How can UK democracy have been allowed to come under such a threat?
Those warnings are all policies of the Reform UK party. How can this be, how have we sunk to such depths?
Over the last decade the main Westminster parties both in government and in opposition have demonstrated what is all wrong with our political system, with sleaze, corruption and dishonesty all playing a part. The vulnerable and needy left out in the cold and the rise in food bank use exacerbated.
READ MORE: Lesley Riddoch: SNP must beware of Reform trying to woo Scots voters
Those alarming results in England have given a green light to policies of the far right. Make no mistake, Reform UK are promoting far-right policies along with a dictator of a leader. England is going to experience councillors under the banner of Reform UK take control, take the reins and make decisions on policy matters like education, social care and housing that are vital local services – a breath-taking thought.
Scotland's First Minister recognised the threat, heard the alarm bells and summoned a summit of political leaders, civic and faith leaders in Scotland, but since that summit, his concerns have been realised. How did we get here, how can we allow our democracy to come under such a threat?
READ MORE: How would a 2026 election win for the SNP translate into independence?
Reform was born out of the Brexit Party and we all know the economic and social damage that has raged in Scotland since we left the EU, the single market and the customs union, incidentally through no fault of our own here in Scotland – remember Scotland voted to remain.
Surely those results in England speak volumes and are a wake-up call to Scotland, not to let the influence of England's alarming results creep over the Border. Scotland can take a different road, Scotland must protect her democracy when the opportunity presents itself in 2026 at the Holyrood elections.
Catriona C Clark
Falkirk
PLENTY of food for thought in Monday's National. The fact that most of this is responses to the resistible rise of the ultra-right-wing Reform party is perhaps yet another sign that the Overton Window is still shifting rather inexorably rightward! If we are to reverse this trend, and we must, never has Scotland's independence been more vital!
READ MORE: Third Aberdeenshire Conservative councillor defects to Reform UK
On Monday's page 10 we had Tommy Sheppard telling us, quite rightly, that Reform/Farage are an ultra-Unionist party with nothing of value or substance to say to Scotland. On the very next page we have the witless, still wet-behind-the-ears Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay laughably telling us that Reform supporters are disaffected nationalists! Yet another example, if needed, of a man who is way out of his depth!
I would suggest that we cut to the chase, stop pussyfooting around and call Reform what they really are – fascists!
Drew Macleod
Wick
I'VE written before about Starmer being in counter-productive appeasement mode regarding Trump's America. However, there is something disturbing going on in UK domestic politics regarding our own bargain-basement used-car-salesman, chief gurning racist, discontent-manipulator using politics to enrich himself – Farage.
It's long been identified that the remaining rump of the Tory party – Cameron's infamous 'swivel-eyed-loons'– are desperate to colonise Farage's Reform UK voters. They are realising too late that even a leader as off her trolley as Badenoch cannot out out-loon Nige.
READ MORE: Scotch whisky left out as Starmer and Trump strike UK-US trade deal
But Labour are also attempting 'muscular and heard-hearted' to appeal to the aggrieved, sprinkled with anti-migrant political pepper.
It's never worked, it never will work and it will alienate the increasing number who see Labour as Tory-lite at best or those – like me – who remember the Iraq invasion and have a horrible sense regarding Gaza that Labour's penchant for being involved in situations that put tens of thousands of brown civilians in body bags is just too uncomfortable.
In the US, MAGA label anyone who dislikes Trump's autocratic chaos as having Trump Derangement Syndrome. One state in Texas is trying to have TDS officially added to a list of mental illnesses!
The Tories have had it for a while. Now Starmer's Labour seem to be suffering Farage Fixation Syndrome.
Amanda Baker
Edinburgh
I WAS disappointed to see that the 80th anniversary of VE Day did not feature on the front page of the May 8 edition of The National. After then reading the edition I think it is disgraceful that not a single reference of VE Day features in the entire paper.
In the ten years I was a town councillor for Gourock, the greatest privilege I had was representing the town at our war memorial. The names of 50 Gourock men who died fighting in World War Two are listed on the memorial. Each year when I see my own father wear his father's Second World War medals I beam with pride and am humbled at the living connection of someone that fought in the war.
READ MORE: Scotland marks VE Day amid warnings of rising global fascism
Every community in Scotland suffered and made great sacrifices during the war. It is an affront to the memory of those that made the ultimate sacrifice to have snubbed covering such an important anniversary.
Commemorating our war dead, paying tribute to those to whom we owe our liberty and celebrating victory over the forces of Nazism is an event for all of Scotland, whether Unionist or Scottish nationalist.
Christopher McEleny
Gourock
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Sky News
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Meltdown? Labour goes nuclear
Sky News' Sam Coates and Politico's Anne McElvoy serve up their essential guide to the day in British politics. Negotiations for the spending review are complete - with reports Chancellor Rachel Reeves has refused to meet Home Secretary Yvette Cooper's demand for extra police funding. We won't have heard the end of this. Reform UK hold (another!) news conference, and the government announces its intentions to go nuclear - "ushering in a new golden age of nuclear [power]".
