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Background: A New Dawn For Scotland?

Most visitors to Scotland will already be aware that a Scottish parliament has recently been established; but they are often surprised to learn that the parliament at the foot of the Royal Mile is nothing new. In fact, it is only the most recent of several buildings which have served as the seat of Scottish government throughout the nation's long history. It was not until 1707 that the Scottish parliament voted to abolish itself and unite with England thus creating a new political entity: the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Many Scots themselves may well be unaware that Scotland's record of parliamentary government stretches back as far as the thirteenth century.

This brief introduction to Scotland's parliamentary history traces the story of how the nation developed, lost and then regained its own seat of government. Finally, the Heartland website's journey through Scottish history concludes here by exploring the most pressing question to confront the Scottish nation over the last few decades: Union or Independence?

Illustration: Freedom inscription outside the entrance to the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish Parliament: The 21st Century

The origins of the Scottish parliament

Throughout history most leaders have found it necessary to govern with the cooperation of the most powerful men of the realm; they in turn have always been eager to seek advantage by counselling the monarch. In early medieval Europe when the king and his leading men needed to discuss business with each other the monarch would summon everyone to a King's Council. At these Councils the most important matters of state could then be debated and bargained over. From this early role as advisory bodies, the Councils progressed to carrying out various administrative and legal functions on behalf of the monarch. Through this long, slow process semi-permanent institutions of government like the Scottish parliament evolved.

The word “parliament” (from the old form of the French verb parler meaning “to talk or discuss”) first came into use in the thirteenth century. The reasons why this new term was introduced are somewhat obscure as there seems to have been little difference between one of the first meetings to be called a parliament at Birgham-on-Tweed in 1290 and previous gatherings that had still been called King's Councils.

The rootless parliament

The Scottish Parliament met intermittently from the fourteenth century onwards following notice of forty days from the monarch. For many hundreds of years there was no fixed meeting place. Perth, Stirling, Edinburgh Tolbooth, Holyrood House and various other royal palaces were just some of the locations favoured at different times depending on the whims and convenience of the king.

The Three Estates

Parliament was comprised of representatives from the church, the nobility, and the burgesses who were essentially skilled tradesmen and merchants who enjoyed certain commercial advantages bestowed upon them by the monarch. Altogether, these were the three most powerful and influential social classes in medieval European society. What united the “three estates”, as they are usually called, was that all the members controlled land, a prime asset in this era, conferring much power and privilege upon those who possessed it.

The powers of the parliament

As well as being a court of law, parliament dealt with the most important affairs of the Scottish state: diplomacy, trade, economic policy and the granting (or, more significantly, withholding) of taxes to the monarch.

 The relationship between parliament and successive Scottish monarchs is complex and shifting. Essentially, king and parliament often found themselves engaged in a power struggle with each other: monarchs wanted to assert what they believed to be their divine right to rule; parliament strove to check and restrain what it saw as the worst excesses of dictatorial rulers.  The outcome of these confrontations between parliament and king is not always easy to interpret; historians are still divided over just how successful the Scottish parliament was in exerting its power up until it abolished itself in 1707.

The Scottish parliament abolishes itself

The years leading up to 1707 were a period of growing political and economic crisis between Scotland and England, mainly as a result of the catastrophic failure of the Darien Adventure at the end of the seventeenth century. To defuse the tension and to forestall a possible war between the two nations a Treaty of Union was devised to unite them into a single state. Months of bitter wrangling and political chicanery followed until the Scottish parliament agreed to accept the Treaty on 16 January 1707 and then abolish itself. Scotland and England merged to become the United Kingdom with a single London-based monarch and parliament.

The Treaty eventually came to be accepted by the overwhelming majority of Scots but initially there was widespread resentment that Scotland had lost its parliament and much of its independence. The parliament would not be restored again for nearly 300 years.

