We’ll know early tomorrow morning who has won the Hamilton by-election, but during the campaign we have learned a lot more about Reform in Scotland, and it’s becoming more obvious how little its leadership understands Scotland.
Even with defecting opportunist councillors hoping to win a seat in the Scottish Parliament – the latest jumping from Labour – it looks like we’ll have to wait for anything resembling a coherent plan, and First Minister John Swinney’s so-called special summit just gave them a credibility they didn’t deserve.
The only party benefitting from the rise of Reform is the SNP and in their usual haste to virtue signal, Labour and the Lib Dems were suckered into trooping along for what was just a promotional vehicle for John Swinney. That being said, the Reform attack on Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar was unwarranted, and no one who knows him thinks his main goal is to increase Muslim influence.
But it was Nigel Farage’s declaration that the Barnett Formula should go, and with it the block grant from Westminster, made up by devolving more taxation powers to Holyrood, which really exposed how little he understands, or cares, about Scotland. The Barnett Formula is not some financial sleight of hand designed to rip off English taxpayers, but a means to ensure the distinct needs of country in which a tenth of the UK population scattered across a third of the landmass are properly met. Scrapping the formula is not the same as arguing for more efficient spending, and there is no shortage of examples of how the SNP squanders public money, the botched ferries being symbolic.
But whoever told Nigel Farage that telling Scottish people they should receive less money was a vote winner needs to be kept away from sharp implements. And his suggestion that Holyrood’s taxraising powers should be increased could only come from someone who has not studied what has happened with the extensive powers devolved after the 2014 referendum. Maybe more financial power could be contemplated if it meant lower taxes, but the chances of that happening are slim to non-existent, certainly not from Reform which says it supports higher welfare spending. Reducing personal taxation through more efficient services and the use of artificial intelligence, freeing up resources for infrastructure investment, and cutting the burden on businesses are all goals which plenty of people would agree with, but the back-of-Nigel’s-fag-packet Reform approach would be disastrous for us all.
What has been confirmed in the space of only a few days is that Reform is not really about reform at all, but con artists telling people what they want to hear; increase benefits but cut tax, give Holyrood more power but slash its budget. Get Royal Marines to stop the boats? What, by opening fire? It’s all hokum designed to fool, and like a fairground charlatan, Nigel Farage doesn’t care.
The “plague on all your houses” motivation for voting Reform is all very well, but like Labour’s do-good MPs voting for Jeremy Corbyn to create a contest they thought he had no chance of winning, people need to be very careful what they wish for. The last thing those voting Reform want is an SNP victory, but I strongly suspect when the good folk of Hamilton wake up tomorrow that’s what they’ll get.
