all, of these culture war shenanigans have penetrated the previously comfortable political settlement in Scotland, where anything outside centre-Left opinion, as represented by the SNP, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens, is seen as beyond the pale.
The Scottish Conservatives are tolerated at Holyrood because they have never seriously challenged for office, nor are ever likely to, and they provide a handy contrast by which for lazy progressives can signal their many virtues.
It's a cosy consensus just waiting to be blown apart, and Reform UK may be just about to do that. It was arrogant – but expected – for Yousaf to declare that Farage is unwelcome in Scotland. And of course, as has happened south of the border, all this attention given to Reform by politicians who sound increasingly desperate in their shrill warnings has done little to deter voters from supporting this most disruptive of new political forces.
Has it ever occurred to the leaders of the SNP and Scottish Labour, I wonder, if they might consider their own policy and rhetorical failures as part of the reason that disgruntled voters might be turning to Reform? Rather than hosting 'anti-Right-wing summits' to warn poor, stupid, ignorant voters of the drawbacks of Farage and his party, might it be appropriate to try to recapture those voters' support by addressing their priorities?
For some grandstanding MSPs and MPs, the rise of Reform is an excellent opportunity to remind voters which side they would have been on at Cable Street, even if the natural response to such assertions is: 'And?'
And so a political class that already stands accused of forgetting how to talk like ordinary voters, who are no longer seen as concerned with the public's priorities, are compounding their mistakes by using hysterical language about a party that many Scots – by no means a majority or even a plurality, it has to be pointed out – might be considering flirting with at the ballot box.
No one can say with any confidence who will win the Hamilton by-election on Thursday, although if I had to place hard-earned money on the outcome I'd say the SNP followed by Reform in second place.
It could be any other combination of the leading three parties on the night. The point is that, at least for now, Reform is one of those leading parties, and I would caution any politician who, in Thursday's aftermath, might feel attempted to accuse local voters of racism or support for fascism.
Worried politicians of the establishment parties love to attribute the rise of Reform to either the devilishly populist and dishonest rhetorical skills of Farage himself or to the ignorance of voters who never got a university degree, and are therefore uniquely vulnerable to Reform's message.
Perhaps there needs to be an injection of honesty: the culprit who is guilty of the disillusion that has led to a public appetite for new solutions, new language and perhaps a new party, is staring back at them from their own mirrors.