The Scottish parliament is reconvened

The Anglo-Scottish Union was extremely unpopular in Scotland in the years after it was signed. Opposition to it crystallised around the Jacobites until the crushing of the last of the Jacobite Risings in the middle of the eighteenth century after which opposition to the Union gradually withered in Scotland. Thereafter during the nineteenth and much of the twentieth century there was no popular demand for change to the existing system.

It is only in the last half of the twentieth century that voices began to be raised arguing in favour of restoring the Scottish parliament. Even then, progress was slow because the Scots were long divided over what sort of government would suit their nation best. Some argued that the 1707 treaty had brought peace and prosperity to Scotland and were reluctant to accept any change that might threaten the historic Union with England; others argued for the advantages that they believed only complete independence could bring. Somewhere between these two extremes of unionism and nationalism were those who increasingly favoured devolution, a system in which a Scottish parliament would have the power to decide about some matters, but with others left to the London parliament.

By the early 1990s advocates of this middle road appeared to be winning the argument and most Scots, unionist and nationalist, had been convinced by the case for this. In a referendum in September 1997 a majority voted decisively in favour of restoring Scotland's parliament, which finally opened on 9 October 9 2004. A new generation of Scots now looked towards their parliament to see how much real power it would be able to exert on behalf of the Scottish nation in future.

The twenty-first century opened with the first Scottish parliament for 300 years established at Holyrood in Edinburgh. This was symbolic of a profound shift taking place in Scotland's political relationship with itself, with England and with the rest of the world. It is still unclear what the long term implications of this will be but it is possible to conclude here with a brief appraisal of the challenges facing the Scottish nation in the new millennium. One of the most pressing of these is the choice between Union and Independence. It is only recently that this has become an issue in Scotland and the reasons for this require some explanation.

During the last forty years an intense debate has arisen in Scotland between unionists, who wish to retain the Union with England, and nationalists, who believe that the time has come for Scotland to become an independent country again. The roots of this can be traced back to the late 1960s when the Scottish National Party (SNP) first emerged as a significant force in Scottish politics. The SNP was formed in 1934 with the avowed intent of repealing the 1707 Treaty of Union and restoring Scotland's independence. At this time support for the Union in Scotland was still very strong and few paid much attention to the new party which was regarded as a harmless if somewhat eccentric fringe group. It was not until the SNP began to achieve some electoral success in the 1960s and 1970s that the question of Scottish independence really began to be taken seriously.

As already observed, in historical terms this is a recent development. There had been considerable opposition to uniting with England in the years following the Treaty of Union in 1707, much of which manifested itself in a succession of Jacobite Risings. However, Jacobitism could not command a majority of support and by the end of the eighteenth century it had been crushed. Thereafter opposition evaporated in Scotland. Instead, the Union came to be celebrated on both sides of the border as a partnership that was building the British Empire for the benefit of both nations. Whatever grumblings of discontent may have been made about various government policies during this time there was never any serious suggestion that these problems could be resolved by Scotland leaving the Union. Yet in the last few years there has been a striking change in public opinion. An increasing number of Scots are expressing dissatisfaction with the status quo and becoming more open to arguments in favour of restoring Scottish independence. The challenge is to explain how such a significant shift in opinion could have occurred over such a short period of time.

There are many complex social, political, economic and even religious reasons for this but much of the answer lies in the decline and fall of the British Empire. Many of the benefits that accrued to Scotland through the Union depended upon trade and commerce. The dismantling of the Empire in the years following the end of the Second World War has removed one of the major factors that sustained the Union throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Disaffection was further exacerbated in the last two decades of the twentieth century by the policies of a succession of Conservative Party governments based in London. Throughout this period the Conservative Party implemented a sweeping policy of privatising and deregulating the state-controlled industries upon which much of the Scottish economy relied. These were accompanied by deep cuts in social spending.

These ideologically-motivated policies were extremely unpopular with the overwhelming majority of Scots who were far less enthusiastic in voting for the Conservative party than their electoral counterparts in England. Throughout Scotland there was a wide and deep-felt resentment at this imposition of power by a government that had no electoral mandate north of the border. Worse than this: to many Scots this contradicted the long-standing principle of the Union: that it should be an equal partnership for the mutual benefit of both nations.

