The Truth About Reform’s New Front Man for Scotland

The big reveal that Malcolm Offord would be joining Reform UK was framed as a breakthrough moment for the far-right party. Without any real base here in Scotland, and safe in the knowledge that running at next year’s Holyrood elections with Farage as the figurehead would go down like cold-sick in Scotland, Offord gives them a much-needed alternative.

Offord represents everything that is wrong with UK, and everything that should be ‘Reformed’ about it, from his crooked dark-money, to his bought-for peerage, it is a parody from a Parody Nation.

The former Tory minister was introduced by Mr Farage during a party rally in Falkirk on Saturday where Farage was following on his well-worn tactic of weaponisg hate. But the success of this strategy depends on two or three things which are not as easily banked as everyone supposes.

First, it depends on a sort of Memory Hole erasure about who Malcolm Offord actually is, to sane-washing and sanitising Reform UK from their past, present and future politics, Thankfully, we have the receipts.

Receipt One is this piece from 2014 which outlines the detail of the whole Vote No Borders escapade, which was rudely, and legally, exposed:

Astroturf Democracy – Bella Caledonia

Receipt Two is this piece from 2021 [Bankrupt Britain and the Offord Affair – Bella Caledonia] which exposes Offord’s deeply reactionary politics (no surprise):

As Fraser Dick wrote at the time: “As well as his donations to the Conservative Party, Offord is an advisory board member to the right-wing think-tank established by work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan-Smith, the Centre for Social Justice. The contents of ‘Bankrupt Britain’, a paper written by Offord and published on the ConservativeHome website, suggest Offord would back Duncan-Smith’s vindictive and humiliating welfare reforms that have pushed tens of thousands of Scots to beg for handouts at foodbanks. The paper ‘Bankrupt Britain’, written in 2009, lays out a blueprint for austerity – calling on public spending to be reduced by a third, and claims that the entrenchment of poverty in Britain is due to the high amount of unmarried mothers.”

Second of all, it requires a sleight of hand, in which Offord is presented as a presentable face of what is, essentially, an English Nationalist and clearly fascist agenda. I don’t use these words lightly, and they are indisputable. Feel free to challenge me on either; you’ll lose.

This has been dutifully done by Scotland’s Orphaned Centrists, most notably Chris Deerin, who pipes up with the memorable phrase “properly Scottish” in this ringing endorsement. I will explain shortly how someone like Deerin is the ‘Scotland Editor’ for a nominally left-wing magazine like The New Stateman…

Such drivel is also echoed by Andy McIver of the execrable Holyrood Sources podcast who havers:

“This is by a distance Reform’s biggest coup in Scotland. Malcolm Offord is a charismatic, centre-right liberal who thinks Scotland before he thinks UK. He’s everything that Scotland has wanted from the Tories for 25 years, but never had. This will be an interesting watch…”

I mean, as we’ve already gone over, he was a Tory and a Tory minister and he bought himself a place in the House of Lords. ‘Centre-right liberal’ is doing a lot of heavy-lifting here.

Third, what’s required is a lot of media story-telling around such a figure, and Deerin and McIver, and others in the days to come will be happy to comply.

This follows a well-trodden path.

Such is the desperation of the media class (that hold almost all of the positions as senior columnist, editor, producer or owner of our media) to destroy the agenda for Scottish independence (however they see that being manifested) that they will do literally anything to undermine it.

So we had the truly embarrassing adoration of Ruth Davidson, despite her obvious vacuous nature, and so too we had the ridiculous adulation of Kate Forbes [The Lurch to the Left – Bella Caledonia], and of course the faithful support for whatever Scottish Labour leader arrives on the conveyor-belt.

Sometimes, but rarely, these figures are too absurd for the commentariat to stomach, but rarely is there is a limit to this. Even the most dimwitted, morose or useless figure will be put to use.

The mission is: Destroy the Nats! It doesn’t matter how completely unsuitable, useless, talentless or inappropriate any such political figure might be, the only purpose they serve is to dethrone or destroy the cause of (even talking about) independence. In this context, you see, supposedly serious political commentators debase themselves to the meta-cause that they hold in common. Examples of this will be tumbling over themselves in the coming days to champion Offord and whitewash his past.

In doing so, supposedly ‘serious’ people will be exposing themselves as who they really are. Watch this space, and keep hold of the receipts.

Offord is a craven chancer and opportunist, but his past and intentions won’t be buried.