Why do Welsh and Scottish Reform voters hate their own nations so much?

Reform want to strip away Scotland's autonomy and Nigel Farage's naked contempt for Welsh-speakers has just come to light, so why do a significant minority in Scotland and Wales support them?

The Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd elections are coming up on May 7th, and the far-right Reform fanatics are looking to make unprecedented gains in both national assemblies.

The polls in Scotland are predicting that Reform will benefit from a huge collapse in the Tory vote to vie with Labour to become the official opposition to the SNP. The far right finishing above the Tories in second or third place would be a remarkable radicalisation of the Scottish parliament.

In the Senedd election polls, Reform are vying with Plaid Cymru to win the most votes of all. There’s little chance of them actually playing a part in the Welsh government though, because the majority of their gains would come at the expense of the Tories, who are the only party that would consider going into coalition with the extreme-right.

It’s hard to understand where this popularity is coming from, especially given Reform’s policies, and statements by Nigel Farage.

In Scotland, Reform have set out a policy agenda of shrinking the Scottish parliament, and tearing up the Scotland Act to hand a load of Scottish Parliament powers over to Westminster.

What this would mean in effect is stripping away many of the powers the Scottish Parliament has used to make life better for Scottish people, like not burdening Scottish students with vast unpayable debts; free prescriptions; free adult social care; better childcare provision; etc.

All of that would be at risk if Reform were to allowed to take a blowtorch to the Scotland Act, especially given Farage’s open admiration of Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s ruinous DOGE cuts.

Farage wants to erode Scotland’s autonomy, and give Westminster politicians in London more powers to make life worse for ordinary people in Scotland, yet somehow a significant minority of Scottish people seem intent on supporting the rise of the extreme-right in Scotland.

Farage’s contempt for Wales is even more apparent, having recorded a Cameo video saying that he wouldn’t attend a wedding in Wales because he "heard that half the guests were Welsh" then calling them "foreign speakers".

Farage’s anti-Welsh comments were made as part of his Cameo grift, where he’s made around £180,000 acting as a paid rent-a-gob for anyone with the cash to pay him to say whatever they want. The Reform party works on a similar principle, being heavily bankrolled by the Thailand-based billionaire Christopher Harborne.

When people in Scotland and Wales vote for Reform, they’re essentially voting to hand political power to the shady overseas billionaire who bankrolls the Reform operation.

Then there’s the fact the Reform were the only party in the Senedd to vote against new legislation to make it a criminal offence for politicians to lie to get themselves elected.

Positioning themselves as the sole political voice in Wales standing up for a politician’s right to lie to the public really gives their game away.

It’s astonishing that so many people in Scotland and Wales seem to want to vote for Farage and his extreme-right rabble, especially given their openly stated desire to erode Scotland’s autonomy and their determination to lie to the Welsh public with impunity.

It’s difficult to understand the mindset of people who hate their own nations so much that they’d wilfully back a nasty rent-a-gob ideologue who holds them and their countries in such contempt.