By our Political Correspondent
The stinking hypocrisy of the Scottish Right is curdling. What we are witnessing today with Reform UK in Scotland is not a political movement: it is a grotesque capitalist circus. It is a pantomime of the powerful, orchestrated by a multi-millionaire Baron to silence anyone who does not fit the corporate mould. If you want to see how the “elite” really treat the people they claim to represent, look no further than the civil war currently tearing through Nigel Farage’s Scottish franchise.
The latest casualty, Councillor Todd Ferguson, has discovered the hard way that when you lie down with the dogs of the establishment, you wake up with the fleas of betrayal. Ferguson, a man who gave up his role in the Scottish Parliament to join this supposed “insurgency,” has been unceremoniously dumped. He describes a process defined by backroom deals, secret meetings, and a total absence of transparency. In the language of the workplace, it was a classic hatchet job, carried out by the bosses behind closed doors while the workers were left out in the cold.
Malcolm Offord, or Lord Offord of Garvel to give him his full, inherited-privilege title, dismissed Ferguson’s exit as the act of a man “spitting the dummy.” It is the typical, sneering arrogance of a man who has spent his life in the boardrooms of high finance. Offord, a Tory donor who bought his way into a peerage and then parachuted into the leadership of a “populist” party, has no right to lecture anyone on merit. He represents the very establishment that Reform members claim to loathe: a wealthy toff playing at politics with the lives of ordinary candidates.
The stench of cronyism is now so thick you could cut it with a knife. Ferguson reveals that while he was put through the “rigorous” assessment process, others were ushered to the front of the queue. He speaks of Amanda Hampsey, who joined only weeks ago and secured a plum list position without the same hurdles. He points to candidates who had resigned in disgrace being suddenly welcomed back and promoted over the heads of the rank and file. This is not democracy: it is a private members’ club where the rules are written in pencil and erased whenever they inconvenience the leadership.
But this rot goes deeper than one disgruntled councillor. Look at the company this party keeps. We have seen Stuart Niven, a man once touted as the future of the party, suspended amidst allegations involving Covid grants. We have seen Linda Holt, whose toxic rhetoric would be more at home in a Victorian fever dream than a modern democracy. We have seen a steady stream of resignations: Ronald Jackson, Amanda Crawford, and others who realised that the “common sense” they were promised was nothing more than a cover for incompetence and right-wing extremism.
For the working class in Scotland, this should be a moment of clarity. Reform UK does not want to “take back control” for the people: it wants to seize control for a different set of millionaires. They are a collection of the discarded and the disgraced, led by a man who sits in the House of Lords while pretending to be a man of the people. It is a scam of the highest order.
Ferguson’s departure is the final proof that this movement is built on sand. When the internal processes of a party are as murky as a stagnant pond, when the leadership treats its own candidates with such cynical contempt, then the project is already dead. Scotland does not need a “Reform” led by the wealthy for the wealthy. We need a politics of the many, not a back-alley deal for the few. The circus has come to town, but the audience is already heading for the exits.
