History of the Scottish National Party
Encyclopedia
In Scotland
, the Scottish National Party (SNP) is a centre-left
political party
which campaigns for Scottish independence
. It currently holds power in Scotland with its leader Alex Salmond
as First Minister of Scotland
, following the outcome of the 2011 Scottish General Election.
(NPS) and the Scottish Party
. The merger was the brainchild of leading NPS figure John MacCormick
who desired unity for the nationalist movement in Scotland, and upon learning of the Scottish Party's emergence moved to secure it.
Initially, the SNP did not support all-out independence for Scotland, but rather the establishment of a devolved Scottish Assembly
, within the United Kingdom
. This became the party's initial position on the constitutional status of Scotland as a result of a compromise between the NPS, who did support independence, and the Scottish Party who were devolutionists. John MacCormick wanted a merger between the two parties and knew that it would only be through the support of devolution rather than independence that the Scottish Party would be persuaded to merge. However, the SNP quickly reverted to the NPS stance of supporting full independence for Scotland.
Professor Douglas Young, was the leader of the Scottish National Party from 1942 to 1945. Young fought for the Scottish people to refuse conscription and his activities were popularly vilified as undermining the British war effort against the Nazis. Young was imprisoned for refusing to be conscripted.
John McCormick left the party in 1942, owing to his failure to change the party's policy from supporting all out independence to Home Rule
at that year's SNP conference in Glasgow
. McCormick went on to form the Scottish Covenant Association
, a non-partisan political organisation campaigning for the establishment of a devolved Scottish Assembly. This Covenant in itself proved politically challenging for the SNP, as it stole their nationalist platform. It also deprived the party of many members who left with MacCormick.
Professor Douglas Young, became the leader of the Scottish National Party from 1942 to 1945. Young fought for Scottish people to refuse conscription in the British war effort against the Nazis.Young was imprisoned for refusing to be conscripted.
The Covenant managed to get over 2 million signatures to a petition demanding Home Rule for Scotland in the late 1940s
and early 1950s
, and secured support from across the parties, but it eventually faded as a political force.
The SNP's early years were characterised by a lack of electoral progress and it wasn't until 1945 that the SNP's first member was elected to the UK parliament
at Westminster
. The party's first MP was Robert McIntyre
who won a by-election for the Motherwell constituency. However he lost the seat in the general election of that year.
McIntyre's brief spell did not particularly galvanise the SNP. The 1950s were characterised by low levels of support, and this made it difficult for the party to advance. Indeed, in most general elections they were unable to put up more than a handful of candidates.
A split occurred in the SNP in 1955 (although not as large as that of 1942) when a grouping styled the 55 Group
started an organised campaign of internal dissent. This group was formed mainly of younger SNP members frustrated at the lack of progress of the party. This split proved to be minor and involved only a few members, mainly located in the city of Edinburgh
, and the new National Party of Scotland made no impact whatsoever in the long-run.
, who would become party leader in the 1970s performed very well at the 1962 West Lothian
by-election, which Tam Dalyell
won for Labour
. The party began to grow quickly in the 1960s with a rapid growth in the number of recognised branches. For example, in 1966 alone the SNP National Executive recognised 113 new branches of the party. 1967 was the year that the party signalled they could begin to make an impact electorally. The party polled very well at the Pollok
by-election, winning some 28% of the votes cast in a consitituency where they had never stood before. This signalled the beginning of an upward electoral trend for the SNP.
Later that year that the SNP scored an even greater electoral success, projecting them into the political limelight. Winnie Ewing
won the Hamilton constituency in a by-election
in 1967 with the help of national organizer John McAteer. Consequently, the SNP began to make a serious impact on the political scene. Ewing famously said on the night of her by-election victory, 'stop the world, Scotland wants to get on', and this spirit seemed to be embraced by many Scots. Her victory propelled the party into the popular conscience and many new members joined as a result.
A novel feature of the 1967 SNP Annual Conference was that the party leader Arthur Donaldson
was challenged for the convenorship of the party. His challenger was Douglas Drysdale who was critical of the way Donaldson was leading the SNP. Donaldson overwhelmingly defeated Drysdale to retain his position.
In local elections the SNP were beginning to show they could compete also. In the 1967 Local Council elections, the SNP secured over 200,000 votes across the country making 27 gains in the burgh elections, and 42 in the counties. They managed to take control of Stirling
council where former party leader Robert McIntyre became Provost
. The SNP then went onto secure the largest share of the Scottish vote of any of the parties contesting the 1968 Local Council elections, winning some 40% of the vote.
Ewing's by-election victory and this improved electoral performance in the local elections helped to provoke the then UK Labour Government to establish the Kilbrandon Commission
to set up the blue-print for the establishment of a devolved Scottish Assembly. It also prompted Edward Heath's
announcement at the Conservative
Perth
Conference in 1968 that if he became Prime Minister he would establish a Scottish Assembly.
Scotland's unionist
politicians were becoming increasingly worried at the growth of the SNP. The Labour Party in particular had cause for alarm as Scotland provided so much of their support base, and the SNP were now picking up support in their very heartlands.
At the 1969 party conference, Billy Wolfe
was elected SNP leader in place of Arthur Donaldson.
, the SNP did not make major advances. Ewing lost her Hamilton seat and the only consolation for the SNP was the capture of the Western Isles with Donald Stewart becoming their sole Westminster representative. Thereafter though the 1970s was a period of sustained growth for the SNP. They followed the pattern of the 1960s with a number of strong showings in individual by-elections.
There was a minor setback in the early 1970s when a small number of party members in Dundee left to form a Labour Party of Scotland
. This new party contested the Dundee East by-election of 1973
, and the number of votes they captured was more than the "official" Labour candidates margin of victory over the SNP candidate, Gordon Wilson
. However, in the long-run this new party folded, and most of its members returned to the SNP.
They were bolstered by their capture of the Glasgow Govan
seat with Margo MacDonald
as their candidate from the Labour Party
in a by-election in 1973
. This again signalled to Labour that the SNP posed an electoral threat to them and in the February 1974 General Election
they returned 7 MPs. The failure of the Labour Party to secure an overall majority prompted them to quickly return to the polls to secure such and in the October 1974 General Election
the SNP performed even better than they had done earlier in the year, winning 11 MPs and managing to get over 30% of the vote across Scotland. The main driving force behind the growth of the SNP in the 1970s was the discovery of oil in the North Sea
off the coast of Scotland. The SNP ran a hugely successful It's Scotland's oil
campaign, emphasising the way in which they believed the discovery of oil could benefit all of Scotland's citizens.
Former SNP leader Billy Wolfe has argued that along with this campaign, the SNP was aided by their support for the workers in the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders Work-in, being led by Jimmy Reid
, as well as supporting the workers at the Scottish Daily Express when they attempted to run the paper themselves and other such campaigns.
The SNP continued to ride high in the opinion polls throughout the 1970s, and many members are convinced that if the Liberals
, led by David Steel
hadn't maintained the Labour Government of the time in power, the SNP might have made further electoral gains in the resulting general election. It did well at the local elections of 1977, making 98 net gains and leaving half of Scotland under hung councils. However 1978 saw a Labour revival at the expense of the SNP, at three by-elections (Glasgow Garscadden
, Hamilton
and Berwick and East Lothian
) and the local elections. The general election did not come till 1979
, by which time the party's support had dwindled.
In 1979, the SNP Parliamentary Group voted against the Labour Government in a Vote of No Confidence, causing the dissolution of the government and subsequent election. The then Labour Prime Minister, James Callaghan
famously described this decision by the SNP as that of, 'turkeys voting for Christmas
'. This statement would prove true, as the no-confidence vote by the SNP led to the loss of their Westminster seats and the dawn of Margaret Thatcher
.
in 1979 and its poor performance in the general election
of that year. A period of internal strife followed, culminating in the proscription of two internal groups, Siol nan Gaidheal
and the left-wing 79 Group
. However, several 79 Group members would later return to prominence in the party, including Alex Salmond
who would later lead the party. It proved too much for Margo MacDonald though, who was defeated by Douglas Henderson
for the position of party deputy leader at the 1979 party conference, and left the SNP, angry at the treatment of the left wing of the party, although she would later return to the party and be elected as an MSP.
