This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter.

There's a cowardly, wilful absurdity to any discussion which fails to engage with its central theme.

You can’t discuss the NHS without talking about the nation’s health; you can’t discuss the police without talking about how many cops are on the beat; you can’t discuss the cost of living without talking about energy companies and big supermarkets.

Likewise, you cannot discuss the rise of the far-right, hard right, extreme right, populist right – or whatever kind of right you wish to label it – unless you deal with the economic failures of our mainstream politicians.

People aren't switching in their millions from centre-left and centre-right parties to Reform, Trump’s MAGA version of the Republicans, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, or the AfD in Germany just for the hell of it.

They are being driven there by the actions – and inaction – of those who have governed us throughout years of decline and hardship inflicted on ordinary voters, which has run parallel with a monstrous rise in wealth for the world’s elites. Where there is growing income inequality, there is rage.

All it takes for a significant sliver of society to start blaming migrants and minorities for all our woes is a downturn in living standards. We’ve seen it before, we’re seeing it now. Let’s hope we never see it again, and learn from what is happening under our noses.

The solution isn’t to demonise foreigners. For that will not close the wealth gap........

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