Taxi Driver Online

Not much new here, but just surprising that the Courier is keeping the pot boiling with it all

But kind of confirms what I said earlier about the list vote, and all that kind of thing.

But there's an almighty spat going on with some other Scottish right-wingers on Twitter. The t-word isn't mentioned, and nothing to do with the trade. But I'm beginning to wonder if maybe something has happened on the taxi side of things


How Fife candidate couple’s Reform dream fell apart

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/politic ... orm-dream/

Linda Holt and James Glen, who run a St Andrews taxi business together, took swipes at Nigel Farage’s party after quitting the election race.

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They were the Fife couple hoping to drastically shake up the Scottish Parliament by standing for Reform UK.

But then Linda Holt and James Glen’s election hopes came crashing down in spectacular fashion as they withdrew from the contest within days of the campaign starting.

Their early exit came as Reform’s election launch in Scotland descended into chaos – with one Dundee candidate suspended after less than 24 hours.

Less than four weeks out from the Holyrood vote, Nigel Farage’s outfit after trying to rebuild momentum following multiple controversies.

But how did the St Andrews taxi firm bosses quickly become estranged from the party they were hoping to represent in Holyrood?

Journey to Reform

It wasn’t their first foray into politics.

Ms Holt was elected in East Neuk as a Tory councillor in 2017, before later quitting the party.

At the 2021 Holyrood election, the couple were both candidates for George Galloway’s anti-independence All for Unity group.

They would later become strong supporters of Reform as Nigel Farage’s party started to gain significant momentum in Scotland.

Offensive social media posts

Reform UK finally unveiled its full list of candidates for the Scottish Parliament vote on March 19.

Ms Holt was picked to contest North East Fife.

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Mr Glen was listed to stand for a constituency seat in Edinburgh.

But The Courier revealed Ms Holt had previously called Humza Yousaf a “grandstanding Islamist moron” and “not British” on social media.

She also claimed the Scottish Government was “becoming a Hamas PR support act” while Mr Yousaf was the first minister.

Reform’s Scottish leader, Malcolm Offord, did not condemn her comments when we put them to him.

Exit from race

Party insiders say Ms Holt was told to be careful on social media after The Courier’s report.

It came as multiple candidates became embroiled in rows.

One Dundee MSP hopeful, Stuart Niven, was suspended and later ditched after it emerged he is banned as a company director.

On March 25, Ms Holt reshared a social media post supporting Scottish party chief Mr Offord after it emerged he made a homophobic joke about George Michael.

That same day, Reform unveiled its regional list rankings for the Holyrood election.

Ms Holt was ranked eighth on the list, effectively killing her chances to become an MSP unless she could pull off a near impossible upset in the North East Fife constituency instead.

Her partner Mr Glen – ranked ninth – was the only candidate listed below her.

Within 24 hours, Ms Holt announced she was backing out of the race.

“Due to a lack of support from the party, I am withdrawing my candidacy for Reform with immediate effect,” she said.

Mr Glen joined her the following day.

“I have withdrawn my candidacy for Reform UK,” he wrote on social media.

“I fully support Linda in her decision and the reasons behind it.”

Couple turn on party

Ms Holt and Mr Glen became increasingly critical of Reform online after their exit from the election race.

On April 2, Ms Holt said the “party hierarchy” had “made sure I couldn’t be elected”.

Meanwhile, the former North East Fife candidate has also reshared multiple posts on social media critcising Reform’s top Glasgow candidate Thomas Kerr.

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Mr Glen soon turned his ire on party chiefs.

On April 6, the St Andrews Taxis boss alleged Reform’s Scottish organiser Martyn Greene was trying to “undermine” leader Mr Offord.

He also accused Mr Greene of leaking stories to pro-independence newspaper The National to “undermine candidates” and to help his own allies.

One Reform insider dismissed Mr Glen’s claims as “absolute nonsense”.

They said party bosses are working closely and denied any claims of friction.

“These are disgruntled candidates who are lashing out and making wild accusations that are completely unfounded,” the source told The Courier.

Insiders claim the couple were simply unhappy about being ranked at the bottom of the regional list.

Speaking in Cowdenbeath on Friday, Reform’s top Mid Scotland and Fife candidate Helen McDade deflected from her party’s turmoil in that region.

“I think we need to look at the other parties as well,” she told The Courier.

“You’ve happened to pick on the Fife ones but if you look across Scotland the other parties have lost candidates for much more serious things than tweets.

“They’ve lost candidates who are under scrutiny for [alleged] sexual offences, for fraud, these are SNP and Labour candidates.”

“We did a lot of vetting but you can’t mitigate for everything.”

But is all love lost?

Ms Holt and Mr Glen clearly are not as enamoured with Reform as they once might have been.

But ex-councillor Ms Holt does not appear to have turned on the party entirely.

Over the past week, she has been batting for Reform on social media.

“This is a purity spiral witch hunt,” she said, regarding a news articles about Reform allegedly running pro-independence candidates.

She added: “@ReformUKScot and @Malcolm_Offord are 100% focused on making Scotland the most successful part of the UK.”

Ms Holt later dismissed claims Reform would help the SNP secure a majority at the upcoming election as “rank nonsense”.

The Courier approached Ms Holt and Mr Glen for comment.

Maybe the editor is an SNP sypatiser and wants to keep the negativity around reform uk going.

of course if reform uk can dig the dirt up on him and destroy his credibilty he might regret it.

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

I don't know what's going on, precisely, but he appeared before the licensing committee last week for a suspension hearing relating to his vehicle licence

Don't know what that was all about - the annual inspections are still ongoing over the two months to the end of this month, so it couldn't have been related to that. But the minutes have been published, and he wasn't suspended.

But if fleet services were involved (as below) then it must have been a vehicle thing rather than a character thing, presumably

And it was actually continued from last month's meeting, to allow him to provide documentation and get legal representation. So sounds reasonably serious, but the timing must mean it couldn't have been about this year's inspections.

But, unlike the stuff about missing stickers and rooflights not illuminating etc, it's impossible from the published minutes to know what it was all about, precisely.

But an interesting note on the minutes about transparency and the like - presumably related to all the EFTA stuff rather than the politics thing


For what it's worth, Councillor Adams is the committee convenor, and EFTA called for his resignation because of the tariff-setting debacle, which was reported in the press. So it could be related to that.