How 541 Reform votes in a Fife by-election could ripple across political scene

The result went as expected with the SNP comfortably holding the late Ross Vettraino’s seat, and even if the outcome had no impact on the political make-up of the council chamber, the winners couldn’t have given Labour a bloodier nose had they smacked its face forcibly into every ballot box.

But, scan further down the results, and one stat stood out. Third place went to Reform UK making its debut in a council by-election round these parts.

Its candidate, Ian Smith polled 514 votes. As numbers go it was nothing of substance - but the fact Reform polled more than the Tories and Lib Dems combined was. It ought to have alarm bells ringing across all parties.

While Reform grabbed the bragging rights, it’s important to stress the turnout was just 24%. Worryingly that was considered better than expected in some quarters, which tells you the apathy swamping our political processes, leaving a door wide open for one trick ponies like Nigel Farage and his motley bunch of Reformers.

They took 6% of votes each from Labour and the Tories, and a pattern is starting to emerge. Reform surpassed the Lib Dems and Tories at the Southside Central by election in Glasgow, and took 22% of the vote in Bannockburn, just 1% behind Labour.

It’s slogan “Scotland needs Reform” will be heard on a much bigger stage when we vote for our next MSPs in just a few months time. Change that capital ‘R’ to lowercase and it’s a very different message - I wonder how many are starting to get nervous?

How to deal with Reform is a challenge for every party. Farage has pulled off the trick of positioning himself as an outsider and a man of the people despite being a privately educated former City of London banker - a man more familiar with the establishment he claims to detest than the doors of the local JobCentre. Farage claims Trump as a bessie mate. You can learn a lot about a man by the company he keeps.

His shtick should be so tiresome by now he should be sitting next to the pub bore, droning on and on over a pint of bitter about an England/Britain that only ever existed in their minds. Instead he’s an MP, after seven failed attempts, and is setting his sights on progress north of the border.

He’s the irritant that no ointment has yet managed to soothe, and our political leaders seem bereft of ideas. They need to buck up their ideas or they won’t have much to lead come next summer.

First Minister John Swinney’s duller-than-dull civic summit on tackling the rise of the far right wasn’t the answer - talking shops are utterly pointless when the other side only speaks in soundbytes and snappy slogans, and when that side is excluded it just hands them a golden PR opportunity which, of course, Farage milked.

Reform are a dreadful party with a wretched leader leader - a one trick political pony who was handed a gift when David Cameron called a referendum on leaving the EU, and lost. The damage done by that decision will be irreversible for generations to come.

Farage will dine on the Brexit outcome for as long as he can, and even if his troops fall short, they will almost certainly skewer individual political ambitions. Those 541 votes in Glenrothes Central and Thornton may be the shape of things to come …