Professor John Robertson OBA
Dani Garavelli, not for the first time, in the UK media telling them things about Scotland that make little sense:
Almost 13 years ago, at a press briefing to launch Ukip’s first Scottish byelection campaign, Nigel Farage was run out of Edinburgh by jeering protesters. Back then, Ukip’s support was running at nearly 25% in the English local elections, and less than 1% in Scotland.
On Saturday, Farage will venture back across the border to host a sold-out Reform UK campaign event in Falkirk, a town which has recently seen angry demonstrations outside a hotel hosting asylum seekers. While anti-racism protesters will no doubt turn out in force again, support for Farage’s new party has risen dramatically. Polls suggest the SNP will still win the most seats in May’s Scottish parliamentary election, but Reform UK, benefiting from the country’s hybrid PR system, could come second.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/06/nigel-farage-edinburgh-scotland-voters-reform
They have come second but in only 3 out of the last 10 Scottish polls but have averaged only 17.9%.
In UK polls, they’ve averaged 29.3%.
In the UK, 29.3% is dangerous with the vote so fragmented among 5 big parties so, at that level, they will win seats, lots of them. In Scotland, 17.9% with the SNP averaging 34%, is no ’embrace.’
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Wishful thinking by the pretendy lefty Graun. They love portraying Scotland as stupid, divided, and ‘nationalist’, and my pals in NE England read it, they hate the SNP, and blame Scotland for the awful things England did to the Irish, they were anti Scottish independence just like the pretendy lefty Graun. Can’t stand that rag.
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The British media is desperate to show Scotland is no different from the rest of the UK, this was from another Guardian article today
“Scots of colour, including the former first minister Humza Yousaf, have previously cautioned against “Scottish exceptionalism”, particularly when the country avoided the far-right-led riots that swept England in the summer of 2024.
Swinney denied complacency, pointing to a plethora of government programmes that promote community integration. “I don’t think at any stage were we immune from these sentiments,” he said”.
The article states “Recent polling suggests immigration has become a voter priority for the first time in Scotland” which is hardly a surprise given far right forces appears to be controlling the media conversation just now. If it wasn’t so serious it would be laughable to acknowledge how easily folk can be led down a dark path rather than facing up to the very real challenges in our world.
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The British state and its stenographers are becoming quite hysterical. Scotland IS very different to England on various metrics. So what? I thought diversity was a good thing – to be celebrated?
Nigel Farage says many Glasgow children don’t speak English as a first language. So what?
When I grew up most Scots didn’t speak English as a first language. They spoke Scots. We are mostly bi-lingual. That is something to celebrate.
Dani Garavelli is desperately promoting Farage and his pernicious influence. The Guardian is as pseudo left as New Labour and its supporters in the media.
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The Britnat media, from the Beeb down, has promoted various Farage iterations…..just because (tho’ they promote any party opposed to the return of Scottish sovereignty), but now they are panicking because Faragism (like fascism, but with a sneer) has broken loose dann saff and has reduced Labour and Tories parties to rumps.
Control is all to the Britnat mejah, especially over Scotland, but now they have none, so what comes next?
Sarwar and Starmer are card board cutout politicians, and Findlay and the Dumb dumpling are even worse.
This is Scotlands chance, and we MUST get behind a campaign to go directly to independence. The media in Scotland is so partisan that a fair and impartial referendum is impossible.
gavinochiltree
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Were it not for media coverage, I doubt Reform would do any better than in it’s earlier guise as UKIP on 1% – IIRC, only last year Farage was crowing over becoming ‘king-maker’ at Holyrood, so what progress
and though it’s dangerous to be complacent, consider Reform’s actual electoral gains in Scotland as opposed to polling – It is a big fat Zero on something like 39 outings…
utings
https://archive.ph/HZE8c
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Were it not for media coverage, I doubt Reform would do any better than in it’s earlier guise as UKIP on 1% – IIRC, only last year Farage was crowing over becoming ‘king-maker’ at Holyrood, so what progress
and though it’s dangerous to be complacent, consider Reform’s actual electoral gains in Scotland as opposed to polling – It is a big fat Zero on something like 39 outings…
utings
https://archive.ph/HZE8c
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Oops, keyboard’s acting up, but you get the jist…
The photo leading Jamie Calder’s article in the National says it all really, ‘around 400’, presumably including a clutch of journos and technicians involved in the ‘show’, it’s not exactly jaw-dropping, more Crathie village hall than Carnegie….