There was also another internal grouping formed within the party, primarily as a response to the growth of the 79 Group entitled the Campaign for Nationalism in Scotland
, with the support of traditionalists such as Winnie Ewing. This group sought to ensure that the primary objective of the SNP was campaigning for independence regardless of any traditional left-right ideology, and if it had been successful would have undone the work of figures such as Billy Wolfe moving the SNP to become a clearly defined social-democratic party in the 1970s.
The period of internal factionalism inside the SNP came to an end at the 1982 SNP Conference where internal factions were banned.
(SLP) in the aftermath of the '79 election. This resulted in the SLP's leading figure, Jim Sillars
deciding to join the SNP, as did a great number of other ex-SLP members. Sillars had been a Labour Party MP in the 1970s but, dissatisfied with the Labour Government's policy on Scottish devolution and their socio-economic programme, had in 1976 formed the SLP. This influx of ex-SLP members served to strengthen the left of the party, to which these new members naturally gravitated.
In 1979, Billy Wolfe stood down as SNP leader, and in the resultant leadership election Gordon Wilson was elected leader with 530 votes to 79 Group member Stephen Maxwell
's 117 votes, and Willie MacRae
's 52 votes.
The 1980s offered little hope for the SNP with poor performances in both the 1983
and 1987
General Elections. Indeed even the party leader, Gordon Wilson
lost his seat in '87. The party took stock of these results and started to analyse its policy platform. Sillars began to grow in influence in the party and the SNP was firmly placing itself on the left of centre.
Many old-style SNP members believed that the party should be above the old arguments of left and right and should focus solely on the independence argument. Sillars however argued that the Scottish people had to be given reasons as to why independence would benefit their lives and that this should involve a fully developed socio-economic programme. He argued against the idea that somehow the country could be guided in a 'tartan trance' to independence, as if the Scottish people could ignore the realities of the economic system they found themselves in. Sillars was also key in moving the party to adopting a position of Independence in Europe to alleviate the 'separatist' tag that the SNP's unionist opponents were ever eager to attach to them. Previously the SNP had been at best highly suspicious about Scotland's continued membership of the EEC
, but the new policy which Sillars helped secure firmly committed the SNP to supporting an independent Scotland's membership.
There was a minor setback in 1987 when a few members on the left of the party broke away to establish a Scottish Socialist Party
(not the same one that is in existence now), but in the long-run this small party did not establish itself and it folded without threatening to make a major electoral breakthrough.
As the 1980s wore on, the party managed to re-group and in 1988 the SNP managed to win the Govan seat in a by-election
for the second time, with Sillars as their candidate. This was a huge upset, as the SNP overturned a Labour majority of around 19,000 and had not been expected to win. However, a hard fought campaign using the party's sizable activist base won through. Sillars oratorial capabilities and street campaigning methods also played a decisive role in the party's victory.
Sillars' victory provoked great alarm amongst the Labour Party hierarchy in Scotland, much as Ewing's had in the 1960s. Fearing that their strong Scottish electoral base was under threat, they helped establish the Scottish Constitutional Convention
to set out a blueprint for devolution. Initially the SNP looked as though they would get involved and party leader Gordon Wilson and Sillars attended an initial meeting of the convention. However, the convention's unwillingness to contemplate independence as a constitutional option persuaded Sillars in particular against getting involved and the SNP did not take part.
, who defeated Margaret Ewing
for the post by 486 votes to 186. Salmond's victory surprised many as Ewing had the backing of most of the party leadership, including Sillars and the party secretary at the time, John Swinney
, although he would go on to become a key ally of Salmonds. Ewing's prominent supporters made her many people's favourite to win the contest, but in the end Salmond was the convincing victor. He proved a capable leader with his witty and intelligent style of debate giving him a national prominence and boosting the SNP's profile.
In that same year the SNP presence at Westminster was boosted when Labour MP for Dunfermline West
, Dick Douglas
defected to the SNP, citing his dissatisfaction with the way Labour had handled the Poll Tax
issue as one reason. This boosted the SNP numbers at Westminster to five.
The 1992 General Election
had promised much for the SNP. It proved to be mixed in fortunes. The SNP held three seats they had won in 1987, but lost Govan. They also lost Dunfermline West, but this was not helped by the sitting MP Dick Douglas deciding to stand against Labour MP Donald Dewar
in his Glasgow seat instead of defending the seat he had represented for years.
The SNP had failed to make headway in terms of winning seats. However, their campaign proved a success in terms of votes won, with the SNP vote going up by 50% from their 1987 performance. It proved too much to bear for Sillars though, and he quit active politics, famously describing the Scots as '90 minute patriots'. It also signaled the breakdown of the political relationship between Sillars and Salmond.
The intervening years between the '92 and '97 general elections were marked by some SNP electoral success. In the 1994 elections for the European Parliament
the party managed to secure over 30% of the popular vote and return two MEPs (Winnie Ewing and Allan MacCartney). The SNP also came very close to winning the Monklands East by-election of that year
, caused by the death of the leader of the Labour Party, John Smith
. In 1995 they went one better, when the Perth and Kinross by-election
was won by Roseanna Cunningham
who later became the party's deputy leader.
saw the SNP double their number of MPs from three to six and, with the return of the Labour Party to power at that General Election, saw the establishment of a devolved Scottish Parliament
. This allowed for the SNP to firmly establish itself as a political force in Scotland with the returning of 35 MSPs in the first Scottish Parliament Election. Later that year the party returned two members of the European Parliament, narrowly missing out on sending a third.
The first term of the Scottish Parliament did not offer the SNP much comfort. Two MSPs quit the party, the aforementioned Margo MacDonald and Dorothy-Grace Elder
, citing the actions of some of their colleagues as reasons for their resignations. The SNP also performed poorly at the 2001 General Election
, with a reduced share of the vote from 1997, and one less MP.
Despite optimism that the party would at least retain the same number of MSPs they gained in 1999, a downturn in electoral fortune at the 2003 Scottish Parliament Elections has weakened them somewhat. They returned 27 elected members in the Scottish Parliament, making them the second largest party in Holyrood
.
The results of the election seem to indicate that the emergence of the Scottish Socialist Party
(SSP) and Scottish Green Party
(both of whom also support independence) has undermined their vote slightly. It remains to be seen how the SNP will deal with the fact that they are no longer exclusively the party of Scottish independence.
Recent debate within the SNP has been marked by disagreements between the gradualist wing
of the party, which believes in taking powers back bit by bit from the UK Parliament and returning them to the Scottish Parliament, as opposed to the viewpoint of the fundamentalist wing
. The fundamentalists argue that a greater emphasis should be placed on the party's support for independence to enthuse their activists, as well as their core support. Former leader, Gordon Wilson has publicly stated that he believes it may be that these two wings find their views so irreconcilable that the party may split as a result.
Other political figures often characterise the SNP as trying to be all things to all people. They charge the SNP with trying to appear solidly left-wing in urban Central Scotland where they are trying to unseat the Labour Party, and with appearing more moderate in rural Scotland where their electoral challenge is more often than not against the Conservatives
or the Liberal Democrats.
In 2000 John Swinney
MSP was elected leader, defeating Alex Neil MSP by 547 votes to 268 in a hotly contested leadership election to replace Alex Salmond as National Convenor.
Swinney's leadership came under challenge, with much press speculation surrounding the future leadership of the SNP by Swinney, with many contrasting his more subdued style of debating technique with that of his charismatic predecessor, Alex Salmond.
