Devolution and the Scottish Parliament
After a failed attempt in 1979, Scots vote decisively for a parliament of their own, which opens in Edinburgh in 1999 for the first time since 1707.
- Devolution in the UK — James Mitchell, Manchester University Press (2009)
- History of the Scottish Parliament — The Scottish Parliament
- The Scottish Nation 1700–2000 — T. M. Devine, Allen Lane (1999)
The road to home rule
The idea of “home rule” for Scotland was more than a century old. The Scottish National Party, founded in 1934, made its breakthrough when Winnie Ewing won the Hamilton by-election in 1967, and the discovery of North Sea oil gave it the slogan “It’s Scotland’s oil”. In 1979 a referendum on a Scottish Assembly produced a narrow majority, 51.6% Yes, but because of a rule requiring 40% of the whole electorate to vote Yes, and only 32.9% had, the Assembly was not set up. The bitterness of that outcome, followed by eighteen years of Conservative government, hardened demand.
- Devolution in the UK — James Mitchell, Manchester University Press (2009)
- The Scottish Nation 1700–2000 — T. M. Devine, Allen Lane (1999)
The 1997 referendum
Labour came to power in May 1997 promising a parliament. On 11 September 1997, the 700th anniversary of Stirling Bridge, Scots voted 74.3% in favour of a Scottish Parliament and 63.5% in favour of giving it tax-varying powers. Every council area voted Yes to the parliament.
- Devolution in the UK — James Mitchell, Manchester University Press (2009)
- History of the Scottish Parliament — The Scottish Parliament
Holyrood
The Scotland Act 1998 opened with the words “There shall be a Scottish Parliament”. Elected by a proportional system designed to make single-party majorities difficult, the Parliament first met on 12 May 1999, and on 1 July was formally opened by the Queen. Donald Dewar, the first First Minister, began his speech: “There shall be a Scottish Parliament. Through long years, those words were first a hope, then a belief, then a promise.” At the ceremony Sheena Wellington sang Burns’s “A Man’s a Man for A’ That”. The Parliament moved into its striking, controversial and hugely over-budget building at Holyrood in 2004.
- History of the Scottish Parliament — The Scottish Parliament
- Speech at the opening of the Scottish Parliament, 1 July 1999 — Donald Dewar, The Scottish Parliament (1999)
- Donald Dewar — Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica
What it changed
Labour led the government until 2007, in coalition with the Liberal Democrats. Then the SNP formed a minority government, and in 2011 it won an outright majority that the voting system had been designed to prevent, giving it a mandate for an independence referendum. Holyrood made decisions that marked Scotland apart: free personal care for older people, no tuition fees for Scottish students, a smoking ban in public places a year before England, and free prescriptions. Further powers over tax and welfare were transferred in 2012 and 2016.
- Devolution in the UK — James Mitchell, Manchester University Press (2009)
- History of the Scottish Parliament — The Scottish Parliament
For many Scots the Parliament has become simply part of the furniture, trusted more than Westminster in most surveys. Whether it is a stable home within the Union or a halfway house to independence is the question that has defined Scottish politics since.
- Scottish Social Attitudes Survey — ScotCen / National Centre for Social Research, NatCen Social Research
- Devolution in the UK — James Mitchell, Manchester University Press (2009)
Home rule within the UK: the "settled will" of the Scottish people, giving Scotland democratic control of its own affairs while keeping the benefits of the Union.
- Devolution in the UK — James Mitchell, Manchester University Press (2009)
- Donald Dewar — Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica
A welcome first step, proving Scotland can govern itself well, but limited: key powers such as defence, foreign affairs, most welfare and the constitution remain at Westminster.
- Devolution in the UK — James Mitchell, Manchester University Press (2009)
- Independence or Union: Scotland's Past and Scotland's Present — T. M. Devine, Allen Lane (2016)
Why it matters today
The Scottish Parliament at Holyrood now runs most of daily life, from schools and hospitals to justice and much taxation, and Scottish policy has diverged from England's in areas like free university tuition and prescriptions. Devolution was meant to settle the constitutional question; instead, by giving nationalists a platform and a government, it opened the road to an independence referendum.