The Scottish Nation Faces the Post-Imperial World
| Author | H. J. Hanham |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206802300407 |
| Published date | 01 December 1968 |
| Date | 01 December 1968 |
| Published By | Sage Publications, Inc. |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The
Scottish
Nation Faces
the
Post-Imperial
World
H.
J.
Hanham*
At
Hamilton
on
November
2,
1967,
a
Scottish
National
party
candidate
at
a
by-election,
Mrs.
Winifred
Ewing,
turned
a Labour
majority
of
16,576
into
an
S.N.P.
majority
of
1,799.1
In
the next
municipal elections,
held
on
May
7,
1968,
the
S.N.P.
made
start-
ling
advances
all
over
Scotland which
showed
that
the
party
could
count
on
the
support
of
about one-third
of
the
electors.
And
on
June
18,
1968,
the
S.N.P.
took
control
in
the first
municipal
elections
in
the
world-famous
experimental
new
town
of
Cumber-
nauld,
with
18
of
the
21
council
seats.
The
other
main
parties
are
now
on
the
defensive.
At
Perth
on May
18,
1968,
Mr.
Edward
Heath
made
it
clear
that
the
Conservatives
must
bend
with
the
wind
if
they
were
not
to
break.
In
a
speech
almost
entirely
devoted
to
Scottish
nationalism
he
committed
the
Conservative
party
to
"the
creation
of
an
elected
Scottish
Assembly"
con-
sisting
of a
single
chamber
to
"establish
in
Scotland
a
new
means
of
expressing
Scottish
opinion
on
all
matters
relating
to
Scotland"
and
to
"enable
purely
Scottish
legislation
to
be
handled
at
certain
stages
in
Scotland."
' 2
The
Liberal
party
has
long
been
committed
to
the
setting
up
of
national
parliaments
for
Wales
and
Scotland.
And
now
at
last
the
Labour
government
has
also
let
it
be
known
that
it
is
contemplating
a
further
measure
of
Scottish
devolution.
The
choice
for
the
electors
now
seems
to
be
between
the
complete
independence
for
Scotland advocated
by
the
S.N.P. and a
variety
of
experiments
in
administrative
decentralization,
each
of
them
involving
a
move
towards
a
federal
United
Kingdom.
*Formerly
Professor
of
Politics,
University
of
Edinburgh;
now
Profes-
sor
in
the Department
of
History,
Harvard
University. Author
of
Elections
and
Party
Management:
Politics
in
the
Time
of
Disraeli
and
Gladstone
(1959)
and
The
Scottish
Political Tradition
(1964).
1
The
voting
was
Ewing
(S.N.P.),
18,397;
Wilson
(Labour),
16,598;
Dyer
(Conservative),
4,986.
2
Conservative
Central
Office
News
Service,
Release
402/68.
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