It has not always been appreciated both at the time and since just how profound and significant a shift in Anglo-Scottish relations took place during this period. For the first time since the late eighteenth century the general political accord that had existed between Scotland and England diverged. Those with longer historical memories detected all kinds of parallels between the situation in Scotland at the end of the twentieth century and earlier episodes in Scottish history like Red Clydeside, the Covenanter Revolution, the Jacobite Risings and even the Independence Struggle. Scotland's deep-seated national aversion to arbitrary and despotic rule was not the least of these.

In the event there was no national uprising although there was significant civil unrest. There was also, with a minority at least, an increase in ugly anti-English sentiment, that distinctly unappealing trait in the Scottish national psyche. Overwhelmingly though, most of the nation's disaffection with the government in London was channelled into electoral support for the main opposition Labour Party in Scotland - and in significant numbers for the burgeoning nationalist movement largely represented at the ballot box by the SNP. For the first time in well over 200 years there was now a significant groundswell of support for Scottish independence.

Yet far from a majority of Scots were convinced of the case for this, and many were still reluctant to sever the historic Union with England. Most people did agree, however, that there was a need for some constitutional change to counterbalance the powers of the UK parliament in London, which was now widely seen as defective and undemocratic. The result, implemented by the Labour Party after its return to government in 1997, is the current devolved Scottish parliament which has the power to make decisions about some Scottish domestic matters but with other issues, like foreign policy, still decided by the UK parliament. Consequently Scotland is still part of the Union but now has its own parliament and with it considerably increased powers over how it is governed.

Many had hoped that this compromise agreement would quell the debate between unionists and nationalists north of the border. Instead it seems to have intensified it. Unionists continue to assert that Scotland gains significant benefits from the Union. Nationalists counter this with the argument that complete independence for Scotland will bring greater benefits.

The greatest difficulty in resolving this debate is the absence of any clear majority in favour of either side. With the Scottish nation split between Unionists and Nationalists, both factions face an uphill struggle to convince the electorate of the merits of their case. With the British Empire long gone and globalisation changing the world at a dizzying pace it is becoming increasingly difficult for unionists to defend a political settlement that is now over 300 years old. On the other hand, despite years of struggle by the nationalists, a significant majority of the Scottish electorate has yet to be convinced that outright independence is really to Scotland's advantage. The result: a long-running political stalemate and endless debate about the nation's future.

Should the Scots remain within the historic Union with England? Or should they strike out as an independent state for the first time in 300 years? At the beginning of the twenty-first century with the nation divided and more than a little uncertain about its future these issues still seem to be a long way from being settled. Yet it seems likely that the question will eventually be put to the Scottish people in a referendum. A generation of Scots will be called upon to make a truly historic decision that will have profound consequences for their own and their children's future. It is a formidable responsibility.

The Scottish Parliament

A notoriously expensive and difficult project to complete, the Scottish parliament finally opened in October 2004 following years of campaigning. Since then the new building has confounded its critics by winning an array of prestigious international architecture awards. Both building and institution remain the subject of dispute, but anything that costs half a billion pounds has to be worth seeing. Whatever else the future holds the Scottish Parliament will likely remain one of the nation's most popular visitor attractions.

Website  www.scottish.parliament.uk

Parliament House

 Completed in 1639, Parliament House was the meeting place of the Scottish parliament until 1707. Considerable reconstruction took place in the early nineteenth century with the result that the original parliament is now almost entirely concealed by the Scottish Court of Session buildings. Remarkably, the splendid Parliament Hall interior where the Treaty of Union was debated is still intact after nearly 400 years and open to the public. One of the most historically important buildings in Scotland and one of Edinburgh's best kept secrets.

Websites

No official website but try www.jonathanmitchell.info/parliamenthouse  for general info about visiting Parliament House. In addition, the St Andrews University Scottish Parliament Project at www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~scotparl/ is a good source of info about Scottish parliamentary history.