This speculation culminated in the challenge for the leadership of the SNP by grassroots activist, Dr. Bill Wilson in the summer of 2003. Wilson was broadly critical of what he argued were the centralising tendencies of the Swinney leadership, as well as a drift to the centre ground of politics away from the SNP's traditional position on the left of Scottish politics. At the party conference of that year the election took place with Swinney receiving 577 of the delegates votes that were cast and Wilson taking 111.
2004 did not get off to a good start for Swinney's leadership. On January 1 a former parliamentary candidate and a party activist in the Shetland Islands
Brian Nugent announced that he was forming his own pro-independence party, the "Scottish Party" (which eventually relaunched itself as the Free Scotland Party) in response to what he perceived to be an overly pro-European Union
stance by the SNP.
Not long after the party's National Executive Committee decided to firstly suspend, and then expel Campbell Martin, an SNP MSP. Martin had backed Bill Wilson's leadership challenge, and had continued to be overtly critical of Swinney's leadership, resulting in the NEC taking this disciplinary action against him.
Despite a slump in the vote and a decrease in the number of available seats from 7 to 6, the SNP was able to retain its two Members of the European Parliament
at the 2004 European elections
.
Nonetheless, John Swinney announced his resignation on June 22, 2004. He said that he would remain as caretaker leader until a successor was elected.
and Nicola Sturgeon
) and one former MSP (Mike Russell) announced that they would be candidates in the election for the party leadership. Alex Neil MSP announced that he would not be a candidate, citing what he believed to be the hostility of senior party figures such as Fergus Ewing
and Alex Salmond
to the prospect of his becoming leader. In a surprise announcement on July 15, 2004, Alex Salmond
announced that he would also be a candidate in the leadership race, despite having previously said "if asked, I'll decline, if nominated, I'll defer, and if elected, I'll resign". Nicola Sturgeon
then withdrew from the contest and declared her support for Salmond and decided to stand for Deputy Leader.
This resulted in Kenny MacAskill
pulling out of the race for deputy and declaring his support for Salmond and Sturgeon, leaving Sturgeon standing against Fergus Ewing
and Christine Grahame
. Shortly after Salmond and Sturgeon announced they were running on a joint ticket.
The campaign for leader was characterised by being a low-key affair. Salmond remained firm favourite to win back the leadership of the SNP. There remained greater doubt as to who would be the deputy leader with it being widely expected to be a much more close run affair than that for the post of leader.
There were some surprises during the course of the campaign. Alex Neil and Adam Ingram
both came out in support of Alex Salmond, although they supported Grahame for deputy rather than Sturgeon. This was unexpected as both men had previously been critics of Salmond in the past. It was particularly surprising in light of Salmond's earlier comments, before he had entered the race that he would have difficulties working with Neil should he be elected leader, although he later went on the record to say that he should not have publicly said this.
There was some degree of criticism of Salmond's position by other candidates, who felt that his decision to lead the SNP from being a member of the British Parliament at Westminster
rather than from the Scottish Parliament
was contrary to the party's aim of independence. Nonetheless on September 3, 2004 Salmond and Sturgeon were elected leader and deputy respectively. The result of the Leadership contest, in what was the first "One Member One Vote" election run by the SNP (as opposed to the delegate based elections of the past) was Salmond 4,952 (75.8%); Cunningham 953 (14.6%); and Russell 631 (9.7%). The result of the contest for Deputy Leader was Sturgeon 3,521 (53.9%); Ewing 1,605 (24.6%); and Grahame 1,410 (21.6%).
winning in Na h-Eileanan An Iar and Stewart Hosie
in Dundee East
) from the notional four they held to bring their total to six Members of Parliament. However there was also disappointment in that the sitting MP Annabelle Ewing
did not manage to win the new Ochil and South Perthshire constituency, finishing some 600 votes behind the Labour candidate.
There was also disappointment in that the SNP's share of the Scottish vote fell to 17.7% and that they finished third behind the Liberal-Democrats, this was the first time this had ever happened. The SNP's share of the vote across the Scottish Central Belt
was particularly low, with some candidates only just managing to achieve a high enough share of the vote in their constituency to retain their £500 deposit.
However, Alex Salmond was in buoyant mood in the aftermath of the campaign, describing the SNP's Westminster parliamentary group as "Scotland's Super Six" and also promising that the SNP would be far more competitive in the 2007 election for the Scottish Parliament.
with 46 seats. The Conservatives won 17 seats, the Lib Dems
16 seats, the Greens
2 seats and the Independent
- Margo MacDonald
won re-election. On 16 May 2007 Alex Salmond was elected First Minister
by Parliament and sworn in the next day at the Court of Session
in Edinburgh. The SNP went on to win the 2008 Glasgow East by-election and the largest share of the popular vote in the 2009 European election in Scotland. The 2010 Westminster election proved disappointing as the party only held their six seats and marginally increased their share of the popular vote.
The 2011 Scottish Parliament general election delivered the first majority government since the opening of Holyrood, a remarkable feat as the mixed member proportional representation system is used to elect MSPs and was originally implemented to prevent single party governments as well as produce proportional results in Scotland. The SNP won 69 seats; a result that made all opposition party leaders feel the need to resign their positions.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, the Scottish National Party (SNP) is a centre-left
Centre-left
Centre-left is a political term that describes individuals, political parties or organisations such as think tanks whose ideology lies between the centre and the left on the left-right spectrum...
political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
which campaigns for Scottish independence
Scottish independence
Scottish independence is a political ambition of political parties, advocacy groups and individuals for Scotland to secede from the United Kingdom and become an independent sovereign state, separate from England, Wales and Northern Ireland....
. It currently holds power in Scotland with its leader Alex Salmond
Alex Salmond
Alexander Elliot Anderson "Alex" Salmond MSP is a Scottish politician and current First Minister of Scotland. He became Scotland's fourth First Minister in May 2007. He is the Leader of the Scottish National Party , having served as Member of the Scottish Parliament for Gordon...
as First Minister of Scotland
First Minister of Scotland
The First Minister of Scotland is the political leader of Scotland and head of the Scottish Government. The First Minister chairs the Scottish Cabinet and is primarily responsible for the formulation, development and presentation of Scottish Government policy...
, following the outcome of the 2011 Scottish General Election.
Early years
The party was founded on 20 April 1934 as the result of a merger between the National Party of ScotlandNational Party of Scotland
The National Party of Scotland was a political party in Scotland and a forerunner of the current Scottish National Party.The NPS was formed in 1928 after John MacCormick of the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association called a meeting of all those favouring the establishment of a party...
(NPS) and the Scottish Party
Scottish Party
The Scottish Party was formed in 1930 by a group of members of the Unionist Party who favoured the establishment of a Dominion Scottish Parliament within the British Empire and Commonwealth...
. The merger was the brainchild of leading NPS figure John MacCormick
John MacCormick
John MacDonald MacCormick was a lawyer and advocate of Home Rule in Scotland.-Early life:...
who desired unity for the nationalist movement in Scotland, and upon learning of the Scottish Party's emergence moved to secure it.
Initially, the SNP did not support all-out independence for Scotland, but rather the establishment of a devolved Scottish Assembly
Scottish Assembly
The Scottish Assembly was a proposed legislature for Scotland that would have devolved a set list of powers from the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
, within the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. This became the party's initial position on the constitutional status of Scotland as a result of a compromise between the NPS, who did support independence, and the Scottish Party who were devolutionists. John MacCormick wanted a merger between the two parties and knew that it would only be through the support of devolution rather than independence that the Scottish Party would be persuaded to merge. However, the SNP quickly reverted to the NPS stance of supporting full independence for Scotland.
Professor Douglas Young, was the leader of the Scottish National Party from 1942 to 1945. Young fought for the Scottish people to refuse conscription and his activities were popularly vilified as undermining the British war effort against the Nazis. Young was imprisoned for refusing to be conscripted.
John McCormick left the party in 1942, owing to his failure to change the party's policy from supporting all out independence to Home Rule
Home rule
Home rule is the power of a constituent part of a state to exercise such of the state's powers of governance within its own administrative area that have been devolved to it by the central government....
at that year's SNP conference in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
. McCormick went on to form the Scottish Covenant Association
Scottish Covenant Association
The Scottish Covenant Association was a non-partisan political organisation in Scotland in the 1940s and 1950s seeking to establish a devolved Scottish Assembly...
