The most reliable sign that Reform is doing well in Scotland is the refusal of the lanyard class to engage with the subject. In the latest poll, Reform has cut the SNP’s lead to five points on the regional list, the second, more proportional ballot that offers smaller and newer parties their best chance of winning seats.

For the past six months or so, Reform has been jostling with Labour for second place; if its Scottish leader, Malcolm Offord, can sustain this momentum through to May, there is a good chance that Reform will leap from a solitary ex-Tory MSP to the main opposition party. An extraordinary feat for a relatively new party that, until recently, was a skeleton operation. (He is not a household name, but Reform supporters owe a debt of gratitude to Glasgow councillor Thomas Kerr, a former Conservative who has taken........

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