Trying to shut out Farage’s Reform UK is doomed to fail 

In John Buchan’s supranatural novel The Gap in the Curtain, five men participate in an experiment allowing them to receive a glimpse of _The Times_ a year hence to see how their lives have unfolded. But you don’t need to be one of the book’s characters to see that Reform UK will have a presence at Holyrood in 2026.

If polling trends continue, that’ll be quite the feat for a party with no recognisable leader north of the border, or a proper organisational structure. In many ways, politics in this country — somewhat ironically given Brexit — is becoming more “European” in the sense that established parties are under attack from the populist right.
What’s the best way to respond? _The Times_ columnist Kenny Farquharson mooted the creation of a firewall where the Scottish political mainstream isolates Reform UK. With almost impeccable timing, John Swinney announced a cross-party summit to counter the far right.
Although well-intentioned, neither idea will shift the dial. Ignoring sentiments drawing people across Europe to populism, or branding their concerns as extreme, will just see these rise inexorably. A fingers-in- your-ears approach to voters who see large-scale migration as impacting key infrastructure, social cohesion, or national security, is unsustainable.
Denmark shows what could be done. The Social Democrats adopted a more restrictive stance on immigration, winning back disaffected working-class voters from the right-wing Danish People’s Party. Mette Frederiksen, the prime minister, didn’t engage in simplistic foreigner bashing to achieve this.
Instead, her strategy neutralised a toxic issue, recognising that the prized Danish social model could not endure unfettered migration and emphasised integration efforts for those already there. But in an age where reason is cast aside and jejune political labelling takes hold, perhaps the left-of-centre Frederiksen is now a “far-right” politician?
If the mainstream left and right don’t respond meaningfully, nativist forces will fill the void. Indeed, Farage’s USP is simple: you lot just don’t get it. He can position himself as a common touch truth-sayer against an establishment which not only won’t act on widespread concerns but won’t listen.
Neither a firewall nor a civic society echo chamber will arrest the rise of the populist right. Parties of the centre need to reframe the debate and act firmly but fairly on migration. If not, we might gaze behind the curtain to a future where the dominant political forces in the UK and beyond are even more unpleasant than Nigel Farage.

“This article originally appeared under my name in the _Times_ of London.”