With around 1 in 5 Scots telling pollsters they're voting for Reform UK at the coming Scottish Parliament Elections, Bernard Ponsonby and Alex Massie analyse the current and likely effect on Scottish politics and how Nigel Farage's party can't lose out in this election.

Bernard Ponsonby

1. “What they're feeding into is a mood that the system is broken… the message about a broken political system is a message which transcends the traditional left-right issues. And it transcends the constitutional question.”
2. “The rise of Reform UK is in part a crisis that the voters have in the confidence with the established order and with the established parties.”
3. “The Scottish elections are an entirely free hit for Nigel Farage… he has a proportional voting system to fall back on next year. So he's going to get representatives. And the only thing that getting representatives at Holyrood will do is give him a further bounce.”
4. “I think that they will have a good election next May. The only question is how good. I think for the Conservatives, they will have a bad election. The only question is how bad or perhaps even how catastrophic.”
5. “Ultimately, just like the SDP, he will ultimately fail to break the mold of politics because… the asylum and immigration issue… won't cut through forever.”

Alex Massie

1. “In Scotland, Reform is winning around 25% of the working-class vote, C2DE voters… that tells you something. It tells you that in a strange way, some of the people who responded very well to the Yes campaign in 2014… it is the same kind of message that Reform is capitalizing on now.”
2. “It is a howl of discontent that is not necessarily connected to any specific policies or even ideas that Reform have.”
3. “Banging the drum on illegal immigration and forcing other parties… to conflate legal and illegal immigration is something that is extremely effective as a wedge issue for Farage and Reform.”
4. “Poor old Russell Findlay… is taking fire from his right and from his left and his center is falling apart too. And so this really leaves him with little option but to counter attack, but with what sort of troops he can muster, I am not entirely sure.”
5. “The rise of Reform again complicates matters because it becomes much, much harder to see how you can put together an election winning team… everybody in Scotland is a minority.”

Focussing on UK, Scottish and Global politics, if you like other great political podcasts like The Rest is Politics, The News Agents, Newscast, Questions Time, Holyrood Sources, Planet Holyrood, The Stooshie, The Steamie, Scotcast, Americast etc etc then The Ponsonby and Massie Podcast could be a great show to add to your list of favourites.

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