, a non-partisan political organisation campaigning for the establishment of a devolved Scottish Assembly. This Covenant in itself proved politically challenging for the SNP, as it stole their nationalist platform. It also deprived the party of many members who left with MacCormick.
Professor Douglas Young, became the leader of the Scottish National Party from 1942 to 1945. Young fought for Scottish people to refuse conscription in the British war effort against the Nazis.Young was imprisoned for refusing to be conscripted.
The Covenant managed to get over 2 million signatures to a petition demanding Home Rule for Scotland in the late 1940s
1940s
File:1940s decade montage.png|Above title bar: events which happened during World War II : From left to right: Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching "Omaha" Beach on "D-Day"; Adolf Hitler visits Paris, soon after the Battle of France; The Holocaust occurred during the war as Nazi Germany...
and early 1950s
1950s
The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...
, and secured support from across the parties, but it eventually faded as a political force.
The SNP's early years were characterised by a lack of electoral progress and it wasn't until 1945 that the SNP's first member was elected to the UK parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
at Westminster
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
. The party's first MP was Robert McIntyre
Robert McIntyre
Dr Robert Douglas McIntyre was the Leader of the Scottish National Party from 1947–1956 and a doctor by profession...
who won a by-election for the Motherwell constituency. However he lost the seat in the general election of that year.
McIntyre's brief spell did not particularly galvanise the SNP. The 1950s were characterised by low levels of support, and this made it difficult for the party to advance. Indeed, in most general elections they were unable to put up more than a handful of candidates.
A split occurred in the SNP in 1955 (although not as large as that of 1942) when a grouping styled the 55 Group
55 Group
The 55 Group were an internal body within the Scottish National Party formed in 1955 .This grouping started an organised campaign of internal dissent. This group was formed mainly of younger SNP members frustrated at the lack of electoral progress of the party in this period...
started an organised campaign of internal dissent. This group was formed mainly of younger SNP members frustrated at the lack of progress of the party. This split proved to be minor and involved only a few members, mainly located in the city of Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, and the new National Party of Scotland made no impact whatsoever in the long-run.
Party Growth in the 1960s
Despite the poor record the SNP had in the 1950s by the 1960s they were beginning to make more impact. William WolfeWilliam Wolfe
William Cuthbertson "Billy" Wolfe was the leader of the Scottish National Party from 1969 to 1979...
, who would become party leader in the 1970s performed very well at the 1962 West Lothian
West Lothian
West Lothian is one of the 32 unitary council areas in Scotland, and a Lieutenancy area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Falkirk, North Lanarkshire, the Scottish Borders and South Lanarkshire....
by-election, which Tam Dalyell
Tam Dalyell
Sir Thomas Dalyell Loch, 11th Baronet , known as Tam Dalyell, is a British Labour Party politician, who was a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005, first for West Lothian and then for Linlithgow.-Early life:...
won for Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
. The party began to grow quickly in the 1960s with a rapid growth in the number of recognised branches. For example, in 1966 alone the SNP National Executive recognised 113 new branches of the party. 1967 was the year that the party signalled they could begin to make an impact electorally. The party polled very well at the Pollok
Pollok
Pollok is a large district on the south-western side of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It was built to house families from the overcrowded inner city...
by-election, winning some 28% of the votes cast in a consitituency where they had never stood before. This signalled the beginning of an upward electoral trend for the SNP.
Later that year that the SNP scored an even greater electoral success, projecting them into the political limelight. Winnie Ewing
Winnie Ewing
Winifred Margaret 'Winnie' Ewing is a Scottish nationalist, lawyer and prominent SNP politician who was formerly a Member of Parliament , Member of the European Parliament and Member of the Scottish Parliament...
won the Hamilton constituency in a by-election
Hamilton by-election, 1967
The Hamilton by-election, in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, which took place on the 2nd of November 1967, was a milestone in the politics of Scotland...
in 1967 with the help of national organizer John McAteer. Consequently, the SNP began to make a serious impact on the political scene. Ewing famously said on the night of her by-election victory, 'stop the world, Scotland wants to get on', and this spirit seemed to be embraced by many Scots. Her victory propelled the party into the popular conscience and many new members joined as a result.
A novel feature of the 1967 SNP Annual Conference was that the party leader Arthur Donaldson
Arthur Donaldson
Arthur Donaldson was a Scottish politician, and leader of the Scottish National Party from 1960 to 1969.-Early years:...
was challenged for the convenorship of the party. His challenger was Douglas Drysdale who was critical of the way Donaldson was leading the SNP. Donaldson overwhelmingly defeated Drysdale to retain his position.
In local elections the SNP were beginning to show they could compete also. In the 1967 Local Council elections, the SNP secured over 200,000 votes across the country making 27 gains in the burgh elections, and 42 in the counties. They managed to take control of Stirling
Stirling
Stirling is a city and former ancient burgh in Scotland, and is at the heart of the wider Stirling council area. The city is clustered around a large fortress and medieval old-town beside the River Forth...
council where former party leader Robert McIntyre became Provost
Provost (civil)
A provost is the ceremonial head of many Scottish local authorities, and under the name prévôt was a governmental position of varying importance in Ancien Regime France.-History:...
. The SNP then went onto secure the largest share of the Scottish vote of any of the parties contesting the 1968 Local Council elections, winning some 40% of the vote.
Ewing's by-election victory and this improved electoral performance in the local elections helped to provoke the then UK Labour Government to establish the Kilbrandon Commission
Royal Commission on the Constitution (United Kingdom)
The Royal Commission on the Constitution, also referred to as the Kilbrandon Commission or Kilbrandon Report, was a long-running royal commission set up by Harold Wilson's Labour government to examine the structures of the constitution of the United Kingdom and the British Islands and the...
to set up the blue-print for the establishment of a devolved Scottish Assembly. It also prompted Edward Heath's
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George "Ted" Heath, KG, MBE, PC was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and as Leader of the Conservative Party ....
announcement at the Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
Perth
Perth, Scotland
Perth is a town and former city and royal burgh in central Scotland. Located on the banks of the River Tay, it is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and the historic county town of Perthshire...
Conference in 1968 that if he became Prime Minister he would establish a Scottish Assembly.
Scotland's unionist
Unionists (Scotland)
Unionism in Scotland is the belief in that Scotland should remain in the United Kingdom in its present structure as one of the countries of the United Kingdom. There are many strands of political Unionism in Scotland, as well as sympathisers with Unionism in Northern Ireland...
politicians were becoming increasingly worried at the growth of the SNP. The Labour Party in particular had cause for alarm as Scotland provided so much of their support base, and the SNP were now picking up support in their very heartlands.
At the 1969 party conference, Billy Wolfe
William Wolfe
William Cuthbertson "Billy" Wolfe was the leader of the Scottish National Party from 1969 to 1979...
was elected SNP leader in place of Arthur Donaldson.
Highpoint in the 1970s
However, at the 1970 General ElectionUnited Kingdom general election, 1970
The United Kingdom general election of 1970 was held on 18 June 1970, and resulted in a surprise victory for the Conservative Party under leader Edward Heath, who defeated the Labour Party under Harold Wilson. The election also saw the Liberal Party and its new leader Jeremy Thorpe lose half their...
, the SNP did not make major advances. Ewing lost her Hamilton seat and the only consolation for the SNP was the capture of the Western Isles with Donald Stewart becoming their sole Westminster representative. Thereafter though the 1970s was a period of sustained growth for the SNP. They followed the pattern of the 1960s with a number of strong showings in individual by-elections.
There was a minor setback in the early 1970s when a small number of party members in Dundee left to form a Labour Party of Scotland
Labour Party of Scotland
The Labour Party of Scotland were a small political party active in Dundee, Scotland. They were formed as a left-wing breakaway from the Scottish National Party and contested the Dundee East by-election, 1973, where the number of votes they gathered, 1409 for their candidate George McLean, were...
