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This paper examines strategic voting at Scottish Parliamentary elections since 1999. The emergence of the pro-independence Scottish National Party as the dominant party in Scotland has forced unionist voters to carefully consider their options. Analysing differences between the simultaneous pluralist constituency ballot and proportional list ballot of Scotland's Additional Member System provides a unique insight into how voter behaviour has changed in response to Scotland's changing political reality. This paper finds that many unionist voters have put aside left-right rivalries to support fellow unionist candidates on the constituency ballot. This examination finds that Labour and Conservative voters are willing to work together, in some circumstances, to defeat a significant number of pro-independence candidates. I find that intra-unionist strategic voting helped prevent the separatist majorities in parliament in both 2016 and 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to understanding how civil nuclear power shaped post-war British history through studying opposition to nuclear energy in Scotland. Over the second half of the twentieth century, pessimistic assessments challenged the optimism that had developed during the 1950s. Under devolution, Scottish administrations have used planning policies to block future nuclear generating plants, institutionalising a marked distinction with the rest of the UK. The origins of these differences are traced to anti-nuclear protests and the growth of a social movement coalition that linked anti-nuclear activism with growing public sentiment and electoral politics, particularly through the Scottish National Party (SNP). Reflections from oral history interviews are used to examine diverse local protest contexts supplemented by archives from the anti-nuclear movement and the SNP. During the 1970s, protests against Torness power station in East Lothian and the drilling of test bores for waste disposal in South Ayrshire were given a national orientation by SNP politicians. Over the course of the 1980s, the anti-nuclear coalition broadened through growing opposition to Torness and in response to the Chernobyl disaster. These changes encouraged a lasting symbiosis between pro-devolution and anti-nuclear sentiments which were subsequently embodied in policies pursued by devolved administrations during the 2000s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how Scottish political parties frame their owned issues on social media to persuade voters during the run-up to elections. Through a qualitative analysis of 150 Twitter and Facebook posts from five major Scottish parties, the study reveals that parties employ threat and victim framing to bolster their vote share. Opposition parties predominantly portray the Scottish National Party (SNP) as a threat, while all parties frame the electorate as victims. The extent and focus of these frames vary based on parties' parliamentary strength and government/opposition status. The SNP, holding a strong governing position, focuses on advancing its independence agenda, while other parties critique the SNP and then promote their own priorities. This article contributes to framing theory by highlighting the nuanced relationship between issue ownership, threat, and victim frames in shaping electoral outcomes. The findings underscore the strategic use of social media by parties to influence voter perceptions and decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how Scottish National Party (SNP) activists in Edinburgh reimagine the enlightenment past to provide alternate timelines that are appropriated in the projection of utopian futures for an independent Scotland. Starting with the question 'what if history had happened differently?', SNP activists harness the 'what ifs' and 'would haves' of alternate timelines where the enlightenment continues uninterrupted by the political union of Scotland and England. This approach facilitates a form of futural revisionism which captures the potentiality of the past to become utopian future without foregoing the SNP's commitment to civic, rather than ethnic, nationalism. Thus, SNP activists are able to tow the party line of rejecting nostalgic historicism to remain open to all citizens of Scotland while still affectively engaging with the past to provide wishful utopian images for their independent future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While fossil fuels are a well‐researched element of nationalist discourse, the relationship between nationalism and renewable energy has not yet been adequately explored. We address this gap by investigating the impact of the energy transition on the Scottish National Party's (SNP) discourse between 1983 and 2021. Through an analysis of SNP manifestos and speeches, we discursively trace the evolution of three pertinent amalgams of nationalism—green nationalism, resource nationalism and techno‐nationalism—revealing renewable energy to have been co‐opted and deployed in all three. Rather than the energy transition intuitively resulting in the decline of fossil fuel‐based nationalisms in favour of those rooted in an emergent renewable energy paradigm, we find that adaptations in the SNP's discursive strategies allowed the former to co‐exist with the latter, enhancing complementarity and mitigating goal conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to examine Scottish politics in the decade or so following the Second World War. The objective is to uncover the texture of Scottish politics in a period that has been characterised rather simplistically. Much of the evidence for the paper is drawn from the Scottish popular press, most notably newspapers such as the Bulletin, which was a Glasgow publication with a unionist outlook, motivated by a concern to keep Scottish issues to the fore and to resist centralisation. The article will examine the way in which interpretations of this period in Scottish politics, as being one dominated by a unionism that was common to the main parties, serve to flatten what was an