Daily Record
an hour ago
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Labour leader praises new MSP Davy Russell
Anas Sarwar says the party's newest politician will "put his community first" after his surprise by-election win Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar praised new MSP Davy Russell for his constituency-focused campaign as he registered a surprise win in the Hamilton, Larkhall & Stonehouse by-election to become the party's newest MSP. Mr Sarwar and deputy Dame Jackie Baillie were both in attendance at the count at South Lanarkshire Council's headquarters as Mr Russell claimed the seat with a 602-vote majority over the SNP; with the Labour leader saying the area's new representative will 'embed himself in the community'. Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer also congratulated Mr Russell on his 'fantastic victory' as he got set to head to Holyrood; while council leader Joe Fagan says the new MSP will work with the local authority on projects including the Hamilton town centre masterplan and new Larkhall leisure centre. Mr Sarwar said local voters had 'laid the first stone in the pathway to electing a Scottish Labour government next year', and told the Hamilton Advertiser: 'It's important that I reflect on not just the result but on the many conversations I had on the doorsteps in Hamilton, Larkhall & Stonehouse, and there are three things that came across from people here. 'One is they do want a UK Labour government to demonstrate more quickly a positive difference in their lives; secondly, they are done with an SNP government that has done so much damage to our country for the last 18 years; and third, they have rejected the poisonous politics of Nigel Farage and Reform.' He said of Mr Russell: 'He deserves immense credit – to take the personal attacks on the chin and still remain so resolute in doing the work needed to make sure we won this by election was phenomenal. I always thought there was an element of classism and elitism in some of the attacks that were made on him and ultimately, he has done his friends and his neighbours proud by winning this by-election. 'Davy will be as an MSP be what he has been in this campaign and what he has been for many years, which is someone who's going to put his community first. He's going to embed himself in this community, he's going to listen, he's going to reflect their concerns, he's going to work really hard for them.' The Labour leader added: '[The campaign] demonstrates that [next year] there will be noise from Reform, there'll be misinformation from the SNP, but ultimately if you want to improve our country, you want to change our country, only Scottish Labour can beat the SNP. Sir Keir Starmer posted congratulations on X, telling the new MSP: 'I look forward to working with you' and saying: 'People in Scotland have once again voted for change. Next year there is a chance to turbocharge delivery by putting Labour in power on both sides of the border.' Mr Sarwar told the Sunday Mail: 'I have never experienced a campaign in my life where the national commentariat was so alien from what the reality was on the ground. 'Despite people making very silly comments about how Davy talks or how he acts, he kept strong, he kept his feet on the ground and he kept working hard. That only further endeared him to his neighbours, friends and his own community, rather than pushed him further away.' South Lanarkshire Council leader Joe Fagan welcomed the area's new MSP, saying: 'The people of this constituency elected an authentic local champion, who is willing to work with the council to take forward the masterplan for Hamilton town centre and the new Larkhall leisure centre, and who will fight to get a fairer funding deal for councils and communities neglected by the current Scottish Government. 'Davy is not a politician, he had never stood for election before but he wants to give something back to his community and clearly that meant something to thousands of voters across Hamilton, Larkhall & Stonehouse. He and the Labour team proved the pundits wrong and delivered a hard-won victory. 'Frustration with politics pushed some people to make a protest vote but it made others reflect on what matters most to them and vote for a genuine, local man in touch with their priorities.' He also criticised the SNP campaign, calling it 'thoroughly dishonourable', saying: 'They asserted Labour had given up when Labour was winning. They talked up the prospects of third-placed Reform – a party they regard as being of the toxic hard right – for their own ends. They criticised decisions made by the council to balance the books, knowing that £480 million of real-terms cuts to South Lanarkshire by their own government was the root cause of the problem.' * Don't miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here. And did you know Lanarkshire Live is on Facebook? Head on over and give us a like and share!