. This new party contested the Dundee East by-election of 1973
Dundee East by-election, 1973
There was a by-election for Dundee East, in Scotland, on March 1st, 1973. It was one of three UK parliamentary by-elections held on that day.It was caused by the appointment of George Thomson as a European commissioner....
, and the number of votes they captured was more than the "official" Labour candidates margin of victory over the SNP candidate, Gordon Wilson
Gordon Wilson (Scottish politician)
Gordon Wilson is a former leader of the Scottish National Party and current leading figure in the campaign to ban same-sex marriage in Scotland...
. However, in the long-run this new party folded, and most of its members returned to the SNP.
They were bolstered by their capture of the Glasgow Govan
Glasgow Govan (UK Parliament constituency)
Glasgow Govan was a parliamentary constituency in the Govan district of Glasgow. It was represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 until 2005, returning one Member of Parliament elected by the first-past-the-post system.The area which the constituency...
seat with Margo MacDonald
Margo MacDonald
Margo MacDonald MSP is a Scottish politician and former Scottish National Party MP and Deputy Leader...
as their candidate from the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
in a by-election in 1973
Glasgow Govan by-election, 1973
The Glasgow Govan by-election was held on 8 November 1973, following the death of John Rankin, Labour Party Member of Parliament for the Glasgow Govan constituency. Rankin had died one month earlier, on 8 October 1973. Rankin had held the seat since 1955. With the exception of a narrow Conservative...
. This again signalled to Labour that the SNP posed an electoral threat to them and in the February 1974 General Election
United Kingdom general election, February 1974
The United Kingdom's general election of February 1974 was held on the 28th of that month. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the first election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party,...
they returned 7 MPs. The failure of the Labour Party to secure an overall majority prompted them to quickly return to the polls to secure such and in the October 1974 General Election
United Kingdom general election, October 1974
The United Kingdom general election of October 1974 took place on 10 October 1974 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. It was the second general election of that year and resulted in the Labour Party led by Harold Wilson, winning by a tiny majority of 3 seats.The election of...
the SNP performed even better than they had done earlier in the year, winning 11 MPs and managing to get over 30% of the vote across Scotland. The main driving force behind the growth of the SNP in the 1970s was the discovery of oil in the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
off the coast of Scotland. The SNP ran a hugely successful It's Scotland's oil
It's Scotland's oil
It's Scotland's oil was a widely publicised political slogan used by the Scottish National Party during the 1970s in making their economic case for Scottish independence...
campaign, emphasising the way in which they believed the discovery of oil could benefit all of Scotland's citizens.
Former SNP leader Billy Wolfe has argued that along with this campaign, the SNP was aided by their support for the workers in the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders Work-in, being led by Jimmy Reid
Jimmy Reid
James "Jimmy" Reid was a Scottish trade union activist, orator, politician, and journalist born in Govan, Glasgow. His role as spokesman and one of the leaders in the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders Work-in between June 1971 and October 1972 attracted international recognition...
, as well as supporting the workers at the Scottish Daily Express when they attempted to run the paper themselves and other such campaigns.
The SNP continued to ride high in the opinion polls throughout the 1970s, and many members are convinced that if the Liberals
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
, led by David Steel
David Steel
David Martin Scott Steel, Baron Steel of Aikwood, KT, KBE, PC is a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as the Leader of the Liberal Party from 1976 until its merger with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats...
hadn't maintained the Labour Government of the time in power, the SNP might have made further electoral gains in the resulting general election. It did well at the local elections of 1977, making 98 net gains and leaving half of Scotland under hung councils. However 1978 saw a Labour revival at the expense of the SNP, at three by-elections (Glasgow Garscadden
Glasgow Garscadden by-election, 1978
The Glasgow Garscadden by-election, 1978 was a parliamentary by-election held on 13 April 1978 for the British House of Commons constituency of Glasgow Garscadden, in the north west periphery of the City of Glasgow....
, Hamilton
Hamilton by-election, 1978
There was a by-election for the United Kingdom House of Commons in Hamilton on Wednesday 31 May 1978. It was caused by the death of Labour Party Member of Parliament Alexander Wilson.The by-election was the last in the UK to date not held on a Thursday...
and Berwick and East Lothian
Berwick and East Lothian by-election, 1978
The Berwick and East Lothian by-election, 1978 was a by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Berwick and East Lothian in Scotland on 26 October 1978...
) and the local elections. The general election did not come till 1979
United Kingdom general election, 1979
The United Kingdom general election of 1979 was held on 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. The Conservative Party, led by Margaret Thatcher ousted the incumbent Labour government of James Callaghan with a parliamentary majority of 43 seats...
, by which time the party's support had dwindled.
In 1979, the SNP Parliamentary Group voted against the Labour Government in a Vote of No Confidence, causing the dissolution of the government and subsequent election. The then Labour Prime Minister, James Callaghan
James Callaghan
Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, KG, PC , was a British Labour politician, who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980...
famously described this decision by the SNP as that of, 'turkeys voting for Christmas
Turkeys voting for Christmas
Turkeys voting for Christmas is a cliché used as a metaphor or simile in reference to a suicidal political act, especially a vote.The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations writes that a commentator in the Independent Magazine traced the...
'. This statement would prove true, as the no-confidence vote by the SNP led to the loss of their Westminster seats and the dawn of Margaret Thatcher
Thatcherism
Thatcherism describes the conviction politics, economic and social policy, and political style of the British Conservative politician Margaret Thatcher, who was leader of her party from 1975 to 1990...
.
Interference by the UK Government
The party was accused of being paranoid when it claimed that it was being spied upon by government agents. The SNP's paranoia was justified when leaked government files proved that the government had in fact spied on the SNP. During the 1970s, the British government used both police and agents placed within trade unions to limit the growth of the SNP the best it could. The Labour Party, which controlled the government in this time, has drawn consistent Scottish support since Labour's founding had seen the SNP become much more than a protest vote in the '70s. It is alleged that government interference is part of what helped bring about the collapse in support for the party in 1979. Labour continues to ridicule the SNP for their claims of government interference. "The SNP appears totally paranoid. All the evidence shows they are absolutely no threat whatsoever to the British state," said a Labour spokesperson in response to the SNP's complaints. Despite these words, the Labour government has had several files on the SNP sealed for fifty years, citing reasons of national security.Factionalism after 1979
The party went into a period of decline after the failure to secure a devolved Scottish AssemblyScottish Assembly
The Scottish Assembly was a proposed legislature for Scotland that would have devolved a set list of powers from the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
in 1979 and its poor performance in the general election
United Kingdom general election, 1979
The United Kingdom general election of 1979 was held on 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. The Conservative Party, led by Margaret Thatcher ousted the incumbent Labour government of James Callaghan with a parliamentary majority of 43 seats...
of that year. A period of internal strife followed, culminating in the proscription of two internal groups, Siol nan Gaidheal
Siol nan Gaidheal
-Name:The name, properly spelled Sìol nan Gàidheal is Scottish Gaelic for Seed of the Gaels. The term sìol has numerous meanings, most commonly translated as "breed, brood, lineage, progeny, seed"....
and the left-wing 79 Group
79 Group
The 79 Group was an internal faction within the Scottish National Party , named after the fact that it was formed in 1979. The group sought to persuade the SNP to take an active left-wing stance, arguing that it would win more support, and were highly critical of the established SNP leaders...
. However, several 79 Group members would later return to prominence in the party, including Alex Salmond
Alex Salmond
Alexander Elliot Anderson "Alex" Salmond MSP is a Scottish politician and current First Minister of Scotland. He became Scotland's fourth First Minister in May 2007. He is the Leader of the Scottish National Party , having served as Member of the Scottish Parliament for Gordon...
who would later lead the party. It proved too much for Margo MacDonald though, who was defeated by Douglas Henderson
Douglas Henderson
Douglas Henderson was a Scottish politician. He served as a Member of Parliament for the Scottish National Party , representing the East Aberdeenshire constituency from February 1974 to March 1979, and held virtually every national office in the SNP, short of party leader...
for the position of party deputy leader at the 1979 party conference, and left the SNP, angry at the treatment of the left wing of the party, although she would later return to the party and be elected as an MSP.