Amusing that Bull opened the ‘show’, and bull prevailed from the stage – Yet what struck home was that their Scottish political contingent were defectors rather than having been voted in on a Reform ticket, eg Graham Kerr, Graham Simpson…
As for Farage’s observation on his latest defector, or should that be defective, Malcolm Offord, “He will take Reform UK Scotland to a new level.” – 🤣
….
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“Nigel Farage was once run out of Edinburgh . Now Scottish voters are embracing his rabble rousing”.
Really ?
Which scottish voters (with a small ‘s’)?
Is it not really, in reality , just actually some scottish (with a small ‘s’) voters ?
Some who may live in Scotland and so then get to vote in various elections.
However their allegiance is not with Scotland but instead it is elsewhere.
So of course they , some scottish (with a small ‘s’) voters, vote for the party that they think will ensure Scotland stays within their UK ….as a part of England.
So for Ms Garivelli to write the above as if there is now a major shift in opinion within Scotland about Farage is basically ludicrous.
However it does play into this combined narrative that the UK media are so desperate to communicate , which is that there is no Scottish exceptionalism that exists on anything , compared that is to what is happening within England, including support and votes for Farage’s different political pretend parties.
Of course we know, as does she, that this is not true.
Just as we as a nation , via a majority, did not vote Tory then neither will we vote, as a majority, for these new Tories , who are TBH Tories in all but party name.
I think we all know who within Scotland will both support and so vote for these new Tories in Scotland and so does Ms Garivelli.
New Tories who seem to have more former actual Tories in their pretend party than the actual real Tory party.
The majority of political defections are , after all , mostly from the Tory party to Reform UK , so why then would voters in Scotland think that this latest Farage pretend party was somehow different from and so better than the actual Tory party ?
Reform UK obviously appeals to Tory politicians , hence their defection, so then there has to be some connection and similar position that they, these former Tories, have identified with their former party and Reform UK, as in the same former Tory party that the majority of voters in Scotland rejected at different political levels in various elections.
We have never had a Tory Scottish government and we will not have a Reform UK Scottish government, indeed any votes they, Reform UK, will gain will be via the over promotion of Farage’s party by the media, both here in Scotland and elsewhere within the UK State. However votes gained for them next year will also be at the expense of the Tory party and perhaps Labour as well.
As to Tory Peer Malcolm Offord defecting to Tory, well that’s not a shock is it . He’s just the latest to see the writing on the wall for what is now his former party, as in the one who awarded him a peerage and so now the one that he has abandoned. Another Rat abandoning the sinking Tory party ship, if, that is, the polls are to be believed.
I am sure that we will now see Offord appear yet again on BBC Debate Night and also BBC QT (when on a infrequent visit to Scotland) speaking the same old S**** that he spoke when formerly he was a Tory panellist on these programmes.
I wonder though if the Tories had won the UK GE last year whether we would then have seen the likes of Offord and other Tories defect to Reform UK. I think not.
Of course Offord was another Tory who was rejected by voters in Scotland when he once stood as a candidate for the Scottish parliament………….and then lost !
Perhaps instead of papers like the Guardian writing this S****. They could instead communicate to voters in Scotland Farage’s real opinion of Scotland .
