Scottish Liberals, Scottish Nationalists
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Scottish Liberals, Scottish Nationalists and Dreams of a Common Front Sometimes allies, sometimes enemies: Graham Watson MEP analyses the history of relations between Scottish Liberals and Scottish Nationalists. From the passing of the Great Reform Act in As so often in history, however, the need did not call forth its own fulfilment; the Liberal Party to the end of Victoria’s reign, the Liberals won every went into decline and those opposed to Lon- general election in Scotland. While there was often don rule were divided on issues ranging from a Tory majority, in Scotland the Liberals’ nadir (in pacifism to social reform, many of which seemed more pressing after the Great War than the me- ) was a majority of nine seats over the Tories; chanics of governing Scotland. in November the Liberal Party won no fewer In the s the Liberal Party split, and al- than fifty-three of the sixty Scottish constituencies. though Herbert Samuel reiterated the commit- ment of mainstream Liberals to Scottish Every Liberal government of the period relied on self-government, the party was by now pow- Scottish Liberals. erless to put its policies into effect. The cause of home rule was destined, between the wars, Scottish Liberals demanded and achieved to rely on the energies of a few outstanding recompense in the devolution of government, individuals – John McCormick, Eric Linklater, with major pieces of reforming legislation in- Roland Muirhead, Sir Alexander MacEwen cluding the creation, in , of the post of and others – as Unionist coherence triumphed Secretary for Scotland, and the establishment over Liberal disorder. ten years later of the Scottish Grand Commit- After the second world war, home rule was tee. The concern of many Liberals, that Scot- briefly back on the agenda. In April , Dr land had been betrayed in the Union of the Robert Mclntyre won an important byelection parliaments, was assuaged as definite steps were victory in Motherwell in a straight fight against taken towards Scottish self-government within Labour, becoming the first modern ‘Scottish the Union. National’ MP. In February John To add impetus to the process the Scottish McCormick stood as a ‘National’ candidate in Home Rule Association was formed in , a byelection in Paisley, again in a straight fight and the break-away of the Liberal Unionists with Labour, and was a close runner-up. In over Irish home rule shortly thereafter left the , two million Scots put their signatures to field clear for the Liberal home rulers. With the Covenant organised by the Scottish Con- the new century they founded the Young Scots vention. Despite these events, however, Society, whose principal aim was to work to- self-government was hardly an issue at the gen- wards self-government. In June , some eral elections of and . Social reform twenty Liberal MPs established the Scottish and the welfare state were the orders of the Nationalist Committee and historians have ar- day. Liberal energies were committed to see- gued that, had it not been for the outbreak of ing through the Beveridge reforms, which were the first world war, logic would have forced being implemented badly by the Labour gov- the Liberal government to follow Irish home ernment, and to ensuring the survival of a Lib- rule with similar provisions for Scotland. eral Party whose decline seemed terminal. journal of liberal democrat history 22: spring 1999 3 to forge pacts with other parties to and almost topple the Unionist can- Jo Grimond and advance the cause of home rule didate from second into third place. cooperative politics Grimond’s thesis was that al- Derek Michael Henderson though the Liberal Party had lost Starforth-Jones, a tertiary education It was not until the surprising Lib- much of its former glory, Liberals adviser of colourful hue who trav- eral revival of the early s that could expand their influence elled according to whim under dif- home rule began once more to fire through seeking cooperation wher- ferent combinations of his name, was the imagination of the political class. ever possible with those of like mind. despatched as one of the Liberal rep- Many Liberals saw in Jo Grimond, This could mean working together resentatives to the cross-party Scot- whose maiden speech in had with different parties on different is- tish National Congress. Though the majored on self-government for sues. At Westminster he sought a rea- SNP did not formally join the Con- Scotland, and who assumed the lead- lignment of the left to put an end gress, some of its members attended; ership of the Liberal Party in , to thirteen years of Tory misrule. In and Starforth began talking with a Westminster leader willing to Scotland, his supporters argued, he them about the idea of a possible champion Scotland’s interests. They sought