interesting and contested landscape. There is a considerable literature on this period in British historiography that engages in a debate about the value of the idea of 'consensus' in British politics. The apparent consensus over the Union hid a range of important debates about the way in which the Union ought to operate that were of such an extent as to bring the idea of a unionist consensus into question. Given that the Scottish National Party was such a marginal force in Scottish politics in this period, it seems more sensible to focus on the debates about the meaning of the Union rather than to adopt an existential focus that was simply not present in day-to-day political debate in the decade following the Second World War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malcolm Petrie's book, "Politics and the People: Scotland, 1945–1979," focuses on the arguments and ideologies used by political parties in Scotland during this period. Petrie argues that support for the Scottish National Party (SNP) grew at the expense of the Unionist/Conservative party and the Liberal party. The SNP's appeal was based on classic liberal, anti-statist themes such as hostility to centralization and belief in local self-government. Petrie also discusses the Conservative and Labour parties, but does not delve into internal party history. The decline of heavy industry and the perception of control from London were key factors in the SNP's rise. David McCrone's study of contemporary Edinburgh explores the city's changing power dynamics. McCrone examines the town council, institutions like schools and the university, and property development. He argues that control has shifted to undemocratic bodies without roots in the city, leading to loss of local control and social impact. McCrone also touches on the excessive impact of tourism in Edinburgh. [Extracted from the article]

The first half of 2023 saw considerable change in Scotland's politics, with the resignation of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and a divisive and bitter leadership contest in the SNP. The nature and scope of this political crisis is not yet clear, and this editorial looks briefly at the prospects for the SNP, and its new leader Humza Yousaf, with the significant difficulties he faces in steadying the ship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scottish Labour, once viewed as the most divided party in the UK, appears buoyant, the result of the growing popularity of its leader, Anas Sarwar, a more positive relationship with UK Labour, and most notably, significant gains in the polls. The party has sought to find a centre ground in a political system defined by opposing visions of Scotland's political future, a strategy which has previously left it squeezed between more assertive nationalist and unionist rivals. However, with little prospect of another independence referendum in the near term, this centre ground may yet prove fruitful. The party has an opportunity to position itself as a viable alternative in a dramatically changed political landscape. While Labour's optimism is not unfounded, its polling perhaps speaks more to the weaknesses of its political rivals than the strength of the party itself; and questions persist about Scottish Labour's political vision and constitutional offering in a political system which remains bifurcated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Scottish National Party (SNP) has emerged from generations on the periphery to make a substantial imprint on mainstream British politics. However, in only a matter of months, the foundations of that success have crumbled and, by the admission of its leaders, the SNP is experiencing its greatest crisis in five decades. The roots of this crisis are not well understood, since most recent research has sought to explain the SNP's post‐2014 successes. However, the article argues that these successes have always hinged upon a prior moment of politicisation in 2014 on the one hand, and annual cycles of mobilisation and demobilisation on the other. The article draws attention to the SNP's governing strategy of stabilising itself through a process of strategic depoliticisation on independence, which supplanted activist mobilisation with a politics of spectatorship. It then goes on to suggest that, for the SNP, this depended on a paradox of crisis in the British state and being a governing party of the British state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the course of Scottish politics since the establishment of the devolved parliament in 1999. It begins by considering the political roots of devolution before assessing the extent to which the electoral successes of the Scottish National Party (SNP) at the 2007 and 2011 devolved elections indicated a rise in support for Scottish independence. The focus then shifts to the political consequences of the 2014 independence referendum, in particular the relationship between the 'Yes' campaign and the SNP, as well as the changing social composition of the SNP's electoral support. The article concludes by examining the attempts of the SNP, and the wider independence movement, to secure a second independence referendum before reviewing recent political developments in Scotland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Support for Scottish independence has remained stable since the change in the leadership of the Scottish National Party in March 2023, despite the fall in support for the party. The article analyses the sociological basis of independence support since 1979, using data from the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey and recent opinion polls. The recent stability reflects three main changes: the pronounced growth in support among people born since the 1970s; the growth of education in these same cohorts; and the shift to the left of the independence campaign. These long‐term trends suggest that the level of support for independence, and of opposition to it, are unlikely to be affected strongly or permanently by the transient fortunes of the SNP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]