There was also another internal grouping formed within the party, primarily as a response to the growth of the 79 Group entitled the Campaign for Nationalism in Scotland
Campaign for Nationalism in Scotland
The Campaign for Nationalism in Scotland was an internal grouping within the Scottish National Party that formed in response to the efforts of the 79 Group within the party. The 79 Group was another internal grouping within the SNP that was attempting to turn the party into an expressly socialist...
, with the support of traditionalists such as Winnie Ewing. This group sought to ensure that the primary objective of the SNP was campaigning for independence regardless of any traditional left-right ideology, and if it had been successful would have undone the work of figures such as Billy Wolfe moving the SNP to become a clearly defined social-democratic party in the 1970s.
The period of internal factionalism inside the SNP came to an end at the 1982 SNP Conference where internal factions were banned.
The 1980s and the Emergence of Jim Sillars
The 79 Group, despite their proscription were bolstered by the collapse of the Scottish Labour PartyScottish Labour Party
The Scottish Labour Party is the section of the British Labour Party which operates in Scotland....
(SLP) in the aftermath of the '79 election. This resulted in the SLP's leading figure, Jim Sillars
Jim Sillars
Jim Sillars is a Scottish politician. He is married to current member of the Scottish Parliament, Margo MacDonald.-Early life:...
deciding to join the SNP, as did a great number of other ex-SLP members. Sillars had been a Labour Party MP in the 1970s but, dissatisfied with the Labour Government's policy on Scottish devolution and their socio-economic programme, had in 1976 formed the SLP. This influx of ex-SLP members served to strengthen the left of the party, to which these new members naturally gravitated.
In 1979, Billy Wolfe stood down as SNP leader, and in the resultant leadership election Gordon Wilson was elected leader with 530 votes to 79 Group member Stephen Maxwell
Stephen Maxwell
Stephen Maxwell is a Scottish nationalist.He came to prominence in the 1970s when he was elected to the Lothian Regional Council at a by-election for Wester Hailes in Edinburgh as a Scottish National Party candidate. He became a leading figure in the socialist 79 Group within the SNP and stood...
's 117 votes, and Willie MacRae
Willie MacRae
Willie MacRae was a Scottish nationalist politician and lawyer, best remembered for the mystery surrounding his death.MacRae was an active member of the Scottish National Party and an anti-nuclear campaigner...
's 52 votes.
The 1980s offered little hope for the SNP with poor performances in both the 1983
United Kingdom general election, 1983
The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945...
and 1987
United Kingdom general election, 1987
The United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the British House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive election victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the 2nd...
General Elections. Indeed even the party leader, Gordon Wilson
Gordon Wilson (Scottish politician)
Gordon Wilson is a former leader of the Scottish National Party and current leading figure in the campaign to ban same-sex marriage in Scotland...
lost his seat in '87. The party took stock of these results and started to analyse its policy platform. Sillars began to grow in influence in the party and the SNP was firmly placing itself on the left of centre.
Many old-style SNP members believed that the party should be above the old arguments of left and right and should focus solely on the independence argument. Sillars however argued that the Scottish people had to be given reasons as to why independence would benefit their lives and that this should involve a fully developed socio-economic programme. He argued against the idea that somehow the country could be guided in a 'tartan trance' to independence, as if the Scottish people could ignore the realities of the economic system they found themselves in. Sillars was also key in moving the party to adopting a position of Independence in Europe to alleviate the 'separatist' tag that the SNP's unionist opponents were ever eager to attach to them. Previously the SNP had been at best highly suspicious about Scotland's continued membership of the EEC
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, but the new policy which Sillars helped secure firmly committed the SNP to supporting an independent Scotland's membership.
There was a minor setback in 1987 when a few members on the left of the party broke away to establish a Scottish Socialist Party
Scottish Socialist Party (1987-1990)
The Scottish Socialist Party was a small political party operating in Scotland. It was primarily a left-wing breakaway from the Scottish National Party although it succeeded in recruiting a number of Labour Party members, including the former Labour Group leader in Edinburgh council, Alex Wood...
(not the same one that is in existence now), but in the long-run this small party did not establish itself and it folded without threatening to make a major electoral breakthrough.
As the 1980s wore on, the party managed to re-group and in 1988 the SNP managed to win the Govan seat in a by-election
Glasgow Govan by-election, 1988
The Glasgow Govan by-election, in the British House of Commons constituency of Glasgow Govan, Scotland, was held on 10 November 1988. It was caused by the resignation of Bruce Millan as Member of Parliament for the constituency....
for the second time, with Sillars as their candidate. This was a huge upset, as the SNP overturned a Labour majority of around 19,000 and had not been expected to win. However, a hard fought campaign using the party's sizable activist base won through. Sillars oratorial capabilities and street campaigning methods also played a decisive role in the party's victory.
Sillars' victory provoked great alarm amongst the Labour Party hierarchy in Scotland, much as Ewing's had in the 1960s. Fearing that their strong Scottish electoral base was under threat, they helped establish the Scottish Constitutional Convention
Scottish Constitutional Convention
The Scottish Constitutional Convention was an association of Scottish political parties, churches and other civic groups, that developed a framework for a Scottish devolution. It is credited as having paved the way for the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999.The Convention was...
to set out a blueprint for devolution. Initially the SNP looked as though they would get involved and party leader Gordon Wilson and Sillars attended an initial meeting of the convention. However, the convention's unwillingness to contemplate independence as a constitutional option persuaded Sillars in particular against getting involved and the SNP did not take part.
The 1990s, The First Salmond Era
In 1990 Wilson stood down as leader and was replaced by Alex SalmondAlex Salmond
Alexander Elliot Anderson "Alex" Salmond MSP is a Scottish politician and current First Minister of Scotland. He became Scotland's fourth First Minister in May 2007. He is the Leader of the Scottish National Party , having served as Member of the Scottish Parliament for Gordon...
, who defeated Margaret Ewing
Margaret Ewing
Margaret Anne Ewing was a Scottish National Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament and as a Member of the Scottish Parliament...
for the post by 486 votes to 186. Salmond's victory surprised many as Ewing had the backing of most of the party leadership, including Sillars and the party secretary at the time, John Swinney
John Swinney
John Ramsey Swinney is the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth in the Scottish Government and the Scottish National Party Member of the Scottish Parliament for Perthshire North, having previously represented North Tayside...
, although he would go on to become a key ally of Salmonds. Ewing's prominent supporters made her many people's favourite to win the contest, but in the end Salmond was the convincing victor. He proved a capable leader with his witty and intelligent style of debate giving him a national prominence and boosting the SNP's profile.
In that same year the SNP presence at Westminster was boosted when Labour MP for Dunfermline West
Dunfermline West (UK Parliament constituency)
Dunfermline West was a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1983 until 2005. It elected one Member of Parliament using the first-past-the-post voting system....
, Dick Douglas
Dick Douglas
Richard Giles "Dick" Douglas is a former Scottish politician, having been a member of the British House of Commons firstly as a Labour Co-operative candidate, then latterly as a Scottish National Party member....
defected to the SNP, citing his dissatisfaction with the way Labour had handled the Poll Tax
Community Charge
The Community Charge, popularly known as the "poll tax", was a system of taxation introduced in replacement of the rates to part fund local government in Scotland from 1989, and England and Wales from 1990. It provided for a single flat-rate per-capita tax on every adult, at a rate set by the...
issue as one reason. This boosted the SNP numbers at Westminster to five.
