Reform has launched its Scottish manifesto, but we should be talking about how we got here, says Mark Smith

I was interested to hear Malcolm Offord, leader of Reform in Scotland, saying the other day that he’d lost friends since joining the party. This does not surprise me. In a recent poll by the Scottish Election Study, people were asked which party they most disliked and 41% said Reform, more than for the Conservatives. So there is something worse than a Tory! At the same time of course, Reform has been polling second for Holyrood, so there’s going to be crossover, it’s going to affect friendships and relationships and maybe even end a few.

It also represents quite a big change in Scotland, because for 50 years the traditional baddie was the Tories, and yet anti-Tory Scots and Tory-voting Scots have generally been able to get along fine, making friendships and maybe even kissing each other now and again. Personally, I have friends on the left and the right and the worst I can say is it’s made for the odd ill-tempered conversation but no more than that. As for the idea of cutting someone off because of their political views, it wouldn’t even cross my mind, even in the most extreme cases such as a friend voting Liberal Democrat.

But Reform is different, or seems to be, which means either that the party is objectively worse, more right-wing and more racist than the Tories, or the way some of us see some right-wing views has changed and we’re more likely to label them extremist or even Nazi and cast out or distance friends who support them. Whatever the explanation – and it might be a bit of both – supporting Reform does attract a particular stigma or shame for some people in Scotland (especially among the middle class) even as hundreds of thousands of people in Scotland prepare to support Reform at the election.

You may think this isn’t a problem and supporting Reform........

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