SNP leader John Swinney has called on political parties, trade unions, and campaigners to join him under the umbrella of an anti-Farage summit ahead of the Scottish Parliament election next year.
Nigel Farage and his Reform UK party has begun to pick up some momentum in Scotland, claiming thousands of members and standing in council by-elections across the country, winning approximately 10-20 percent in some local areas.
While this is by no means a tidal wave of support, Reform is closer to gaining a foothold in Scottish politics than UKIP or any other right-wing populist party has ever come.
Out of touch
Some opinion polls earlier this year have suggested Reform would gain enough votes in the next Scottish elections to win a dozen or so seats, mainly by taking votes away from the Tories. Farage has won several councillors who have defected from the Tories, including his first councillor in Glasgow, Thomas Kerr.
Kerr blames the Tories for being too out of touch with working-class Scots. How switching sides from one millionaire-owned party to another will remedy this problem is anyone’s guess.
Reform’s millionaire deputy leader Richard Tice recently visited Glasgow to boost his party’s standing, awkwardly meeting the press in a Trongate chippy.
“I’ll hold it but I’m not going to eat it”, he remarked when handed a fish supper for the photo op, while struggling to remember the names of Reform councillors that were present. Truly a man of the people!
Rise of populism
Farage is allegedly determined to campaign in Scotland – despite his history of being pelted with milkshakes – to bury the Scottish Tories and make his mark on Holyrood.
Meanwhile, Scottish Labour’s electoral basis is being torn apart by the anti-SNP unionist vote drifting towards Reform, and by disgust towards Keir Starmer driving working-class voters back to the SNP.
Swinney’s call to “mobilise mainstream Scotland” against Reform clearly indicates the kind of campaign the SNP wish to run next year, resting on broad-based opposition to Farage’s reactionary politics.
It is a call for Scotland to unite around a liberal counter-populism – a broad, cross-class alliance similar to the anti-Trump ‘resistance’ in the United States and anti-AfD ‘Brandmauer’ (‘firewall’) in Germany.
Both in the US and Germany, the crumbling liberal order has failed to actually stop the growth of populism, despite hysterical appeals to ‘save democracy’, ‘protect human rights’, and so on. In fact, these establishment hypocrites are the ones responsible for the rise of right-wing populism.
Swinney’s call for the anti-Reform summit was filled with the same hysteria, indulging in liberal conspiracy theories about Farage representing an “accomplice” to Russia and an “apologist” for President Putin.
Such nonsense plays well to a very narrow set of fanatically pro-EU and pro-Ukraine middle-class voters, but is really just an example of extreme arrogance. We should not be surprised if many people just want to punish the establishment at the ballot box next year.
Swinney’s hypocrisy
Moreover, the hypocrisy of Swinney’s supposed staunch defence of Scottish liberal values is being exposed by his relationship with populist-in-chief Donald Trump.
Prime Minister Starmer clearly thinks that Scotland is his secret weapon in tariff negotiations with Trump, inviting the US President to visit the Highlands for a reception with the King. Trump is said to be fond of Scotland, despite many of his fanatical supporters portraying our country as a dystopian nightmare of ‘woke’ censorship, ‘Islamisation’, lawlessness, and ‘gender ideology’.
Swinney is more than happy to take part in wooing the US however, rejecting calls from SNP politicians to cancel the meeting.
From one day railing against racism and bigotry at the anti-Reform rally, to the next day shaking hands with (or bending the knee to) President Trump – we have to wonder how the SNP is going to avoid a meltdown. God help Swinney if Elon Musk is there.
Two sides of same coin
We cannot trust the likes of John Swinney or Keir Starmer to fight Farage or Trump. They all fundamentally represent the same vile capitalist system: the liberal establishment show its cynically smiling face, while reactionary demagogues show its ugly backside.
In times of extreme polarisation such as today, this tussling between liberals and populists destabilises the entire system.
For the ruling class, this represents a crisis. But for the working class, it is an opportunity. We have the strength and power to sweep aside all these liars and crooks, if we unite as working people.
Lifting the veil on these charlatans – liberal or populist – is the first step to throwing off our chains.