The 1992 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1992
The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...
had promised much for the SNP. It proved to be mixed in fortunes. The SNP held three seats they had won in 1987, but lost Govan. They also lost Dunfermline West, but this was not helped by the sitting MP Dick Douglas deciding to stand against Labour MP Donald Dewar
Donald Dewar
Donald Campbell Dewar was a British politician who served as a Labour Party Member of Parliament in Scotland from 1966-1970, and then again from 1978 until his death in 2000. He served in Tony Blair's cabinet as Secretary of State for Scotland from 1997-1999 and was instrumental in the creation...
in his Glasgow seat instead of defending the seat he had represented for years.
The SNP had failed to make headway in terms of winning seats. However, their campaign proved a success in terms of votes won, with the SNP vote going up by 50% from their 1987 performance. It proved too much to bear for Sillars though, and he quit active politics, famously describing the Scots as '90 minute patriots'. It also signaled the breakdown of the political relationship between Sillars and Salmond.
The intervening years between the '92 and '97 general elections were marked by some SNP electoral success. In the 1994 elections for the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
the party managed to secure over 30% of the popular vote and return two MEPs (Winnie Ewing and Allan MacCartney). The SNP also came very close to winning the Monklands East by-election of that year
Monklands East by-election, 1994
The Monklands East by-election was held on 30 June 1994, following the death of the Leader of the Labour Party John Smith, Member of Parliament for Monklands East in Scotland, on 12 May....
, caused by the death of the leader of the Labour Party, John Smith
John Smith (UK politician)
John Smith was a British Labour Party politician who served as Leader of the Labour Party from July 1992 until his sudden death from a heart attack in May 1994...
. In 1995 they went one better, when the Perth and Kinross by-election
Perth and Kinross by-election, 1995
A by-election for the UK Parliament constituency of Perth and Kinross in Scotland was held on 25 May 1995, following the death of Conservative MP Sir Nicholas Fairbairn on 19 February of that year....
was won by Roseanna Cunningham
Roseanna Cunningham
Roseanna Cunningham is the Scottish Government's Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs and Scottish National Party Member of the Scottish Parliament for Perthshire South and Kinross-shire, having previously represented Perth.-Early life:Raised in Australia, she returned to Scotland and...
who later became the party's deputy leader.
The Modern SNP
The 1997 General ElectionUnited Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
saw the SNP double their number of MPs from three to six and, with the return of the Labour Party to power at that General Election, saw the establishment of a devolved Scottish Parliament
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...
. This allowed for the SNP to firmly establish itself as a political force in Scotland with the returning of 35 MSPs in the first Scottish Parliament Election. Later that year the party returned two members of the European Parliament, narrowly missing out on sending a third.
The first term of the Scottish Parliament did not offer the SNP much comfort. Two MSPs quit the party, the aforementioned Margo MacDonald and Dorothy-Grace Elder
Dorothy-Grace Elder
Dorothy-Grace Elder is a journalist and a former Member of the Scottish Parliament.She first came to the public eye in the 1970s as a television journalist, on BBC Scotland's news programme Reporting Scotland...
, citing the actions of some of their colleagues as reasons for their resignations. The SNP also performed poorly at the 2001 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 2001
The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...
, with a reduced share of the vote from 1997, and one less MP.
Despite optimism that the party would at least retain the same number of MSPs they gained in 1999, a downturn in electoral fortune at the 2003 Scottish Parliament Elections has weakened them somewhat. They returned 27 elected members in the Scottish Parliament, making them the second largest party in Holyrood
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...
.
The results of the election seem to indicate that the emergence of the Scottish Socialist Party
Scottish Socialist Party
The Scottish Socialist Party is a left-wing Scottish political party. Positioning itself significantly to the left of Scotland's centre-left parties, the SSP campaigns on a socialist economic platform and for Scottish independence....
(SSP) and Scottish Green Party
Scottish Green Party
The Scottish Green Party is a green party in Scotland. It has two MSPs in the devolved Scottish Parliament, Alison Johnstone, representing Lothian, and Patrick Harvie, for Glasgow.-Organisation:...
(both of whom also support independence) has undermined their vote slightly. It remains to be seen how the SNP will deal with the fact that they are no longer exclusively the party of Scottish independence.
Recent debate within the SNP has been marked by disagreements between the gradualist wing
SNP gradualist
The gradualist viewpoint within the Scottish National Party is the idea that Scottish independence can be won by the accumulation by the Scottish Parliament of powers that the UK Parliament currently has over a protracted period of time...
of the party, which believes in taking powers back bit by bit from the UK Parliament and returning them to the Scottish Parliament, as opposed to the viewpoint of the fundamentalist wing
SNP fundamentalist
The fundamentalist ideology within the Scottish National Party is the belief that the SNP should emphasise its policy of Scottish independence more widely in order to achieve it...
. The fundamentalists argue that a greater emphasis should be placed on the party's support for independence to enthuse their activists, as well as their core support. Former leader, Gordon Wilson has publicly stated that he believes it may be that these two wings find their views so irreconcilable that the party may split as a result.
Other political figures often characterise the SNP as trying to be all things to all people. They charge the SNP with trying to appear solidly left-wing in urban Central Scotland where they are trying to unseat the Labour Party, and with appearing more moderate in rural Scotland where their electoral challenge is more often than not against the Conservatives
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
or the Liberal Democrats.
In 2000 John Swinney
John Swinney
John Ramsey Swinney is the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth in the Scottish Government and the Scottish National Party Member of the Scottish Parliament for Perthshire North, having previously represented North Tayside...
MSP was elected leader, defeating Alex Neil MSP by 547 votes to 268 in a hotly contested leadership election to replace Alex Salmond as National Convenor.
Swinney's leadership came under challenge, with much press speculation surrounding the future leadership of the SNP by Swinney, with many contrasting his more subdued style of debating technique with that of his charismatic predecessor, Alex Salmond.
This speculation culminated in the challenge for the leadership of the SNP by grassroots activist, Dr. Bill Wilson in the summer of 2003. Wilson was broadly critical of what he argued were the centralising tendencies of the Swinney leadership, as well as a drift to the centre ground of politics away from the SNP's traditional position on the left of Scottish politics. At the party conference of that year the election took place with Swinney receiving 577 of the delegates votes that were cast and Wilson taking 111.
2004 did not get off to a good start for Swinney's leadership. On January 1 a former parliamentary candidate and a party activist in the Shetland Islands
Shetland Islands
Shetland is a subarctic archipelago of Scotland that lies north and east of mainland Great Britain. The islands lie some to the northeast of Orkney and southeast of the Faroe Islands and form part of the division between the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east. The total...
Brian Nugent announced that he was forming his own pro-independence party, the "Scottish Party" (which eventually relaunched itself as the Free Scotland Party) in response to what he perceived to be an overly pro-European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
stance by the SNP.
Not long after the party's National Executive Committee decided to firstly suspend, and then expel Campbell Martin, an SNP MSP. Martin had backed Bill Wilson's leadership challenge, and had continued to be overtly critical of Swinney's leadership, resulting in the NEC taking this disciplinary action against him.
Despite a slump in the vote and a decrease in the number of available seats from 7 to 6, the SNP was able to retain its two Members of the European Parliament
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
at the 2004 European elections
European Parliament election, 2004 (UK)
The European Parliament election, 2004 was the UK part of the European Parliament election, 2004. It was held on 10 June. It was the first European election to be held in the United Kingdom using postal-only voting in four areas. It coincided with local and London elections.The Conservative Party...
.
Nonetheless, John Swinney announced his resignation on June 22, 2004. He said that he would remain as caretaker leader until a successor was elected.
2004 Leadership Contest, Salmond Returns
Shortly afterwards, two MSPs (Roseanna CunninghamRoseanna Cunningham
Roseanna Cunningham is the Scottish Government's Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs and Scottish National Party Member of the Scottish Parliament for Perthshire South and Kinross-shire, having previously represented Perth.-Early life:Raised in Australia, she returned to Scotland and...
and Nicola Sturgeon
Nicola Sturgeon
Nicola Sturgeon is the Deputy First Minister of Scotland, Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Cities Strategy, Deputy Leader of the Scottish National Party and Member for Glasgow Southside....