When on the day after the Scottish Referendum on Independence on the 19 September 2014, Farage stated this:
“We’ve had a lot from Scotland but the tail cannot go on wagging the dog any longer” and then he also said “English taxpayers should not be bound by promises made by the three main party leaders during the referendum campaign”.
I wonder then with such a low and dismissive opinion of Scotland why then he, Farage, now wants to stand any candidates in our Scottish elections next year for his latest pretend party, Reform UK ?
Also does Baron Offord agree with what Farage formerly said about Scotland or will he just pretend it was never said at all and so try to convince us that an English Nationalist party like Reform UK really cares about Scotland ?
Farage wants to constrain Scotland.
He wants to take away Scotland’s devolved powers and also all of our (own) money .
Perhaps even ending devolution, which will be easy for him to do as he seems to be keen to adopt the same playbook as Trump, in him seeking to create a similar future dictatorship within the UK to that now happening within America.
However if he did win power within the UK in 2029 he will also want , just like other UK parties, to still profit from our Scottish resources and also our world renowned food and drink products. (and also our Scottish Tax revenues).
However for the people of Scotland then Farage is determined that under a new Reform UK government we will again be totally under the thumb of , as in over controlled by, a UK government at WM again.
In the meantime he seems to want to try to infiltrate our Scottish parliament with former Tory politicians and former Tory supporters who now represent his pretend party, Reform UK , in order to create a lot of disruption and animosity. (more than even the current UK parties create there).
Farage may indeed gain seats in our parliament , as some voters (former Tory ones) in Scotland are either always within the categories of being “None so blind as those who cannot see” or are wilfully within the category of “None so blind as those who will not see”.
Some voters just do not understand what they are really doing if they intend to vote for Reform UK next year, while others know exactly what they are doing in voting for Reform UK and that is an obstacle that we have always faced in Scotland via a certain type of voter.
The media of course will love to promote that Scotland now “embraces” Farage and his pretend party, just as they once told us that Ruth Davidson won in Scotland when she was the former Tory branch office manager, that is when the Tories once gained what was only an extra few Tory MP’s in a former UK GE .
The £9 million pound donation to Reform UK via a former Tory donor who lives elsewhere in the world , should be enough to convince all voters that with this kind of huge donation then Reform UK are not going to do anything different or better than the Tories (or Labour).
In fact just like other UK parties Reform UK will pander to and so try to fulfil the needs of the wealthy and their financial interests.
As to the ordinary man and woman well they will be overlooked yet again and also denied all of those things that they should be entitled to as citizens from their government. However that is neither Reform UK’s nor Farage’s intentions should they gain power within the UK State.
So one can only hope that the Reform UK (rising) bubble will eventually burst and it will be most amusing to see then what all of those defected Tories do, including the unelected Bureaucrat Baron Malcom Offord , a former nominated Tory Peer and now a Reform UK Peer……….will other Tory Peers follow him, who cares, as most of them in the HOL’s are dinosaurs anyway.
If anyone in Scotland votes for Reform UK next year then they will eventually reap that which they have sown……unfortunately so will others who did not vote for them.
Trust Labour HQ to be so S**** as a UK government, just as we on here predicted they would be, and they too have helped pave the way for Reform UK’s support rising in some places , mostly within England, in Labour HQ allowing Farage to dictate UK policy on immigration , Brexit and many other UK policies.
So if you vote Labour you now get Reform UK (either actually or a Labour party version of Reform UK)…….and Labour are also a new version of the Tory party……….so I think most voters within Scotland should wise up before it’s too late and just stop voting for UK political parties…………including the latest pretend one.
Liz S
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“Major British expat enclaves in Spain include popular coastal towns like Torrevieja, Benidorm, and Fuengirola on the Mediterranean coast, and cities such as Málaga and Alicante. These areas are known for their large expat populations, which create distinct communities with amenities like British-style pubs and shops, bilingual services, and social clubs”.
A Brit abroad is always referred to, by British media and politicians, as an expat.
