In the Guardian today, the above and:

Last week’s Scottish parliament election promised an equally profane revelation. With Reform UK’s arrival in Scottish politics, Kenny Farquharson predicted in the Times that election day “will be remembered as the day Scottish exceptionalism died”. Sheepish voters, dumbly following the rest of Britain, would finally espouse the “rightwing populist nativism” that had hitherto been halted at Hadrian’s Wall.

On the surface, the results do suggest a change in tone. Reform won 17 seats –only two more than the Scottish Greens – tying with Scottish Labour for second place. Its surge from nowhere to 16% of the vote is unprecedented at Holyrood, rivalled only by the SNP’s 13-point rise in 2011. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/12/reform-scotland-elections-hostility-right-leftwing-identity-myth

I know, he’s just a journalist in a competitive commercial environment ie prostitute but some folk might be taken in by his wanderings.

Scothorne does go on to correct his own nonsense but he really shouldn’t have needed to if he had any sense or professionalism in the first place.

Many of you will not need my corrections but for what they’re worth:

One, Reform UK only actually ‘won’ 15.8% of the vote, down from several polls predicting 20% and barely over half of their expected Westminster share of 29% further confirming Kenny Farquharson’s talents as an observer of Scottish politics.

Two, you can’t, mathematically, have a ‘surge from nowhere to 16%’ when you did not compete the constituency vote at all in 2021 and to compare that with the SNP’s real surge in 2011 is nonsensical.