British Politics Guide

[Raphael]

Afterthought: Does anyone else think that "Malcolm Ian Offord, Baron Offord of Garvel" sounds like the name of the heroic protagonist of a very poorly researched political thriller set in Scotland which was written by an American author with far-right political views and little knowledge of Scotland?

It's a British title (and a life peerage at that), not a Scottish title. The identity of surname and name of the barony would be unusual for a Scottish title, but is extremely common for a British title.

Thank you!

[alice]

Is there any serious risk of Reform making inroads in Scotland in the first place? Ok, having looked at the Wikipedia page for the next Holyrood election, I have my doubts that the Baron Offord of Garvel will have the voters throwing themselves at him, but what about the Westminster level?

There's a not insignificant chunk of the onionist electorate for whom either the Conservatives are not nasty enough or Labour is tainted by Keir Starmer, but it's rather smaller than in England. Enough for them to make a lot of noise about but nowhere near enough to be anything more than a noisy nuisance.

[Raphael]

What, there are people in Scotland whose political identity is centered on their love for an American satirical website?

[alice]

What, there are people in Scotland whose political identity is centered on their love for an American satirical website?

onionist, not Onionist (and definitely not TheOnionist).

[malloc]

What, there are people in Scotland whose political identity is centered on their love for an American satirical website?

Yeah, wondering about that as well. Perhaps she means "unionist".

[Ketsuban]

"Unionist" in Scotland means "in favour of remaining part of the United Kingdom", while "nationalist" means "in favour of an independent Scotland". alice is using "onionist" as a subtle jab at what I assume is the position she disagrees with.

Nationalism has gained some degree of favour in Scotland post-Brexit due to the possibility of returning to EU membership after throwing off the London yoke, but it has the minor procedural issue that Westminster thinks that the issue was decided in 2014 and that calling another referendum is not within Holyrood's power.

[Lērisama]

but it has the minor procedural issue that Westminster thinks that the issue was decided in 2014 and that calling another referendum is not within Holyrood's power.

There was a court case over this; they definitely don't have the power ¹.

¹ I think this is wrong, but the Scotland Act is very clear on the subject.

[malloc]

Horrible news yesterday. Local elections have swept the far right into power across the country.

[bradrn]

Horrible news yesterday. Local elections have swept the far right into power across the country.

Don’t put the cart before the horse, as they say. There has been a tremendous increase in Reform councilors, it is true; but that doesn’t necessary translate to them being ‘in power’ if there are more councilors from other parties, as appears to be the case.

(Also, ‘across the country’ is false, at least for now. So far we only have results from England.)

[Lērisama]

Horrible news yesterday. Local elections have swept the far right into power across the country.

No. Reform currently have control of 2 English councils more than they did before, and the majority of councils are not under their control. We are still waiting for the parliamentary elections in Scotland and Wales and for a lot of the English councils that don't count overnight. The interesting thing, and honestly the most worrying given Reform have performed a little below expectations if anything¹, will be whether the Tories understand the concept of a Cordon Sanitare in the inevitable coalition negotiations in country and town halls in the coming weeks.

¹ I my city they have performed I little below expectations, and worse than last year; I haven't checked nationally, and there's no point until more results come in, but they haven't won anything people have been surprised about – most of their gains have been from the Tories rather than Labour¹.

¹ A split left vote can lead to a seat going Labour → Reform, even if there were very few actual Lab/Ref switchers, given how badly the Tories are doing. The opposite dynamic does occur but is rarer, because we have more left wing parties. First Past the Post is fun.
² Which noöne seems

Edit: I forgot to mention, but turnout also looks to be around 10% better than is usual for local elections, where turnout is usually dismal. The same seems to apply in Scotland and Wales, although from a higher base (only slightly in Wales' case).

[bradrn]

Why do you have two footnotes numbered ⟨¹⟩?