Scottish National Party (SNP)
The Scottish National Party (SNP) is a political organization advocating for Scotland's independence from the United Kingdom. Established in 1934 through the merger of the Scottish Party and the National Party of Scotland, the SNP has played a significant role in Scottish nationalism, which seeks self-determination and independence for Scotland. The party faced early challenges, including internal divisions and a limited platform focused solely on independence, but gained momentum in the late 20th century under leaders like Alex Salmond who expanded its policies to include social democracy. The SNP achieved notable electoral success in the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections, allowing it to hold a referendum on independence in 2014, where the majority opted to remain part of the UK. Nicola Sturgeon succeeded Salmond as leader and first minister, guiding the party to become the third-largest in the UK. However, the SNP faced a significant decline in support by the 2024 elections, losing 80% of its seats and transitioning back to a minority government. The party continues to promote progressive policies while navigating the evolving political landscape in Scotland.
Scottish National Party (SNP)
The Scottish National Party (SNP) is a Scottish political party that calls for Scotland's independence from the United Kingdom. The party formed in 1934 as a combination of the Scottish Party and the National Party of Scotland, both nationalist groups. In a political context, nationalism is support for the independence and self-determination of a country.
The SNP failed to make a political impact immediately due to party infighting and a lack of goals aside from Scottish independence. The party struggled at the polls for much of the mid to late twentieth century. As leader of the SNP in the 1990s and again in the late 2000s and early 2010s, Alex Salmond expanded the party's policies with various social democratic platforms. National SNP membership grew significantly under Salmond's leadership as first minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. Salmond stepped down as SNP leader and first minister in 2014, and he was replaced in both positions by Nicola Sturgeon, who proved popular among SNP members. In the mid-2010s, the SNP was the third-largest political party in the United Kingdom. However, the party suffered majory losses in the 2024 election after having very successful campaigns in 2015, 2017, and 2019.
Background
Factions of Scots have disliked Scotland being a part of Great Britain since 1707, the year the governments of England and Scotland agreed to the Acts of Union, which politically united the two kingdoms. At the time, the much weaker Scotland had agreed to the English union partly for financial reasons, as the Scottish economy was struggling and the government lacked funding. Opponents of the union believed the Scottish officials who agreed to the Acts of Union had been bribed to do so.
The next few centuries saw the rise of several Scottish nationalist political parties that sought to bring about Scottish independence through parliamentary legislation. Two of these in the early twentieth century were the Scottish Party and the National Party of Scotland. The parties merged in 1934 to form the SNP.
The party floundered with the Scottish public for the first decade of its existence. This was mostly because ideological differences among party members prevented the organization from clearly defining its vision to voters. The fundamentalist group within the SNP wanted Scottish independence outright. The gradualists sought to achieve independence through devolution, or the slow acquisition of political power from the British government. Additionally, Scottish independence was at first the SNP's only platform, and the party was poorly organized and in need of funding.
The SNP's first electoral success came in April of 1945, when SNP candidate Dr. Robert McIntyre was elected to the British Parliament seat recently left vacant by the death of a Labour member of Parliament (MP) named James Walker. McIntyre lost his seat three months later in the United Kingdom's general election. The loss frustrated SNP leaders, and the party failed to elect any additional candidates to Parliament for more than twenty years.
SNP candidate Winnie Ewing took 46 percent of the vote in the 1967 by-election for the district of Hamilton, Scotland. Ewing's victory was considered an upset, as the Labour Party had widely been expected to retain the seat. Ewing lost her seat in 1970. By 1974, the SNP had won eleven seats in the British Parliament, the most it had ever acquired in that body. The next two decades, however, were once again difficult for the SNP. Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative Party won the general election in 1979. That same year, a majority of Scottish voters opposed the establishment of a Scottish legislature in a national referendum. SNP representation in Parliament remained dismal into the 1990s.
Overview
Alex Salmond was elected leader of the SNP in 1990. He updated the party's policies by infusing them with social democratic and pro-European ideology. Social democracy is a government system in which services such as health care are provided to all citizens equally through peaceful, democratic means. Nonetheless, the party maintained only a few seats in the British Parliament.
In 1999, the United Kingdom's ruling Labour Party followed through on its campaign to devolve political power to Scotland when it authorized the creation of the Scottish Parliament. Some in the SNP believed Scotland having its own parliament presented the party with a bright future. Others wondered whether the existence of the Scottish Parliament would now destroy the progress of the SNP's independence cause.
Salmond quit as SNP leader in 2000. The next several years were difficult for the party, as leadership change left the SNP with decreased votes and discouraging election showings. Salmond was elected leader of the SNP again in 2004, with Nicola Sturgeon as deputy leader. The SNP won the 2007 Scottish general election by one parliamentary seat. Salmond became first minister of Scotland, while Sturgeon became deputy first minister. The SNP itself, however, had not won enough seats to form a majority government, and no other party desired to ally itself with the organization due to its independence platform. Therefore, the SNP became a minority government.
The party's minority status prevented Salmond from executing many of his legislative plans. He could not replace certain taxes, reduce school class sizes, or authorize another Scottish independence referendum. The Scottish Parliament election of 2011 reversed the SNP's fortunes when the party won an overall parliamentary majority. The victory allowed the SNP finally to call for another independence referendum, which was held in September 2014. In the end, 55 percent of the Scottish people rejected independence for Scotland. Salmond soon announced he would resign as first minister of Scotland and as SNP leader. In November 2014, Sturgeon was elected first as SNP leader and then as first minister of Scotland.
SNP membership greatly increased throughout Scotland in the months after the independence referendum. The party's hundreds of thousands of members helped the SNP remain in power in the Scottish Parliament through the May 2016 parliamentary elections. In 2024, SNP lost 80 percent of its seats and its coalition government with the Green party fell apart just prior to the election, forcing SNP to become a minority government. The SNP continued touting its liberal, progressive platforms as the best policies for the future of Scotland. By this time, the SNP had become the third-largest political party in the United Kingdom.
Bibliography
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Macinnes, Allan I. "Acts of Union: the Creation of the United Kingdom." BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire‗seapower/acts‗of‗union‗01.shtml. Accessed 16 Dec. 2024.
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