“bilingual services” that is when Brits go to live abroad then the citizens of that foreign place must speak English as well as their own language to accommodate the British expats.
“British-style pubs and shops” and creating “distinct communities” is that then British expats integrating into and with the communities of their new adopted foreign country. I think not.
We often hear that immigrants who come to live in the UK are accused of failing to integrate into ‘our’ British way of life , speak our language or adopt that which is promoted to be a ‘British‘ cultural identity. (whatever that is supposed to be).
Yet no such restrictions is placed upon British expats who go to live elsewhere in the world.
The term expat is defined as “someone living in a foreign country , often temporarily for work , study or retirement , while generally retaining citizenship in their home country. “Expatriate,” from Latin ex (out of) + patria (country)”.
Basically the likes of Farage has double standards for anyone coming into the UK to live and work who is from another country while simultaneously he adopts a rule that promotes British exceptionalism on those Brits (expats) who go to live and work (and retire) abroad .
Rule Britannia…..uber alles.
Can you imagine Farage’s reaction if other countries were as hostile to British ‘expats’ as he is to their citizens, like say the United Arab Emirates, where many expat Brits go to live and work in Dubai , and where Richard Tice’s girlfriend Isabel Oakeshott now lives, a post Brexit conundrum, where the former Brexit party MEP Tice (and now Deputy leader of Reform UK) wants us all to have to suffer a Brexit British State while his own partner can flounce off to a Muslim State and then he, Tice, is able to afford to frequently visits her over there.
How the other half (elites) live eh.
What wrong with Brexit Britain……Oakeshott , like others who are in the same financial bracket as her, just do not want to pay their fair share towards their supposed beloved Brexit Britain, a Brexit that she supported and voted for , so she then goes off to pastures new , to live abroad, to then pump money into their foreign economy…..and not Brexit Britain’s.
That sounds fair, not………….and also a tad suspect as obviously she must know only too well that Brexit Britain is rubber ducked and the S*** has been hitting that particular fan for a very long long time (but she blames Labour for increasing VAT on private school fees….how very elitist of her)………so now Oakeshott is an expat, who no doubt would soon return to her Brexit Britain if Farage came to power in the UK, as then she would know her money was safe (as in she would retain more of it for herself and so then the UK State would get less of it).
Of course the UK media is also guilty of promoting exceptionalism when it comes to the British State while dismissing any notion that Scotland is often distinct from England in many areas….apparently that is prohibited as a reality with the UK media , hence why they make so much effort in trying to refute it as a reality.
See this is what will happen with a Reform UK government but also likely to be promoted by any Reform UK Muppets or Puppets that are elected to our Scottish parliament as they too will take orders from their HQ………….as their order of relevance is likely to be themselves first, then their wealthy donors and supporters next , then the pretend party they are a part of and then that’s it………..if they had to pretend to pick a country to sup[port and defend then it would the one nation within the UK who are the Kingmakers as far as electing a UK government is concerned, and that Nation is England (First).
Reform UK Tories………well , come on , let’s be honest can you really take the Tory out of the Tory party, is this not just an attempt by Reform UK to initiate a rebirth of a new(ish) Tory party…………as the old Tory party were pretty much decimated at last year’s GE….so Farage now sees this as the best time to gain some traction politically for him and his pretend party.
Also are we expected to now believe that these new Tories (Reform UK) can win over Scotland’s voters, via a majority, when the old (actual) Tory party could not ?
For the Birds surely Ha Ha……and it also seems too for the UK media as well (also Ha Ha).
Liz S
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Clearly the Unionist media are getting increasingly desperate in their attemnpts to latch onto a Party that in their opinion has a chance of defeating the SNP. That said Swinney & Co really need to start upping the anti to get their message across more effectively. Riding high in the polls does not always transform into votes and complacency is the biggest threat to getting a clear majority. Whether or not you like the SNP as a member I have put them on notice that my patience at least is running thin and there must be no more excuses to Independence. next May.
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