Last week, there was a conclave – just not of the religious type.

The First Minister convened a vital summit aimed at forging unity against the rising tide of far-right extremism.

At a time when our communities are being tested, our values challenged and our politics polarised, this was a welcome show of leadership.

It wasn’t easy. Convening over 40 of Scotland’s political and civic organisations, all with different demands, wasn’t simple.

Ultimately did it provide a solution? No. But it’s the start of a process, not just a photo-op (or at least it should be). We welcome the First Minister’s resolve.

He is right to call on all of us – government, civil society, trade unions and beyond – to join forces in standing firm against the poison of hate and division that the far right seeks to inject into our communities.

Whilst commendable, it was a fine line to tread. Whilst it was billed as an anti-far right summit, it was framed by the media as an anti-Reform Party event.

Let us be absolutely clear: we consider Reform to be a party of the right. Their rhetoric, policies and public posture are soaked in division, scapegoating and dog-whistle populism.

But it would be a dangerous misstep to reduce our analysis to a single party. We cannot fall into the trap of treating Reform and Nigel Farage as a convenient political bogeyman.

Doing so allows others off the hook and allows deeper, structural problems to go unchallenged. Because Reform is not the cause – they are the symptom.

The real danger comes from what has created the space for the far right to grow. That space was carved out not by fringe parties, but by decades of centrist........

© Herald Scotland