Other parties more comfortable bashing Reform than discussing policy
The politicians had little to offer for the Scottish public, but jumped to action when attacking Reform
At The Scotsman’s Holyrood election hustings in Edinburgh on Tuesday night, it was clear that Scotland’s political parties would rather speak about Reform UK than their own policies.
When asked to give their doorstep pitch, it was pretty boring. Mairi McAllan promoted the SNP’s record in government, the Greens’ Patrick Harvie said wealth is too concentrated, Labour’s Martin Whitfield spoke about a generic need for change, Tory Murdo Fraser said there needed to be a “fresh start” and Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said “Scotland isn’t working”.
They were all devoid of concrete ideas.
The only one who had any real policy was this election’s bogeyman, Scottish Reform leader Malcolm Offord.
He pledged to get rid of three tax bands and actually have tax lower in Scotland than the rest of the UK as a means of creating growth.
After boring the audience (and probably themselves) with their lack of detail, the non-Reform politicians jumped into action when it came to attacking Mr Offord.
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Mr Fraser criticised his lack of “arithmetic” when it comes to public spending and Ms McAllan hit out at the Scottish Reform leader’s failure to “acknowledge the hurt” he had caused with his homophobic joke.
Mr Harvie warned Reform UK want to replicate the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), while Mr Cole-Hamilton spoke out about Reform’s attack ads against Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.
Mr Offord even came under fire from one young person in the audience, who asked him to apologise for his comments.
Mr Offord replied: “I have a lot of gay friends”. The crowd laughed and the young man shouted: “Shameful.”
This was red meat for the other politicians who were much more comfortable criticising him than actually talking about what they stand for.
Reform UK is the main story of this election. It is likely to have at least a dozen MSPs having come from pretty much nowhere, while the SNP will probably stay in power and Labour will gain little (if any) ground.
So it makes sense for the other parties to focus on Mr Offord.
But if they continue to do this rather than having strong policy positions, it will just benefit Reform UK and harm their own chances.
McAllan shows FM credentials
There was an interesting moment following a question from a woman in the audience about implementing the Supreme Court ruling on single sex spaces.
Patrick Harvie started talking about how trans people are not a threat.
He was heckled and told to “give an answer to women and stop turning this into something about queerness”.
He was flustered and seemed to be put off by being interrupted.
But Ms McAllan proved herself to be an operator when it was her turn.
The 33-year-old listened to the heckler but also took her on and seemed to relish the opportunity to clarify her party’s stance.
This was the complete opposite of Mr Harvie and over the night she showed herself to be the highest-performing politician in the room - even though she was not offering much change in terms of policy.
If it was in any doubt, Ms McAllan demonstrated that she is a serious contender to take over from John Swinney when he eventually stands down.
Some think that SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn is nailed on to be the next SNP leader.
But on Tuesday night at the Assembly Rooms, Ms McAllan confirmed she is up for the fight and a potential future First Minister.
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