Quote Originally Posted by Moulin Yarns View Post
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How do you explain the Conservatives winning most Westminster seats in Scotland before 1955?
At the risk of being a stuck record, that was the Scottish Unionist party which had its roots in the 19th century Liberals and was distinctively Scottish (and Presbyterian and anti-Catholic as well which wasn't insignificant). It wasn't absorbed into the UK Conservative party until the 60s and their vote has been in decline practically ever since, with a slight upturn in recent years.

Their has been agitation of some sort for Scottish self government in one form or another since the formation of the Union. From the Jacobites* through the Radicals, the Liberal home rulers, Independent Labour home rulers, the Scots covenant of the 50s and eventually the rise of the SNP.

Independence might be the mainstream movement of Scottish self government now, but only because the UK has missed literally centuries of opportunities to create some sort of federal/confederal state that allowed us complete domestic self governance.


* primarily an uprising of dynastic loyalty to the Stewarts but used the promise of dissolving the Union to build support in Scotland.