) and one former MSP (Mike Russell) announced that they would be candidates in the election for the party leadership. Alex Neil MSP announced that he would not be a candidate, citing what he believed to be the hostility of senior party figures such as Fergus Ewing
Fergus Ewing
Fergus Ewing is the Scottish Government's Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism and the Scottish National Party Member of the Scottish Parliament for Inverness and Nairn.- Background :...
and Alex Salmond
Alex Salmond
Alexander Elliot Anderson "Alex" Salmond MSP is a Scottish politician and current First Minister of Scotland. He became Scotland's fourth First Minister in May 2007. He is the Leader of the Scottish National Party , having served as Member of the Scottish Parliament for Gordon...
to the prospect of his becoming leader. In a surprise announcement on July 15, 2004, Alex Salmond
Alex Salmond
Alexander Elliot Anderson "Alex" Salmond MSP is a Scottish politician and current First Minister of Scotland. He became Scotland's fourth First Minister in May 2007. He is the Leader of the Scottish National Party , having served as Member of the Scottish Parliament for Gordon...
announced that he would also be a candidate in the leadership race, despite having previously said "if asked, I'll decline, if nominated, I'll defer, and if elected, I'll resign". Nicola Sturgeon
Nicola Sturgeon
Nicola Sturgeon is the Deputy First Minister of Scotland, Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Cities Strategy, Deputy Leader of the Scottish National Party and Member for Glasgow Southside....
then withdrew from the contest and declared her support for Salmond and decided to stand for Deputy Leader.
This resulted in Kenny MacAskill
Kenny MacAskill
Kenneth "Kenny" Wright MacAskill is the Scottish Government's Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Scottish National Party Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh Eastern, formerly Edinburgh East and Musselburgh since 2007...
pulling out of the race for deputy and declaring his support for Salmond and Sturgeon, leaving Sturgeon standing against Fergus Ewing
Fergus Ewing
Fergus Ewing is the Scottish Government's Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism and the Scottish National Party Member of the Scottish Parliament for Inverness and Nairn.- Background :...
and Christine Grahame
Christine Grahame
Christine Grahame is a Scottish politician. She has been the Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale, having previously been a member for the South of Scotland region, first elected in the 1999 election and subsequently re-elected in 2003 and...
. Shortly after Salmond and Sturgeon announced they were running on a joint ticket.
The campaign for leader was characterised by being a low-key affair. Salmond remained firm favourite to win back the leadership of the SNP. There remained greater doubt as to who would be the deputy leader with it being widely expected to be a much more close run affair than that for the post of leader.
There were some surprises during the course of the campaign. Alex Neil and Adam Ingram
Adam Ingram (SNP politician)
Adam Ingram MSP is the Scottish National Party Member of the Scottish Parliament for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley .- Electoral record:...
both came out in support of Alex Salmond, although they supported Grahame for deputy rather than Sturgeon. This was unexpected as both men had previously been critics of Salmond in the past. It was particularly surprising in light of Salmond's earlier comments, before he had entered the race that he would have difficulties working with Neil should he be elected leader, although he later went on the record to say that he should not have publicly said this.
There was some degree of criticism of Salmond's position by other candidates, who felt that his decision to lead the SNP from being a member of the British Parliament at Westminster
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
rather than from the Scottish Parliament
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...
was contrary to the party's aim of independence. Nonetheless on September 3, 2004 Salmond and Sturgeon were elected leader and deputy respectively. The result of the Leadership contest, in what was the first "One Member One Vote" election run by the SNP (as opposed to the delegate based elections of the past) was Salmond 4,952 (75.8%); Cunningham 953 (14.6%); and Russell 631 (9.7%). The result of the contest for Deputy Leader was Sturgeon 3,521 (53.9%); Ewing 1,605 (24.6%); and Grahame 1,410 (21.6%).
2005 General Election
The SNP had mixed fortunes in the general election held on May 5, 2005. They managed to gain two seats (Angus MacNeilAngus MacNeil
Angus Brendan MacNeil is the Scottish National Party Member of Parliament for Na h-Eileanan an Iar...
winning in Na h-Eileanan An Iar and Stewart Hosie
Stewart Hosie
Stewart Hosie is the Scottish National Party Member of Parliament for Dundee East. He is Deputy Leader and Chief Whip of the SNP Westminster Group and House of Commons party spokesperson on the Treasury and Economic matters...
in Dundee East
Dundee East (UK Parliament constituency)
-Elections in the 2000s:-Elections in the 1990s:-Elections in the 1980s:-Elections in the 1970s:-Elections in the 1950s:...
) from the notional four they held to bring their total to six Members of Parliament. However there was also disappointment in that the sitting MP Annabelle Ewing
Annabelle Ewing
Annabelle Janet Ewing is a Scottish politician, lawyer and currently a SNP Member of the Scottish Parliament for Mid Scotland and Fife...
did not manage to win the new Ochil and South Perthshire constituency, finishing some 600 votes behind the Labour candidate.
There was also disappointment in that the SNP's share of the Scottish vote fell to 17.7% and that they finished third behind the Liberal-Democrats, this was the first time this had ever happened. The SNP's share of the vote across the Scottish Central Belt
Central Belt
The Central Belt of Scotland is a common term used to describe the area of highest population density within Scotland. Despite the name, it is not geographically central but is nevertheless situated at the 'waist' of Scotland on a conventional map and the term 'central' is used in many local...
was particularly low, with some candidates only just managing to achieve a high enough share of the vote in their constituency to retain their £500 deposit.
However, Alex Salmond was in buoyant mood in the aftermath of the campaign, describing the SNP's Westminster parliamentary group as "Scotland's Super Six" and also promising that the SNP would be far more competitive in the 2007 election for the Scottish Parliament.
Party of Government
The Scottish National Party was victorious in the 2007 Parliamentary election. The party emerged as the largest with 47 seats, narrowly defeating the incumbent Scottish Labour PartyScottish Labour Party
The Scottish Labour Party is the section of the British Labour Party which operates in Scotland....
with 46 seats. The Conservatives won 17 seats, the Lib Dems
Scottish Liberal Democrats
The Scottish Liberal Democrats are one of the three state parties within the federal Liberal Democrats; the others being the Welsh Liberal Democrats and the Liberal Democrats in England...
16 seats, the Greens
Scottish Green Party
The Scottish Green Party is a green party in Scotland. It has two MSPs in the devolved Scottish Parliament, Alison Johnstone, representing Lothian, and Patrick Harvie, for Glasgow.-Organisation:...
2 seats and the Independent
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...
- Margo MacDonald
Margo MacDonald
Margo MacDonald MSP is a Scottish politician and former Scottish National Party MP and Deputy Leader...
won re-election. On 16 May 2007 Alex Salmond was elected First Minister
First Minister of Scotland
The First Minister of Scotland is the political leader of Scotland and head of the Scottish Government. The First Minister chairs the Scottish Cabinet and is primarily responsible for the formulation, development and presentation of Scottish Government policy...
by Parliament and sworn in the next day at the Court of Session
Court of Session
The Court of Session is the supreme civil court of Scotland, and constitutes part of the College of Justice. It sits in Parliament House in Edinburgh and is both a court of first instance and a court of appeal....
in Edinburgh. The SNP went on to win the 2008 Glasgow East by-election and the largest share of the popular vote in the 2009 European election in Scotland. The 2010 Westminster election proved disappointing as the party only held their six seats and marginally increased their share of the popular vote.
The 2011 Scottish Parliament general election delivered the first majority government since the opening of Holyrood, a remarkable feat as the mixed member proportional representation system is used to elect MSPs and was originally implemented to prevent single party governments as well as produce proportional results in Scotland. The SNP won 69 seats; a result that made all opposition party leaders feel the need to resign their positions.
External links
- Scottish Independence Guide: History of the SNP at Scottish Independence Guide