The news filtered through this morning not with a bang, but with the quiet finality of a ballot count. Reform UK has won its first contested election in Scotland. David McLennan took a council seat in Whitburn and Blackburn, beating out both Labour and the SNP.
It was not a defection this time. It was not a politician changing jerseys mid-match because the wind changed direction. It was a proper win at the ballot box. And that matters.
For a long time, we have told ourselves that Scottish politics is immune to the brand of populism sweeping the south. We have our own distinct political ecosystem, we said. We have the independence question to anchor us. But looking at the numbers (McLennan winning by 149 votes over the SNP) it seems that immunity is wearing off.
I avoided Question Time the other night. Life is too short for that kind of manufactured anger. But reading the reports this morning, it sounds like pantomime. Lord Offord and Russell Findlay bristling at each other while the SNP’s Stephen Flynn makes popcorn jokes. It is all very performative. It is all very loud.
But under that noise, there is a quiet, frustrated signal coming from places like Whitburn.
McLennan claims he entered politics because of the “unfairness” towards landlords. That is a staggering admission. To me, being a landlord is often just ticket touting with bricks. You buy up a limited resource, create artificial scarcity, and sell access back to people who actually need it at a profit. It is a scourge.
But here is the question. Are the 1,177 people who voted for him really losing sleep over the plight of buy-to-let investors? Are the voters in West Lothian really that concerned that property portfolios are not yielding enough profit?
I doubt it.
I suspect their vote is less about landlord rights and more about a deep, gnawing feeling that the established machinery just is not working for them. When Labour’s vote collapses and the SNP cannot hold the line, people look for a different door. Even if that door is held open by someone whose primary political motivation is protecting rent seekers.
That is the tragedy here. Reform is stepping into a vacuum created by failures in housing, in public services, and in trust. They are offering simple answers to complex problems. And while we might find their answers worrying, we cannot ignore that people are listening.
As someone who believes in an independent, green, and socially just Scotland, this is a wake-up call. We cannot just dismiss this as the “scunner factor”, that uniquely Scottish sense of being thoroughly sick and tired of it all, and hope it goes away. We cannot just label voters as “extreme” and move on. That is how you lose.
Mainstream politics in Scotland has felt like a broken smartwatch lately. It is full of features nobody asked for, it constantly needs updates, and the battery dies just when you need it. Reform is offering a different device entirely. It might be ticking backwards, but at least the display is clear.
We need to offer something better. Not louder, just better. More grounded. More human.
We need to reconnect with the people who feel left behind in Whitburn, in Paisley, and everywhere else. We need to show that progressive politics is not just about high-minded debates in Holyrood, but about fixing the things that actually break in people’s lives.
The political weather is changing. We had best be ready for it.