The Herald Scotland
2 hours ago
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Starmer's time will be up if he fails to address two crucial issues
Labour's by-election win wasn't a shock: it was a lottery. Davy Russell was, of course, elected under the first-past-the-post system, which works perfectly well when there are only two main candidates. But that's no longer the case and hasn't been for a long time. Westminster MPs are elected in the same way and our current Labour government has the benefit of a massive majority from only 34% of the vote on the second lowest turnout in almost 100 years. The Electoral Reform Society calculated that 28.8 million people voted and 27.5 million eligible to vote did not: almost the same amount. That in effect, is a 17% endorsement for Labour and certainly not representative. John Milne ("For many, politics isn't working") hits the nail on the head when he writes that 'politics in our country is not working for a significant element of our population' and warns of 'the inequalities and injustices in our society and economy'. UK politics isn't working, firstly, because the UK electoral system is so unrepresentative and, secondly, because of the widening gap between the wealthy and poor of our society that our politicians seem unable or. more likely, unwilling to correct. I should be a natural Labour supporter but the party led by Sir Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar bears little resemblance to its founding principles. Evidently, many others feel the same and are turning to Reform UK in protest and, possibly, in the vain hope that its offer of change will work. Keir Starmer could fix the first problem by changing our undemocratic voting system. But if he continues to bury his head in the sand against the wishes of the majority of his party members, he might as well start writing his political obituary now. David Bruce, Troon. Read more letters: Why Labour should focus on the SNP Dr Gerald Edwards (letter, June 7) is mistaken that Reform were 'the real winners' and not Labour. who turned round a huge SNP majority and succeeded despite Reform splitting the vote. The winner is my old friend, Davy Russell, who heads off to Holyrood having fought a highly old-fashioned and much-derided campaign. He faced the public and convinced them that he could be trusted. He also made various so-called expert political commentators look very foolish. It was a disaster for the SNP by any measure, particularly since they marched into the count, chests out and totally confident of victory. It was a humiliation for the First Minister but Dr Edwards is correct to say that it was a very good result for Reform. However one major point is that both Unionist parties jointly polled over double the SNP vote. This was a very significant rejection of the SNP and their failures of the last 18 years. I've had various letters in the Herald forecasting the rise of Reform and the mistake of ridiculing them and disparaging Mr Farage. That won't help, and will only encourage people who are disillusioned to vote for them. Labour needs to focus on defeating SNP in Scotland and let Reform do their worst – best not to give them credibility. On a personal level I've known Davy for many years and can only pray that more genuine local candidates are pushed forward by Labour to ensure we can gain power at the Scottish elections next year. John Gilligan, Ayr. SNP's urgent priorities now The lesson from the Hamilton by-election result for the SNP is to let Labour and the Tories fight it out with Reform UK to represent the dwindling number of myopically indoctrinated supporters of the Union. The SNP must also focus on the critical argument that only independence can bring about a radical 'change in direction' for the UK through the constitutional change necessary to seriously address the fundamental problems confronting "broken Brexit Britain". The lesson for John Swinney is that it is now urgent that he arouse the passion and vigour for independence quietly dormant within him, or step aside, at least from the leadership of the SNP, and support an individual who can inspiringly lead the country to independence before the end of this decade. A majority of MSPs supporting independence in the next Scottish election must represent a mandate for the Scottish Parliament to hold a binding constitutional referendum which, if denied by the UK government, must legitimately underpin making the next General Election a 'de facto referendum' on independence. A majority of votes at the Scottish election must represent a mandate to commence independence negotiations should the UK government fail, over a maximum period of one year, to pass legislation enabling the Scottish Parliament to hold constitutional referenda. Manifestos of the SNP and the other independence parties should state both these commitments and the necessary actions that will follow should a resultant mandate be met with continued undemocratic intransigence by the UK government. Further procrastination by the UK government on implementing the democratically expressed wishes of the people of Scotland must not be accepted. To paraphrase the currently popular words of the Roman general, Vegetius, if you want true democracy, prepare to fight cynical totalitarianism. Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian. No rest for the Hamilton voters I think it was Harold Wilson who said that a week is a long time in politics. He of course was right – and what a week we have seen in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse. First, we had the First Minister of Scotland claiming that only the SNP can beat Reform and stating that Labour cannot win here. Then we had Reform and Nigel Farage having to defend a campaign video condemned by rivals as 'blatantly racist', followed by Farage accusing Sarwar of introducing sectarianism into Scottish politics. Meanwhile, the voters who deliver the final verdict get on with their lives, thinking 'what have we done to deserve all of this?' The final verdict was delivered by the people who rejected Farage and Reform, rejected Swinney and the SNP and plumped for the local hero Davy Russell and Scottish Labour. I have to give huge credit to Anas Sarwar for his dignified response to Farage and Reform and his noble response to the SNP, which cosied up to Reform by attempting to give them credibility by describing the election as a two-horse race between them. The residents of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse will be relieved that it is only a week that is a long time in politics as they get back to a bit of normality – forgetting it starts all over again in the first week of May 2026. Willie Young, Aberdeen. Time for Swinney to jack it in In his interview on BBC Scotland's The Sunday Show, John Swinney was still touchingly clinging to the independence panacea, citing polls claiming 54% support. That doesn't stack up with the Hamilton result. On a turnout of 44% the SNP got 30% of the votes – that's only 14% of the total electorate. Applying these numbers to the 4.3m voters of Scotland, their 2014 Indyref total of 1.6m votes plummets by one million to around 600,000. Come on John, you know it's over, so why not publicly announce you've jacked it in? Then Holyrood 2026 can be about which party has the best policies and candidates to halt the nosedive in our health, education, worklessness, Net Zero and public services. Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven. Sarwar was embarrassing Martin Geissler acquitted himself well in his Sunday Show interview with Labour's Anas Sarwar. But that is more than could be said for Sarwar, who was unsatisfactory. He rattled off criticisms of the SNP (not all of them undeserved) but when it came to defending Labour's record in office, its policies and its U-turns he spoke very quickly and without much in the way of conviction. Asked how Labour could put more money into people's pockets, he outlined, in the space of a few seconds, various measures but declined to elaborate and then quickly detoured into the NHS, Swinney and Farage. Geissler tried to pin him down but Sarwar didn't seem to listen to the questions that a hard-pressed electorate deserves serious responses to. Were I a Labour voter I would be embarrassed by Sarwar's painfully thin and cliched answers. S. McArthur, Glasgow.
