As Labour in Scotland face yet another election humiliation they should have been in Aberdeen on Monday night to listen to the voices of those who have abandoned them for Reform, says Herald columnist Kevin McKenna

I’ve often wondered if political parties still send scouts to opposition events to gather intelligence and perhaps also to eavesdrop on those huddled chats that occur over the artisan coffees and vegan waffles. Labour in Scotland ought to have been present on Monday night at the Reform UK rally in Aberdeen: not to listen to Nigel Farage, but to hear the voices of those in the 500-strong audience. Many of them had once belonged to Labour.

What I heard was a howl of rage rising up from the floor from people who had finally had enough of being marginalised and taken for fools by Scotland’s contemptuous political elites. One by one, they came forward to explain what had made them come here on a Monday night, some of them having travelled long distances. We can debate the essence of Reform’s messaging: its focus on race and its resembling a platinum members' club for bored city types who, having made their fortunes speculating on the prospects of working-class communities, now observe in them an opportunity to wield actual power.

The question that Scottish Labour in particular should have addressed long before now though, is why have so many of their former core voters think Nigel Farage speaks for them. Sure, there were former SNP types at the P&J Conference Centre on Monday, but mostly they were from a Labour background. Any anger you might have felt arising from Reform’s cynical manipulation of valid fears about the nature and scale of immigration was swamped by something much more intense: a cold fury that the SNP and Greens had caused this to happen by imposing a cultural agenda on........

© Herald Scotland