cooperation between all Liberal–Nationalist pact. The believed that however wide the dif- those in favour of self-government byelections in Paisley and Woodside ference between the home rule ad- to complete the process of devolu- had shown each party’s potential; if vocated by the Liberals and the com- tion begun by Gladstone and they had competed on the same plete independence of the emerging Rosebery. ground such a strong showing would SNP, it was narrower than the gulf The general election restored have eluded them. Did this not mili- between two large unionist parties some Liberal confidence after the dis- tate in favour of a formal agreement? on the one hand and two small appointment of the three general elec- That idea was subsequently to re- self-government parties on the other. tions since . The Liberal vote had main prominent on both parties’ Elected as Rector of Edinburgh started to creep back up and a agendas for more than a decade. University in , Grimond in- byelection in North Edinburgh the The death of John Taylor MP spired in a generation of younger following year showed a gratifying caused a byelection in West Lothian politicians the idea that cross-party % support for the party. But it was in June . An Edinburgh Univer- cooperation was the key to achiev- the Paisley byelection in April , sity law graduate and promising ing their aims. before Orpington was even heard of, young Liberal called David Steel Little has yet been written about which set the Liberal heather alight. (soon to become Assistant General the way Grimond’s proposals for a Paisley had traditionally been a Lib- Secretary of the Scottish Liberal Liberal–SNP pact were continually eral stronghold and John Bannerman, Party) called a meeting at St. Michael’s to resurface in non-unionist politics the Scottish rugby international, can- manse in Linlithgow which decided until the s. Now, with the ad- vassed on a home rule platform ‘like a to invite William Wolfe, a local char- vent of a Scottish parliament and the thing possessed’. He polled % of the tered accountant and outspoken likelihood of Grimond’s successors vote, rocking (like John McCormick home ruler, to stand as the Liberal in the Scottish Liberal Democrats in the previous Paisley byelection in candidate. Mr Wolfe declined; he was being coalition partners of either ) the foundations of a complacent to stand for election, but as the SNP’s Labour or the SNP in the first Scot- Labour establishment. candidate. The Scottish Liberals, una- tish government for years, it In Paisley there had been no ware that Wolfe had joined the SNP seems appropriate to look back at Scottish National candidate, a fact three years earlier, were not a little the history of attempts by Liberals which had undoubtedly helped rally embarrassed. For the first time since the wider non-un- they fielded a candidate of their Gladstone’s governments relied on Scottish Liberal MPs. ionist vote to the own in West Lothian despite having Liberal cause. Seven only a skeleton constituency organi- months later, at a sation. Unsurprisingly, and like many byelection in the Liberals before and since (including Bridgeton division the author), he failed even to save his of Glasgow caused deposit. by the resignation Starforth pursued the idea of of the sitting La- electoral cooperation with a draft bour MP, the ab- pamphlet entitled ‘A Scottish Gov- sence of a Liberal ernment and Parliament’, advocat- candidate helped ing openly a pact between Liberals Scottish National and the SNP. His enthusiasm was not candidate Ian shared by all his fellow Liberals, how- Macdonald poll ever. At a meeting in their Atholl % of the vote Place, Edinburgh headquarters on 4 journal of liberal democrat history 22: spring 1999 June the Scottish Liberals’ executive for contesting a byelection in the December he moved that the two committee refused to publish it. But Labour–Liberal National marginal parties’ office-bearers should meet to they agreed simultaneously not to constituency of Dundee West, a con- negotiate a pact, though he was adopt parliamentary candidates for test in Kinross & West Perthshire out-voted. But on February , the coming general election in with the chance of defeating or at at an extraordinary meeting of the North Aberdeen, Stirling or either least embarrassing the Prime Min- SNP council, Wolfe moved success- of the Perthshire constituencies. The ister of the day was a prospect nei- fully to gain a commitment that the non-unionist opposition should not ther could resist. matter would feature on the agenda be split. Alasdair Duncan-Miller, the son of the party’s next regular council On December the Liberals’ ex- of a former member for East Fife, had meeting on March. ecutive gave ‘sanction, but not ap- previously spoken in favour of the The SNP resolved in March proval’, for talks between their Chair- SNP candidate Arthur Donaldson.